The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEMON!

May the next 41 be the best ever!

...now does that make sense?...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEMON, DEAR!



your friend,

Merle

(PS That is our Lemon in the pic!)

I already posted this in News, but I thought I'd put here as well, just in case.

A podcast with an interview with Daniel Tammett is available here until next Monday morning. The part about Paul Dirac is also interesting.

oooh, wishes and cake and candles ... thank you

^
Two days overdue but....

Congratulations Lemon.

Lurking and stimming

My faith in humanity is running at an all time low lately and was just re-confirmed by the person driving the truck that came around the corner, hit my van and couldn't be bothered to stop and let me know. I heard the thump, looked out the window and saw said person driving off. What is wrong with people? I do believe Nan is smart. Playing well with others is simply not worth the wasted time and effort.

oh, Lauri! I am so sorry that happened to you! that poor van of yours! I hope you can describe the vehicle that hit you!

Merle

lauri - sorry to hear about your van! is it badly damaged?

i'm kind of at a low myself. they let the kid go from her job yesterday - last friday it was all smiles and "we'll work together to see that you're successful" and yesterday they started pressuring her to resign. when she would not (no unemployment pay if you quit), she was handed a check and shown the door.

she says she still doesn't know why, but is soooo happy to be out of there away from dracula. i've avoided the "i've been trying to tell you's" and the "she's been dropping hints for weeks that this was coming." the kid is happy to be out of there, and will get unemployment pay. how she'll explain this to her future employers, i don't know. the only good thing she can use is that dracula said they were not going to fill her position again because of budget cuts. so she can use that. four days before she would have become a "career" employee (permanent), too. oh, well. another aspie bites the dust.... but at least she played it smart enough to get unemployment pay.

Actually, Nan, in the current economic climate (especially in your neck of the woods), "laid off" is going to be a perfectly acceptable reason to give to future employers - jobs are getting cut all over, and people are being let go because the company can't afford the position any more. Heck, Microsoft announced the other day that they're laying off 4000 people!

Glad she rode it out so she can get unemployment, though - as long as the state government doesn't go so broke that they stop paying that too (Schwarzenegger recently announced that California won't be processing any income-tax refunds this year, because they can't afford it).

At Walgreens (one place I've worked for 25 years) they let the CEO go 4 months ago. This month they are are saying bye-bye to 1,000 top-ranked managers (mainly in Chicago's main Deerfield office). Next month they are trimming managers at the district levels. Then they are restructuring so that part of the pharmacists will either be working from home or in a centralized facility (one for each state), or working as a store pharmacist. After the restructuring, they will prune 1/3 of the pharmacy techs. Then they will prune many of their night pharmacies. Then, if they see that the operation is running smoothly (but redundantly), they will begin the pharmacist cuts. All cuts and restructuring to be roughed out by September and fine tuned within 18 months.

Glad I work at several hospitals and several pharmacies!

On a separate but related note, I find it interesting how they will divide the pharmacists. The emails explain that they have realized for years that they have "personable" pharmacists who are excellent with patient interaction, and "workhorse" pharmacists who get the work done but have no personality. They are going to keep the personable pharmacists in the stores, and move the work and workhorses offsite. The personable pharmacist salaries will continue as at present. The workhorse pharmacists will have their pay cut by half.

I find it interesting that in an NT world, NT traits are selected for as more valuable and worthy of more pay.

In the pharmacy, this is how it works (let's call "personable pharmacist" "Joe", and "workhorse pharmacist" "Nan"):
Joe: (waaaaay too friendly, and ignoring anything that resembles work) "Hiiiiii Andy! How's your wife? Been fishing lately?"
(Nan, in background, is waaaaaay behind, trying to catch up, 'cuz she's been paired with Joe today. She's talking on the phone with one physician to see if he really wants to give a drug that damages kidneys to a patient who has just had a kidney transplant, and has a phone in her other ear, on hold to speak with a physician to see if he really wants to give a lethal dose of digoxin to a child. On another phone she is trying to get lab data on 4 other patients, while calculating pharmacokinetic data on the script she is currently working on...)
Andy: "Hi Joe! Yep! Heh, heh! The bass are really biting down at Chaney Creek. Saaaay, is my script ready for pick up? I turned it in 5 seconds ago."
Joe: (Smiling inanely) "Well, I'll check about that Andy - (frowning, hollering across pharmacy at Nan) Hey, Nan (snapping fingers at Nan) Is Andy's script ready yet? He's a busy man - hasn't got all day ya' know! Chop chop, Nan! Chop chop!! !"
Andy: (in hushed tone, that anyone can still hear) "That Nan doesn't have much personality, but she sure has a fine ass."
Joe: (leaning on counter, ignoring 4 ringing phones) "Heh, heh, Don't I know it. That's the only reason I keep her around.
Here's a free coloring book for your daughter Sally. Sorry about the delay, Andy. I'll see if I can't get a fire under Nan's fine ass. (to Nan) Hey!! ! (clapping hands together) Chop chop!! !" (rolls eyes at Andy)
Andy: "Say Joe, can I take this Tylenol Chest Cold medication? My chest has felt really cold lately."
Joe: "Sure you can! Four tablespoons every hour around the clock outta do it."
Nan: (butting in) ..."Ummm, no. Andy, not only will that not work to warm your chest - and you need to get that examined by the way - and even if you weren't allergic to pseudoephedrine and shouldn't be taking that, Joe's recommendation would be a lethal dose - - oh! hang on! The doctor's on line..."
Andy: (annoyed) "What the heck is she babbling about? She's always going on about something."
Joe: (shaking head and rolling eyes) "Heck if I know. It's always something. (to gathering crowd, smiling, still leaning on counter) Sorry about your wait folks! We've been slammed all day! Just hear those phones!! ! They've been ringing non-stop. Does anyone have any scripts to turn in? Just take them down to Nan and turn them in. She'll be with you in a minute, if she will ever take those phones out of her ears. (rolls eyes)."
Andy: "Well, I appreciate your advice Joe! It's 'cuz of you that I been coming here all these years!"
Joe: "Thanks Andy! (smiling with false modesty) Say! Why don't I take a walk out and check out your bass boat? Hang on - Nan! Nan!! ! Pay attention girl! I'll be back in a minute! How about seeing about getting some work done while I'm out. (rolls eyes). "

Anyhoo, the Walgreen Masterplan is to keep all the valuable "Joes" in the stores, and move all the personality deficient "Nans" offsite, where the "Nans", at half pay, will work a phone center and fill scripts that will be shipped daily to the stores, for the "Joes" to dispense.

I have just been informed that if they close my night store, I will be moved offsite. I take that as a compliment...
(On a happy note, my jerk boss (of 25 years) Joe was shown the door last week. I'm really gonna miss him. Really! I am! I am soooooooo gonna miss him! Gonna miss all the other "Joes" and "Andys" too!! ! )

I work on the phones, in the downtown offices, way away from the walk in office downstairs. I take health insurance calls from pharmacy services, members and professional health care provider's offices. We had our restructuring over the last several years and I went with government programs cause I figured Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services would take me at least to retirement. Working in the back, so to speak, works out for me.

I don't have to look at their faces, I enter data into computer, I hear their information and I take care of business. I interpret what they need and know how to synthesize the result that works for them. I do my time and I have a place to live and food to eat. It's not so bad, I've had it worse.

sorry about the cut in salary, especially after 25 years of service.

Merle

Yeah, I know. (And actually, they'll be processing them, but won't be sending the results for anything after Feb 1. I'm filing mine in the morning, electronically, but don't expect to get anything for a very, very long time. [Amended later: Uncle Sugar just got his hands into my bank account, but the Governator owes me money. According to the Franchise Tax Board, returns not completed by 2/1 will be held back for 30 days. I just e-filed, so hopefully I'll be complete before that - and get back just about what Uncle Sugar took away. Sigh... you know, if the kid's still living with me I oughta get to take SOMETHING off taxes for what she's costing me, but that ain't the way it works. ]

She has a good reference from another senior staffer there, so they'll never have to call her boss. And yeah, they'll probably give her "IOUs" but it's better than nothing. Part of my concern is that she still seems to have no clue what just happened. Oh, well. Time and experience will fix that, I guess. Sure hate to see her have to do it the hard way. She's taking it very well, though. I'm really rather proud of the way she IS taking it. She acknowledges she did everything she was capable of doing, that it was a no-win, and that they didn't force her to quit - she rode that horse into the ground, as they say (sorry, PETA people!).

Chuck, me boyo, perhaps it's the universe's way of sayin it's time for you to retire? It's definitely time for ME to retire, but I now have another to support... again.

On an even happier note, the ENT wants to do surgery. I dunno about that. I don't care what the CAT scan said is up there, I gotta think about this. The timing is not good.

Spike keeps laying eggs - and the cat with the idiopathic fibrosis of the lungs is having a really hard time breathing today. Guess the kid will be taking the cat to the vet, and can ask what we can do about slowing down Spike's egg production. That's not healthy, two a week is not normal, not for this time of year and not without his having a mate. At least he hasn't eaten all the cuttle bones. Yet.

Sigh. When it rains, it do pour, don't it.

Last edited by Nan on 25 Jan 2009, 5:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Zebra finch reproduction: Some people at Simon Fraser U have been researching this.

http://www.sfu.ca/biology/wildberg/papers/VezinaetalEcology06.htm

Postcard from Rwanda slips in through the door slot.
On the front, a picturesque picture of woman in bright colors walking with a cord of wood on her head over a glittering, red dirt road full of micah bits. In the background, mutilated trees and also minuature goats grazing.
On the back, the address to the cafe and the text: You know those pallets of books that were supposed to be here in December and then I would organize two school libraries and donate books also to the National University of Rwanda and other organizations? They have not even reached Dar-Es-Salaam yet. So, I am here, doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and basically twiddling my thumbs. I have finally been gone from home long enough (staying an extra two weeks to get all the work done) that I actually miss my husband and bed and TV and America and etc.
On the upside, Internet access has increased exponentially in the year since I was last here. And you would be amazed at all the people you see emerging from mud huts with cell phones glued to their ears.

Thanks for the link, SleepyDragon. Interesting stuff. Not quite Spike's problem, but interesting. I'll try allowing him to have more exercise out of the cage in the chance that it might help him stop pooping out eggs. Since he's non-breeding, continually having eggs is not good for him.... (yes, her, but he did kind of a reverse-Rue Paul on us, so he's going t always be a "he" because that's what we started out calling him.)