As I was about to enter the road from my driveway, the guy who cut the field across the road drove by on his tractor which was pulling his baler. I followed on my bicycle. Just before he turned off into the field his cap blew off his head. I picked it up and gave it to him once he stopped.
This was the first time I've ever chatted with him. I learned he lived 4 miles down the road. He mentioned that my neighbor down the road, Dick, had stopped and talked with him about the field he was cutting and the leafy splurge in it. I also found that when he cut the field last year another neighbor, Street, got on his case about cutting the field with the weeds in it. This guy found both Street and Dick obnoxious in telling him what to do. This is not the first time I have heard this.
This guy's wife was the former weed control official in two of the neighboring counties before she married this fellow. She now has her own weed spraying business and is even certified to apply herbicides near water. This year he left the leafy splurge patches uncut and his wife has already sprayed them once with Tordon.
I had a good chat with him and it was 12:28 when I finished. The music concert ended at 1:30 pm so it would be over half over by the time I got there. A good breeze made a stiff headwind. I decided to go anyway.
I got to the concert around 12:50 pm. The crowd was on the smaller side. I locked my bicycle to a light pole and put my shirt on. I found my favorite tree to lean against and watch the band.
The band was the Full Moon Prophets. They appeared to be a cover band that played rock music. They were good but they seemed more of a bar band and nothing very special. They seemed to be a little too loud for a lunch time concert as most acts have been acoustic or folk music. I didn't see many old people, but that may be because it was later when I finally arrived.
I didn't see Gary and after about 10 minutes I spotted Colleen with a Humane Society volunteer ("Kitty") and a couple of large dogs from the Humane Society. The dogs were wearing "Adopt me" vests. The dogs were real nice, calm, and well behaved. I petted the black one ("Harley") and he was shedding fur. Colleen's pants were covered in hair and soon Harley's fur was all over my shorts and legs.
Colleen had seen me ride up and then put my shirt on. We had a laugh about last year when some unknown woman left a note on Colleen's pickup about me not wearing a shirt during one of the Picnic in the Park concerts.
When it was time for Colleen and Kitty to return to the Humane Society office Colleen commented she had to go back to work unlike other people, (*cough* *cough*) who don't work. I protested, "Hey! I work!" and she then agreed that I did work.
It must have been another 10 minutes after Colleen left that I noticed Gary. He wasn't sitting in his usual spot. By the time I saw him the band was playing their last song. Gary and I chatted for a while after the concert was over.
Later in the afternoon I stopped and visited with Bob and Jan. My mother also called me later in the afternnoon to wish me a Happy Birthday.
The Express Employment Professionals company sent me a birthday card but no check for my work as an election judge. That took another day to arrive. Judging from the date the check was written, they had been holding the check for almost 3 weeks.
I had not checked my gopher traps for two days and the dead gopher I found stunk. I had to wash one trap off in the river as the dead gopher wrapped himself around the trap before dieing. Why aren't the hawks 'cleaning' the gophers up? There are still a few around as I seen a good sized red tailed hawk flying over the hayfield and being harassed by a small bird the other morning.
Now that the hay field has been cut I have seen and heard several bared owls each night calling out.
I found yet another leg hold gopher trap. I only knew of one missing trap and I had found that trap several days ago. I have no clue when I lost this trap. I wonder if it was one of my missing traps when the hawks took off with a gopher and trap last year? Anyway, it was a nice birthday present to get another gopher trap. That makes 17 gopher traps to my 7 for the pocket gophers.
After I checked my traps I spoke with Jim and his wife. They got two miniature horses and had bought a half dozen small green metal corral panels to fence them in along with a small loafing shed for them to have shelter in. Jim said he and his brother-in-law shot four gophers on his property over the weekend. There are still gophers left as we could see one chirping. I warned Jim the gophers will go underground by the end of July so get his shooting in earlier than later.
Jim made a comment about how it must be nice not having to work while I am so young. That's twice in one day where someone made a comment about my not working! *sheesh*
The mosquitoes are horrible. The newspaper says it is the worse in five years due to the high water being late. Because of the dry previous years those year's larvae are also hatching this year. Great...
My garden doesn't look so good. Only some stuff is coming up. I had planted seeds in small trenches for easier watering later. It looks like the inch and a half of rain washed dirt into the trenches partially filling them. It may be the seeds are now buried too deep.
2 comments:
Express Employment Professional never holds checks. They are ready to be picked up in our offices each Friday. We are more than happy to put them in the mail, IF you request us to do so.
I DID request the check to be mailed to me and it wasn't until I made the SECOND request.
I had spoken with an Express Employment Professional accountant in June as she was having a problem processing my federal withholding request. This request was the same way the Flathead Country was able to handle my withholding when I served as a judge in 2006 when the County handled the payment to election judges, and the County had no problems. But Express did. It didn't seem to fit with their way of doing things.
After a long frustrating conversation I told her to process my withholding the default way and then send me the check with the amount I was owed as Express was making this simple request harder than it had to be. She agreed. She appears to have processed my withholding the default way but never sent me the check.
No one from Express ever explained to me how they normally handle the checks. Express seems to be unclear on their check sending/holding process. While serving as an election judge other judges were discussing who got checks and who didn't from Express for their time of election judge training. Some got checks and some didn't, with people not knowing why they got their checks and others didn't.
Since Express was now handling the employment and payment for the County in regards to election judges, Express had a responsibility to clearly explain how their procedures now differed from how the County handled the payment procedures in the past for this work. The way the County worked was: we did the work, then the County sent us a check for payment. Simple.
But after seeing what bureaucratic crap Express now required for election judges (drug testing consent forms for little old retired ladies who have for years served as election judges?!) it appears we should have expected Express to make something simple, hard.
And what's up with checks? That's so outdated. My previous employer - for decades now, and most serious employers, directly deposit one's pay into one's financial institution.
That said, the Express person I spoke to a second time about my missing check was polite and courteous, quickly found my missing check, and sent it to me the next day.
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