During negotiations for my new grant-writing job, The New Boss said it would be fine with him for me to work from home. Although I probably would have taken the job even if he hadn't agreed on the work-from-home part, it was a fairly important factor to me. I was okay with his suggestion that I work in the office for a while to see how things run and get to know people. But two months into working in the office, my frustration was growing. I had no office, nor even a desk that I could call my own; I was working in The New Boss's office, at his conference table, while he worked in the big conference room (n the rare occasions when he was actually in the office. (Do not take that "rare occasions" comment as a disparagement of TNB; there are big deals afoot, and he is traveling a lot.)
Yesterday, I had made up my mind that I was going to stop going to the office every day, at least for a while. I'd signed up for some online grant-writing classes, which I intended to pursue on office time; there was no reason why I should drive to the office every day just to do the classes when I have all the equipment I need at home. When The New Boss came in, I was locked and loaded, ready to have the discussion with him. But as he walked past his office, he called my name as he strode toward the conference room, and when I joined him, he announced that I could start working from home.
Hallelujah!
So, here I sit. My shift starts in 15 minutes. :)
* * * * * * * *
It's cold on the back porch. Forty-one degrees, according to my computer. I intend to work out here for as long as I can stand it. Hopefully, we're going to do something to extend that time, for we have ordered some clear vinyl with which to enclose the porch. It should be here by the weekend. And yesterday when I got home, there was a honkin' big electric heater on the front porch.
The Husband and I have had a years-long battle over enclosing the porch for the winter. The first winter, we enclosed it with thick plastic that claimed to be "clear" but was actually opaque. The Husband didn't like that he couldn't see through it. It kept the porch warm, though; there were days when we opened the doors to admit cooler air. The next year, we didn't enclose the porch at all and froze our asses off when we came out to smoke. I don't remember what we did for the next year or two, but our attic is full of every kind of space heater imaginable, none of which made porch time bearable. Last year, we bought a big white wedding tent (with clear windows to satisfy The Husband). Because it wasn't tall enough, I had to sew paper-backed vinyl all around the bottom, a huge pain in the butt. We velcroed it to the outside of the porch, thinking that it would be easy to re-install this winter. Since the tent was made of tarp-like material, it did very little to keep out the cold. When we took it down in the spring, the velcro came un-stuck from the house. And there were HUNDREDS of dead ladybug and stinkbug carcasses stuck to the velcro. It's no wonder that the back porch was over-run with stinkbugs this past summer!
I am hoping that this year's clear vinyl will do a better job of insulating the porch. It's going to be a pain to install it because we'll have to splice it together somehow. Sewing vinyl is a certifiable mess; it wants to stick to the sewing machine. And I don't really want to perforate it with stitches. This conundrum may take trial and error.
* * * * * * * *
A friend suggested a way to trap the armadillos that have been destroying our yard. He said to figure out where they're coming out of their hole, and make a V-shaped barricade that will funnel them right into a trap placed at the end of the V. I tried this Saturday night. No critter the next morning. We moved the trap Sunday afternoon, and Sunday night when I went out to the porch, I heard a terrible commotion in the vicinity of the trap. I ran inside and told The Husband, "I think we caught one!" He grabbed a flashlight and went out to look. The trap had been MANGLED, and the armadillo was gone.
I now have a greater respect for armadillos.
No comments:
Post a Comment