Before I get any more snide remarks from the peanut gallery I’d better write something. This is going to be more along the lines of two weeks in review, but whatever…

We had to go to Portland (ME) on April 14th so Brad could have surgery on his neck, so the Saturday before I decided I’d better file our Income Tax return. I was astonished to learn that I actually made enough money from Uniquely Yours last year to qualify for an Earned Income Credit of a whole $17.00! Since the e-file charge was $17.95, I opted to mail in our return. Eventually we’ll get a check in the mail.

On April 15th, Brad had surgery to remove and replace (with cadaver bone) the C-4 vertebra, clean out the sheath that wraps around the spinal cord, then fuse C-4 to C-5 (which was already fused to C-6. I’m rather surprised he’ll still be able to turn his neck, but the surgeon assured us Brad would be able to. In fact, the doctor said that Brad could resume driving after only two weeks (!), but that’s not gonna happen. He still has a pretty stiff neck that yells at him when he’s done too much. It’s amazing how much surgery has progressed. Twenty years ago, Brad had pretty much the same thing done on C-5 and C-6. He was in a halo (that contraption that is screwed to your skull) for six weeks and took months to recover. This time, the surgeon put a little piece of metal on the back of the C-4/C-5 fusion, which serves as a neck brace. No halo. Not even a foam neck brace! The scar under the chin is healing nicely.

We had a friend take care of Carmen while we were gone. She was here when we left so Carmen would realize it was okay for her to be in the house. Poor Carmen! Dian came over about three times a day and every time Carmen was so happy to see her but just followed her around the house whimpering. It was hard enough that Jenny didn’t get to come home, but now we had seemingly deserted her. She was ecstatic when we got home! I was sure she was going to wiggle herself right out of her skin!

On Friday (the 18th) I went over to the local shelter to find a cat. I discovered that apart from missing Jenny, I missed having a kitty; our little family here just seemed incomplete. There were several adult cats and I felt rather bad for them, but I really wanted and needed a very young kitty so it would be easier for her to acclimate to Carmen. Well. I came home with a little cutie who was eight months old. Unlike Jenny, who was a stray, this little one had been brought to the shelter at four months (probably from a litter) and had spent the past four months in a cage with another little kitty. She did NOT like Carmen AT all!!! They are getting better, but it’s going more slowly than when Carmen joined us after we adopted Jenny. Maybe that’s why.

I named her Keira, which means “little black one.” Guess what color she is. Here little nose and paw pads are black so all you see in a dark room is two green eyes. She does have the tiniest bit of a patch of white on her chest and a stray strand of white here and there on her fur. She had diarrhea (the first couple of days were…poopy; but I got her into the vet that following Monday and got her on a antibiotic and that helped clear things up. The second day we had her Keira seemingly disappeared. I looked all through the house in every possible nook and cranny (and she is still to small to get up where she could secrete herself in the basement rafters like Jenny did). By that evening I was getting almost frantic when she suddenly popped out from under Brad’s desk! When she pulled that disappearing act again, I actually got down on the floor and looked back there to see where she could possibly be going. Well. There is a gap between the back of Brad’s desk and the back of the bottom file drawer. There was just enough room for a little kitty to squeeze herself up and into the back of the drawer! Little stinker! It’s only been two weeks but I think she is already too big to get herself in there – at least she hasn’t tried any more.

On Monday Keira goes to the vet to get spayed. She went into heat last weekend and suddenly turned into this little slut! It’s a good thing she’s indoors and there aren’t any males around! For the first few days, she sprayed – I thought she was farting and it certainly smelled just as bad! It didn’t take much either for her to roll over on her back with her legs spread apart!! (In case you didn’t know, cats prefer the “missionary” position. TMI?) Anyway.

Okay, that’s enough for now. I’m still working on my “virtual office” and I’m ready to start advertising. Oh wait. Yesterday I came this close to buying an HP tablet pc, a really nice and light little thing. But then I regained my sanity and decided I’d be better off blowing a thousand bucks on new teeth. My kids think I look like an old granny from the Ozarks!

Ta Ta!

I’m being nagged again about posting. Only this time Becky has sicced one of her friends on me! She wants me to do this silly little whatever… I wonder if she will appreciate my answers… probably not since I’m going to be silly with it. So here goes:

A: Attached or single? Attached of course! Can’t you see the ring in my nose?

B: Best friend? I don’t have any… unless you count Brad. But then he’s holding the rope that’s tied to the ring in my nose.

C: Cake or pie? Betty Crocker yellow cake mix… just the batter please, hold the oven.

D: Day? Night?

E: Essential Item? It’s a toss up between my computer and my PDA. But keep me away from my computer and I go through serious withdrawal… Like the DT’s and pink hippos.

F: Favorite Color? Pastel.

G: Gum or Mints? Both. Sometimes at the same time. Adds a little zest to my day.

H: Home Town? I don’t need no steenkeeng home town!

I: Indulgences? My own homemade bread, rolls, cinnamon rolls (especially the cinnamon rolls), berry pie, fruit cobbler… getting the idea? Maybe I should stop baking… But then I remember the cost of good store-bought bread that doesn’t taste half as good as my own. I love my bread maker — just for the dough.

S: Season? Nutmeg. Oh wait… that’s a seasoning.

Z: Zodiac Sign? Mercury. Or is it Mars? Maybe one of Jupiter’s moons?

When I saw her at the shelter, she stretched her paws through the bars of the cage like a child asking to be picked up. How could I refuse? She chose me for the honor of being her human, but she was a constant source of humor and joy for both of us. When Carmen joined our little family, it took only about four days for the two of them to decide to be friends and that only enhanced the humor and joy we experienced.

Jenny was ours for only a little over a year. I knew something was not right, but not why. Today the “girls” went to the vet, Carmen for her annual shots, Jenny to find out what was wrong. What was wrong was Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Instead of bringing her back home, I had to say goodbye. She fell asleep in my arms.

Jennyanydots with the dot on the end of her nose. I love you.

Becky is nagging me about posting…again. Just because she posts twice in one day, she expects me to post at least twice in one week! I am still working on my business site although it is coming along quite nicely. There is only one section that really needs major work – the web design portion – and then it will just be a matter of tweaking and refining. But I hit a snag this week and in my frustration, I probably wasted two whole days that could have been better spent.

I am not the most patient person in the world. I want my cake and I want to eat it now. Delayed gratification is a difficult concept for me, which is probably why I have such a struggle with my weight. When something breaks I want it fixed now and having to wait for a repairman or technician, or as in the case this week, a third-party customer support, is very hard.

An important part of building a business as a Virtual Business Assistant is having a good “virtual” office and I have been working on that pretty steadily for the last month or so. The “reception” area is looking pretty good right now, but the “back office” still needs some work. One of the tools I have for the web hosting is a client management application (a web script) that lets me set up customers and packages, set rates, create payment gateways so I can accept credit cards through PayPal, and so on. The particular application I am using has a newer version than the one I originally installed with expanded capabilities for using it for non-hosting clients – and that’s the greater part of the business. However, when I tried to upgrade, the application “broke” and it wouldn’t run at all. The only solution was to have my hosting provider (who provides the application as part of my “reseller” package) request a trouble ticket on my behalf. The provider is the holder of the license and thus is the only one who can initiate a trouble ticket. But it was going to take a couple of days at least to get the problem fixed.

If I were a patient person, I could have set the website aside and done something else more productive. But, no… I wanted a solution now. So I have spent the last two full days searching the Internet and trying out other client management systems none of which did quite what I wanted in as easy a fashion — but perhaps I could get them to at least work. I found one that I didn’t have to pay up front for and installed it. It would have worked, but would have required extensive customization to make it fit seamlessly with the look and feel of my website. Bottom line: nothing was as good as what wasn’t working. Today, the problem was fixed, the upgrade works and the functionality is all I had hoped for. What a waste of two perfectly good days! Think of the hours lost… and all the other tasks I could have completed in that time.

When you stop to think about it, the state of world affairs can be traced back to one woman’s impatience. In Genesis, God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. But when Sarah failed to conceive, she said to Abraham “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Long story short, he did and Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar, bore him a son that God named Ishmael. But God warned Hagar that “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward (or east of) all his brothers.”

Today, these descendants are the Arabs and Jews and down through all the years, the two nations have hated each other. The conflict in the middle east is one that can be traced all the way back to Sarah and Hagar… and Sarah’s impatient certainty that God had made her barren. A high price indeed and far higher than my two days of wasted time. But the lesson is there, the certainty that with patience all can be taken care of. How sad, and ironic, that patience has been, is and always will be one of the hardest habits to embrace.

These last two days have been just gorgeous: clear blue sky, temps actually 30+ enough to start melting the snow. All the streets are wet and there are little freshets running down every groove and dip. Alas…

This is going to be the rest of our week:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU ME
341 PM EDT TUE MAR 18 2008

…SIGNIFICANT SNOW…SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN EXPECTED ACROSS THE AREA…

.LOW PRESSURE APPROACHING FROM THE SOUTHWEST WILL SPREAD SNOW ACROSS
THE AREA WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. THE SNOW WILL MIX WITH SLEET AND POSSIBLY
FREEZING RAIN ACROSS THE NORTH WEDNESDAY NIGHT…AND WILL LIKELY
CHANGE TO SLEET AND THEN FREEZING RAIN OVER CENTRAL AREAS. PRECIPITATION
IS THEN EXPECTED TO TURN BACK TO ALL SNOW LATE THURSDAY AND CONTINUE
INTO FRIDAY MORNING AS GUSTY WEST WINDS INCREASE BEHIND THE SYSTEM.
MEZ001>004-010-190400-

…WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
FRIDAY MORNING…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CARIBOU HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM
WATCH…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
FRIDAY MORNING.

SNOW WILL OVERSPREAD NORTHERN MAINE LATE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND
CONTINUE INTO WEDNESDAY EVENING…CHANGING TO SLEET ACROSS THE
AREA AND PERHAPS SOME FREEZING RAIN IN SOUTHERN SECTIONS. A RETURN
TO SNOW CAN BE EXPECTED LATER THURSDAY WITH SNOW CONTINUING INTO
FRIDAY MORNING. A HEAVY MIXTURE OF SNOW AND SLEET MAY ACCUMULATE
UP TO 10 INCHES OR MORE OVER THE NORTHWEST AND FAR NORTH WITH
LESSER AMOUNTS FURTHER SOUTH WHERE SLEET IS PROPORTIONALLY HIGHER.

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT
SNOW…SLEET…OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL.
CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.

Joy.

…so I applied for the position. But let me explain…

The last job I had before moving to Maine was probably my absolute favorite in all of my working experience (and we are talking about 30 years). I love working for non-profit organizations primarily because their focus is on promoting healthy and/or safe alternatives for individuals and communities. By the very nature of a non-profit, the bottom line has nothing to do with income but outcomes.

The organization I worked for provided ATOD detox and rehabilitation services to three counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. The various service locations were identified as programs. The program I worked with was different than the others. We focused on prevention instead of rehabilitation. The primary focus is to work with local government agencies to promote policies that work to prevent problems in the community relating to the sale, use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. One of those communities was an unincorporated area called Ashland.

My position was part-time administrative assistant. I sort of fell into the position when the temp agency I was working for sent me out to finish a newsletter. I finished the newsletter and then started doing other duties and three months later was put on the payroll. I was massively over-qualified for the position, but that didn’t matter. I loved the work, it was only part-time so the job suited me. Believe me, the rest of the staff enjoyed the benefits of all my additional skills. When I announced my move to Maine they asked if they could clone me!

So here I am in Maine. Right now our budget is really tight and we won’t know about Brad’s SSI status until sometime after his hearing in May. I subscribe to the local weekly newspaper primarily so I can use it in the garden (works great!), but I do also ready it and always scan through the job postings. A couple of weeks ago I happened upon an ad that I just had to apply for.

The job is Code Enforcement Officer for the neighboring town of Ashland. (In California, our program worked closely with the county’s Code Enforcement Officer to make sure that alcohol outlets weren’t violating code.) It’s eight hours a week, 8:30 to 12:30 on Mondays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 4:30. The Code Enforcement Officer is also required to attend the planning board meetings. On the job mileage is reimbursed. My interview is Thursday at 10:30. Wish me luck!

Oh, yes. The position also includes being the local plumbing inspector for the community. I’m really curious to find out what that entails!

… when you have a Dutiful Daughter? :rolleyes:

If it’s any consolation for her, it’s not just my blog that’s being neglected. I’m very nearly out of clean clothes to wear! When I’m working on a website, my whole brain is thinking in code and markup (PHP and HTML) that everything else is ignored. It’s like I have blinkers on I get so focused on what I’m doing. If you’re curious to know which website I’m working on, it’s my business site: Uniquely Yours Business Services. Just keep in mind that it’s still a work in progress so there are links that still don’t work.

I’ve been trying to get my business site completely updated and fully functional since January, but I keep getting sidetracked. I am determined to get everything done before the snow melts! (Of course, that could be mid-July with all the snow we’ve gotten!) I already have some clients (in California – they were clients before I moved), but I’d really like to get to where I can do some active marketing both locally and online. The thing is, as a Virtual Business Assistant, I really need to get the website working and working well because that’s the interface I want to use for clients to request services and for me to bill clients using PayPal.

Did you know that yesterday was the beginning of Daylight Savings Time? Brad and I didn’t. It’s a good thing we have cable boxes and computers that automatically update the time, otherwise we would have been late to something all this week!

So, Dutiful Daughter, have I fulfilled my obligation for another post?