Ouch

Made it through yesterday. The fire-extinguisher safety thing was 2 hours long, and I missed the last part of it, as my trees showed up late. (Weeee! escape!)

My trees, 6 of them, at least, also showed up bigger than I expected. I would't have tried to lift any of them, but the delivery guy lifted all but the biggest off the trailer by himself. Cute delivery guy, too. Reminded me a bit of Pet, only with narrower shoulders and shorter hair (which was streaked a bit with grey, so he was older than Pet by a few years).

Got the 6 largest trees in the ground yesterday, with a minimum of bumps and dings.....a bruise on the back of my hand, where I dropped a 1-1/2" serviceberrry on myself trying to get it into the hole, and some small dings on my legs from trying to get the larger trees into the truck (lifting with a tractor is lower effort, but hard to aim).

Still have 13 shrubby serviceberries ("Regent", in case you're curious), 2 sourwood trees (small), 6 bald cypress, and 5 eastern wahoo (a slow-growing native tree) left to plant. Oh, and a 5' tall B&B sweetbay magnolia that I've got to get into a courtyard that's INSIDE a building. And I still need to get the rootball of the dead one out of the way, which has to be done by hand, because none of the equipment will fit through the building, and they have class in there all day, and don't like the noise.....grrrr.....

The magnolia is actually all I plant to get done today, between the intermittent rain they're forecasting, and the pain-in-the-ass value of working in the courtyard. And that meeting's today. Grounds Foreman is at work today, though only Shop Steward has seen him (and reported that he's much cranky).

Must remember to corral the new PT kid and find out exactly which tree he hit yesterday. He says that he didn't do any damage to the tree, but it takes more than a glancing blow to break the window glass on the doors of the mower. $715 to repair that screw-up, and that kid's had an ass-chewing and his first verbal warning (stage one of our "3 strikes" policy) yesterday. A second lecture depends on the state of the tree, when I find it. And, because Maintenance Director is a micro-managing prick, we have to give all of the PT's a verbal warning about this, because we "have to treat them all equally", including my helper, who doesn't mow. grrrrrr.

Too tired last night to finish painting on my silk scarves, so I'll have to make myself work on it tonight after rehearsal. I can take it easier tomorrow at work, it's easier to get away with that on Friday. And I'm taking Sat off, to rest up so I can stay awake for the party. But I did get 4 pattern repeats done on the second piece of beaded fringe....it takes 16, and the first few are the hardest to keep even.

By made another trip to that warehouse last night after work, to see if Albert wasa throwing away anything interesting. No good trash yet, but Albert offered him a Very Good Deal on 100, 8x12 timbers from the roof (12-14' long, old-growth pine). Just what we were needing to beef up the floor in the back bathroom. Makes that remodel project doable this summer, rather than 1-2 years away.

Time to go pretend I'm working. More later.

The day is looking up

For now, anyway.

It only took us an hour to get the stump of the dead tree out of the ground, out of the courtyard, and get the replacement into the courtyard and into the ground. I'm still vexed with the PT kid that helpd us out....dude, just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean that when I say something is heavy, it's going to be a piece of cake for you to pick up. That tree probably weighed 120 pounds. I'm smart enough, and old and creaky enough, to know better than to try. I'm strong enough to do most of my own lifting, and smart enough to know when to ask for help. The look on his face, after he said "oh, that's all you want moved" and tried to pick the tree up, was priceless. And the kicker--the stump & rootball of the dead tree was heavier than the new tree, it took all three of us to get it into the wheelbarrow to haul out of the building. Mrph. Young men get on my nerves sometimes.

The Print Shop Guy really likes me....I have half a trunk load of free paper again, some of it still in its plastic wrappers. Some text block weight, some glossy and heavier, some text weight trimmings of light blue and pink papers (I don't know what the pink was for, but nothing says it has to stay that color), a few large sheets of a lovely off white linen-textured stuff....the pile just fit in the back of the golf cart. Must remember to bring him something nice.

The afternoon's probably a lost cause--we've got that "interview" with the "applicant"....from what's being said among the foremen, the "applicant" is more or less hired, and Grounds Foreman is just screwed. Our management has handled this badly. And our Turf Guy has heard through the grapevine that the applicant is not the prize he looks to be on paper. Turf Guy implied what he'd heard about the applicant was that he was rather like Nemesis...great on paper, but not as easy to get along with, not as hard-working as he bills himself. Which is NOT what we need to add to the department, one's enough, thank you. But Applicant has that all-important 4-year degree, and Maintenance Director and Vice President are so hot-to-trot about getting staff that have degrees. *shakes head* Common sense, a sense of organization, decent people skills, and patience are much more useful for that job.

Speaking of jobs.....

Keep your fingers crossed for me. On a whim, I put in an app for the position of Supervisor of the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Figured hey, app deadline is Friday, it'd be a lot more money, no snow removal, and sounds like fun work. And the worst they can tell me is "no", so why not? Especially with this place starting a downhill spiral.

Did I mention no snow removal? I really like that idea. It'd probably be a 5-day-week job, which would be hard to adjust to, but I think I'd manage.