Tuesday, June 30, 2009
A litany of contradictions
Ok, so I didn't actually write anything for this post. But, this column by Maureen Dowd, about Gov. Mark Sanford, is super-duper fantastic. Please to read it?
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Insomnia
I'm not one to suffer from insomnia. Usually. In fact, I can sleep some 20 hours a day if I need (want?) to. Well, that particular rule is out the window. Here is a bulleted list of the potential reasons that I can't (bad word) sleep at night:
- The job market
- The fact that after looking for over a year, all I can find are low-paying, short-term jobs
- My law degree, which cost $100,000 and is worth about $10/hour. I made more before law school.
- Planning my wedding
- Paying for my wedding
- Guilt over the fact that Rex makes money, but absolutely hates his job. I get to stay at home all day.
- Staying at home all day, feeling like a total loser.
- Rent, which apparently has to be paid every month. We don't make enough to pay it every month!
- Medical bills. A few thousand worth.
- Medical billing companies that have no sympathy for the unemployed.
- The fact that I'm not actually applying for jobs full time. That's what they tell you to do. What they don't tell you is that (a) there aren't enough jobs to take up that much time applying (b) after a while, it's hard to motivate because it feels so futile.
- Basically? It all comes down to money. You need it for EVERYTHING, but we really don't have any. I have $76 in my bank account, which is great when you don't have a job and therefore don't have more coming in.
Friday, June 19, 2009
"Landscaping"
Rex and I have been spending a fair amount of time in the yard at our (still relatively) new rental house, fixing it up and making it pretty. Which is a lot of work, because it was absolutely trashed when we moved in, and the neighbors all say it's been 20 years since it looked halfway decent. We're determined folks, though, so we've been watering and weeding and planting grass seed and making a vegetable garden. It was all going so well, until our landlord decided she was going to have the south side (the worst of all), landscaped. Actually, she said xeriscaped, and Rex and I were fine with having someone else pay and perform the work to leave us with some attractive, low water landscaping.
Do you know what my landlord meant by "xeriscape?" I found out last Saturday, when I walked out to check out the new yard, only to find a giant mulch field. With a kidney-shaped "dirt pool" in the middle. I always wanted a pool. Just not a dirt pool. And there's nothing planted in the small respite from a sea of mulch, just dirt. The landlord has indicated a desire to wait on planting in the dirt pool, so we just get dirt. Do you know how attractive several hundred square feet of mulch is? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT ATTRACTIVE. The dirt in the middle? Doesn't help. See?:
Here's a close-up of my lovely pool (of dirt):
But it gets better. The landscapers (dare I call them that?) told us they had taken the liberty of installing soaker hoses in our veggie garden, since they were already installing them in the dirt pool. Rex and I thought that was great--we'd been meaning to do that, and now, we didn't have to! Only last night, when I planted a bunch more veggies, and went to water them, do you know what happened? The soaker "hoses" are actually solid tubes, and closed at the end. So no water comes out, anywhere but at the spigot where it sprays like crazy due to the pressure. Pressure that builds at the spigot because the hoses ARE NOT HOSES. They are closed tubes. Running all over our lovely vegetable garden, and all around the dirt pool. The beautiful tubes look like this:
And, we can't even unscrew the tubes to attach our actual soaker hoses, because they affixed them at the spigot in a rather permanent fashion. So. Watering cans for the vegetable garden. And watering with my eyes closed, so I don't have to see the sea of mulch with its kidney shaped dirt pool.
Do you know what my landlord meant by "xeriscape?" I found out last Saturday, when I walked out to check out the new yard, only to find a giant mulch field. With a kidney-shaped "dirt pool" in the middle. I always wanted a pool. Just not a dirt pool. And there's nothing planted in the small respite from a sea of mulch, just dirt. The landlord has indicated a desire to wait on planting in the dirt pool, so we just get dirt. Do you know how attractive several hundred square feet of mulch is? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT ATTRACTIVE. The dirt in the middle? Doesn't help. See?:
Here's a close-up of my lovely pool (of dirt):
But it gets better. The landscapers (dare I call them that?) told us they had taken the liberty of installing soaker hoses in our veggie garden, since they were already installing them in the dirt pool. Rex and I thought that was great--we'd been meaning to do that, and now, we didn't have to! Only last night, when I planted a bunch more veggies, and went to water them, do you know what happened? The soaker "hoses" are actually solid tubes, and closed at the end. So no water comes out, anywhere but at the spigot where it sprays like crazy due to the pressure. Pressure that builds at the spigot because the hoses ARE NOT HOSES. They are closed tubes. Running all over our lovely vegetable garden, and all around the dirt pool. The beautiful tubes look like this:
And, we can't even unscrew the tubes to attach our actual soaker hoses, because they affixed them at the spigot in a rather permanent fashion. So. Watering cans for the vegetable garden. And watering with my eyes closed, so I don't have to see the sea of mulch with its kidney shaped dirt pool.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Bad math
I was listening to Denver Mayor Hickenlooper on NPR this morning, and he was talking about the recession, and city employment, and the economy, and all that fun stuff. When I tuned in, he was going on about how layoffs are the absolute last thing the City and County of Denver would do to free up extra cash. Which, I think, is a good thing. Isn't it better to have everyone make a little less, than to leave some people high and dry while their colleagues are doing just peachy? In Denver, we're talking 3-4 furlough days. Period. Over a year. This isn't the 3-4 per month that Hawaii has instituted. Looks like we have a good plan.
Only, the details seemed a wee bit murky to me. To avoid layoffs, the government must trim costs in other ways. Naturally. By way of example, Mayor Hickenlooper said that agencies are starting to share services, like IT and fleet maintenance. That way, he said, we can trim about 20% of the workforce needed to perform those operations.
Wait. Isn't cutting the work force tantamount to layoffs? What, are we expecting 20% of the IT staff for the City and County of Denver to spontaneously retire all at once? Can someone explain how eliminating 20% of our IT and fleet maintenance crews, among others, we are avoiding layoffs? Kthx.
Only, the details seemed a wee bit murky to me. To avoid layoffs, the government must trim costs in other ways. Naturally. By way of example, Mayor Hickenlooper said that agencies are starting to share services, like IT and fleet maintenance. That way, he said, we can trim about 20% of the workforce needed to perform those operations.
Wait. Isn't cutting the work force tantamount to layoffs? What, are we expecting 20% of the IT staff for the City and County of Denver to spontaneously retire all at once? Can someone explain how eliminating 20% of our IT and fleet maintenance crews, among others, we are avoiding layoffs? Kthx.
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