Laboring Away

Sorting, painting, and patching are the Labor Day activities on this end. Oh, and lots of prayer.

Good progress in some areas; no progress in others. Finally got in touch with the prison and found that I had not been selected. Tell me something new. Got an email from the federal government site and monster.com informing me that the site had been compromised and my personal information had been hijacked. If it can happen.... Fortunately, no social security number was included but that is not hard to track down on the web. No response from MPD, which negates dropping off notice of my availability to sub. That comes as no surprise, either.

Went to Dyersburg to take another state exam. This was for data entry, secretary, and administrative assistant vacancies. Got a little rattled in the office procedures section because each office has its own way of doing things so you don't know what the correct answer may be. What is done in one office may not be done in another. Scores were pretty good so I must not have been too off base. Of course, this only puts me on the registry of qualified people. Whoopee. Found that for the position of office manager, based on education and experience, I tied with 3 others, and the same for the position of Clerk 2, the first test I took. Clerk 2 had a registry of 435 names at the time of my notice. Since they interview the top 5 and so on for vacancies, I'll be dead and gone by the time they get to me.

Worked out a semi-tacky window treatment for the den/study/office, whatever. Not what I want but it will work for the time being. Still sorting papers but things are slowly being put away. In the midst of this, my mouse went bad. Now, you know the computer is my lifeline. Even enabling the keyboard keys makes it a little difficult to maneuver around, especially when you don't know the commands. Never fear, Miss Don't Throw Anything Away found another plug and play mouse in a box. Saved--by years of hoarding.

There seems to be some credence in the adage: "don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." When will I learn? Cutting ceramic tile for the counter top. Just can't get into this and have put it off for weeks. But here we go. Should have done the kitchen sink first since it required so many cuts. Wet saw stopped working and I might be stuck with a patchwork top. Why patchwork? Because I'll have to piece together odds and ends to get the entire top covered. AAAAArgh! But this, too, will work until I can do better. Let's hope the saw will start again. I'm sick of mammy-made.

Still haven't got the whole story on the Labor Day activities for Ripley but one thing for sure is that it is a Black Thang. The organizers are Black, the parade marshalls are Black, and the activities are being held, with the exception of the parade, at the park donated to the African-American community. Now I understand the comment about "being allowed to use the town square."

Memphis held its "Stone Soul Picnic," on Saturday, and their Delta Music and County fair began Friday, replete with the "redneck olympics." Gas was not taking me into Memphis. The Lauderdale County fair starts next weekend as does the mega-mile-yard sale. I'll saunter up to the square for the parade tomorrow. No gas required. Have a good holiday.