New Job vs. Old Job

I'm really enjoying my new job. The atmosphere is so much calmer and quieter than the vet clinic; it's the complete opposite. There are only two phone lines and they only ring three or four times an hour instead of four phone lines ringing constantly (although there were usually two of us to answer them).

The phone calls are calm, too. No one calling frantically becaue their cat has been vomiting and having bloody diarrhea for five days, what should they do? (Duh, bring it in right away -- "Oh, I don't have time. Can I just stop by and pick up a prescription?") Or the people who think the slightest little thing is an emergency (it isn't) and want to come in RIGHT NOW.

Of course most of the clients were great (but not as much fun to write (or read) about. I met some interesting people, such as a certain artist who is famous locally and nationally. He was so down to earth and funny and friendly. And the people involved in animal rescue, particularly the ones helping the feral cats with the Trap, Neuter, Release program, are true angels.

So things are much calmer at the new job (although there was that four-foot-long snake that tried to get into my car Wednesday, but more on that later). There are only five of us in the office -- Chuck L, Chuck M, Loretta, Tillie, and myself -- and one woman who works back in the warehouse/garage servicing the vehicles and doing whatever else she does. There are four superintendents who come in and out regularly and numerous construction workers who only come in once a week to pick up their paycheck.

It can get a little crazy, when we're putting together multiple copies of bid proposal packets the evening before they're due, but the craziness is occasional rather than constant. It was funny on the first few days when Loretta, the Office Manager, was apologizing to me for how crazy it was, and I said, "This isn't crazy at all," while thinking to myself, "You don't know what crasy is." She's very nice to work with, as are all the others. Tillie works here part time in the office; she's Loretta's sister. Chuck L is the President; he was the VP until last November when his father, the President and owner, died. Chuck M is the Project Manager for northern New Mexico. He's very funny and rides motorcycles. It gets a little confusing having two Chucks, especially when someone calls and asks for Chuck. I have to ask which one (using their last names) and usually they know which one they want, but not always. The "regulars" who call a lot know to ask by the full name.

Oh yes, the snake. Wednesday afternoon, after I got back from lunch, Tillie left to pick up some lunch for herself and Loretta. Right after she left, the phone rang. It was Tillie. "Beth, get Loretta and come outside, quick!!" We went outside and she pointed to the ground. It was a four-foot-long snake! It looked like a rattlesnake. Both Chucks were gone, so Loretta went back to get one of the construction guys. As she left, the snake began heading right for my car. By the time she and O. came back a couple of minutes later, the snake had crawled through one of the holes in my hubcap and into the wheel of my car! A few minutes later, it started to come back out again and O., wearing gloves of course, grabbed it and tried to pull it out. The snake held on, but stronger muscles prevailed and eventually O. was able to pull it out and tossed it away. He said it wasn't a rattlesnake, it was a bullsnake. Bullsnakes are good to have around; they aren't venomous and they eat rodents (many of the rodents around here carry hantavirus and/or bubonic plague). I don't mind having bullsnakes around; I just don't want one in my car!

Changes

Last Friday, May 9, was my last day working at the vet. Tomorrow, May 12, I start my new job, as Administrative Assistant for a large construction company, LCI2. It will mean more money, more hours, and normal hours -- Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 (with an hour for lunch). The 11-hour days at the vet were really getting to me, as were some of the more psycho clients (I loved the animals, but some of the owners were difficult to deal with). I will miss all my co-workers. We were a great team, always helping each other and always thanking each other, particularly after an especially hard day. We all dreaded the same psycho clients, and some of us were better at dealing with some of them, others better at dealing with other ones.

I'm working on another project, too, a freelance editing project. This time it's for a private individual, a retired history teacher from Illinois. He has written his memoirs, for his children and grandchildren. As he explained to me in his first e-mail, he didn't write it for publication, but he wants it to be up to publication standards. He also wrote it "to learn things" so I explained about Microsoft Word's "Track Changes" feature, so we're doing it that way, so he can accept or reject my changes. So far, it's been fascinating. He was born about 1930 and grew up in Baltimore. I'm still in the chapters about his early childhood and the details he remembers and writes about are very interesting. His use of language is great, as well (much better than mine is today). There's one brief paragraph describing an old wooden rowboat that is absolutely one of the best pieces of writing I've read in a long time. I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

What's new with everyone else out there? Let's see some more contributions to the family blog.

Life, Part 2

I want to thank everyone in my wonderful family for all of their love and support during the difficult time I recently went through.

I'm feeling much better now, physically and emotionally. I have a second chance at life and a second chance at everything. Thank you all so much.

I will be posting more often now that things are back on track.

So Far So Good

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.

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.

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.

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.