missed calls

I should let everyone know that mom and dad survived the family get together just fine. In fact they both went to sacrament meeting Sunday. We went to the ward in Logan that they would go to. Everyone should go to church there at least once. It is an old church building, back when the churches had their own personality. It had the old woodwork and organ pipes and a balcony. Way cool!

While we were in church, Mike asked me if I wanted to take the long way home. Uhm, the church was only 3 blocks away from home, how do we take the long way home? Then he clarified, home to Elko. He wanted to go through Preston and Pocatello. I said we could go up Logan Canyon to Pocatello. This worked because that would put us in Pocatello in time to see Steph for a few minutes on her lunch (dinner) break. So we took the long, long way home and got home at 11:30 PM. It was fun (at least for me).

I have to tell a couple of stories about my parents. I will add that I am not the favorite child (but then I haven't been since I wasn't the youngest child in the family and that has been quite some time. I'm also not the least favorite child either so that's ok. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago when I visited my parents, they had an old dial scale. I weighed on it and I said "I hope this scale is not right because if it is, I have a weight problem." Sharon took her turn on the scale and said that it was 5 pounds light. So I felt it my duty to go buy them a new digital scale and I threw out the old one. They didn't say much when I gave them the scale. Later I found out that John had bought them a new digital scale just a couple of days before I did. My parents said that they didn't need it. He and Trish both weighed on the old scale and the new scale and they were the same so they took the new scale back. Then just a couple of days later, I bring them a new scale. When I was there last weekend, the new scale wasn't working very good. Dad was saying, "I wonder what Trish did with the old scale." I'm going, yah, that dang Trish. What did she do with the scale? Then my mom rats me out. She says "it was Marilyn that took the old scale not Trish." I adjusted the battery and the scale worked good again. Hopefully there will be no more malfunctions.

And then I got in trouble yet again. Have you noticed that I'm good at that? Sat morning I was in my dad's kitchen and he was in the front room and my phone rings. It is my dad. He asks if I know how to erase my number from his missed calls list. (This is something that he obsesses over and he is forever calling people when he is trying to delete their call). I told him that I just leave my numbers in there. He said, "oh, you don't know any more about this than I do." I let that go. Then Sunday morning the same thing happens. He calls and said he was trying to take my number off. A short time later I hear him asking Mike something about the phone. I was fixing lunch, but when I had a minute I went to fix his phone. It just happens that he had left the room. I went to missed calls and deleted all of them. Then I went back to fixing lunch. Dad came back and panicked when he saw his missed calls all deleted. He didn't say anything to me but he said that there were important numbers in there. The problem is that he doesn't have any idea who they are from. He had been asking Mike how he could find out who's numbers he had. How important is a missed call if they did not leave a message? If it is so important, they will call back. I'm guessing that next time I visit him, I won't even see his phone. I just hope I can stay off his missed calls list.

family fun

We had a family get together last Sat. The parade went right in front of my parent's home so that was convenient. Becky taught us that if you cheer loud when the people with the candy go by, you will get more. I'm not sure if it really worked or not but I do know that the kids had lots and lots of candy. The cousins had a great time playing together. I'm sure they all slept well that night. Of course they could have been in a sugar coma, also. Thanks to Becky and Debbie and Jenny for putting together a fun day for all of us.

Mike and I stayed with my parents for the weekend. I decided we needed some sparklers to celebrate the 24th and I bought a lighter also. We stopped to get gas on the way home. I pulled the lighter out of my pocket and was going to light it to make sure that it worked. Then I remembered that I was at a gas station and that wouldn't be a good thing to do. Guess that's why they usually don't let me have lighters.

Stay tuned for more stories from my weekend.

I need help

My name is Marilyn and I am an addict.

Before you all jump in with your suggestions for my recovery program, let me explain that my addiction is confined to my home.

Here is my problem. I have become addicted to digging up my weeds. (My dad is saying, where was that addiction 40 yrs ago). I finished with the census a week ago Monday and Tues I woke up at 7 AM. I got up, walked the dogs and then dug up weeds while it was still cool outside. Same thing Wed. I filled up 2 garbage cans and made a huge improvement in my alleged flower beds. Thur same thing. We were going to Utah Fri so I wasn't going to do any weeds but after I walked the dogs I just had to do a few weeds that turned into 1 1/2 hrs. Then I was away from home for 2 days and I was fine. We got in real late Sunday night. I wasn't going to do weeds Mon but I got up and it was raining and cool and I just couldn't control myself. I even worked about twice as long as usual outside. By now my front yard was looking pretty good. The better it was looking, the more I wanted it done. I told myself that I was not totally out of control if I didn't buy more garbage cans. I have piles of weeds because all the garbage cans are full, but I didn't buy more garbage cans. I do plan to take a couple days off, I'll see if I can control myself. I think that over-doing myself the last couple of days is helping to cure me.

dog story

I have made a bit of a dent in my weedy yard. I have cleared out my flower garden spot that is between the house and sidewalk. Now I need to find someone to dig it up for me (it is too narrow for the tiller). And then I will add some topsoil and manure or mulch or something and hopefully get some plants in there by fall.

I sprayed my whole yard today. The garden got roundup, so I can roundup all the produce, the weeds got Weed B Gone (of course) and the lawn got Miracle Grow. Then maybe it can do a bit better at outgrowing all the weeds.

When the dogs and I got home from our walk today, Fluffy met up with me just before we got home, but I didn't see Chewy. When we walk, we go out in the wilderness by my house. The rules of them going with me is that they have to go on their own journey and leave me alone. They generally meet up with me the last couple of minutes of my walk. I started on my weed detail and was surprised when she didn't come back. I decided to check her dog pen. She was in there. That was surprising. Then I saw the surprise that she brought back with her. It was a decomposed, dried out, gross cat. Stupid dog. I was going to leave it for Mike to take care of but then the dang dog started chewing on it. So I had to take it away. The funny thing is that I am sure that that dog purposely avoided me because she ALWAYS meets up with me. And she is notorious for trying to bring prizes home and she totally knows that she is not supposed to.

sumnmer projects

When I woke up Tues, I couldn't decide if it was a day off, the week-end, vacation or my retirement. I did know that I would not need to count my miles or fill in a D-308, EQ Continuation  Form, NV or confidentiality form. And I have special gov't issued pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, and paper clips. I was given more of each of those each time I started a new operation. The funny thing is that I never used one paper clip. In fact I was told to NEVER use a paper clip on an EQ. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with them.  So ....... if anyone needs paper clips, I could probably accomodate you.

I have been enjoying my vacation. I get up and go for a walk with the dogs. The dogs are happy about that after being neglected all summer. And then I have been attacking my weeds. Since most of my yard is now dirt, I have lots of weeds. But today I bought, Weed N Feed, Round-Up and Weed B Gone. Maybe I'll spray the whole yard with all of the above and see how it works out. Oh, yah, the lawn and garden will die and the weeds will continue to thrive. So before you think I am being so ambitious I will add that I am all done with my work by 9:30 and then relax in the air conditioning the rest of the day.

I'm ALL Done!

My crew leader got a call that we were not getting our work done quick enough. What a bunch of bologna. They said they wanted at least half our work turned in being finished, right away, or they were sending in a crew from SLC to get things done. She had already turned in more than half our stuff. So she said whoever could would go to Eureka Sunday and work all day, spend the night and work Monday and finish things up. We ended up with 3 enumerators and a CL and CLA (bosses, who also did some work on the street). I didn't get there until after 5. When I checked into the motel I was told that I was supposed to be there by 4:00 to keep my room. Nobody had told me that and I had never heard that from a motel before. Oh well. Then she asked me if I would be seeing by boss. I told her yes, I was heading there right now. She told me to tell her that our credit card was not authorized so our rooms were not paid for. She also told me that they could call the sherrif in the morning and he could haul us all off. I delivered the message. Then I was told that this desk clerk had hassled the census workers other times they had stayed there. My boss made a couple of calls to get a new credit card number. It seems that since it was Sunday, they people that she needed to talk to were not answering their phones. We all joked about siting in jail together. At 9:30 Monday morning the credit card was still not straightened out, so we all took off before our boss so she could take the heat for the rest of us. After all, we all had to work.

My boss went down to talk to tell the clerk that she would have another credit card number to them in the morning. After my boss was out of sight she heard the clerk tell some other customers standing there that it doesn't matter who you are, you still have to pay for your room. Well, Duh, I'm pretty sure that the gov't is going to pay for our rooms. Later that night one of my co-workers went down and asked if she could get a yogurt. (They serve them for breakfast so they had some). The co-worker explained that she wasn't feeling well and needed something to eat. And it is Eureka, there was nothing else open. Well "Miss Personality" at the desk said that things like that would only be available to paying customers.

Sunday I did some homes in downtown Eureka again. This time I was in an area where most of the houses were obviously vacant. There were very few house numbers to be seen and no one lived around there to help me out. What a mess.

I thought I would spend a quiet night in my room and get to sleep early. Well I was with my CL and CLA until 10:30 finishing paperwork. They got wound up and I had to inform them that I am a good little Mormon girl. If they didn't already know that, they weren't suprised, (I guess that is good). Then I opened the desk drawer and there was a Book of Mormon. It was so funny. I threatened to convert them.

Then another worker came and we talked for another hour or so.  The next day I found out that the other lady that came in is a Mormon also.

Monday I went out to one ranch and then we were done and we all headed home. And then I turned in all my stuff. I am officially DONE.

I realized that I have mostly told stories about bad encounters with the census. I did have some fun ones. My favorites were the ranchers. Most of them were very friendly. The one today saw me drive up and left his work in the field to come talk to me. I apologized for taking him away from his work. He said that was ok. Our interview took less that 5 minutes. When we were done, he said that I was too quick, now he would have to go back to work.

I stopped at another ranch and the lady invited me in to the kitchen table. That is very helpful for writing things down. She apologized for the mess. She said she had just got in from the fields. (Her house was cleaner than mine, but that isn't saying much). Anyway as we were visiting, she got up and took biscuits out of the oven. I commented that she came in from the fields and baked biscuits. How old fashioned is that. It just felt good.

Eureka

Yesterday I worked in Eureka. It is 120 miles from my house. I was working in town. I learned in a quick hurry that most of the homes there don't have house numbers on them. That makes things very interesting. I took my Tom Tom and it was usually helpful. It took me right to one of my houses that didn't have a number on it.

The funniest thing that happened yesterday is that there was a vacant house. I went to the house next door to it to have them tell me if anyone was living there Apr 1. One of my co-workers opened the door. She invited me in and gave me lots of help. She answered for most of the addresses that I had. And by looking at her walls, I soon learned that she is LDS also. We had quite a visit .  . . . and then I decided that I had better get back to work.

Today I was back in Eureka. This time I was doing ranches just out of town. I knew by my maps exactly where I needed to go but after I got out there, I found out that the roads going east and west are marked but the ones going north and south are not. Fortunately my GPS figured out the roads for me and did good most of the time. Once it wanted me to turn about 100 yds after the road. Another time it wanted me to turn right but there was no road in sight to turn right on. That was when I was on my way home so I knew where I was going.

I have to tell about one house I stopped at. The lady answered the door and I was trying to determine if her house was the one on my list. The ranchers don't have street addresses, just box numbers. And then I have to go by the descriptions that I have been given and I have already documented how interesting they might be. (Actually today's descriptions were pretty good). So I'm talking to this lady and someone else came, so she went to talk to him and then her husband came out. He told me that I was looking for his house but he had already sent in his census from his other house. I told him that was good  but I needed him to answer a few questions for me. He wasn't very happy. I asked if he lived there on Apr 1. He said "yes" (I think). I asked if this was a seasonal home. He said "yes". I said "great, now I just need your name saying that you gave me this info." Then he got agitated again or was that more agitated still. He's worried that I'm trying to count him twice and I wasn't. I just needed the name of the person I interviewed. So I was walking to my truck and his wife was walking toward me so I started asking for her name. The guy came around the corner and tells her, she (me) doesn't need to know anything else. And told me I was trespassing. I decided it might be time to leave. I drove down the street and got the information I needed from his neighbor. The fun never ends.

crazy people

Here's my latest census story. I went out yesterday. There were census people out over a year ago doing map spots. They were to put a spot on a map for each living residence. From things that I have seen, I think some of them were smoking pot or something. Yesterday I went out and there was 1 map spot but 4 houses (each house is supposed to have it's own map spot. They were labeled A, B C and D and a little description was given. I had to follow up on 3 of these residents. But the problem was, which 3. The description went something like this, a large cream house with an attached garage. And a gray house with an uncovered wooden deck.  There was a small gray house with a large detached garage and a large tan house with an uncovered deck. There was no attached garage in sight. My Crew Leader came out to give me advise. She said do that house for this one and that other house for the other one.

I expect tomorrow to be another fun packed day. I get to go to Eureka. At least there are city streets for most of my places and not ranches. Well, expect for the 2 along the way that say they are on the highway and gives a description of the houses. Uhm, that highway goes for 80 miles and they are not right on the highway. Good luck to me on those. I don't think Tom Tom can even help out.

census again

I started work for the census again. Those people are still crazy. I had training on July 1. It was supposed to be for 4 hrs. We started late and then messed around and over an hour later we started the training. We were given a booklet to tell us the things to cross off in our manuals. I could have done that on my own. About half way through our training we stopped to fill in our time sheets. And that took over a half hour. I don't get why people have such a problem writing down what time they started and ended work and how many miles they drove. For training, we were even told the answers. And then it was time for a half hour break.Then we were told that we almost didn't meet for the training, but there is a stash of money in Washington DC and we had this training so we could get our share of the stash.

We completed the training and then waited and waited for the binders to get here. I had a dr app't Fri morning July 9 at 10. Thur night at 8:30 I told Mike, I guess I won't work this week. I got a call at 9 that the binders are here and we were meeting at 9 Fri morning. My crew leader told me that I could meet up with her later in the day so I could go to the dr. After the app't I called her she said that they had run into a problem and I would have to wait to get my binder. So Sat I met up with her. We are going back to places that had been reported as being vacant on April 1st from the last census job. I thought it was really stupid that we were going back to places because I knew I did mine right the first time and I assumed everyone else would also. Well I was very interested to find out that my 1st binder had 5 addresses in it and on my 1st visit I found out that all of them had been occupied on Apr 1.  And Lance gave me a bit of grief about a lady that he knows that worked with me. He told me that she beat me about 10 to 1 on completed forms. Well Lance. I was redoing one of her binders. In her defense, she was following up on someone else's job, and I know that she did clean some up and I was surprised that she missed these.

My mom used to say "don't egg them on" when we were growing up and encouraging craziness from a sibling. So now some of you leave comments that "egg me on" so I guess I'll keep going with the craziness.

Home Again

I went to Logan to visit my parents for a few days. The update on them is that Dad is very sore with his broken ribs and Mom is not feeling very good. I was with them Sat-Tues. Mom battled nausea every day but Sat. By early afternoon she was able to hold down some broth and crackers and then she ate a little dinner later on. She's really having a rough time.

Russ and John helped Dad get signed up with home health (He won't be able to drive for over 2 wks. He's not up to driving now anyway, but don't tell him that.) Mom is signed up with Hospice. One great advantage to this is they will do her blood draws and some "dr" stuff. That will help her to be able to stay home more. I took them to dr app'ts Tues. She was not up to that at all.

I also got to go to the temple when Russ and Sharon did Jami's temple work. Actually Julie and Sharon did her work but Russ was there too. What a great day!

I have to throw in one bit of humor. I went to the McDonald's drive through. I ordered a 3 piece chicken strips and a cup of ice water. The screen showed the chicken for $3.40, a bottle of water free and a med coke for something like $1.75. I told her that I didn't want a coke. She said that that was how she had to bill the ice water. But wait; the bottled water was free! She said that it was complimentary. So after some discussion and some different things popping up on my screen we finally ended up with the 3 piece chicken for 3.40 and a free bottled water and I was sure that the total showed up as 3.68. I got to the window and she asked if I wanted fries. I said no and she said my total was 3.88. I said wait a minute does it cost .20 more to not have fries. She said yes. I said, then give me the dang fries. Then she says that then my total would be 4 something. By now I am really confused and just wanted to get my chicken strips and water and get out of there. And I'm guessing that when I drove away she was thinking what a whacky lady. Yes, I have ordered from a drive through before and never had this much fun. I wondered if I was in the middle of an Abbott and Costello dialog (Who's on first)or where was the hidden camera? It was strange.

Recovery

I think I am mostly recovered from Wood Badge. Wheew. I didn't think the recovery would be that difficult. And since my visiting teachers came yesterday so I cleaned my front room for them and then Jim and his wife came today (details to follow) so I cleaned my kitchen and bathroom. My house is almost livable again.

Now I am on my way to visit my parents tomorrow. I will stay for a few days and help them out a bit.

I got the most awesome phone call this afternoon. One of my Wood Badge buddies called and said that he was on his way through Elko. He and his wife had dinner with us. Mike was happy because then he actually got dinner. And Jim and I had a nice visit. He was soooooo kind to me at wood badge. He carried my chair for me and even packed around my TPN bag for me. What a guy. I owe him a lot more than a dinner.

Here's the funny part. There is a Wood Badge song that sticks in your head. I was just getting it out of my head and then after talking to Jim, the darn song jumped back into my head. The funny thing is that when Jim got out of his car he was singing the Wood Badge song. He had been singing it all afternoon also. When Debbie and I were driving home from wood badge I kept humming it. Debbie commented on the wood badge song. I told her that it is almost as bad as the Latter-Day Prophet primary song. Then she had that one stuck in her head. I just laughed.