Bringing Back the 90s

A few weeks ago I broke the dog mug when I was loading the dishwasher. This mug has had several lives. I think that originally mrguy and I originally each had one. There is some connection with the Big Guy, and we're not sure what it is. Maybe it's just the time frame?

After it lived as a coffee mug, the dog mug it had a second life in the cat medicine cabinet
as a holder of syringes, tubes of hairball ointment, and the like.

In the last year or so it came back into circulation as a coffee mug. It is sooooo 1990s!! Love it.

And then, as the Big Guy would say "The chick BROKE it".

We paused for a sad moment and then I decided I'd find a replacement. Within a few minutes I'd ordered a dog mug on Etsy, and who knew but there was a companion CAT mug on ebay. We waited until this morning to open the packages. While drinking his coffee out of my Charles and Diana mug (also a replacement for a favorite broken mug) mrguy was extolling the virtues of the dog mug's capacity and handle, while indicating that he was possibly drinking out of a lady mug. He'll drink out of my Hardanger dancers mug (bought in Ballard with the Big Guy) because it has a good handle, but that dog mug was just right.

Here they are, together for the first time:

Thank you, ebay and Etsy, saving my bacon yet again.

OK, But Then

On the first day that the laid off people did not come back to work, John Deere offered voluntary retirement to leaders 50 and over. These folks aren't deadwood. They're the people who make the forklifts, and we are a forklift company. I'm asking everybody -- did you get the email? And then they ask me the same and I tell them that I'm not even a manager, and we continue the conversation.

Lots of people will take the offer and leave to work at our competition. Whole (very small) departments who serve what John Deere asks for will implode if everyone takes the offer. What Deere doesn't realize is that at Hammerslag, even if you are Director-level, you're an individual contributor who is holding an important part of the company together.

Developing...sometimes I laugh at the madness.

I Graduated! If By That I Mean I Got Kicked Out

Oh August, you surprising motherfucker. 

Today, on the day that the fired people stayed home, I promised to pivot away from sadness to acceptance. I made a point of eating my lunch away from my desk, so I could get used to who is missing. Then while I was in line to order my food I got an email suggesting politely that I move along from my Alzheimer's caregiver support group, since my mom is dead. True, I haven't been on-topic since mrguy got cancer. But I do talk about Alzheimer's, and I've been holding down the fort for 10 years. I am the OG. The suggestion was that I join a cancer support group. That this is not a social group.

Message received. 

I am not returning to say goodbye, although these *are* my people. It would just be too sad. I wrote to one of the group members, sharing my situation and thanking her for the years of support. Her person is also departed, so she got the same email. 

During another August, in 2010, we got kicked out of our ukulele band. Our bandleader referred to it as us graduating. Over the years we'd heard in whispers about people graduating. Where's Kaunaloa? Oh, she graduated. After a while you'd learn that the person committed some offense, and was asked to leave. I've shared this story, I know, but it still smarts. Our offense was creating a small group and practicing together so that we could play the open mic at the restaurant owned by our bandleader. At a band event where our bandleaders expected to entertain one another.

I want to repeat that in that situation our bandleader's son was so upset with the graduation that he didn't speak to his parents for a year. And they changed the band rules that they'd made up in order to fire us and asked us to rejoin the band. 

It's a different situation, but it still smarts and I did burst into tears. It is time to move on, but I will miss these people. I love them and want to hear about their struggles and their lives.

Oh well.

I'll try to pivot again tomorrow.

Salt Kelp Manager

During the last basho, clam brought over some new snacks, and I saved the wrapper because I love this guy:

When I told mrguy that this had contained shiso candy he said something to the effect of "When I see this guy that's definitely what I think is in the package", so I looked him up. When I asked Google AI for more information about Shio-Konbucho, this is what it told me:

"Shio-Konbucho (塩こん部長), which translates to "Salt Kelp Manager," is the highly successful, dramatic mascot for the Kurakon Foods Corporation. First introduced onto packaging by the marketing department in 2007, the character single-handedly reversed stagnant product sales and sparked consecutive years of double-digit growth.

Key Facts About the Character

The Dramatic Persona: He is illustrated in a classic, intense, thick-lined gekiga manga style. He wears a standard salaryman suit and tie, usually with his jacket slung over his shoulder or making an intensely passionate face while discovering a new food combination.

The Name Pun: His name is a deliberate Japanese wordplay (pun) combining Shio Kombu (salted kelp) and Bucho (department manager).His Corporate "Role": According to Kurakon, he is a highly talented General Manager whose entire job is coming up with creative recipe suggestions to show how versatile savory seaweed can be in everyday cooking.

Interactive Marketing: The character has an active social media presence in Japan where he "replies" to customer comments using a commanding corporate-boss tone while sharing recipes. He also regularly stars in live-action television commercials portrayed by actors.Collaborations: Beyond traditional kelp bags, his massive popularity has allowed him to branch out into collaborative snack items like the Daimaru Honpo Plum Candy shown in your image, as well as limited-edition corn snacks."

I will now attach him to my final work notebook.