Crazy-Busy

Why have just one job when you can have three?

Back in late July I decided to get a part time job to bring in some more money. Together Ron and I made a list of places to go and apply for an evening or weekend job. I ended up being hired on the spot at the first place I went! It's a hotel, an "independently owned and operated" but part of a chain (the initials of the chain are BW; I'll just leave it at that). I inquired about a Night Clerk position and the woman said, "Night Auditor? Did you know we have an opening?" So I filled out the application and interviewed with the General Manager and he hired me on the spot.

I only work two nights a week - Friday and Saturday nights, but the hours are 11:00 pm to 7:00 am. That way since it's the weekend, I can go home and sleep for a few hours. The other Night Auditor trained me for a few nights and I only worked 11 to 2 or 3, which is all the time the actual audit takes. It's just filling out several forms, noting how much money we took in for rooms, the restaurant, and the bar and it what forms - cash, check, credit cards (which ones), etc. Once I learned which numbers go where, it's pretty easy, unless someone on the day shift has messed things up. Once I'm done with the audit, I read, write, get on the Internet (I take my netbook computer and there's a wireless signal available), or talk with the Security Guard. He's either in the lobby or out on the grounds doing his rounds. When he's not in the lobby we both have walkie-talkies to communicate and after 11:00 the lobby doors are locked, whether he's there or not, so it's all perfectly safe.

I'm getting great material for my writing from working here. The staff alone are such bizarre characters that no one would believe it. Most of the bizarre ones have been fired and the recent hires are normal. Of course one of the recently-fired guys was re-hired (over the years he's been working there, he's been fired 4 times and re-hired 5 times; fifth time's a charm, right?)

About 2 weeks after I started that job, my hours at my regular job, at the construction company, were cut from 40 to 30, so that put me back at square one as far as extra money goes! It wasn't the economy; business is pretty good, but my boss, the Office Manager, likes to be in control and would rather do everything herself (and complain about all the work she has to do) instead of letting me do more. She also said that I was "too good" at what I do, and "too fast", so I would end up sitting at my desk not "looking busy" and the Big Boss didn't like that.

So in my next therapy session (I go about once a month) I talked about that with Dr. M and she talked about all the work she has to do and I said, "You should hire me" half kidding and half serious. We talked about it and she agreed that I would be the perfect person to help her fill out insurance claim forms and schedule appointments. She said she'd never hired anyone to help her, but she knew I'm detail-oriented and I know to keep everything confidential and all that.

So Monday through Friday I work my "regular" job from 8-2 (straight through, no lunch break), then I go home for a quick bite to eat and work for Dr. M from 3-5. On Fridays I take a nap before I go to my hotel job from 11-7, but on the other evenings I'm home. And I have most of Saturday and all of Sunday at home.

The schedule sounds horrendous, but it really isn't that bad. All three jobs are pretty easy and very low-stress, compared to the vet job. And I'm definitely getting good material for my writing from the hotel job.

I also have a part-time editing gig. One of Ron's sisters is writing her memoirs and I'm helping her with that; I'm editing what she writes and I'm going to arrange for it to be printed. That's also interesting work.

So if you don't hear from me very often, or you hear me say it's crazy-busy here, now you know what I mean.

I'm Back!

After taking nearly a year off from blogging, I’m back. I’m inspired by my sister, who recently celebrated her third anniversary of blogging. In fact, she was the one who encouraged me to start a blog and I’m so glad I did. I’ve enjoyed blogging, but somehow I let things go.

I’m planning to post three times a week – Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekend. I have good intentions, but we all know where good intentions will get you. Life is crazy-busy right now (more on that in Thursday’s post), but maybe writing the blog will help me get some control over things (or at least the illusion of control). Some people are control freaks, but I’ve discovered that I’m a self-control freak. I’m working on that.

One thing I’m planning for the blog is a regular post called the Weekend Feature that will highlight stories from my various jobs (more on those in Thursday’s post) or stories about the dogs and cats.

In the meantime, the weather is beautiful – highs in the 60s and lows in the 20s. We had a brief cold snap last week when the low got down to 8 and we had our usual Halloween snow (only two inches, much less than the four to eight inches they predicted), but this time it came a few days before Halloween instead of right on Halloween, which is the norm.

In the next few days, I'll be improving the blog - adding more links, changing the layout, etc. And I'll post a new entry on Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year.

First of all, I'm thankful to be alive.

Second, I'm thankful for all the love and support I've gotten from my family these past 8 months -- my husband, my mother, my siblings, and my in-laws. Thank you, all.

And I'm thankful for the unconditional love of my four dogs and two cats. There's nothing like the unconditional love of an animal.

Joy and Relief

He did it! Barack Obama is our President-Elect. Whew! Yesterday my face hurt from smiling so much. Of course the smiling started on Tuesday evening. It didn't look promising at first; McCain's electoral numbers were edging up and I was afraid another election had been stolen. Then Obama's numbers started to rise rapidly. I watched CNN mostly, and as soon as some states' polls closed, CNN immediately called those states for a particular candidate, based on exit polls and early voting results. This happened with New Mexico; at 8:05, they "projected" (their word) that Obama had won. I cheered and shared the news with Ron when he walked in the door about 5 minutes later.

A few minutes before 9:00 our time (11:00 on the east coast) they finally projected that Obama would win Virginia. Of course that was one of the states we had been watching closely. We both cheered and gave each other high fives. It was only moments later, when the news about Virginia was still sinking in, that the polls in California closed and CNN projected that Obama had won California, and therefore had more than the required 270 electoral votes, and therefore had won the election. It was a historic moment, and so many emotions were swirling around, I can't even name them all. Joy and relief are the top two.

Here is a picture of Obama that Ron took when we saw him at the rally in Espanola.

Election Day Jitters

I'm writing this in the early afternoon on Election Day (though it won't be posted until later in the afternoon). The results aren't in yet, of course, but I'm hopeful. Then again, I was hopeful four years ago and eight years ago. I'm trying to not let my hopes get up too high. You can't always believe the polls.

New Mexico has early voting; in fact they strongly encourage it. We got at least two "robocalls" from Governor Richardson encouraging us to vote early. By the time early voting ended on Saturday, 40 percent of eligible voters in Taos County had voted! I voted last Tuesday and only had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes.

Ron likes to vote on Election Day. Part of it is the social aspect. In such a small precinct, he always sees people he knows. The other part he likes is feeling like a link in a long chain of history. Our regular polling place (not for early voting) is a very old building, at least 100 years old; knowing Taos, it could be 200 or 300 years old! It's a Community Center now; I forget what it was originally, probably a school. It has wooden floors that give off his old, dry wood smell that only really old buildings have. Standing in line inside, you think of all the people who have voted before you over the years and the people who will vote there years from now.

Ron has been very excited about this election in particular. He did some volunteer work for Obama early on, before he got the nomination, and of course he volunteered at the convention in Denver. We both went to see Obama when he came to Espanola, a town about 45 minutes from here. That experience was GREAT, even though it involved standing in the hot sun for 5 or 6 hours, between waiting and the rally itself. It was worth it, though. We were so close to the front!

But even knowing how excited he is about the whole thing, I was still surprised by his actions this morning. His regular shift at work is 4 pm to midnight; then he comes home and winds down for awhile before going to bed about 1:30 or 2:00. This morning, I woke up about 5:00 or 5:30. He hadn't come to bed yet and I could dimly hear the TV in the living room. At least he waited until 6:00 before he came bounding into the bedroom, full of energy. He said he was too excited to sleep and he was going to vote at 7:00 as soon as the polls opened and then go to sleep. He's working slightly different hours today, from 2:00 to 8:00 instead of 4:00 to midnight. He wanted to get off early so he can come home and watch the returns.

We'll see what happens tonight.

A Tale of Two Kitties

It's the height of hummingbird season again, with the usual swarms (also known as "an infestation of hummingbirds"). We have all three feeders up, of course -- small, medium and large -- but the small one still sometimes gets emptied in less than a day.

We have another visitor who is very interested in the hummingbirds -- one of the next-door neighbors' cats. He sits on top of the wall directly under the hummingbird feeders, hoping to get lucky. Ron found a few tiny hummingbird feeders stuck to one of the perches, so the cat either got one of the birds or almost got one of the birds.

He looks exactly like Winston, except leaner and with golden eyes instead of green. In fact, last year when I saw him under the feeders for the first time, I thought it was Winston and I freaked out, wondering how he'd gotten outside, until I saw Winston curled up sleeping on the bed.

We've started calling the other cat Twin Kitty. A few days ago, Twin Kitty was in his usual Sphinx-like position under the feeders. Then Winston jumped up on the couch to look out at the hummingbirds, as he likes to do. Then he saw Twin Kitty! He stared at Twin Kitty, completely fascinated. Then Twin Kitty saw Winston; he, too, was fascinated. They stared at each other for a minute; it seemed like longer. Then Twin Kitty gave up on the hummingbirds; he jumped off the wall under the feeders into the courtyard to get closer to the window. Again, they stared at each other. Then Winston moved to the tall narrow window next to the front door and Twin Kitty moved to the front porch, just on the other side of that window. They stared at each other -- no snarling or hissing or caterwauling. Just total fascination.

Eventually Twin Kitty left and Winston resumed watching the hummingbirds.

The Rain Finally Goes Through the Drain

I apologize for not posting anything in such a long time. It's an odd combination of having so much to do, but none of it was worth blogging about.
It's shedding season and the two wolfdogs are shedding big clumps of wool all over the place, inside and out. We never did get around to shaving them this year, because spring came so late. Sometimes we pull the clumps out of them, the ones that are ready to come out on their own. In just a few minutes there is a pile of wolf fur that's bigger than a whole cat. Other clumps come out without any pulling and there's always a trail of wolf fur all over the place. I try to pick it up daily.

It's also monsoon season, when we get rain nearly every afternoon. Sometimes the showers are strong and brief; other times they're slow, steady soaking rains that last for a couple of hours or more.

Any kind of rain wreaked havoc on the rear courtyard, where the dogs spend their time when they're not indoors. They like to gather by the iron gate so they can see out and watch the goings on. So a low spot developed there and any rain would create a deep and large mud puddle. It would stay there for days because there was no drainage under or through the gate. Four dogs (16 paws) plus mud puddles and/or mud plus light-colored carpet equals disaster!

So last Saturday (a week ago today), I started tackling the problem while Ron tackled the problems with his computer (he installed a new motherboard, new hard drive, and new operating system - Vista), but it was much harder than I thought it would be. I dug dirt out from directly underneath the iron gate, to create a place for the water to go, and hauled a couple of wheelbarrows of dirt to the low spot. Then I ran out of steam.

On Sunday, with his computer working properly again, Ron and I worked together and it only took a couple of hours to finish the job. Ron shoveled dirt from the dirt pile into the wheelbarrow and I rolled the wheelbarrow around and dumped the dirt in the low area. That way each of us could rest while the other worked. After 15 or so loads, we took a well-deserved break, and went inside to cool off and drink Gatorade. Then we went back to work. I smoothed out the fill dirt, creating a slightly mounded area while Ron dug a small trench on either side of the mounded area and going underneath the gate and continuing for a few feet on the other side of the gate.

Then we went inside and sat back, waiting for the regular afternoon rainstorm. Except it didn't come!

Finally it rained overnight, nearly half an inch (which doesn't sound like much, but is a lot for around here) and no mud puddle. Success! We've had more rain since then, of course, and the drainage continues to work! The dirt is muddy for a little while, but quickly dries up since there's no puddle of standing water. And no puddle of standing water also means far fewer mosquitoes.