Note: There are no pictures this week.
I am writing this post on Sunday, June 23, 2013. My web service is so slow at sending the Emails that I schedule for “immediate” delivery that I felt I should include the year, just to make sure there’s no confusion. This has to be the only Email service that is slower than a newspaper. ;-(
This was a pretty busy week. Lots of bike riding. Lots of cleaning. Lots of parties. Lots of employment news.
I must admit, the bike riding is becoming a little tedious. The bottom line is, I think I’m ready to ride the Blue Ridge now. Of course, another couple of weeks of training won’t hurt, unless I hurt myself training. I didn’t want to be out over the July 4 holiday because there would be more people out over the 4th — more traffic, more competition for rooms, etc. I originally targeted to be done by the 4th. But Don said he wanted to come along, and he had other plans that delayed us until after the 4th. Now that the trip is delayed, he’s talking about how he’s not in shape for this and he might not have time to get into shape. What a mess. Whatever happens is going to happen. I’ll just have to wait a couple of weeks more.
We had so many party opportunities this week that we couldn’t do them all. Jan, one of the people Danita works with, had a party for the office staff at his house yesterday. Jan’s party conflicted with a neighborhood party. But this was the 4th or 5th time Jan had tried to hold this party. He started last summer. Every time he set a date, almost nobody was available to attend. Even yesterday, two of the office staff couldn’t attend. The party was so small we felt obligated. But it was a very nice time. Danita works with some nice people. Today we will be attending a wedding reception for the Sochurek’s children. The wedding already took place. We will be attending the Baltimore reception.
I talked about the floor cleaning last week. Most of everything came out grand, but the bathroom floors near the toilets came out less than perfect. So far, the tile and grout have been steam cleaned twice. They have been cleaned with super-duper cleaning solution. They have been cleaned with vinegar and baking soda. They have been cleaned with bleach. They are certainly cleaner now than they were when I started. And they are still short of perfection. At this point, if you have any tips for cleaning tile grout, please keep your tips to yourself. I decided my two choices were to pull the toilets up and re-grout, or declare the job done and get the grout sealed. I’m declaring the job done.
CASA called me back to take care of a problem. In an Email exchange, they agreed I had already solved this problem once, but they asked me to fix in one more time. I did that Wednesday morning. Since the job expires at the end of June, that pretty much closes the chapter on CASA and leaves me unemployed. Then GOC got interested in getting some help. I thought I might become un-unemployed. After the meeting last Friday and a follow-up Email Monday, there has been no response from them, leaving me un-un-unemployed. But Friday, I got a call from an organization called “Top Bananna”. This organization is in the DC area and delivers groceries to elderly that can’t get out. They have problems with their database. I’m driving down Friday to see if I think I can help. I’ll probably leave their office un-un-un-unemployed. It’s an hour drive, but I will be able to do most of the work from home. Their executive director told me they receive $3,000 in groceries a week. I figure this limits them to no more than 100 clients. She also said she would probably see me & let me in when I walked up to their front door, so I figure they don’t exactly have an office full of staff. The $15 / hour stipend they pay to ReServe is probably a strain on their budget. This should be an interesting experience, if nothing else.
That’s the news for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.