Perpetual Ruminations

Friday

Not sure why, but I'm up early this morning. I'm not sure what time I woke up, but I got up at seven after trying for a while to go back to sleep. It could have been the wind that woke me up, it's gale force out there. It's raining out, and kind of drab looking morning. I have to work at eleven, and if the rain continues, I'm going to be pretty wet by five this afternoon.

I slept good last night, even though I was kind of stressed over some of the things going on at work. I'm not going into them here, but I will say it's almost as if someone wants to push it until she gets her ass canned. It's getting to be a weekly ordeal from her, sometimes almost daily.

Anyway, I got up at seven and gave Klarissa some water and let her out. Max came out of the garage and ran in as soon as the door was open, and has been voicing his displeasure with me not getting him some food. He is an adopted cat who showed up last winter and took residence under the shed.

At first he had no trust of us, but he really liked the Bugoos, especially Mr. Bugoo. The Bugoos, Mr. and Mrs. Bugoo that is, are our two Golden Retrievers, Hyko, aka Mr. and Klarissa, aka Mrs. Hyko was being a clown one day and I referenced him as Mr. Magoo. It kind of stuck with him but one day my wife, Rhonda, got a bit tongue-tied and it came out Bugoo instead of Magoo. They have been Bugoos ever since.

Anyway, Max the cat just showed up, but would not let us get close to him. He trusted the two dogs though and would come out and try and cuddle them. By getting close to the dogs, we eventually managed to get close to him and pet him. Little by little, he gained some trust and eventually he began to interact with us.

When it turned cold, we set him up in the garage instead of under the shed, and one day he just vanished. Well, being a cat, we seen this as normal; he had done this a few times, but only for a day or two. He did show back up after a few days, head all messed up, foot injured, possibly broken, and a few cracked or busted ribs as well. He was in very rough shape and we did not think he would make it.

We nursed him along, and eventually the huge lump on his head broke open and a big chunk of skin and flesh came off. I still do not know if he was shot with a pellet gun and that caused the lump, or if he was run over and had something puncture his head. Either way, it was not looking good for him.

As well as infected and swollen, his nose seemed to have been broke as well as other possible facial injuries. I still think he was shot with a pellet gun, and then kicked around and left for dead. But, someone may have just run him down, too. Either way, he managed to get back here and we nursed and comforted him. We really thought we were just making his final days a bit more pleasant.

Only, he began to recover and heal. Eventually he was fully recovered, but there was some permanent damage. Shortly after, he got in a fight with another cat, and was again all beat up, but nothing real severe, just a lot of bites and scratches. His last incident has him limping and not using one front foot. He looks like he was in another scrap, and we thought his foot was broken, but yesterday it began to bleed out some watery blood.

I'm not sure if he cut it, punctured it or got something in it, but it's kind of going down now and we are hoping it will heal and not be a handicap for him. We let him come in and eat, interact a bit with the Bugoos, and of course, cat-nap. Since I'm allergic to him, I have to be careful, but so far having him in for a few hours a day seems to be alright, and he does not seem to mind going back out and retiring to his bed in the garage.

He actually seems to like it, and often will come and tell us he's ready to go back out. Some days, when it's sunny and nice, he opts to not even come in, or just in long enough to eat, but then he has to interact with the Bugoos when they are outside. He does sit on Rhonda's lap, and mine on rare occasions, but mostly it's Klarissa he is close to. They seem to have some kind of bond between them and are often both snuggled together.

I picked the crab because I worked with one today, but only for a couple of minutes. I am sure glad i got up early this morning and got in here while the getting was good. Not that it was a bad day, just a tiring day.

I left for work and got to the guardhouse at ten after. The guard, we'll call her Ms. Crabbit, was reading her book, like usual. I logged in on the Daily Log and seen she had not entered all her information. So, instead of being an ass and writing it up, or making a big deal of it, I pointed it out and told her I would be monitoring the logs to make sure everyone was entering things right.

I also knew she had gotten a flower from a guest, but I did not say anything. I seen it on the counter and said, "What a beautiful rose. Did you get that for me?" I thought the humor would lighten the next part, but no, she did not appreciate my humor. She just gave me that evil grin that always lets me know she thinks she's getting away with something.

Then she replied, "A guest gave it to me, a guy. I can't take it home because Rufus will get mad."

Of course, I already knew this. I explained to her, for the third time now, that we cannot take gifts from the guests. If it happens again, I will have to write it up." I didn't get any further and she was up and telling me I could not talk to her that way, she was leaving.

I'm suspecting she thought I would try and stop her, since we are short on help as it is, but I just told her that if she left he would not be coming back. She said she did not care, and I asked her, "Are you sure you wont to do this?" She mumbled something, there was something about telling Rufus, and coming back.

I don't know if it was meant to threaten me, or it she was saying she would come back with Rufus to get her stuff, or what, I did not hear much of it. She left, I wrote it down, and then i contacted the front office and updated them. I had Rhonda come in an hour early so I could fill out forms, fax them, and call my boss in Iowa.

I ran to the store to get Rhonda some dinner, and he called back, was supportive and backed me up. She is gone, and that is a good thing. I will not miss the constant griping about everything, the constant doing things wrong just to stir things up so she has something to gripe about, and her crappy attitude.

The only bad thing is we are short on help now. If Crappy Crabbit had worked with us instead of against us, we would have all had some good hours for the summer. But she could not give an inch, so she got a foot (boot). Now, we are over on our hours, by five. Not bad, but I will have to try and shave off as many as I can. I do have someone to contact for an interview, and hope she works out. That would help a lot. I also hope she has some hours available to work, so that we can get things back on track.

Like they ever have been. I think every schedule has changed or been different. It will be nice to get one we can stick with and have some consistency. Until then, I am working every day, and it's going to be tough getting much else done.