Singled out

 The upgraded hot tub is definitely smaller, but it's SO nice.... The material it's molded out of is really non-slip, which is important as we age, and as my bones are damaged by the cancer.

I've been in it three times already! I need to tweak the chemistry a bit more, though, as it is about a hundred gallons less water than the old tub.

In other news, this past week, my job pulled a fast one on me.  

Every week, when I get home from my office day, I go into my home office, and fire up my computer, which has been turned off since Friday.

When I did this on Monday afternoon, the computer would not connect, so I messaged my supervisor, who was still at work, and she put in a help desk ticket for me.

The I/T guy who called me first thing Tuesday morning, was clueless about why this might be happening.

After multiple calls, the I/T guy told me that my home office computer was dead/broken, and that he would have to come get it.

I disconnected the box, and had it ready when he arrived, so he would not have to come into my house.

He's a blatant Trumper, evangelical/fundamentalist, and conspiracy theorist...and I did not have time to put everything in my house away, or out of sight, before his arrival. 

Since I had already had my office day, and was scheduled to have the afternoon off for my oncologist appointment, I had to stay home.  

SO, I spent the rest of the morning hiding things, and preparing for the guy to come back.  I wasn't sure where all of the cords needed to be plugged into the new computer, so I had to allow him in upon his return. 

I messaged my boss, and asked her if I was going to be paid for these few hours, and she said I would have to either make up the lost hours, or use my vacation time!!  

THIS made me angry... needless to day.  

Anyway, when the I/T guy came back with my new computer, he had information that was not available first thing in the morning: 

The I/T department PLANNED this!!!

They told NO ONE, and they only did it to ME.  The I/T guy said it would be happening to everyone, as the new security requirements made it necessary.

HOWEVER, by the end of the day, everyone else in my department was told to bring their computers to the office to be replaced on their next office day. 

NOW, I was furious.... 

No one else had to be surprised like this, and no one else would have to use their hard-earned time off in order to get paid....

Anyway, he got the new unit hooked up, and then he had to sit right next to me, in the room where I keep 90% of my Pagan identity.... to get everything working.

Once again, EVERYTHING was wiped clean.... and now things work differently than they ever have, and I HATE IT.

I was pleased that my oncologist visit ran on time, and I was home by 2:30, so I clocked back in and worked until 5:00, to make up some of the time I had not been able to work, and would not be paid for otherwise.

It took most of the rest of the week to get things up and running, so to speak, and much of the changes are permanent.  

We are no longer allowed to save our log ins on the websites we use.  I use more websites than anyone else, so I have a three page print out (which I printed the first time they wiped everything clean, a few weeks ago).

Now, I have to manually type in my user name and password dozens of times a day.  Some of the websites "time out" and shut you out after a very short time, so I have to log into the same ones over and over.

We are also no longer able to PRINT anything that we keep in our Outlook folders, which is where I keep all of my passwords.  Needless to say, I am very grateful to myself for having the foresight to print that list last month!

This coming week, I will create a new document in WORD, and save it in my permanent drive, where I CAN update it, and print it, if I need to!

And, as if we are being punished, now we can't have nice pictures in the back ground on our monitors, either.  We are allowed plain blue.

I suppose I will get used to it, but this switch to a new "brain box" was REALLY poorly handled.  For ME, anyway... not for anyone else.

Anyway, it's been a lovely weekend.  Coolish weather, and some gentle rain yesterday.  

Today is sunny, so Dave can get out and clean up the mess left behind by the old hot tub being taken away.

There was a lot of rotted wood underneath it that he shoved off of the patio into the grass, and that needs to be cleaned up.

I am cooking my first ever corned beef today.  So far, so good.  I remember my mom's smelling AWFUL, but this one smells pretty good so far.   

I brined it for three days, and then boiled it twice this morning, before putting it in the slow cooker.

I will make Colcannon later on, and got swiss cheese, marble rye bread, and Thousand Island salad dressing, so I can make Reuben sandwiches with some of the left over beef!!

I'm not catholic, and only a small percentage of my family's ancestry is Irish, but I'm doing it anyway!

If you're celebrating today, have fun!