Public Enemy No. 1....yep, that's me!

Last week K bought a new, comfy upholstered chair.  One afternoon I was sitting in my chair reading and out of the corner of my eye I saw one of those little white tags showing underneath her new ottoman.  You know, the ones that certify that the stuffing in the chair meets all fire safety standards, etc, then goes on to say "DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW".

Being just slightly OCD I couldn't read for looking at that damn label.  It was just taunting me, I swear.  I couldn't help my bad self....I flipped the ottoman over, whipped out my trusty pocket knife, and cut it off.

Within seconds there was a rather forceful knock at my door.  I thought, "Holy crap!  There really IS a Label Police!"  Should I try and make a run for it?  Plea bargain?  Is it true I only get one phone call?  So who should it be to?  K?  A lawyer?  My 63 year clean record, pffffft...gone...over a label!  DOH!

I had visions of being Bubba's girlfriend in The Big House.

Turns out it was just the UPS guy.  *whew*

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True....ridiculous, but true:  The European Union has a rule, EC2257/94, that regulates the allowable curvature of elongated produce such as bananas and cucumbers.  It says that to be graded Class 1 it must be "practically straight and bent by no more than a gradient of 1/10."  

So is there a Banana/Cucumber Police that goes from farmers market to farmers market looking for bent produce?  Do they have Department of Bananas specialists and  Department of Cucumbers specialists?

Do they have special identifying uniforms?

Is this all they have to do in Europe....put people on the government payroll to go around policing rules like EC2257/94?   

Bureaucracy at its finest.  I wonder if they got the idea from our Label Police or if we got ours from their Banana/Cucumber Police?  Either way I can't believe such rules exist for me to write about in a blog post.  

What a waste of time.  I'm pretty sure consumers can figure out that a banana that's tied in a knot isn't something they want to buy for their families.

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Speaking of a waste of time:  You've heard about the law passed by the Arizona Legislature that allows service to be denied to gays by those who are offended by homosexuality on religious grounds?  Why are they even bothering with such a law?

If the Governor signs it someone will simply trot across the street to the Federal Courthouse where a Federal Judge will immediately issue a restraining order and shortly thereafter declare it unconstitutional.  Duh!  Talk about chasing a windmill.

Is this what happens when politicians stop taking their medicine?

S

Playing "air timpani" with Enya

As my idol Alfred E. Neuman once said, "Why be normal?"


I learned long ago I wasn't coordinated enough to play "air guitar", but I can tear a timpani up!  (It's a kettle drum)  Tonight I was sitting around listening to my iPhone/Pod (Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Ray Charles, Carla Bruni, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd) and I re-discovered my Enya collection.  She's an awesome Irish female singer/songwriter, really big in Europe.  I wish she'd tour here as I would go out of my way to see her.  And if her timpani player should suddenly take ill, I'm ready!


We got a bit of a break on the heat today....until about 4 pm.  It was cloudy all day until then, and we even got sprinkled on.  Nice!  But late in the day the sun broke through and the temperature shot back up into "Oh Shit!" territory.  We officially topped out at 102 for the 25th straight day of 100 degrees or more.   :(


My favorite OCD client notified us today he was going to be out of town on business until August 8th.  Actually things will soon be much better from my standpoint as my part of his home (structural) is about finished, and now my brother will soon be taking the lead with color selections and the detail stuff.


Hope you have things going your way, too.


S

It's started again....

More changes.  That's what greeted me in my Monday morning email from my client with his "vision" of what he wants today.  He won't leave well enough alone.  (OCD is a terrible thing!)  He seems to constantly peruse architectural magazines and when he finds a picture he likes he sends it to me and says to incorporate those elements into his study/den/bath, etc.  Except we're past that point already.  


Now it involves tearing stuff out, calling back in the electricians, sheetrockers, etc.   Grrrrrr.......  And of course he questions why it costs so much.  "Because to get the look you want it now takes 3 steps instead of one;  put it in the first time, tear it out, do it again."  I didn't sign up for a lifetime job with this guy.  Will the madness ever end?


the insane man formerly known as S

Beginning to feel 'beat down'

You know how you feel after you've finished all your chores?  Your work is done and you know you can relax and enjoy yourself for a while.  And then there's before you've done your chores....you look ahead and all you can see is work demanding your attention.  Ugh!


I feel like the latter.  I have one client who is wearing me pretty thin.  (My brother, too.)  He's a very nice guy, but he tries to micro-manage everything.  His new home is well in excess of $1M and of course I want to accommodate him, but it gets harder every day.  He admits he's OCD and apologizes and says he'll try to do better, but nothing changes.


In a different sense, everything changes....daily.  What he originally told us he wanted, and what we bid, in no way resembles what he wants today.  Or what he'll want tomorrow.  He's all over the board.  He can't make up his mind.  I'm just too organized for my own good sometimes.


And I'm sure this weather is taking it's toll on me, too.  I'm used to hot Texas summer weather, and if this were late August I could put up with it better knowing cooler weather would be here soon, but this is still mid-July.  I would love to have a cool, drizzly, lazy Saturday.  *sigh....maybe in 3 or 4 months*


On a brighter note, yesterday we were given the go-ahead by a new customer to begin a room addition project for them.  It's not a big job, but it is a job, and I'm grateful to have it.  :)


S