When I was working for the bottled water company in Phoenix, we went through a lot of temporary help. Most of this was by design, wanting to get rid of people who literally couldn’t stand the heat as quickly as possible. Sometimes we did too good a job and they couldn’t even make it to first break in three hours. One thing we learned was not to tell the temps where the bathroom was. If they asked when break was we told them “You got a break when you got this job.” Today’s snowflakes couldn’t handle the job.
Maybe enough rain
We got more rain last night and this morning. Nowhere near enough to move us up the drought scale, but enough to get local wheat farmers to think about planting wheat later this month. It is also enough for me to plant garlic and walking onions tomorrow.
Rain at last
After looking at the possibility of 0 for October, it finally rained this evening. It wasn’t much, but combined with what is expected through Wednesday, I might be able to avoid watering my plants one day this week. Over the last month we anticipated rain only to just miss as the storm would move north or south at the last possible hour.
This does nothing to help the drought, but it does help Kansas wheat farmers as they get ready to plant winter wheat. It also will get me to plant my fall garlic and walking onions during my weekend.
“I broke a nail.”
One of my coworkers at Wally World actually said this. In forty years of work this is the first time I had a coworker actually say this. I don’t think she is going to last very long.
Hometown Boy Gets Slapped Down.
In the Kansas gubernatorial race, former Kansas Senator Nancy Kassebaum crossed party lines and endorsed incumbent Laura Kelly for Governor again.
What makes this endorsement more newsworthy than her previous one? This time Kelly’s opponent is Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is from Independence. Kassebaum’s father is former governor Alf Landon, who made his fortune in Independence. Schmidt worked in Kassebaum’s office right after he graduated from law school. They have remained friendly since. Because this is Topeka and not Washington, they will probably remain so. That still has to hurt.
Cool Breeze
The days still get warm, but I need to wear long sleeved shirts in the morning. Even a gentle breeze makes it feel like it is freezing when I get off work.. The problem is the store is too warm all night when I work. In a few weeks the store will be cool. By Thanksgiving, it will be clearly time to break out the jackets.
Rain is not helpful
A few inches of rain in the next month might help the wheat farmers get their crop planted, but the drought is so bad that we need winter snow. We need feet of snow and it needs to melt slowly to fill the streams, most of which are completely dry.
Rats
I looked in the kitchen and found a rat this evening. Time to figure out how he got in. It’s not like he can squeeze through a nickel sized hole. Critters are getting desperate with the ongoing drought.
I was a guinea pig
When I lived in Phoenix, I usually had an extra job I would do for extra money. I even did a few drug experiments. It was not that crazy, the drugs I took were proven painkillers that a company wanted to make a generic version of. The testing was to prove that Brand X worked exactly as every other brand. For two weekends in a barracks setting, the pay was 400 dollars in the late 80s. If you could put up with the constant blood draws, it was a tolerable gig.
There was one painkiller I wish I could remember the name of. There was a blood draw just before you took the drug. At fifteen minute intervals for the first two hours blood draws were taken and I never felt any of them.
Footy Memories
This is the 25th anniversary of the United States Australian Football League. Over the next couple of weeks, I will post some of my memories of my time playing for the Phoenix Scorpions, now the Arizona Hawks.
Clubs today are primarily Americans, with a few Aussies wanting one last kick. In the early days most clubs were founded by Aussies who found each other in a bar and somehow dragged a few Yanks onto the field. The Phoenix Scorpions on the other hand had to drag a lot of Americans on to the field, only having a half dozen Aussies to get the ball rolling.
Most of us who came out for the Scorpions were Americans who remember when ESPN actually had a shortage of programming and televised the then VFL games on tape delay in the early 80s. This meant our roster was made up of players in our 30s and early 40s. We thought at the time this looked like a great game to play. Why we still thought this was a good idea 15 years later we never did figure out.
The Scorpions were not the most successful club in the California Australian Football League. In fact we only avoided the wooden spoon in 2000 because of a CAFL rule that gave a team one point for not having to forfeit. We may have lacked speed, skill and talent, but we managed to a show up with enough players every game. This was better than the LA Crows who managed to forfeit a home game with the Santa Cruz Roos.
The 2000 Scorpions were not the most successful team on the field. Off the field, we did have some of the best clubmen in the competition. Clubmen do everything from getting the fields ready to play, officiating, and organizing club activities. The high point may have been the World Metro Footy Invitational Tournament, better known as the Free Beer Tournament.
Footyfried 