The worst boss I ever had

During a discussion of 'the worst bosses you've ever had' this was my contribution: 

We had a branch manager who was soooo unqualified. All of us had college degrees and some of us had master's degrees, but she treated us as if we were college students working part time for her. (she came from being in charge of a situation like that in a college library) She'd sit in her office all the time and assign long hours on the information desk to us. But we had a lot of background work we needed to do, some out in the library book stacks and some back in our own office. So I began working an hour or so after my 8 hours, just to catch up the back office work. Guess what - then she simply assigned me to work those overtime hours on the information desk "as long as I was staying late." grrrrr. But she wouldn't let me take time off for all the overtime she assigned me.  My overtime hours grew and grew. We were not paid for overtime, but legally we were supposed to take an equal amount of time off.

She never did figure out why we kept going into the book stacks to handle the books, deciding which books needed to be weeded and tossed or replaced. No, she thought we should be at the information desk all the time. (but that she never needed to do that or to work handling the books)

We never knew our working hours - day shift or 12 to 8 shift - from week to week. Eventually she admitted she drank a six pack of beer while writing out the desk schedules and weekly schedule. (it showed)  

Several people gave up and quit and found other places to work. Even I was searching for another place. Individual complaints to administration didn't work; she was able to convince admin that it was we who were bad workers.  

Finally a coworker and I got together, made a list and made a presentation to admin of all the things she did and didn't do. (One of the administrators finally had to accept that something was wrong - with the branch manager - which was hard because she was the administrator who had chosen this branch manager to work for the library system.)  

So, she was transferred out and we got a competent branch manager. I think I was the only librarian left out of the librarian staff by that time; everyone else had found new jobs. At that point I hadn't yet accepted the alternate job I had been offered. News note -- she was transferred to a larger branch, not as branch manager. However they did give her the job of creating the work schedules and boy did they learn quickly how rotten she was at that.  

Yes, she was fired. Good!

I like cats, not dogs

 Our family had both dogs and cats.  I just wish dogs weren't so smelly.  A lot of my family have a poor sense of smell and therefore don't mind smelly dogs, picking up their smelly poop, or mucking out the horse's stall.

Not for me, sorry.  Just give me a purring cat who is constantly cleaning grooming herself.

And what's with this female dog's mensuration all over the furniture? What a mess.  Cats don't have that. 

By now you've probably guessed who was in charge of the dogs in our family and who was in charge of the cats. 

NO LICK, dog!  No lick.  (our dogs learned to greet me with a big sloppy lick -- 6 inches away from my body.  Thank you, dog.  Nice dog.)

Four year old boy proposes marriage to hundreds

 My brother, when he was four, proposed marriage to over a hundred females, beginning with his mother and sisters. Including Grace Kelly. (she accepted as did most of the others)  

When Grace Kelly married the prince of Monaco, our father teased the now teen aged boy that he should sue for breach of promise. 　

How did we know Grace Kelly? We rented a house in Stone Harbor, NJ for two weeks, played with Grace Kelly's nieces and often said 'Hi' to her as we cut through her family's yard to get to the beach every day. My brother was a charmer then - and is a charmer today.

Tracking the advance of the 2020 pandemic

I've just finished reading a book you must read.

614.5924 Lewis, Michael. The Premonition, a Pandemic story.

Excellent step by step how scientists and health people discovered and tracked the invasion of the pandemic virus while the federal government was ignoring it.

Very well-written. Very readable. 

Kids make birthdays better

 Sunday was my birthday and today my grandchildren came over and gifted me with some yardwork.  

I now have a well-swept front patio. (Two tall long- needle pines keep dumping stuff there) Plus they attacked the spider plants that had put out long stems with baby spider plants on the ends looking for a good place to grow. The kids managed to trim every one. (I already have a side bed full of spider plants and really don't need more - so snip, snip and toss)

Too many Jennifers

 My daughter didn't have a name for several days after she was born. Her wrist band said, Baby Old.  

Why? Because we had only arrived at the hospital with boy's names because his mom insisted that their family only had boys. Well, she was a girl. I waited until my husband came to visit us in the hospital so we could discuss girl's names and we settled on Jennifer. So I called down to the hospital register's office and told her we'd decided on Jennifer and it was spelled.... She stopped me right there. Very patiently she told me that she knew how it was spelled. How? Because of a popular movie in 1972, Jennifer was the top baby girl's name.  

Jen had 5 Jennifers in her elementary school class, over 25 in her middle school class and graduated high school with over 100 Jennifers. !!!

My garage

In my garage  I have a guitar. I do not play that instrument. Nor the piano keyboard that is in a box, leaning up against the wall. Both are in my garage. Plus a violin.  

Did I ever play those instruments? No. I played woodwinds - bassoon and clarinet. Relatives played those other instruments. Oh - let's put them into grandma's garage. 　

Some people store their car in their garage. Is that was a garage is for? Not my garage. My garage is where others store their things. Luckily I do have a driveway where I can park my car.