Perverts and Thieves

What a night!

First, we had yet another pervert exposing himself at the bookstore. Yes, you read that right--another one. It's happened several times before. Tonight's creep was standing in a corner by the science fiction section, with his penis out, masturbating. Two teenage girls saw him, screamed, and ran to tell the store manager. Meanwhile several other customers saw him going at it, too. When the manager went over there, he looked her right in the eye and still kept on! So she turned away abruptly and starting dialing the police, and he finally took off running. He ran out of the store, and across the parking lot, and we assumed that the police would never find him.

Here is my favorite part of the story.

A lady cop showed up to fill out the report. Even though about 20 minutes had gone by, and he was probably long gone, she said she was going out to drive around to see if she saw anyone who fit his description. And that's when she spotted him.....climbing out of a restaurant dumpster he had been hiding in!! Hahaha!!!! We all got a laugh out of the thought of him hiding in a smelly dumpster until he thought the coast was clear, only to climb out and find a female cop standing there!

So the nasty pervert got arrested and is in jail tonight. He was already on a sex offender list--it seems that he's an habitual public masturbater. He told the cops that he "has an addiction " and can't help himself. Disgusting!

That was my night at work. Then when I got home, and went out to walk the dogs, I discovered that somebody had stolen the Bernie Sanders sign from my front yard. Undoubtedly it was one of my lovely Trump supporting neighbors. I was so mad! I'm still fuming over the nerve of some people!

Perverts and thieves....that's been my Sunday night.

Primaries

Tomorrow is the South Carolina Democratic primary. Last Saturday was the Republican primary, and to my great disgust Donald Trump won by a wide margin. As another blogger that lives in this state often says, it's not the heat, it's the stupidity.




How any rational person supports this cretin is totally beyond me. Earlier this week I met a Canadian and I felt compelled to tell her how embarrassed I am sometimes to be an American, especially an American living in the South. Honestly, none of the top Republican candidates are people any thinking person could support. Cruz is actually scarier than Donald Trump in his political beliefs. At least with Trump, all his racism and bigotry and swagger is out in the open for anyone to see. Knowing what kind of Evangelical Christian mindset Cruz panders to, I think he's more dangerous than Trump. And has a far better chance of being elected, sadly.

I'll be voting for Bernie Sanders in the primary tomorrow. It seems awfully far fetched to imagine a progressive, Socialist, non-practicing Jew winning the presidency, but early on I felt the same way about Obama. I don't care for Hillary Clinton, and besides that I think it's high time that we see the last the Bush and Clinton families. Some of the young guys at work have been working on the Sanders campaign so I've been able to get bumper stickers and a yard sign, which looks funny among all the Trump and Cruz signs in my neighborhood.

After the storm

Today brought downpours of rain, hail and lightning, and gusty winds that prompted tornado watches. It was a wild and stormy day, with a beautiful sunset at the end of it.

Short Book Review: A Man Called Ove

For the month of February my book club decided to read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Last night we met up at a local beer brewery/bar/restaurant to discuss it. Of the eleven of us that showed up, everyone liked it and several of us (myself included) absolutely loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18774964-a-man-called-ove

Ove is a fifty-nine year old man who is bitter, curmudgeonly, sarcastic, socially inept, and at at times hysterically funny. From the very first chapter ("A Man Called Ove Buys a Computer Which is Not a Computer") when Ove doesn't understand how an ipad works, and so lashes out at the poor kid who happens to be waiting on him in the Apple store, I found myself laughing out loud at Ove's furious tirades against the world. He's set in his ways, and quick to call anyone an idiot who doesn't do things "properly". Modern society is a disappointment to him, as are most things. He's the classic grumpy old man that we can all relate to.

A Pregnant Foreign Woman (how Ove thinks of her) named Parvaneh moves in next door with her husband and two children, and somehow she and her small daughters take a shine to the irritable and deeply unhappy man. It's quickly obvious that Ove is going to have a heart of gold beneath his hard exterior, but the author is skillful in revealing both his backstory and his developing relationship with the family bit by bit in beautifully written vignettes.

The chapters have the best names, too, like "A Man Called Ove Does Not Pay A Three-Kronor Surcharge", "A Man Called Ove and a Lot Of Bastards Sticking Their Noses In", and "A Man Called Ove and a Brat Who Draws in Color". This book made me laugh and cry several times, and that's a rare feat in any book for me! Several other members of my book club felt the same way about it. My Goodreads rating is 4+ out of 5 stars.

I highly recommend A Man Called Ove to all my avid reader friends!

Not Easy

It's hard to go to work on a day as beautiful as this one.

It's the first day that looks and feels like spring is on the way. And just my luck, I have to spend it indoors!

Appreciation (and the lack thereof)

The other day at work, a typical scenario played itself out, again.

We were short staffed, which isn't all that unusual, but it's especially bad right now because one of the other managers got fired on Tuesday. There was only one manager on duty at a time all day, no customer service person, one person running the music department, one person working in the café (which was a real pain in the ass since the weather is freezing and people are coming in droves to buy espresso drinks, coffee, and tea), nobody working the children's department, etc etc. I was the manager on duty that morning. It's tax return season, when all the weirdos from the surrounding countryside that only have spare cash to spend once a year come crawling out from under their rocks and go shopping, so it was busy. The phones rang off the hook. Strange old women showed up wanting to buy tablets and had to have help setting them up and learning to use them. A bus full of school kids rolled through on a field trip. It was chaos all day long.

And I kept my cool. I was patient with the customers, even the demanding and rude ones. I was helpful. I juggled phone calls and people waiting in line at the info desk and in between gave mini "how to" workshops for the people buying tablets that hadn't a clue how tablets (or sometimes even the internet) work. I was polite, and patient, and helpful. And besides giving excellent customer service on a day when it was extra difficult to do so, I got several projects done around the store that were due that day so I wouldn't have to hand them off to anyone else.

I was feeling pretty good about the day's work I had done.

Then the assistant manager came in to work the second half of the day. And as usual when things are a tiny bit more hectic or stressful than usual, he was a total jerk. He was rude, sarcastic, and had nothing good to say about anything. The next day he hauled me over the coals for forgetting to put a bit of data into a spreadsheet the day before (something that isn't important and takes all of 5 minutes to do). He's beyond petty and a big bully, to boot.

 There wasn't (and never is) a word of appreciation or praise at this job. Ever. And although the store manager isn't a rude asshole like her assistant, she's equally self involved and never bothers to thank or praise anyone for anything. It's caused more than one great employee to leave, and is part of the reason I'm looking so hard for a new job. **  It's demoralizing to work really hard and to never get any credit for it. I realized the other day that trying to do a good job is something I do for me, not for them. I told myself I could be proud of doing my best whether or not they ever acknowledge it. But it's hard sometimes. A little bit of appreciation would go a long, long way.


**I just applied for three positions this morning that all look like good opportunities for me. Please send me all the good vibes you can that I'll at least score an interview! Fingers and toes are crossed!

Sidewalk angel

This little garden angel lives at the edge of the sidewalk at a house in my neighborhood. I pass by it each day when I'm out walking the dogs. I think of it as the "cat lady's house" because there are always several felines lounging around in the yard.

Clearly she likes weird garden decorations, too!

Dreaming of you....

....and by "you" I mean my blogging friends.

Night before last, I dreamed I was at the beach, swimming and sunbathing, and there was the most spectacular sunset over the water (which wouldn't be possible in real life, as I'm on the East Coast).  I was taking lots of pictures because I wanted to post them on my blog for everyone to enjoy.

Then last night I dreamed I was planning a trip to England and France and I was making plans to see you all. I started out meeting Tom Stephenson at a pub. We were having a drink and I was admiring his hair, of all things. The one photo I've ever seen of him impressed me with his thick mop of silver hair, and in my dream I was admiring it while we had our drink. I was telling him that my next stop would be Wales because I just had to go meet John Gray, the Prof, and all of the dogs. But then the next thing I knew, I was in France instead, knocking on Cro's door. When he answered, I was surprised to see that he was clean shaven (???) and I wondered why he wasn't wearing a beard anymore. He gave me a hug, and told me to follow him and he'd show me the room in his house where I'd be staying. I guess I was getting ready to spend a few days with him and Lady Magnon! Ha!

Pretty weird, right?

Naughty Veggie

Look, everybody! I did my weekly shopping trip yesterday and this tomato was so happy to see me!!

I couldn't help but think of John Gray's novelty vegetable category at the Trelawnyd flower show.

Laid to rest

This will be my last sad post, I promise.

Baby Alice has been laid to rest. She was one of the prettiest newborns I've ever seen, just like a little doll. For a life that was so sadly brief, she was truly and deeply loved.

As my regular readers may remember, I bought a Christmas gift for her back in December even though she wouldn't be born for several more weeks. It was a stuffed animal and a book called It's Time to Sleep, My Love by Nancy Tillman.

Marla and her husband chose the book as one of the readings for the funeral.

When they told me they had chosen it, I broke down and sobbed. I never in a million years would have imagined something so awful when I bought the book for that little girl. That poor, sweet baby.

Thank you all your kind comments and concern over the past couple of weeks. It's been a comfort during a sad, sad time and I truly appreciate it.

Rest in peace, sweet Alice.

February Flowers

The camellias are blooming. This pale pink beauty had fallen to the ground after all the rain this morning.

Weary

What a tiring week it's been. I'm feeling physically and emotionally wrung out.

I took down the posts about the death of my friend's baby because I couldn't bear to see them anymore when I looked at my blog. The funeral will be this weekend.
 The long delay is due to waiting on the pathologist to release the body after doing an autopsy. Even though I haven't had a day off  since Tuesday of last week, I've spent all of my free time before and after work either sitting with my friend and her family, or checking in with them and offering to run errands, pick up food, etc. At some point before she goes back to work (which won't be for at least 6 weeks) I'm going to take some vacation days and we're going to go somewhere together.  Maybe the beach, or Charleston, or wherever sounds good to her. When I suggested a girlfriend getaway to her she said that it sounded wonderful. Getting away for a few days might help her. And Gregg has invited her husband to go do some guy stuff one day next week after the funeral is behind them.

As for me, I'm finally off tomorrow and I plan to spend the day getting some much needed rest. It's been the most tiring week I can remember having in a long, long time.

Thought for today