The Driveway Saga Begins...

The driveway, a steep sometimes menacing hill that washes out with the heavy rains, that requires 4 wheel drive in the winter, and sometimes in the summer...it is getting a face lift this year. We can't change the steep angle but we are working with a fella who has great road building skills [and who is a friend and neighbor] to improve the water runoff problem and this is something I'm going to document from begining to end!
We've dug down to the utilities, that is what you see flagged off on each side of the road. Road tubes will go in these at a 45 degree angle ... we are getting water ways built in to help with the run off.
Morris has been a great supervisor through all of the begining stages. Somehow I feel the supervisor will not be around the heavy machinery!

Overqualified? And sleepless...

Guess what, I am 'overqualified' for the one position I applied for. What does that mean? I'm too smart? I shouldn't have acted professional? I should have worn a nose ring, like the girl ahead of me?
Ok, I am of the belief that everything must happen for a reason and obviously the *prospective* employer didn't think I was a good fit.
Still, to feel like I did a good interview and then get that 'Dear Valerie' letter is quite disheartening to say the least.
Next job app..do I put down that I am in college? Do I mention my attributes and knowledge of software?
Or..
do I dumb it down.
All I want is a job, it can be an entry level job...in fact that is the best way to begin with a company, I thought.
Why do they turn you down when you are willing to work?

Well
Get on with it then.

Perhaps it is a good thing anyway. I am still fighting this shoulder surgery and am having a real tough time with it. It will be two weeks today...the 26th and I would have thought to have seen a huge improvement. Yet I still end up in incredible pain at least most of the day.
After all that is why I am posting at 3AM ... no comfort unless I get up and move around.
Hmmm, toughen up and suck it up.

PT in 5 hrs. Sigh. I hope we can figure out what is causing this continued amount of ICK.

The longest Night

It isn't fair, I was sooo tired and so pained from PT yesterday that I had a miserable night. If there was a position for comfort, it evaded me. So I got up and did my homework for school at 3AM. Hey ... I did go to bed at 9PM, so that was a good 6 hrs of sleep. Hmm, okay so it was NOT a bad night. Nights just seem so very long when you cannot rest.
I watched a foggy sunrise. I wanted to go and walk to the top of the ridge and watch it, but figured that hubby would wake up and find me gone.
We have since discussed this and it is okay with him for me to go.

The Cav has new tires, that was in my earlier blog. One more thing to pick up tomorrow...a vaccum thingy that keeps the engine from seeming to stutter as it goes down the road. We had the engine analyzed yesterday while I was being tortured at PT.
[Which by the way really sucked as they dug into a very sensitive rotator cuff muscle...it feels as though I am bruised all the way through now. --- I had nerve pain and spasms of the muscles most of yesterday. Very frustrating ---but I did throw the frisbee for Morris the incredible--so I am getting better right????? Right?]

I'm teacher's pet in my Careers Class. She emailed me to thank me for helping other students and being a big encouragement to them. I guess that answers the question they asked at the interview...
Are you a Team Player?

Of course I am, when it is to my advantage.
ha ha
Well the heat index is at 100 degrees today...I only know that it is very very hot.
So I am heading out to get hubby's butt inside.

Oh .... watch for postings on the making of a new driveway! The dozer should arrive tomorrow!

Interview....

My interview could I have done better? You bet I could, there is always room for improvement!

I dressed conservatively, yet nicely in khaki pressed dress paints, a simple green short sleeved blouse, and a light linen jacket [total cost of outfit…$45]. Minimum make up and simple jewelry from my collection of old stuff.

I read about the company I was applying for, I understood the job I was applying for as it was posted on their internet site along with a ‘Mission statement’ for the company. Then I read the blurb that summarized the particular office I was applying for.

I felt really good when the previous interviewee stepped out wearing flip-flops, Capri pants, and a t-shirt with an over shirt that was not tucked in.

I answered honestly every question they asked. When asked about my speed in typing I did point out that although my test scores showed 55 WPM with 97% accuracy, that until I learned ‘their specific’ language, I would not be as fast.

When we reached for the ‘anything else you can tell me about yourself?’…I pulled out an original letter signed by the Vice President of a company I’d previously worked for. I handed each of them a copy and let them read the original.

Both interviewers glanced at each other and sighed, ‘Nice!’

I can get tongue tied. That is my fault. I worked very hard at presenting me, selling me, with my grades and classes. They took particular interest in my print out of classes I am taking and will be taking. It did seem to coincide with their agenda.

Okay that is how my day went!

Val

Eddie..where's the tires?

Today was the 'interview' day. More about that later. This is the car that has been fondly and 'unfondly' called the Cav by my son. He bought it in college and has sold it to me [thank you son for extending me credit on this!]
We have replaced the rocker gasket...that's the blue rubber thingy. Power washed the engine ... it doesn't leak oil...we have done
brakes
struts
plugs
plug wires
air filter
oil filter
fuel filter
tranny filter
...and some things I've forgotten.
Today it got its NEW tires. 4 new tires all the way around. I went to the interview in a loaner while they worked on it.
After the interview I was waiting for them to finish up in the air conditioned office when a man who wore a Tire Shop uniform with the name Eddie sewn on it walked in mumbling something and wandered around. The receptionist said, 'Hey Eddie need a drink of water?' Eddie mumbled something back and wandered back out into the shop.
I could see that Eddie was not just a common man. Tall lanky, with a lurching walk, stuttered speech, malformed face, a grin with some bad teeth showing below his pure blue sparkling eyes.
The receptionist said...'That's Eddie, when the boss bought the shop 25 years ago Eddie came with it. He is our *Eddie* if you know what I mean.'
Eddie returned later and spoke haltingly with another shop worker. He said
'Tires? We have those!' He proceeded to walk downstairs and return with the requested brand, make, and model. The receptionist smiled kindly and said...'No matter what, you ask Eddie --- what we have in stock... he KNOWS. I don't have to consult the computer, he is never wrong.'
I smiled inside, I'd just interviewed to work for a corporation that contracts its employees out to the county Human Health Services for people just like Eddie. And I thought out loud to the receptionist what advantages there were to a small town...Eddie would never have been tolerated in a large chain store. Yet there he was lurching and mumbling, his eyes sparkling, and always a smile and an answer as to ...
*Hey Eddie, where's the tires?*


PS...I have my brand new tires! Tomorrow we get the engine analyzed! The Cav is very much the road 'warrior' again.

Ninja PT...

Today was my first day with Kim. I call her the Ninja Physical Therapist. She did something amazing while causing me great hurt. She dug her long fingers in between the muscle fibers in my scapula and rotator cuff muscles --and tendons. Holy cow, I nearly came off the table with the pain!

Then she stretched my arm beyond the 'Outer Limits' and quietly said...'hold it, while I measure'. Oh yeah. As painful as it all was?------

I walked out of there today with NO charlie horses in my muscles, these have been plaguing me since the surgery. My muscles needed a release and she was the one to do it and quite effectively.

I feel ready to take on the world...ah sorta. Still have that range of motion to contend with, but yes, an incredibly positive day.

Took a trip today

I awoke at two AM and haven't been able to get back to sleep. So I used my time wisely [I think] to work ahead in my schooling.
I had to get out of the house and so when good ol' hubby headed off to the auction--yep I thought it was yesterday also--I asked if I could take the car or truck and drive down to the DNR land and take some wildflower photos.
Man
o'
live...are those gravel roads bumpy! Talk about jolting my shoulder area, but it was worth it to get out for a bit with my old film camera. The lightening pretty much sucked because the sun was too high in the sky. I need to make the same trip either early early morning or just before the sun sets.
It was nice to get out and Morris enjoyed the ride too.
If you have your keys in hand...he is there!