Sunday, December 18, 2016

I've been electrocuted.

Looked around for a broom this morning, and instead found this wonderful little tool... A Swiffer Dry.  I attached a pad to the appropriate end and commenced to skidding about the room with it.  This thing works great!  It picked up all sorts of dust and dog hair that I hadn't even noticed on the floor!

But really, shouldn't there be a public health warning?  Some sort of "Danger - Static" advisory would have been helpful, but no.  There I am, blithely Swiffering away, when ZAP!

Holy hell.

Once my heart restarted, I decided the floors are clean enough.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

I'm on my third and final night of my first official house-sitting gig.  I am here due to a pair of super sweet and very well behaved black labs.  They get fed twice a day and taken for walks.  Pretty easy.

I was assured that the dogs do not sleep on the bed.  They each have a crate, and will go to their assigned places at bedtime.  At least they did the first night.

Last night, as temperatures plummeted into the negative, I could feel the cold radiating through the bedroom floor.  Each dog has a thick bed, but they're still on the floor.  Sure enough, about 3am, as quietly and subtly as a large canine possibly can, a weight settled on the foot of the bed.  The second hound joined us about a half hour later. I lay there thinking about that.  I hate to teach someone else's fur kids bad habits.  But it was Cold, and they're such good dogs, and they were being very respectful.  I chose to simply ignore their presence, and allowed them to pass the night elevated and snug.  It's their home, and the whole reason I am here is for their health and well being.

The family comes home tomorrow, and I can return to my own bed.  This has been good.  It's a nice way to break into the freelancer lifestyle.  I have enjoyed being so close to my Denver people, though I didn't see very many people.  I think it helps just to feel closer.

Just two weeks...

Eep.

Friday, December 16, 2016

One thing I know for certain about writing is that if you're waiting around for something interesting to happen, you could be waiting an awfully long time.  Sometimes you need to find the interesting in the everyday.  Also, in doing this, you just might alter your own perception into taking an active interest in your own reality.  What a wonderfully healthy and fulfilling concept.

My current everyday reality rests largely in figuring out what I'm going to be when I grow up.  Or rather how to make what I want manifest.  I have gotten some great leads, filled out several profiles, and sent a number of proposals and cover letters.  I'm helping out a friend with her social media marketing, which is allowing me to gain some real experience in such things.

Also, for the first time ever, I am house-sitting for a stranger.  This is a soft-pitch starter job as the lady of the house and I have many close mutual friends and the dogs that are in my charge for the next few days are as friendly and well behaved as you could please.  I'll even forgive Prince Charming for the good morning kiss.  My fault for sleeping so close to the edge at his face level, I suppose.

Ready or not, I leave for New Zealand at the first of the year.  I am so excited.  I am so anxious.  I am grateful and curious and scared.  It will be amazing.

On a Facebook post I asked my friends to suggest a blog entry topic.  The most responses came from a request to write about my name.  The how and why of making what had been merely a nickname into my full legal identity.  So that's coming.  I'll need a quiet mind to write that one.  It's a simple story with a complicated emotional undertow.  It's a good challenge.