Soap Opera Week

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Where else can you find drama? Embezzlement? Fraud? Office backstabbing and kindergarten behavior? Easy… Right here in Rural Colorado. Yep! And that’s just in the DA’s side. We won’t even think about what goes on on the jail side of the building.

Monday… the air conditioning is acting up. It recycles the air and so smells from one part of the building invade other sections. This would have been fine except for the fact that some one in the staff area bathroom had the bowel movement from hell. Ten minutes later, you could smell it in our office and at the front door. Awwwgh…

Tuesday’s saga…. The “HR/Victims advocate” walked in wearing a perfume that just ripped my lungs up. Asthma. I had to call Dan to bring me my inhaler. Meanwhile, the ADA was dodging phone calls from lawyers, and was late for court yet again. I think he’s been on time once. I dealt with my asthma, Pattie goes off for an interview because she wants out of this office, and life is quiet for a few hours.

We have a 17yo that stole a car in Texas, and got caught here. We can’t hold him because he’s a juvenile. So, we send him to Pueblo Youth Center. We tell Texas where he is. They can’t understand why we can’t hold him, because in Texas, he’s an adult. (sigh) They are on the road to pick him up in Pueblo when we get a call that he is now in Colorado Springs, as they ran out of room… I get a half assed message to that effect, and tell Dee, who tries to call Texas in route. She finally gets a hold of the Texas base who relays the info to the traveling sheriff.

One of the ex-DA’s stopped in to visit. He is now a private lawyer. They were chatting about what idiots the ADA and DA were. He of course left crayons and a a coloring book on the desk of the ADA who plays solitaire instead of working on his cases. Oh that went over like a lead balloon!

After lunch, I get back to find that Pattie has laid into the HR gal about the perfume while I was gone when she asked rather snottily where I was. (I left a little early for lunch) When I next see the HR gal, it is obvious that she has “washed off” her perfume. She tried to tell Pattie that she had worn the same perfume all the time. I told Pattie, no, and that she had washed, as my nose is rather sensitive to scent.

Meanwhile, we are working on cases that the ADA has ‘finished’. He let an arson case go, dismissed almost 20 tickets without fines being paid, (keep in mind that the DA’s office generates money via fines) and

allowed felonies to be pleaded down to misdemeanors. (One of them had 4 separate files generated in 2 days) Pattie gets a phone call from the woman who had from the job I have. The benefits company won’t pay her as the DA’s office hasn’t paid them. (although the DA’s office took out the money from their paychecks) Apparently, this is history repeating itself. In fact, the CBI was here the other day to get testimony on the previous time that this same thing happened. Pattie and Dee are going to be monitoring their pay stubs to see if they are being robbed of the interest that should have been accruing if the benefits had been paid. The DA prior to the one in office now, spent 3 of his 4 years in office screwing up the budget to the point where people couldn’t cash their paycheck, bills weren’t being paid, etc. Oh, and this guy is running for office again and is the BEST candidate for the job!

The local sheriff and all of his staff detest the DA and ADA. They hand them case after case that should go straight through the court system and end in convictions, and the lawyers botch them. Which means that the same offenders are out on the street faster than we can process the paperwork. Remember that comment I made that the same 4-5 families do all the crime? Well, part of that same bunch got off scott free Tuesday.

Then extradition case to New Mexico. A woman who is 8 months preggers was wanted in New Mexico. So, we were going to send her. However, she had 2 cases here pending that needed cleared before she could go. New Mexico was on their way to pick her up and guess what ADA hadn’t cleared the cases…..

Wednesday. A quiet day. 11 tickets, a hysterical man in the outer office, a report from Dan and Karen and lots of boredom. The hysterical man had a dog which got into a dog fight at one of the bars. The owner of the other dog kicked it and stabbed it in the skull with a knife. Dog gets taken to the vet, and the man waits to see if he is going to get charged with having a violent animal. Unfortunately, the vet is the most expensive one in the county and won’t release the dog until the bill is paid. Someone liked this guy. The cops and DA dropped all charges and some Samaritan paid the nearly $300 vet bill. Then the cops took him out to pick up his dog, which will live.

Dan and Karen came by with a map showing the area they could cover with a cheap repeater and that equaled nearly 95% of the county. The sheriff and head deputy were in heaven. This county has a long history of communication issues due to geography. That may have just been solved.

Today started out ok. Then Pattie did something to piss off the ADA and the next thing we knew, Pattie was being sent home for being rude and childish. (right…) So, I had the office to myself for most of the day. I also learned that my stint of work at the office will be over by July 11th. My replacement comes in next week and will train in Trinidad. (hmm…. interesting….) By 3pm, Mike decided to go home. In order to cover his tracks, he let the rest of us go home too. Wheeee!

Tonight we are having a wake for Tirion/Sir Starhelm. Dan is making his meat roll things. Fun bit is he is in the kitchen pounding away with the meat tenderizer in beat to the music. Tomorrow Dan and I are invited to a 4th of July party that will be as much business as fun. Pauline lives up on this ranch with Mike and Gloria, and that is where the party will be.

Oh! Almost forgot. Dan and I both got paid today. I had my Starry Skies column in the Huerfano Journal, and Dan had both his Tech Savvy article as well as one about the ARRLS field day. (ham radio play day) http://huerfanojournal.com/extra.php

I’m really enjoying writing for the Journal. Dan is also publishing his articles on his LiveJournal. http://ujoronen.livejournal.com/

See ya!

A not so lazy Saturday

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I did manage to sleep in, but after a week of late nights, an extra hour or so isn’t much. Ah well. Went to sleep last night with Daniel’s new puppy in my arms. He was out being a boy and the puppy needed company. Somewhere around 2am, Daniel came in and got the puppy. I really wish he’d hurry up and rename him. I don’t like the name Fatty for a dog. I’d rather call him Baby for the rest of his life. Oh well.

I showered, dressed, hauled laundry off the clothesline with Morgan’s help and threw more in the wash. Then I headed over to 520 to get some stuff done. Mostly clean up. In a bit, I’ll be moving desks around. I am loosing my office with a corner view. Needed to happen so that we can lift the porch up and make it level. It has about a 5 degree cant which means that I always feel like I am sliding down hill. Ah well. I get the next spot in the living room, just across from the door. Not a great view, but it will have to do for now. We have to do something fast as the front door doesn’t want to latch correctly. The house is built on a hill that use to be riverbank a few million years ago, so it constantly shifts…. Downhill!

Once I get all the stuff moved, Dan will have to do some rewiring. sigh… He only just got it straightened out from removing the office stull. I’ll have to be very sweet to him since I’m making extra work for him.

I’m still a bit of a wreck from the events of the week. I’ll be just fine and then something will remind me of Tirion and the tears well up. It probably seems sort of silly for someone that I only knew through lists, email and chat, but… it isn’t.

Combine that with not getting the job at the D.A.’s full time and my stress meter is just about pegged. Sort of hard to qualify what bugged me about it, but Dan just about hit the nail on the head. It isn’t that I couldn’t do the job or didn’t do it right, but that I did above and beyond expectations, improved the office and did do an excellent job of it. However, for the woman choosing the new secretary, it wasn’t enough. Nothing I could have done would have been enough. That’s what hurts. She was condesending, and didn’t even want to tell me that I didn’t get the job. Pattie had to force her to do her job! Oh well. Dan also said that if they didn’t choose me, they screwed up. I guess we will see. Now I have to wait and see if I get the Housing Authority job or if I call Marge Durham.

I guess I’ve played around on the computer long enough. I need to get these desks moved. It’s either that or curl up in a ball and cry.

Passages

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Yesterday, we got news that a dear friend of ours had died of a heart attack. Tirion- Sir Starhelm, Michael Boelter.  He was driving his truck when it happened. His wife managed to stop it without further incident, and call 911.

It’s odd when someone dies that you know in common with others. The stories that come out, or the things you remember. I met Tirion online in an email group for pagans. One where you had to be more than just a newbie. We’d all been chatting when one day, he emailed me a joke. it was the beginning of a lovely ongoing chat. What was interesting is that I had known him for some time before the Harpers moved in with us. I didn’t know that they knew him, and visa-versa. It was so funny when I came out one day laughing to share a joke, and Dan or Beth realized I was talking about the dear friend they knew as Starhelm. I have the feeling that Tirion had known for a while and thought it a good joke on us.

Tirion was also some one I could talk to and bare some of my deepest hurts to, knowing that he’d listen, and give me an answer if he could. If nothing else, he’d tell me a joke to lighten my mood or share some article on chain mail or and esoteric theory. He’d be gone for months at a time and then one afternoon, my email or chat client would be bursting at the seams with him. I didn’t realize at first that the absences were due to him going overseas with the military. When he realized I was an ex-military wife, we chatted about the military too.

I will miss my dear friend. Tirion, I hope you find a place amongst the knights that have gone before you. The world is a poorer place without you.

Deep breath….

It has also been a hard week at work. I tried so hard to do all the right things to get the job at the DA’s office. However, I learned this morning that the job is going to someone else. My last day will be sometime before the 15th of July. sigh….

So, I am applying to some other places that want secretaries and hope that I land a job. If not, I’ll call Marge Durham, the Doggy Daycare rescue lady. She needs a home help person and part time dog helper. We will see.