From Tricycles to Troubles: Embracing New Experiences

Speaker A: 00:00:02

Hello, dear listeners, it is I once again, DJ Starsage. Coming to you from the mistress. Jackie. It is a Sunday afternoon. It's a little overcast, but it is 73 degrees.

That being said, sit back, relax, grab a drink. Your favorite snack. Nick, you're in store for the latest edition of Shirley, the day to day life of a modern day jester.

So how are you and what have you been up to lately? I'm just leaving the chateau out on some errands and we have had a rather blustery afternoon.

Fall started quite a bit ago, probably at least two or three weeks ago now. And for the most part we've been in lower temperatures lately, you know, probably 50s or so.

But now and then some warmer temperatures have crept in to remind us that summer wasn't all that long ago. As I'm looking at the dash right now, it's actually 73 degrees out.

And the back and forth of temperatures would certainly explain today's weather for sure. We've had quite a bit of wind, as I was saying, blustery, and there seem to be quite a few twigs and branches all over the place.

This is a phenomenon that we call a micro burst. It wasn't quite severe enough for it to cause, you know what they say, the big funnels, you know, that took Dorothy's house away.

But the smaller scale of those types of events are called a microburst. Yeah, I know it sounds all technical and scientific, but I swear I haven't watched any Helm Hunt movies recently.

Or for that matter, I've not seen the sequel either. Of course I'm talking about Twister or Twisters, plural, which is the name of the sequel.

But as I said, I'm heading out on errands and otherwise it's a lovely day because here in the northeast we have the canyon canvas of fall amongst us.

The leaves are, they're different colors, they're yellow, they're gold, they're some still green with a hint of yellow as the trees are getting ready to take their long nap. So I'm headed to the store to grab a few things for my work week. That's my routine.

I make up some meals for a couple of days to get the week off to a good start. And well, since I work from home the rest of the week, it's really on me.

But when I can, I try to make things up ahead because at this juncture in my career at the Abacus Lounge, I have not recorded requested the longer lunch break that I was used to for so long.

But I may perhaps do that before too long because a lot of folks who just creep into the office for the two days that they're required to will take their lunch break and head home. So we actually technically only need to show face.

You know, you're toting around company equipment there, you've got a company laptop and so they want you to show your face around and check in. But the folks who live more locally, they take that lunch break and go home.

And that's not something that I'm able to do on just a mere 30 minute lunch because, you know, I'm technically just a few miles off from the company requirement that allows folks not to have to come in. But you know, I don't have much to complain about because on average I get more days working from home than any other company that I have.

Well, with the exception of the candy shop. But that's a different story. That was another lifetime. And the Abacus Lounge is a lot less stressful.

I will say that for the most part, my days are spent without interruption. Unlike other offices I've worked for, the boss doesn't just chime in to make sure you're doing your job.

Of course, that's part partly because they've got their hands full. My supervisor at the Abacus Lounge there also is an account manager. In other words, he's responsible for the company image with our client account.

Besides having folks report to him in an office slash sort of call center type environment, he is also the face of the company to these accounts. So I do not envy him his job much because, well, I. I'm married to somebody whose salary and we don't get to spend that much time together.

So I am not jealous whatsoever and I'm not going to be putting my name on that bot line anytime soon. But I will say that I am thankful for my husband and his secure job. I'll talk more about that in a minute here.

Since my husband is in management, there's a little bit more structure there. Although oftentimes it does tend to bring in a measure, a decorum of stress into our lives because, well, he doesn't have a regular day off.

Oftentimes his days off are different each week.

And well, let's just say that lately he has been having to go into work on his day off because, well, someone on the team can't pull their own weight or is refusing to do so. Shall I say. So is it time for a hubby report? It may be.

I told you not long ago that hubby had transferred from the Morty's west location to Morty's north, and in doing so, was promised that he would not have to spend as much of his time working on his days off as he did at his prior location.

Well, as it turns out, and this is as neutrally as I can put it, I guess, but they had somebody on their team who had applied for promotion a while back. This was even before hubby had transferred in.

So it's not like they had a personal vendetta or anything, but this person was turned down for promotion and decided that they were going to make life difficult for others because despite having a role in the management team, this person just decided to, well, for lack of a better term, slack off. And I, for one, am hard pressed to understand how these shenanigans have been allowed to continue for as long as they have.

Apparently, this person has been mostly responsible for the turnover rate at this store, meaning that they have made work difficult for enough people that they have gone through more store managers than is usual or normal, I guess, if there is such a thing in the world of retail. And I just don't understand how this was allowed to continue for as long as it has. Now, I'm going to speak in terms of a favorite movie of mine.

I'm sure you're shocked, but there was an 80s movie with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long called Money Pit, and it's about a couple who have bought an older house, a fixer upper, if you will. And while they are having the place updated, their contractor keeps giving them an estimate of how long the repairs are going to take.

And naively, they just take it on face value, but they're told all the time, two weeks. It'll be two weeks and the job will be done well, for at least a month.

Now, I have been being told that this problem child at Morty's north will be gone in two weeks. But yet, two weeks come and go and nothing happens.

And I'm told that it's a matter of having certain paperwork done, and the decision makers may have gone on vacation that had to wait until they've come back.

And apparently in the world of retail, where there is physical labor at hand, people can, forgive the expression, make up excuses for why they can't fulfill their responsibilities, the things that are in their job description, the requirements. And so of course, time after time, they're asked to perform the duties and they say, oh, I'll, you know, I can't do that. And I've told you why.

And you know, I have a doctor's note. And this person, this problem child has been with Morty's. My.

It's my understanding that they've been with Morty's for at least four years and that seems rather. Unusual that somebody should be able to perform thusly. I mean, not meeting the requirements of your responsibility.

I don't know, maybe the, the fact that they have been there as long as they have is a direct result of management changing hands. So. I won't question that any further because of course somebody who drives people away is going to be sitting pretty.

But I'll speak more of that in a bit here. I'm going to step into the store for a little and well, just close your eyes and blink because I'll be right back.

So, yes, hubby has as a troublemaker at Marty's and they have a co conspirator.

This is one of those situations where two co workers are carpooling and well, it's my understanding that the co conspirator, as it were, reports to the person in question. So it's a team effort. They basically sit on their hands trying to figure out how to, You know, how to do as little as possible on the company time.

And that just makes more work for everyone. So hence why my husband has been having to go in on his day off.

So promises being what they are, I am told that now justice is in the process of being served. The paperwork has actually been written up. They're going to be taking a step back.

At least management is going to be taking a step back because this will give them more direct evidence of the lack of effort upon said troublemakers part, let's just say so it's entirely possible that before too long we may see some relief in that department. Hopefully. And I say that realizing that we are halfway through the month of October and before we blink, basically the holidays will be here.

And I for one, have been trying not to bring up the burgeoning honey do list because, well, it's just not fair because hubby is well aware of the things that he's been meaning to get to.

Needless to say, I still have it firmly tucked away in the back of my head because I for one would appreciate not having as many shopping bags playing all over the house and being filled with movies and TV shows.

Yes, I know some of you think that you can get everything you want on streaming, but there's a fair amount of programs that, including TV and movies that are not on streaming. Case in point, films with Goldie Hawn. You try to find A movie with Goldie Hawn on streaming. Good luck.

Sure you could probably rent it, but it's not included with any membership to Netflix or Prime Video with Amazon, so. But yeah, yes, hoping that a new leaf begins turning before the holidays.

And well, speaking of workplace trouble, not really so much trouble as is concern. Now you may realize that the last episode of this very same podcast I mentioned that I had surpassed my month with the company.

Well, I have been a bad boy. And no, I didn't lose my position with the Abacus Lounge. I'm still there. I've been a bad boy because I haven't kept you up to date.

I haven't been checking in with you. I am still there.

I'm now at my 90 days and I had an experience last week while my boss was out of the office that suggests I should have made more progress with my training with the company than I have now. Mind you, my training is experience has not included much in person contact with the trainer.

My first two weeks with the company were simply spent with remote conferences with somebody on the other side of the country. So there was a three hour time difference and I basically had to wait halfway through my day.

Now the rest of that time with the company was meant to be spent with peer training other members of my team helping me figure things out.

Well, I don't know if maybe my, my manager, my supervisor has been overwhelmed or if resources have just been limited, but two of the people who were helping out in the beginning were recently let go. Now mind you, in this day and age, very few companies have dedicated trainers.

So when I say somebody was helping out to train me, that means that somebody took time out of their daily routine where they do the same job as me and allowed me to observe what they were doing and assisted me with doing the same activities. So peer training, job shadowing, on the job training.

Okay, so either way I was supposed to be at least be receiving instructions assistance from my peers. And in a company where very few of us share the same physical space, there seems to be an attitude that everyone should be self sufficient.

So the pleasantries of communicating with each other should be at a minimum. And I don't know, I, I understand that from a management perspective, you know, chatter slows down the job.

But at the same time it would be nice to know that there's another human being elsewhere doing the same thing as me because you know, if I have questions on, on what I need to do or maybe I want to share experience that I learned this. It is just part of Being in the workforce, you help each other out, out. But I don't know.

In this day and age, it seems like time is money and, well, as I mentioned, two of the people who were helping me get trained were recently let go. And I have to assume that has to do with performance issues. Now, that could involve attendance.

I'm not at liberty to know that sort of thing, but having this, this experience so shortly after I've joined the company does not give me confidence. I have no ambitions to look elsewhere for work.

I am, for the most part, I wouldn't say confident, but I can rest easy knowing that I'm capable of doing this job.

But when you're encouraged to seek out help, and that method of help is a shared chat room through, you know, pick your conferencing method there, Microsoft Teams or Slack or whatever. But you send out the question or ask for help with an issue. And unless a member of management is available, sometimes your questions go unanswered.

And so it feels like, I'm not gonna screw this up, so just gonna let this issue go, I'm gonna go on to the next one, and maybe somebody more capable is gonna pick this up. You know, I, I, I, I know that that doesn't sound very.

But at the same time, you know, how safe can you feel when somebody who is helping to train you has been let go? Not one, but two someones. So I understand where resources might be limited to find somebody that could allow me to observe them.

But at the same time, it's a requirement. It needs to be accomplished.

Because during that week that my supervisor was out of the office, another supervisor from our department basically checked in on me and was shocked, was appalled that apparently I had not completed all the training that I was expected to, as if it was my own responsibility to make sure that things that I didn't know were taught to me. How do I know what I don't know if I don't know it? Catch 22. So that was my experience of last week.

I don't necessarily feel like I'm under the hot lights. I don't think that I'm being targeted.

I hate to use that word because I've been told that, you know, some of the conversations that have been happening lately, our routine, but I'm just hoping to have an understanding with my boss that I was looking toward them for leadership, for guidance. And as politely and as professionally as I can put it, I am going to ask to be made sure I have all of the resources that I need to be successful.

In this role because it's not, it's not very reassuring to know that there are others who have been let go who could have been teaching me their skills, but, you know, would I be learning bad habits? Maybe that's why they were let go. Don't know.

But I'd rather not speculate any further because, you know, thinking negatively all the time, stinking thinking doesn't really get you much of anywhere. And I'm trying to focus on things that I can do to improve my situation.

One of those things I mentioned previously, but I thought I'd give you an update. The other month, my husband and I purchased an adult tricycle for me. A bike. Yes. If you haven't paid attention, I've always had balance issues.

I had inner ear troubles as a kid and was never able to do more than roller skating. If it requires you to balance on something, it's not something that I'm going to excel at. So I never had a bike as a kid.

And the other month, hubby and I purchased an adult tricycle for me and I have been in love.

I don't know how I made it through to this point in my life without experiencing it before because getting onto a bike and being able to leave the house, house without having to, you know, get keys or put gas in a tank, just, you know, maybe put on some earbuds and my armband, you know, because I'm one of those folks that has to have workout gear, although I'm not really a gym sort of person.

But it's so much easier to have your phone traveling up on your upper arm while you're doing something like bicycling versus, you know, having it in a pocket and worrying about it falling out. So. Oh, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed the experience of living near a canal and having bike and hiking trails.

This is a world, an enigma that was unbeknownst to me until after I climbed aboard my beautiful light blue adult tricycle and set off on the trails. And it just is something that I never got to experience as a youth. So although being late to the party, I feel like.

Like that has brought that element of excitement into my life. And I'm very fortunate to live where I do because again, we have these beautiful trails that are literally just a few minutes from my house. It's.

It's like having a state park in your backyard, but it's just along the canal and fall in the northeast itself is something of its own to behold. As I mentioned earlier, with all the changing colors of the leaves and the falling of the leaves.

And there's this phenomenon where if you've never lived by a lake before, oftentimes trees that are near bodies of water will be fruit bearing tree. And I don't mean that as in, you know, oranges or apples or whatever, but nuts, specifically black walnuts.

When I was a child, my grandparents lived near a lake and there was many a time that I would go on a walk with grandma that she would point out these nuts that had fallen to the ground from the trees. Now in their shells, they're just sort of a bright green.

And I guess that, you know, given proper time to cure or whatever in an oven, they change color and you know, there's a process of opening them up and drying them out and blah, blah, blah.

But just the experience of riding alongside the canal and beholding the beauty of fall and of nature and having my way littered with those beautiful leaves and occasional twigs and these black walnuts that my grandmother and I used to walk amongst when I was a little kid. It's just a childhood memory, a fun childhood memory. And I am grateful for the opportunity to re experience that as unexpectedly as it was.

And well, aside from that, I am very, very, very grateful that I was able to recently go to the, the eyeglass store and get a new pair of glasses that account for the cataract that is too early in its development for me to have surgery.

Now those of you who may have loved ones who are older, perhaps in their twilight are, are probably more familiar with the experience of a cataract and you know, in the 70s or 80s. So it's certainly not something I ever expected to have to deal with before my 50th. But again, I had a detached retina.

And when you have procedures done where they put chemicals inside your body that don't belong there, well, you're thankful for any positive results and you just roll with the punches. So. But apparently somebody who has had a cataract form, they are not able to remove it because it's like.

Well, it's like having a crack in your windshield. I guess if you have just had a couple of small tiny cracks, you know, it's. It's not enough to.

Maybe account for the expense of replacing the entire windshield with a cataract. If it's early on in the formation, doing the surgery would be too early, would be more harmful than it would be.

Productive, I guess might be a good word to say.

And despite the awkwardness of the situation, I have come to realize that others who have experienced this have had to wait upward of 12 to 15 months before they can have surgery because there's a waiting list.

And so apparently my minor inconvenience of having this imperfect vision is, you know, quite the less important thing than somebody who's been waiting longer than I.

So that being said, I am over the moon by the fact that my eye surgeon told me I could have another exam done for eyeglasses and they would be able to adjust the strength of the prescription to make up for that distortion of the cataract. Now, mind you, my vision is not absolutely perfect to when before I had to have the surgery, but it is the best that it has been since April.

And on top of that, I was able to get some spiffy new frames. I changed my style a little bit.

And there is a company out there that makes eyeglasses with layers of fashion, styles that just snap on by many magnet.

Now, I'm not going to tell you the name because of course, you know, I'm not sponsored or whatever, but it's just a thing that I never imagined possible. You know, you buy these glasses and your base frames are either clear or black.

And then you have all of these choices for these little plates that you can attach over. They're just the fronts of your glasses, the, the wire outline of your lenses, but they pop on and off.

And I have a variety of them, or at least I have one particularly that's coming with the sunglass lenses. So like the old days, like in the 80s, you used to have sunglasses that would pin it just up and down over your. Your glasses.

Well, this is one step above that. They have little magnets in the corners and they just snap on over your existing prescription lenses.

And I will tell you, I feel a little bit like Elton John wearing these. Although to look at me, somebody might say I look more like Bruce Valerie Blanche, but trying to be fashionable.

So it is the season of spooky and the unusual. So of course I'm going to pitch my other show I do about film and television trivia with you.

If you haven't checked it out recently, Matt and I sat down and began a new season. This is season eight of Matt and Amanutia. And the story is a little different nowadays. We're trapped in a video store and we travel in time.

ed it. It was a remake of the: 1950

going to be discussing is the: 1988

We're going to be discussing Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, in the next episode of Matinee Minutiae. So, alrighty, folks, I have returned home to the chateau. I have some bags of things to put away and need to get my lunches ready for the work week.

If you would like to send me a message, you can email me djstarsagemail.com and you can send me a message over there on the blue sky at DJ Star Sage. That is all for now. Mistress Jackie sends her love. Bye. Bye.