Bikeguy

No. The sheep weren’t following the dog, they were chasing the dog. One sheep got tired of just eating grass and was secretly carnivorous curious, and told the others the dog will taste like forbs. The other sheep believed the story and followed just like they always did.

Waking up is a good thing, regardless of the time.

Yeah... we have the highest conviction rate for former governors in the country. That's one thing we are good at...

It's much easier if you take the nuts off the bolts that hold it to the floor first.

It sounds like you need a good water softener. Or one that works.

I'm the janitor at home. After 36 years of home ownership, it's quicker and for sure cheaper to fix as much as possible by myself.

You didn't say what was wrong. Assuming it's leaking or not flushing correctly. If this is a power flush toilet, I've never owed/worked on one. If this is just a flush toilet, it's probably a good idea to replace the flush valve, because of the calcium and/or rust build up. Before you do that, if it won't flush, it may be as simple as the chain disconnected from the flush lever. Reconnect the chain, and it should work.

I looks like I never responded to this tread back in 2013. Back when I joined the LF, if memory serves in 2003, my original user name was OldBikeGuy. Let's just say I was drawn and quarter because I used old in the user name. It may have been BikerBilly, in his usual way, who explained it to me the best. So I dropped the old from my user name. Hey I felt old at the time... a 5 mile ride was a killer back then. Looking back... using old was a bad choice and BikerBilly was correct. I just wish I could remember exactly how he told me off. I'm sure it was rather direct and blunt, and he was correct.

And for the rest of the story. DST around the world.

This was the first year I tried to set all of the clocks. In the past I'd just update the clock when I used the device. So my wife's car was always last to get changed to the correct time because I seldom drive the car. It could be a month later and my wife would ask, so when are you going to change the clock in my car? I'd suggest that after having the car for 22 years you should know. Yeah, that doesn't go over very well.

And that's why I'm leaving the snow blade on my John Deere tractor, and not installing the mower deck just yet. I was going to get the bike ready and ride today. Our first day over 60F. But I guess I had too much beer Friday evening. The gout in my right foot is back, hurts like a SoB, Limping rather than walking. I know there are pills for that. I just don't like pills. Too many side effects that are worse than the problem. Tomorrow, my foot should be back to normal.

I just set 17 clocks. I'll bet I missed at least 1 clock.

The government knows.

Or you can move to Hawaii.

I agree... but that's the way it worked. I was way too many pay grades below what was needed to get that fixed. I was fortunate that the other regions of the company had enough poor performers so my people didn't get to the C level. I'd say the people who earned the C rating deserved it. Some things people did (or didn't do) was documented rather well and in come cases you just could not believe what they did. That said... the VP was still telling us we weren't tough enough on rating our people. I disagreed, and I needed to provide documentation to back up my case. Which I did.

Probably closer to the truth than not. We used an, A B C rating ranking. A = exceptional B = good performer C = unacceptable performance Our ‘list’ was split into 3 sections one for each rating. If you were a C two years in a row, you were gone. There were ‘expectations’ from HR about how many (based on a percentage of the total) about how many people would fall into each category. There weren’t too many A rated people, because the budget couldn’t pay for the increases. There were a LOT of B rated people. And of course, there were a C rated people each review. My first year as the manger during the mid year review after we explained our list and ratings to the Exec VP. He asked, a question about the bell shaped curve and what was wrong with the curve? Crickets… a room full of people didn’t respond. So I answered. So, you want a flatter bell shaped curve. He says; Yes… the rookie gets it.

My wife and I flew into Anchorage, rented a 4 wheel drive SUV and spend the next 2 weeks exploring the state. We hiked at many locations. Hiking to at least 2 glaciers. I remember sitting on the top of Flat Top Mountain eating lunch south of Anchorage. Hiking in Denali was wonderful (except for the bugs, bring lots of spray). Took a helicopter ride to a glacier, just fling to the glacier was great too. Took a small plane ride around Mt McKinley. Drove to Whittier, thru the really long tunnel, for a whale watching and glacier tour. And many other day trips… I remember, driving back to the hotel after a long day. WoBG says let’s stop at this place (can’t remember where). I tell we can’t. She asks why? I tell her its 10:30 PM and it closed a long time ago. She says, but the sun is still up and its sunny day. I tell her, that happens here in late June. Yeah that place was WONDERFUL.

Yeah tell me about it. I spend sooooo much time on all of the meetings, documentation, etc... i didn't have nearly enough time to do all of the things i wanted to do, like more one on one coaching. mentoring. etc.. And we did this twice a year. Mid-year reviews and end of year reviews. The year I retired, was the first year we skipped mid-year reviews, and started monthly meetings with each employee. In mid July, i just snapped.. I went into the HR web site and 15 minuets later, I clicked on OK for the prompt "Are you sure you want to do this?" I didn't even tell my wife. I just retired. There were more than a few reasons, and skipping the end of year process was one of them. My boss called me in 10 minutes. We would get automated mail notifications from the HR system, and she got the email telling her i just retired and my last day would be 30 days later. She started something like WTF... etc.. I told her never mind... I'm done. Besides I didn't tell my wife, and i certainly won't explain this to you before I talk to my wife. Yeah... that was a good day.

My wife and I have never been on a cruise, and most likely never will go on a cruise. Being trapped on a ship with 3000 to 5000 people just doesn’t seem like fun to me. My wife’s girlfriend went on an Alaskan cruise and never got off of the ship at the stops along the way. I still can’t believe that she never went to see anything.

One thing I learned, you don't want to be the last person to finish a task, That was not a good metric at my company. Now I'm VERY happy I retired.

Our process was... I needed to rank my 10 employees in order of performance. and I had to document and justify the ranking. Then the other managers for our work group across the company, would need to meet and we would need to rank all 65 of our employees 1 to 65. Of course, then there were the meetings with our Director, who needed understand and agree. Then the meeting with our VP along with HR. HR wanted to know our plans to improve the poor performers. Then there was the performance enhancement plan (PIP) and more documentation for the poor reformers. Last but not least, was the final meeting with Exec VP the for all of the managers who report to the Exec VP (and HR again) and we explained the ranking and answered questions when needed. It was fun to watch some managers crash and burn during the questions. At least I knew I was gong to be ranked last. I was sure the meetings with the Exec VP and our VP were just a test for the managers. That was our input. Then the black box of Compensation Review took over, and in 2 months we got the results and the new budgets for the next year. We needed to document EVERYTHING. What a bunch of BS. I'm sure that all the documentation for the good performers was evidence for the poor performers to prove all of the employees were measured by the same metrics.

Wednesday last week, WoBG attended a dinner with several girlfriends. When she got home, she was upset. I asked why (I knew I didn’t do anything stupid to cause this reaction). My wife explains, one of her friends Jane was extremely sick, coughing, etc.. And then Jane explains how they just flew back from Orlando, the entire family is sick, the granddaughter is now in the hospital, and she is joking about having the coronavirus. My wife explained to Jane, this was nothing to joke about, and many of the other patrons in the (rather expensive) restaurant were overhearing the talking and they looked rather upset too that someone who was so sick was there. Yeah, that’s how a virus spreads across state lines. People are stupid. A day later I stated to get that feeling like I was going to be sick, so did my wife. 24 hours after that we were OK. We didn't get tested.

How many people didn't even bother to be tested? The severity of COVID-19 symptoms can range from very mild to severe. People with the very mild symptoms, probably don't think they have "THE COVID-19" virus. I'd suggest they don't even go to a doctor, because they think they just have a cold, bemuse they aren't that sick. That's how the virus has been spreading with no known cause. And that how the virus will spread eventually to the entire country. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/03/how-many-americans-really-have-coronavirus/607348/

Especially since I don't give out participation awards.

And that's why I ride alone, or with my wife on the back of our tandem. I track my rides with my Garmin, but even that is just for me to see how I'm doing thru the year. I survived may years of politics at work I don't need those kinds of issues when I'm trying to relax. I'll ride the local clubs annual event, that'good enough for me.