Putting out fires

As I said earlier, it was an interesting week last week.  Things are backing up at the office, the dogs need grooming, SIL is still having a rough time with her recovery, came home to an a/c leak in the bedroom, and wound up putting out fires (not literally).

First work - it's review time again at the office.  That time of the year where you boil down everyone's accomplishments, tasks, achievements into a single piece of paper and grade them on a very subjective scale.  For me, it's hard to take a year's worth of work and cram it all into one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, not matter how small I write.  I have hated review time ever since I was in the Army.  And for what?  A meager 1-2% increase?  I'd rather just give them the money and say thanks.  I am especially bummed this year because I missed the deadline to get one of my people promoted.  I tried to make a deal with my boss and accounting.  Even offered up part of my increase to see if it would open the door but no dice.  No matter how much increase I give her, no matter how glowing the review I write, she won't be happy.  As a manager, I'm told I need to grow thick skin and look at this from the business perspective, but I call BS.  For the amount of increase it would take, it wouldn't really break the bank.  

The dogs are up to their their typical antics.  We have been under a drought down here for a while so the local park is full of goatheads and grass spurs.  Every time I take them to the part in the evening, I wind up picking off about 25-50 of those thorny bastards off of each one.  Especially Ms Claire who just HAS to roll in the grass every time.  Gawd, if she weren't so cute when she does it, I'd have give her a Chihuahua haircut.  Still, I am taking both of them to the vet next week for their summer cuts.  Maybe it will cut down on the tumbleweeds of dog hair that roam the house.   

Mother's Day last weekend.  I hope all you mothers out there had a great time (or at least some peace & quiet).  I went over to my mom's last Saturday to spend time with her because I knew I would be tapped to help SIL on Sunday.  Good time spent with her and my brother.  She's still going strong 91 and not signs of letting up.  Some of the discussion was around nursing homes.  My dad is the eldest boy of his family and his younger brother was moving into a home.      

SIL is still having a hard time.  She restarted Chemo and it is really kicking her ass.  was nauseous for most of the weekend.  So much so that we took her back to the ER on Monday to get things right.  I spent the day on Sunday with her and her cats to give my wife a break.  While there, I was watching some videos on my iPad and there was a loud pop and the power flashed off and on for a moment.  Sounded like it came from the back yard so I went out to investigate.  Heard the neighbors out but could not see anything until I spotted a small cloud of smoke coming from behind their fence line.  SIL lives on a small creek/bayou and it is usually unmowed (unkept) so there is a lot of grass.  With the drought I mentioned earlier, I realized that any small fire could get out of hand, so I tried to get the hose on the hot spots but the gate was locked.  I picked up a fire extinguisher and sprinted down the block to get to it from the other side.  A neighbor had the same idea and we tackled the fires together while someone called the fire department.  There were three small fires burning and we got most of them out with our fire extinguishers before they ran out.  By the time the fire department showed up, it was pretty much all over.  The grass was so dry that it could have gotten ugly real fast.  Never figured out what caused the fire - the power line transformers were intact and none of the fuses were tripped.  We think that one of the local tree rats (aka squirrel) might have made contact with the power lines and, well, met his maker.  That's enough drama for one day.

Normally I try to do some Mother's Day meme, but I just got behind (aka lazy) and overlooked it.  With all of the Let It Go parodys out there, but this one I found pretty darned awesome, so I offer it up to all you momma's out there.