I made it through my first two days of work at the vet. It never got crazy-busy, but it did get busy, yesterday more than today. Today was only a half day; I was there from 7:45 to 1:00. Yesterday was a full day, fuller than I'd anticipated. I was there from 7:45 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. (with an hour off for lunch)!! The clinic closes at 6:00, but then there's all the "closing" stuff to do -- cleaning, balancing the books, etc. The books were out of balance (not my fault), so it took awhile to figure it out. They tell me that most days we won't be there that late. Tomorrow is another full day, so we'll see.
There are two other women who are just starting to work there (I worked with one yesterday and one today), so the experienced people are training us at the same time. It helps to not be the only newbie.
The clients are mostly patient with us; everyone has been new at their job at some point in their life.
I've seen some very cute dogs and cats, but none as cute as ours. Of course there was the cutest little black cat, only five months old . . . . It was from the shelter, there for a spaying, and I had a feeling of really missing black cats, but with four dogs and two cats, we have a full house, NO MORE ANIMALS!!! This way, working at the vet, I can ooh and aah over the black cats and other animals without having the responsibility of owning them (or being owned by them, depending on your point of view).
So I'll keep working there while looking for freelance work or a better paying full time job.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I Got It - Sort Of
I got the job at the vet, but it's only part time, two and a half to three days a week. All day on Tuesday and Thursday plus Wednesday morning and the occasional Saturday morning. The good part about this is that it will leave me the other days free for job interviews and/or freelance work. I start this Tuesday. The other job with the police department hasn't been posted yet, and they're off Monday for the holiday, so it won't be posted until Tuesday at the earliest. I'm still looking for other work in the meantime; part time just isn't enough income.
It's been about minus five every night for the past several nights, someimes a little colder, sometimes a little warmer (this morning was a balmy minus two). Those temps seem normal now and it would take something like minus ten or below to seem remarkable. The high temp today may actually get above freezing, something that hasn't happened in several days.
The wolfdogs, of course, love it. Wolfie and King prefer to be outside when it's like this. They spend their days sleeping on the ice in the backyard. Big and Brutus go outside once the temps get above 10 or so, and try to stay in the sunlight. Brutus is so funny; early in the morning he wants to go outside (he sits by the sliding glass door and taps on it), but as soon as he steps out and realizes how cold it is, he immediately turns around and taps on the glass to come in. His new nickname is Sugarplum. "O.K., come back in, Sugarplum," I tell him.
It's been about minus five every night for the past several nights, someimes a little colder, sometimes a little warmer (this morning was a balmy minus two). Those temps seem normal now and it would take something like minus ten or below to seem remarkable. The high temp today may actually get above freezing, something that hasn't happened in several days.
The wolfdogs, of course, love it. Wolfie and King prefer to be outside when it's like this. They spend their days sleeping on the ice in the backyard. Big and Brutus go outside once the temps get above 10 or so, and try to stay in the sunlight. Brutus is so funny; early in the morning he wants to go outside (he sits by the sliding glass door and taps on it), but as soon as he steps out and realizes how cold it is, he immediately turns around and taps on the glass to come in. His new nickname is Sugarplum. "O.K., come back in, Sugarplum," I tell him.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Updates to the Updates
Good news and bad news.
The bad news is I didn't get the job with the Police Department. The interview went well, but I was one of five people they interviewed (out of lots of applications). Knowing Taos, they probably hired someone who is related to someone in the department. There's another possibility, though. When Valerie (the Assistant to the Chief of Police) called yesterday to say they'd chosen someone else, she told me that they're going to post another opening in a couple of days and she encouraged me to apply. The position is in the Records Department, but I forget the exact title of the job. Records Technician or something like that. Ron thinks maybe they hired the Records person as the Evidence Technician and that job would be a good way to get my foot in the door.
As long as they didn't hire me and confidentiality isn't such an issue, I can share with you what the Chief of Police (a very nice, approachable man, by the way) said to describe the police force: teenagers with guns. The other people from the department who were in the interview agreed with him.
The good news is that I think I have the job at the vet's, but I'm not completely certain yet. At the interview last Wednesday, we decided I would go in Monday morning for a couple of hours for what Dr. Kim called a Work Interview. It gave me a chance to sit at the front desk and see what the job would really be like. She said some people who've done that realize they can't handle the job. But I stayed for three hours and really enjoyed it. It was busy, but not crazy-busy. I've been there on occasions when it was crazy-busy and I think I could handle it. After just an hour, I was checking in people (and their animals) without any help. The computer system was easy to learn. I think I did very well. When I got home, I found out that while I was there, Dr. Kim had been checking my references. The woman I worked for in the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau said she gave me a glowing recommendation, that I'm detail-oriented and personable and easy to work with. I'll know by the end of the week if I got it.
The "Global Warming" continues. A front is coming through today that will bring bitterly cold temperatures. The lows for the next several nights will be well below zero. The constant freezing and thawing is wreaking havoc on the roads around here. Driving from home to town is like playing a video game of Dodge the Potholes. As the potholes increase in numbers and size, the game becomes more challenging.
I'll post when I have news about the vet job.
The bad news is I didn't get the job with the Police Department. The interview went well, but I was one of five people they interviewed (out of lots of applications). Knowing Taos, they probably hired someone who is related to someone in the department. There's another possibility, though. When Valerie (the Assistant to the Chief of Police) called yesterday to say they'd chosen someone else, she told me that they're going to post another opening in a couple of days and she encouraged me to apply. The position is in the Records Department, but I forget the exact title of the job. Records Technician or something like that. Ron thinks maybe they hired the Records person as the Evidence Technician and that job would be a good way to get my foot in the door.
As long as they didn't hire me and confidentiality isn't such an issue, I can share with you what the Chief of Police (a very nice, approachable man, by the way) said to describe the police force: teenagers with guns. The other people from the department who were in the interview agreed with him.
The good news is that I think I have the job at the vet's, but I'm not completely certain yet. At the interview last Wednesday, we decided I would go in Monday morning for a couple of hours for what Dr. Kim called a Work Interview. It gave me a chance to sit at the front desk and see what the job would really be like. She said some people who've done that realize they can't handle the job. But I stayed for three hours and really enjoyed it. It was busy, but not crazy-busy. I've been there on occasions when it was crazy-busy and I think I could handle it. After just an hour, I was checking in people (and their animals) without any help. The computer system was easy to learn. I think I did very well. When I got home, I found out that while I was there, Dr. Kim had been checking my references. The woman I worked for in the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau said she gave me a glowing recommendation, that I'm detail-oriented and personable and easy to work with. I'll know by the end of the week if I got it.
The "Global Warming" continues. A front is coming through today that will bring bitterly cold temperatures. The lows for the next several nights will be well below zero. The constant freezing and thawing is wreaking havoc on the roads around here. Driving from home to town is like playing a video game of Dodge the Potholes. As the potholes increase in numbers and size, the game becomes more challenging.
I'll post when I have news about the vet job.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Updates of All Kinds
Yes, I'm still here; I just haven't felt like writing anything lately. But this post will make up for it, I hope. It's going to be very long (and getting longer all the time).
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
So Much For That Idea
I don't have to worry about understanding physics. The gig is off. I won't be working for Beacon. It turns out their VPN (Virtual Private Network) software won't work with wireless internet connections -- only cable or DSL. They've tried it before and it didn't work and it still doesn't work. So I'll pack up all their equipment and send it back.
We're just a little too far from town (the telephone central office) to get DSL. Qwest has been promising for years that they'll install DSL (and the equipment necessary to get it) in this area "in the next few months" but it hasn't happened yet. There are plenty of homes in the area and plenty of people who really really want DSL. So what does Qwest do? They put DSL in tiny towns like Angel Fire and Penasco. It doesn't make sense.
Do I sound bitter? I am. I'm angry and frustrated.
So is Ron. He decided that next week he's going to file a complaint with the Public Regulatory Commission about Qwest's refusal to provide DSL service and how that's causing us loss of income. Of course he's filing the complaint as a Qwest customer, not a Qwest employee. Maybe if the PRC gets enough complaints, they can force Qwest do do something.
We're just a little too far from town (the telephone central office) to get DSL. Qwest has been promising for years that they'll install DSL (and the equipment necessary to get it) in this area "in the next few months" but it hasn't happened yet. There are plenty of homes in the area and plenty of people who really really want DSL. So what does Qwest do? They put DSL in tiny towns like Angel Fire and Penasco. It doesn't make sense.
Do I sound bitter? I am. I'm angry and frustrated.
So is Ron. He decided that next week he's going to file a complaint with the Public Regulatory Commission about Qwest's refusal to provide DSL service and how that's causing us loss of income. Of course he's filing the complaint as a Qwest customer, not a Qwest employee. Maybe if the PRC gets enough complaints, they can force Qwest do do something.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Someday I'll Start
I haven't started training with Beacon yet, but I've gotten to know two of the Tech Support guys, one by phone and one by email.
The first computer they sent me didn't have ports for the keyboard and mouse. After much emailing back and forth, the main Tech Support guy, Jarrod, apologized and said he should have sent me a USB keyboard and mouse instead of the OS2 ones he did send. So he sent me the USB keyboard and mouse via FedEx overnight. When they arrived, I plugged them in and started up the computer, but got an error message that Windows did not start successfully. It went downhill from there. I couldn't connect with the company's network. Jarrod called me on the phone and we tried various things. Finally he decided that the computer was beyond help and they would have to send me another one. Of course this was on Friday (November 9) afternoon, so they couldn't send it until Monday morning. He also told me that he would be gone the following week and Bill would help me. (This was an already-scheduled, already-planned vacation; no, I didn't drive him away.)
I got the new computer Tuesday afternoon and at least it started up successfully, but I still couldn't connect with the network. So much of Wednesday and Thursday was spent emailing back and forth with Bill trying different things, but I'm still not connected.
So I'll start again Monday morning with Jarrod.
Everyone has been very apologetic -- the recruiter, the HR person, and my boss, who assured me that, "It seems like getting connected is the hardest part, but once we get that ironed out, there are very few tech problems for remotes. Promise!"
The first computer they sent me didn't have ports for the keyboard and mouse. After much emailing back and forth, the main Tech Support guy, Jarrod, apologized and said he should have sent me a USB keyboard and mouse instead of the OS2 ones he did send. So he sent me the USB keyboard and mouse via FedEx overnight. When they arrived, I plugged them in and started up the computer, but got an error message that Windows did not start successfully. It went downhill from there. I couldn't connect with the company's network. Jarrod called me on the phone and we tried various things. Finally he decided that the computer was beyond help and they would have to send me another one. Of course this was on Friday (November 9) afternoon, so they couldn't send it until Monday morning. He also told me that he would be gone the following week and Bill would help me. (This was an already-scheduled, already-planned vacation; no, I didn't drive him away.)
I got the new computer Tuesday afternoon and at least it started up successfully, but I still couldn't connect with the network. So much of Wednesday and Thursday was spent emailing back and forth with Bill trying different things, but I'm still not connected.
So I'll start again Monday morning with Jarrod.
Everyone has been very apologetic -- the recruiter, the HR person, and my boss, who assured me that, "It seems like getting connected is the hardest part, but once we get that ironed out, there are very few tech problems for remotes. Promise!"
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Another New Gig
I got another copy editing gig! This one is different. I won't be an independent contractor; I'll be a full-fledged (but part-time) employee. With benefits! Paid time off! Paid training (the first 6 weeks)! They'll even reimburse me for my Internet Service Provider charges. Not only that, they sent me a computer (just for use on their stuff, of course). They asked me to commit to at least 20 hours per week, but it could be more than that.
So who are these people, you're asking. BeaconPMG. According to the website, it's "a publishing services company that provides project management, editorial, composition, new media and related services to book and journal publishers."
I will be editing a physics journal. Yikes! The woman I've been talking to said it's one of their most prestigious journals. Double yikes! Between this physics journal and the algebra I've been editing, I'm learning a lot.
I officially start my training on Thursday. I'll post more then.
So who are these people, you're asking. BeaconPMG. According to the website, it's "a publishing services company that provides project management, editorial, composition, new media and related services to book and journal publishers."
I will be editing a physics journal. Yikes! The woman I've been talking to said it's one of their most prestigious journals. Double yikes! Between this physics journal and the algebra I've been editing, I'm learning a lot.
I officially start my training on Thursday. I'll post more then.
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