The Manpower Tree

I have been a Manpower employee for almost a year now. I have a pretty good job and the pay is OK (enough to pay my bills with a little left over for birdseed and yarn). The nice thing is that Rick and I have the same hours, so we can ride together to work and have lunch (and sometimes even breakfast!) together. Because we both support manufacturing and his area receives the parts I work with, sometimes I have to call him for help or clarification on some parts that his area has received.

Although Manpower is very watchful of their budget and people can be let go at anytime, so far I've been lucky. I'm hopeful I'll have a job at least till Rick retires (November 2008). Because the people who were in this job before me were hopelessly stupid (from what I've heard), almost everything I've done since starting has been outstanding. I heard quite a few horror stories from my office mate who had to try and train these hopelessly stupid individuals, so I made an extra effort (and took lots of notes!) to make sure I didn't make the same mistakes and disappoint or aggravate the IBM people I support.


Because I've done a pretty good job and the IBM people have sent notes concerning this to my Manpower supervisors, I've received a couple of "thank you" awards from Manpower. These consist of a gift card/certificate for $25 from a participating merchant. I used my first gift card at Cabelas, because I needed some warmer clothes for deer hunting. For my last quarter gift card, I decided to try Home Depot because I know they sell plants in the spring.


Because I know I'm going to be planting some trees this spring, we stopped at Home Depot yesterday morning after getting groceries at Target (since both stores are in the same shopping center). Wow! They had a wonderful selection of trees: crabapples, maples, birches, and of course, the weeping willows I was looking for. I picked out a nice weeping willow for the very nice price of $19.99. Even with tax, I left the store with a little bit left on my gift card (to use for flowers or maybe another tree someday). We got the tree into the back seat of the car (because the trunk was full of groceries), and drove home.





I wanted to plant it yesterday, but it was too nasty outside (chilly, windy & misty). Today it wasn't too bad and by the time I got home from work, it was actually pretty decent. I rushed to change my clothes and plant my new "Manpower tree." I hope it will grow fairly fast. The label attached to the tree says it "will reach 40-50' tall and 40-50' wide in about 25 years." I guess that's about 2 feet a year, right? Oh well, it's a start. This tree is going to get a lot of TLC this summer to get it off to a good start. Especially since it's got to grow to block out the environmental disaster behind me.




And speaking of environmental disasters, be sure to check this blog tomorrow when I'll share some photos of my next door neighbor's yard!