Have you ever had your applecart upset? Who, these days has an apple cart anyway? When I was growing up, and my day went haywire (as it often did), my mum used to say “who upset your applecart?” Well, there are apples all over the floor of the digitizing room and they got there when my applecart got upset. We were at lunch when our supervisor called, and he asked us to call him back. So we left the lunch room and we needed to peruse the latest emails from the powers that be in an effort to figure out which of the folders we needed to check on, because one of them had been flagged, but in a recent email from the auditors, it was not mentioned and we could not figure out why or what happened. Well, when we were in the middle of ‘this thinking things through before calling back’, our supervisor was on the phone and he was hot under the collar. He started out with a barrage of questions for which I had not had time to collect the answers in readiness for his call, and then followed a string of directions that got me all flustered. You see, computers do not come naturally to me and all I have learned about them, I have had to really work at and each computer related activity and gleaned knowledge is hard won for me. This man seems to attack life like a cat on a hot tin roof, and when he starts throwing questions at me, with no time to think things through, I freeze up and cannot function under these conditions.
To start with, the person they had come to teach us the DcamX at the MTC, was more interested in telling stories of his fishing trips, mountain climbing expeditions, the plethora of petroglyphs through Utah and Idaho etc. that he theorizes are actually markers telling of the visits of Moroni on his way to the Hill Cumorah, Boating trips and anything other than the DcamX and ways to use it and things to watch out for. I, for one, was plunged into confusion over what was needed and how to produce it. Fast forward to Augusta, Maine, and we meet with our supervisor; even though we told him that we had not been trained much, if at all, he barged on through the program and gave us about 10 pages of this geek written computer stuff to familiarize ourselves with it before 8am the next day. My brains were mush after our first day, and we repeated the whole thing the next day with our supervisors staccato directions at each turn of the road and 10 pages of geek computer stuff to familiarize ourselves with by the next morning. The third day was the same and the fourth day he was with us for two hours before heading off to Boston to catch a plane home. We were washed out, washed up, and wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We finished our task for the day, packed up our stuff, took the shuttle to the Fed Ex place and went home to sleep and try to recoup. We started out on this mission exhausted from the “life in a blender” activities surrounding Bill retiring, missionary preparations, house preparations, 2 weeks in the MTC – in and of itself a tiring activity- and a 500 mile a day dash to New Hampshire. The only respite we had was 1 ½ days with Sara and family on our way to the mission field. Add to this, our son David suddenly announced that he was moving to a group home in Showlow/Snowflake area, after giving us his word that he would stay with the group home in Mesa till we got back next year. We had even made the extra effort to be in Mesa to introduce him to his new ward, a group of people who embraced him and welcomed him into their midst. These were the most welcoming people I have ever met where David has attended. He even went to church there for 3 weeks in a row which was in itself a real miracle.
So you can see, the apples had begun to fall out of my cart when the phone rang. It is probably a lot easier to get into the Celestial Kingdom than it is to please this supervisor and his superiors. The upshot of this whole brouhaha is this, because of our difficulty, 1). an error was found in the book of directions for operating the camera, 2). an innovation into the process of digitizing that was devised by our supervisor was found to be flawed, and 3). Communication between policy makers and policy users (users in this case being Bill and I) did not take place and so we got roasted by our supervisor for not doing what was asked. Well, you have to be asked first before you can comply.
Many years ago I used to buy Vogue dress patterns because they were classy dresses in the picture that accompanied the pattern. One has to be quite adept at sewing clothing to use a Vogue pattern because they assume that you know some pretty nitty gritty stuff to turnout the dress that you see. Haute couture is high end stuff and it is like coming to a meal half way through the main course and you have missed the appetizer, the hors doovers (a friend of mine used to use this term for a laugh), the aperitif and the ice water. Dessert comes way later, but before you is a half eaten main course that you have to finish off and you are unfamiliar with the ingredients or how it looked before someone ate the first half. Well, that is how this introduction to digitizing is turning out. We have come in having missed the introductory phases and now we are in the middle of the effort and the end result is somewhat out of reach. Is it any wonder I like Simplicity patterns – they assume nothing, teach you everything, and the end result is like the picture. I like going to I-Hop to eat – I can read the pictures.
When the interrogation today was over and the problem somewhat fixed, my brains were total mush and if I was asked to describe how I viewed myself I would have to say that I resembled Beetle Bailey after Sgt. Snorkle had beaten the tar out of him – a flattened mess with arms and legs all tangled up in a heap on the ground.
In need of some Balm of Gilead, respite from the storm and time to smooth ruffled feathers, I mentally took a trip to Lincoln, Nebraska. I visited the JoAnn’s store with Sara and we laughed and had fun looking at all the stuff and chasing the little ones in and out the racks of stuff. We went to the nearby Pizza hut where Oliver ate and ate and ate pizza and Lyla took a shine to the chocolate pudding scooped up with bread sticks. We visited St. Louise thrift store where we dressed Oliver in the little sailor suit that he refused to wear. We watched Lyla pack the shopping bag with ‘stuff’ and carry it over her arm with the handles in the crook of her elbow and her hand extended above her head in an effort to keep the bag from dragging on the floor. We found a picture frame and put Oliver in it and took his picture. He showed me the game section and we did not find any that the kids would like to play. I went to the bead store and found some wonderful stuff. I played chick chick with the kids and their laughter and squeals filled my soul with light. In taking this mental trip, I applied Balm of Gilead to my roughed up soul and tried to regain peace and quiet
My store of the Balm of Gilead is in my memory bank and I can make trips and spend time soothing and comforting a soul that has become disheveled and shredded. And so it goes………………………….
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