Rants and Love Tossed My Way

Another great day in NorCal and this Brown Eyed Cali Girl couldn’t be happier.  Yesterday reached a high of 81 degrees.  Such a nice break from winter and a great segue into spring. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the seasons in their turn. I love the crisp edge to Fall and watching the leaves turn color. Plus my annual trip to Mexico!  I love the Winter months with the cold, rain and snow. Nothing better than taking a walk in the rain and feeling the drops hit your face. Or warming up afterward in front of a nice fire. Spring brings blooms and green, lighter clothes, sunshine and good natured people. Summer brings heat, sun, swimming and rafting, partying with friends, outdoor concerts and almost no clothes!  I could definitely use a bit more rain (when I’m home to enjoy it), but it’s still nice.

This weekend promises to be extremely busy:

·       A visit with J and getting my nails done tomorrow afternoon

·       A date tomorrow night

·       8 a.m. visit from the Retractable Screen guy Saturday morning

·       A visit to Clarksburg and wineries Saturday afternoon

·       Farmers Market Sunday morning

·       A visit from a friend’s son mid-morning for an estimate on cleaning the property

·       Old town Roseville Sunday afternoon for St. Patty’s to listen to some bands

·       General laundry and house cleaning…

Although I don’t have anything down for Saturday night…if I know my wine buddies, we’ll be tearing it up afterward with appetizers and more wine consumption.  A promising weekend indeed for a single chick…my dance card is full this weekend and I’m thankful for it. 

FURLOUGHS

Sac Bee had a headline today that read “California’s furloughs driving up leave cash-out costs”. My response??? Fucking DUH!  We’ve been talking about this forever! The only reason I have as much leave as I do, and I’m unable to burn it fast enough to drop it to acceptable levels is because of mandatory furloughs!  We’re required to take our furloughs before any other leave time, which means I can save my vacation time until whenever.  My month in Cabo in October of 2010 was all furlough time.  I didn’t use a speck of vacation. The more money I make, the higher up I go in the classification chain, the more money my vacation time is worth, so why would I use it all up in a blaze of glory?  I got a bank of money just waiting until I retire if I don’t use it all (and I can’t with the kind of work I do).

While I love my employer, and I have a fabulous job….this is why California is going down the toilet in a mountain of debt and bureaucracy.  Politicians never think about the end…just a way to look good right now and capping on State workers who have jobs looks really good to those who don’t have jobs. Never mind what it will cost the State in the long run when it comes time to cash out my money that will be worth 2 to 3 times more than when I originally got it!  Now the federal government is looking to furlough their employees due to the “sequester” and you don’t think this exact same thing is going to happen?  It’s a horrible joke, but the politicians in D.C. seem to follow in the same footsteps as California…and you’d think we’d be a lesson to the rest of the Nation!  Nope.  Let’s just repeat the same mistakes and go to hell together!

As Armstrong and Getty would say…”Goodbye Sweet America!”  Whew…Damn Dizzy…tell us how you really feel!!!

Feeling the Love

As I was leaving work today, I ran into (no, not literally...although I wouldn't put it past my klutzy self!) Elias, a janitor I've known for some years.  I asked him how he was doing and how his family was doing.  He has two daughters in the Navy (awesome!), one works in a Pharmacy and the other is still at home.  You can see the pride beaming from his face.  He immigrated here from Mexico many years ago and is just an awesome guy. 

He was reminiscing about how long we've known each other and (he says) how I don't change.  I told him I do a lot of midnight dancing around bonfires to keep the Gods happy.  He laughed and said "We've known each other since 1995".  Holy Crap, I'm old! But I'm so humbled that he remembers when we met.  I don't see Elias as much as I used to.  We both worked at a satellite office, and I transferred to Central in 1998.  After we built the add-ons to the complex, all the satellite offices moved to central and he came with them in 05. So we've only seen each other sporadically the past 15 years, and he still remembers. He truly honors me.

That's the perfect note to end this blog post.  I'm off to exercise peeps.  Until tomorrow.