Bonding Time

So for the past couple of months I've been watching the Masked Singer.

A reality tv show where famous people put on costumes and singed masked.

And it was a fun show to watch.
Because no one knew who they were.
Not even the other performers knew who their competitors were.
And it was fun week by week to take the clues given and try and guess who each masked singer was.

Spoilers for the Masked Singer below. 



Now that it's all over.
Now that all the singers have been revealed.

My mind's taken on a more reflective mindset.

As one of the singers ended up being Donny Osmond. 

And like...that was one of Mom's favorite singers, if not her favorite favorite singer, to listen to. 

She's been to a few of his shows/concerts and buys every album that comes out.

So I can't help but wonder.

How soon would she have guessed that the masked singer was Donny?

Would it have been the first episode?
Would it have been later in the season?

lol would she have even watched it?
Hard to know for sure really.
Though I'm pretty sure if it involved Donny she would have been there rooting for him. 

So yah.
Just musings tonight on what ifs and such.
The conversations we could have had as it happened.

But I still had a fun time watching the show with my sister and chatting about our predictions with her. XD

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Lights On

I was rather tired last night.
As compared to basically the past two weeks.
A fell asleep practically as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

I mean it wasn't 'that' fast. But it was faster than normal. 
And I managed to sleep deeply and well.

Probably deeply enough that I may have almost slept through my alarm?
I mean I heard it...but I don't now if I registered it as fast as I normally do.

However.
The odd thing was when I opened my eyes.

Because when I opened my eyes to grab my phone and such to snooze the alarm.

The lamp by my bed was on.

When I'm pretty confident it wasn't on when I went to bed last night.
I distinctly remember it not being on when I went to bed.

Yet.
There it was. 
Light on. 

O.o 

So I went to turn it off.
And it turned off after one click.

Which is also notable.

As this particular lamp of mine is supposed to be a dimming lamp.
Where if you have the correct bulb (and I currently don't) turning the knob will change the brightness of the bulb.
Since I don't have the right blub. I basically just have to turn the knob three times to be able to turn off the light.

Yet here it was....turning off after one twist. 

Very. Very. Odd. 

Because like...that means if something or someone turned on my light...they had to turn it two clicks before ending on this third 'setting.'

So. 
Weird.

I mean I didn't have a negative vibe at all in my room when I woke up.
I was rather peaceful feeling.
And like I said. It was a really good night of sleep for me.

But now I'm like....why was my light turned on? 
Who turned it on?
A ghost?
Was my Mom visiting and decided to turn on the light?

I don't know.
I honestly don't know.

Still. Since I'm choosing to take it as a nicegood thing instead of anything negative just by how I felt when I woke up. 

Definitely a different way to wake up for sure lol. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Eyes Have It

I thought I was being rather clever.

Which is why I wasn't at all surprised it didn't quite work out how I wanted.

Today while I was in the early stages of my workshift and already suffering from a headache.
I had a small epiphany. 
Where I was like "Oh hey, most of my headaches are focused behind my right eye. Maybe the contact within the eye is too strong."
Because when I last went to get my eyes checked, the eye doctor and I decided to bump up the prescription a step. 
--which was a bit of an ordeal to decide to do that because my eyes were being difficult in helping me decide whether to stay with my prescription or to go to the stronger one.
In the end I decided to take a step up with both eyes. 

And thought it was going great overall.
But with how many headaches are focused behind the right eye compared to the left....
Maybe I've been self harming myself the entire time in my quest to get my eyes to work together and not have one eye working harder than the other.

In any case.
I figured I could do a test and see.
After all, Kikay was heading up that direction this week.
So it wouldn't be that hard for her to drop by the eye doctor while she was in town.

So why not call and ask if I could have a trial contact lens to try out that was the step below my current prescription. Aka try my old prescription again. 

I figured a week or so of testing that would give me an idea on whether or not it was the contact or if it's yet some other issue causing the headaches to be much more frequent. 

So. During my lunch break I called up the Eye Doctor to request a trial lens.

The secretary said she would have to pull up my file and see if they had any sample of that prescription in stock and she'd get back to me a little later.

Cue a couple of hours later and she calls back.
Having conferred with the doctor.
And them noticing that it had been 8 months since my last visit.....

The doctor wanted me to come in to see him for an evaluation just to check in on my eyes.

*exhales*
I'd been hoping that wouldn't be the case.
I mean...having Kikay swing by and pick up the lens would have been much easier.
Even if I had to wait a week or so.

But still.
Probably a good idea in the long run.
So I went ahead and scheduled an appointment to come in to get my eyes checked out. 
Unfortunately it's two weeks away...sooo....yah. Gonna just have to monitor myself and such until then I guess. *shrugs* 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Flirting with Red

I'm pretty sure I blogged about it at one point.
Though with how many blog posts I've done...I have no idea 'when' I actually did this.
Like...I was probably still in college....probably...and I don't even know if my car was currently mine or if I was sharing it with my sister still.

But in any case.
I had like...1/8th of a tank of gas left in my car.

Which I had thought was plenty of gas to drive like an hour north to the parents.
Heh...
Yah. That was a nervewracking drive as I watched the line move closer and closer to the red.
I basically chugged into the gas station below my parents place on fumes.
As my car had sputtered a couple of times on that final stretch like "I'm on the last of the last here."

And that day I made a vow to like....never let my tank get that low ever again because that was traumatizing.

-But oh so rewarding to actually make it to the gas station before running out of gas. lol.

Cue last night.
I had like 2/3 of a tank left.
Which since it was now years later since the experience above. 

I knew was plenty of gas to make a round trip up north.
So I wasn't concerned at all about filling up.
As I gauged I would be able to even probably drive to work today before I would need to fill up.

The only thing I didn't account for?

The wind.

So the drive up was windy but uneventful. The tank lowered as expected.
And as I was getting ready to drive back down, I noted that it was sitting slightly lower than I wanted.

It was still plenty of gas to get home on. But I was figuring I would have to stop by the gas station on the corner in the morning before heading to work so I would have enough gas.
(I try to make it a habit to not buy things on Sunday...including gas. Hence why I didn't stop at a gas station before leaving to come back home and why I was planning to get gas today instead.)

However.
The wind proved to still be quite the opponent to the drive back down to Happy Valley. 
And as the miles passed I watched that line again sink closer and closer to the red. 

Much closer to the red than expected.
As the winddrag on the car was making me use up more gas than I had anticipated.

And as I took the exit the line started flirting with going into the red.
Like...really it depended on if I was going uphill or downhill and the line would fluctuate like that.

To the point where I was like...Okay.
I probably can make it home....but I don't know how far I'd get in the morning.

So despite my goal to not buy things on Sundays.
I chose to pull into that corner gas station near my home to fill up my tank.

Probably a good thing I did. ^^;; lol I had like 0.6 gallons left. :S :S 

But oh. Such the relief to watch the line climb back to full as I pulled away from the gas station lol.

Still. Note to self.
Make sure I have at least half a tank before making a roundtrip in the same day. 

Because I really really really don't like hovering just above the red. *shivers*

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Timber

I skinned my knees today. 

Which I feel like I haven't done in forever.
Usually I'm pretty good about...well not tripping on things. 

And if I do end up falling down...my knees don't take that much of a hit.
Like I can skin them really. But I don't recall drawing blood.

I drew blood today.

We were leaving a friends house, Kikay and I, and we were just crossing the gutter to get back to the road...
When my foot caught on the lip of the pavement or something.

And I was moving fast enough, and was distracted enough trying to put gloves on that I had no chance whatsoever to save myself.

So down I went.
And just as quickly a popped back up.
My knees screaming agony at me.
So I knew they were skinned up.

But since it was dark I couldn't really stop and check them.
So we walked back home and once we were inside I could finally check and see the damage.

Needless to say.
Ow.

The left knee overall is fine.
Skinned, some redness to it, but nothing major.
The right?

I must have landed on a rock or something because I was bleeding pretty good from a spot in particular.
Not like in a stitches sort of bleeding.
But there was blood and it had stained my pants. 

So yah. That took a couple of bandaids to fix. ^^;; 

Thankfully though.
It was nothing major.

And the wound will be scabbed up pretty soon methinks.

But work is going to be interesting in the morning.
As I do tend to kneel a lot while I'm doing things.

So yah. I expect to be sore for work tomorrow. ^^;;

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bonding Scent

So I was talking to a couple at work today.
They were trying to set up a new tank for their spider.
And had grabbed one of the column fish tanks we sell because it was 'a good price'
Though I found them in the reptile isle looking for substrate to use.

They were looking at Sand though...
Which to my knowledge tarantulas usually prefer like...dirt. 
So I showed them those options.

And while we were talking.
The wife pulled something out of her bag and rubbed it on her hands before putting it away.

That's when I caught a wift of peppermint.

So I was like "Did you just put peppermint on your hands?" 

Her face lit up! "I did! Here!" And she raised her hands up to my nose for me to smell them.
*shakes head* lol. Kinda weird really.

Though impressive that peppermint is strong enough that I could smell it since my nose has been off and on stuffy throughout the day. 

"I love that scent." Was my comment.
Because I do enjoy the scent of peppermint. 

Apparently the lady uses it to help her headaches...as she was getting one apparently.

And even offered to let me use some when I mentioned that I had a slight one at the moment too (yay stress at work) 

I declined though. ^^;; 
I had my own in the back that I could use if I could break away from customers long enough to do so. 

But yah.
That was a random bonding moment with a stranger that happened today. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

I Dreamed A Dream

There are times when I have vivider dreams than others. 
Where upon waking they just kinda….stay with you.
Often I use those dreams as ideas for stories. 
As often they're quite well done and plot based and halfway make enough sense to make an actual story from them.

And then there's others that are like....
Vivid in other ways.
To the point where I'm like "Is this a sign? Is this dream significant? Is someone trying to tell me something?" 

Cus last night I had a more vivid dream.
Like it started out with the typical crazy things I usually dream.
People trying to take things from the house, Dad going off with the police, grandma trying to guide us into how to use the car and trying to drive the car without crashing into everything.

But then Mom was there.
And like...it's significant to have Mom there since she's...well not physically here anymore. 
And she was on the bed like she usually was.
But she'd been injured, stabbed in the chest.
But we were going through precious items and I was picking up things and hiding them around the house in 'safe' places for us to find later.

And like....She hugged me. Told me some words of wisdom to comfort me and like....

I just woke up crying.
Crying because I miss her.
And I want her here.

But at the same time....the dream stuck further with me than others did. 
Like the locations I had hidden things in still seem really significant to me.

So like I'm left wondering if it's a message like...I could find some things we've been looking for if I look in the places I left things in the dream....

But yah...
It was a difficult way to wake up this morning.
No one really wants to wake up crying.
SO yah....hard morning.

But at the same time I'm glad I got to see her again.
If only for a short time in the dream.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Shifting Shifting

It's my favorite time of year!!!
I mean...at work it is. 
As it only happens like...twice a year. 

But today my manager showed me the planogram of the fish wall.
As in the spring and fall we shift the arrangement of the fish slightly to accommodate new fish coming in or fish being taking out.

-Usually it coincides with the koi season as we get in more koi in the spring to accommodate people wanting to put them in ponds and then in the fall we carry less varieties of them since it's cold and winter and koi shouldn't be put outside then.

But like!
New planogram!! :D 

I actually enjoy the puzzle of moving fish around. Like a giant jigsaw figuring out  how to get fish from one tank to another and have everyone still play nice.
As rarely different categories of fish end up shifting a bit where aggressive ones need to go into tanks where non aggressive ones currently are and so I need to move the nonaggressive ones to their new spots before I can put the aggressive ones in that tank.

So yah.
It's fun. A puzzle I love to do.
(Though I didn't have time to do more than glance at things today unfortunately. :( ) 

And the past year or so it's been less interesting....
Mostly because the company shifted the fish planogram to actually make sense.
Meaning that instead of being spread throughout the wall.
The same fish are found in the same section.
So like if you're looking for sharks, they're found in the same column of tanks.
While platys would be in a different section.
And tetras in yet a different section.

So it's easy to tell customers "Oh, all the mollies are in this tank here" or "all the glofish are in these tanks over here."
Instead of the old fashion way of "They're here, and here, and here, and way over here!" 

So honestly, when I get a chance to look more closely at the planogram I'm not expecting much to change at all.
Mostly just have a shifting of the goldfish around to make room for more varieties of koi to come in at some point. 

However. 

There's an intriguing development.
Where my manager found a 'planogram' for this like 4 foot 'floor display' tank system for feeder goldfish.

Which...we don't have that.
Yet there was a planogram for it.
This like double tank combo thing that would be freestanding....
And I am intrigued.

Because currently our feeder goldfish are in a 'weird' spot where they have their own row on the floor of the fish wall.
Like you have to kneel down on the ground in order to fish out the fish in those tanks. 
And they're just awkwardly shaped and angled so cleaning them is a pain.

So like is this new mysterious planogram a sign that we're going to get rid of those bottom tanks?
Are they going to take them out and put like shelving units or something there?

No idea.
I don't even know if it will happen to our store.

But at the same time...it's set to happen in 'february' which...considering there's only like 7 days left....probably isn't going to happen.

Still. A new feedergoldfish system would be amazing.

I can't wait to see if it actually happens. ^^;; 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Feel Good Foods

It's been a week of take out for me.
Mostly because I've been sick.
So I've been grabbing foods and drinks that I know will help out with my head cold and soothe the fire burning in my throat. 

Which means I've been frequenting the same places for multiple days in a row to find relief after I finish my work shifts. 

Thankfully I haven't run into the same people really at the food places.
As I wonder if they ever have that happen.
Where people have the same customer come in multiple days in a row and then vanish again.

Because that's what I usually do.
Where I only go into certain places when I'm not feeling well. 
So I'll show up like three days in a row. To get a drink or soup or a food that helps me feel better.

And I wonder if people notice.
Like...I notice when I get in regular customers.
But I don't always realize it when I get those 'blue moon' customers that come in every now and then but not consistently enough for me to know who they are. 

So yah....
I'll probably make the rounds again tomorrow to the places as I'm still fighting not feeling well.
But at least I'm feeling better than I was the past couple of days.
So yay for that. ^^;; 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Did You Charge?

My phone almost died at work today.
Which was odd to realize I had like only 20% battery when I still had 2 hours left in my shift.
Like...I use my phone.
But unless I'm like playing Pokémon Go or something (which I wasn't) my phone never gets below like 60ish percent before my shift is over.

So the fact that I was nearly dead and the phone continued to decrease in percentage like every five minutes....

Had me so concerned.
I mean I had charged up my phone last night. 
So I should have had full battery.

And normally the only time I have a nearly dead phone at work is when I've somehow not managed to charge my phone during the night. (aka the charger somehow got unplugged) 

But I was sure it was fully charged this morning...
*exhales*

However, in the same powerstrip I had also been charging a portable battery pack. As I'd used it up dead.

And when I went to check it this morning...it had only charged like one dot and was working on the second blinking dot. (when its full there's four dots that light up)
Which was odd because like...at least six hours of charging should mean that it would be like...charged as I doubt the thing takes longer than a couple of hours to charge up....
However the thing is new so who knows for sure.

Except when I felt the plug part...it was very warm to the touch. Like it had been working super hard....for little effort.

So I took that plug out and put it in the wall to see if that would charge my portable battery pack faster while I was at work.

But considering that had troubles charging and my phone which was charging in the same charging strip was now saying it was nearly dead when it shouldn't be....

Leads me to believe that there was some sort of power struggle going on during the night and neither device was getting the full charge it needed. 

My thoughts proven when I got home from work to find the battery pack fully charged and the plug cool to the touch.
And plugging in my phone it also quickly recharged and has held the charge.

Soo...may have just been the circumstances of too many charging things on the power strip.

Still odd though.
I wouldn't think that would be an issue.

But apparently last night it was. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Deep Within

So we got audited this past week....and well....
We were woefully underprepared for that. 

And my department didn't fair much better than the rest of the store...though I haven't yet got official word on what our score was or what exactly we missed out on in the department. Beyond a couple of points here and there.

One of those points being that we weren't keeping all the cages up to standard.
Like bird cages in our new arrivals room need to be set up exactly the same as the cages on the floor...so with nests and hay and toys and cuttlebone...

Which I'd stopped doing like...two or three years ago? Because at that point I think I'd just run short of supplies so I barely had enough to take care of the cages on the floor. And since the birds were only temporarily in the back branches and food/water seemed to be the most important thing. 
*exhales* Nope. Gotta have all the extras too. 

Same with the reptile cages.
All the cages are supposed to have a branch within so the reptiles (even if they don't climb) can climb up them.

Again, that had gone away as things had broken and such....

So like....I knew all those standards.
But nobody else knew them because the standards stopped being met like...2 or 3 years ago.
And no one else had brought it up so I didn't think it was important....

But to the auditor...it was important. *exhales* 
That's what happens when it's been like...four years since they last came into the store and everyone is new...
it didn't help that we're in the middle of resetting the entire store (moving product all over the place) and preparing for our yearly inventory count next month as well.
*shakes head*

In any case.
Reptiles.
The branches.

I hadn't thought much on those branches after my coworkers had pointed out to me that they'd added them to the cage when I worked on Saturday.

But today when I was opening up the department.
I noticed that our fancy leopard gecko cage was suspiciously empty....
but the branch within that cage wasn't the normal stick branch.

No it was one of those fake decoration branches....that has holes in it.

Who knows why those things have holes in them honestly....

Because while it's not an issue for larger reptiles.
I've known from past experience with other decorations with similar holes....
That our baby reptiles like the climb into said holes...and vanish.

And sure enough.
Picking up that fake branch and putting my fingers in the two holes I could...
I discovered one of the missing leopard geckos hiding within.

But last I'd checked....
There had been two in the cage.
And I was only feeling one. 

So a quick check with our inventory later....showed that we should still have two of those leopard geckos in that cage.

Which either meant a) it was also hiding somewhere in the branch fake branch, probably further up one of the forks that had no holes...or b) it had died or c) it had been sold without being bought (aka hadn't been rung up at the register) 

So first priority was to get the one leopard gecko I could feel out of the branch.

I ended up having to soak the thing in warm water to get him to come out to the point where I could reach him.

But after feeling around again...and soaking the decoration a few more times (never longer than like thirty seconds because I didn't want to drown the other leopard gecko if he was in there) 

I couldn't see any sign of the second leopard gecko. 

*exhales*

Which....like I said...I had no idea if he was in there or not.

So I left the decoration in a container hoping that the gecko would come out on his own and made a note of why the decoration was in there. 
(Leopard gecko potentially stuck inside)

And promptly forgot about the thing.

I mean I'd mentioned it to the morning managers that we might need to break the decoration (since it's one of those ceramic plasticy sort of decorations) to make sure the leopard gecko wasn't in there.

But the store got crazy with customers and it completely slipped my mind to inform the evening manager or my coworkers about it. ^^;; Heh. Ooops.

So I was taken a little by surprise when my manager texted me out of the blue a couple of hours later with the message "We got the leopard gecko out!" showing a picture of a shattered decoration and the leopard gecko in their hands. 

Yep.
Not sure how long they tried to get the gecko out for before the decided to break the decoration.
But break it they did.

And I was right in my thoughts as to where he could have possibly ended up.

It was basically the deepest furthest part of the branch you could get into....and couldn't see in at all.

Dude had wedged himself in pretty nicely.
And may have even been stuck as I think he tried to get out when I soaked him...but couldn't turn around in the narrow space to accomplish it.

In either case I'm glad we found him and got him out of the decoration. 
Though I am a little sad we had to break the thing....

At least the gecko is okay. :D 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Slow Drive Home

Had a bit of an adventure getting home tonight. 

I mean we'd see the snow storm closer to the mountains on our way up.

But I hadn't really thought about the fact that storms move when we were heading back down.

So about midway down the valley....we hit slush/snow on the roads.

Originally I didn't think it was enough to worry about.

But then the cars in front of us were hitting their brakes. 

So I put on my breaks as well...

And my car started sliding. Doing the slight fishtail thingy. :S 

Kikay was with me and was like instructing me on what to do and telling me to move over into the next lane (the carpool lane) because it was empty.

Which I did, I let the car glide itself over that way until I could get better control of the vehicle.

And managed to do so before we slid to much further over to the left as there were already a couple of cars that had slid into the emergency lane there.

Thankfully. I didn't hit anything and got the car back under control easily enough.

But we had another problem.

In that my windshield wipers weren't...well working well because the wiper fluid hadn't been working right for a week or so now. 

So from the slight flurry of snow and the salt kick up from the roads....my front windshield was having troubles staying clear because I had no fluid to clear it off easier.

So it was like....hazy trying to stare out the window.

Which when it's snowy, dangerous driving conditions and DARK....

That's not a good thing.

So following Kikay's suggestion we took the nearest exit and ventured deeper into the valley to a Walmart so we could go grab me some windshield wiper fluid in the hopes that I could top off the tank and hopefully get it to work again.

-I had no idea if it was just low or if the area that the liquid comes out of had been blocked up.

So a tense ten minute drive later found us at Walmart grabbing like a gallon jug of the stuff. 

And then we were back to my car...in the dark cold slightly snowy weather, figuring out once more how to lift the hood of my car so I could see the engine and find the windshield wiper fluid container so I could pour it in.

^^;;; Heh...turns out my tank was like …..completely empty. :S oops. I mean its been forever since I've run out of the stuff, so it's like a vague concept that it can actually happen. *shakes head* 

Still I nearly emptied the entire bottle into the tank...turned on the car...tested the wiper fluid...

And it worked!! :D

Cleared the windshield right up!

Woot!

So we returned to the freeway and it was mostly smooth sailing as we crossed into our home valley. 

Only...as we were in the final ten mile stretch...

Kikay had the impression that we shouldn't take our usual exit.

So I was like "Okay, we'll just take the exit before that."

Only as we got closer Kikay was like "No, we should take this exit right here."

Which is the exit I usually take to get to and from work.

-As I can reach home from work either by freeway or by a couple different back road slower routes.

But since we'd already had a couple of close calls earlier in the drive, I wasn't about to risk not following the impression and so took my work exit.

And we carefully made our way through the backstreets -avoiding Center street as that's where the feeling of 'wrongness' was strongest, and managed to get home safely!

Yay!!!

But yah.

One of the more tense drives I've been on in a long while. *shakes head*

Not sure what was up with tonight.

But at least we managed to avoid whatever was happening around Center...whether it was some crazy driver on the loose, or super bad snow at that certain point....I have no idea.

But at least we made it home safe and for that I'm grateful. ^^;; 

Until you next read these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Which Cat?

It was one of those Saturdays where things just....kinda went wrong?
I mean, not purposely on my end.
But like I ended up stressed up over it because well...I was right in the middle of it.

So I came in this morning to see that our adoption group had brought come more cats into the store.
Only when I went to clean the cages to make them presentable for when the store opened.
I noticed that a couple of the cage tags -that tell us the cat's name, age, type, etc....were missing. 

Odd, but even odder was that apparently the adoption group forgot their own booklet of cat information.
So like...I had two binders to go through to try and figure out which cat's information went with the kitties we had within the cages. 

After process of elimination....I did my best guess and put the tags up that I thought were the two missing kitty names as they were the best match to what I was seeing. 

Besides, there was no other way to guess what the names were....so I thought.

In any case.

As luck would go.

The two cats that didn't have tags....ended up both being adopted within the first two hours of the store being opened, within like an hour of each other.

Which I thought was...Ironic.

Only the second cat adoption had a slight problem.

As the cage had two orange tabby's within. A lighter orange one and a darker orange one.
And the customer wanted the lighter orange tabby.
But when I went to pull the tag on the tabby I thought was it...I realized that the paperwork said "grey tabby" instead of "orange tabby" which meant the kitty wasn't the one I thought it was.

And after an extensive search....and having to check both cats genders.
We discovered that the other tag was wrong as well. As it labled the cat as a boy when it was a girl. So both tags had to be wrong.

After that confusion and sorting everything out. 
We figured we had the right cat adopted out.

For both adoptions that I did.

Until one of the volunteers of the adoption group showed up to grab the binder and make sure that they had the right information within their binder to take to a different sister store they also had cats in.

And I was like "Oh yah I adopted out two today. This name and That name." And the person was like ()_() You can't have adopted out those names because I have those cats at my house!!

*internal face palm* 

-As the same volunteer had come a bit ago to pick up cats that were sickly and was taking care of them....but in the process had apparently forgotten to take the paperwork out of our binder.

And so I explained the situation how both cages were missing their tags and I was just doing my best to match the kitty with the paperwork.

And the volunteer was like "Did you check the microchip?" 

*internal face palm* 
Nooo….I mean I know the cats in this particular group are microchipped but I never thought to get the microchip checker machine from the vet to go check the cats and then match the number that showed up on the machine with the kitty's paperwork.

After all we've never had to do that before. So it just didn't come to mind.
Though in retrospect like...that would have been the smart thing to do. *exhales* 

In any case.
It turns out that whoever dropped off the cats yesterday...wasn't quite...on top of it.
As a couple other cats ended up having the wrong tags.
Which spurred the volunteer to grab the microchip machine and check all the cats so we could make sure everyone was correct.

Which turns out with the remaining cats in the adoption center, only one had been mislabeled.

And then the other orange tabby....
We'd realized when trying to decide which one was which that one of the tabbies was a girl (the one that didn't get adopted) but the tag had been labeled as a boy. So we went searching through the paperwork for any orange tabby females in the binders and found one and assumed it was that kitty because it was the only female tabby....

Only when we checked the microchip the chip registered to the original tag....the tag marking the tabby as a boy when we had realized it was a girl.
Like all the official paperwork for registration and vaccines and rabies and such marked this kitty as a boy....and it was a girl. 
*shakes head* So they ended up just crossing out the male and writing female on everything.

But yah.
It was quite the stressful nightmare.
And the volunteer then had to go contact the two people who'd adopted out the cats so that they could figure out which cat they'd actually adopted out as the microchips wouldn't match the papework if it was the wrong kitty.

So hopefully that issue was resolved quickly and painlessly.... :S :S 

But yah. That was a stressful nightmare I don't want to repeat anytime soon. Gah. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A New Place

Ended up someplace new today.
As a friend of ours was performing in the area tonight and my roomies and I decided to go support them.

And we ended up at this like....club?? Place?? Not sure quite what it was but it was basically like a musical area with a stage and such so performance building with club vibes??
It was all just kinda random and cool and squished inbetween two more mundane everyday sort of random shops you never in a million years would go into....

But in any case.
It was kinda different being in this 'vibey' place.
Listening to music.
Listening to people perform.

It was fun and different and our friend did an amazing job!! YAY!!! :D 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Hearts Day

It's a different sort of Valentine's Day.

After all...Mother Dearest isn't around....

And I was worrying, wondering what Daddoo would do today.
After all it's a day for Couples.

And Daddoo would always give Mother Dearest flowers today. Occasionally chocolate covered strawberries as well.

So I was worried about how he would take this day for celebrating love.

Thankfully, Daddoo didn't choose to spend the day alone.
Kikay had been up, just in case.
But Daddoo met up with a friend for lunch and then came the rest of the way down to our place to see Kikay and I and do dinner together.

So it was nice to have some Father/Daughter time. :D

Not quite how I was expecting to spend this holiday.
But I'm grateful we were able to spend it together. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bang Bang Sploosh

It's one of those spatial awareness days where my ability to judge distances between limb and object is skewed.
As I'm pretty sure I've hit or run into at least six things today. 

Not to mention that objects just don't like me.

I got a drink today when grabbing food.

And for whatever reason.
The lid refused to stay on.
and the cup kept trying to collapse.

So I ended up spilling quite a bit of Dr. Pepper about when I tried picking it up and it just...collapsed on me.

*shakes head*

It's a day where I probably shouldn't handle breakable things just because the odds of me dropping them are higher today apparently.

At least I just ended up with sticky fingers from that drink instead of spilled drink all over my car....

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Cords

So over the past handful of months our radios have been going...fritzy.
Mostly the cord part of the radio with the speaker/microphone/earpiece parts have been wearing out.
To the point where they don't really work.

Which makes sense since at least half them have been used everyday for at least 8 hours if not longer....
Lasting a year is probably expected. 

But today we got in some new ones!
Woot!!

And to my surprise, the head manager handed me one of the radio cords and was like "Keep this. This is yours." 

O.o

Usually the cords are just first come first get.
And we just sterilize them before using them. 

But the manager's reasoning for me having my own cord is that I'm there the most out of everyone (besides the managers) 

So I should guarantee myself a working radio by having a brand new cord that works. 

Therefore.
Yay my own cord! lol.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Add To The Stress

It was just one of those typical Monday mornings at work.
Where you know...I'm chugging along working on getting opening done and everything is going pretty well overall...you know despite spending like 30 minutes with one customer who just kept asking question after question....but that's like usual stuff right?

And then we got word from our sister store in the valley.

That the Auditors were in town. 

As they were at their store like...right then.

Which sent my entire work into a frenzy to make sure that we had everything prepared and up to standard and all our T's crossed and I's dotted etc etc.

So like the dial in the stress at work turned up a couple of notches for sure.

Though really on my end of things...I don't quite know what the auditors would be looking for.

So mostly I was making sure that everything looked up to standard as if our DM would be in town.

So cages locked, and cleaned and paperwork in our sick room in order.

In any case....

By the time I left work....the Auditor's hadn't shown up yet.

So it's unknown if they came in after me....
Or if the auditors will be showing up tomorrow....

I'm really hoping that they came in today.
Because I don't want to have to deal with the stress of having them in the store tomorrow.
It wouldn't be fun at all.

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Orange Light

So earlier this week, while trying to be a charitable soul and going out of my way to grab food for the roomies....my "Service Engine Soon" light suddenly came on. 

Which. 
Come on! I was doing a GOOD thing. Shouldn't I be getting a nice reward from being good?! Why hit me with another potential problem??

Especially because I had no idea why that light would come on.
I mean...last time it did it was because the gas cap hadn't been screwed on tightly enough. But I checked that when I got home....and the light stayed on. So who knew. 

*exhales*
Okay so I'm quite overdue for an oil change.
But again....not sure that would be the cause of the light to come on. 

In any case.
Because my car is older -19 years old this year- I figured it's better to take the car in sooner rather than later to get the light checked out.

Except.

Life worked against me.
As I was heading home with food when the light came on...I couldn't really just stop and get it all checked out.
So I made a mental note to do it after work the next day....
Only that was the day I got sick.
And spent like the next two days afterwards basically in bed because I was not feeling well at all.
So definitely no trip to check out my car in the cards for me.

Which ended up being quite the stressor to all my other minor stressors stressing me out.

To the point where I was like "And when I finally go in there's going to be something majorly wrong and AHHHH!!!"

But Friday/Saturday, I was given a few spiritual messages basically saying that "Your car is fine. If there's an issue it's minor." 
So I tried to put the worry from my plate.
And since Saturday and Sunday ended up being not good for going to get my car looked at either....
I decided to hold off until next week. Maybe Monday...maybe Tuesday if its still snowing like crazy tomorrow. 

But. All the while. Everytime I got in my car that "Service Engine Soon" light would come on. 
Which is stressful because I just want the light to go away you know? 

Especially because like how soon is 'soon'??? Who knows? No one I'm pretty sure.

Especially when today I'd be driving a bit further than work to see family.
So I was like "Would something go wrong now!!" 

Only it didn't.

It was weird.
On the way up to my family's home, pretty soon after we got off the exit and such...I looked down and realized that the orange glow that had been lighting up my dashboard....was gone.
The Service Engine Soon light had vanished.

()_()

So like Yay!! It's gone!! :D :D 

Which I wonder if something happened similar to whenever we go to Oregon as the family's car 'check engine' light almost always comes on there.
So did the change in elevation cause it as I was going up a hill?
But when the light came on I hadn't gone anywhere out of the ordinary....

*shakes head*
So maybe it was the gas cap and it took it a few days to decide to turn the light off.

In either case.
I'm grateful that that orange light is off.
Because I really didn't need that stress in my life.
Though I do still plan -once the weather is not stormy plan to take the car in anyways for a check up....

Since I really still need to do that oil change. ;) lol.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Munchies

I've heard of the stereotypical poor college student before.
Even written about them in stories and such.
The ones where they have very little if no food, eeking out their existence and trying to survive classes.....

Yet it's always been just that.
A concept.
A trope you can use for a story.

It's difficult to believe that there are actual students out there in that boat.
Where they haven't eaten in days.
Waiting for their next paycheck to come in.

But they're out there.

Because my new coworker is one of them.

As they've complained a few times that they have nothing to eat when they get home.
That they brought no food to eat while at work because they're trying to save what they have for dinner tonight.
That they haven't eaten in a few days because they don't have any food because they don't yet have the money to buy food.

And it's just....mind-boggling. Like...How? How is that possible??

In any case.
My coworker was complaining again today that they were hungry and feeling weak because they haven't eaten in a few days....

So like my mothering instincts kicked in and I was like "Do you want some cookies or something?"
Because I often carry snack foods for my lunch at work.
And often keep extra snacks. Mostly in case I find myself extra munchy throughout the day but also just in case someone else needs them.

And my coworker gave me the biggest puppy dog eyes and was like "Yes please" 

So I went to the back and grabbed basically all my snacks I hadn't eaten 
-A granola bar, some crackers, some cookies, a fundip thing and went and gave it to them. 

They were surprised at so much food and so grateful as well.
Lol my coworker practically devoured everything in two minutes. 

But yah. Glad I could at least tide them over for a little while though I hope that they were able to go out and buy food after work.
Because gah. Not eating for days on end is Not. Good. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Helplessness

Sometimes it's really.....frustrating.
Frustrating to have multiple bad things hit you at the same time.

Like they say things come in threes.
But I really wish that it just...worked with good things.
Good things come in threes.
Bad things come only one at a time.

Because like why....
Why make a person go through one difficult thing...only to hit them at the same time or even right after the first bad thing with a second bad thing and/or even a third bad thing?

What's the point of that?

The person is already suffering from the one thing.
What's the point of giving them the triple whammy and just making life a tunnel of darkness that you're inching through one painful step at a time as the wolves howl all around and the chains of doubt and fear and sorrow try and hold you back?

So. Frustrating.

Even more frustrating when I can see it happening to others around me and I hate the helpless feeling I get when I know that there's very little if nothing I can do to help improve the situation. 

I like making others happy.
I like brightening others days.

And it's difficult to not be able to do that.
To reach out and feel like my reach is too short.

*exhales*

Hopefully...hopefully the light is coming. The end of the tunnel will soon be in sight.
Because traveling in the darkness is. not. fun. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A First Time For Everything

I did something I've never done before today. 

I called out sick. 

In the six years I've been at my job.
I've never called out sick before today.

I mean I've shown up for work and had to leave early because I couldn't handle working the entire shift due to migraines. 

But I've never just like...called off. 

But this morning.
I did. 

Because I'd been up all night with yesterday's aches and pains still giving me major grief. 

And while the pain was nothing as major as the headaches and migraines I've gone to work under...

They were a bit more...worrisome.

Mostly in the fact that I didn't feel like I could stand up for an entire six hour shift.
No at this point I was barely confident I could stay upright for like...two minutes. 

The stubborn part of me was like "No, I can go to work still! I can make it through!"

But at this point...I'd barely slept for two days because of this random achy illness that I'm beginning to wonder if it's a brief brush with a flubug or something. 

So. 
I made the choice.
To actually let myself rest and recover.
Because I didn't need to be collapsing at work.

So I called in.
And called off.

Which I think shocked just about everyone in the store lol. Because I never call off.
Like I said.
First time.
Ever.
In Six years.
I've called out from work. 

Hopefully they survive without me... :S 

But I do think the day of rest was what I needed.
Because I'm already feeling much better than I was this morning. 
And with how I'm recovering.
I'm pretty confident I'll be able to go back to work for my next shift. 

So yah.
Day of rest for me. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

One Big Thing of Pain

Admittedly, I wasn't feeling 'good' when I went to work today. 
But it wasn't a 'sick' not feeling good.
Just the usual pains and aches that occasionally need the intervention of Advil.

But as the morning progressed....the normal aches...shifted.
And settled in the area of my stomach. Where it felt like my muscles were...contracting? clenching? Squeezing? idk how to explain the sensation, but it wasn't a normal sort of sensation at all.

Still. I wrote it off.
Grabbed myself a sprite. 
Figuring I was just feeling unwell because I was tired or something. 

And overall...the pain stayed pretty consistent. 
Fading in and out of being 'bad' 

Not bad enough I thought about leaving early.
But bad enough that I treasured every second of my breaks and used them to rest and close my eyes because I was drained.

Honestly I thought it was just a reaction to not sleeping well the night before.
The rest of me felt like I just needed a nice long nap after work to get everything 'back in order' with my body clock and such.

Not so much.

By the end of my shift I was feeling unwell enough that I made sure that I would be getting off on time, by telling a manager that I wasn't feeling well and that I knew my coworker coming in next would be like 10 minutes late as usual so could I just go home.
They quickly acquiesced and I handed off the department responsibility to another so I could clock out and go home to crash.

Crashing didn't help.

And the symptoms got worse.
Worse enough to spend a little time in the bathroom.
Worse enough that I took not one but two very long baths.

Because like my entire body aches like crazy.
From head to toe it aches.
My muscles are all tense. Hurting. And pulsating.

Tylenol has helped a bit as I had my roommate grab some from the store on her way home (as I'd run out) because Advil hadn't helped earlier and I didn't want the Caffiene in Excedrin to make me more jittery.

But yah. 
Not feeling good.
Not feeling good at all.
Don't want to eat.
Don't want to move.
But my muscles are complaining enough that it's difficult to find a comfortable spot to just...rest. They're constantly moving. Trying to find a good position. 
and so far surrounded by the warmth of water has been the best at soothing it....if not completely.

All in all....Not feeling good. Not at all. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi