One of my coworkers, after leaving our agency as a secretary, decided to start selling Tupperware. I am a little concerned about her, as I see that Tupperware is probably going bankrupt.
I have had several coworkers who discovered things they liked at various parties specific to selling a certain product, and decided to become sellers themselves just to get the things at a discount. I have been to Longaberger Basket parties and Pampered Chef parties put on by coworkers. I bought a few things, but it wasn’t long before my friends stopped selling these things. I was really surprised to find out this week that a fellow psychologist at another State agency sells Pampered Chef products. She is very subtle about it.
I think there are still Avon representatives in our area. I see that Avon had worldwide sales of $9.1 billion in 2020. My father sold vitamins for a while after he wanted to get the large amounts of Vitamin E he took at wholesale prices. He was convinced Vitamin E kept him from needing cardiac bypass surgery when he was in his late 40’s. He eventually needed the surgery in his 70’s, but still kept selling vitamins.
Know anyone who sold Tupperware or Avon? What sales parties have you attended? Do you take vitamins or dietary supplements?
This is another tidbit of news from the Rock County Star Herald, the weekly newspaper from Luverne, MN.
After considerable discussion, angst, and protest, Luverne’s Board of Appeals and Adjustments approved the variance request for a 73-foot-tall nutcracker on South Highway 75.
The nutcracker motif is an attempt by a faction of some of the more forward thinkers at the Chamber of Commerce and supporters of the very elderly woman in charge of the Rock County Historical Society to capitalize on her donation to the museum of thousands of nutcrackers she used to keep in her home. She taught with my mother, so I am sure she is in her late 90’s.
The city wants a way to allure people to town to look at the nutcracker collection and spend money and move to Luverne. I suppose nutcrackers are interesting to some people. Hard to say how appealing this will be. It has been quite a city controversy.
What mascot or symbol would you like erect outside your town?What have been interesting controversies in your community?
Last year when I retired, I made an online calendar to count down the last 30 days. I did it online because I didn’t want to hurt my boss’ feelings.
When she called me in January to ask if I would handle two special projects, I was hesitant but eventually figured it would be a nice favor to do her and that extra money never hurts. I had several stipulations that I hoped would make the projects easier: 100% work from home, no set schedule, no meetings except the few needed for my specific projects, no training.
Since I only work when there is something to do, my hours have been variable. Early on, I was just working 3-4 hours a week. The last six weeks, it’s been around 20 hours a week. The first week of May will likely be around 40.
As you can see from the photo above, I’ve made another calendar to count the days.
My appreciate of corporate America has not increased since last summer. Still too many buzz words (collaboration, pivot, synergy, core competency, subject matter expert). Still too much inter-department conflict. Still clients who completely ignore timelines and 30+ years of advice.
The biggest issue although is my feeling that I just don’t want to be tied to work any longer. Not that I have massive numbers of other things to do; I just want to be free to do what I want when I want… even if it’s reading all day while playing online solitaire.
Someone asked me over the weekend if I wouldn’t be susceptible to more requests from my boss in the future – if I would feel guilty if she was struggling to get everything assigned. I’ve thought about it and realized that no, this has been a lesson learned. I don’t want to do this anymore. In addition, I worked for this woman for 32 years and she has never gotten anyone from outside the organization to come back to do special projects; she has 32 years of experience working this stuff out. If I say “no” in the future, I’m sure she can work it out without me.
So, I’m counting down. I included the weekends because I will be working on Saturday, May 6. It’s the final event of the two projects and except for a few hours of wrapping up the accounting, which will probably be in June, it will be the end of my work. I can’t wait!
When was the last time you were counting the days? Have you ever actually made a countdown calendar?
When I was in my junior year of college, I lived on the fourth floor of one of the original buildings. Only two rooms (both triples) and no elevator. I shared with two other women who had, like I had, lived in a single room our sophomore years. Knowing we would probably get low numbers in the room choice lottery after having singles, we banded together to get a better room than if we struck out alone.
The other room on our floor was also a triple with 3 seniors. They weren’t around all that much and we didn’t really socialize with them. So we were surprised when they lugged a full sized Mobil Gas Pegasus sign up the steps and installed it in the hallway between the two rooms. We spent the rest of the year explaining it to anyone brave enough to come up to the fourth floor! Personally I never understood the appeal.
I moved to my current house about 30 years ago – about three blocks from the old Boulevard Theatre. As the years went by, it deteriorated until it just couldn’t afford to stay open. People were outrated and actually picketed in front of the theatre with it’s huge iconic sign. Eventually the owners agreed to keep the sign although the theatre was no more. It is still there, looking rattier and tattier by the year.
And now more signage in my neighborhood is in the news. The Aqua City Motel and Metro Inn, a little farther down on Lyndale have their iconic signage up for sale. Both properties actually belong to Hennepin County these days, having been purchased during pandemic when the county was using both motels for temporary housing. Right now both properties are empty and awaiting renovation into affordable housing.
I wasn’t crazy about the pegasus sign, I think the Boulevard sign is ridiculous looking and I can’t even imagine why anyone would want a Metro Inn or Aqua City sign but I’m sure that there is someone out there who will think they are purchasing a piece of history and will shell out way too much cash for it. Takes all kinds.
Any iconic signs you remember from your childhood? Have you ever acquired a sign?
I struggle to get in enough exercise – I almost always have – especially in winter. Stationary biking at the gym and swimming laps is about what I’m up for during the cold months. Thank goodness for snow shoveling. At this time of year (the first couple of months after New Year’s resolutions), it’s normally a bit busier at the gym so I never expect to find a close parking spot. It’s even worse right now because of the snow in the parking lot which has been haphazardly plowed recently.
This isn’t a big deal for me. By the time I’ve revved myself up to get to the gym, I’m usually in a “it’s some extra steps” frame of mind. But obviously on Saturday, not everybody was in the mood to get some additional exercise getting from the car to the front door.
I’ve discovered a new bakery. Well, technically PJ discovered it for me. And you all know how I love a good bakery.
On Saturday I dropped off some Ben eggs for PJ (Ben to tim to me to PJ… roundabout) as well as an immersion blender from Bill. I love how we built a little community on the trail – that’s a blog for another day.
Anyway, PJ and I talked about the great Mexican food that I had in Tucson and she mentioned that there is a great Mexican panaderia close to her. As I was leaving, she gave me directions and I headed toward it; I found it easily – Don Panchos Bakery on Cesar Chavez. The customer area wasn’t too big but had huge displays on each side filled with an amazing array of goodies. Donuts, cookies, cakes, breads and lots and lots of pastries. Even flan.
I picked out a couple of conchas, which I adore and then when I turned around to the other case, I saw “besos”. It’s two cakes held together by sweet custard and I’ve only encountered them a couple of times during my travels. I quickly added a couple of those to my tub. Pricing was much lower than I expected. In fact, when she gave me the total, I asked her if she had gotten everything. It was all I could do to get out of there without enough pastries to open up my own shop!
It was also all I could do to not eat all the pastries on Saturday afternoon!
Which direction do you head if you want to find a bakery?
I made a mistake over the weekend. I accidentally clicked on a YouTube of a couple building a tiny house from the ground up. I didn’t watch the whole thing but it was enough for cyberspace to jump on it. This morning my YouTube feed is filled with tiny house videos. They have not completely supplanted my usual card-making, dogs, Harry/Meghan (proverbial train wreck) videos, but there are A LOT of tiny house stuff. Sigh. I know that if I don’t open any more, they will eventually fade away but it’s a little irritating that cyberspace is so completely curating my online experience.
Then yesterday I opened up YouTube on my work laptop to look for a band for a client. The feed was nothing like my home feed and had a preponderant amount of “relaxing music” videos. This didn’t surprise me at first because my main use of YouTube at work has always been background soothing, relaxing music. When I started to think about it, I wondered how YouTube knew this… after all, this laptop is not the laptop I had before I retired. And I haven’t logged onto YouTube using a work address since August. So how did YouTube know, without my even asking, that relaxing music is likely to be what I want? This is just a hypothetical question – I’m sure I wouldn’t understand a real answer about the algorithms used by YT, FB, etc. But it is a little eerie and does make me wonder what my feed would look like if I searched for other random items every few days?
Do you care enough about anything to follow it in cyberspace?
Husband and I have an extremely loving relationship, but we have never been able to agree about toothpaste. I find Colgate toothpaste too chalky. He doesn’t like the way my Crest toothpaste tastes like fluoride. Neither of us will change our toothpaste preferences. I guess that is what you might call brand loyalty.
I am the most fussy about food ingredients, so that I try to bake with King Arthur Flour products and cook with this Turkish olive oil we get at the Syrian grocery store in Fargo. We also buy Barilla or De Cecco pasta, organic cream, and Land O Lakes butter.
I wonder if the days of exclusive brand loyalty are over for marketing agencies, or if they still try to make people exclusive Ford purchasers, for example.
What brands are you “loyal” to? What are some “off brands” you would recommend? What kind of toothpaste do you prefer?
It was nice to see the Sun on Monday for a while. Feels like that was a month ago. Then Thursday it was sunny for a while. Maybe some sun coming…along with the cold. Man, February, I’m telling ya. It was nice to see the Sun on Monday for a while. Feels like that was a month ago. Then Thursday it was sunny for a while. Maybe some sun coming…along with the cold. Man, February, I’m telling ya.
I signed a contract for concrete this summer. I’m excited about that and looking forward to it. It’s going to be really nice. I also plan to get new electrical service run to the shed instead of the rube Goldberg way it gets there now. (Thank you Dad) And then next year will be insulation and walls. But it’s gonna be nice.
I meant to start writing this well before I did. I went to get something, and I got distracted vacuuming the entry way and mudroom. That area is always dirty. Between the dogs’ wet feet and me and my boots bringing in bits of straw and chicken manure, plus dirt, and gravel (That’s why it’s the mudroom). Doesn’t help that our 15-year-old dog Allie is suffering incontinence and often pees down there. Good thing it’s tile and in floor heat. We’ve tried the doggy diapers; can anyone make them stay on?? We can’t. Put it on, turn around, it’s off. Maybe it’s the shape of the dog.
Anyway, after vacuuming the entryway, I realized I should vacuum the basement steps. I know I’ve vacuumed them once or twice before, but it’s been a while. Plugged it up with a big chunk of something and pulled out a LOT of dog hair. And that led me to vacuum the bathroom downstairs. I don’t ever recall vacuuming in there although someone must have at some point, and then it was full and I had to dump it out again after I was done. Then I had to mix up the next step of the Amish Friendship bread batter, and in a round-about way I finally got around to writing this.
Wednesday, I needed chicken layer ration and I drove to Stewartville to pick up it up. Stewartville is about 10 miles south of Rochester. Back when I was milking cows, it was almost a weekly thing to pick up bags of something for the cows. Protein supplements, soybean meal, trace minerals, salt, mineral barrels, something; and it was all in 50-pound bags and I loaded and unloaded many many tons of bags by hand over the years. So, when I called Elgin Elevator to order the layer ration and they told me they don’t carry bagged feed anymore, well, I was filled with dysphoria. When I was a kid, I’d go there with Dad to pick up feed. It probably had a few other names, and I recall picking up feed in Viola MN, and Zumbro Falls MN, but usually it was Elgin. There was a merger last year and I can only assume that’s why they’re not carrying bagged feed anymore. Or perhaps it’s so many people moving to bulk products instead of bags. And that’s how I ended up in Stewartville getting a ton of layer ration.
It’s so easy these days- they put it in the truck with a folk lift, and I use the tractor and forks to take it off the truck and put it in the shed. ‘Work smarter not harder’ they say. But it’s hard to build muscles that way, the weaklings.
I did get to drive some nice roads that I don’t often get on. Drove past Fugles Mill, over the Root River, and past the Root River Park. But getting around or through Rochester is such a hassle. (I know, try Minneapolis you say).
It was fun to meet Krista and Pippin and move some eggs. 36 dozen so far in January!
With the cold weather coming in I’ll have the wellhouse heater on for the next week and will be trying to collect eggs before they freeze and crack.
Doing chores the other day and I had a bit of a traffic jam.
Didn’t get a chance to watch any movies this week. Kelly and I are trying to watch an episode or two of ‘Orange is the New Black’ every night.
Music has been a random assortment of my phone playlist, Radio Heartland, the XM 1940’s station, or ModernBigBand on the Jazz channel. Although on the drive to Stewartville my playlist was various songs by the band YES. Roundabout, South Side of the Sky, Yours is No Disgrace, I’ve Seen All Good People. It was nice. Course I had the dogs with me. Humphrey just lays in the back seat. Bailey spent the first half of the trip with her nose in my ear, and the second half in the front seat staring at me.
One thing I forgot when using the snow blower last week; I forgot about how blown snow lands and packs harder than falling snow. Here’s me digging out one door with a garden trowel I had in the gator –
There was another door I was going to leave for Kelly, but I found a shovel and dug that one out and got it open. Yep; forgot that part.
Bundle up for a while now and be careful out there.
MnDot announced the finalists yesterday for the Minnesota Name A Snowplow contest. If you haven’t heard of this before you may not be alone, although the contest has been held annually for a few years now. Last year’s winners were:
Betty Whiteout
Ctrl Salt Delete
The Big Leplowski
Plowasaurus Rex
Scoop Dogg
Blizzard of Oz
No More Mr. Ice Guy
Edward Blizzardhands
This is one winner per MnDot district. I haven’t been able to find out what happens after the winners are announced? Is there a plaque somewhere? Little signs on the snowplows? Patches for the snowplow drivers? Banquet?
There are 60 finalists so I am not going to name them all but will give you some of my favorites:
Bladezilla
It’s a Squall World After All
Taylor Drift
Hippoplowtomus
If you’d like to see all the finalists and vote for your top eight favs, here is the link:
Trail Baboon 