Friday, November 17, 2023

Here come the holidays. This year’s early start has employed lengthy massive hyping of both Thanksgiving and Christmas. By now, it’s almost as if those special days have come and gone. But next week, the official Thanksgiving occurs, and it ends at midnight when Black Friday officially begins. We’re already planning to help create Thanksgiving’s big meal if we’re cooking or contributing an enhancement. We’ve already been shopping Black Friday, as retailers earlier lowered their prices for it. The post-Thanksgiving shoppers will purchase more from online sites.

For years, Costco might have been the one retailer bringing Christmas stuff in early. That happened each August, and shoppers joked about aisles decorated Christmas-like before Halloween arrived. This year, many key retailers began celebrating Christmas before Halloween. Workers in retail environments have for many weeks been reminded of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Aren’t they all over already!

Now having ranted, the docile side of my mind is looking forward to Thanksgiving. I’m invited to a meal and asked to contribute an appetizer. Some of the attendees are vegan and I am a low-carb person. I’ve looked online for possibilities and am electing to create two appetizers, accommodating both food types.

For me, logical and easy will be deviled eggs. I like eggs, have plenty galore, and need to use them. For the vegans, I’m leaning toward stuffing endive leaves with a plant-based creamy veggie and nut mixture. While combing through the internet for ideas, anchovies caught my mind and won’t let go. I will mix in some to really devil those eggs.

Dear Friends: Hype aside and refocusing on a holiday brings it alive again. Diana

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Yesterday, during my l-o-n-g shift at Macy’s, I shadowed a manager. Her job was to teach the details of my role. I became a student of cash register operations, dressing room inspections, unwanted clothing re-hanging, and how exactly to position hangers and precisely hang items. She was detailed, slowly and carefully stepping through activities as if teaching a first-grader. We sometimes frustrated one another, but despite that kept working and wound up okay coworkers.

Today, maybe I’ll be allowed to work more on my own. I can hope.

There is much to learn about selling clothing. Guess what, Macy’s stock is on the rise, a surprise to me. I haven’t much interest in the rather conservative items stocked in our local store, but Macy’s good employee discount nudges me toward purchasing there.

I’ve begun following retail sales trends. A couple of interesting biggies are Walmart’s stock rising and Target’s dropping. That’s making me wonder if most buyers do prefer items on the more conservative side. Actually, “pretty and familiar” are a comfortable combination, especially today when most folks run around wearing sweats ‘n sneakers.

The retail world might not be the most interesting topic, but it beats highly focusing on the current two wars concerning us all.

Dear Friends: My retro “Saddles” were a big hit with folks of a certain age. Diana

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

This holiday, as usual, draws us hugely toward purchasing online. The internet sellers beckon mightily with streams of varied products that accommodate many pocketbooks. Interestingly, some long-time merchants still maintain brick-and-mortar stores and promote hefty online businesses. These days call for wondering how long physical locations might exist, for surely, walk-ins will be fewer over time, as will actual storefronts.

That’s my thinking today while preparing for work. My schedule shows me no longer supporting a sales team and learning. I’ll be on my own doing general selling. The sales process is duck soup; it’s ensured by being in comfortable shoes.

I’m playing with the idea of wearing my new saddle oxfords; they’re the real thing. Finding them online grabbed me. I remember in junior high as a football team cheerer, wearing saddles always. I would clean them using a “dust bunny.” I forgot to search online for a dust bunny, but will. Keeping a tradition alive.

We selling clothing are supposed to appear well-dressed and professional-looking. These days, there are all sorts of takes on what that could mean. I’m now exploring, looking for a version of my own. Yes, today, it’s the saddles–they make sense.

Dear Friends: If you can’t beat them, try to play with ’em. Diana

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Since early, I have been resting and reflecting, accompanied by Peaches, my ever-chanting Cockatoo. We read the newspapers, considered the weather, and made plans for the day. I’m aiming to horseback ride, and Peaches will stay home.

The weather folks have suggested the local temperatures will fall this week. But generally, the weather is forecast to be mild through most of November. It appears that we’ll have fifties and sixties weather until this month’s ending, with a then-drop to the forties. Next week should be pleasant for Thanksgiving, with the outdoors fall-like and beautiful.

Last year, at this time, we were freezing; I remember having to chop thick ice layering the watering troughs, and other inconveniences because of that winter’s sudden onset. This year, I prepared ahead for harsh weather, and instead, am wallowing in mildness. That’s okay; it’s better to be prepared and disappointed than caught off guard and having to rush and improvise.

The current temp is barely above freezing and makes me hesitate to go outside, but I must feed my farmlike animals. By the time I’ve done that, it’ll have warmed enough for me to remove some layers of outerwear. That’ll feel great.

Dear Friends: Be outside and enjoy another beautiful fall day. Diana

Monday, November 13, 2023

I will enjoy having time off from work today and tomorrow. Our local weather still is relatively warm, and today might reach the mid-fifties. Temps are anticipated to drop later this week. On these still-warmish days, I will repair horse fencing and do some trail riding.

A coworker at Macy’s tells me that her son is a meteorologist and says this winter will be warmer than last winter, which was a harsh one. This coming Thursday’s temp drop could initiate the deepest winter locally; hopefully, he predicts correctly.

The local grasses might be frozen enough for my horses to graze safely. I will ask my neighbor, Bobby, if they may graze on his pasture. If so, we will resume twice-daily walks as a group to and fro. Those walks always challenge me, to move while holding two horses that step out and one donkey that lags. But we’ve done it, can do it, and will again.

Dear Friends: Have a beautiful day. Diana

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Oops, I’m enjoying working at Macy’s. It’s a very different experience from mine at Home Depot. Both roles are somewhat hands-off, while also sales-oriented. At HD, working in Hardware, I unlocked bins, removed tools, and carried them while escorting customers to the checkout counters. I pulled stock to refill shelves, put away returned merchandise, and encouraged customers to open HD charge accounts. At Macy’s, working at a cash register, I check out purchases and encourage customers to open a Mary’s charge account. I assist in restocking new or unwanted merchandise.

Those sales models are similar. My HD sales experiences make Macy’s routines familiar and absorbable. My biggest new learning is operating correctly the store’s cash registers. What’s refreshing is experiencing a management model with women in charge. They’re not a drop less capable of running an organization, but the softer style feels welcome.

Nonetheless, Macy’s employees must perform. Macy’s assigns us daily sales quotas that my working companions say must be achieved. These days as a seasonal employee, I’m unworried about quotas. Often, I see the store’s manager and other higher-level employees circulating, and their feedback has me sensing their keen awareness of how sales folks are performing.

At the bottom line, at Macy’s, I feel important. At HD, I was just another part-timer, and too old for its young managers to consider promoting to some role of significance. At Macy’s, feeling more needed, I’m working happier.

Dear Friends: I do miss HD, a fine organization, with nice capable managers. Diana

Sunday, November 11, 2023

This photo demonstrates the size of those warmbloods that accompanied my pony the other day. My head is about the height of Z’s saddle buckle. Ashley is taller and can see over Avantos, but she climbs onto something to get onto his saddle. All these are sweet and willing horses.

Yesterday was my first full day working at Macy’s. I was surprised to find myself liking the place. My coworkers are nice. They include new employees like me; the more experienced folks are kind and helpful. One long-time employee told me she was born and grew up in this city. She then lived on her family’s 40-acre ranch, on the property where Bend Dermatology is now. Then that location was way out of town. She and her siblings often ran up and down the nearby Pilot Butte.

Of course, Bend Derm’s location today is one of this city’s most developed, busy areas. My imagination is stretched to try and visualize the area, in the old days, as a country ranch with farm animals. Those early kids probably accessed the mile-high Butte on informal paths they created or those by Native Americans and earlier settlers.

Railroads and timber originally turned early Central Oregon into a boom-and-bust area. Today’s population demographics are making it boom again. I gather that one reason Macy’s remains open locally is that many people regularly drive from Idaho and Washington to shop in the store.

Who knew the local Macy’s is such a vigorous place? What more might I learn about the store, its employees, and this vigorous community?

Dear Friends: Our +40K sq. ft. Macy’s is considered one of its smallest. Diana

Friday, November 10, 2023

Yesterday, I rode my pony, Sunni, alongside Ashley and Keli riding their giant and kind hunter-jumpers, moseying over three hours and maybe covering five miles. Last month, I was at Ashley’s home celebrating Keli’s birthday when a skilled bagpiper Ashley somehow had discovered came marching up the hill, serenading everybody wonderfully with his pipe.

The ladies are excellent riders and their retired horses are tall, ribboned world-class champions. Yesterday, the giants walked alongside my little Sunni while we riders chatted and caught up. I loved riding with them and have bragging rights, too, about my pony–always willing and even-tempered–she makes me proud.

In the photo, Ashley’s horse is a character nuzzling her neck. His life has been one of transitions, from a world champion jumper to a nearly total physical failure, and then with Ashley’s determined care, to rehabilitation with a return to competitive and winning performance. His life story is book-worthy and ought to be written.

Dear Friends: Going forward, I’m self-promising to ride my fine horses more. Diana

Thursday, November 09, 2023

Last night, PBS re-ran a 2002 episode of Frontline entitled “Shattered Dreams of Peace: The Road From Oslo.” I don’t recall previously seeing this documentary and last night couldn’t tear myself away. For two hours, it knits together pieces of a peace process that began in 1993, and since has alternately represented both promise and destruction.

That peace process began in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accord by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. At that time, President Clinton facilitated the first-ever recorded handshake between those leaders. Following their handshake came years full of threats, violence, and setbacks by radical nationalistic factions. Those factions represented both Jews and Palestinians. An evolving Hamas was totally opposed to any comprise between the two nations.

Watching, I recalled that Clinton-facilitated handshake, and also not long afterward, the tragic assassination by a Jewish extremist of the peacemaker, Rabin. The Jewish population became more right-centered and facilitated the rise of ultra-conservative Benjamin Netanyahu.

From its beginning, the Oslo Accord repeatedly has been interrupted by radical and nationalistic Jews and Palestinians alike. This documentary helped me recall key Israel-Palestine conflicts. Its narrative flow clarifies what’s happening and why between those nations and why many other nations are involved.

Last month’s Hamas uprising immediately plowed a hammer into Ukraine’s war. Both battles are involving most of the world’s nations. To gain an overview and insight, watch this Frontline. It’s available on PBS, YouTube, and Amazon Prime.

Dear Friends: This morning in my world, I’m going horseback riding. Diana

Wednesday, November 08, 2023

Yesterday, in Lowe’s Garden Department, looking for my friend Debbie, I found her crawling under shelves stacked with pavers and bricks and counting items for inventory. I wasn’t surprised that she was working on her knees. She’s a born organizer and perfectly willing to crawl and climb to get jobs done. Debbie’s energy has improved the shape and appearance of that department. Her boss, Todd, loves her.

We spent time talking and catching up. After hearing my current working plans, Debbie said that if I ever decide to return to hardware, she’ll link me up with Todd. He happened to be nearby and confirmed I’d be welcome. So, possibly a backup plan.

I went out with my camera but didn’t download pictures. I got sidetracked while hunting in my pantry for not out-of-date canned food, for bagging and setting outside for the Gonzales family’s annual food drive. My pictures and all else went forgotten because searching among the cans forced me to tackle the pantry’s overdue cleaning and rearranging–the sort of task Debbie would have dispatched, long ago. Oh, well.

Dear Friends: This morning it’s just below 30 degrees and I’m heading into it. Diana