Another Typical Day

Well, it's turning into another typical day so far, which includes:

--An early morning call from my mother which lasted 45 minutes--before I'd had my coffee or made a "pit stop"

--Three calls to potential employers, including asking about an interview that I had on December 16th. One call-back about setting up an interview

--Called to set up the next batch of tests for the County Economic Specialist position

--Wrote a cover letter, printed off a resume, packaged and addressed to a new potential employer

--Waiting to hear whether I work or not today, and when

And it's just noon so far. The first Economic Specialist test was really difficult. There were 100 questions and 10 were spelling (easy) 10 were grammar (not too bad) but the other 80 questions were MATH questions--with no calculator allowed! Yikes.

When the test-giver asked who needed scratch paper, every hand in the room was raised and waving. I used up 3 sheets of scratch paper, had to turn in a used one to get another. Most people taking the test used pretty much the same, except for the couple of people who threw down the test in disgust and left the room.

I wish I could have kept the test just to look it over. There were formulas for figuring housing allowances, food stamps, etc. and boy, were they ever complex, I'd had no idea! And not just a one-stop calculation for each, but a long series of multiplying, figuring percentages and looking up on a chart (on a different page)to get ONE answer. It was so grueling that I began to wonder if I even wanted the job but it pays so well. And I passed, so on to the next batch of tests. I'm scheduled to take them tomorrow afternoon, between the worker's comp consultation and 2 visitations for work.

Yesterday we had 7 inches of snow. Today it's 15 degrees below zero and the windchill is supposed to be 20-40 below. It looks nice and sunny outside but sunny days are the coldest in the wintertime. The house was cracking and creaking all night long and the furnace also ran all night. Thank goodness the furnace has been working great!

Speaking of great: My wonderful neighbors used their snow-blower to clean my side and driveway! The sidewalk is half a block on one side and a good portion in the front. I've mentioned before how I always seem to buy the corner house which gets stuck with all that shoveling in the winter.

Cute joke from the Urban Chickens group:

Why do chicken coops have 2 doors?
If they had 4 they would be a sedan

So how's your new year going so far?

As pitiful as possible--sometimes works

By late last Thursday the furnace was running. That was exactly when it warmed up outside too! It was a long cold week. I put a 6' cushion on the floor, had a little electric heater running right next to it, and rolled up like a mummy every night in two heavy quilts. Still, I didn't sleep well. It was like camping INside, cold, and once I got internally chilled it was hard to shake it. Typing the reports for work on the computer was a chilly task.

The furnace repair guy came numerous times. He ran diagnostics and couldn't find out why the furnace blower wouldn't come on. By Tuesday night he was saying I needed to buy a new furnace. My reply was, with what? I'd been out of work all summer, taking money from my (meager) retirement account to survive. "Oh just use your credit card." he said. Yeah right, I ran that up too. Normally I pay the balance off each month but couldn't all summer, of course. I was just desperate enough to swallow my pride (along with lots of hot tea to stay warm) and try to be as pitiful as possible. I wanted him to find out what was wrong and to FIX it, not just have me buy a new furnace.

Well, I guess it worked because the repair guy spent hours on the phone to a supplier who had him try this and that. After a long, late night he finally discovered that it was the ignition that was not working. So that was replaced for about $400 total, parts and all the repair time. That was a lot of money but it could have been far worse. A new furnace would have been thousands, plus the installation cost.

Pitiful didn't work in getting my Mom her new identification card, though. I brought her to the Dept of Motor Vehicles with a valid driver's license from the nearby state and her social security card. Nope, they wouldn't take those "because of the terrorists" The guy at the counter said that Mom has to bring her birth certificate and get, this, her MARRIAGE certificate, along with those other documents to get an ID. Yikes, like an 82-year-old woman who can barely walk could be a terrorist, yeah right.

Mom was horribly disappointed and said that she has NEVER missed voting in an election since she was old enough to vote! She was born in the state where she's living now (moved to assisted living situation this summer) And even though the neighboring cities are called "The Twin Ports" and she had a valid Driver's license, proof of her current residency, and me to vouch for her--the man at the counter just shrugged. "Nope, I can't do that. There are rules." Some awfully STUPID rules, in my mind. It made me so angry, not only for my Mom but for other people who are not being allowed to vote.

Well, Mom is very organized and found her marriage certificate, of nearly 60 years ago, faded and yellow. We can stop at the Courthouse and get (I hope) her birth certificate even though she was born in a different county. Today is the last day she can get her ID. I'm devoting today to trying to do that. Wish me luck!

Running

Wow, my head is spinning and it's great to be working again! I love my job, so interesting. It entails a lot of running around and last-minute step-ins. I worked pretty much all Friday until after 7:00 PM, and the same on Saturday and Sunday working until after 7 PM. The weekly visit with my Mom got moved to Monday, before a staff meeting late in the afternoon.

It's been hectic. Worker's Comp may not like the schedule since the driving and the waiting parts aren't paid. Any job has some time like that. My former job had a half-hour commute each way and a half-hour unpaid lunch for a total of an hour-and-a-half per day that wasn't "covered" or paid for. I hope WC will see it that way. The new job has a bit more of that sort of time just because the nature of it: waiting for the visiting parent(s) to show up, foster parents, driving to different sites. I had a 4-hour visitation in a family's home on Sunday. I got to watch them eat dinner, among other things (didn't get any dinner, of course). Spent Saturday afternoon on a playground and even got a bit of color on my face again. It was a beautiful day. Nice to get paid for stuff like that!

Unlike the previous schedule, the three shadowings required were completed by Friday already and I was out doing the visitations on my own. I think I've done maybe eight of them already and am scheduled for one this afternoon. SLA and I are going grocery shopping since I'm out of all the food I usually eat. Breakfast has been only apples when normally I have an apple, a banana and assorted other fruit chopped up and tossed with plain yogurt. I still have some reports and billings to write for work so I'd better get to it.

What's on your plate (fruit?!) this week?

Back to Work Eve

Yes, I'm posting again, already. It seems that when I most should NOT post--is exactly when I want to do it! Same with going to church. First, I was looking forward to it, but as the time drew closer this morning, I started to dread going. For one thing, the songs we sing in the first church (traditional church) sometimes make me cry if I'm at all in a sad mood. So I knew for a fact that at least one of the songs was going to make me cry, so I didn't really want to go. It's embarrassing.

The lesson was on forgiveness. The christian station I listened to in the car was also about forgiveness. I liked that both took a more reasonable approach to it, though. Romans 12:17-19 about just trying to live in peace and not try to take revenge. The radio lesson gave an example of two warring churchgoers who agreed to disagree. They didn't hang out together any more, nor go to the same activities, but didn't speak badly of each other or plot revenge. Much more realistic, and a good thing for me to remember for tomorrow when BZ returns from vacation!

After attending the first church I made a quick stop to buy a Sunday newspaper and went over the bridge to the second church. It was pouring rain, which was bad for the vacationers and tourists but wonderful for the poor, dried out lawns and gardens! They are having family-style services for the summer, so it was much shorter than their normal service. Many people were missing, gone for a visit or on vacation.

Since it wasn't too late (normally I'm done with church well after 1:00) after church I stopped at my Mom's apartment and we went out for lunch. She was not expecting me, thinking I was gone for the weekend. I explained why I had come back so early without getting into the being really depressed part of it. I loaned her the brand new Harry Potter book that the kids had gotten for me. Mom is a fast reader, she'll have it done by tomorrow, if she hasn't finished it already, and it's a thick book. I haven't even opened it yet but will read it when she's done.

Do you have the newest HP book yet? Do you like the series? Hope your weekend ended up very nicely!

How to break a mother's heart--don't call

Hope you had a great Easter weekend, I did. On Saturday my younger brother came up to my Mom's apartment and I did my usual noon meeting with her there. What a nice surprise it was to find my older brother and wife there also! My older brother has brought flowers for Mom and I (he didn't know younger brother and wife were going to be there, also). I really love messing about with flowers, both in the garden and cut ones. The bouquet he gave me was so large that once I got home, I made four vases from it! Younger brother and wife brought steaks and cooked them and an entire meal. Those were some really tender, delicious steaks! For dinner they made a ham with mashed potatoes and all the trimmings. I washed dishes each time but barely helped with the cooking. I think I peeled potatoes and set the table, and that was pretty much all the help I did.

My younger brother and family brought the books that I had left in Mom's old house (which they now own) and even brought them to my house and helped unload them into the basement. They liked my house too, which was certainly a point in their favor! They had never seen it before.

On Sunday I went to a sunrise service, and it was really hard to get up that early. I'd gotten up at 4 a.m. on Saturday and had gone to bed late. The service was followed by a breakfast, followed by another service. I went home to get the Easter card and gift for my Mom and got to her house around noon. Then we went out to eat an Easter dinner, even though we'd both done plenty of eating the day before!

The only sadness was that I didn't hear a thing from my son. I've not heard from him since he called to let me know that he had arrived safely, over a week ago. He doesn't have his own phone and I don't know his address, so his Easter card has been sitting on my kitchen table. He was going to get me that address right away and I was going to send the card on Monday or Tuesday. I suppose I could have called his girlfriend's family, but I was already upset about it and not willing to cheerfully go through the channels to get to him. By that time I would have been scolding him for not calling me, and I don't want to call him up to scold him!

I hope he is OK. I wonder if he's working now and how Natty, our little dog is doing. Someone,
Maria, I think said something about how your children can break your heart--and that's so true. They don't do it on purpose, just thoughtlessly. We had parted on good terms, with tears so I know it's not that he's deliberately ignoring me, just distracted. He was so thrilled at getting to be "part of a family" complete with a father and younger sister, that he's forgotten his original family. I'm a bit jealous! Have a good day, even though it's a Monday!

Leaving again

My son came home on Sunday night and informed me that yes, he's moving to his girlfriend's city. He will be starting his new job there next Monday. It's his dream job, plus rents are cheap in that city, despite the fact there are lots of good-paying jobs. Not like here. I'm thrilled for him. But not for me. I'll really miss him. It was peaceful but pretty lonely the week he was gone. I know that he's well past the age where he should have been out on his own, and in fact has been out on his own, twice now. But I think this one will be a keeper. He's moving next Saturday, on my Dad's birthday. That is going to be a difficult day for me.

It's so odd that I was so ready for him to be out on his own after he graduated from high school, and then later when he first got an apartment. But not now. It's weird but I've formed sort of an emotional dependancy on him and living vicariously through him. I think that doesn't normally happen with two parents in the house, or a parent and his/her partner. The son/daughter is part of the family, while my son had become sort of like my best friend in the past year. Not that he would feel that way, but I do.

Oh, I know that he needs to go off (finally!) on his own, but I'm sad about it, really sad. I'll miss him terribly, that little whistle he does in the house, hearing about his work, friends, girlfriend, knowing that he's coming home. That will be the worst, to be in the house alone and know that he won't be coming in later from work, or ever except to visit. And I doubt that will be often, once he gets all of his things.

I think a parent (especially a single parent without a live-in partner) just keeps doing his/her job of watching over their (adult) child, focusing on him or her. So it really is better for the both of us and I will fill up the sudden hole in my life. Yep, I really really understand my Mom much better now!