Random Thoughts

Four blogs in four days ... I'd say I've started out the new era of Luke's Ponderings quite well, wouldn't you say? And I'm hoping that with more blog postings, more people will visit and read what I have to say! I've heard from a lot of bloggers out there who started small and wrote mainly about personal things in their lives. But then they branched out - discussing music, entertainment, celebrities, you name it. More people visited their blogs and they continued expanding by including video content and holding live chats. If I work hard enough, that's definitely something I'd like to achieve. And hey, if I get popular enough and can earn money from this blog, then maybe I can quit my job! Ah well, one can dream, right? But it's certainly happened to a few out there.

RUMMAGE SALE
Its already been a week since my sister and I hosted a garage sale at my house. We were a bit skeptical at how well the sale would go, but all in all, I'd say it was a success. We had plenty of items for people to buy and we stayed quite busy until 1:00 in the afternoon. From then until the sale closed at 3:00, it slowed right down. A few people came, but they mostly left without buying an item. The way I feel about it is that if people come to check out a rummage sale, the least they can do is buy something. Heck, we had many different things priced at 25 cents. Yet, I understand if they come looking for one item and we don't have it. Some people look for collectibles like antiques and dishware. I had a few items for sale that could be qualified as antiques and they sold. Obviously you always hope that everything sells at a rummage sale, but that's quite impossible. I'd say we sold about half of everything we had on sale - which is pretty decent. And it ended up being the most profitable rummage sale my sister has been a part of. So that says a lot.

MUCH NEEDED RAIN
Our spring and early summer weather has been pretty spectacular for the Upper Peninsula's standards. But one thing we've desperately needed that we haven't gotten a lot of is rainfall. For the year, we're close to five inches short of our average rainfall. The month of May was very dry - I don't think we picked up even a half-inch of rain for the entire month. Fire danger region-wide was very high but luckily, no major wildfires broke out. But ever since the month of June has started, we've finally picked up some much needed rain. In fact today, we finally saw our first all-day soaking rainfall of the season. All of the rain events that have occurred since the snow melted have been quick, showery-type of events. So this was nice to see and it'll help green up the grass that has already started to dry out.

MANDATORY OVERTIME
We've been forced overtime at work this past week and next week as part of a major clean-up initiative in the plant. I am not a big fan of overtime in general, so being forced to work two additional hours ontop of an eight-hour shift can be a bit of a struggle. But I guess I shouldn't complain too much because in today's economy, finding work is extremely difficult, especially here in the Upper Peninsula where good paying jobs are few and far between. That's why I wish they'd hire more workers where I am employed. They claim it costs them less to force us to work overtime than to hire more people. And that makes sense, especially when they have to give new employees benefits. We are getting some relief in the form of summer students joining the various departments at the mine. However, they are only around until the summer months. Hopefully at least we'll be able to keep the plant clean from here on out!