Put it All Together, it Spells...

First day back at work after three days off:  I asked Mom to google the going rate for an hour and a half of therapy she gave me during the drive home tonight.

A task I was given at work has been surrendered - as a creative person I had been asked to come up with, and direct, ideas for a bulletin board which changes quarterly (at least). I did. Today I was told by someone NOT involved what the new direction was. First thing in the morning. Before I punched in. And not in any way diplomatically.

Dear lord. It's all yours... and thank you for the reprieve.  Asking people at a call center to do more than color a line drawing is apparently TOO creative.  My idea was a mash-up - those who wanted to color a line drawing could have still managed by cutting and taping a couple of them together.

I told Mom I should be happy the Universe took this off my plate.  I had wanted a task that would expand my skills, not shove the existing ones into a tiny shoebox.  You want to "color?" Have at it. I personally could never stand staying within the lines.

I then took a call from a woman in the Midwest somewhere about how her precious angel couldn't get on her favorite ride and, "what are you going to do for her?"  There was a medical emergency on the attraction in question.  It's very serious.  It may have an outcome none of us would wish for any family. 

Today, I am disgusted by humanity.  AGAIN.  But my mother's amusement at the telling, and compassion for my ability to get up and do this day after day without driving into a bridge abutment is sustaining.

What would we do without mothers?

And it's a damn good thing I do not know what the day will bring while driving to work.  Bridge abutments hold no appeal on the way home.  Thank G*d.

Downtown Farming

My first straw bale raised bed. I got lucky with the straw, these are older and done with the initial hot decomp. I picked them up at the Equestrian Center downtown.

A man that works there on the weekend is stopping by later to look at the backyard.  I want to fence part of it before getting chickens.  I am getting chickens.  The last time I got eggs, mine were fine but the dozen Mom got seemed less than fresh - I'm of the opinion that this supplier collects when she feels like it so they may be sitting in the nest longer than optimal.

I was expecting to get three girls (five-six weeks) last weekend but that was a disastrous waste of gasoline. The man who was making the coop suggested we meet in a town nearly an hour away at a particular business that shared an address with a stretch of desolate nothing.  Whatever halfwit that thinks the east and west portion of the same county road can be separated by miles of other roads and several doglegs has a lot to answer for - I had GPS but left my phone at home so I was a half hour late and he didn't wait.  Then I was late meeting the woman with the chicks.  She didn't wait.  I understand not wanting to travel TO your customer if they're a good distance away.  I can't understand not knowing they may have an issue finding you and hanging around - OK, a half hour is a long time.

The killer? The man who made the coop has a delivery fee and I was willing to pay it - but he decided that it was too far to drive.  I'll shop closer to home from now on.

In this first bed: three Cherokee Purple tomatoes, nasturtium, watermelon and yellow squash seeds.  I'll put some more beds in the backyard.  In the mix, mulch on the bottom, over the grass, garden or topsoil and Black Cow.

Boids

Ibis with a juvenile

2 Down - 4 To Go

Scrub oaks in the backyard are keeping other trees from flourishing and are impeding my view. Two succumbed to my chainsawonapole.

Here's the pile for the city to pick up. I wish I had a chipper.

Right There

Happy Freakin' Day

One More

I love this shot.


Anyone know what this is?


It is HUGE...


And in my neighbor's yard.

January Color From My Backyard

Impatients

Hi!

December

...is fraught with landmines when you're the working poor.

Here's a pizza. Multigrain. Turkey pepperoni. It rocked. My life does not.

Florida Blooms in December

In My Room

I wish I could stay...

En Garden

*Sword palm*

Fountain

December in Florida

ALMOST makes up for the redonkulous summers.  Saw my neighbors for the first time in months as I was taking pictures - just like up north... only backwards. 

They said how glad they were they had a "stable" neighbor.  Forgive them.  They don't know me very well yet.  *Grins*

Positivity

Pedicures with Mom.  The promise of free ones for park tickets in the future.

Setting limits with the current work situation.  The lack of freedom for me there, leads to a lack of my availability and expansion of my freedoms elsewhere.

Making a future with freedom from financial worries by investing in my education and my home studio, after seeing an opportunity melt away last week.

Two lovely days away from all of the aggravation before a schedule of NINE days in-a-row.  The promise of a future away from it permanently.

A fruit rat on the windowsill.

Through the screen.

Lantana

Raising Women

If you raise girl children to believe they can do anything, they will grow into women who do.

Chainsaw on a pole.

A Thought

It is really hard not to go completely postal (sorry postal persons I know and love) when folks I know aren't anywhere near ignorant willingly support candidates who have no intention of doing anything to help them.

Especially when said candidate is directly responsible (through the company he headed) for my current desperate plight and financial and professional struggle. 

Do what you must.

I will be supportive and sympathetic when it's your turn here. Because it will be. YOU are not a corporation.

For Fall

Of course, Autumn here is just 85 instead of 92 degrees and includes darker mornings and evenings.  Otherwise you have no real idea what time of year it is.  I suspect the tree in the front of the house will switch this year's set of leaves for new ones in the coming months. But instead of a big, dramatic color show - they'll just fade, shrivel and drop and almost simultaneously be replaced by new growth.

Ah, subtropical.  Maybe that explains the color of the first leaf.  Or maybe my glaze experiment was wildly successful.  I prefer the latter.

Earning a Living

That's what Mom calls it.  Clinging to the house, windows, the inside of the door frame (that's how they get IN the house)... where ever there's the possibility of a bug.

I stood, unmoving, in my kitchen to watch one eat on a recent evening.  I could only tell he was successful by the regular swallowing.

That fast.

Grin and Bear