Work

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Carpe Occasionem

There is major good stuff happening in my life right now in regards to work. One of you lovely readers gave me an incredible gift that I wouldn’t have even dared to wish for — a dream job. It’s all rather surreal and I am infinitely grateful! I have no idea how long this opportunity will last, so I don’t want to say too much right now, only that it involves proofreading.

It’s no secret that I have been growing more than a tad disillusioned with the transcription field. I’ve determined that it’s nearly impossible to make a decent living in that field without working inordinately long hours to make up for low pay. Other fields that require the same strong language skills pay a lot more, but transcription clients just don’t seem to get that and only pay very low wages. I work too hard and have too much education to settle for being this poor (in a purely financial sense).

One of the things that transcription gave me was an immense freedom of schedule, which is why I stuck with it for so long. When this latest opportunity came up, I had to decide if I was ready to be a little less temporally free to gain some financial freedom. The answer was yes. I’m at a part of my life where I’m okay with working weekdays, having weekends off, and having to request time off for vacation… since said vacation will be for me to travel between my Canadian and Mexican homes! Everything falls into place, doesn’t it? I truly believe that.

I’ve finished basic training and am starting this coming Tuesday. At this time, the job requires me to be at my desk 24 hours a week split up into eight-hour shifts Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I really need to be at my desk during that time. I can’t slip out to switch loads of laundry, go to the post office, or do chores, just like being at an onsite job, only without having to deal with other people and a commute! It’s a good schedule in that it still leaves me four days a week to do other things and I still have two week days for going to town. There is a possibility of getting more hours later that will restrict my schedule further, but I’m just taking it a week at a time.

I am still an independent contractor/freelancer and am still doing transcription part-time for now. But this new job will really pad my resume in a field that I’ve been trying to break into and so I will likely leave transcription behind as more opportunities in proofreading develop. Since I’m not an employee, I don’t have any sort of job security and so I’m loathe to put all my eggs in the same proverbial basket and drop my loyal transcription clients. Once burned, twice shy, and all that.

Who knows if my new schedule will be visible in my blog posts over the next few weeks and months, but I thought that I might as well give a heads up in case I go quiet. Some of you actually worry when I do that! 😀

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Double Town Day

I hadn’t planned to go to town today, but my second warranty replacement for my Western Digital drive was waiting for me at the post office and I needed some things at the home store, so I had ample reason to go.

I’ve had a Western Digital drive for five years now that has never failed me, but haven’t had any luck with the My Passport brand. My first one crapped out on me in Mexico and I got it replaced while I was traveling through the US last month. A month later, the replacement failed! I asked them to send me something different and they sent me a My Passport Air specifically formatted for Mac, a significant upgrade. If this one lasts, it will have been worth all the money I’ve spent in returning the old drives!

Since I’ve been craving a hamburger since I got home and have made some more weight loss progress, I decided to go to 121 Steakhouse for lunch. I went all out and ordered a bacon cheeseburger with sweet potato fries! The kitchen goofed and sent me curly fries instead, which are just as good, so I told the server not to send them back, but to please remove the substitution fee. That fee has jumped to $2! No more substitution, even to salad, for me! But because it was a mistake, they actually reimbursed me $2.79, not $2. So I picked a good day to have lunch there. 🙂 Their coffee is absolutely mindbogglingly amazing, so I pretty much had a huge pot of it, too. I need to remember that and get a to go coffee from there instead of at the gas station!

After lunch, I went to the home store to get some things for my cell phone booster antenna project (thanks, Croft!). More on that when I do the project on Sunday.

Then, it was off to the grocery store to get what was on sale this week. I really like that when they are having a good deal on avocados, they put the limes on sale, too!

I also stocked up on almond milk, which was surprisingly inexpensive ($2 regular price for a container that will last a week!). Friends in Mexico left me a bunch of almond milk that they didn’t want to bring on the plane and I’ve just finished using it up. I never thought that would be something I’d need or want in my diet, but it’s fabulous! It’s low calorie, tastes great, has protein, and is wonderful in smoothies. I’ve also been using it with a high protein cereal topped with a banana for breakfast, which is funny because I normally turn my nose at Western breakfast foods. But this really works for me. I can have it at 7AM and go all the way through to lunch (between 12:00 and 1:00) on just 300 calories! Wow!

No sooner had I arrived home than I got an email from a client regarding my Windows computer, which crapped out on me last weekend. They asked that I mail it back ASAP so that they can reinstall Windows and do other maintenance on it. Because of their holiday schedule and the fact that I will have a lot less flexibility in my own schedule due to new work commitments starting next week, we determined that I needed to get to the post office today. So I quickly packed my post office kit that has a marker, scissors, and packing tape, as well as the computer and power supply and headed back to town!

The gals at the post office were helpful and found me a box and free packing material! I packed the computer and sent it off (you do not want to know what it costs to send a well-insured and packaged laptop across Canada). I had missed the truck to Regina, so it actually won’t head out until Monday night. Bummer.

Today was our first really hot day in ages and I was burning up by the time I came out of the post office. I decided on just one last treat for the day and went to the Village Food Store to see if they had ice cream. Yes! I got a ‘small’ cone for $2.10, a fair price. That’s it for treats for me for the next little bit!

Off to do some plumbing. I found another leak under the sink. 🙁

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Today Was… Frustrating

I had big plans for a fun day today. I woke up at 5:00 raring to go even though I’d only had six hours of sleep and I forced myself to get another hour before getting up.

Some unexpected work came in a couple of days ago, so I needed to put in a few hours of work before leaving. That failed spectacularly because my Windows computer crapped out on me (something that would be user diagnosticable and fixable on a Mac, but needs professional help on a Windows machine) and then the stupid software I use for transcription because there are no other options also refused to work.

I ended up wasting the entire morning troubleshooting things that were working fine yesterday and finally had to leave because I had an appointment to pick up something I was buying off Kijiji.

First stop was the bank where the ATM started to spit out my money and then broke down. Seriously. Am I cursed or something???!!! Thankfully, the machine gave me back my card and a receipt saying that nothing was deducted from my account. I went across the street to the TD and paid almost $10 in fees to withdraw from them. I’m sure CIBC will reimburse me though; I’ll call the Assiniboia branch Monday morning.

I then headed west out of town to meet up with the Kijiji seller. She had originally asked me to meet her at a grocery store in Lafleche (The Arrow), a town about 45KM west of Assiniboia but had emailed me in the morning asking to meet her at the entrance to Thomson Lake Regional Park, near Lafleche. I sent her a Google link to make sure I had the right place and she said that was it, so off I went there since it really wasn’t a detour. Except that Google was wrong and SK apparently doesn’t believe in signage. There was NOTHING in the area indicating that Thomson Lake Regional Park even exists. Google and Apple maps were both sending me to the wrong place.

I drove a ways past Lafleche and then went back, doing in total almost an extra 40KM, which was way more gas than I could afford to burn. So I knew I had to cancel the touristy part of my day. 🙁

There was a trucker fueling up just outside Lafleche and I asked him if he knew where the park was. Yes, and he gave me excellent directions. There is ZERO signage all the way to the turnoff for the park and even then, it’s just a little brown sign with absolutely nothing written on it. What a well kept secret! I am going to research it more and see if it’s a place where I could go kayaking since it’s really not that far when you know where it is!

Thankfully, I had left early and was only a few minutes late. I ended up meeting the seller’s father. She lives in Swift Current, which is six hours away round trip for me, but he was spending the weekend at Thomson Lake, just two hours away round trip for me, and offered to bring the item. So I know I got off lucky in terms of extra driving today!

By this point, I had a bad headache and was no longer in the mood for adventure so I didn’t even care that the rest of my day was spoiled. I headed back to Assiniboia where something finally went right with my day (well, besides the exchange actually taking place!). The home store had what I needed to effect a permanent repair on my bypass and the grocery store lost leave of its senses and was selling absolutely gorgeous bananas for just 69 cents a pound rather than the usual 99 cents. The 69 cent bananas tend to be so ripe and disgusting I wouldn’t even want them in a banana bread, much less a smoothie. These were still good enough to eat as is!

I got home and somehow managed to wrestled my unwieldy purchase into the rig. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to tell y’all what it is. 😀

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Outbuilding Organization Progress

I worked all morning and then sent the client what I had for review (non-transcription project). I vegged out for a couple of hours since I had nothing else to do until the comments came in and I was bone tired. It was not nice out anyway. I did go out around 1:00 to see if I had mail (no).

Mid-afternoon, it was getting very warm in the RV since I have the dehumidifier running to dry out the under sink area and I was getting antsy, so I decided to go do some work on the sheds.

I started by demolishing the grain chute in the cabin, something I wish I had done last year, since it was very messy! I was surprised by how much bigger the cabin felt after!

After that, I just focused on that half of the cabin, moving things to the shed and garbage pile as needed. I set up a pallet in the corner and stacked storage bins on it, then set up the table between the pallet and the washing machine.

The storage needs for the shed are becoming clear as I start to move ‘stuff’ into it.

The big stuff that has to go in and out needs to be parked at the front by the door, not at the back like this. I need overhead storage for wood.

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I really need a proper workbench and, in fact, I found a design for something that I can easily and cheaply build myself. It will go in the corner where the wood is right now. The wall where I set up the board and sawhorses will have a window, so I’m thinking low shelves on the bottom for storing bits and bobs or even a low dresser or cabinet. I’ll keep my eye open at the thrift stores.

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Garden tools can fill the north wall (where the wheelbarrow is presently) with hooks or some other system to hang them.

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As for the cabin, the east side is a complete disaster, but I’ve carved out a really nice little laundry area on the west side. I haven’t decided yet where I’m putting the dryer, probably on the east side since I don’t use it much.

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I screwed a couple of wine crates to the studs for instant storage.

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A bucket under the sink will catch water until I find a hose that I could run outside.

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I intend for the cabin to be an extension of my home until it is converted into a home. So I want to use it for domestic stuff only, not dirty things. I would really like to get some exercise equipment, especially a treadmill and a bench press, in it. It also needs a light source, but the shed light fixture wouldn’t be enough for this space

While I didn’t care much for living in RV parks, I did miss having other spaces I could retreat to, be they a laundry room, a gym, or a place to spread out a craft project. That’s what I’m getting here at Haven. Some people will scratch their heads and wonder why I don’t get a big house instead. I dunno. I just like this better. 🙂

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Scalding Hot Water

Since I have no intention of going to town this week, I wanted to come up with a temporary fix to isolate the hot water from the cold to not only get me through the week, but also confirm that my planned fix would work. My temporary fix was very simple: I just took some self sealing tape and put it over the open ends of the pipes and then reinstalled the hose.

This worked like a charm! So now, I know I can get some PVC caps and glue and permanently seal the two pipe ends. This will be pretty much non-reversible, but it will be a permanent fix that I’ll never again have to worry about.

My water heater is behaving well, so it’s really lovely to be able to leave the pump on all day and have hot water at the flick of a tap. I haven’t had that luxury in a long time except for my stays in the U.S. in May, of course. In Mexico, I got just warmish water in the kitchen and bathroom after running the tap a while, although I couldn’t complain about the water temperature in the shower! I had complete control over the heat setting on the water heater and was paying for propane, but to get hot water in the kitchen meant dangerously hot water in the shower, so it was a bit of a compromise.

I was asked why I live off my holding tank rather than being hooked up to city water. Good question!

Water in the hamlet is gravity fed from a stream uphill. The hydrant I tap into is nearly at the end of the water distribution line. There is therefore very little water pressure right at the hydrant. Then, I have to run about 300′ of garden hose from the hydrant to my RV. End result, no water pressure to speak of. I get a trickle out of the kitchen and bathroom sink taps and just drips in the shower, not even a steady stream.

Most of my neighbours have some sort of accumulator and/or pump system to improve their water pressure. This is something I will investigate when I get water in on site. So for now, filling the holding tank each day and running the water pump is my best option. I have tons of pressure that way and so my showers are much more enjoyable. I leave my hose hooked up, so once a day, I go turn on the hydrant, set a timer for 40 minutes, and when the time is up, go turn it off again. It’s really not a huge deal.

Another reason I prefer to use the holding tank is that it gives me an immediate means of turning off the water in the case of a leak. I had a bit of a hard time getting the hose back on the pipe over the tape yesterday and one of the connections blew off about a half dozen times over the course of the day before I finally got it good and tight. Had I been on city water, I would have had to run out side and down the block to turn off the water (as that would have been faster than trying to unscrew a hose to disconnect it!).

Now that the plumbing situation is under control, it’s time to focus on work. It’s going to be a grey day and so perfect for that. I am quite tired after the busy last few days, so it’s going to be nice to sit here with a pot of coffee and just tap away.