Cyonomys Ludovicianus(or the black tailed prairie dog)

He pokes his head up,his whiskers twitch,alert and ready he watches for signs of danger or in my bosses' case for anyone to make one wrong move.Make no mistake he is ALWAYS watching and takes note of everything you do...for you are ,sadly, just a stepping stone on his path to success.What I am talking about here my fellow bloggers is my boss who I cannot name but for those who know me will know exactly who I am writing about. For those who do not know me this is as much of a rant as it is an analysis in character. Anyone who in the least offended by this blog has no business being here reading it in the first place. I am as a person living in a free country entitled to my opinion. So take it for what it is ..my opinion. My boss came to the place I work about 9 years ago he has since moved up the ladder very quickly...Someone several years back coined the nickname "prairie dog" for him because he is always skulking about..popping his head up amongst the machines to see if he can see any wrongdoings from his subordinates. From now on for the simplicities sake I will refer to him as PD...When the announcement was made last year that PD was coming to my department there was a huge uproar because we already had heard what he was like and knew we were in for a rough go. People from his old area warned us about him..about how he wasn't to be trusted..to watch our backs..etc. At first he tried to present himself as being very easy going..."yes changes had to be made""yadayada.."he didn't want to rock the boat" Trying to lull us into thinking he was not the manipulating control freak that he really is. The bottom line is that he has absolutely NO idea what we endure as shift workers....the stress on our bodies,screwed up sleep patterns, strenuous repetative physical work, issues with equipment, and now alot of us have been there a long time and we are aging and are bodies are breaking down. we struggle just to go to work each day. Yes I know we should be happy to have a job but that isn't the point here. The point here is that our opinions mean naught to him and since he has arrived in our area more than half the people have left..I'm not sure but I think 18 or so of experienced workers have left because of him. Before PD came along it was very rare that people left my department. So now , while having to deal with the usual issues .we have to deal with not having enough trained and experienced people to go around which make some shifts in a word...hell.PD has implemented special procedures to follow to document our evry move while at our machine..paperwork and checks galore before each shift that also have to be signed by our Team Leader AND floor Supervisor!..But no ..this has not been good enough for PD he now has forced a schedule that all 4 crews will follow, which we have not had any say in the matter what so ever!He wouldn't even listen to our valid concerns about it,On the schedule one person must start there 1st break only a half an hour into the 12 hour shift(we get 4 thirty minute breaks)This same person will miss lunch in the cafeteria because there lunch break starts too soon. This just the tip of the iceberg of how ludicrous he is. He wants only 1 person to run 2 machines for 8 hours..and as the Joint Health and Safety Person I am going to see if this is a safe thing to do.PD once let me peek at his palm, and what I seen in the 5 minutes that I looked at it was a person who although is highly intelligent does not let emotions come into play while making a decision....this is how he can be such a prick. If I were a boss I would like for people to enjoy coming to work..to feel that they could approach me with a problem and I would listen,gather the facts then act. I would try to earn people's respect and PD has not one iota of respect from anyone (that I know of anyway). People now rather have an absolute burning hatred towards him..and ridicule him behind his back all the time ..hence Prairie Dog..but it doesn't stop there through the areas where he has been there are constant reminders of him..etchings of prairie dogs in walls,equipment, cut outs posted every now and agian..if you can name it it's been done.PD KNOWS this is going on and apparently the next time someone does something he is going to get to the bottom of it and have them fired! I think he just has that I'll show them attitude..and according to a good source he has been an idiot all his life. Give an idiot some power and nothing good will come of it. If he only had one speck of people skills and a smidgen of heart he might be able to start to succed at being a manager..it the difference between saying to someone"you have ROTTEN breath!!" as opposed to "this new gum is good would you like some?"It is all in the way you you present stuff you can catch alot more flies with honey than vinegar has always been my motto...I do not not know what is going to happen to all of us at work but it is getting almost unbearable..just like prison,,you can't even take a shit without having to explain yourself. I know that all our protests will continue to fall on deaf ears..But PD should take heed ..as much as he is watching us we are watching him...and there is power in many

The Dolphin Experience..Magic, Miracle or Coincidence?

Today I am going to share an experience that happened to me 3 years ago in Huatulco Mexico. My husband and I were there with friends on a 2 week vacation. At the resort we were hearing murmurings of dolphin sightings and we decided we would hire a boat to take us out to see if we would be fortunate enough to see some ourselves. Our first excursion was interesting and fun but we only managed to see some sea turtles in the ocean. Huatulco Mexico is a beautiful place on the Pacific that all along the coastline are beautiful hidden beaches and coves. Our first excursion took us to many of these coves, but like I said no dolphins. So two days later we decided that we would hire a boat to take us 16 miles out to sea and do a little deep sea fishing in the meantime. Tico our driver was quite the character,he spoke english quite well and was a wealth of knowledge about the area. The guys wanted to try their hand at deep sea fishing and they caught a few good sized tuna. I was reminded of how my dad used to take me fishing when I was a girl and I shared some funny stories with our small group. My dad died 5 and a half years ago, and since then whenever I find a fluffy white feather I know he is near, that day after I had finished telling my fishing stories I looked down to the sea and lo and behold there was a fluffy white feather bobbing beside the boat..i knew my dad was there with me so I asked him if he could send me a dolphin ..over and over for a few minutes I silently sent the message. Janet who knows I am Wiccan asked me if I was sending out the Dolphin Call..I said yes I sent out the call but we all needed to do it.And so after about 2 hours of fishing and 16 miles out I was beginning to think that we where on a fruitless expedition and I was starting to lose hope..until Tico spotted something way ahead...he said to us "look way out there" At first we didn't see what his trained eye was seeing but as we got closer we realized that what we were seeing was the splashings of dolphins...and in Tico's estimation over 1000 of them, closer and closer we got until we were right in the midst of them...It was absolutely the most amazing and beautiful experiences of my entire life! The sun was shining the ocean was sparkling like diamonds and as far as the eye could see all around us were dolphins jumping,playing and splashing. the tears were streaming down everyone's faces for the sight was beyond amazing . Janet managed to get pictures of the dolphins leaping inot the air.We spent about 45 minutes with the dolphins and on are way back to shore we encountered another smaller group. I was so happy ,I said to my dad who was undoubtedly there with me "Dad I only asked for one dolphin..you didn't have to send every one in the ocean!" laughing as I said it. It was truly a magical event and no one who was present on that boat could deny that there was magic in the air that day. Tico himself told us he had never seen such a large group of dolphins.As long as I live I will never forget that day, and I feel honoured and priveledged to have witnessed such a sight.If anyone else has had a similar experience I would like to hear about it.