Note: There are no pictures this week.
I got rides in last Saturday and Sunday. Then temperatures plummeted. Highs have been in the 20s. Monday I took advantage of the cold weather and took my bike in for a checkup. I managed to get a couple of days of exercise. Our neighborhood clears the streets if we get 2″ of snow or more. We had two snows of 1″ each. So I got exercise two days by pushing snow around. Baltimore snows tend to be wet and heavy. But the temperatures were so cold, the snows were dry and light, making a push broom the preferred tool. I saw my neighbor across the street out with a snow shovel. I walked across with my broom and did 80% of his drive while he was huffing and puffing with his shovel to do the other 20%.
My retirement is about to change quite a bit. I have been volunteering at the club house. There’s an occasional emergency (we have no Internet!), but mostly I make sure the backups are working. The hardest part of the work is walking over to the club house and back. This week I interviewed at CASA and at Habitat for Humanity. Both said they are interested.
CASA is through Re-Serve. That means they pay Re-Serve $15 an hour. I get $10 of that (less taxes and whatever other withholdings). If Maryland social services feels a juvenile should be removed from their home, they go to court. The judge can ask that an independent advocate for the youth be assigned. CASA is a non-profit that finds and trains volunteers to be youth advocates. Their office is old and very crowded. Because they are downtown, parking is an issue. Their budget is minimal. And they devote approximately $0 a year to IT. They have over a dozen computers, all quite old. They are all running Windows XP because none of them are capable of running a more modern operating system. Many volunteers bring their own laptops in because CASA’s computers are so abysmal. CASA scraped the bottom of the barrel and came up with enough money to pay for 8 hours a week from now until June. Needless to say, they have quite a long list of issues.
Habitat for Humanity is at the opposite end of the non-profit spectrum.They renovate old houses to develop affordable, decent, low-cost housing. You have probably heard of them because President Jimmy Carter is a high-profile supporter. In our area, they have become quite large. They are well-organized, but like everybody else they have plenty of IT issues.
I haven’t actually started at either place. I accepted at CASA Friday afternoon, apparently after the executive director went home to beat the snow. Habitat is supposed to send a consultant’s report for me to review before I start doing anything. We’ll see how these opportunities work out in the real world.
We usually go out to dinner Thursdays. This week, we went upscale to Baldwin Station (a renovated train station in Carol County). It’s one of our favorites. It’s too expensive for us to go to frequently, but the food is great and Danita had a “buy one get one free” coupon. Friday afternoon and evening we had the second snow “storm” this week. I declared a household snow emergency. We broke out a nice red wine and ate junk food while watching TV Friday evening.
We got bamboozled for Sunday breakfast. Last Sunday, we went to Bob Evans for breakfast. Applebee’s is right next door, and we saw a bunch of people over there for Sunday Breakfast. Without checking, we decided that Applebee’s must have an early Sunday brunch, and decided to go there this morning. When we got there, we found a large crowd in front of us, but there was no food. It turns out that the local Applebee’s allows various groups to do fundraisers by selling breakfast. This group was planning to do a pancake breakfast. But they wouldn’t be starting for half an hour. We were ready to eat right away and ended up at La Madeline’s. This evening we’ll be going over to the clubhouse for a pot-luck dinner.
It’s time to set the itinerary for our Alaska trip. The 2013 ferry schedule has been published. Danita took a cut at an itinerary, then found a copy of Mitchner’s book “Alaska” at her Dad’s house. I decided it would be a good idea to read the book before working on the itinerary. This story is a real fast mover for Mitchner. He blasted through the first 50,000 years in 50 pages flat. I’m about 1/4 of the way through. So far, I’ve learned quite a bit about the history of the Aleutian Islands. Then one of my library E-books came in. I only get those for 2 weeks (non-renewable), so I put “Alaska” aside while reading my library book. So many things to do … so little time.
I hope everybody is doing well.