Smokey Solstice and the sewer strikes again.

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Our trip to Pueblo went well. We got all the little bits we needed and headed home. Only one problem. I still had to make lasagna and wrap prezzies.

We worked on the lasagna and the sausage rolls at the same time. Dan cooking the hamburger while I made pastry dough. We finished the sauce, made the lasagna and put it in the fridge for the next day. Total prep time about 90 minutes. Not bad for one regular and one soy version.

Then it was time to wrap prezzie. I did the paperwork, and Dan labeled, bagged and stashed stuff. Stockings were stuffed and set aside. After staying up until nearly 3am wrapping presents, we set the alarm for 6am. (yeah…. really.) The alarm almost died at 6am. Finally dragged arse out of bed by 6:30am. The sunrise waits for no one.

We stuffed the prezzies on the table and then grabbed drums, pots and pans to “drum up the sun”. (yes, wake up the sun after the longest night.) Then we dived into presents, sausage rolls, peanut butter cookies and hot drinks.

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I have to admit that we didn’t decorate this year. Between Logan shredding the house at the best of times, various adults being sick and schedules from hell, I just gave up. It didn’t affect the Yuletide joy however.

We all got some cool prezzies. John got his John Wayne lunchbox, Dan got a telegraph key, the kids got toolboxes and puzzles, Beth and I got baskets and Daniel’s dog got a sweater!

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However, remember that comment about smoke? Well, it was bitterly cold that morning as well as windy. So, when Dan and Daniel went to burn the wrapping paper, there was a little problem. Backdraft! We couldn’t get the chimney warm enough to draw.

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Not too bad, but hazy. Once the prezzie frenzy passed, most of us adults took a well deserved nap! When I got up, I made the pecan pie.

We had lasagna for supper and pecan pie for dessert. We watched the Dark Knight, which was alright, but I didn’t think it was as great as everyone said it was.

In the middle of the night, the wind picked up. Now, you have to understand that the wind blows around here a lot. However, these were 15mph gusts. By the time I headed to work it was 25mph gusts. I was warm inside at the Chamber offices, but…. Dan and Matt were not.

Why? Well… because our sewer had backed up again on Saturday night. Dan borrowed Jimmer’s truck and went to La Veta to rent the sewer snake. He and Matt cleaned the drain this morning. Yuck!!! Poor guys got blown all over the place. However, the drains are clear again for the moment! Now to do all the laundry that piled up. ewwwww!

Catch up!

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I had planned to tell all about the adventures of my parents being here and other bits of last weekend, and all that went to hell in a handbasket. Dan and Beth told Matt and Morgan about Tirion last night. They had an imprompto Samhain/wake for Tirion. Told stories and remembered things until nearly midnight.  By the time I got organized, I was too tired.

So, let’s try this again.

My parents who had originally planned to come in on the 17th, rescheduled their trip because my dad discovered he has a very small treatable cancer in his bladder. At the time, he didn’t have the go ahead to travel. However, on the 16th, he did get permission as he was going to start medical treatment some time after the 23rd. So, they packed up the car and headed to Walsenburg. They got here on Thursday, which was the beginning of the fast action house attack. Just how much can you get done in four days?

Friday, Dan went to La Veta and rented the sewer snake. He got home late, and the evening thunderstorm had rolled in. Water, lightning, sewer…. Nope! Not going there.

We attacked Mom and Dad’s sewer on Saturday morning. Well, he did. Mom and I ran away to the Black Diamond Jubilee. Not the best town based festival this year. However, I did find some treasures at the FOL booksale. After I picked up Dan, the trash, and the sewer snake, we went over and cleaned out 203’s sewer. That of course meant cleaning up 205’s as well since they are linked. Daniel helped Dan out. Loaded the snake up a second time and headed to 520. Now, keep in mind that this damned thing weighs nearly 60 pounds if not more. It’s a two person lift most days. Dan of couse had been hefting it himself. stupid!!!

When we got to 520, the thunderstorms hit again. This put the sewer swiping to Sunday. Poor Dan. This was the bad one. He used two gallons of bleach to kill all the nasties. It also took nearly three hours to fix it. There was a broken toy and a rock clogging the sewer. We didn’t get the snake back until Monday, which means that I owe an arm and a leg for the damned thing, but… we did four houses!

Between the muck, bleach and allergies, Dan came down ill. Fever, sneezing and a gallon of snot. Ewww! Wrenched his arm and back lifting the snake too. Our neighbor across the street who watches everything that goes on even chided him about not being a young kid! Dan had to agree with him. I know that Erin and Karen were peeved that he was sick and not able to go off on whatever adventures they wanted him for, but… too bad. He only gets paid by the job and there was no way he could do anything safely feeling like he did. Here it is Friday and he still feels rough!

We also planned out all the repairs that need done on 520 and started a roster of what order they need done. Bewtween time and money, I figure it will take at least a year. Maybe less, but a year is my estimate. Our first project is to fix the front porch.

Monday I also went to hopefully the last Strategic Planning Committee meeting for RE-1. It’s been going on for nearly four months. Now to see if the District Accountability committee approves of it and then the school board. gads!

Today has been busy. Slow at work, as no one is here, not even Pattie. I did get a job application for the Housing Authority. Dan took it in for me this morning. Not sure when I will get an interview or even if I will get one. If not, I’ll keep looking and call around. My luck, Pattie will quit, the new person will take her job and then this position will be open again. sigh…

I’m watching the Nelson Mandela Birthday concert while I’m typing. http://www.46664.com He is 90 this year on July 18th. To me Mandela is a hero.  I remember watching his release on the BBC. What a moment in history.  John shares the birth date with him.

Probably aught to go do something. Anything… Sitting here waiting for the phones to ring is mind numbing! Only two more hours to go.

Lawyers and paperwork and dogs Oh My!

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Here it is Saturday, and I finally have more than a few minutes to read my email and GASP!!! , write in my journal. I have been at the D.A.’s office for a week now. Technically, I don’t have a contract any more, but that is fine by me. Don’t like to sign contracts during Mercury in Retrograde. Lee, the D.A., said I’m to come to work on Tuesday, so that is fine by me. I guess that I will work the whole week and then find out if I have the full time job.

Everyone at the office thinks that Linda, the “HR person” is daft to hire me for a couple of weeks and then let me go. Stupid to re-train a totally new person. However, no one ever said she was intelligent. I like the job. There are some daft things about it though.

I know I was thrown in at the deep end of things, but I have managed to cope with it all. I know that there are still some bits of the job I’m a tad shaky on, but not surprising all considered. I’ve learned some crazy facts about this county. They’d probably be true of any small town…

  • 75-80% of the crimes are committed by 4 or 5 families. The same names keep popping up. Sometimes the same last name, other times the same exact name. Some of these people have 6-7 files all at the same time! Some people never learn!
  • Not all lawyers are as portrayed on TV…. (duh!) One of them plays solitaire instead of working. Another needs his ‘mommy’ to dress him! Came in with an unironed shirt on! All I could think of was no wonder things screw up in court if these are the people responsible for interpreting the law! I know that there have to be good ones out there, but OMHGS! One of them is also missing a can and the plastic ringy thing to hold the sixpack together!
  • Paperwork will eat you alive! I think in a week I personally went through 4 reams of paper. I probably handled 16 or 18 reams of paper. It’s everywhere and multiplies in the dark!
  • There are NO SECRETS IN SMALL TOWNS!!! I was trying to be polite and not mention names when talking about people when the other secretary said “oh yeah, you mean…..” and then filled me in on all the other bits I hadn’t known about that particular person. Gossip, thy name is the D.A. office and dispatch center!
  • Keystone cops don’t exist just in movies! We had cops trying to pull a suspect out from under a car, and couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t move! That’s when they discovered that two different cops had two different limbs and were pulling from two different sides of the car!
  • I have a very strong stomach. My fellow office mates were worried that I would be upset by pictures of dead bodies, dead animals or sexual case photos. I had to assure them that they don’t bother me. (which is true) I also learned that neither of them can cope with pictures of dead animals. sigh…. I guess I will be handling all the road kill pictures.

Last but not least, the person that hired me lost my application for the full time job. So, I frantically had to reassemble everything and fill out a new form for application on Wednesday during my lunch hour, because the Assistant D.A. was holding interviews that afternoon. In the middle of all of this, Daniel called and wanted me to be home at 5pm on the dot to meet his girlfriend’s mom. I told him I’d try, but that I was rather busy.

I had my interview, which I think went well, and made it home in time to find Daniel and Breanna waiting for me outside with her mom. Oh, and a very SMALL puppy. Breanna was sad that Daniel lost Oscar, and wanted to give him one of the puppies that her dog had had about 7 weeks ago. This puppy is a chihuahua miniture bulldog mix. Probably weighs 2 pounds. Which is really funny, because there has been a 7 week old puppy running around the sheriff’s office all week that we have been playing with. His name is Mongo. He weighs 25 pounds, is 7 weeks old and is a mastiff great dane mix.  Mongo’s head is bigger than the other puppy.

Of course, in light of Breanna wanting to give Daniel a puppy, I didn’t have the heart to say no. So, Daniel is now the proud “parent” of a dog named Fatty. He was the fattest in the litter. (omhgs!) John fumed, but gave in.

Today, I did sleep in a bit! Huzzah! Working 8 to 5 has been a challenge, as my system was set to non-school time! However, my parents came into town on Thursday and we are cleaning the sewers for 408, 520 and 203 today. Dan and I will be stinky!! ewwwww…..

And the adventure has yet another chapter

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Ok, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not always the most organized individual, and work has gotten me a little scatterbrained. However, I have had enough.
We ended up driving to Trinidad to get the snake for the sewer. That was Thursday afternoon. Since we were heading out so late, I asked John to pick up the kids. No problem, I dropped my car off with him and then we headed down to Trinidad. We picked up the snake and went to Walmart for some things that Karen needed. Half way through the store, John calls to say that my car has died on him. sigh…
We finish our shopping, and Karen drops Dan and I off at 203 to clean out the sewers. The short version is that 4 sewer clean outs and 4 hours later, we finally had plumbing again. Our neighbor was helping us out as two of the sewers were his. Old plumbing, and ours is linked to his. Dan and I were exhausted. Dan showered while I made dinner and then after a quick trip back to 520, I came home and had a shower.
Friday, we returned the snake to Trinidad and grabbed a quick bite for lunch. Granted, we had a waiter that was so new, he still had the shrink wrap on! Oh well… When we got back in town, we picked up Karen and headed up to the Aguilar NOC (network operation center). We were trying to work on the tower and install equipment to turn on the internet. However, the building had been vandalized. Window shot out, door kicked in, etc. They even left a real good footprint of their size 9 skater tennis shoe on the door in mud. Luckily, the thugs were about 36 hours early if they wanted to do real damage. There was no real equipment in the building yet, and only 1/3 of the antenna up.
So, while we waited for the sheriff to arrive, we worked on the antenna mast, grounding cables, etc. By the way, this is the same sheriff that I have spoken of before. The overweight, ass shooting, tobacco chewing ‘Barney Fife. sigh…. He came up,took some pictures and left. We finished up when we couldn’t see any longer and then went for supper at the local Truckstop diner. We made sure we spread the word that the NOC had been vandalized and that this act would keep us from turning off the internet in Aguilar for an unknown period of time. After that, we drove home. I wrote an article for our local paper the Huerfano Journal and then went to bed. Oh, and because we are an ISP, we have to contact the FBI. The Patriot Act makes attacking ISP’s a terrorist act. Not something those vandals thought about.
Today, I got up early and while I fixed breakfast, Dan looked at my car. He couldn’t find anything wrong with it. So, I figured that while Dan and Karen went back up to the NOC to work, I’d take Matt and Morgan to Pueblo. I needed to get Daniel a birthday prezzie as he is 18 tomorrow.
We headed for Pueblo, and right about mile marker 85, my car died. I called Dan and let him know what was going on and then called AAA. We waited outside the car in the verge, because the cars were going by so fast that I was afraid that one of them would actually strike the car.
AAA called the state patrol, and they sent out a car to stay with me until the tow truck arrived. I had to laugh when I saw who it was. It was Dennis Halverson, a dear friends ex-husband. A real jerk. However, I chatted politely and thanked him for stopping. I also teased him a bit when we were talking about my “new work” with computers. Told him just enough about the computer in his car to make him twitch. It was so worth it.
When the tow truck got there, I just shook my head. It was the same chicken that wouldn’t pull our work truck out of the mud earlier this week. No way I was going to let him work on my car, so I had us towed back to Walsenburg.
After the tow truck left us at the office, I went down and sure enough, my car started. We think there is some sort of electrical short, and Dan will look at it tomorrow.
So, now I am trying to relax. Refill my energy/emotional bucket. It has been a long hard week and I think it is time to curl up with a good book. Oh, and last but not least, the sheriff thinks that he has caught the 4 kids that did the vandalism. We shall see…