Rain and Relatives

We have out-of-town guests.

I like my in-laws.  They are fun to be around.  One of our visitors is a cousin of Angel's, Cousin R.  He's a university professor.  Very intelligent and personable.  I enjoy talking with him; although we hardly saw each other today today (he hung out in the guest house and worked while I hung out in my office in the basement and did the same).

Next week he goes to Geneva to lecture.  Like I said, he's a smart guy.

Then there's Uncle R.  He's a retired truck driver.  Has lots of native intelligence and practical knowledge.  Like me, he enjoys green tea.  I've spent quite a bit of time chatting with Uncle R.  Today we talked about microwave ovens and electric lawn tractors.  And forklifts.

Finally, there is M**2.  That's Angel's mom.  She'll be staying on with us after Uncle R. and Cousin R. leave.  She'll move out to the guest house, which is finally done.  She specifically wanted to visit during the dark time of the year.  And so she has.

It is good that we all get along and have plenty of space to get out of each other's hair, because it's been raining for a couple of days now... on-and-off, but mostly on.  The weather forecast says that it's supposed to stop raining and be mostly clear for about a week.  That would be welcome.  While I love the rain, we didn't get the garden finished.  A long story, that:

• Farm Girl has to take care of her farm


• Notof is in jail - nothing too serious


• Carlos works for the Blind Man


• I'm trying to learn Python, PHP, C#, MySQL, and a little Django


• ...and the incomplete part of the garden is about 12" in water

OTOH, I've figured out a strategy to finish the little bit that remains.  All I need is a few dry days for the water to soak in.  It's going to be great.

The compost is coming right along too.

My yoga classes are starting to develop.  Four classes at The Gym.  Another level 2 vinyasa class at the studio in Uptown.  I love teaching yoga.  It is too bad that it pays poverty wages.  Still, if I am able to get a good grasp of most of the above programming technologies, I may be able to get some work applying them... and that would pay above the poverty level.

Which would be very nice indeed.

Feels a Little Like Wednesday's Child

First the good.

I got into the garden again today.  Put in maybe 2 hours of dirt shifting, rock shifting before I got tired and the weather turned nasty-ish.  It wasn't terribly bad (the weather) but the wind kicked up and it looked like it would start raining any second. And I got a bit tired of operating my shovel.  If I can get about the same amount of time in again tomorrow, I ought to have things rearranged well enough to restart the dirt prep.  OTOH, the young farmer we're hiring to help us called Angel and said she can't come this week -- she needs to get her garlic in.  I wish we were planting garlic.  Perhaps next year...

Which brings us to the less good.

My career consultant sent me some documents that were intended to be of help in my search for employment.  I'm talking gainful employment now.  While I mostly enjoy teaching my 5 yoga classes each week, the employment is more loss-full than gainful.  But I digress.  I read some of these documents.  They basically say that I'm hosed.  

See, most legitimate companies will only let existing, well-regarded employees telecommute. So if one loses his job for any reason, it's not likely a real company will hire him as a telecommuter right off.  First he must prove himself.

Since I can walk from one end of this town to the other in two hours, I wouldn't really need to telecommute if I could find a job here (which so far I haven't).  That pretty much means that if I want to obtain gainful employment, I will have to move back to a big city.  Hosed, see?

Now I haven't (quite) given up hope yet.  It is just possible that one of my contacts, someone who really knows me and my work ethic will be willing to get me hired at something like 25% of my previous income to do something.  Like technical writing.  Or editing.  Or web content development.  Or news stories.  

Basically, if I could make any decent salary & medical benefits doing something useful and good, I'd be more than satisfied.  We'll see.  One of my former colleagues in The Valley asked me to send him a copy of my DVD.  He has many contacts.  Perhaps... perhaps.

I really did land on the wrong rock, didn't I?

"Bring me a rock, please."

"Here.  This is a pretty rock."

"Sorry.  Wrong rock."

It was raining when I got to PTAC to teach my yoga class this evening.  Luckily I got a pretty good parking spot.  

When I came out it was no longer raining, but the wind was starting to blow.  Now, nearly 9:00PM, the wind is clutching at the edges of the house.  Our home is sturdy, solid and well-planted in the hillside, so the wind cannot get so much as a fingernail lodged in the cedar siding or the standing seam roof.  But the wind tries. And howls its frustration when it can do nothing but go around things.

The fire pops.  The wind alternately whispers and howls.  Angel says she's sleepy and goes to brush her teeth.  As she always does, Isabelle follows to see if Primary Human is doing anything interesting.

I ate an early dinner and would like a snack before bed.