Blog shift and my mom's deteriorating memory

I may shift the content focus on my blog down the road. 

I still don't have anything to write about that pertains to spanking. I don't have anyone to spank or administer one on me. Frankly, spanking hasn't been on my mind as much as it used to be.

Maybe it's the result of a not-so-great breakup and having the ex return wanting sex, but not a relationship. I thought that he was special and sweet. I was wrong.

My mom's memory is fading away. Today, she was watching some program on TV and managed to pause it.

I asked her why there wasn't any sound coming from the TV. She first said that the entire neighbourhood was experiencing a power outage. I let her know that there was a picture on the screen, so there was power. She then said that there was nothing on TV.

I found the remote and pressed the play button. Programming resumed.

It's weird how my mom will make excuses when asked a question, as if she's covering up something. I think it's more that she doesn't remember and she has to conjure up reasons that make sense to her. Her reasoning makes no sense to others.

Allergic reaction when drinking pop from plastic bottles

It has taken me a while to narrow down an allergic reaction. For the past couple of weeks or so, my lips would dry up and they'd be itchy around my lips.

At first, I thought it was my toothpaste and dental floss that I was using while stateside. Nope.

Recently, I noticed that my lips would get itchy when I drank either Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi. The formulation of these two products are different, so I didn't think it was the type of pop.

Both drinks were in plastic bottles. I drank from plastic Diet Pepsi bottles in the States. I realized that I'm allergic when I drink directly from plastic bottles.

I'm not sure whether it'll be better if I pour the pop out of the bottle and into a cup to consume, or stick a straw into the bottle. There wouldn't be any plastic contact with my lips. I also don't know whether the plastic would seep into the pop. I have more tests to do. 

The safe bet is to drink pop from cans or get fountain drinks. I haven't any issues with these formats.

I'm so glad that I have narrowed it down. It's such an odd allergy to have, but at least I know what to do when it happens. I have been using hydrocortisone cream around my lips to stop the itchiness and it works.

Playful smack

On Wednesday, I was talking to my friends, who are also business owners. They are husband and wife.

They are a wonderful couple and I'm so happy that we have forged a beautiful friendship. It was my first time seeing the husband smack the backside of his wife in a playful manner.

Man, the sound of that smack echoed throughout the room. It made me happy to see such affection. It was also arousing.

I haven't talked about spanking for a long time, mainly because I haven't been all that interested since I broke up with the ex. It's a weird side effect of a breakup. The interest is there. It's simply dormant.

New writers and thoughts about them

For nearly three weeks, I have been training two new writers who have joined our team. Both are contractors. One is a young man. The other is an older woman.

It's like night and day with these two. The young man is curious and learns quickly. I see him fitting in well and doing a great job in his role.

The older woman has issues. The first is comprehension. I will mention specific details in an e-mail and she will miss reading them. Something as simple as our manager saying to not come into the office did not register at all in her mind.

I had this brief text chat yesterday, for instance:

I noticed going through her work that involved reading a report that she doesn't pay attention to details. She asked me whether we had an answer when we barely read through it. It makes more sense to me that she does not read carefully -- that she jumps from section to section -- almost as if she's in a rush or is impatient.

She didn't read this exercise carefully. I've noticed this issue with the previous three.

Her third exercise was interesting. She missed step 5. She managed to change step 9 when it wasn't called for. She didn't bother doing steps 10 and 11. Yet, she said that she was done and that her output was the same as her male peer in our training session.

Um, no.

I remember asking her, rather politely, why certain steps were omitted or missed. Typically, when you are following a procedure, you do each step sequentially. I asked if there were too many concepts presented to her. She said maybe. Hmm.

I have concerns about her. I don't think that she'll do well because she can't grasp simple concepts expressed in exercises or messages. She jumps all over the place when reading text and almost seems like she can't focus.

It's weird.

I have both new writers on my team. I get to continue to work with them, which is a breath of fresh air with the young man. However, it requires more effort on my part to work with the older woman and her omitting key details in whatever she is working on.

It's be interesting.

Cell phone didn't charge overnight

I plugged in my phone last night to charge. For some reason, I had 33% battery power this morning.

I don't know whether the USB cable is acting up or if my phone had overheated while I was asleep. Weird.

Luckily, I didn't have to go anywhere today, so it continued to charge at home. I typically don't go out on Sundays, so it all worked out nicely.

Folks needing to comment and looking ridiculous during it

I got a bit annoyed with a comment that someone had left me the other day. She was responding to my review of a salad establishment.

She basically asked why I was craving salad for a month when I could have bought some at the grocery store. This person decided to nitpick one particular sentence without seeing the greater picture.

It's not like I was sitting on my salad craving for a month, which was her interpretation. If she had looked at my other reviews or photos, she would have seen salads before and after this review. 

I basically told her that it didn't make sense doing grocery shopping in a city an hour away, heading home to toss a salad with my grocery items, and returning to this city to resume my errands. I wasted time writing an explanation. It should have been unnecessary, but she truly didn't get it.

I find that with social media, folks feel the need to comment on everything. She was being mildly critical without understanding that I needed to eat lunch and decided to get some at an eatery. 

Sometimes, less is more. It's the case here.

Being in the same online meeting with the ex and hearing his voice

This morning, I had a knowledge session at work. We all connect online. 

The ex-guy was apparently chatting with a presenter whom I work closely with when I joined the session. I heard his voice. He said a single word that I couldn't make out. I have a feeling that he saw my name and reacted by saying some word before he stopped talking.

I hadn't heard his voice since June 2019. It was weird.

I was okay. I am okay. As long as we don't interact, I'm fine. 

We still work for the same employer. It helps that we aren't in the office and we are in different departments. Otherwise, it would be awkward.

Sports and rankings

The Toronto Raptors lost last night. The team is out of the playoffs.

The Minnesota Wild won in overtime. It's down to the wire to determine whether it gets home ice or not for the first round of the playoffs.

It's a bit of a pain for me. I am at a holding pattern to book anything. I want to fly down and see a couple of games, but I can't until I know whether the team is in second place in their division (home ice advantage) or third (they play at least games 3 and 4 at home).

It's best that the team gets home ice. They do better. However, it would be cheaper for me to fly down to the Twin Cities if they don't get home ice advantage. It means that I can fly during the weekday, which is cheaper. If they start playing next Monday, flights aren't cheap!

Such a weird problem to have. I like booking ahead, but I can't in this instance.

Sore wrist with minor swelling

Friday is here. Yay!

I have a sore left wrist. I also have a bit of swelling. My guess is that one end of my cuff bracelet dug into it while my head rested on it as I slept.

I need to sleep differently.

It's weird. I took my cuff bracelet off and hope that the swelling subsides.

Skype and the ex-guy

I don't use Skype as much as I used to. I have it installed on my work laptop. I used to chat with my ex-guy when he was on the road.

These days, all I do is upgrade my Skype app. 

He has two Skype accounts. I used to be connected to both. When he broke my heart, I removed both accounts from my contacts list.

I still have our chat history. I went there and he had sent me a contact request.

I don't know when he had sent it. I made it clear to him that I want nothing to do with him.

He remains unconnected on Skype.

Winter tires and appraisal

When I filed my insurance claim on Saturday, I decided to give uploading photos of my car's damage to an appraiser a try. I was supposed to get a link to upload them within 24 hour. I never got it.

I got my insurance advisor's name and sent him an e-mail. He was kind to not only write to me, but also call me.

He let me know that there are problems with this link. He first offered to get an appraiser to come to my home to inspect my car's damage. He then asked where I wanted to get my car fixed. I had a shop that I worked with in the past. He let me know that it does both appraisals and the actual work.

He arranged to get my claim information to them and I could simply drop by. After getting my winter tires installed, I drove over there.

The man helping me was nice, but not all there. He couldn't find my claim number after we verified it three times. He finally found it in his system.

He then couldn't get the printer to work. His counterpart wasn't wearing a mask when the sign on the door clearly stated that everyone needed a mask. Hmm...

He then asked whether I knew what my deductible was. I said that it was waived because I had reported the incident to the police. He asked me to check with my insurance. I said no. I got that fact from my insurance advisor this morning.

Sure enough, this guy saw the note that my insurance advisor had made on waiving the deductible. Yes, I don't need to do any checking.

Weird. I had a better experience my first time at this shop. Maybe he needed some caffeine.

Ophthalmologist appointment without the cafe next door

I've got an ophthalmologist appointment today. It's weird that this place no longer does reminder calls.

It will feel weird dropping by. My favourite cafe next door closed in late August. There's a bubble tea place, but it opens at noon. I never stay there long enough to drop by.

SIM card activations online and notifications are annoying

Yesterday, I bought a new SIM to activate on my old phone for my dad. Trying to activate this physical SIM online with a specific cell phone provider isn't working.

Why does a straightforward procedure tend to be so aggravating. I don't get it.

Chat support is unavailable right now. We'll see if it's available later on today.

Last night, I didn't sleep well. For some reason, my hybrid smartwatch vibrates whenever it disconnects from my phone. It never did that before. I changed the notification setting off. My alarms thankfully still work.

Technology is great and frustrating simultaneously.

Pushback from a colleague that rubbed me the wrong way

At work, a couple of months ago, I was given a task to take data from two horrible spreadsheets and create documents out of them. I am doing this task again for our upcoming software release.

I have made it clear that I don't want to be stuck with this task forever. I was given this task because I am normally the one who is good with taking a first stab in designing it and outlining a potential process. 

My manager agreed. He met to with my two peers who have taken over my software release work. He wants them to own this task. I was also in attendance. 

One of them did not like it. He basically asked me what my challenges were. He then said that was the reason for this meeting was that I needed help.

I find that when I handled everything on our team, very few people on my team understood just how much work I did. I have done this grunt work for far too long that I have better things to do. Anyone can do this work. I have earned it. My experience and performance speak volumes.

My manager put his foot down and said that he wants them to own this task because it's considered a part of the release work. It's true. They don't realize that I have been handling another task for years that anyone can do, but I am stuck with that for years. I shouldn't carry the burden of having two such tasks.

It was interesting to see how this guy started to push back on this task and the second task that was discussed. It was fascinating observing him.

I am on my Chromebook. I love it. Such a great purchase.

Ordered takeout from the wrong location

I did something odd last night. I ordered takeout with my app, which isn't all that weird. I didn't realize that it defaulted to a place roughly an hour away from where I was. I drove to the closest restaurant where I thought that I had placed my order.

I had already paid for my meal and it was ready. It was too far away for me to pick it up. So, I had to cancel and forfeit my purchase. I was oddly okay with it and hope that someone else orders the same meal.

It was so weird. I normally am pretty careful about location. I'll need to pay more attention next time.

Thunderstorms, a weird transaction, and telehealth

It's thunderstorming hard right now. We are under a severe thunderstorm warning. Here's hoping that it's not as bad as it sounds outside.

I noticed earlier yesterday that I have a pending transaction on my credit card that I do not recognize. I can't dispute it because the transaction hasn't gone through my account. It's a bit of a concern.

I am going to try telehealth soon to see if I can renew a prescription online. We'll see how that goes.

Birthday recap

My birthday was lovely. I spent the day picking up birthday perks and ordering food that I love.

My list of fun perks consists of these items:

• Starbucks - free drink
• Chapters - bought Richard Marx's new book as my gift to me
• The Body Shop - $10 off any purchase
• Sephora - free birthday gift (I chose a mini face cream and lip mask set)
• Kettleman's Bagel - free dozen bagels (I went with onion)
• Denny's - free grand slam breakfast when you show your ID (pay for tax only)
• Fat Ninja Bite - a local Korean eatery where I got dinner

It was a great day.

The only downside was getting two e-cards from the ex. I don't know why he sent two seven minutes apart. I haven't opened them. I don't want them spoiling my weekend. Frankly, I don't think that I want them to spoil my life.

Week 2 of my staycation begins. It has been relaxing so far.

The weekend and an appointment change

My weekend is coming to a close. I often wonder why weekends end up blowing by so quickly and the workweek tends to not do the same thing.

I am contemplating changing my in-person doctor's appointment to having it over the phone like I have been since this pandemic started. The woman at the lab made it in-person. I don't trust her judgment. Half a year ago, she insisted that I get my health card updated even though expired ones are considered valid during this pandemic.

We'll see what happens. I dread waiting because it's horrendous and I could be doing better things with my time.

Heat warning this weekend

We've got a heat warning this weekend. We've got temperatures over 30°C, accompanied by humidity. Lovely!

I have a few pickups to do later on today. I'm excited, but will also need to stay cool and hydrated.

It's weird how a week ago, it snowed. It now feels like the middle of summer.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Canadians don't celebrate Memorial Day

It's the Memorial Day long weekend in the States. A handful of Americans on a social site that I'm on were nice to wish me a happy Memorial Day weekend. They meant well.

The problem? I'm Canadian. I don't have this day off.

I can understand that perhaps we are similar in many regards. I am mindful of holidays that Canadians have, but Americans don't, and vice-versa. However, I seem to be frequently grouped in these well wishes. I wish that I weren't.

I've actually had to tell three people over the weekend that Canadians don't celebrate it. They don't seem to check where anyone is from and default to everyone being American. One of them apologized, which was nice. The other two didn't say a thing.

The next holiday is Canada Day on July 1st and the 4th of July for my neighbours. I normally don't get too many mix-ups, but there could be a first for everything. I'll keep you posted.