...And So It Goes

Quiet and solitude—why I moved out to a state that many don’t know is part of the United States and a chunk of rocks that's 22 miles from the nearest town—has been elusive for me of late.

Most of the noise and crowds have come from the work environment. It’s the same bunch of kids from a 5-day-a-week routine that is my ‘normal’ state of existence, yes, but what I have done is to take on several more duties at school for next year. These ‘opportunities’, as admin terms them, require that I get sent to training for them NOW.

Granted I have chosen teaching as my most recent incarnation, but spending this much time with others in my chosen most recent incarnation is wearing on me. But! As I whine about this mundane tidbit I am sitting in a room at the Hyatt Regency Downtown in Albuquerque as one of my perks for signing my free time away for all of next year!

Not bad for the grrrl who lives in a-trailer-park-for-one, eh?

It’s that last fact that garnered the sympathy of my principal who signed me up for the free room courtesy of the State of New Mexico’s Public Education Department, sponsors of the training I am currently being edumakated with/by. I’m still trying to figure out if I can legitimately be here seeing as how the Hyatt usually don’t accept common trailer trash in most of their establishments. (I won’t tell if you don’t!)

The downside is that the hallway is filled with the sound of raucous rug rats who like slamming doors, and all other forms of rug rat noisemaking, including the din of reprimands from their parents. I think I’ll stay at the trailer from now on. It’s always amazed me that hoteliers will put teachers in a room on a wing of a floor (with 15+ floors to choose from) that is laden with school-aged offspring of ‘educated’ humans. Speaks volumes to the state of education in this nation, don’t it? Hell, look at our president! And he never set his butt down on a public school desk seat, guaranteed. And THAT speaks tomes about private education and those that can afford a Hyatt hotel, now doesn’t it?

OK, you’re here to read about the house and its state of being. Long time no blog post, long time since any work has been done, yet there’s still stuff to tell about it. Go figure.

Do you realize that this single hotel room I’m sitting in right now is easily 4 times the size of The Tin Can? And there’s cable to watch! And the pilot light for the hot water tank stays lit and the water stays hot here, unlike what the last week at TTC has been. Astounding!!

The house! Right! OK, so…I fired the second crew last time I posted. By that next Monday I had two guys show up wanting work. One was from the first crew I fired; the only one who I trusted, actually. I hired them on and they went to work pondering how to get the build back on track. Much of what Rex had done needed to be undone, on a fairly large scale.

One of the guys had a brother who runs an auction and there was lumber being auctioned last weekend. We checked it out, they had all the trusses, posts and beams we needed for the house. Long day short: I got about $15,000 worth of lumber for $1,200! I was thrilled! Then I jumped into BB to drive to Phoenix ‘cause my brother called screaming for help with mom. I made it to Tucson before he totally torqued me off enough in a phone call that I just turned around the next morning and headed back to Belen. Let’s just say it has everything to do with money, his natural greed and his lack of experience with power. Oh, and that he’s a complete ‘hole!

He was quite ugly with me, on so many levels and over the course of way too many calls. I don’t know why I bothered to make the drive. And, Mom is stalwart enough to hang on until I can get social services in place to help her and, being an old teacher she would never succumb to death before the school year was finished. I’m heading back then to free her from Paul’s imposed lockdown of her in her own house. Watch for the fireworks in your southwest skies around May 26th, y’all ‘cause they’ll be spectacular.

Now, I have my very own lumberyard to the west of the house and a crew who’s more comfortable scratching their heads than laboring. They’ll be gone by tomorrow. Norbert and Carolyn have been delayed until Monday. I can hold my breath until then. No fuss, but a whopping lie, from the bank about my most recent draw request today; never ending crap from that guy with the too tight shoes and underoos.

Things should move right along with the 4th crew. Expect a flood of blog posts as I try to keep up with the photographed documentation of the soon-to-be flying blocks and curing cement that is to come.

Unless I’m wrong. Again!

Manana from The Hyatt, y’all!

Postscript: Saturday, April 26th from TTC
Aside from culture shock (I haven't been in a 'big city' for so long I got lost in Abq trying to find the Hyatt. How embarassing! And Google Maps was no damn help, either--AGAIN!) I just fired the 3rd crew. They didn't bother to show up yesterday. One just evaporated after cashing the check I wrote him and the other self-admitted to wallowing in self-pity all day. I told him that was what Saturdays and Sundays are for. He knows he's gone. Powerful brains and sense of cause-and-effect here in Belen, NM!! And to think that I think that I can keep up with such deep thoughts---AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!

Carolyn and Norbert--get here already, would ya? PUH-LEEEEESSSSE!!

Mi Vida Loca

OK. I’ve calmed down enough now that I can post a new entry to Da Blog. It’s been weeks, I know, I know. Oy vay I know!

I have tried to get back to the excitement I was enthusing and infusing to y’all via Da Blog, but it just ain’t comin’. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been any excitement, it’s just the kind of excitement that doesn’t read well in printed form or message. It comes off as whining, and y’all know how very much I love to do that—GAK! Maybe I could try to pass it off as mere sniveling….Cripes, it’s plain and simple just good ol’ fashioned, justified pissin’ ‘n moanin’.

Ya ready for it?

After re-reading the last post it seems oh so appropriate that I choose today to post again after 3 very l—o---n----g weeks. I fired the second crew today. They had left evidence of drinking on the job. With everything I have in this world on the line as the owner-builder there’s NO WAY I could keep them on. Besides being massively unacceptable. They were two guys who’d worked on a couple of other lava block houses that are in the next town north, so their experience was vital. They finished 3 rooms worth of mistakes from Rex, et. al. They were gettin’ ready to work on the curved wall of the master bath, which is a mess, but they just went and got dumb.

I know that this sort of work ethic is unfathomable to each and every one of you, as it is to me, but it’s endemic to New Mexico (huh, Mike?) The Land of Manana is also The Land of Unbelievably Lazy Folk. Not unlike Phoenix, back in the day. I instinctively accept it and move on. Makes me wonder how/why the disease never struck me. If I could share just a smackeral of my work ethic with the Nuevo Mexicanos, the whole state would be working, or so I’d like to believe.

I’m just going to wait out the next two weeks until Norbert and Carolyn can get down here and re-build my faith in New Mexicans, construction folks and re-do the rest of the mess that is being called My House. What’s two weeks after 10 times that already lost?

I AM the owner of a brand new cement mixer, however! Woo-hoo!! (I’m still striving to find the silver lining in all of this, give me some latitude, ‘k? Please?!) I have my own chop saw, too. Power tool ownership alleviates a lot of angst for grrrls like me;) But worries have been heightened with news that some of the townies/druggies/low lifes are going around Tierra Grande ripping off build sites. I’ll take the evening shift since my neighbors are all retired and can do the day shift for me. I’d better make a trip to Wal-Mart and stock up on shotgun shells. That shick-shick sound that comes when a shell is being loaded into the chamber is supposed to be the best in self-protection. I’ll keep y’all apprised.

We actually had a Neighborhood Watch meeting for TG residents with the sheriff, undersheriff, and State Patrol officers from two districts today at the fire house ‘cause of the thefts. What a gross waste of time!! It was all self-promotion for the cops and all of the burden of enforcement put upon us. I finally had enough and asked what, exactly, are our rights as citizens to protect our property and selves? I mean, really! Let’s cut to the chase. These badged, braided and funny hatted men were so proud of themselves to be able to tell us that response time has been cut in half—from 2 hours (usually more) to ‘just over an hour’. Now ya know why I own a gun and believe in using it. And, no, I wasn’t given a clear answer, so I guess it’s shoot first, drag the jerk onto the property if he isn’t already there and THEN call the sheriff or state patrol. A coupla shots o’rum and a beer or two should fill the time nicely.

Manana I will make my 4th trip in a week to Los Lunas (the next town north) to get some heavy-duty locks and chain so I can continue to be the proud new owner of a cement mixer and chop saw. A few more cable locks for Booger ain’t a bad idea, either (there’s 3 on Boog now.)

Rex is still holding my kiva doors and barn wood hostage. He says I owe ‘the guys’ $3100 in back pay. Hell no! Good thing I met the sheriff today—I’ll be calling him to come help me get the stuff from Rex before too long, or there’ll be the shick-shick sound in his ears. OK, probably not THAT, but it’s crossed my mind.

I would tend to agree with some you that all of this is just me and my prickly nature, but I have had a flood of stories come my way once I mention that I’ve had to fire a crew. It truly is a population of louts here. Besides, I’ve been in a pretty good mood for a good long while now. I’ve almost forgotten how to get mad. It’s such a waste of energy in this snorin’ town to get riled up, one may as well just match the pace and slowly shame them into action. But that doesn’t seem to be working, either.

Let me think about my next approach, then. Until I can foment that adaptation…mananas, y’all!