Cold, quiet and queesy

Today was one of those typical Colorado weather days. Wait five minutes and the weather will change. We’ve had snow, sun and wind in various combinations all day. Oh, and Cold! My fingers nearly froze trying to get my resume ready this morning. I applied for a secretarial job out in La Veta today. Took Pauline with me so that we could catch up on each other’s lives. Turned into a nice girl’s day out.

We went to lunch out at the Rambler, and then went to a couple of shops. One of them being Collection Corners. Lots of antiques. I was so good. Looked and didn’t buy anything! I dropped her off around 5pm and came home. Dan had a meeting to go to and I decided to just curl up with my cup of mint tea and the computer. My lunch didn’t set very well. uggghh….

Sunday Dan and I took Blanca and Brandy to Pueblo and Petsmart. We needed to get her a body harness as Brandy keeps escaping the yard. We figured that fitting one would be better than just guessing. So, off we went. Blanca was very good. In fact, she was better than I thought she’d be. Brandy was good, but she yammered ala coyote at the other dogs and scared some of them. I teased Dan that there was a language barrier. Dog vs Coyote. Maybe I wasn’t so far off.

However, the girls had a good time.

So far, I have three resumes out. One to the local hospital, one to La Veta high school and one out to a gentleman wanting data entry work done. Now for the wait. sigh…..

I think I’ll go to bed.

Then Hell froze over…

You see, yesterday was my last day of work. I resigned on the 12th. Finally had enough of the board breaking the law. I can say stuff now that I am no longer employed. Wheeeee!!!!

In case you the audience hadn’t guessed, they screwed up big time. Broke the Sunshine Law, various state and federal tax laws and various state and federal labor laws. Oh, and had the audacity to say that they didn’t have to follow the laws like other boards do. My biggest concern was how to bring them to justice… I didn’t want to sue them.  I don’t want their little businesses. However, I really want them to understand just how badly they screwed up in the best way I can.

I hmmmed and hawwed for a month. Then it came to my attention that not only hadn’t they paid all of the taxes correctly, but that they had totally missed the Unemployment and Workmen’s Comp stuff. I tested the waters of that illegality on two of the people who work for WorkForce, the “jobs” people. Their reaction was pretty impressive. That whole OMGS!!! type thing. So, later today I will be calling Labor Standards and filing a complaint.

Dan, who is the treasurer at the moment will be resigning too. As his lawyer told him, 27 different violations that she counted, so get the hell out! It will be interesting.

Between sitting on my hands and doing nothing in the name of the Chamber, I applied for two jobs and did a bunch of writing. Some of it will be up on my wordwytch blog. Other bits…. who knows. 😛 I attended a lot of meetings about gardening too. :>

Now, about that hell freezing over… Our standard phrase around the office when someone decided to not choose us is “Either you pick us, or you made a mistake.” It started out as a joke and then we realized that most times it was true. Especially when we have had to redo work because some idiot charged less and screwed up badly. Well, in this case, it was one of “you had the best and threw it away.”

We have had beautiful weather. Nice, warm springtime stuff. Yesterday, we were under a winter storm warning. 1-2 feet type storm. I got up yesterday, and while it was cool, there was no snow. Went to work and around noon, a few flakes fell and then melted. Some storm. 2pm- quitting time! We packed things up and delivered them to my “supervisor”, the one who did nothing this entire last two weeks. Dan said that he’d take me to lunch. I said fine, and as the weather still hadn’t hit, we went to the bank and then headed towards Pueblo.

2:30pm. All the work done and we headed out. Five miles out of town, the flakes of snow started to fall. The road went from wet to slushy. Nothing we couldn’t handle. The snow got heavier and so did the wind. We stopped at Colorado City for gas and decided that we were not going to make it to Pueblo. So, we at lunch at Max’s. Nice little place. As the wind howled and the snow fell, I started to giggle. I had to explain that it looked like Hell was freezing over, and perhaps that was rather appropo considering it was my last day at work. Dan, the waitress and the other customers in the place all giggled. There was some good natured teasing about it being all my fault. 🙂

Then we drove home. Oh gods was it snowy! We got back to the highway and our first suspision that something was wrong was the fact that while there were plows on the Northbound side, there were none on the Southbound side. Dan was plowing the road. The wind was blowing harder and it was difficult to drive.

It took us 45 minutes to drive home 23 miles.  It was an adventure. The girls were happy to see us. They’d been outside! oops!!! I missed a lady I was suppose to go check on a garden with, but I would have reguardless because of the snow.

 Snow overhanging the roof
Snow overhanging the roof
Budding shrubs covered in snow
Budding shrubs covered in snow

Today it is still snowing. We have at least a foot in places where it didn’t melt on impact.  The dogs are enjoying the stuff. I slid and plowed my way to Safeway this morning for soymilk and eggs. Wheeee……

Brandy in the back yard
Brandy in the back yard
Blanca
Blanca

Now I’m going to catch up on my journals, read my book and clean up my computer. Right after I call Labor Standards.

A Fractured Fairy Tale, Part 2

The woman worked hard to deal with the rules of the Synod. It was very frustrating in that she could only do part of the work she normally did. It was frustrating that she couldn’t explain what was going on to those of her friends that were concerned about her. She still had no voice.

The man and his friend worked hard to make things right, but the monster Jejune was very clever. It hopped from one person to the next to spread the poison of boredom and hatred.

The Synod met a week later and made even more rules than before. All the woman could do is sit and listen and do her job. It hurt. All of their work compounded the spell, which still affected the woman. The man had tried to make her stay home and heal, but she was honor bound to abide by the rules the Synod had put in place. She couldn’t afford to just quit. She couldn’t quit because the Synod would only do this to another person if she couldn’t figure out how to stop the nasty hateful spell or the monster.

Then disaster struck the Conservatory. The monster, Jejune, dripped nastiness and made people lazy. It made them not care about their work. Workers dealing with the plumbing in the Conservatory didn’t check everything and water flooded part of the Conservatory. The man discovered the problem, and raced to tell people who could fix it. He had a terrible time of it because people wanted forms filled out in triplicate before they’d do anything. He finally yelled loud enough that someone heard and sent the same workers back over to fix the problem.

Meanwhile, the woman got all the work ready to be moved out of the Conservatory. She knew it wouldn’t be safe to work there. All the power was turned off. So, after packing up all the work she could, she went home and went to bed.

A few days later, the Synod wanted her to go back to work. She was responsible for finding a place to work. She and the man asked in all the government offices in the city. No one had room for them. They kept looking, and finally asked a scholar who helped the farmers and ranchers in town deal with the kingdom to the North. He said he had a place for her to work. He gave her an office in the corner of his great hall. The man helped the woman move all of her stuff into the new office. It was a quiet place most days with just the scholar’s housekeeper for company.

On occasion, a member of the Synod would come by to see what the woman was doing. She always made sure to make herself look busy, even if she wasn’t. It wasn’t her fault that there was nothing to do. However, she didn’t want to get yelled at because she wasn’t doing anything. It was very tiresome.

The woman began to realize that there was very little she could do to hurt the monster. She needed the people to wake up and fight it themselves. However, she didn’t give up.

The man and his friend worked hard to make the Synod understand how wrong they were, especially when it came to how they treated their friend. She was doing her job, and would never have done things without permission. However, the member of the Synod that liked to yell, kept setting traps for the woman. She dodged most of them, but on occasion, she tripped up. Then the man who yelled would be gleeful.

The workers didn’t do a good job of cleaning up. In fact, they just shut the doors and left the Conservatory to mold. This was horrid as the woman wanted to be back in her office. She realized that if the Conservatory didn’t get cleaned up, that she might never get back in there. The Synod said that they cared, but they just stood by and let Jejune delay the workers and confuse the people testing the Conservatory into believing it was better to keep it shut up tight. Instead of mouldering on the outside like a tomato or a loaf of bread, the Conservatory was mouldering from the inside out.

At that point, the woman realized that she would never be able to do the work she should be doing. She would never get back in her building. The Synod was making more rules that were just stupid. Jejune had done such a good job that the woman realized that the only way to fix the Synod and the people poisoned by Jejune was to let them totally break. She couldn’t fix them because they didn’t want to be fixed. They had been broken for so long that they didn’t know any other way to live.

They had broken the laws. The woman realized that they had broken lots of laws, and the best way to deal with that was to no longer work for the Synod. This was a very hard decision. Another friend of her’s had given her information on how to tell the Kingdom in the North of the laws broken and she intended to do so. She knew that she would have to look for a new job. However, anything was better than this half life she’d dealt with for the last month.

With the help of her friend, they devised a plan. So that the Synod or Jejune would not suspect nor try to stop her, they stopped working together. The man and his friend took their swords out and practised until they were very good. The woman worked as she could and tried to make everything look normal. In truth, she was figuring the best way to quit.

The Synod had a meeting. They couldn’t hold it in the Conservatory. It was too moldy. Instead, they had it at a cafe where there wasn’t a lot of seating. This meant that there wouldn’t be many people at the meeting. This was fine with the woman. She was ready. She had crafted a spell of her own. Not a big one, but a very clean one.

During the meeting, the two men kept their hands on their swords to be ready in case Jejune showed up or the other members of the Synod decided to be cruel or stupid. They drew them twice when things got rough. People settled down quickly when they saw that the two friends had no trouble standing up for themselves.

When the meeting was almost over and the Synod had re-written the rules yet again, the woman stood up to present some information. While she started to talk, the man who liked to yell began to work a spell. He was waiting for the woman to finish so that he could cast it. The man saw what he was starting to do and nodded to his friend. Both men put their hands to their swords.

The woman got to the last of her information and then cast her spell. It struck the Synod perfectly. The two men were safe because the woman had crafted it very cleverly. Everyone else was struck dumb. While trying not to smile, the woman sat back down and waited for the end of the meeting. They had no choice but to listen to the woman and her request to work for a fortnight as was the right of her agreement with them. They had no choice but to finish the meeting. Most of all, the man who had the spell in his hand wiped it off quickly as it burned him. All of his plans had come to naught.

That night, the man, his friend and the woman talked of what had been wrought. They weren’t sure if it would hold, but it was the honourable way to end this travesty. The Synod could rot in their own little nastiness. The woman had two places to look for work and although she was scared, she knew she had done the right thing.

When she went to bed, she didn’t cry herself to sleep. She snuggled deep in the covers and slept well. She knew she could live with whatever the Synod or Jejune tried to do to her over the next fortnight. The woman had done what was honourable and right. Letting the rot kill the Synod or Jejune was the best revenge.

The topsoil is blowin’ in the Wind!

And today, it is actually mild compared to what is to come later this week. Last week we had more than one day when the winds were between 30 and 44 miles per hour. Todays are a breezy 20mph with gusts up to 35mph. Tomorrow is 20-35mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. Gads! Honestly, I think that I’m going to have to scrape all the soil off the fence and put it back in the yard at this rate. We have places in our backyard where the loose soil is just gone and all you see is the hard stuff with lots of rocks in it. Not good for gardening. sigh…

I think that what I may do is turn the front porch into a greenhouse. Plant a bunch of stuff in pots, get them going on the front porch which is sort of a big cold frame at the moment and go from there. By the time the stuff is too big to be in the pots, I’ll have the back yard ready. I hope.

Meanwhile, I am still camping in the offices of the CSU Extension office. The Chamber is still out of the building and doesn’t look to be going back in any time soon. sigh….. Very frustrating. Oh well.  Plus, I’m putting my name in for other secretarial jobs that pop up. We will see. Still no apologies after all that dreck.

I got my taxes filed and am nearly caught up on other things. So, this afternoon, I am going to work on my writing! Wheeee!! I have two stories in my head that I need to get started on before they go the way of my topsoil!

Grandpuppy came to Visit

In the midst of everything this week, Daniel turned 19 on the 2nd. I babysat the puppy for him. Oh, and took lots of pictures.

Puppy attacking the wood pile
Puppy attacking the wood pile
Puppy attacking Brandy's bed
Puppy attacking Brandy's bed
What?
What?
Shhhh! Sleeping puppy!
Shhhh! Sleeping puppy!
Smitten!
Smitten!
"Yes, he's cute" says Dan.
"Yes, he's cute" says Dan.

Next time the puppy comes to visit, I hope that Daniel would have named him. He will also get to play with Brandy and Blanca next time.

Eagles, Trains and water mains

About two weeks ago, Dan got tired of the eagle on top of the flagpole in the chamber conference room looking shoddy. So, he got some Brasso, and started to polish the eagle. This would have been fine had the eagle been brass. However, it was gold painted pig iron. Aghast, Dan went out to get some spray paint to fix it.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. Just before 2pm, the City workers come over to install a water meter at the Train Depot, home of the Chamber… I say fine and go home for the day, as they were shutting off the water.

Next morning, we get to work and Dan has the spray paint with him to fix the eagle. He takes it outside and starts to paint it when he hears water. He also realizes that as he passed the basement window, that something didn’t look exactly right. Dan went back and looked at the window well and realized that it was full of water! This is a window well about 2.5ft square, which means that the basement was flooded. He came in, hollered at me to call the City and he ran over to tell them personally.

I called and started backing up my computer, because I figured that I’d have to leave the building. Dan got over to the City and tells the desk clerk that there was an emergency and they needed to shut off the water over at the Depot. The clerk looks at him and tells him that he’ll need to fill out a workorder and that they will get to it as soon as they can, and please give an address. Dan tells them again, that this is an emergency, over at the train depot, and that it needs shut off now! Again, the clerk asks for an address. Dan says, “you own the building! It’s city property” About this point in time, the City Clerk hears what is going on, tells the desk clerk that she doesn’t need a workorder, and starts hollering for people to get over to the depot NOW!

Meanwhile, I’ve got everything ready to go, and was waiting on Dan. The City work crew got there, found out that it was filled almost to the top with water and started to drain the basement. (20ftx20ft sq). San Isabel turned off the electricity, I called the board and let them know what was going on. Then, Dan and I went home.

Thursday, they were still pumping water. No work. Friday. No work. Monday, there was no electricity, etc.  So, I started hunting down a place to set up the Chamber with Dan. The City had no room. The County had a desk, but no phone or Internet connection. The Library had no room. Luckily for me, the CSU Extension office had room, a desk, Internet connections and phones that not only I could use, but that WorkForce could use as well! (Thank you Jim Conley!!!)

So, I have been working out of the CSU Extension office down at the Community Center. It is a bit cramped, but I can get most of my work done there. The only thing we haven’t done is transfer the phones. We are waiting to hear just how long we are going to be out of the building before we do that. It might be 3 days, it might be 2 weeks. They have to test air quality, and clean out the basement first. Wheee….. I don’t get to help with that because of all the mold. Dan took pictures of the damage, and when everthing floated, some of the old lightbulbs broke out of their boxes. When the water sank, they landed in the magazine racks like they’d been put there! What a riot.

Wildlife adventures

Life has been interesting around here. We’ve had deer so close that Dan has smacked them on the butt to get them out of the stairwell. Dan took these pictures without using the telephoto setting.  This buck was less than 8ft from our house.

Buck next to the house
Buck next to the house
The rest of the herd
The rest of the herd

Then there is the big cat that was in the backyard last night. Not sure if it was a bobcat or a lynx, but it was not a housecat! The dogs wouldn’t even go outside. Oh, and the skunks have been trying to mate under the house. Ugggghhhh!

Finally, we have been having issues with our one dog, Brandy. She is a mixed breed. German shepard and ??? We figure coyote. Why? Just look at the pictures and see. Our biggest problem is keeping a collar on her! Even the local animal control officer thought she was a coyote. sigh… Oh, and she howls and chatters just like one too!

Brandy
Brandy
Hi!
Hi!