What a glorious ay :-D

It was a tad frustrating first thing in the morning because I still have trouble feeling my fingers for awhile but then once the feeling was back I was cruising right along.  Until they stopped me and put me on some "real soldering" as they said.  I was lap soldering wires after tinning them and every time I got on a roll, I thought, the second wire (there were 2 on each item) would mess up.  So I did the Chrissy logical thing and just did the first wires and then went back and flipped everything over and did the second wires.  Then I went to watch someone else doing them to see how they did them so fast and had my aha! moment and then buzzed through a whole box of 36, pleased with myself. I would have to have the first one from each box inspected by my supervisor who kept telling me they needed more solder.  Which, on my first box made me paranoid about getting the amount they wanted and took so long.  But by the last 8 or so I decided to do it the way I had been trained to do class 3 work and ignored the solder comments.

I was working on the second box when one of the other leads came through asking who Chris was and my boss said right here in front of you.  He was looking for something I never had but I saw the box I had done and not one word was said about it.  I have seen the inspectors bring work back to everyone and show them what needs reworked and I was honestly expecting them to come back to me but no, they did not.  My boss is yelling at the top of his lungs that he is going to make me stand up in the next weekly meeting and introduce me because I have apparently become very important around here.  One of my coworkers said he was jealous and upset that someone was more important than him, I laughed.  Then I hollered back to my boss that I always was and he was just figuring it out. Everybody got a chuckle out of my quick comeback, myself included.

The rest of the day went very fast and as I was going to my locker there was a lady sitting at one of the lunchroom tables and asked if I was Chris.  I said yes, big old smile on my face and she said she was seeing my work and loving it.  She said to keep sending my work the way I do it and that the lead in her department was going to love me for not putting on more solder than is necessary or required.  I said I had been building only class 3 for years and if the inspectors came back to me I would be happy to grab the IPC book and show them what a "target" solder looked like and mine were abut as perfect as is possible.  She agreed and it made me feel good that they love to see my work and HAVE to pass all the others with the abundance of solder on them.  Talk about being validated when I was not even looking for validation!

Even before that, way early this morning I overheard one of my coworkers saying she was ready for some of the more intricate work because she does better at it than the "simple" stuff that always comes back for rework.  I couldn't help myself and I said "that is because you are an amazing person Charlotte and need to do amazing work" to which she said loud enough for everyone to hear "See, that's what we need, Chris, who is so encouraging and motivational and positive and we are going to be blessed today and have a great day".  Now THAT made me feel good and put me in the frame of mind that I am just what they need and can do some good works amongst the people there.  They really are good hearted folks one on one and very helpful but not always the most positive spirited people.  Like me a couple days ago.  Bad day that was.  But it has improved immensely.  For me, it is because I write everyday and when I don't, well, it isn't pretty, LOL.

Here's some pictures just because:

The beast I am driving ^

View from the garage ^

One of Bevs' flowers ^

I got home, played with the dogs, had the other half of my squash and got on here so I still need to go give the cat some attention but here is page 4:

When I was maybe 5 years old I realized how much I loved spending time at my granny's house.  The smell of coffee in the air and on her breathe and though I would not fully appreciate the flavor of it for many years, I still loved that smell.  Granny loved Polka music and often could be heard humming along with it as it played on the radio.  She would also lay me on the kitchen counter, towel rolled under my neck, with my head in the sink to wash my hair.  She showed such love and tenderness and would sing gospel songs as she gently massaged my scalp.  I could have stayed there in those moments forever.

Granny also loved birds so there were bird feeders in the trees in the yard and she had an affinity for flowers and river rocks.  She had a collection of beautiful rocks, big rocks not little stones, that she had brought home from probably every trip to the mountains she had taken.  These lined what was her flower beds all the way around her yard.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in that yard and enjoying the beauty of nature she had put together.  It was like a spilling out of her soul, beauty carried out beyond her physical body.

Many weekends I spent with her and I slept on the "sofa" as she called it, after having watched The Lawrence Welk Show and Hee Haw on Saturday nights.  There was a grandfather clock and it ticked really loud.  Some nights I would just lay there and listen to it ticking for the longest time before falling asleep.  Her home was my sanctuary and she was my savior many times.  She conveyed to me through her actions that I was loved, without condition, just for being me, something I never truly felt at home.

I believe it was that same year that both me and my brother were in the hospital, to get our tonsils out.  I don't know why.  But I do know that when we were back in our room, our little throats on fire from the surgery, we wanted something cold and the nurses said no.  Until mom showed up and insisted that they give us ice cream to soother the burn.  Then grandpa came in and brought us flowers from granny's garden.  How sweet is that?  Her love extended to our room and I got the message.

End of page 4

Well dearies, it is going on 6 and my bedtime comes early (7:30 AND Bev got home shortly after that last night so I did get to bed at 8 but what a fantastic day anyway!) because we have to go back and work again tomorrow, but only 8 hours.  Golly that sounds bizarre--ONLY 8 hours.  Anyway, until tomorrow........

Be blessed, be well and all my love.