May 12-18, 2019

Weather | 5/12, 0.07" rain, 41°, 49° | 5/13, 38°, 63° | 5/14, 0.01" rain, 45°, 67° | 5/15, 55°, 76° | 5/16, 57°, 86° | 5/17, 64°, 85° | 5/18, 0.78" rain, 65°, 72° |

• Sunday (5/12): Kids called Mary. Rough time for Katie right now with job, government pay, and friend. Bill is looking to get a new job within the month. I called Mom. Karen visited Mom. Karen and Mom will visit Denver to a memorial service for Aunt Lois in June. I trained between 11 am and 5:30 pm at work...2 of 6 classes canceled due to Mother's Day.
• Monday (5/13): Trained 2 classes at 6 & 7 pm, each with 3 dogs per class. New additions...a mini schnauzer called Freddy, who I trained in Level 1, and now is in Level 2, he crapped twice...obviously potty training doesn't work for Freddy; and a golden doodle called Ellie. Shane told me I'm working 4 days a week through June, because Bill Fawcett is taking all of June off. We were number 1 in the country in services (dog training & grooming) last week, which involves 6,000 Petco stores. Mary allocated monies into savings, and mowed hip-high grass in the far garden.
• Tuesday (5/14): Figured average dog training commissions for this year and figured pay through June and beyond. I figure I'll have to quit Oct 5th in order to not go over Social Security's income limit and still be able to get SS. Plan on presenting this info to decision makers at work, since they keep upping the hours I work each week. Looked up where I'm going to in St. Louis and drive times. Packed & left for Bill's place. We walked to ate at a sports bar call Mattingly's. Bill has a very nice small apartment.
• Wednesday (5/15): Up at 5, showered and ate breakfast at Bill's. Left at 6:45am for Stray Rescue of St. Louis, which is in downtown St. Louis...rather hairy driving I-70 into town. I hate driving in 5 lanes of traffic. Meeting went well with Justin Tichy, Chief Stores Officer, from corporate. He listens intently. Wants to change employee retention. We lose 70% of our employees each year. He wants to change to 30% loss by 2022. Has other ideas about saving time doing tasks. Says putting up self labels monthly is a huge waste of time. After the meeting, I visited Shane at the Petco in Arnold (St. Louis suburb) where he is starting as manager. It's older than Quincy's Petco. Then shopped at a next door Walmart, Aldi, O'Reilly's for a 5-gallon gas can, Sam's Club for gas and honey, then burger joint and drove home. Was very tired once I got home at 4pm. Didn't sleep well at Bill's apartment...too much traffic noise and woke every hour.
• Thursday (5/16): Last day of work for Cory at Petco...he's the goofball that dances while at the register. He already quit his new job at Home Depot and started work for a heating & cooling company. Trained my 6 pm dog early at 2 pm, since she had a daughter's softball game at 6. My 7 pm class canceled...sick husband. Mary raked cut grass off the far garden and mulched 3 rows
• Friday (5/17): Hot day and Mary's allergies are hitting her hard, due to a lot of tree pollen, so I worked on ACs. Removed, cleaned, and reinstalled the AC in our bedroom. It never was removed last winter, so it was a mess. Flushed out what I call bug jerky. Only got 1 of 3 ACs done. Takes time to remove from window, disassemble, flush it out, scrub off green and black mold with Clorox solution, assemble, and put back into the window. Mary mowed with the bagger to put mulch on near garden. She got about 3/4 of a row done.
• Saturday (5/18): Ate breakfast at 11:30, because when we got up it was thunderstorming and cells kept rolling through us. We had shrimp for main meal. I dismantled, cleaned, assembled, and installed an AC into a north window in the NE entry room.