There is a tiny pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. A few days before Christmas, I applied for a job with the Town of Taos Police Department. The position is Administrative Assistant/Evidence Technician. They want someone with good computer skills, which I definitely have. Duties would include logging in new evidence and destroying old evidence. It sounds a lot more interesting than Algebra! And as Mom said, it would give me good material for my writing. I got a phone call yesterday from the Assistant to the Chief of Police and we've scheduled an interview for next Friday, a week from today. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Another good thing about the job is the location -- right next door to Ron's office. We may be able to carpool sometimes, or at least have lunch together now and then.
As I was writing the rough draft of this post, I got another phone call and have another interview scheduled for next Wednesday evening. This job is with our vet's office. It's another administrative job, but would also include working with animals (or at least cleaning up after them). The great thing about this job is that I already know and like everyone and they know and like me. Dr. Kim, the owner of the practice, is especially happy with the way we've rehabilitated two of our animals, Princess and King (King's story is coming soon, I promise). So keep your fingers crossed for that one, too.
Moving on to another topic entirely, if any of you see Al Gore, tell him to visit Northern New Mexico so I can show him there is no Global Warming here.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it snowed every two to four days, several inches at a time. We haven't had any new snow since Christmas (although we're supposed to get several inches this weekend), but we've had bitterly cold temperatures.
Tuesday morning, the low temperature was MINUS 14. Wednesday morning it was MINUS 8. On those days, the high temperature was 22. Yesterday it got up to 34 and that felt positively balmy. We've been keeping warm from the inside out -- hot soup, hot chocolate, and hot tea.
One more story, a long and detailed one, but it has a happy ending.
Last Friday evening, December 28, Ron was driving back to Taos from Angel Fire, a town on the other side of the mountains. He was driving his company truck, a huge 1992 Chevy Suburban. The road is curvy and goes over a high mountain pass and through a canyon. Some stretches of the road were completely covered in ice because the sunlight never reaches there because of the high canyon walls. In a way, the ice was a good thing because it kept him from going very fast. In fact, he was only going 25 mph when....
an elk jumped out in front of him!
He couldn't stop in time and his truck hit the elk with its left front, then came to a stop. The car following Ron also came to a stop and the people got out to make sure he was OK. There's no cell phone reception in the canyon, so they couldn't call the police. Both vehicles were still in the road and in danger of being hit by other cars, so they decided the people in the other car would follow Ron into town. As they discussed this, they saw the elk stand up, shake herself off, and walk away!
Ron was able to drive all the way back to Taos. The front grill area of the truck was smashed in and the left headlight was broken and the radiator was spewing steam and leaking coolant out the bottom.
Once he had a cell phone signal, Ron called me to tell me what had happened. When he got back to his office, he called the State Police and called his supervisor. Then he called me again, asking me to come down to the office to give him moral support. By the time I got there, the State Police Officer was just finishing up his report. He said there would be no citation, as it was obviously an accident. And he found clumps of elk fur stuck in the license plate frame, confirming that the vehicle had, in fact hit an elk.
So the good news is that Ron's OK (the Suburban is a very high vehicle; if it had been a regular car, the elk probably would have come in through the windshield). Miraculously, the elk is OK (too bad in a way; I was hoping for fresh elk steak). The truck should probably be considered totalled, but Qwest, in its infinite wisdom, doesn't want to waste a perfectly good 1992 truck and is going to have it repaired.
6 comments:
You can take breaks anytime if the results are this good at the end :)
Keeping my fingers crossed for the jobs...either sounds good and interesting, too.
Glad the elk is OK, but even happier that Ron is OK...truck should be put out to pasture, but oh, well.
Love the photos of the snow. Glad you are taking in lots of tea, coffee, cocoa, soup, etc. to combat the cold. I have trouble even beginning to understand how cold that really is....you have my sympathy.
Fingers crossed...toes, too. Oh, and eyes since it is almost 11:30 and I usually go to sleep at 10. Sleep tight sweet sister.
Elle,
How's the weather there? I keep seeing the horror stories on the news. Did it come your way?
Yeah, Friday morning at 4 am the wind started howling so much that we brought Xam to bed with us...he freaks at noises like that. The windchime you gave us played like crazy :) We lost a part of the barn roof, a limb was torn off the cypress and smooshed the windshield of the 4Runner,and we lost a good part of the locust tree near the sunspace...but it missed hitting the house. Other tree limbs blocked the driveway and Fairbanks Rd, too, so we had a chainsaw party, then a barn re-roofing party when the wind died down. Oh, and power was out from 4 am to about 10 am, then on and off for brief spurts through Friday day. Must have re-set the clock on the microwave about 10 times :) Now we are jsut having plain old rain...and getting ready to tent the house on Thursday.
Yikes! I'll take windless below zero temps over that anytime!
We have high winds, usually in April, and the sound drives us crazy, but we don't have any trees big enough to do damage to house, sheds, or cars.
Glad to hear about the job possibilities. Also that Ron is OK. That must have been an adrenaline-pumping experience.
Mark had a somewhat similar story involving a deer crashing through his windshield while he was driving down to Grand Rapids in December. He ended up with windshield glass all over his face, minor bleeding from the glass but nothing that required medical attention. Virginia had to drive down and get him, bring him home, then he had to turn around and drive their other vehicle to the appointment, without having a chance to rest or sleep.
We've had some cold and wind, but it was 70 degrees yesterday and almost that this morning (but temps are going to drop this afternoon, cold and rain tomorrow).
Elle, all that wind sounds scary. I worry about the trees around here when that happens, in terms of one falling on the house. Got lucky in the most recent wind storms and didn't even lose power.
Wow! Had no idea that Mark had such a scary experience with the deer. Ron's was bad enough. The guardian angels are working overtime :)
Fairly envious Barb of your weather. Finally got some sun yesterday, but still chilly, today back to overcast and chilly (but...YAYYY...no winds). Back home, termites dead, house in total disarray, but glad to be home.
Beth, any more news on the jobs? Keeping good thoughts winging your way.
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