The View of MY World

This past week being finals you must forgive me my tardiness in posting to the blog. Reading nearly 200 handwritten open response answers for two out of the five sections of my English exam, grading them and recording the grades has consumed my time, and nearly destroyed my eyesight. Not to mention the episode with the kid that simply took my breath away. But the house is being built at a nice pace. (That karmic balance seems to be holding true: If work is tough, the build goes well, and visa versa, but not both at the same time.)

And before I get too involved in this portion of my house building tale: MERRY AND HAPPY TO ONE AND ALL!!

Our last installment saw the window frames about to be but in place. That has happened, save for the smaller, higher up windows. The 7 foot, 5 foot and 4 foot windows that go in the living room to behold one of the magnificent views are installed, as well as the 4 in the art studio (with a killer view of the mountains), and all three bedrooms (for viewing the rest of the stunning panorama.) And every single one of the windows that will fit those frames was bought second hand from Habitat for Humanity or another such home building recycled materials place! I got some windows that are top-of-the-line Pellas (appx. $700/ window) for $150, and the only reason they were at the recycling place was 'cause the homeowner who originally bought them didn't like the special-ordered color on the frame, so she had them torn out and bought some more! Sheesh! (My gain, though.)

So, here's all the pictures of the empty frames...






































and the new heights that have been reached on the walls, which is now 45", while we wait yet again, for the electrician to come and do his part; this time being installing the wall switches @ 42". Then the interminable wait for the electrical inspector to decide when he will deign to come inspect that stage. No wonder we're nine weeks behind, eh?




While Rex has been more atop the process and the production is going better with more discernable results, I have had to cave in to staying in town for the last week. The Tin Can trailer just wasn't enough of a habitat to bring wellness to my lungs or cranial goo. Once again the women of La Mirada provided the healing and healthfulness I needed to get me through to Winter Break. The doc who was treating me for the pneumonia couldn't find any reason why I was still hacking up a lung, or the pain in my ears, or the giantess sitting on my chest, or my extreme fatigue; she resorted to what most doctors do and suggested it was depression. I chided her for being so ignorant. She took it well. Between Gina feeding me her delectable Mexican foods, Imelda and Deanna booking me one of the best rooms at the inn and finally meeting Mami Violeta, my health most definately improved. Muchas gracias mijas! (Oh--they've all adopted me into the family, btw. Well, all except Imelda. She's holding out for some reason. Or maybe it's 'cause I haven't asked her approval yet. Even Carolyn has agreed, and she's NEVER there.)

About every other day I would wake up in the warmth and comfort of my room at La Mirada, go to work, then head up to the property to see what the boys had been up to, and was pleased every time I did. Initially, I had planned on being in town for four nights, then would go back to life in The Tin Can after buying all sorts of weather proofing materials (mostly to keep the water line from freezing), but last Monday one of my Special Students sprayed some cologne in class and I stopped breathing. I ended up in the school's health center getting nebulized and seen by the on-site doctor (!). The principal dashed by to redirect my thinking on sending an email to announce my lack of respiration vs. sending a kid to get an administrator (which breaks at least 7 cardinal rules) or using the emergency button (which I couldn't cross the room to press given the lack of oxygen I was able to suck in.) Bottom line: The email got the response from staff that I needed and I got better after the treatment. The kid? He'll be killed by whichever administrator gets to him first if he ever does it again. Which is a good thing, 'cause I'll be too immobilized and fighting for air to do it myself. He also got In School Suspension for his...breech of intelligence. Or is it more his display of lack thereof?

That fright led me to choosing to stay on at La Mirada until I was to catch a plane to Denver to spend the first week of the break with the S.O. and da puppies. Which is where I am now. And, yes, it's cold and there's a goodly amount of snow on the ground.

The boys got the heat tape applied to the water line and I'll get the window insulation put in when I get back. Maybe I can make The Tin Can habitable again.

Remember when I left for CO last time, around Thanksgiving and there was a fire on the mountain? THIS time Donna and Ed called to say there was a lake forming near the well's pressure tank. A water line connection had split. They were the wonderful neighbors they are and fixed it for me. That pretty much brings me full circle with the four basic elements of life: Fire, water, earth (The Land) and air (The Winds @ The Property). Guess it's a good sign.

No critter stories this time. But I do keep seeing the baby bunny skedaddling under TTC. And that makes me smile.

May this time of the solstice, hibernation and the gatherings of friends and family bring each of you plenty of smiles, too.

Trudgery, Drudgery and Nudgery

This postings title is the bane of traditional English teachers, but I love to make up new words. Too bad only half of the four are 'illegal' words; I'll have to work on that. There's at least four of my former English teachers who would be thrilled to be reading my invented title--and I revel in that knowledge. And in my memories of them.

The drudgery portion of this post is a Hurculean effort at staying awake and alert enough to teach my ever-enlivening students as we approach finals week. They're stunned at how much we've covered. What they don't realize is how much more I have to give to them in the way of preparation! If only they had learned this as we went along, then I wouldn't be feeling like I was the one going through finals in my fashion of days-on-end-with-no-sleep-and-non-stop-cramming. Though, I do find a noticeable number of fires are burning under a significant number of butts since I started reviewing:)

I continue to find ways to keep my Creative Writing students off balance (and NO, I won't comment on the students who are already off balance;). They will be stunning individuals by the end of the year. I'm anticipating being sat down on my well-padded ass often as the end of the school year approaches as the candle wicks start catching and holding flames over their well-massaged brainpans. It warms my soul, that image-o-mine of them-to-be.


Since drudgery and and were the only two 'legitimate' words in the title I can now fly wildly into the ethers that constitute my thinking style. Please don't be disappointed--it is early in the morning here in The Tin Can. So on to trudgery (I am relying on one and all to know the root word trudge, and for those that don't [students o'mine?] you know what I'm going to tell you to do...~cough~ dictionary ~cough, cough~)

That pneumonia I trudged through is treated and only the usual and typical extended recovery issues are to be dealt with. It's slowed me to a pace that only a sloth would recognize as having any movement at all. While that recovery trudges along, the doc has now placed a new set of diagnoses on my chart: A chest x-ray has been read and interpreted to suggest there is a viral or fungal lung infection in residence within my chest cavity in those ever so warm and wet sacs of respiration. It'll be another week to 10 days before the results of the blood work for fungal infection come back.

My white blood cell count is elevated to a very concerning level, but, has dropped so the suggestion of there being a possibility of me having leukemia is not on the list of concerns anymore. And, yes, the mere suggestion of cancer was quite a slap in the face. And, as most of you know, I don't react well to slaps to the face. In this case I merely let my mind go at warp speed to all the ironies my life has bestowed upon me, and a quick view of how this posited cancer chance was the biggest Mama irony of 'em all and then I put it away and waited for better news. It seems to have worked.

It also provoked me to sit down and write a letter to my birth mother reiterating my need to meet her. That left my knees knocking and my heart doing double time.

So, the trudging through my recovery will be extended given that the treatment for a fungal infection is a pretty harsh and lengthy one. There is one upside to it, however: I get to give sputum samples by the baggieful to my doc:0 Passing along body fluids in a ziploc seems so...Wal-martish. It's like I get a refund on a returned item!


And now for the nudgery. For the nudges I've had to give to many that I must involve myself with regarding the building of the house, the universe finally recognized that I was entrenched in my own little circle of thought and gave me another whallop upside the head and knocked me onto a better path of pondering. Rex kind of triggered it when we met last week when he said that this house is a very complicated build. That's when the frying pan's ringing sounded after the powers-that-be swung with a gusto and made a solid hit upon MY brainpan. Given the lava block material, my art school design background and particularness to details, form and function, style, panache and plain old hard headedness, the quarry of rock that is my land, it being New Mexico and who knows what the hell else--YES! it is a very complicated build. I settled right down and am hunkering down for another three months of Tin Can living. And, YES! again, La Mirada will be my refuge.






The block are going up. The window frames are being placed in their respective locations in preparation of placement. The electrical is complete at plug level (18") and switch level work will be installed at the 42" level. The new install date for the roof is January 9th, 2008. I'm anticipating it being March before I can call it a done deal. What a hellova birthday present, eh?

And now that the language anomalies have been dealt with, here's the critter tales: Watching for the shooting star of the night earlier this week I heard some rustling within the walls of the build. It was critter-based, not housing material-based. Went back in and got the .12 gauge and a flashlight. Trying to balance a pistol gripped .12 gauge and a flashlight like the cops do on tv (tho they've got a handgun instead) I follow the scratchings. They're on the other side of the garage/kitchen wall.

Slowly...slowly...I raise the light and gun. I'm fixin' to load the chamber and raise the gun into position. I lean over to see what I may be shooting...and...I start cracking up. This poor little kangaroo rat is munching away on some tin foil from the lunch burritos that the boys have jammed into one of the holes of the block. I watch the little furball try and hide between the blocks, though it never really tried to escape--just hide. I talked all nice to it and wished it well and apologized for having to take away it's source of aluminum, but aluminum really isn't one of the essential minerals for a well-balanced diet. The tawny beastie made it out of the block wall and back to the wild by the time I checked on it in the morning.

Then, today, I see the white puff of a baby cottontail take sanctuary under The Tin Can. I talked nicely to it, too, esp. since it was a young one. It's been around for a few weeks, hiding under TTC or the steps. I think its parent(s) was/were what was e't when all that screeching was going on that night-of-the-hellova-lot-of-noise. I like bunnies. And this one can live under The Tin Can for as long as it wants to.

And three mornings this week I saw coyotes on my way out of Tierra Grande. Beautiful ones. And well-fed, too. Nnnnhhhhh-that brings us full circle back to the little cottontail's folks, huh? Welcome to my place in the circle of life, y'all. Hasta manana.

I Think I Need An Imaginary Friend

Life just can't more interesting, can it? Well, at least not until it gets to be something else. I like being someone else when I can be. Life must be the same way. Or not.
So how the hell is everyone? This has been a whacked out week or two, but none of you are surprised by that when it comes to me, are you? Didn't think so.
OK, so where did I leave y'all? (yea, yea--I left some of you in Cleveland, some in LA, some in CO or AZ. Wise asses!) Ah! The gloves-on-the-rebar-work-of-art, if I recollect. I'm still snickering.

The biggest chunk of news, or, as I've been 'schooled'-- Tarugo mas grande of news--there's actually form and function becoming evident at the build site/homestead! It still looks small as shit, and everyone still keeps saying what a BIG house it is, so I'm still, naturally, confused. Yes even naturally confused. (See how important punctuation is, oh students o'mine?) But it's coming along, except that now it has stopped.


Again, no expressions of surprise from any of you, I see. The Manana Effect seems to have taken root within y'all. I DO apologize! So, yea, there's a wall here that reaches the height of my elbow, many are at knee height and there's even one that's almost head high. No, I don't know why. Well, I retract that denial, I DO know why: it's time for the electrical installation to begin!
The electrician held us up a week (grrrrr!), then came and started the install on Tuesday of this past week, and came up Saturday a.m. around 7 to finish up. Good thing I was up and working, huh?

There's a myriad of punishing details that keep erupting like skin lesions that I won't burden you with, but let's just say that there's not too many people involved in this build that I can't blame some mistake, oversight, or tardiness upon. Except me, of course.

It's been 15 days of doing battle with Rex, Katje, and the lingering pneumonia; dentists, high winds and the electrical grid. And I wonder why I'm so dang tired all of the time! ~sheesh!~ Troubles with Rex got resolved tonight--weekly communication will solve our mutual disgruntlement. (One down, five to go....) Katje has been ordered to divest herself with anything that has to do with my house and its construction; and since I know she reads this blog (two, with four to go...) ~~Cough, wheeze, cough cough wheeze~~; still sick, but can breathe enough to not turn blue (three and three....) Got an appt. this week vs. the 9,029 days it would take to get into the other local dentist's office; this is a major achievement, it seems (4 and 2...) The winds haven't been too bad, as far as wind speed goes, but, dang that air is getting beyond chilly. ICK! (5 and one to go!) Ahhhh! the electrical grid. I believe it would be more accurate to call it the lack-of-a-grid (6/6!)

4:30 a.m. Saturday last: I wake up and find that there's no power to any gizmo in the Tin Can. It's below freezing outside and a good sized iceberg is making its way inside. I put on my ski pants and new Marmot jacket and fleece and mosey outside. Yes, I'm nuts. I go in and out of The Tin Can a few times until I decide what to do. No power means there won't be any water since the well pump won't work. No microwaving any food (that was a double-whammy situation as the microwave number pad has been too spastic for words and hadn't been dependable for a coupla days now), no lights, no internet, no charged iPhone, no nada! HOWEVER--I could bake cookies in my propane oven if I so desired. Ahhhh! But if I open the fridge more than a few times I may as well toss everything in there out. CRAP!

By 6 a.m. I'm out in the pre-dawn scraping silicone off the glass block we bought on eBay last year. I wave at a car that's going up the road--it's the electrician coming to finish up his install before he calls for the inspector to come out. No wonder the costs for the electrician is so damndably high--he works on Saturday! Double crap!! That done it's time to head into town and get some sustenance and milk and a new room heater as I've burned up two now. Yup--crap x 3. By 3 p.m. I'm getting cold, there's no news about the power outage or when it will be back on line. I start packing my laundry up and 3 bags of student work that needs to be graded and I make a call to La Mirada and hook myself up with a room. Life is looking up rugby shorts.

Nice big bed, wonderful posole (Mexican hominey with red chile--yummy!,) TV!, unlimited hot water and a generous and gracious hostess who can do nothing but shake her head at me and stifle a bemused smirk as I apologize for my lack of poor timing in needing a room for the night. What she must think!

So, with mounds of grading and laundry to temper my joy, I avoid most realities for a few hours. I try not to think of the 8 weeks behind we are on the build. I try not to think of how I won't be in the house by Christmas, or New Years, and by my reckoning I'm going to be 49 before I get to inhabit my own damn house. Heck, I've waited 48 years to have my own damn house, what's one more year, eh? I start calculating how many days and nights I'm going to be at my home-away-from-tin-can and what it's going to cost me. And none of it fazes me--it must be done, so therefore it WILL be done. So there!!! Plllllbbbbbbbbb!

Now we wait on the electrical inspection. The inspector is well-known in this county--well-known to be a total ass. He ALWAYS finds something wrong, takes DAYS to come on-site, and days to return to check on the 'fixes' he cited the electrician for. So, Rex is stuck, I'm stuck, the electrician is stuck and we wait. Calgon, take me away!

Oy vay! At least school is enjoyable. I truly missed my students. They're surprising me all over the place this year--total terrors are working hard, totally talented kids are blowing me off, but most of 'em are just plain fun and doing very well. It warms my three-times-too-small-heart and makes me smile. My students ROCK!

OK, so here's this installment in the form of brevity: THIS PAST WEEK TOTALLY SUCKED GREEN DONKEY DICKS!! (The first one of you, my loyal if electronically crippled fan base, to cite the book and the author from whence I stole that last lurid bit from gets to stay at the house for free for however long they want to!) [I can hardly wait to see what y'all's failing memories dredge up!]

I hope I didn't come off as too whiney....But, if I did, I'm sure someone will tell me about it manana!