It's been one of those weeks that seems to last forever. I still haven't been paid by the TV station. I really shouldn't say the TV station because it isn't on them to pay me, it's on the branch of my company that deals with them that pays me, either way I still haven't been paid, now for the last 2 weeks. I really have no hope that I will get paid this week either. As it stand they now owe me 32 hours, 16 of which are overtime. I'll now a little later tonight if anything has changed in the area. If they correctly submit the time sheet to payroll, I'll see it on my past schedule, and then I'll definitely see it tomorrow evening on the paystub for this coming week.
I do have some good news. There is one financial institution that I've been dealing with down. I got the check yesterday, which is odd because I submitted a slip for direct deposit, but either way, the money is technically in my hands and it will be deposited into the back tomorrow morning. This seemed like the least complicated of the 2 so it stands to reason that it would be the first one to finally stop sending me hoops to jump through. It came at the right time too, but I won't bother getting into that, the first paragraph kind of explains it.
Oh, I did forget to mention that I did spend my last day at the TV station due to them not paying me. I doubt I'll be back out there again. I've lost trust in the field supervisor out there.
It has been an interesting week for, um let's go with varmint, although I don't thing that is the proper term. At the space center site I saw an interesting bee, when I looked it up today it turns out that it was a Red Velvet Ant, which is actually a parasitic wasp. Turns out I've seen one of these before, but it was a female and the female of the species doesn't have wings, hence the reason I thought this was a bee. To give you an idea of what they look like, picture a bee, but instead of yellow, they have bright red, and the wings on the male are black. It's really cool looking, but it turns out that a sting from one of them is super intense, so much so that they nicknamed it cow killer. I didn't bother trying to get near it I just saw it on my patrol and went about my way. Still pretty cool to see.
Today was even more fun. I was getting ready to do my patrol inside the building at the mainland location and heard thunder. Now this was important because they just cut a hole in the roof this week and it was of course leaking when it rained. I went to the door to see how close the storm was and when I turned around and walked back to begin my patrol. I almost stepped on what looked like a string or shoelace kind of thing, but I thought that it might have moved. I reached down to pick it up and throw it away, and it did move. That took me aback a bit. Turns out it was a very tiny snake. It was all black with a copperish ring around it's neck. I had never seen anything like it, and since it looked like a hatchling it's head hadn't fully developed so I couldn't tell if it was venomous or not. I erred on the side of caution and got a large cup and tried to get it inside so I could take it and put it outside. It didn't not want to go in the cup so I used the cup and some fancy footwork to guid it out the door. That's when I got a picture of it so I could look it up and compare it after my patrol.
Turns out it's a completely harmless type of snake. It's a Ringnecked Snake that is pretty common here in Florida, but I have never seen one before in my life. This one was probably an adolescent due to it being around 5-6 inches. Full length is any where from 8-15 inches. They eat insects so no humans were in danger. Now, how did it get in? Well upon further investigation The facilities guy and myself determined that there is a very small gap at the bottom of one of the entry doors, which this little dude could clearly squirm under, which he did.
That's it for the excitement of varmint section of this little diary journal thing. Now it's time for Favorite Thing of the Week. I went with thing even though this is technically a video of a song, but, well you'll see when you watch it. I'm not even going to describe it. I'm just going to post it up here and let you watch it and then you will understand everything.
Now come on, if that isn't the greatest thing that ever was, I don't know what is. I bet you are asking yourself, "is there a full mascot band?". Why yes there is. if you look up Nyango Star, who that particular mascot is, you can go down a pretty deep rabbit hole of videos and you will see him perform with a full mascot band, and they only question I have when I watch it is, "How?" I bet you thought it would be why. Nope, the why is already answered, because it's epic. The how is what I need to know because they play guitar and bass with those mitten mascot hands and I have no idea how that is done.
Ok, I'm out for this week. I'll update you on the pay situation next week. I still have options on getting it taken care of but I want to see if they make it right first. Peace in and goodnight.
It has been an up and down week. Sunday was a crazy day in which I did my normal morning shift, then went back in at midnight for an overnight shift. I followed that with an overnight shift at the TV station. I kind of consider that an up, because I really enjoy my job, even though overnights are really stressful. Here comes the down. I didn't get paid by the TV station. Now, it's not the TV stations fault, it is the fault of the branch of the security company I work for out there. I've been told that it is being taken care of, but I have yet to see any proof of that. As it stand right now, they owe me for 24 hours of work, 16 of which are overtime hours. I am going back this Monday for another overnight, but if I get my pay stub for this coming week and don't see any of those hours there, that will be my last night at that site. The way I see it, is they are taking my time, and now they are taking my money so, if I can't get the money, I'm taking back my time.
That lack of money this week really hit hard. I'm finding a way to work through it, but I'm so tired of this coming from behind every week. I'm still looking at the big picture, but it's starting to get very cloudy. Here comes some more of the up. I got notified this week that the company I'm contracted to is going to have a meeting about the supervisor at one of the sites. That is as far as I know about that. I have an idea what that means, but I've been told things like this so many times now, that I'm just taking a wait and see approach to it all. I'm considering that an up with an asterisks.
Here is the next down. The Chonk decided to find the one gap in the fence he could fit underneath and managed to get out again. I was able to track him down pretty quickly and he jumped right in the car with little effort, but I really worry about him, because of how intimidating he looks. He isn't intimidating at all other than his appearance, but that is enough to get someone like the neighbor that hit him to do something like that or even worse. I fixed that new spot and have a plan to do more, but of course that costs money that I just don't have. I'm still waiting to hear form those financial institutions that I've been dealing with to find out what new document I need to fill out that they could have told me about months ago again. If I can finally get that money it won't solve the problems, but it will at least give me some wiggle room. Oh Chonk was chasing a car this time so no people were involved, hence the reason he wasn't stressed out this week. I should mention that my course of action worked and his stomach issues have been resolved. No messes to clean up this week, that's a down with an up.
Ok, next up. I got to work on Thursday and I was waiting to clock in since I always get there about a half hour early, and a women that is somewhat new to the site came up to me and said she had been looking for me for weeks. I immediately responded with, "How can I help you?". She then said that she had something for me and handed me a gift card for the grocery store I go to. I of course said thank you but then asked what it was for. She told me about how nice I had been to her for offering to open the gate for her to leave through. Here is that part of the story. She has a roller bag that she brings to work and to get in and out of the property, you have to go through a turnstile. I saw her struggling so the next day I was there, I told her that if she wanted I would open the gate for her so it would be easier for her to get out at night. I followed up on my words and opened the gate for her whenever she asked. I simply saw it as my way of helping out the client. She is a contractor like me, but she is still a representative of the client, plus I'm there to help out in any way I can, and when I see a need, I fill that need. It's one of the reasons the client really likes me at all these sites. I will always go above and beyond. I thanked her again and told her how much I appreciated it, as well as let her know that my offer for the gate still stands, whenever she needs it. That of course was an up.
Oh, but that up comes with a down. My supervisor came back in from opening the gate and began talking about her, and I mentioned how she gave me the gift card for what I had done. He told me that she gave him one as well, but that she meant it for me. Since she is very polite she told him to keep it even after she realized that he wasn't me and he kept it. Not only that, but he really made no effort to figure out who was the security officer that had helped her out. From what he told me, even though she was vague about who it was, I could have figured it out very easily. Here is what he said that she said. He wears a white shirt like you and a hat that says security. Seems almost impossible right? Only if you decide to not think about it. Now all of the guards have white shirts, but two of us rarely wear the white and go with a blue that used to be the standard uniform, so you can take them out of the equation. Now that leaves 3, but really 2 since the supervisor has already been eliminated. Now, just to throw a wrench in the works 2 of us wear hats that actually say security on them. That would be myself and one of the guards that we already eliminated because they normally wear a blue shirt. Also I should point out that she would never have any contact with him because during the week he works overnight and would never see her. The other guard that it could possibly be doesn't wear a hat at all, which only leaves me. I went the long way for that deduction, to show you that if he put any thought into it, he could have figured it out, he was just too lazy to. If it had been me, I would not have accepted the gift card and would figure out who it was and then tell her when he was expected back and that I would send him to her office when they arrived for work next so that she could give it to him in person. There is no way I'm accepting praise that belongs to someone else. This goes back to the reason that the company may actually be having a meeting about the supervisor. Anyway, that was a clear down.
The rest of the week was just kind of meh, but today I took it upon myself to do extra training. My company has these online training courses that are generally assigned to you when they are needed, but I'm not waiting anymore and I'm going to work my way through the entire curriculum. I got a big chunk of them done today. There is still a ton more stuff, but I was one training session away from finishing an entire section. There are about 30 sections or so, and to date, I've only been required to finish 1 and a half.
I'm calling that an up because there really is no other way to look at learning. learning something new is always an up. There is one more up before I get to Favorite Song of the Week, oh and this has a twist this week. One more up for the week. I got to ride Saki to work last night and since I was out on Space Center property, I decided to take it upon myself to get a picture in front of the VAB. It came out pretty cool so I hope you enjoy it.
Ok, now it's time for Favorite Song of the Week with a twist. The twist is that it is two videos of th same song, but these videos are how I found out about BABYMETAL. The first one is from a young french woman who just destroys guitar. I love watching videos like this of people that are insanely talented. She hasn't posted a new video in a few years which has led to some speculation of what happened, but I dug deep and it seems that she is studying to be a lawyer in Paris and that is the reason she has not uploaded any guitar covers. I think in this particular video she is 16. If you ever played guitar hero and got to the end you heard this song. It's by a band called Dragon Force and they are known for being incredibly fast and incredibly technical, so I present to you Tina S. with her cover of, "Through the Fire and Flame".
Super talented right. Well he videos led me to the next one, which in turn led me to BABYMETAL. This next is another cover of the Dragon Force song but it's a drum cover. I hope you really listened because the guitar isn't the only insanity going on in that song. The drums are epic and this next performance is from a young Japanese girl named Junna. Her energy is just absolute joy to watch. She is still posting new videos so definitely go and check out some of her other stuff. I give to you Junna with her cover of, "Through the Fire and Flame".
See, her joy is infectious. Well Junna did a cover of a BABYMETAL song which got me watching their videos, and now I'm a huge fan of all these impressive ladies. I consider all these videos an up. They bring me so much joy and happiness joys washes over me when I listen to BABYMETAL. I have listened to all 4 albums now. They have 3 studio albums with a live at Budokan, which I believe is their 10th anniversary tour. Go give them a listen, they will make you happy.
That's all I got this week. Have a wonderful week for me. Peace in and goodnight.
Just had to start with a picture of Ri Ri, cause she was looking too cute. This was one of the many occasions where she hops up in the chair with me. Sometimes she snuggles and other times she does what she is doing here, which is sit at the end of the chair and wait for me to pet her. The pups are still getting along splendidly. Chonk had an issue this week with some stomach issues, but they seem to have cleared up. I think it was all stress related. Last week he got under the fence and chased after a man and his dog. The thing is though, he only wanted to play, but the man treated him as if he was attacking and ended up hitting him. I didn't know about the hit until a day or two later. I was getting things ready for work and I let the dogs out just before I leave, which is about 5 minutes while I get my bag ready. I went out to get them and only two dogs came in. I searched the back yard and then went out front hoping to find him, but no luck. I hopped in the car and rode around searching for him. I saw the man outside and he stopped me and said that my dog got out, and that he had went after him and his dog. I apologized and mentioned that The Chonk is very friendly and the man agreed. I asked him if he saw which way he went and he pointed in a direction. I apologized again and thanked him and then drove off again. I went the wrong way and turned around to see The Chonk walking across the road. I drove up to where he was and told him to get in the car. He was happy to see me and skipped the passenger door and ran around to my side, so I had to get out and let him in. That's when the man drove up and asked if I had found him. I said I had and thanked him once again for his help. I got all the dogs inside then went to work. As soon as I got home I secured the fence so The Chonk couldn't get out again and went about the rest of my day which was me going back to work at the TV station for an overnight after doing my morning shift.
I slept most of the day, but the dogs kept barking and waking me up. Turns out it was that man coming to my door. I knew this only because I noticed a letter left on my car as I was driving to Orlando at 70 mph and nearly crashed the car. I pulled over and took the letter off my windshield and went to work. When I got there I finally had a chance to read it. I won't detail the whole thing, but he decided to tell me once again what had happened and then mentioned that he hit The Chonk. Here is the thing. The Chonk clearly only followed him and was wanting to meet his dog. If he really wanted to hurt the dog or the man, he would have done it. The fact that this man hit my dog and The Chonk didn't tear his hand off is testament to just how gentle The Chonk is. I have not, nor will I go over to talk to the man. He had his one moment and I am keeping the letter, cause if anything happens to my dogs, that letter is going to the police. It details in his own words his willingness to harm an animal. The real reason I haven't gone over this is because I want to tear his head off, so I'm keeping my distance and calming my rage. You don't hit my dog.
Anyway, I believe the stress of that day and that moment brought on The Chonk's stomach issues, so this week was about giving him as much love as possible to settle his nerves. He really is a big ol' softie and like I said, that man had his one moment. He gets no more.
Other than that, this week has been rather dull. I'm still trying to put in as many hours as I can. Last week was 48, and so is this week. It's going to be tough to get another 60 hour week, so I just have to take what I can get. The good thing is that the TV station has now been fully staffed, but the supervisor out there is still giving me a day or two, because she likes the job I do. The problem with taking a job under your market value in order to get to that big picture, is that it is difficult to pay bills, and yes, I'm still waiting on getting money from the accounts that were involved with my mom. That's right 5 months later I'm still dealing with financial institutions, that every time I jump through a hoop, the set a new hoop up.
Ok, before I get to Favorite Song of the Week, and yes there is one this week, I wanted to give you a recommendation. It is The Sandman on Netflix. This is based on the Vertigo comic, which was a subsidiary of DC comics. It was created by Neil Gaiman. If you haven't' listed to the Audible presentations, which you really should, you would notice that it is following that story to a degree. The casting is exceptional and the guy playing Dream is clearly taking from the Audible presentation of James McAvoy's performance. He mimics his cadence and dialogue perfectly. I think I'm 5 episodes in and I'm loving it. I did see that critics are panning it, but I've never listened to critics about anything so I just sit back and enjoy it. As soon as I'm done with this, I will be firing up a new episode. So, if you want a visually beautiful show with an intriguing story, give it a try.
Ok, now for FSOTW. I just discovered this band and they are not new by any means, so I'm very sorry I've missed them until now, because there songs bring me so much joy. I feel that there music is kind of a very strange mash-up of every style possible, but most would call it metal or maybe even anime rock, ( I don't know if that last one is a thing, but I like it. ). Here is kind of the best way to explain it. It is 3 young Japanese women that are kind of like pop idols fronting a death metal band. I'm sure that makes no sense cause I'm even shaking my head trying to come up with the right way to say it, and I think I'm failing miserably, so I'm just going to let you watch the video so you can see. Oh, I should say that it does seem that all their videos are of live performances, they don't do any cinematic type of videos for any of their songs, at least none that I have found, so this may not be as clear as the album track, but it is what they actually do and it isn't lip synching or anything like that, they are actually playing and singing, and it is fabulous. I present to you Babymetal with their song, "Gimme Chocolate!".
I know what you are saying, "I don't understand it.". Here is the thing, there is nothing to understand, just enjoy it. I've been listening to their first album for the past couple of days and it makes me so happy. Isn't that really all that matters? I will slowly start listening to all their albums, but I just can't stop listening to the first one right now.
That's all I got for tonight. Have a wonderful week. Peace in and goodnight.
Ok, let's write. It has been a long two weeks. Everything will be explained, but first I just have to say that I'm exhausted. I have been working my normal sites as well as that new fill in site at the TV station. They really like me out there, so I've gotten more hours than I bargained for. I guess we should start with last week first though.
So, last week they had me out there at the TV station for only 1 day. I was ok with that cause I was scheduled to do a double on Sunday. Come Saturday morning, I get a text saying that I'm no longer working a double and will only be working my normal shift and another officer will be relieving me. I was bummed, because that double was promised to me weeks ago, but this other officer apparently begged them to take it away from me so he could have it. They did so I just had to deal with it. Let's get to Sunday. I had cancelled all my arrangements to have the goof troop taken care of since I wasn't going to be gone from the house for 16hrs (really 17hrs) and went about my day. When it came time for my shift to be over, beggar boy was nowhere to be found. I went and did what was required of that time frame and took care of things then texted my supervisor. Here is the thing, the guy that was relieving me, generally only works 1st shift which is my shift at that post, they gave him the second shift. When my supervisor called him, he said he wasn't informed that he was supposed to come in and that he wasn't going to. Here is the thing. I was informed, as I told you by the field supervisor, then I contacted my supervisor to fill in him and he told me that he was also informed by the field supervisor, that would only lead me to assume that my field supervisor filled everyone in, since I personally saw the texts that he sent my supervisor. The replacement as protesting not getting first shift like he wanted. Here is the kicker. I had already reported that officer for, let's just say doing things he wasn't supposed to be doing. After this little incident they are saying that he won't be allowed at any of those sites anymore, but we will see. Anyway, I got my supervisor to come in and relieve me for an hour so I could take care of the pups, then I ran the double minus an hour. The next day I was out at the TV station for what was going to be the first of two days working the second shift. Went through the shift with no problems and got home just before midnight and went to sleep. Now, but phone didn't something it never does. It went into "do not disturb" on it's own, but the dogs still woke me up at 7:30. I let them out and then fed them and finally looked at my phone. It was full of texts and missed calls from the supervisor at the TV station. She had a family emergency and asked if I could come in to cover her shift as well as mine. I said, 'just let me get cleaned up and I'll be there, it should take me 2 hours". It's close to an hour drive to Orlando. I hopped to, got cleaned up and showed up about 10 minutes earlier than what I had stated. Got to work and slayed it out there. My supervisor out there called to check on me to see how everything was going and to give me an update on her situation. It was going great as I said, and then she asked If I could come in the next day to work the second shift so she could recoup. She had only slept a couple of hours that night and also the night before. I of course said I would be there. Let's just compare that to the guy that said he wouldn't come in cause he wasn't informed. That last day was the end of my work week and I clocked 68.25 hours. My check this coming Wednesday should be pretty good, which is very much needed.
Now to the exhaustion. This is definitely taking a toll on me, but I've done 3 of my normal 4 days so far, with the last tomorrow, and then I hit an overnight tomorrow at the TV station, with another overnight on Monday night. Right now that has me scheduled to be off Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm waiting on that one, cause there is a good chance that they may want me for one more day at the TV station. I've been told they really like me out there, and I had a few people tell me how glad they were I was there. Yeah, they actually said that.
That leads into the praise I received Thursday at my normal site by one of the really important people there. What he said floored me because I'm only out there 2 days a week , which had me wondering what the hell do the other officers do out there. I'm hearing things may change soon, not so good for some, but really good for others, and when I say others, I mean me, but it is only talk right now, so I won't really go into it.
Now for a little fun. Now I know I said that I would never show you a picture of me in uniform, but there was a selfie station up at the job site, and they really wanted people to use it, so I was asked and I couldn't say no. You have to satisfy the client. Now when I say selfie station, it was a backdrop screen with an iPad type of tablet in front of you taking the picture and it added different foregrounds. I went with the basic Starliner, so you will now finally get to see me in uniform.
That is the first and hopefully the last time you will see me in uniform. I was happy to do it for them, because that location is my absolute favorite site to work at. Once again, also where I got an avalanche of praise from a VIP there just before taking that picture.
Ok, I should probably go make dinner before I pass out. One more day of my normal post then 7 hours after I leave that one, I'll be at the TV station, doing the overnight for Sunday and Monday.
I could share a video with you, but I'm actually too tired to look it up and post it on here, so you will just have to take what I give you. I hope you have a wonderful week. Peace in and goodnight.
I don't even really know where to begin with this week, so I'm starting with the video I promised from a couple of weeks ago. I Do have video of the last launch as well, but I put that up on my Instagram story so I'll just hope that you saw it and leave it at that.
Ok, I guess I should update you on what I talked about last week. I did in fact get a raise, and to say that that is an unusual occurrence would truly be an understatement. See the way a security contract works, and these are entirely made up numbers. A security company bids on the contract and like anything of this nature, it's the lowest price wins, but it's not just that simple. Say the security company tells the business that we can secure your property with security officers for $25 per man hour. The business says that's a bargain and the security company gets the contract. Now the security company has to man the post and hire a supervisor and officers. They pay the supervisor $17 dollars per hour, and each guard $15 dollars per hour. Wait, the billed the business $25 dollars per hour. Yes, they did, but you don't expect them to keep some of that money so that they have a profit do you? With that plan in place there would seem to be room for a raise from time to time right? Wrong, that would cut into the security companies profits. The normal way that you get a raise as a security officer is that you either become a supervisor and work your way up through the company, or you transfer to a site with a more lucrative contract. So how did I get a raise? I honestly don't know for sure, but it has been told to me from someone I trust, the it came directly from the client. They were so happy with the job I've been doing that they offered to pay me individually more per hour. That is basically an unheard of thing. This also means that I'm building a very good reputation with not only the client, but also my own company. For a client to offer to pay an officer more, it's a very big deal. This is why, despite the fact that I've had other security companies offer my jobs that have higher pay, that I've turned them down to stay where I am. I'm looking at the big picture of where I can go as opposed to what I can have right now.
Now, that doesn't mean that I'm not hustling to make more money to make up the difference, and that brings us to Monday night. I told you that I claimed a shift off this app that we use. Well it wasn't quite as easy as it sounded, and the end result as made me noticeable to some other important people. Turns out that someone has been posting jobs for sites that can't just fill them with anyone. This job was just such a site. As I mentioned, it was for a local news station, and it's a very active site. It is in a metropolitan area, and since it is a news station with high visibility, it frequently gets bomb and death threats for the employees. This is why the person filling the shift has to be vetted and trained. I met the supervisor that night and she explained all of this to me and asked where my normal post was, when I told her she said forget everything I'm keeping you here and you are going to train tonight and then you can come back tomorrow afternoon to do a shift. Training was pretty standard with a few new things. I have to escort or basically oversee the parking lots when employees leave. The escorts are for certain employees that are higher profile than most. This brings a whole new set of skills for me to master most of all, threat assessment. I have to be very aware of the surroundings and potential threats to the clients. Then I have to deter those threats or find a way to eliminate them. I won't go into details on how that is done. The pay isn't all that great, in fact I'm making less there than my other site, but once again, it's all about the big picture and what this experience can lead to, and who knows of my presence on site. All of those watching see my performance and if they approve of my performance at a site that requires a whole different skill set, it is very favorable to my future. That's where that big picture comes in. It's all about the future potential. Give up the small gains for the big ones later.
With all of that. I did work Monday night, and then Tuesday afternoon, without the chance to go to sleep. I figured that I went around 36 hours without sleep, and was really looking forward to relaxing on Wednesday, when I checked the schedule to make sure I was on my normal day of Thursday, to find that I had to go to work in a few hours. I called my supervisor on that site to verify that I was working, because he has screwed up the schedule before, and it was a shock to him that I was working, except for the fact that he told me that he called in another guy, that was supposed to be in that time slot to fill another shift at a sister site that we have. That meant that I had to go in to cover for the guy that was called to the other site. Once again, this all seemed to be a surprise to the cat that is making the actual schedule. Listen, this supervisor is a good guy, but sometimes good guys aren't meant to be supervisors, and he definitely falls into that category. I've been told by several people that I should take over that post, but I can only do what those above me want me to do, and right now, they don't see it that way, despite the fact that important people that are the client are saying that. This goes back to that big picture thing. I truly feel that things will work out the way they are supposed to, and my work ethic will prevail and lift me up. Also, being supervisor of that site would be nice, but that isn't the endgame for me. It's just a step in the right direction.
So, I worked Wednesday which should have been my day off, the I was back to my normal schedule of Thursday- Sunday, with tomorrow being Sunday. That will make 11 straight days on the job. That should lead to a very nice paycheck, which I desperately need. Big picture means troubled times in the present, but oddly, I'm not at all worried. Once again, I'm confident in the big picture and everything working out in the end. Anyway, I have no idea how much the check is going to be, because I'm not sure how the ones above are going to play things out. Do they consider the news station a separate part time job and pay me straight? Do they see it as overtime and pay me time and a half? Do they lump it all together and then a day from each site is considered overtime and give me different pay scales at time and a half? I truly don't know and won't really have any idea until I get a look at the pay stub late Monday evening. I have gone to the trouble to figure out a few different scenarios, and the difference I've figured can be within the $250 dollar range. I know, that is a pretty big difference. I would of course like the top of that range, but I'm ok with the bottom. Either way, I'm getting hit with massive withholdings from my paycheck. I lose about a third of it each week to benefits and taxes. This again goes to a big picture, just a different one.
I do have one picture for you this week. I just had to take a picture of the Desert Rose. I just can never get over how full it is compared to other ones that I've seen. Since I took this picture earlier this week it has already formed some new buds and has actually flowered, but just take a look at how awesome it is.
That's about all I have for this week. I do have some concerns that I won't get paid for the news station, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'll fill you in next week if anything strange happens. Until next week, peace in and goodnight.
I know I said I'd have last weeks video up for you to watch, but I have a new one that I had to get in for you instead. This is just one of the things that I may see when I'm driving in not work. Once again, I should warn you that it says it's processing, but I have no idea if it will actually load or not. I did post this to my Instagram story so you may have seen it there, but this is the Space X Falcon 9 coming home after it landed back at the pad, or the land landing site, as opposed to the drone ship that sits out in the Atlantic ocean. This is the second time I've had the good luck of seeing it drive down the road with its KSC police escort. I still have that other video of last weeks launch and I'll try to get it loaded up for you next week.
It's been an interesting week. As part of my job, or maybe it's kind of a perk, I had this app called Daily Pay. The idea is that once your daily pay is submitted, you can draw it out through this app and put it in your bank account. There is a catch of course. The amount they allow you to have isn't necessarily your full pay, and they also charge a fee to do it. I of course will never draw from that and will just wait for payday to arrive. The good thing about it though, is that I can see if they maybe missed a day or got my hours wrong. Well this week there was a bit of a surprise when I saw the first day roll in there. The amount they said I could have access to was a little bit more than usual. That made me go in the app to see what exactly was going on. It looks like I got a raise, which is really weird because all the other officers constantly talk about how much they are making and the pay seems to be set in stone. From what I've been told raises are only given out when the contract changes and then everyone gets the raise. The exception is of course the supervisor who of course makes more. Now, no one has said anything about getting a raise, and I truly won't know for sure until Monday evening when the pay stub for this coming week is available for me to see. I will know for sure when I can look at the standard pay rate. The only reason I can think of this being true is from wha the facilities manager said to me on that night that we had the fire sprinkler mishap. He said to me as he was leaving that he was going to make sure that my effort and professionalism were acknowledge. This could be the way it is acknowledged. I'll let you know for sure next week. I still won't know the why, but I will defiantly know the what is.
Oh, I got a picture for you. The Chonk's new collar arrived, and it's marvelous. As I mentioned before, I thought that The Goonies was the way to go with him because after all he is The Chonk. Well here is the collar on him. I'm holding it a little awkward so that you can see his name embroidered into it.
He seems to like it, but I'm sure it's more of him putting up with my dorkiness. I just have to tell you how lucky I am with all these pups. They are truly the greatest. The get along so well and even Ri Ri has given up on being grumpy and I think she might be a little in love with The Chonk now.They are all laying down sleeping right now, and The Chonk is in the chair next to me snoring up a storm.
I'm picking up my first extra shift this week. I will be doing an overnight this Monday at a local news station in Orlando. I have no idea how it's going to go or what I'm exactly supposed to do, but I'll figure it out. I don't even know what the pay is. On the app where I can claim shifts they give the day/time/location/&what the requirements are, but they don't mention the pay, so I may not know until, well the time is submitted to that Daily Pay app. I really didn't want to drive all the way to Orlando but this was one of the closest shifts available, and probably one of the most interesting ones for me. I did change my requirements in the app for travel time, I guess the default was an hour and it was originally at distance traveled which I set at 50, but with this change, they were giving me offers for over a hundred miles away, so I lowered the travel time to 30 minutes, which should keep my close to home, and maybe I will start getting shifts offered in my county. Oh, one other thing about this whole shift claim thing. So far it hasn't shown up in my schedule. I did get a text confirming the shift and that I would get another text 2 hours before the shift, but my field manager can deny any shift claim that he wants, and I'm wondering if he pulled me off the shift. I guess I will find out Monday evening about the time I'm planning on leaving. Yes, I'm leaving about 2 hours early to drive 50 minutes. I want to get there early to find out what the site is about and read over the Post Orders. Post Orders are basically a few pages of documents that tell you exactly what you need to do and even lists procedures in the event of an emergency. It's basically the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) of the site. With that and the officer on duty I should be able to learn everything I need to know about what they do and expect there.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I started to learn Spanish. When I was in high school, I made the mistake of taking 4 years of Latin. Ok, it gave me a good base for understanding language in general, but I was never able to truly speak or understand any other language, and being in security, I'm in contact with a lot of Spanish speaking people. This isn't some creepy desire to know what they are saying, but a desire to better communicate with them. There are two lovely women that I speak to regularly, but I have so speak slowly because they don't understand me. Turns out I talk rather fast, so I'm learning so it will be easier for them and I also get the benefit of learning something new and exciting. I chose the app Babble to learn on and they had a 4th of July special that if I pay a one time fee it basically opens up the app so that I can learn any language that they offer. Once I'm done with Spanish, I might go for French or maybe even Japanese. I don't know, the door is open to learn and I'm going through it.
Ok, that's about it for me. I just took a quick look at the preview of this post and it appears that the video is there. Success. My dogs are of course my Favorite Thing of the Week, so no song this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week and maybe go learn something new. Peace in and goodnight.
Exciting stuff going on at the ol' work site this week. The picture above is the SLS (Space Launch System) heading back into the VAB. This was a planned return despite what a ton of people will try to tell you on social media. The first launch is scheduled for late August early September. I've been seeing it out on the pad for some time now, as a matter of fact, I got a picture of it and then cropped it so you could see it from what it looks like to me.
Once again, the phone doesn't really get it as I see it but you get the idea. There was also a launch on Friday and I got the best perspective I could so that you could see it from the pad as it took off. I'm really hoping that this will upload.
Ok, the video is uploaded and it says that it's processing, so I'm hoping that you'll get to see it.
It's been a long week. I was called into work unexpectedly on Wednesday. Now, I'm not complaining about working, I will never complain about that, but I will complain about being called in and then being lied to. My supervisor tried to tell me that he submitted the schedule last week and that it was up on the app, but I look every morning as well as several times a day, and it wasn't there in the morning, but was miraculously there after he called. Here is what really happened, because he forgets that I was standing there when he took me off the schedule for Wednesday the week before. I had mentioned that the schedule was weird not that I wouldn't work it, but I don't want to take days away from someone else. He messed up and then tried to blame it on us not knowing we were supposed to be there. He had to call in someone to cover the secondary site we work, because he left it unmanned and was going to have to scramble to get someone in on the shift I did if I wasn't able to make it. The new guy is nice, but sometimes nice guys don't get things done, and he is that type.
His call interrupted my plans for that day. I was slow cooking a roast when he called and I had to pull it out a little early so that it could sit and cool down for me to wrap it up and put it in the fridge. I did get one small bite and despite the early stop time, it was perfect, but I knew that by putting it in the fridge early it wouldn't be the same and I was right. The fridge dried it out a bit, but I'll just heat up the rest and use a dijonaisse with it. It will be fine, but not what I had hoped for.
Quick pup update.
The Chonk is fitting in nicely and has found his way into the old chair. This was a Baby Girl thing as well. She was the only one that would sleep in that chair and now The Chonk has taken it as his bed. For the most part though he sleeps as close to me as possible. Right now he is under the foot rest of my recliner, just snoring away. At night he still hasn't made it up onto the bed, but that seems to be his choice, because one morning last week he did get up in the bed and kiss attacked me. He instead sleeps right at the edge of the bed in the doorway so that I can't sneak past him. This has caused some issues with Morty and Ri Ri. Morty has to jump over him when he leaves in the middle of the night and if Ri Ri hasn't beaten him to the room then she gets blocked out and has to sleep somewhere else, because she will not try to nudge her way past him. Other than that, they have all be so great together. I couldn't ask for it to be any better than it is with them.
Well with picking up that extra shift, I did get a full 40 hours this week, and I'm still waiting on news of a possible transfer, but I'm no longer holding on to hope for that anymore. It may be a lot of hot air, in the meantime I've put my application and resume out there for other agencies to see if they can give me fill in time for my schedule or a better offer than what I have. I'm in a wait and see holding patter for now.
I really haven't thought much about Favorite Song of the Week, so the picture of The Chonk above will have to suffice for Favorite Thing of the Week. It tracks pretty well though, although the one addition would be my whole fur family, but I don't have a picture of all of them this week.
