Rainbow

Once again into the breech...

I don't know why today, but here I am.


For the past few weeks we have been operating under severe conditions.  There are currently TWO water leaks: one in the yard and one that comes up in front of the furnace / water heater closet in the hallway to the 2nd bathroom & bedroom.  *sigh* We have known for some time that we need to get the house re-piped.  (Danged contractor -- built the development using pipes that tend to fail after 10-15 years.)  We have already patched several leaks: Some in the yard and a couple in the kitchen.  Now summer is coming on and we NEED the water to run the AC (evaporative cooler).


On to brighter topics.  Dog continues to work on cleaning up the yard to make it better, safer for the dogs who live in it.  He has come up with a plan for a better way to keep the kitty graveyard (Mena's resting place).  It is currently blocked off with a circle of wire fencing.  I cannot really describe his whole plan, but it involves blocks of (scrap) wood glued to aluminum "L" brackets.  I went and got some dark oak stain for the wood blocks that makes a nice contrast to the lighter colored aluminum.  Last week I stained 12 blocks.  Today I just about finished what he had cut (19 of them, I think).  The first 12 have been glued to their aluminum bracket.  This morning he has spent clearing the space around the fenced in circle.  I am curious to see how it will turn out.

It's been awhile...

Here I am coming up on my 4th wedding anniversary to Dog (aka Robert Rood). How time flies. We had planned on maybe taking a short trip somewhere in NM, stating 2-3 days, and taking in the sights. But before we could finalize any plans, the AC in Dog's truck needed fixing and then the AC in the house stopped working. The third thing turned out to be a water leak in the front yard. There went whatever cash reserves we might had to spend on a vacation.

Even so, we are still taking the week off from work to relax. And we might just take a day trip or two. Over Memorial Day weekend we did the Enchanted Circle drive starting at Taos going up to Questa and through Red River and Eagle Nest before coming back to Taos. We thought Red River would be a good stopping place for lunch -- but there was a biker's rally going on and the town was wall to wall motorcycles. So instead we ended up back in Taos before we found anywhere we could stop for lunch. As it was we got to the Taos Diner just before it closed. *whew* It was a real pretty drive through the Sangre de Cristo mountains, some of the best skiing in NM (when there is snow on the ground).

Confessions

Last Friday night into Saturday morning Dog decided to come clean.

Ever since I moved to NM in November of 2005 he has had a "cave" -- the master bedroom -- where he escaped to from time to time and closed me out. For all I knew he was taking a smoke break -- he told me it was his way of keeping the cigarette smoke away from me.

Well, it seems he was hiding something else in addition. He started his confession by telling me that he did go to the dump recently -- not to bring the weeds that he had cut down from the yard, but for a whole slew of beer and other liquor bottles that he had had stashed in his cave. (The middle of the night can be a great time for big confessions coz the other person is only half-awake.)

He came to the realization that he would be having a good deal of free time on his hands what with the lay-off and all. And he could either wallow or get up and do things. He decided it would be better for him, for us, for the house if he got up and did things. And he has been. He has been keeping up on the dishes and the laundry. Also, he has cleaned out "the cave" so much so that there is now a usable bed in there and he also cleaned out the closet to be able to expand that space as well.

I am sorry that he felt he had to hide that from me. He told me that he had been terrified that I might find the evidence of his drinking. He feels a whole lot more relieved now. However, he does have bad days. Today at lunch he told me there is this voice in his head trying to tell him that he has been a good boy -- what would 1/2 pint hurt? He said he is NOT going to give into that voice -- until he is sure he has beaten it. He hope that he will be able to let himself celebrate a little on Halloween -- one of the most meaningful holidays of the year for him.

On the other hand, I am glad that he is now talking about it and is no longer hiding it. He told me last night that one of his fears about all this was becoming another CW who has nothing but time on his hands and not much gumption to do much of anything at all.

Moving right along

Well, I am almost done with the Pride discounts. This morning I was told he may have me start on either Invacare or Sunrise next -- because I seem to know what I am doing. Hah! Little does he know...

And then there were 6

Or 5 and a half, depending on what you count.

As you may know, Dog & I decided to keep fish. We started with a bowl and three small goldfish. Those we named for The Charmed Ones (Prudence, Piper & Phoebe). Then we graduated to a 10-gallon tank. There have been various permutations and combinations, but our population had held steady at 7 for quite a while: Prudence (she of the original 3), Albus, Forge (one of a pair of simlar fish whom we had named Fred & George), Ginny, Ron, Spike & Angel.

It has been our habit to unplug the filter(s) (we are using two now as the water deterioates so quickly) when we feed them because otherwise the food seems to be sucked into the filter intake all too quickly otherwise. Of course, then we have to remember to plug them back in in a timely fashion. Mostly we do. However, last night we forgot.

*sigh* And we lost Ginny.

Oh, the half comes in due to Ron. He was always a short fat thing that always seemed to have to exert a lot of effort to move. Well, he has not been moving much at all for a few days now. His gills are still working and his mouth opens & closes.

A Pride-Ful of Discounts

OK, a bit of background. It should be obvious enough that the company I work for (USM) does not pay retail for almost all the equipment it buys (I say almost because there are a very few vendors from which we receive no discounts and thus do pay retail). One of the vendors we deal with is Pride Mobility (you may have seen ads for their power chairs when Ed McMahon was their spokesman). Anyway, we recently received an updated discount schedule from them.

Yesterday, the new temp went through it an figured out the discounts for specific items (based on our price versus the retail). Today I am going through the individual order forms for the various power chairs (starting with their most complex ones) and marking the discounts for the line items affected. This involves not only the base prices that Julia figured yesterday, but various exceptions for specific models that were listed at the bottom of the main list.

Arrrgggghhhh!

My eyes are starting to cross. So, I took my lunch break a little early.

Oh, and after all this prep work, we get to actually enter the info into the computer. The temp will be doing it in the currently used system which involves entering the relevant info not once, but for each data base / office. We are in the process of gearing up a new system into which this information only has to be entered once.

And the Axe Fell

Every week Dog tries to think of some clever subtitle to his time card. This week was to be Indiana Bones.

Did you notice the tense? *sigh* As of the first of the year, they had cut his hours back to at most 30 a week. But he has been hard pressed at times to make even 20. Well, yesterday he was laid off. He can also work up to 15 hours a week and be paid under the table at a lesser rate. Whoopee!!

At first he told me he would hold off filing for unemployment. After all, he said, what if they get a rush job? But I told him this AM, that I did not think he owed them that much loyalty. He agreed that filing sooner rather than later was the better plan. So, today he is going to wallow a bit and hopefully do some yard work. (Right now at almost 7am the sky is grey so it may not turn too hot too fast.) Tomorrow is some time at High Desert Roofing. And then Thursday he will go down to the unemplyment place. He mentioned two places he would like to put in an application with: Hot Topic and Hastings.

The last time he lost a job and a fiancee he wallowed for 3 months. But the situation was quite a bit different then from now. He has been talking for some time about looking elsewhere and how High Desert is floundering. Also, he now has a partner -- me.

Dog in Metal

Bonanza!

Last weekend while walking through WalMart on our weekly shopping run, we happened to pass the vdeo department. I decided to scan the $5 bin of DVD's. And... Lo and behold! I found a 4 disc set of 34 episodes of Bonanza plus 3 "bonus" episodes of Wagon Train. Woohoo!

Mountain Sunrise(s)

There is a phenomenon that occurs with some frequency during our morning commute. Just so you know, we travel a bit south and mostly east in the AM (reversed in the evening, of course). Also, for those who are not familiar with the area, Just to the east of Albuquerque sit the Sandia Mountains. During our drive, the terrain goes down to the river and then rises as one approaches the mountains.

OK, so here's the deal. When we start out at something after 6am, the sun is most definitely up and in our faces. But most times by the time we cross the river it has gone back behind the mountains.

So that means we can experience TWO sunrises!

High Desert Roofing

Dog has worked at this company, running their metal shop, for almost 6 years -- longer than he has held any other job (or so he tells me). When he was first working there he told me more than once that it was his dream job. But as with anything else, things change.

The man who owned High Desert Roofing got tired (his word) and pulled away from day to day operations. At the beginning of this year they cut back on Dog's hours -- I don't think he has anything like a full week since, nor has he been able to make even what they allowed him (30 hours). Then not that long ago, Dog told me he had heard a rumor that three of the top managers of the company had bought the owner out. This triumvirate includes a man with whom Dog does not get along all that well but who feels that, since he used to be a contractor in his own right, he has the right to supervise Dog.

I told Dog this morning that I cannot remember a time when a job I had did not have a written job description nor a clear chain of command. Dog has had neither for as long as I have known him. I find that kind of disconcerting myself but until recently Dog has seemed OK with it.

He has been forever telling Craig stories -- how the man messes with him or how the man just not "get it." Another recent development was that Dog was banned from the front office because it was too "distracting." He has tried talking to Craig about it but Craig just pooh-poohs it as of small concern. After all, Dog runs the metal shop, he has no need to go into the front office (can you hear the sarcasm?). Not only does this remove a possible short cut out of the building, but it cuts Dog off from one of his favorite people. He has been feeling like a caged animal for weeks.

So, OK. This week he has been working on a commercial job that actually requires at least two men to manipulate the pieces of metal in order to make them into the needed shapes. Mondy & Tuesday Dog worked so hard at this that he just about crippled himself. He is 44 and probably has arthritis in his hands. His hands without which he cannot perform his job. And his legs don't have the stamina they had when he was 20. So, anyway, he left work at 2:30 Tuesday because his hands and arms were cramping up on him and he was afraid that if he pushed it any farther he would not be able to drive himself home.

Wednesday, before he even could clock in, Craig was in his face asking what time he left. And why did he leave before the coping was loaded? Understand that it has never been Dog's job to load the finished metal onto/into any trailers or trucks. (This is a time where a written job description would come in handy.) Also he called Dog a crybaby for mentioning that his body was hurting. And apparently Craig did this chewing out in front of other people in the office.

Dog started to work on a house package. But he was stewing all the while about this latest incident. Finally he stopped and clocked out. Then he started clearing off a wall that he had spent weeks decorating with pictures, posters, action figures and the like. After that he emptied the cabinet in his shop of all his tools. There is still more of his stuff there. So today he went in prepared to take that away, too.

It's hard to explain here all that went into this decision. He has been talking for months about looking for other employment. Maybe not even in metal as he says he is getting too old to do that much any more. As he says, he hears McDonald's is hiring. He says he does not want to leave High Desert Roofing hanging. So he is willing to put in half days to finish this one commercial job, with some provisos. His best friend works there -- the man in charge of the metal crews but who is not part of the top triumvirate. He does not want Dog to leave. I dunno, maybe he could talk some sense into the others.

Of course, I only have Dog's side of things. But it does seem a bit unfair. Craig seems the sort who says he wants to talk, but he does not seem to listen. He also seems to think he knows it all, even tho he also seems to be talking out his ass, so to speak, at times.

*sigh*

Clouds over New Mexico

I almost feel I have moved back to the east coast! It's been overcast and rainy for DAYS and days now. Since my last posing about clouds covering the Sandias, we have had morning commutes where we could not even SEE the mountains. Very strange.

On a happier note, we are working on "sculpting" our yard. We acquired some red lava rocks from Dog's parents when they re-did their yard. I am not sure if I told about the garden area that Dog lined out and infused with top soil along our front wall. More on that in a bit. But then he added a square around the big tree in front. Then he laid out round "stepping" stones . Next came the rocks. At first we thought that we could surround the whole square in the red rocks. Partway into the sifting and distributing the stones, he felt that maybe not. So we are doing two sides in red and the rest in the more abundant grey stones. (He had a bunch left from other times he did things and there were some intermingled with the red ones.)

In the two garden spots we are attempting to grow things, including some grass. Not much luck so far, though there are a couple of things sprouting in the wall garden. The trick is to differentiate the planted things from the weeds. We tried three plants at first and they have withered. Not sure if they have actually died. We'll see. Anyway, the latest addition is a succulent. I am not sure what it is usually called, but one of its nicknames is "Hobbit." How could Dog resist? The tag says it can spread to about 3 feet wide and grow around 6 feet tall. So far so good.

Happy Bastille Day!!

And this from a Anglophile -- go figure. :o)

Morning WOW

<<<< The one to the right does not really capture it.



On the way to work this morning, I cannot remember the exact moment when I first noticed it, but even though the first Sandia Peak was free of clouds, the ones just south of it were smothered in them. It reminded me of whipped cream topping -- no cherry, though.

>>>>>> This other one does it better.

Sorry about that...

I have been meaning to post new stuff here. But what with one thing or another, I guess I have not been able to get around to it.

See?

Morning thoughts

I love "my" mountain.

This morning's commute showed yet another facet of its beauty. There had been a storm in the night. I woke one time to rain and thunder and wind. That made me glad to be snug in my bed next to my loving husband -- even if he kept waking me coz I was snoring.

My first view of the mountain as I turned down the Coors Bypass hill was awesome. It was just getting light behind it. I saw fog / clouds on top of it. And the sides covered with snow. Because of the low light situation, it was all soft greys. Then I was eager to catch another glimpse as I crossed the river. *sigh*

Here is a view I found of it from the river:

A dream...

Last night I dreamed about a kitchen where the sink was overflowing with dishes. And my mother was trying to prepare some food. She had left some small roundish vivid green (a dark color, but shiny) peels in the corner of the sink that I had to move before starting on the dishes.

OK, I can figure out about the dishes -- it's a chore I don't like doing and I feel guilty when I don't. But why my mother? She's been dead for a something over 8 years and I never was very close to her when she was alive. And is the color of the vegetable peels an issue?

Testing, 1...2...3...

George Washington Jigsaw Puzzle

Fairly soon after I came online, I found this site for doing virtual jigsaw puzzles. I would spend what seemed like hours completing various images. I chose to share this one since his birthday is coming up.

Horton Hatches an Egg

Is it real or is it PhotoShop?