Random 5 for June 7 – Mice, hiring, yellow zone, adjustments, Tess

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So proud! – We don’t have set chores in our family except that the beloved husband mows the grass and I catch the mice. This past week, he found a mouse in the office at 6 a.m. and wisely decided to catch it himself. I was sleeping at the time. He has seen me do it often using a container and sliding a cardboard underneath so it can be safely re-homed. (Yes we re-home mice! They are living creatures that are just trying to survive much like us.) He got my deli cup out and did it. Sasha was not happy. She had originally found it and was hoping for a playmate until it expired. Nope, I’m not mowing the lawn!

For my human resource friends – When I worked in HR, there was a list of “stupid questions” that you should never ask prospective employees during an interview. One of them was “where do you see yourself in five years.” There is no right answer to that. A wise person makes adjustments along the way as opportunities present themselves. Sometimes it involves changing fields. It’s a waste of time to groom for one particular job unless it’s a brain surgeon. Even then you may find something you prefer while you are waiting. This cartoon is for all of you who hire!

We are yellow! – Our area went into the (corona virus) “yellow” zone on Friday. Woohoo! Restaurants with outdoor seating can serve but no seating indoors. Stores with outdoor entrances can open (with limitations) but not malls. Picking through the new set of “do’s and don’ts” is daunting but I’m hopeful that it will be short term as our numbers on new cases has been consistently dropping.

Starting up again – After three months of “stay at home” orders, it feels weird to go out. We are cautious. Some people are joyous and happy to greet you and others treat you like lepers (six feet please! You’re in my zone!). In reality there are very few places where you can pass anyone with six foot distancing. Aisles aren’t made for it. The best you can do is hurry along. I doubt if I’ll ever shake hands again. We had a germaphobe friend who did the fist pump greeting! (RIP Bruce!) I’m a germaphobe too. Our family wasn’t a hugging one until cancer made a visit. Then we all hugged because there is that “is this the last time we’ll all be together?” thing. We’ll see. I am grateful that it’s summer. Having this happen in the middle of the winter when it’s dark and dreary would have been worse.

Drawing on Tess – Whenever I was in a situation that was sticky, my mom used to say “Next year at this time you will laugh about this.”  It was true. We often reflected back and laughed about how stressed or worried we had been a year earlier. That was good for surgeries, job problems and just about anything. If you can’t resolve it in a year, you are in deep doodoo. I have been thinking about that for three months now. Planning big party for next spring!

So how was your week?

96 thoughts on “Random 5 for June 7 – Mice, hiring, yellow zone, adjustments, Tess”

  2. I always hated that HR question. Pointless. Once I answered “Oh, in the Caribbean withy feet up on a big sailboat that I could afford from all the bonuses I was able to earn selling your product.” I really wanted to stop after “sailboat” but you know the game is they want to hear a business/motivated career person answer….but I really mean gads, far away from dullards that ask canned questions.
    Mice here slip between bricks to enter houses – companies come out and charge an arm and a leg to fold tiny screen and stuff it in all the cracks all round the house…a full day’s work and salary…which we can do ourselves…but not in a day…just the big gaps. Knock on wood, we’ve managed to not have intruding mice – they never seem to understand you just want to catch them to escort them to better/safer locations…people around here use that brutal poison.
    It was such a cool-ish morning it was wonderful….but now back to our normally scheduled oppressive melt.

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    • One time I answered “managing a tiki bar on an island.” I did not get that job (or the tiki bar one either but there is still hope for that one!). I hate the poison and I hate the sticky things where they starve to death. It’s either the snap their head and have an instant kill or our have a heart trap which works just fine. We have rehomed them back to the retention water area (closer to our neighbor’s yard). I just can’t be mean to any critter. They all just want to survive. I do kill mosquitoes, centipedes and certain insects that are threatening my trees so I’m not perfect.

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  3. Kate – I had a lot of angst when I saw two mice in two days near my side door. That was after I offered sunflower seeds to my furry and feathered friends when it was difficult to find bagged peanuts at Meijer grocery store. So I figured it drew mice so I stopped … I knew they were different mice because one was bigger (just like the two centipedes in my bedroom a few weeks ago – the bigger one must have been chowing on ants as he was big and I saw no more ants after that). Now I have little moths from the bagged peanuts – it must have been moth larvae on the 7-pound bags of peanuts. They were heavy plastic with a Ziploc seal. Boy, do I feel blessed with all the indoor critters. I am a germaphobe too – started doing that after bringing a bad cold home to my mom and it turned into pneumonia … been a germaphobe ever since … not anything like Howie Mandel who is in a class all his own. I smiled at this because my mom said this all the time too: “Next year at this time you will laugh about this.”

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    • That saying must be a “mom thing!” Sorry you have so many critters. I put out a lot of sunflower seeds and I’m sure the mice get some and the chipmunks and squirrels too but I won’t stop. I so enjoy the birds that it’s worth it. I’m not a fan of centipedes. If I see one inside I will kill it. Most other things I put outside where they belong.

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      • The expressions must’ve come from the “How to be a Mom” book, perhaps wise sayings passed on from generation to generation. I need to address the moths before it gets worse. The birds and squirrels loved those oilers .. they filled the gap of missing peanuts since Meijer dropped the ball on ordering more peanuts. My problem is the house is small and in order to put them on the sidewalk, it is in very close proximity to the house. I’ve got no mousers like you do. 🙂 I would love to feed the birds again – my former Flame tech is trying to convince me to use the chaffless, no-mess seed. I told him I love birds too, but can’t deal with mice.

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  4. That would be nice to be able to laugh about 2020 in 2021. Something tells me that ain’t gonna happen. I agree with you about the where do you see yourself in five years. It’s one of those questions you can’t really take literally, I think. Just a dumb way of asking about goals, I guess.Stay safe in your brave new yellow world!

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  6. I love seeing the “where do you see yourself in 5 years” question put in its place. Made me laugh at the truthfulness of it. I never liked that question and now feel like it’ll never be part of HR again because– who knows?

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          • But our Starbucks is opening ..even if hot, coffeeeeeeeee
            (Oh, now they have identified 8 different strains of this virus in CA. If it’s not one thing it’s another. We’re being careful, too…but sure would like to sit down to a nice seafood platter dinner on a place by the water…sigh.)

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            • Our Starbucks (just one in the entire area) remained open throughout. I went every single day. Sometimes I waited a half hour (yep, nuts!) for my drink as they only had the drive-through open. About 3 weeks ago, the rest of the stores opened and they started an easy mobile pick-up outside. Now I can go inside to either order or pick-up. It was the only semblance of normal routine left for me (besides cleaning cat litter) and I was hanging onto to it no matter what. I wiped the entire cup down with clorox wipes every day! I’m less neurotic now but still careful. A nice meal out? Dang, I’d be grateful for good pizza and a beer. Who thought the good old days would be January.

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  8. Mice are a rarity around here since Theo came into our life (wow, 9 years already!). He’s not big on the whole catch-and-release concept. Like Sasha, he thinks they are a great toy … until they aren’t anymore.

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    • We didn’t have mice for the first 10 years. We back up to a water retention area that never floods. The township doesn’t take great care of it and it usually has long grass (good for mice). A year or two ago someone starting fussing and now they go in 3 times a summer with plows and backhoes and churn the earth. I think that forces the mice to come visit the houses. It’s the only thing that’s different. I have no idea why they just don’t mow it like they do other areas.

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      • I’m sad to hear your city has been plowing down this green space.

        I noticed that a few years ago Toronto stopped mowing certain green spaces and allowed them to go wild. I believe that the thinking was to allow these spaces to be habitat for the small animals – mice, rabbits, skunks, etc – to have a natural place to live. I love these small meadows in the middle of a large urban area, but I’m sure there are those people with a need for highly manicured spaces to cringe when they see them.

        hmmm – if I ever find my muse again, I should write about some of the cool things the Toronto Region Conservation Authority is doing.

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  10. Went to my daughters house today. We were outside all day…even went to a garden store in her area. Played with their new puppy and it was a glorious day. Yes, I was a tad nervous about it…but it was also outside…the owner wore a mask…they had a hand sanitizer right next to the outdoor register.
    Howie Mandel was his mentor!!!!

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  12. Not just HR asks this question, some thinks that they are asking an intelligent question (part of my job then is HR not on the hiring front, thank goodness) and my stupid answer in my head is always ‘ALIVE,’ Eyes rolling …

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  15. Yeah I always hating that question posed by well meaning HR directors. Congrats on making it to yellow. Shake hands? Ha…and hugs, perish the thought. I’m just hoping to reach the point where a ‘real’ haircut is in the near future. This “Cousin It” look is not charming at all.

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  16. I laughed at your sign about five years hence. It’s not only HR that makes the mistake of asking that question. Some of us stay stuck in our own personal plans much too long. When we moved to the Philippines, my husband said it would be for 3 to 5 years. So I figured that after three, or maybe five years, I’d be back in the United States and back to my career as an elementary school teacher. It took me way too long to give up that idea and make adjustments. (Twenty plus years later we finally came t back to stay.)

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    • We had 2 contractors here this week working on our patio. Every time I looked out one or the other was looking at his phone. Fortunately the job didn’t go “by the hour” but had a set price. I couldn’t figure out what was so important to require that attention. I could understand the office checking on progress but this was way more than that.

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      • I actually have a lot of sympathy for small business contractors. They usually don’t have admin staff to handle the calls, questions, requests for quotation, placing orders for materials, following up when materials will arrive, etc.

        Not only are they trying to do the work at hand, but also set up their next job when this one is finished.

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        • That’s true. Many years ago we had a guy replace a window. He had a single helper and he took calls all day. That I understood. These two were from a large landscape company and neither were the owner. They did a great job though so I’m not complaining. Just curious. The work was dirty work so I imagine their phones were too.

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  20. We have voles. They have invaded Andy’s vegetable garden. He’s trying castor oil pellets right now, but I expect he’ll be full Caddyshack before too long.

    I’m surprised they picked our yard, what with dogs and cats.

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  21. Our little town managed to do outdoor eating with much success it seems…..they just closed off part of Main Street, put tables with umbrellas, chairs, big planters with flowers and it became one big outdoor cafe for all the restaurants. We didn’t go – but those who did said it was great to be “out and about”. For me – out has been a weekly grocery shopping venture….period. They can change what “Stage” we’re in all they want but I won’t be returning to my previous routines any time soon – just whenever I feel comfortable doing so!

    Happy Sunday
    Hugs, Pam

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    • And that’s the right thing to do. They closed some streets off here too. The pictures in the papers and on Facebook looks like they got patrons but there didn’t seem to be swarms of people milling about. There are many that feel like us and some that are still doing curbside pickup.

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  22. We don’t have traffic lights but are allowed out. Non essential shops will be allowed to open from the 15th and out side cafes from the beginning of July. So far it has been unusually dry but I expect it will rain heavily just when we can enjoy a meal out. We have had a few attractions like forest parks open last week but I have no way of getting to them. I have had the full range from the friend who insisting on putting an arm round me to another who crossed the road to avoid me. Both equally disconcerting.

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    • People be weird! No denying that. It’s new for everyone and some people have good reasons to be cautious. We have a friend who doesn’t distance or ever wear a mask. We avoid him like the plague!

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    • We are too for a variety of reasons. First most restaurants don’t have a lot of outdoor seating so there will be lines or maybe you need reservations. We are in the “risk group” so we are naturally cautious. I am grateful that the inside of garden centers can open as I need some things and it’s not crowded there.

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  24. Walmart, is a joke on distancing. They have all the cute marks on the floor to guide us which way to go on each aisle. Then in the main walkways to traverse the store, the pallets of merchandise in the center, make it where two buggies can’t pass at once, much less six feet.

    Too cloudy to see the strawberry moon. I missed it.

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  25. This week, my cousin lost her 15-year-old daughter in a car accident. A painful reminder that life can be taken in an instant. One moment we can be happy and careful, and then everything in the world as we once knew is turned upside down and things will never be the same as it was.

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  26. Standoff 6 foot distancing was nothing new in my family. Even accidental touching gave us chills. But now that handshakes are verboten I think I miss all those huggers who made fun of me. Sending digital hugs your way….

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    • Digital hugs are great! I’ve never been a hand shaker. Way back I was at a business conference and I sneezed into my hand (this was before the elbow sneeze) and a guy reached out to shake my hand. I said to him, “Are you kidding? You just saw me sneeze!”

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  27. Great post, Kate. Glad that your husband managed to maneuver the mouse out of the house. (Sorry, Sasha!)

    I’m with you ~> cautious about heading out, reluctant to shake hands ever again, more reticent about hugging, etc. And . . . I also hated that question, asking me to predict the future 5 years out.

    “I don’t know . . . it depends on whether I get hit by a bus next week.”
    “I don’t know . . . how much are you going to be paying me 5 years from now?”
    “I don’t know . . . they say there are no stupid questions, but I have my doubts.”

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    • I especially love your last answer. I have a list of stupid questions that were in vogue back in the day. Some business guru probably wrote a book and HR folks started to ask them. I never did. If it wasn’t pertinent to the job, not interested.

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  28. I never asked job applicants the “where will you be in 5 years” question…I don’t know where I’ll be in two years. I always hated the “what are your greatest weaknesses” question too. And let’s hope the pandemic doesn’t rear its ugly head again in the late fall and winter, as some are predicting. If so, let’s hope there’s a vaccine. I’m not holding my breath on any of it! And how are you managing to get so many Fitbit steps a day lately with the heat??!

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