Clutter Attack, I’m in need of Zen Space

Under My Rain Bows...?

I subscribe to far too many magazines and they are piled in far too many hills in my living room and studio. They cascade off end tables. I have far too much junk mail.Shoes. Bills. Cups. Tupperware. I’ve far too much stuff. Even my blog seems heavy. Some days I want to wipe out and start all over. I might. But what would people think?

11/18 AEDM–Making Applesauce

This morning the frost on the coal piles at the Shiras Steam Plant looked like snow. Could the frost really be that thick?

“People ask where do you live. I bet it’s beautiful,” they say.

I Live in South Marquette up the hill from Lake Superior. I have an almost romantic view if you hold up your right hand, squint and block out the power plant.

When students realize I walked to school in order to sub-teach they ask, “Where do you live?

Less than 10 minutes away.

They ask, “In the rich area?”

No.

This was about 2 weeks ago and we were having some class discussion on the lack of sidewalks in this neighborhood. How walking in the dark before school is dangerous and how people are in such a hurry with cars they don’t even bother to look for skateboarders, walkers, and people on bikes.

But we do value our bikes in Marquette.

And I’m glad for the paths I walked on this morning as I hoofed to Michigan Works and a training recertification.

But I arrive and find out I was sent to a training that happens next week and I am out 8 hours of pay for today. So I make lemonade, or applesauce, it is fall. I sit my butt in a chair, wait for my boss to pick-up her phone and start looking for that next job.

I think me like unsweetened applesauce, chucky, with cinnamon and that apple orchard taste of the cider mills in northern Oakland County. I am thinking Yates. I am thinking hayrides. I am thinking of crisp walks and the crunch of leaves. But this is the Upper Peninsula and here we have no cider mills, just corn mazes and it’s no wonder I look for work so often.

I’ve renewed my commitment to walking and reducing my carbon footprint. It’s a commitment that fuels my art in such green ways. It is awesome to be blooming when the leaves get crunchy. Juxtapositioned, I am.

Pockets empty and light –abundance can fill me up—I’m ready.

Apples still hang from every tree even though the limbs are bare. Orbs. Rotting. Shrinking. Waiting for the bear on his journey to winter. We all have our journeys and the trip isn’t cold if you jog the path. I am speeding toward my next stop. I am sure with all this walking and running I will arrive breathless and with rose-apple cheeks.

Fragility and the Economy

Here I am today, side-lined. Some undiagnosed injury has me calling into work.  I am angry at my injured body, my fragile body. I worry that I am jeopardizing my job and my immediate finances. I have to pull money from a vacation fund that took me all last year to save. A simple doctor’s office visit $78.00.

At times, I think I should be employed in a job that is not so hard on my body. But my job is pretty much recession-proof. Best to stay put, go with longevity, and the fact my employer has sent me to training and invested monies in making me a skilled-employee. Besides, I have the best boss. I have looked at classifieds continually over the past year, and I keep coming back to the fact my boss is fantastic. I like the people I work with, too!

I sit waiting for a call back from my boss. Worried. At 7:30 this morning I called my doctor and got the last open appointment today-3:30 p.m. Still no word from my boss. I think this is a work injury. But I called my fantastic boss on Friday evening, Sunday, and this morning. The silence is scary. I have trust issues.

I got off work at Friday 5pm. Drove home. Stepped out of my car and went Ooooooooooooow!

I had not worked-out since Wednesday morning and had had no weakness, soreness. I had done nothing new or challenging on Wednesday. Just a short 20-minute run.

At work, assisting on stairs, that is when I felt strain. I thought not much about this. I just re-positioned my foot to line with knee and kept assisting someone with their ascend(s) and descend(s) of a staircase. I just keep assisting someone from floor to standing. (Home Health Respite)

We are all fragile. Some jobs put constant strain on our body parts. I think we should all have AFLAC or some other supplemental insurance to protect us. But the thing is, when you make under the EIC how do you begin to afford such things. Uninsured. In an accident prone world. This equals fragile.

So many of us turn our lives over to our jobs, trusting everything will be okay. Heck, we walk out the door each day hoping everything will be okay. We get out of bed hoping everything will be okay.

Lose a day’s work and pay. Spend more than a day’s pay at doctor office. Dig, dig, dig your hole. Just do not listen to the news (it won’t help you feel secure–trust me on this). Look to the sunrise. Grasp at hope. Trust you are making the right decisions. Carefully put foot on floor, walk lightly, hold railings, brace knee. Look for silver linings. Hope they rain some abundance. Have the best day you can.

  *Update–whew! heard from Boss :-) and I am going into the work clinic at 1:45 and seeing the same doctor I saw last time I strained my knee! Whew! Sigh! Some semblance of peace arises on this sunny morning.

(Later today I will write on my expereince in driving a motorized shopping-cart/wheel-chair while grocery shopping on Sunday)

Quality Car Care?

It really sucks to get your car back after it having sat in the shop for NINE days. To pay a big price for a head gasket repair. To pick-up, your car and have a belt squeak all the way home and be told you might need your injectors cleaned. To go out to the drive the next morning and try to turn your car over and have NO fuel getting through.

It really sucks worse when the shop that you worked with for 5 years, that is three blocks away, says I don’t know what to tell you, guess you’ll have to have it towed in.

Can you say I am NEVER doing business with this shop again? Can you say I will NEVER refer anyone to this shop AGAIN?

Would it have been so hard to send someone up the hill 3 blocks to check out why a car I just dumped 1500 dollars into will not start?

The car is cranking just fine. SHEESH it is only logical to me that the shop should have said Kim, your injectors need cleaning too. I know you need your car real bad after NINE days, but let us clean the injectors and we’ll get your car to you at 9:30 a.m. Friday instead of tonight.

NOW I’M OUT ANOTHER DAY’S PAY!

See I dropped this car off on a Tuesday and they did not order parts until Monday the next week. I was told my car would be done at close of day Wednesday and then actually did not get my car until Thursday after 5p.m.

This morning I tried to schedule my injectors to be cleaned on Monday. This was before I went out and could not start my car. I was told there was no way they could do it on Monday. I had to settle for Wednesday as not to miss work. The car not starting, granted it is -7 Fahrenheit, but the car is cranking just fine. The gas is just fine. Don’t tell me this is not related to the fact you had this car apart and back together and you ignored the fact that the job was not complete until you did the injectors and made sure there were no more “misfire codes.” That you test drove a car with a squeaky belt and let it go anyway because it was after 5 p.m.

I am done with Quality Car Care. But they can get this car set right FIRST.

To the guys at Quality, I had to make countless phone calls to know what was going on with my car. I have come to you with my car concerns for 5 years. I am a good customer. I deserve some good customer service and to be updated when I leave a car with you and it is going to take over a week to even get started on the repairs. And I deserve good service on the repairs, too.

Now my boyfriend is leaving work, too. So he will be out of work for the day. To attempt to start my car. He has to drive home from Ishpeming to try and start my car. Can we say inconvienced. Can we say two people outta work for the day. Not to mention the people that depend on our services, too.

I cannot rant anymore. I can only wonder, puzzle, and be pissed.

It is important to read the comments to this post toget the full story. Thanks!