Kingfisher Cove

Before I Open Up My Work Files Again…

• Worked late Friday night.
• Worked for over 4-1/2 hours here at home Saturday.
• (Then did laundry, grocery shopping, etc.)
• Worked a little bit yesterday (Sunday), although my brain was spent. Spent, I tell you!
• It’s all for an extremely high-pressure proposal due this coming Friday. With multiple subconsultants that I have to babysit and constantly stay on top of. (Tonya’s not taking any shit this week, people!)
• Much, much worse than herding cats.
• And, we’re in partnership with another engineering firm in a southern state, although I’m leading the effort on our end. Oh. My. Word.
• Received some of the materials from my marketing cohort from that southern state engineering firm, completely riddled in errors, totally inconsistent, and flat out godawful. And she claims to be an FSMPS/CPSM? I am appalled.
• Spent most of today at work wanting to hurt somebody.
• And John would like to hurt the bank people. You WOULD NOT BELIEVE the hurdles he has had to jump through simply because he’s doing so much of the work himself. For example? He has to purchase all of the flooring and cabinets and appliances and tile and paint and countertops and sinks and you-name-it upfront (among a zillion other things), and can’t be reimbursed for them until they are installed. PURCHASED WITH WHAT UPFRONT FUNDS?
• Needless to say, he is completely raising hell about this, to every goddamned person in that goddamned bank).  
• Then, I had a doctor’s appointment for my yearly exam. (Yeah, ew). However, all of my “numbers” were much improved this year over last year.
• Can’t exactly say why that is…
• And now it’s time to put in at least a couple of more hours of work.
• Hate this. Hate it. I can’t even remember when it was that we last had a half-way decent week.
• Well, vacation.

Pretty Darned Cute Kitteh

Stewing about next weekend: do we take him with us to Harstine? How difficult will it be to wrangle TWO cats when it’s time to head home? Ugh!

Terrifying and Breathtakingly True

“Anyone that's traveled overseas (and paid attention to the political scene) or has close friends from other countries knows that this is true. While the Democratic Party platform is centrist or center-left, the actual policies they end up supporting are most certainly center-right by the standards of any other developed or semi-developed nation in the world.

The Democratic Party is on par with Conservative Parties in Europe. The Republicans are as conservative as the openly fascist parties in Europe.”

 

fas·cism

ˈfaSHˌizəm/

noun

1. an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.

   synonyms:
   authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, autocracy;

   Nazism, rightism;

   nationalism, xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism; jingoism, isolationism;

   neofascism, neo-Nazism

~~~~~

This definition makes me shudder, because I see these attitudes everywhere, everyday, and self-righteously so. The only deviation is that much of it is cloaked in religious zeal.

This so accurately describes today’s GOP-led House of Representatives.

Grumpy Beyond All Grumptitude

It’s Friday night and I worked until 6:30 p.m. (Even at that hour, traffic still sucked on the drive home). And guess what? I get to work this weekend, too. So much for having some rare at-home time to work on glass projects.

Crap!

I’m beyond irritated about this. It’s been a horrible week, in so many ways. Traffic, fog, and WORK. Work is just the worst. I hate it. Absolutely hate it. More than a hundred million white hot suns.

~~~~~

Sigh. But in more uplifting news, get a load of the entryway landing! (The sheetrockers laid down that paper in front of the door, plus they’ve papered the entire floor inside to prepare for taping/texture—which begins on Monday!

I wanna live there. I wanna live there now.

~~~~~

Another uplifter:

Not Great Photos But You Get An Idea

John has to work this coming weekend so he took today and tomorrow off and headed down to Harstine (in the soupy, unrelenting fog) yesterday after work. He wanted to check on the sheetrock hanging, the garage door installation, and also another inspection.

His Blackberry’s camera isn’t as wonderful as my iPhone’s, lol!

First, we have garage doors! Woohoo! (He says they are very, very nice, and the garage door openers work slick and quiet—once he connected the power).

Yep, it’s still foggy. Has been for ages, will continue to be for ages throughout the weekend.

And, he sent me these pics of the sheetrock today. It’s all hung, and they came in today to clean up their horrific mess to prepare for the taping/mudding and texturing. (These are pretty bad photos, but…well. In a way it looks like the fog has seeped inside).

Below is the kitchen! That dark doorway enters into the pantry.

And look at the dining room! Wow!

The ceiling in the dining (and also living) rooms aren’t sheetrocked because it’ll be wood in those areas and much easier to install without sheetrock.

The difference blows my mind. There is definition, there are WALLS. It’s no longer a skeleton of rafters like it’s been for months.

John worked today on the entry deck, which still has the temporary stairs down to it, although the nice permanent ones may happen fairly soon:

It’s so nice to finally have progress to report!

~~~~~

Wiley has settled in nicely. No reports in the Harstine ‘hood that a cat is missing. We’re thinking someone at the Teamsters park several lots down from us might have lost/dumped him. (We still don’t know if Wiley is a he or a she—probably next week we’ll take him to the vet for shots, etc. and arrange for neuter/spay. That is, if John can do that after work. I won’t be able to until after November 4th because I have another deadline from hell. Plus, I don’t get home from work until after the vet is closed.

Mojo is disturbed. I think he thought that this was a temporary situation, and it’s hitting him that it may well not be. His nose is a bit out of joint. However, there hasn’t been any hissing or spitting, and nothing (that I know of) has gotten ugly between them. But Mojo doesn’t like hopping up on his food perch because Wiley likes to hang out and sleep on the chair that sits beside it. The dogs have simmered down, and Wiley seems to be fine with them, but he prefers to be out of the reach of their inquisitive noses. He HAS finally used the litter box and ew. Mojo hasn’t used one since he was a wee thang (he does his business outside, thank you very much). I’d forgotten what a litter box smells like, even with just a couple of turds/clumps of piss. Ew. (Even after emptying it I swear I still smell it!) But overall, things have been fine and I get such a kick out of this new addition to the pet family. That nose! He likes to sleep upstairs with us, but prefers the floor, which is fine. He hangs out with me while I get ready for work in the morning. Poor thing has had to quickly get accustomed to neither of us being around much. John discovered him at head-home time Sunday night, and then we’ve both either been at work all week (or gone at Harstine). Wiley’s had to learn some independence from the get-go. Which I’m sure is a piece of cake compared to being out in the wilderness with coyotes yipping/carrying on nearby. And…this cat hasn’t stopped EATING since we brought him home. He was a hungry tike.

Since we won’t be heading to Harstine this weekend, I’m looking forward to working on some glass projects! (However, mountains of laundry are also calling screaming my name…)

Then, there is this (yes, it’s Wiley; no way Mojo’s head would fit in that glass!):

You Could Even Say It Glows

Yeah, that nose! Snort!

And then notice Bailey’s riveting gaze. I don’t think she’s stopped staring at that cat for One. Minute.

When Mojo was a baby (and he truly was an itty bitty babeh!), we had him sleep with us at night. This guy was too freaked out to entertain that notion, plus the fact that Mojo had already parked himself between our pillows and we didn’t think that would go over well. Mojo was asserting himself as the King of the Catdom and we were totally fine with that (because he is). Also, Wiley was underneath the bed in the glass studio (Nate’s old room) and we figured he was A-OK there. I stuck the litter box in that room and called it good.

Apparently he meowed a few times during the night, but I was comatose and didn’t hear it. 

BUT, when my alarm went off this morning, combined with the blast of my radio were the LOUD MEOWS of the poor widdle kitty downstairs. I grabbed my slippers and headed down (dogs in tow – we’d put the gate up so they Bailey couldn’t run down there to hang out and harass the poor thing throughout the night and drive us absolutely NUTS). Da kitteh was curled up on Nate’s old bed meowing his head off. I picked him up and put him on Mojo’s feeding perch and once again he chowed down. THEN…he headed under the couch where Bailey frantically stood guard. (That dog is downright neurotic). I shrugged and headed up for a shower.

He was still hiding when I had to leave for work, but he was on my mind off and on throughout my (godawful) day.

When I got home (John was here and up from his nap), I noticed Wiley was under the couch (again? still?) and when I called him he came shooting out and was HAPPY TO SEE ME! Wow, he’s progressed! He knows EXACTLY where the cat food is and how to get up there. And he likes to hang out on top of the dining table (with my laptop) – away from the dogs. Not that he seems to be intimidated or frightened of them, but I think because they’re annoying.

Especially Bailey.

John said Wiley was happy to see him when he got home from work, too, and even curled up and slept with him for a while. Quite a lot of personality is emerging!

And Mojo continues to be nonchalant. I’m thinking it’s a good thing that Wiley isn’t itty bitty because Mojo might think he was a mouse (and those 6-toed paws are something else). But, because Wiley is obviously not full-grown, I don’t think Mojo feels at all threatened, either. It is strange to see a cat with normal-sized paws!

Oh, and he has a kink in his tail. Didn’t notice it until I petted him all the way down to the tip and and it did a bit of a 45°! Well, maybe 35°.

~~~~~

I made a beeline home from work to hit the grocery store because the grocery strike deadline was 7:00 p.m. and I needed to stock up. I really didn’t want to have to deal with picket lines for as long as I possibly could, although I was full of dread because all of the affected stores are the only stores within any proximity to our house. Really, my only other option is Trader Joe’s, which I love, but our local one is very small and it just doesn’t carry all of the things I need. Among so many other things that are weighing on me (work sucks), this looming strike was adding a lot of heaviness to my angst. And then, on my drive, a breaking news report: a tentative settlement had been reached! You cannot believe my relief! And apparently others, too—the grocery store parking lot (as well as the store itself) was a madhouse and I had several people stop and exclaim, “There’s a tentative settlement!” Even a grocery store employee who was heading out after her shift told me about it and she had tears of joy/relief streaming down her face!

Whew!

~~~~~

Wiley STILL hasn’t used the cat box! (?) Also, his back end is fluffy enough that we can’t see whether or not he has balls. Hmm.

Pretty cute.

Wiley!

Oh. Dear.

So, last night we were freaked out because we heard a band of coyotes very very close by our trailer at Harstine. (What a godawful sound they make, jeeze). I was ever so glad to see Mojo hop through the window inside the trailer, even though he wanted right back out again. Fortunately, we didn’t hear those nasty things make that unearthly sound anymore.

Fast forward to this evening when we were packing up to head home and John hauled the garbage down to the construction dumpster and he heard an odd noise. He realized it was a cat meowing and he thought it was Mojo, even though he’d been napping on the bed in the trailer. He called, “Kitty, kitty, kitty” and eventually a young BLACK AND WHITE cat emerged from the thick brush and v-e-r-y slowly approached John, acting very cautious. White paws, AND an odd white splash smack on his nose. Then he finally rubbed up against John’s legs and purred!

Meanwhile, I’d been finishing up packing and was waiting for John to come and get the cooler, and I wondered what was taking him so long. I heard his voice outside the door, softly saying, “Tonya, come here and look at this.” I swung open the door and here he was standing there with this kitty in his arms. My eyes about popped out of my head! A BLACK AND WHITE kitty? With WHITE PAWS?

It was Mojo’s “mini-me.” Well, except for that strange white nose!

Not a very happy kitty, although when I laid down some dry cat food on the stovetop cover, that kid chowed down, “meowing” while he scarfed.

To make a long story shorter, John checked with some neighbors down the way who live on the island year around and they weren’t aware that anybody besides us had a black and white cat, but they’d been seeing a young cat hanging out around the dumpster since about Tuesday of this past week. So…we took him home.

(Yeah. THAT was a fun drive. Heh.)

We’re calling him “Wiley” because he obviously survived those nearby coyotes last night.

The dogs are going a little nuts, of course. But Mojo has been oddly calm and rather curious. He just hangs out on the floor or wherever and watches the little guy. Not disturbed in any way, not freaked out, just cool and taking it all in. I would even say he's bemused.

For the most part Wiley has been pretty much underneath furniture all evening long. He’s eaten more, and we’ve introduced him to the cat box, although he hasn’t used it yet.

We say “he,” but we really don’t know that for certain. We both sense that he’s a he. And we’re guessing he’s 8 or 9 months old. Maybe?

I have a feeling we’re in for a strange night.

Of course, it’s already been a strange night!

 

Progress!

We headed down to Harstine last night with a fair amount of trepidation. We’re so accustomed to bad news lately (failed inspections, subcontractors not showing up, etc.) that we dared not hope that the sheetrockers had actually arrived and accomplished something. (Especially since they had delayed the start of the job a couple of times).

BUT. Lo and behold!

They started their work yesterday (Friday), so there is much left to do, but considering one day’s worth of effort, they accomplished quite a lot. The spare bedroom, guest bath, mud room, and my glass “studio” are done (as far as hanging the stuff). And, the dining/living/kitchen area are well underway.

[Excuse the mess!]

(Above) – Partial dining area.

(Below) – I’m standing in the kitchen and looking toward the entryway. They apparently start at the bottom and work their way up.

Here (below) is the kitchen wall:

And this is part of the living room wall (John has framed in where the fireplace stove will be, which will be enclosed with stone and surrounded by custom shelving – by John, of course!):

It’s amazing how much brighter it is inside the house now! Oh, and here is another major milestone: we now have heat! Woohoo!

[No, we will not have white walls! They’ll (mostly) be a mocha color, with some possible “fun” colors in the enclosed rooms].

John figures it’ll take the sheetrockers another couple of days to get all the sheetrock hung, and then there’s the taping and texturing, which will take some time (because it has to dry, hence the immediate need for heat).

And Then!

The Wiener Walk is DONE! And oh, is it ever beautiful!

Here’s a view from above (click to enlarge!):

And a pano (which truly begs to be embiggened!) (Yes, it’s very foggy!):

Here are a few up-close-and-personals:

Can you tell just high up off the ground gully the Wiener Walk is?

Dancing weenies:

I love this deck!

John had originally planned to stain this deck/weenie walk right away, but he has since learned that with this grade of cedar it’s best to let it sit for a while and allow the planed surfaces to relax, thereby making it more porous to accept the stain well. So probably not until spring. It’ll begin to discolor some by then, but part of the process is to apply a special cleaner that brings it back to its perky appearance.

Needless to say, we are both feeling so much better about things!

Onward!

~~~~~

Update October 20th:

John’s begun the entry deck!

And one more: he hadn’t begun the entry deck yet in this photo, but it shows the outdoor lighting. There are a number of these now all around the house, plus some motion lights. But we saw these and just knew they would be perfect. A little bit nautical without being over-the-top:

I Must Tell This Story About A Book

I absolutely loathe self-published books, and there are multitudes of them these days on Amazon, which are NOT necessarily clearly defined as such. I have been bitten in the butt with poorly written dreck riddled with a multitude of grammar and spelling errors, AND positive reviews provided by friends, family, and paid reviewers. Few self-publishers spend the money to have their story professionally edited, and there is GOOD REASON why professional publishers and authors go this route. A book is not a professional entity unless it has been edited. And in the vast majority of instances, a book is no good at all unless it has been accepted for professional publication by a professional publisher. (Yeah, there are certainly a number of professionally published books that aren’t very good, but the chances are better that it will be).

I never thought I would say this, but I have discovered an exception to the rule (however, it’s clear to me that this author DID have this book professionally edited).

I encountered this by accident, by just simply browsing books in the dystopian/fantasy genre on Amazon, along the same lines as The Hunger Games and The Passage. I saw a book that had over 6,000 reviews that averaged 4-1/2 stars. That’s unheard of. I can’t think of any book I’ve ever bought that had close to that many positive reviews. Generally I figure that 500+ reviews that average 4-5 stars must mean it’s a pretty good book. But SIX THOUSAND?

I read a number of the reviews, because I was skeptical, but ultimately I was intrigued! Plus, for $5.99 I figured, “what’s the risk?”

It did begin as a self-published book, and that was made clear (which I appreciated). In fact, the author released five parts of the story as separate e-books and it’s popularity after each release prompted him to continue with the story. Since its initial e-publication in early 2012, it has caught fire in a big way and was picked up by Simon and Schuster for paperback and hardback publication, PLUS movie rights have been sold! 

I believe that it’s now a trilogy, and I’m aiming toward the finale of the first book of that trilogy.

And I’m completely blown away.

The first part that I’m reading is called “Wool” and it’s by Hugh Howey. It’s followed by “Shift” and “Dust.” (They all have a tremendous amount of positive reviews on Amazon, too). I am riveted! Amazon doesn’t give out a whole lot of information regarding what the story is about, which bothered me at first, but I totally understand now. There are so many twists and turns in the plot that explaining or describing much of anything at all would be major spoilers!

I am LOVING this book. If you want quite a ride beyond anything you could imagine, this is IT.

Soul-Sucking Week

*Well, except for one thing, and I’ll get to that in a minute.

It’s a week of way too much work with way too little time, and I’m feeling strung out. Plus, I continue with these, um, stomach issues. (OK, bowel issues). The painful, crushing, {{violent}} effect, of course, that occurs at horrible moments: like the instant I need to fly out the door to head to work. Or in my car stuck in traffic. Or, the moment a critical meeting is to begin. I’ve definitely had a number of “why me?” moments this week.

Truth? I loathe this rat race. I want so badly to be DONE with this rat race. I feel old, tired, burned out, whupped, and cynical beyond words. I’ve been working full time since I was barely 18 years old and didn’t even get to take time off when Nate was young to be a fulltime mom for a while. (Eight weeks. That was it). Yeah, I’ve had a few bouts of unemployment, but they were fraught with worry and angst. Maybe I’d feel differently if I honestly enjoyed what I do, but I don’t. And maybe I would feel differently about enjoying what I do if the companies I’ve worked for didn’t treat marketing coordinators like crap.

(Another truth? There are definitely people I work with who do appreciate me, but it doesn’t make the reality of what I do enjoyable enough. Maybe if I earned what I was worth?)

/rant over.

~~~~~

I’m expecting John home soon—he took off work a couple of hours early today and headed to Harstine to check if the insulators had *finally* addressed their screw-ups (it’s been FOUR failed inspections!) Plus, I believe the inspector was due out again, and also the sheetrockers were due to begin their work. (I’ll believe that when I hear about it). THIS has all been adding to our malaise these past few weeks. I know John is beyond frustrated. We’re a good 3 months behind on the progress of this house. And there are worries about what that might mean with the bank. Heh—the house is supposed to be FINISHED by the end of the year. That ain’t gonna happen.

Anyway, I’m curious to hear the latest news. (Or, maybe dreading it).

~~~~~

*I finally, finally, FINALLY heard from Nate! We had a bit of a dust-up over the weekend because I had snarkily posted on Facebook that “he must be in the brig!” Heh. That didn’t go over well with him. However, it did what I hoped it would (and had been trying to do for MONTHS) and that was to get some kind of a rise out of him. He has been completely incommunicado, to the point where I wondered if he was out on some secret duty deployment. But no. He has also been feeling a lot of malaise. His ship, which is in drydock awaiting overhaul, is nothing but a shell at the moment, since all of its innards have been removed. BUT. He and his shipmates are required to CLEAN THE DAMNED THING day in and day out. I mean, it’s hanging in an open-air hangar-type-thing, exposed to the elements. And there are workers grinding and welding and sawing and leaving behind dirt and debris and garbage day in and day out, and he and his shipmates get to go in and clean up after them. He said, “I don’t remember signing up with the Navy to be a janitor.” He is also DONE with the Navy—absolutely will not be reenlisting when the time comes the end of June 2015. He’s actually put in for deployment on the USS Pickney, another destroyer stationed in San Diego. He’s waiting to hear. He also doesn’t know for sure about leave. Depends on whether deployment happens sooner or later. Again, he’s waiting to hear. Hurry up and wait.

It was nice to talk to him, to hear his voice. (I hadn’t heard it since Father’s Day!) He is very smitten with his serious lady friend, and I am rooting for them to make a good go of it in a difficult situation. They are both in the Navy, and became good friends while they were shipmates on the USS Halsey. She is an Operations Specialist, and he admires her smarts. She is from Saipan, which I have heard of, but was certainly not familiar with. It’s in the same grouping of islands as Guam, and it’s also a US Territory. When I read up on it I learned that Saipan is almost EXACTLY the same size as Harstine Island! That blew my mind. However, it does have 48,000 people, whereas Harstine has something like 1,200!

Have to say I feel tons better just having talked to my sonny boy. I miss him terribly. Haven’t seen him since early August 2012.