I am sooo pissed!

When this assignment was offered to me, the terms were; minimum four weeks temp to hire. I got my confirmation for my start date and now the terms are;
Start Date: Monday, July 23rd, 2012
End Date: Approx. 12 weeks or less – Client’s option

I agreed to 4 weeks as a temp. I plan to keep applying for jobs on my own. I'm tired of the terms changing on me every time I turn around. I'm not happy with my placement agent being so two faced, saying one thing to me and another to the client, changing the terms to suit her. I need the money so I will be there Monday. I am not going to think of it as anything other than a paycheck till the right job comes along. It will keep me off unemployment and give me a few paychecks. That's all I can hope for at this point. JOB SEARCH IS BACK ON!

The interview went well.

I start the new temp job on Monday. The placement agent agreed to drop the hire time from 500 hours to four weeks, that's better than 12 1/2 weeks. The catch; and there allways is one. This company is a very large company. ~7000 employees. After the four weeks are up, they will post the job online and I will be given the opportunity to apply for it.

I am wondering if this is even worth my time. If nothing else, it's four weeks of pay.

I miss riding.

We have not ridden much at all this summer. I think the last time was early June. Rich is having too much pain in his hand, wrist and arm. He is barely able keep a grip on the gas. It goes numb on him and causes too much pain to stay in that position for very long. They did the testing and they said they can’t believe he is still functional enough with that hand for his line of work. They can’t schedule the surgery till Sept at the earliest. We are hoping the Dr’s schedule will change and he can get in earlier. He’s going to a highly recommended hand surgeon this Dr. stays pretty booked. He wants the best he can get because his livelihood depends on twisting wrenches and being able to use that hand. He is right handed and it is his right hand. They still want to do some more testing before the surgery to see if there are any other problems. They think he may also have some tendon damage and he has two lumps in that hand; they think they are just cysts but they want to be sure. One is on the back of his hand between the bones going to the index and 2^nd finger and the other is in the webbing between the two top knuckles for those same fingers. He tends to let things go way too long.

Not to mention, he is working on his 68 Roadrunner any chance he has. That is going slow because of our record breaking heat temps and his hand. It will be pretty cool once it's finished.

I’ve had enough of the heat! That is another reason for not riding. I know it is allot hotter in other parts of the country but we are not used to this kind of heat. If I wanted heat like this I would be living in AZ, which is probably better because at least they don’t have the humidity we get in the mid-west. We pretty much stay inside and it’s like having cabin fever all year round now. Did I say, “I’ve had ENOUGH!” Since I’m not working, I don’t turn the air on until just before Rich gets home. I can imagine how bad it is for him working in the heat.

Hopefully the temperatures will cool down soon and we can get a couple short runs in. While I'm not working, I could take some rides during the day, but I feel bad that he can't, plus I don't seem to be able to handle the heat like I did when I was younger. I get heat exhaustion real easy now; not to mention, the heat flashes don't help. It just takes the fun out of it for me, my bright and cheery attitude is taking a hit too.

Time on my hands

I finished my summer class and I am now registered for my fall class. I've decided to slow down with school because it's just too hard to take 4-6 classes and work. Wouldn't you know it...I am now an unemployed deadbeat AGAIN! Things slowed so much that I had nothing to do by 10:30. In the mean time I have applied for at least a dozen jobs, ranging from a greeter at Meijer's (for all who is not familiar with Meijers, it's similar to Walmart) to Student Accounts Assistant at the community college. Tomorrow I am headed to apply at Starbucks.

The weekend before the 4th, my brother came for a 4 day visit from KY. My oldest son had a cookout while he was here. We had a really good time. During the cookout, my daughter-in-law suggested taking us to WI Dells the next time they go. Which I figured would be next Easter because they always take the kids there for Easter. The last week I was working, my son left me a voice mail that said, "reserved a room for you so you have to go." I could not figure out what he was talking about. I called him back and he said we are going to the Dells. I protested that we could not go because I am not working, Rich has been told he will need surgery to his hand and wrist and will be off work 6 weeks, his daughter is due in Aug and we have to make a trip to AZ probably in Sept. (We want to give her a chance to get settled with the baby before we go.) He was not about to take no for an answer. "It's paid for and I'm not canceling!"

Off to the Dells we went. 7 adults and 10 kids. We had a blast!!!!! I have never been on a water slide...I'm hooked! It was really nice to get away and spend time with my kids and grand kids. My son's friend also went with his two girls and his nephew and my daughter-in-law brought her brother's three kids. We stayed at The Glacier Canyon Lodge. http://www.glaciercanyonlodge.com/ On the way back, we stopped at Famous Dave's for dinner. By this time it was only my son's family, my daughter-in-law's niece and nephews minus my son's youngest daughter; (she stayed a while longer with my youngest son and his family at the water park. Leaving us 5 teenagers. We made them all line up and wear the Famous Dave's hat for a picture. They objected at first and then started laughing and agreed.



The one in the middle and on the right are my son's two oldest kids. They were all a fun bunch, from the toddlers to the teens.

I thought my grandson would end up small because he was always shorter than the other kids his age. His mom and her parents are all short. He is 14 and the one next to him is 16, almost 17. He had such a growth spurt that I couldn't believe how tall he is getting. It all happens soooo fast! They're a great bunch of kids, very grateful to have them in my life.

We did a ride to Savanna, IL to Poopy's over the Memorial Day weekend and my bike coughed out on me half way there. I could only go about 3-5 miles before it died again. Sometimes I could get it started again and sometimes I would be on the side of the road. We ended up leaving it a friends house and I rode on the back of Rich's for the rest of the weekend. We spent the night in Savannah. We had a good time, and it's nice to ride on the back once in a while, but I did miss my bike.

It seemed like it wasn't getting gas. We ruled out bad gas because we all gassed up at the same place. After we got home, we hooked up the bike trailer to the truck and went to retrieve it. Rich thought something might be clogged and cleaned out a couple things. He said it didn't seem to be dirty enough to cause a problem. He took it for a ride and it seemed OK. On the way home it started acting up again. Then he started thinking maybe a spark problem. He put a spark indicator on it and took it for a ride hoping it would do it again and he could see if it was getting spark. It ran great. The next day he took it out for 3 hours with a friend and it ran great. Who knows. Hopefully it will be OK for our river ride next week.

It looks like we will not be doing much riding this summer anyway. Rich is having problems with his hand, wrist, and arm. He has numbness in his fingers and pain that keeps him awake and makes it real hard to ride or work. The DR. thinks it's carpal tunnel. Of course he didn't mention to the DR that he has a knot on the back of his hand the size an olive and one between his index finger and the next finger. You don't see them except when he makes a fist, then you can see the one on the back of his hand. He also twisted his wrist when he was drilling into some steel last summer. The drill bit stopped and the drill twisted his wrist. He had trouble with that for about 6 months and never had it checked out. I finally have him talked into asking for an x-ray or MRI to see what the knots are and to see if there was any damage when he sprained his wrist. Hopefully it's not anything serious.

I had 4 tendons on my left hand repaired, a torn cartilage repaired in my wrist joint and carpal tunnel surgery all at once. I didn't ride for most of that summer. The DR told me I may not ride again because of the loss of strength. Rich put a hydraulic gear box on my clutch and we headed to California. His problem is in his right hand, I don't know if there is anything he can do to help with the gas, other than a throttle rocker. What ever it is, we're in it together and I won't ride without him other than to work once in a while. After the road construction is done!

I made straight A's again this semester. I'm only registered for 1 class for the summer semester. I need a break!

My son is doing well with his new job; he's pulling doubles and home every night.

I ordered a new Mustang seat for my bike and I'll be able to check it out over the Memorial Day weekend.

That pretty much sums it up.

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!

Congratulations Bryan!!!!

My son got in on a local CDL job. He may have to do some runs to St. Louis and he will most likely get crap hours at first, but it's a company with good benefits. He's happy he'll be home more and I'll get to see him more.