It’s funny how ever since I started this feature up, I’ll note to myself whenever the situation warrants that it’s definitely going in this Sunday’s Weekend Threesome. I found myself thinking that about five times this week, so obviously a few things won’t make the cut. That’s OK, I’m sure there will be boring weeks to come where I’ll need fresh material…
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I generally only answer the phone at work at night because the only people who have any business calling the store in the middle of the night are drivers with a delivery. That doesn’t keep some people from thinking we’re their 24 hour answer man for whatever idiotic problem has them awake at such an ungodly hour…
Hello, is this Mecca? Do you offer ghostbusting services? It’s an emergency!
And so at precisely 2:45 AM on Tuesday morning, I answered a call that turned out to be some guy who wanted some answers on our application process. I know nothing about how it works now since I was hired back in the days when the application forms were on stone tablets, and I wasn’t going to bother a manager at that time… so I defaulted to my standard “I’m sorry, but we’re closed right now.” That, of course, usually gets the utterly stunned response from people who assume we’re all 24 hour stores…. not that even a 24 hour store wants to answer stupid questions at O dark thirty. I politely (or as politely as I can get) told him he was more than welcome to call back when we opened at 7:00…. to which he responded, “You know what, never mind… I’ll just call McDonald’s. They’re giving people $15 an hour walking in the door! Goodbye!”
Sorry I’m grumpy, sir, I had to deal with some idiot on the phone last night.
I didn’t have the heart to inform him that my crew, which is absolutely hiring, is starting people out at $15.50…. but McDonald’s can have douchenozzles like him to continue their fine tradition of screwing up my orders. Not that they probably answered the phone either…. even their drive thru closes at midnight now.
Nobody ever really pays much attention to the aesthetics of your blog…. unless it’s being pummeled by that bandwidth robbing, seizure inducing “snow” WordPress used to allow bloggers to turn on every December.
Of all the useful things WordPress has removed, this is one thing I’m happy is GONE.
I decided to kill some time on my days off this week tinkering with the widgets on my sidebar… making them a bit more irreverent and goofy, just like my blog. Yeah, your eyes just wandered over there… go ahead and check it out. I even removed the long enduring image of XXXXXXXXXXXL Man at the bottom that had a tendency to make my readers a bit nauseous. You’re welcome…
I’d also love to make a fresh new header. The current one is four years old, and I just realized it’s so old, that I made it on my original computer that went to silicon heaven in October 2017. I obviously want to go with a shelf critter theme with the comic being long since toast… but the only ideas I had would be time consuming, and probably not very good. But anyway, keep a lookout in the coming weeks since you may stop by here one day and things might look a tad different…
My original header from 2011-2014! Ah, memories…
Tails Around the Ranch noted in the comments of last week’s Threesome that the robin I took a picture of in the nest on my downspout was actually a male and not a female.
Perhaps I am gender neutral… did you ever consider that?
I’m not going to argue with that since I know little to nothing about birds, but there’s obviously been a female there….
Three more mouths to feed!?!?
No, wait….. FOUR! Someone better find a shitload of worms…
I still hate birds….. but even I had to smile when I took these pictures Wednesday. I’d never seen baby birds before…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
We have a public park here in Hannover, for which you have to pay an entry fee. In there are two big glasshouses, which are meant to be visited by the park visitors (and other greenhouses, we are not meant to see inside). In one of which there were small windows right at the ridge of the roof, and one was meant to stay open. There was note saying that this window was kept open, to allo the birds to feed their youngsters – which could be heard. And you could just see the nest.
I’m curious what’s in the greenhouses that you aren’t supposed to see. Perhaps Fuzzywig knows…
They have plants in there, just nit very photogenic arranged. But who knows. Maybe there is Cannabis sativa among there.
A new header – something to look forward to…..! I still find it amazing people call Mecca at ridiculous times of the day to ask ridiculous questions – oh – wait – maybe it’s not as amazing as it is an indication that a whole lot of people are insomniacs and have nothing better to do at that time of the day? Just want to hear a tired Mecca employee tell them to go take a hike or call during normal hours?????? The baby birds are very cool……we have had nesting cardinals in our trees and shrubs and it drives Teddy nuts.
Pam
The little ones seem pretty big for not being more than five days old in that pic (Going by them not being there last week). I’ve found robins eggs on the ground before, and know they’re not that big. Perhaps I’ll be lucky enough to have an ornithologist call Mecca one night so I can ask some questions instead…
My neighbor’s son told us that the babies we could see in the Cardinal nest in our shrub weren’t all cardinals….apparently cowbirds will lay their eggs in someone else’s nest and let THEM do the work to hatch and feed the babies! He did see one ACTUAL Cardinal baby in with the two Cowbird kids. Nothing like letting someone else do all the heavy lifting ! Meanwhile the whole crew has now flown away.
Now you’ve got me thinking I need a new header too because like you, my laptop in the picture has long since gone to the great electronic graveyard in the sky! But I hate my current laptop so much that I won’t be promoting it with a glamour shot!
The last laptop I bought didn’t even last a year before it went on the fritz. It was bright red and pretty, but other than that was a $300+ piece of crap! I might promote it by letting a monster truck run over it the next time they’re in town…
You hate birds? SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK
Only birds that poop on my stuff, which is most of them. If that ain’t you, then we’re good…
A new header, hmm? I’ll watch for that, even though I find your current one just fine. A change is as good as a rest they say (obviously ‘they’ don’t value sleep very much). Thank you from the very bottom depths of my heart for removing that sad fat man in his underwear. I admit I threw up a little (in my mouth) every time my eyes strayed to that image. *ulp* I wonder if the poor guy ever found a ‘date’ besides his standing one with Ms. Palm and her five sisters…
The Fat Man was the ultimate tribute to how stupid and pointless tracking search terms on blogs is, since he caught thousands of “xxxxxxxxxxxl” (exactly 11 X’s) searches, and I’m pretty sure that isn’t what I should have themed my posts around, as WordPress would advise me. Of course, now the searches don’t come up at all anymore, which has me and the entire Sandy Awards staff feeling jilted…
Great, now you have a gender-confused robin outside your house.
Given that the job-hunting bloke was phoning in the middle of the night, you would have definitely ended up working with him.
He couldn’t be much worse than some of the people I do work with. But I could always “accidentally” lock him in the freezer as payback…
I agree with Draliman. You dodged having to work with this silly twerp.
I like birds; your photos are adorable.
I very rarely get to take pictures of baby animals, and was quite surprised to see those beaks peeking out of the nest so fast. I do hope they fly far way to build their nests, though! Unless maybe they can keep the wasps from making their nests all over the outside of my house…
Robins and other birds love wasp larvae and will work at a nest until they have all of them. Stings don’t seem to bother them. I have seen robins eat the adults, too. Lots of other birds eat wasp larvae, especially mud dauber wasps.
Aw, you kept my KOBAF badge!!
That one stays, even if it leads to a dead link now…
I regret killing KOBAF. Don’t tell anyone it’s a secret…
I hope you used to play Zelda…
My brother did!
You don’t think anyone pays attention to the aesthetics of a blog? Just change something here and you’ll be amazed by who notices and what they say. I redid my blog in January and am still getting comments [positive] about it.
My tweaks tend to be smallish and go unnoticed. I’ve used the same theme since I’ve started, and usually only a header change will garner any attention. I tend to be more observant of things in the background than most, and I realized even I don’t pay much attention to other blogs’ sidebars…
Ha, I had forgotten about that WordPress “snow”.
Fortunately, I don’t think it functions anymore! Most newer bloggers probably don’t even know what I’m talking about…
I like real falling snow, though… LOL
Male robins do a lot of work raising the family (so I’ve been told-my ex never lifted a finger raising kids) and what a bunch of bird-lets! They are fascinating to watch till you realize you’ll be cleaning off the patio ad nauseum with all those extra mouths to feed. Still they’re always good for a few moments of watching nature on parade (till the colorful dad or bland looking mum dive bomb you for disturbing the sleeping kiddos.