Ah November the first. A beautiful late fall day this morning, actually was in the low 6o’sF. But turned wet, dreary, cool, windy and miserable in the mid afternoon. But thus is fall in the northcountry.
I left for the warehouse at about 8:20 AM this morning and never returned to the main building until a little after 1 PM………dang. I had a load of overseas pallets coming in, so not only did I need to unload but I needed to mark them so there would be no mistakes as far has which pallet is which. Under the new rules of shipping overseas, all pallets must be either heat treated or fumigated to eliminate the possibility of transfer insects from one location to another. And raises the price of our finished goods pallet from $7.50 per, to $11 per. On one hand that’s doesn’t appear to be a big deal, but we work between 260 and 312 days a year, with and average 0f 10 pallets a day. Okay so it’s only a max of 10k$ but everything adds up. Then there was the transfer between the 2 houses that needed to be unloaded and reloaded, and then the supply load to one of our vendors. I had hoped to get that done in 2 hours but it took a bit long. So I get back to the main plant and I have everyone in the, well this must be done today mode. A really hate that, like no one is interested in all the other things that need and must be done, they are only concerned with their little part of the puzzle. And rarely realize that anything that either enters or leaves goes through me. And if everyone one decides that everything the have must be cleared off the books today, well some one is going to be sadly disappointed.
Stopped on the way home at the deep fry take out place. Not for deep fried anything but they have great salads and rolls as well and had the tag end of a pork roast in the frig that was demanding that it be reheated with barbecue sauce and served on fresh rolls, with coleslaw, with a side of potato salad. And very satisfying meal.
Gentle evening, watched a little tube, played a little blog shares, and just enjoyed the solitude. For the first 56 and one half years of my life I lived with, well someone. Family, roommates, wife, daughter, et al. For the last year and a half it’s just been my 3 cats and me. And although the fact of living alone was not my choice, I have come to grips with it and wish that maybe I had been alone for many more years. Well not alone exactly, human contact at home is a thing I can live without, but my 3 little fur balls, I’d miss them.
Had a nice chat with the daughter last night, hadn’t really seen or talked to her for a couple of months. She’s had a very rough start to the school year (she teaches at one of the rural schools in the area). I wanted to remind her not to wait until the last minute to get tickets to the NCC concert, she is my daughter after all and waited last year until the last minute to buy and they were all gone. I love my “little” girl, but we don’t really spend that much time together, we are both busy, and respect the fact that each of us has our own lives.
(A brief pause in this post while I scratch the belly of cat Lilly, said Lilly is the smallest of 3, at probably less then 5 lbs, but when the belly of said cat needs scratching, all of the other problems of the world in general, and the old trollie’s in particular, fade into insignificance.)
(Trollie looks up and realizes that it’s novella time again)
Nite all

I am way too tired tonight to produce anything that resembles a post, so good nite all.

A very decent fall day here in the great northcountry today. Not really warm but sunny and a gentle day for a change. Services went fine this AM, voice was less then top-notch first service, but was fine second services but stuck mostly to the low harmony line. Knee is improving; still a little tender but is almost back to norm. Now norm is not good, norm is always a background level of pain in both knees, too much damage done in sports as a youth, but a level I can deal with, because I have no choice.
A light lunch and the northcountry choral rehearsal, we give one concert a year, well one set of music with 3 performances. This year we are doing the Christmas potion of the messiah, with a few additions from parts 2 and 3. Rehearsal went great despite the fact that the voice was not at 100%. Now for worship team the voice can be less then 100% and all is well. But I am lead high tenor with the choral group and a voice under 100%, given the fact that your singing the choral tenor parts of the messiah……different story. But a great rehearsal, we are about a month + from the performances and everything is going to gether quite well, still a few sections that are a little rough but plenty of time to fix the issues. But the society is more then the music, singing great music would be enough to satisfy the old trollie, but there are the people involved. Just a great group of folks who are joined by a love of the master works.
Slow cooked a very nice piece of pork tonight with onions, garlic, celery, and bay leaves…….turned out tasting great, but frankly lost track of it and probably left it on the simmer for about 20 minutes too long. It totally resists any attempt to slice it. It just falls apart. Tender for this one is an understatement. Will augment it with assorted veggies and have a week’s worth of lunches for work. I love the fact that microwaves are available. I never liked cold sandwiches for lunch. I can eat a cold supper, or a cold snack, but I need hot food for lunch.

Not a bad weather day at all, a bit of frost this morning, but was sunny and pleasant most of the day. Managed to twist my knee this morning and by days end it was really hurting me. But then I was either driving forklift or walking on cement floors all day to the fact that it got worse is not surprising. Took a good, long, hot soak in the tub and it feels much better tonight, but then I stayed off it most of the night. Hopefully it will be fine tomorrow because I’ve got a boatload of work to cleanup and hope to get through it in as little time as possible.
Had a nice veal chop in the frig, and thin sliced in and pan fried it with some shallots, added a very good stored bought light tomato sauce, and had it over pasta with a couple of hard rolls. Very nice…..very nice indeed……

Actually was a nice day today weather wise. First on in a long time, although it was only in the mis-40’sF, little wind and the sunny did peek through from time to time.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being easy and ten being impossible today rated about an 8.5. However since the first three days this week were off the scale today seemed mild by comparison. Despite the fact that I was really feeling poorly today, well up until the afternoon, felt better this afternoon, not good, but better then this morning.
Payday, did my banking and errands, grocery shopping et al. spent more then I usually do on groceries but I’m trying to build up the stock in the pantry for winter, and with the OT I worked last week this seemed to be a good week to get that started.

Another cool, damp, dreary day, and there is a chance that we may get some snow tonight. This early in the season not much, and not anything that will hang around for any time at all, but the first snow is always a portent of things to come.
One of those days work wise that was filled with phone calls, interruptions and a raft of small, one might say even petty problems that just chewed up huge amounts of time, so what should have been a “see spot run” day, turned into a freak show.
Made a quick pizza for supper, relaxed awhile and headed off to worship team rehearsal. Good people, good music, and I feel fine tonight, despite the day, I feel good.

It’s late and I should have been in bed an hour or so ago, particularly since I had the worst night’s sleep I have had in months last night, but the ultimate fighter 2 was on spike at 11. Up until now the fights have been, well disappointing compared to the fights on ultimate fighter 1 but tonight’ s was a beaut.
Was cool and a tad on the damp side most of the day but we did see a bit of sun, which has not been the case the last several days. Work, well………what can I say………I was busy all day and quite frankly accomplished very little. But such is the norm for working materials. You have days where little effort produces maximum results, and then days like today when maximum effort produces buttkiss. Not surprisingly spell check has reject buttkiss. Well trollie condemns spell check to the fires of hell.

The day was another damp, dreary one weather wise. And my physically level today was way under 100%, but surprisingly the day went quite well. I have a bit of a cold, which made singing a chore rather then relaxation, but can’t complain. I did get a little feisty at choral rehearsal, one of the singers in my section today was a bit off key, probably because they were pressing a little and just blasting through sections that needed to be lighter. I rarely say anything, but it was throwing me off a little, as well as it just wasn’t correct, and I was struggling a little today with my concentration, normally it would not have affected me at all, but it was handled. Not that I was stepping out or where I didn’t belong, as section leader it’s my job. But the rest of rehearsal went fine. And I did handle the issue without actually being rude. Which is a miracle considering how lousy I felt.