Suckered Again

We're going to have to make some changes starting right now. I always try to see the good in people, especially in the kids who work for us. Most of them come from homes that don't have a lot, and it makes me feel good to be able to give them a job so they can earn money for themselves.

Last year I hired 3 siblings - 2 brothers and a sister. The brothers turned out to be very bad eggs - the youngest one was telling people he needed them to buy from him because he needed money for his father's heart surgery. Hello!!!! This is Canada - we don't PAY for health care! Told him not to bother coming back to work. Then the older brother got caught stealing a cell phone out of somebody's truck. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer - cell phones are pretty much traceable or easily cancelled. Fired sibling #2.

The sister worked all last summer and then kind of burned out so she just stopped showing up for work. She called me a month or so ago and asked if she could come back to work and I said sure. Everything was going along just great. She was reliable, hard working, and fun to be around. Also cute as a bug.

Once an order is written up by our crew it takes a while for it to filter down through the system. Today the shit hit the fan in a manner of speaking. 90% of all the orders Amanda wrote up last week are fake. I suspected something was going on when she gave me 7 credit card orders on Sunday - we don't usually get that many. My boss just called me to get me to check on a credit card number from the previous week, and sure enough - it's a fake phone, fake name, fake address.

She's out working with Reg right now - probably writing up more bad business. I have been so proud of her because she has shot to the top of the sales list and was on target to win all the prizes we've got for the end of the summer. I guess anybody can do that if they want to cheat.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I trusted her. I thought she was so different from her brothers. I let her pull the wool right over my eyes.

This is the last straw for me. I will have to get the police involved because I've been taken advantage of one too many times. Maybe if she gets a good scare thrown into her she'll straighten out before she gets into some very serious trouble.

Right now I feel like wringing her neck.

The Torture Chamber

Two weeks ago I woke up in excrutiating pain - in the butt. No laughing matter - it hurt to stand, it hurt to walk, it was impossible to run, and it mostly hurt to sit. I knew what the culprit was - the nasty piriformis muscle. It's a tiny little thing that hides under the glutes and when tightened up can press on the sciatic nerve. I knew what it was because I've had this problem before.

I knew it wouldn't go away on its own, so I called around to different massage therapists to try for an immediate appointment. My one stipulation was that the therapist had to be female because I knew this was going to be a bare-butt treatment. It's all very shrouded and all, but I just wanted a woman.

Fortunately I was able to get an appointment with Tamara. Health professionals are all starting to look like children to me - a sure sign of old age setting in. I told her the problem; she got me comfortable, and then proceeded to make me as uncomfortable as she could.

At one point she said, 'my goodness, you really have a high tolerance for pain,' to which I replied - 'oh no I don't, but since I'm paying by the minute I want this to work quickly - no pain breaks.'

After 45 minutes of trying to reach the trigger point with her fingers, her elbow, and probably her knee, the muscle still wouldn't let go. Tamara told me I had had enough for one day and I would have to come back for another treatment. That was Thursday. Friday morning my butt felt like ground chuck and I'm sure it was swollen to twice its size and probably black, although hubby assured me there were no visible bruises. No change on Saturday, but by Sunday it started to feel better. I could actually feel that the muscle had loosened up. I could bend over and touch my toes without pain and the stretches were no longer killing me.

Today I went for another treatment. Half an hour this time, and both of us knew within 10 minutes that the muscle was pliable again. YeeHAW!! What a relief!

I'm going to see Tamara every 4 weeks for a maintenance treatment. With all the running I do, my leg muscles take a lot of abuse and I need to keep this machine of mine finely tuned. *hysterical laughter*

Long Lost Blog

About the time I started to backslide, I deliberately forgot about this blog. How typical of me - just bury your head in the sand and it will all go away. Hmmm...afraid not. It's time for me to get really serious again about keeping my weight in check, or I will be headed back to fatland and I don't have that many years left to sort it all out...lol

The one thing that keeps me sane and reasonably fit is running - without it I don't even want to imagine where I might be. The days I don't run are the days I have serious binge problems, so the answer seems obvious - get out and run every day! I know the rules - I need rest days, and I do take them, but I try to run 5 times a week. I'll always love distance - I'm so slow I'll never be a 5k racer, but I love participating in that distance.

Time to get serious about another Half Marathon - that was probably the best day of my life, and the training was so much fun. The World Wide Half looks like the only thing available to me at this point, and I'll be doing it alone - and yet I won't be alone because there are thousands (millions) of others doing it at the same time. Training starts now. Stand back and give me room!! Oh - and if you hear me huffing and puffing behind you, you'd best be standing aside, because my eyesight ain't that good and I don't want to knock you over.

Peace - Out.