My brother took some time off from work last week and came up for a visit. Sadly, I worked most of the week, but we had some time during the weekend to catch up. The kids are always happy to see their uncles. We got to spend Friday evening with them before the kids went to bed.
On Saturday, we stopped at this little collectibles shop in town. They have all kinds of cool stuff in there. They have vinyl albums, various figures/dolls (Star Wars, Superheroes and such), comic books, video games, model cars and trucks, a ton of those POP figures, and loads of autographed sports memorabilia. I always love walking through this place. He found a few things to add to his collections and the kids got a couple things, too.
After that, we were off to the book store. They always bring the kids stuff when they come up, but this time, they wanted to take them out to chose something. Ella loves books, so she wanted to go to the book store. They told the kids they could pick two books each. Well, Ella had five books she wanted. I told her that I would buy her one of the books that my brother didn’t buy. My kids, being the amazing bargainers that they are, talked my brother into buying them one book and one stuffed animal.
I liked having my brother there, because that allowed me to browse the new books that came out. It never fails, the 4-5 books that I have been waiting for have all come out within the last two weeks. I suppose I will have to get them at the library, because I certainly don’t have the money to get them all.
Sunday morning we met at Cracker Barrel and had breakfast together. Sam, who worked Friday and Saturday night, was able to come to breakfast with us. It was nice that she got to see them before they headed home. I hope that one day soon we can get down to Ohio to visit them.
Because I am an idiot, I forgot to go get new tabs for my license plates. Sam got pulled over on her way home Sunday morning, so I told her I would go to the kiosk inside the Secretary of State to get them. There is one right inside the doors of our local office. When I walked in, I was greeted with an out of order message.
So, I did a Google search for another kiosk. I drove 10 miles away and walked up to that kiosk to find the same message. Once again I searched for a kiosk and drove 12 miles to that one. This one was in the grocery store. As I walked over to the machine, a store employee said that it completely shut down. With every place I went, I got more and more angry. I tried on more place, which was about 11 miles from me. When I walked in, there was a couple who were at the machine and it was working. They were able to scan their registration, pay for their registration, and then the machine said it was printing their tabs.
The problem is that the machine stayed on this screen with out printing their registration or tabs. After about 10 minutes, they guy called the number on the machine to find out what was going on.
He was on the phone for 20 minutes and was basically told that there was an issue with the machine. The guy was told that they could mail him his registration and it would get to him in 7-14 days. He argued that he needed them now. He asked if they could email him something to say he paid for it, but they told him no. With that, me and the three people behind me all left.
I told my wife about what happened and she couldn’t believe it. A few minutes later, she said to me “There is a kiosk in Saginaw. You can try that one.” Honestly, I didn’t want to drive another 30 minutes, but I did. When I walked up to the machine, it was stuck on that “Printing registration” screen. So, some other poor driver also got screwed out of getting his registration. The guy at the grocery store said to me, “It looks like all the kiosks are down throughout the state.”
Thanks for letting me know, pal.
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On Monday, they kids had a late T-ball game. I can’t understand why they have T-ballers play at 7pm. It always makes for a late bedtime for the kids.
The kids were ready to play and each had some impressive at bats and fielding plays. I love how ready they are in this picture.
Every once in a while, I catch a really cool picture. That happened Monday night. Andrew fielded a ball at shortstop and tossed the ball to first base. Check out this action shot –
Yesterday, I had to be up 3 hours early to be at work to teach my first CPR class. My co-worker and I taught it together. We had to do it in front of one of the American Heart Association people. This class was our final step to getting “Instructor” status. Thankfully, our students were also co-workers. We were both still nervous, but we pulled it off. Our co-workers were all pulling for us.
Knowing them, made things a lot easier. I felt that I could throw in a funny line every now and then. For example, when you turn on the AED, it walked you through what to do. “Remove patient clothing. Place pads on bare skin. Analyzing rhythm. Shock required. Do not touch the patient. Administer shock.” Well, our AEDs were not working the way they should have. They kept repeating to put on pads. No one is sure why. So when we did the practice session, I said what the AED was supposed to say – sort of.
The student brought the AED to the table and opened it. She pretended to turn it on (because we knew they weren’t working), and I became the AED voice. “Remove clothing….” and after an awkward pause, I said, “….the patient’s clothing!” This got the entire room laughing. Maybe you had to be there.
I sent a note out to all of the co-workers who were in our first class and thanked them for being patient with us. I stated that despite a few hiccups, we thought the class went well. With that e-mail, I sent along this crazy AI creation:
I’m always out for a good laugh.
My co-worker and I passed our evaluation and are now confirmed CPR Instructors.
I hope you are having a great week!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 