And the karmic price I pay for a Very Good Weekend...

...is getting to work 30 minutes late, after By kindly pulled the flat tire on my car and put the spare on, then having to spend 40 minutes pretending interest in Turf Guy's Alaskan cruise vacation photos. Both the ones on cd, and the inch-high stack of snapshots, mostly of floating ice, bits of whales showing above the water, and glaciers at the shoreline. I'm glad he had a good time, I'm glad he returned in a better mood than what he was in when he left, but gee whiz. This was his second day back after vacation, everybody else in the office had seen it already, but he still spent 40 minutes going through it. **shakes head**

Didn't get as much done yesterday as I'd meant to, but I did accomplish a respectable amount. ALL of the laundry, including the basket of cold and hand-wash stuff that I've been putting off for durn near forever, some stuff folded, sheets changed on the bed (!), got eggs hardboiled for snacks at Tara, cleaned out and defragged the computer, a bit of knitting done, and more knitting done while watching the kids. I'd meant to do a batch of scones last night too, but I ran out of steam. I'll do it tonight.

And I did go out and take those cuttings for Donna. They're sitting in a baggie with water, on the kitchen counter. *sigh* Tomorrow.

Got to bed very late last night (for those keeping track, very late = 45 minutes after I got off the phone). Am hoping for rain this afternoon, not that we need it, but the excuse to bum around in the shop would be welcome. I get to clean out the back of the golf cart and put on my Chemical Annie hat today. Hopefully, *if* any of the PT guys used the big tank, they cleaned it. I hate having to guess what the mystery liquid in the tank might be.

By made decent progress on the silver pieces he's putting in the raffle for Tara. Most of the parts cut out, anyway. Some of the other things he'd wanted to get done have been put aside as just not feasible this week. We're both getting better about that. Now, if we can avoid over-committing in the first place....Oh, and By picked up the t-shirts for Tara. Not super-fancy, but nice. And fairly subtle; we can wear these out in public. White, though. I might have to fix that later. If nothing else, tea-dye them to a nice ivory shade.

The day just gets better....

Well, in one way at least--Shop Steward not only fixed the hole in my tire, but he put it back on my car. Yay!

On the down side: PT guys who'd used the sprayer last week hadn't put thigns away, so I spent 20 minutes looking for a goddamn measuring cup. And then, we (we = the dept) were nearly out of my herbicide, and New Boss only responded with, "gee, we should order more of that" when I told him I only had enough to do one tank. Bastard. (I am looking forward to the day when we get to do HIS performance evaulation--I've got lots to say, just on the subject of keeping supplies on hand.) And then, that recurring leak in one of the hose joints on the damn sprayer came back, and I just don't have the patience to dick with it today, so here I am venting instead. Gotta go fix it, 'cuz I've got 20 gallons of herbicide still in the tank, just need to look at something else for a few minutes.

And wait, there's more.

Managed to get one fence sprayed, to find that damn thing leaking again. Grrrrr. Back to the shop, get it half apart, and here comes Maintenance Supervisor, over to talk to Shop Steward.

Shop Steward finds me an appropriately sized O-ring which has so far **crosses fingers** fixed the problem, then settles into the office with MS for a chat, which turns out to be a special delivery of Bad News.

Bad News #1: the PT secretary for the maint department, Little Blonde Girl, is quitting. Soon. And they still haven't replaced the FT secretary who was fired under circumstances that our rumor mill has been unable to grind out. (Dammit. And we're all reeaallly curious.) No news as to when either position will be filled, either, but remember that HR here moves at glacial speed.

Bad News #2: because the FT secretary, and then Little Blonde Girl after her, was responsible for making reservations for the campus fleet, and because the department office will be empty for the foreseeable future, Maintenance Director has decided (or been told he's decided) that the logical thing to do is have a FAX LINE INSTALLED IN THE SHOP, so that Shop Steward can spend the day at his desk taking phone calls, making reservations, and then faxing the appropriate forms out. Bear in mind that this decision comes two weeks after The Powers That Be decided that Shop Steward did not, in fact, need that full-time assistant he's been requesting for the past five years. Apparently, someone up the hill thinks he's got so much time on his hands, he can take on someone else's full-time job.

Arrrrrgh.

And there's still no word on the greenhouse job (or wasn't last week, and Donna would have called me this week if there was), so I'm beginning to think that she's right, and her higher-ups are giving her the run-around rather than telling her, honestly, that it didn't go through.

Some days, I hate this place.

And yet another thing...

To top the morning off, I managed to, during what was supposed to be a cheering phone call to the boyfriend, say something that upset him. So now I feel like a complete heel and failure.

Where's my time machine? I want to start today over.