Monday, August 6, 2012

Happy Monday night. Been a full day. Up at 6:30 a.m., out the door by 7:15, actually made it to Riverside before 8:00 a.m., stopped for gasoline and made it to TLA parking lot by 8:10. Doors don't open until 8:30 so sat out on the benches in front taking in fresh air and appreciating the early morning. Fairly pleasant except for the humidity. In these hot days of August we have to enjoy whatever "cool" part of the day we can!

Today was the first class for The Ladder Alliance. Oh, my. Talk about disorganized. Totally disruptive situation. Attendees with no respect for what time the class started, coming 15 minutes to an hour late, orientation taking up 2 hours of class time which should have been a total of about 30 minutes at the most. These people do not understand the concept of getting to class on time, don't understand that they have to attend every class period and do every bit of work assigned. "Well, I can't come because I've got so and so," or "On that day I have to be over here," or any number of excuses. And one lady brought her 5 months old daughter to class!!! She didn't understand that she's not allowed to do that!!! All-in-all, however, after we finally got down to brass tacks of talking about the computer and looking at the computer and what we are going to be doing, I think we are going to have a good morning class. I hope they all make it because if they do, they will get a very nice small laptop at the end of the classes.

Sharon and I quickly ate our lunches and then raced to the Texas Workforce Commission for the class that was to start at 1:00 o'clock. There were supposedly 12-13 folks signed up for the class; only 5 showed up. Of the 5, one was a man who was mad because he was there! He wanted to know why he had to attend the class -- after all, it had been about 23 years since his domestic violence abuse! Since we don't have anything to do with signing them up for the class, we were glad Julie of Tx. Workforce was there with us for orientation. It was handled very professionally and Julie got him to the correct resource to get him the appropriate help and guidance. Have no idea how he got signed up for the class, but we certainly were not going to make him stay in a class he didn't want to attend!

There were some issues today, but we knew there would be -- computers not initialized as they were supposed to be, Microsoft Office not downloaded onto the computers as they were supposed to be, students in and out, but most of all, not all students showed up. Some started calling wanting to know if they can start tomorrow. This means we have a lot of wasted time tomorrow to go through some orientation information again - which will be boring for those students who have already started the class. I think I'm going to give those who started today some typing exercises to do while the others are getting onboard.

Got home hot, tired, ready to rest. Got out of the car with all my junk, made it into the utility room and couldn't get into the house. First I was greeted by Lucy who apparently had looked for me all day long so I couldn't get passed her. And then I was blocked by K. who couldn't wait for me to get into the house, put my things down and get comfortable before he started in on what had gone on between him and the neighbor to the west today (we have fence issues -- they tear it up, we fix or pay to have it fixed, Ken approached them about it). I was still standing there in the utility room holding purse, bag, packages, and finally had to ask if I could just please get into the house. This is exactly how it used to be before I retired -- I would be hit in the face with problems before I made it into the house.

Of course K. had been hacked off because I left him a list of things to do today. I had already told him that if I had to go back to work again that it was not going to be a nice thing for him. I'm not the one who should be working - I've earned my retirement. But we (I) can't depend on him to work. We have had this conversation many times -- I supported him for 3 years while he sat on his behind getting well, playing on the computer all day, and going to breakfast and lunch with his playmates. I had already told him I wouldn't put up with that any more - that he had to find a job. So what did he do today when I went to work? Got PO'd because I left a list for him to get done today (nothing hard - fold the sheets and put them away, put in another load of towels, clean the kitchen). Also told him some things to get from the store. When Ken doesn't WANT to do something, he does a half way job of it, and that is exactly what he did today. Instead of doing the job requested and getting everything on the list from the store, he hurried thru everything, failed to get some of the things written down, and went to lunch with his buddies. Needless to say, momma wasn't happy about it. He should have been at Texas Workforce Commission getting help to find a job, going to the workshop that starts at 1:00 on Monday and Wednesday, and hassling Eddie about getting into a training program. He didn't do any of that.

Thankfully I had a nice Sunday before starting this hectic Monday. Yesterday the Lockheed Blanketeers met at Rachel's house for an afternoon of sewing and "group therapy." I just love going to these. I always learn something, always get ideas, and it kick starts me into getting some of my things completed. I'm hoping this next weekend to get the quilting done on the strip quilt I sandwiched on Friday. I want to finish it and get it sent to Miss Presley. That will be one down with many to go. Ooh, just thought of something. It would be so neat to embroider her name on this little quilt. I'll have to think about that.

Gotta go - it's almost 10 p.m. here. Need to take meds, get ready for bed, sleep fast so can be up by 6:30. Hugs, love to everyone.