Heat

Isn't it funny how your perspective changes once you're not uncomfortable anymore? I was going to say "not cold" but I know there are many people who LIKE cold. I'm not one of them, as my journey from north to south over the years of my life will show. Anyway, today is my first (and possibly my last) three-day weekend, and I'm sitting here with the shades up and the curtains open in my motor home, and it's pretty nice. I'm even wearing a short-sleeved shirt (layers are very important in the cold!), and I don't think the furnace has run since around 10 this morning.

The sun is weaker today than it has been, as if there were a film of gauze over everything, but it's still strong enough to make me feel comfortable, and there's another 4-1/2 hours of it. Of course, the minute it disappears behind the large fifth-wheeler next door, it'll get cold in here pretty fast, but for now I'm enjoying it a bunch.

That's the thing about the desert, I guess, that it gets cold pretty fast. It's so funny to think I live in the desert. If I could have imagined my life even ten years ago, never mind when I was 15 or so, I couldn't have done nearly as good a job as the Great Daytimer in the Sky has done with it. I just wish That Guy hadn't always put so much of the wrong kind of food on my plate! And I hadn't always helped myself so generously!

Another thing that blew my mind occurred last night. I was looking at Google maps while I watched CSI (the new episode at 9 PST), and I was trying to find Wells Fargo bank locations (of which there are MANY here in Vegas--I forgot that Wells Fargo started in California and moved east to Texas). I was looking at a branch on Flamingo Road when someone on the TV said that a woman was plying her trade at the corner of Paradise and Flamingo. It amazed me that I was looking almost at that very intersection (in what I guess is a seedy part of town--I'm going to drive by there today to see for myself!) when the entire country focused its attention on it--well, that large portion of the country that watches CSI every week. How 'bout that! And I LIVE here!

I've got to go out and check the level of the propane tank. Yesterday when I went to work, it was just a little over 1/4 full. On Wednesday, I called the propane company that delivered gas on Monday 1/8, when we ran out. They're going to deliver here again on Saturday, and we talked for a minute about whether I could make it until then or should instead call whoever would be coming out on Thursday or Friday. We decided to live on the edge. And I think I'll be fine. At the rate the tank has been emptying, I won't use 1/4 of a tank in a day and a half, even if I ran it constantly.

Between my wonderful little ceramic heater and the sun, today should be nice and toasty--and then at 11 or so tomorrow, the tank gets refilled. At this rate, I guess my gas bill should be around $125 for the month (especially if it starts to warm up a bit), which, coupled with the electricity, will make it an expensive month in terms of utilities. But then I was told that everything is higher here, which is why I'm getting paid more, I expect. Whatever, things are going well and will work out, as they always do.

This is not going to be as lengthy as some of the other ones have been, since I've got to go to the bank today. Of course, if the posting is too long, you can stop reading at any point. That's what I tell my daughter when she tells me my blog postings are too long: "You can read as much or as little at a time as you want!" "Yeah, right," she says, since we both know that once you start something like reading a posting--any posting--it's hard to stop.

My brilliant idea last night, when I was talking to Jon-Michael on the phone on my way home from work, was to tell HIM to read the blog! He has to read something--anything--for 20 minutes every night as part of his homework (PART of his homework--and he's only in 2nd grade!!! TOO MUCH!). So I suggested that he read my blog and tell his mom and dad what I wrote. He thought that was a great idea. So do I. I'm just full of it--er, them.

Well, I'm going to quit for today, to honor my daughter's plea for Shorter Blogs. In brief, and bottom line, life is GREAT here in Sin City, I couldn't be happier, and I hope the same is true for all of you.

Oh, there is one bit of news that I'm hoping sort of goes away. There was a brief mention in a meeting on Wednesday of the possibility that our schedule will be changing: we won't be doing these 9/80 days (giving us every other Friday off); instead we'll be working 5/10s--which means we'll be scheduled for 50 hours every week--and no Fridays off. Of course, that's a guaranteed 10 hours of overtime every week, but it's going to be exhausting, I can tell, because, after 44 hours last week and 36 this week, I'm VERY happy for three days off. And I LOVED my days off last weekend. So I hope that schedule change doesn't happen.

No one wants it, but they're just real worried that we won't have this license application ready when it's due. When I bring my computer up in the morning, there's a countdown to the application date, and there's something like 530 days to go (529 today, I believe). That's a long time--but it's not so long when you realize how much there is to do and how many rounds of checking and re-checking and then checking again before each document that will be part of the final application is submitted as a FIRST DRAFT! Then there are comments and reviews, and another round of triple-checking, and another submission--and this can go on for several drafts of the same document.

That's another thing that makes me love what I'm doing. It really feels valuable, and I really feel appreciated. Those two things are important in one's work--good compensation and competency, both of which I have, are two more factors. I just feel so lucky that, at the end of my (checkered) career, I'm as happy as I am with what I've chosen to do with my life.

Not sure what I'll tackle next. Maybe Las Vegas by day--now there's a topic that doesn't get talked about much!