Generalismo

Well, I wanted to take pictures of the items I’m going to mention, but I guess I won’t now because it’s too dark and the camera doesn’t take great pictures in low-light conditions.

First of all, Wednesday was my first day working at Harbor Freight Tools. How do I like it? Well, running the cash register was kind of fun, although I felt bad for making the customers wait so much when I needed help, but it really does everything but actually count out the money you need to give for change and doing credit cards or something is really even easier than that. All you do is push some buttons.

The part I don’t like is the corporate part, and I won’t bother to get into that. It’s kind of comforting to hear from the manager that he’ll fire me if I don’t do my quota of sales, because then I don’t really have to worry about it. I’m fortunate in that I’m working only 15 hours a week and have housekeeping jobs to fall back on if this doesn’t work out. So, yeah, I’d like to do well, but not at the expense of the customer.

I had to drop off some things at Harbor Freight, and afterward I stopped at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Woohoo. I found rubber boots, which I really need because of the rain, gloves, a wool sweater, a white turtleneck, and a pair of shoes that are pretty much *just* what I had been looking for in retail stores. I have wanted a pair of shoes that are comfortable that don’t look like sneakers to wear with jeans. They are brown leather oxfords that are kind of worn looking - well, I just like them I’ll have to take a picture of them and post it!

And the other thing I wanted to take a picture of was me in my rain suit. I bought a rainsuit at Harbor Freight that is bright yellow - overalls and a jacket with a hood. With my rubber boots, new fender for my back wheel, and bike light (and red blinking light for the back), I should be all set for my rainy ride tomorrow. All I need to get now is a mud guard for my front wheel.

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I added a search bar to the top of the page. It searches my blog, so if you are looking for a particular post, you might be able to find it with keywords.

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These are pictures that I’ve taken from trips to/from work recently. Some are on a day that was bright blue-skied and cloudy, the others on a misty rainy morning.

I ride across this bridge a lot to get to the other side of town.

Same bridge in the fog.

Me, kind of bleary eyed in McDonald’s shortly before rushing off to a client’s house in the AM.

The clouds were awesome on this day.

More beautiful clouds.

You can see that on the sunny day, the clouds near the mountains in the north of town were pretty grey. I might have been raining up that way.

Somewhere across the bridge on the other side of town.

A pit that is downtown.

More of the pit. It’s across the street from the library, and usually when I walk by I wonder what they’re going to do with it.

On the misty day, you can see how the fog is settled between the ridges.

What was in the top pocket of my knapsack on this day for work: Craisins, wallet, hard candy that is licorice/mint flavored* (really odd!), sandwich bag.

And me on the bridge in a hat that Carol my sister gave me

*You have to try it to know what it tastes like. It’s kind of addictive, but when I was first really analyzing the flavor I thought to myself “Wow, it tastes like something very fermented and rotting.” But it’s not really, it just has a dark, smooth flavor with a hint of mint. Without the mint it might be old tasting pretty quick, but the mint helps it be a pleasant flavor. Think rotting food sprayed with perfume (Not really!!) I got it at Cost Plus World Market, which I ride by every week.

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The other night I saw a girl who was very drunk. I thought she might be dying, at first, when I came in the room. A friend was behind her on the couch, holding her, and other friends were around holding her hands. All I could see was her face, eyes closed, and her belly, which heaved from time to time, as if she was sobbing very deeply. It looked terribly grotesque, as if her heart was beating in her stomach at irregular intervals. But no tears were on her face. She was crying inside, I think, though, and she looked very miserable. Like I said, like she was dying.

Then some people came and took her away. They, I was told, are trained to deal with situations “like this one.”

I thought about the situation rewinded, how erasing a little bit of the drink would have made her less drunk, until she was in a sober state. What was she like those hours before she managed to get herself so drunk, and what was she thinking and feeling as she drank more and more?

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Porter took me to the coast for my birthday :) On the last day we were there, we drove south as far as we reasonably could in the day and have time to get home before very late. It was so wonderful! The view from the highway that runs along the coast is incredible. There were lots of places to stop and see amazing things.

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Footage from a while ago. Music from recently.

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At a blog I found recently, I found this included in a post labeled “Are You Single?:

Five “Rules” For Women:

Don’t
Assume
Expect
Initiate
Manipulate
(And if it’s from God) Don’t fight

I thought this was a fine list, and would apply appropriately to both men and women, single and married, until I saw “initiate.” Then I stopped being able to pretend that the author intended for a woman to love a man.

I don’t think love assumes, expects, manipulates, or fights. But I do believe it initiates!

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visited 42 states (84%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Like this? try: Triposo Travelhacks

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Today I cleaned someone’s house. (This is shortly going to become the equivalent of saying “Well, today I went to work, as usual. But, I suppose this is different since it was yet again a new client.) It was a short notice call again, and something that will be happening on a regular basis.

Lots of surprises when going to these jobs. Lots of things that run through my head that I think - wow,this would make a great book. It would be fun to jot things down in a notebook, anyway, when I get home, and look at them some day. Perhaps reading my first impressions will bring back to memory that first day on the job. But, of course, I’m starting to realize that I should really blog none of the experiences I have at work that involve clients. Because housekeepers see a lot of things and are expected to keep them confidential. So, experiences involving me only, yes, but anything about clients, no!

It is so odd to be thinking about doing house cleaning full time. It seems as if things continue like this, I will be working full time shortly. I used to work two “days” a week - three hours one day, and two hours another day. Then it became two hours one day and eightw hours another day.. Now it has become something like:
Monday: 3-7 hours (one every other week client)
Tuesday: 5 hours
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 4 hours
Friday: 8 hours

So basically, I guess I’m working 20-24 hours a week, plus one client who is monthly.

Sometimes when I come home from a job I just think - I-i-i - I have to do this again tomorrow! But I’m also realizing that I *can* do the work, and it isn’t altogether boring. Getting enough sleep helps. I ended up staying up past midnight last night and then getting up before 7:30am. I was so tired, and the day was so much longer than it would have been if I had been properly slept and fed and such.

I’m discovering that sitting still when my back is sore is probably not the best thing for it. It really was aching when I got home, to the point that I was finding it hard to walk normally, but then after forcing myself to walk a ways it felt much better, and now it feels fine.

I stopped in the thrift store today to buy some pants to work in. I am just realizing that if I work every day, I don’t have time to wash in between, and I’ve been getting my jeans pretty dirty from kneeling on floors for hours at a time. The guy behind the counter remarked “Looks like you’re on a mission!” I guess I was, since I knew exactly what I was looking for and I was in a hurry because I had to get to the bank before it closed. Or maybe he remembered my past hunt for shorts, in which I must have tried on a dozen pairs to find the right one. I used to think I liked shopping. But nowadays it seems like I’m always in a rush, or I can’t find what I’m looking for. It isn’t as fun as it used to be.

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Today I went on another last minute cleaning adventure. They called yesterday and had me come today to clean today for a party they are having tomorrow. It was a lovely house and a great couple who live there. While I was cleaning, though, I was starting to have my doubts. I thought it would take 4 hours to do the job (before I had seen it), it took me 6 hours. As I ran around the bathroom doing last minute things, I wondered - Am I really cut out for housecleaning? Do some people have it, and some don’t, and I just don’t? How do I know if I’m getting the house clean enough? (Because believe me, there are *always* more things to clean in a house, even when you’ve done all you can in a day, unless the house is unusually immaculate or small.)

So I thought to myself, well, just hang in there, just wait and see how long it takes before someone comments on your cleaning. Not a minute later, my client’s daughter, who is visiting, arrives at the door downstairs. I hear her put her bags down and she sails into the house. “It smells so good in here!” (I wonder if she means the smell of the orange cleaner I’ve been using all throughout the house, or the candles the lady of the house has out.) “Who did you have clean in here! It looks amazing!” Back in with more bags. “Wow, it looks great.” She must have remarked on the cleanness of the house in a positive way three times, and I am not exaggerating! Later, after I finished the bathroom I came downstairs and met her, and she said she wished I could come clean her house, but she lives two and a half hours away.

So yeah, that totally made my afternoon Probably made my whole month, as far as housekeeping goes

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