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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Yeah, yeah, I know . . . No posts since the middle of April. That's because I've been home and available to do things like blogging exactly six times since then. And right now I should be doing other things than blogging, because I have 103 stores to inspect before July 12, plus various items of computer work. I don't think I have ever been so over my head with work.I can't talk about politics right now. It's all bad and getting worse. So I try to focus on the occasional interesting encounter in my work, one of which occurred this last week. I have printed introduction sheets in various languages, most of which I've never used, because very few of the merchants are totally unable to communicate in English. There are sheets in Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, etc. For whatever reason, I don't have one in Arabic, and this week I ran into a Middle Eastern clerk who simply could not understand what I was trying to explain to him. My Arabic consists of Hello, Goodbye, Please and Thank You, and the universal Salem, and his English didn't seem to encompass much more than that. I tried, with much finger pointing and smiling, to explain what I needed to do, and he tried, with much shrugging and smiling, to figure it out, and we were getting nowhere. Finally, he asked, "Espagnol?"With much regret, because I should have learned Spanish by now, I shook my head."Francais?" he asked. "Parlez-vous francais?"There was a time in the long dim past when I was reasonably fluent in spoken French, and I still read it, but it had been a very long time since I carried on a conversation with anyone. But I nodded, and said "Lentement!" Slowly. And to my surprise, before my inspection was over, we were chattering away in French. I remembered more than I thought I would, and things came back to me during the conversation. He told me that he was Moroccan, but had been educated in Paris. He had a baccalaureate in "lettres modernes," which would be roughly equivalent to a bachelor's degree in modern literature. I asked him if he was satisfied with working as a clerk. He said, a little sadly, that until his English was better, he couldn't hope for more. I thanked him for the chance to talk with him, and hoped he could find work more fitting to his education, and left with much more spring in my step than I usually have by that time of the day.The rest of the time has been the usual grind, one store after another, long drive home, four or five hours of sleep, do it all over again.The rest of this week I'll be in Richmond. I think I've found someone reliable to stay with Clarence so I can stay out as long as it takes to complete a whole batch of work, as I used to do. Driving to Richmond, or Tidewater, or Bristol, or Winchester and back day after day was killing me, running up the mileage on the car and costing a fortune in gas, but the only alternative that would allow me to stay out overnight was to take Clarence and the dog with me, and that was even worse. Clarence can sit in the sun for 30 or 45 minutes while I'm doing each inspection, if that's what he wants, but I won't inflict that on a 70-pound long-haired dog with a heavy undercoat. Not to mention the hourly rest room stops for Clarence, interspersed with demands to stop for food. I get less done with him along than if I drive back and forth each day. This week will be the first test of the new babysitter, and I'm praying that she will work out better than the previous ones.Time to finish printing out my forms and hit the sack. posted by Liz @ 12:01 AM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
No posts since the middle of April. That's because I've been home and available to do things like blogging exactly six times since then. And right now I should be doing other things than blogging, because I have 103 stores to inspect before July 12, plus various items of computer work. I don't think I have ever been so over my head with work.I can't talk about politics right now. It's all bad and getting worse. So I try to focus on the occasional interesting encounter in my work, one of which occurred this last week. I have printed introduction sheets in various languages, most of which I've never used, because very few of the merchants are totally unable to communicate in English. There are sheets in Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, etc. For whatever reason, I don't have one in Arabic, and this week I ran into a Middle Eastern clerk who simply could not understand what I was trying to explain to him. My Arabic consists of Hello, Goodbye, Please and Thank You, and the universal Salem, and his English didn't seem to encompass much more than that. I tried, with much finger pointing and smiling, to explain what I needed to do, and he tried, with much shrugging and smiling, to figure it out, and we were getting nowhere. Finally, he asked, "Espagnol?"With much regret, because I should have learned Spanish by now, I shook my head."Francais?" he asked. "Parlez-vous francais?"There was a time in the long dim past when I was reasonably fluent in spoken French, and I still read it, but it had been a very long time since I carried on a conversation with anyone. But I nodded, and said "Lentement!" Slowly. And to my surprise, before my inspection was over, we were chattering away in French. I remembered more than I thought I would, and things came back to me during the conversation. He told me that he was Moroccan, but had been educated in Paris. He had a baccalaureate in "lettres modernes," which would be roughly equivalent to a bachelor's degree in modern literature. I asked him if he was satisfied with working as a clerk. He said, a little sadly, that until his English was better, he couldn't hope for more. I thanked him for the chance to talk with him, and hoped he could find work more fitting to his education, and left with much more spring in my step than I usually have by that time of the day.The rest of the time has been the usual grind, one store after another, long drive home, four or five hours of sleep, do it all over again.The rest of this week I'll be in Richmond. I think I've found someone reliable to stay with Clarence so I can stay out as long as it takes to complete a whole batch of work, as I used to do. Driving to Richmond, or Tidewater, or Bristol, or Winchester and back day after day was killing me, running up the mileage on the car and costing a fortune in gas, but the only alternative that would allow me to stay out overnight was to take Clarence and the dog with me, and that was even worse. Clarence can sit in the sun for 30 or 45 minutes while I'm doing each inspection, if that's what he wants, but I won't inflict that on a 70-pound long-haired dog with a heavy undercoat. Not to mention the hourly rest room stops for Clarence, interspersed with demands to stop for food. I get less done with him along than if I drive back and forth each day. This week will be the first test of the new babysitter, and I'm praying that she will work out better than the previous ones.Time to finish printing out my forms and hit the sack.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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