Work

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Winding Down to Wind Up

WHEW, I have finished my transcription marathon. I could have kept working through the weekend, but I promised Ken and Donna I’ll be arriving tomorrow and I am. At some point, you have to put down the keyboard and live. I wish that 99% of my transcription work was like the hearing I just completed. I had estimated it would take 16 hours and I completed it in about 11. That makes for a really good hourly wage.

I haven’t really started to pack yet, but I do have a list and am slowly working through the to-do part of it. Neelix is heading over the Charles and Caroline’s around 7:00 and then I’ll be able to come in and out with luggage without worried about him getting out.

The truck isn’t ready for camping yet, but that’s okay since I’ll have plenty of time (and power) at Donna and Ken’s to clean it well. It is empty of all the crap I’ve been hauling all winter, so that’s definitely a step in the right direction. 🙂

I thought the seminar ended the Sunday night, but it’s actually the Monday night. So I won’t be home till Wednesday as I’m stopping Lethbridge on Tuesday to see Gary and Jody!

I’ll be camping one night between Stettler and Kelowna. Not sure where yet, but I’m going to keep an eye out for my 2008 turnout west of Revelstoke. Dang, I need to keep better notes.

Thursday night in Kelowna will likely be at the Walmart as it wouldn’t be worth the gas to drive to Summerland and back to spend the night at Amber‘s and she’s already committed to meeting me in Kelowna for dinner.

The weekend will be at Okanagan College, where I will have access to showers.

And then I’ll do a night in Jody and Gary’s yard.

The next week and a half will justify having purchased the truck because I can camp out of it!

My seminar is just about done. It needs a few more slides and to be converted to PowerPoint. I much prefer Keynote as it makes nicer presentations and is easier to work with, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to hook up my Mac to a projector, so I need a backup. I got a nasty surprise at the 2011 seminar whereby their equipment wasn’t compatible with mine, so I want to be better prepared this time.

The weekend in Kelowna is going to be so much fun. I only have to speak for one hour (actually 45ish minutes to leave time for questions) and can otherwise enjoy myself. I don’t know yet what day I’ll be speaking, but I’m hoping it’s early on.

Well, better get my Neeboo ready for his excursion. I hope he has fun with K.C. (short for kitty cat), but also that he misses me as much as I’m going to miss him. Stop guilt-tripping me with those huge yellow eyes! You’re going to get spoiled rotten!

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Tuckered Out

As of last night, I averaged 10 hours of typing every day since the first Monday in June. I have another 16 or so left to do by Thursday evening. I’m surprised I have any skin left on the tips of my fingers!

I wound up having a veeeeeeery slow morning and didn’t get into the office until about 11:30! Wow, I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t working by 7:30!

I ended up working for another client all day and I need to type tonight. I have so much to do to prepare for my early Friday departure that I’d like to quit by mid-day Thursday and then blitz through the departure list. I can’t believe my seminar is nowhere near done yet.

I had to make a phone call mid-afternoon, so I headed over to Charles and Caroline’s place to borrow theirs, but no one was home. Before driving all the way out to highway 2 (about 16KM each way) where I can get a decent phone signal, I decided to head out with the phone, booster, and stubby antenna. Lo and behold, I got a solid two bars only about a kilometre out! I put the phone in the cradle and put the whole kit and caboodle up to my ear since I don’t have a headset with mic. Worked great! So I’m starting to think that if I get a slightly bigger antenna, I’ll get the phone to work here, too.

I’m rather looking forward to heading out on Friday. It’ll be so nice to see Ken, Donna, their brood, and their new house. It’s going to be a long, but easy drive. I asked Caroline how she heads up that way (her sister lives near Stettler) and her route is exactly the one I took last summer to get from Stettler to here.

Having landed here on May 10th, I’ve been here a full month now. I’m fairly certain this is the longest I have ever gone without eating out once. I had one meal with the neighbours and that’s it. I’m rather looking forward to tasting someone else’s cooking, although I plan to spend plenty of time in Donna’s kitchen!

I think Neelix will enjoy spending my absence at Charles and Caroline’s. I think he’s lonely and they have a sweet kitten. The two of them should get along just fine. No, I have no intention of getting another cat. 🙂

I’m thrilled that July income is off to a roaring start since I doubt I’ll be making much money while I’m away next week. I’m also taking a week off in early July for my first proper vacation since I did the Chilkoot in 2009. Charles and Caroline have invited me to fulfill yet another lifelong dream and all it’ll cost me is a little gas and a couple of pairs of jeans, plus the time off. All I’m going to say about that right now is that it involves horses. You’re welcome to put your guesses in the comments. 🙂

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Business is NOT Picking Up

I feel like a couple of recent comments need to be addressed in a post. There seems to be the mistaken impression that business for me is picking up and that I’m raking in the cash. This is most certainly not the case.

Being a freelancer, business is never steady. Sure, I’m swamped this week, but the last two weeks all I had on my plate were jobs from a client who pays me minimum wage at best. The client who’s keeping me busy this week could go dark for all of July. I don’t know.

Since last summer, I’ve been able to ride this income roller coaster and get the bills paid, no problem. But it’s still not enough to go beyond my most basic needs. I need a couple more steady clients who pay me well to serve as my ‘overtime’ pay. Until that happens, I’m going to be scrambling.

I have so many big expenses this summer, including attending the seminar, truck maintenance, and the cost of transferring residency to Saskatchewan, among others.

So these ‘I’m busy with work’ posts are not to say, ‘wow, I’m rolling in the dough’ but rather ‘there’s a reason I’m filling the blog with fluff.’ 🙂

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International Cooperation

Late Wednesday May 29th, I ordered a water filter to be shipped to my friend’s in Virginia. I have an Amazon Prime membership, so the package got there on Friday May 31st, within the two promised business days. My friend promptly checked the order to make sure everything was there, repackaged it, and sent it ‘Express Mail’, which offers delivery to most major international markets within three to five business days.

She had me pay her the $30 or so it would have cost to send the package a slower route and covered the difference for Express herself (THANK YOU, I love you!), only telling me this after the package was processed.

The package left Norfolk on Monday and got stuck in Canadian Customs. It’s always scary to see the ‘item was sent for further processing’ and then ‘item was released from customs’ notes. This was Wednesday. No update yesterday. As far as I knew, the package was languishing in Mississauga.

I checked the status this morning and discovered that it had arrived in Regina at 1AM and left there at 4AM!

I went to the post office around 10, just as the post master was getting into her car, and when she saw me, she got out and told me she had a package for me. My filter was here! AND I didn’t have to pay any taxes on it! So my out of pocket cost was only about $30. Wooho!

This isn’t the first time I’ve been impressed by the expediency of the postal system, but this really was above and beyond what I expected, especially since my friend sent me another package by a slower method and it seemed to be moving along faster.

In other news, Skynet has gained self-awareness AND is prescient. I got up this morning and had crazy fast internet with three bars of signal and an RSSI of -86. At the EXACT minute I hit send on an email to a client, the connection dropped and would not come back. I had to scramble to get out the door and up the hill for my deadline. Once up there, I got offered tons of work for the weekend, which meant enough downloads that I would have had to go up the hill even if I had been able to send an email from home. Be very afraid people.

I don’t expect to be back online till Monday as I have 30 hours of work to do by 9PM Sunday. Gary, have a virtual beer for me each evening!

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Grocery Sprint

Even though it looked like the transcription marathon was going to stop at the end of this current (very difficult) job, due tomorrow first thing, getting a few groceries today was absolutely necessary. I had originally planned to leave for Stettler on the 10th and didn’t want to leave too much food in the fridge, so I worked down my stores before realising that I’m actually leaving the 14th and that I would have to eat Neelix at some point to get protein. A gal can’t live off rice, veggies, and the odd bit of almond butter forever. 🙂

Since a) I was in a hurry, b) the truck was full of donations for the thrift store, and c) I didn’t want to do a giant amount of shopping, going to Willow Bunch made sense. To my surprise, my trip took me exactly one hour round trip!

The road to Willow Bunch was in decent shape and I actually drove about 80KPH on it even though it’s gravel.

I found the thrift store and Co-op (right across from each other) without trouble. The lady at the thrift store had me go around back through the alley to unload. It felt good to get that stuff out of my truck! She seemed pleased with the donations.

Then, I circled back around and parked at the Co-op. The food store is tiny, but the more I walked around, the better stocked I found it to be. Since the prices are the same as the Co-op in Assiniboia, I didn’t have the small market sticker shock I was expecting. In fact, once I manage to do a good pantry stocking run in a larger community, it would definitely make sense to just top up in Willow Bunch once a week instead of Assiniboia if I have no other errands to do since it’s half the mileage.

I stocked up on produce, including a 99 cent avocado, and then looked at protein. Like in Assiniboia, there was lots of choice, but everything was so pricey. Every time I have tuna (of the canned, non sushi variety) I think that I should start eating more of it. Since tuna was on sale for $1 a can if you bought two (which I think is a decent price for the Cloverleaf brand), I decided to go that route and I also found some nice looking pre-marinated pork chops for $4 that will make four meals, so that sounded like a fair deal. I am most definitely not a vegetarian anymore! 🙂

Today was the day Co-op members got their equity cheques. Of course, I didn’t have one (I’m told I will next year, though…), but that made me eligible for the BBQ. I wasn’t interested in burgers, but I was somehow talked into grabbing a doughnut and coffee “for the road.” Considering I haven’t had anything resembling junk food in a full week and the last time before that was about a week and a half, I have forgiven myself for my weakness. 🙂

The drive home seemed faster than the drive out, especially once I found the country music station out of Moose Jaw (turns out all the radio shows are on the AM frequency).

I came in and assembled a tasty tuna salad (using sour cream instead of mayo) and slathered it on some fresh cheese buns (couldn’t believe they had those; I am a sucker for them). I asked Neelix if he wanted the tuna juice and he answered by getting up on two paws and reaching for the counter. Still, he appeared dumbfounded when I poured the tuna juice into a bowl for him. He’s been wanting to go outside since we got here and so he’s been getting a lot of nos lately. He really enjoyed his treat!

It’s another beautiful, if not super warm, day and the internet has decided to work. *rolls eyes*

Oh, and before I forget, I have to give a shout out to Joni in Salem who sent me a tripod for my camera! THANK YOU! Having a post office right here in the village is such a bonus. I go once a day just for the walk and didn’t expect her package to be here yet, but the postmaster had seen me coming and had it out for me. I’ll be putting it to good use.