The good, the bad, and the uglier.
I'm back home in Louisiana from my trip to New York. I suppose I'll start with the few good things that have happened the past few days. Before now I really didn't have the inclination to sit and write about anything, good or bad. So now I write.
Kelly got that reddish/orange necklace mix that she commissioned me for, and loved it and the earrings that went with it. I also brought along the green/blue mixed set just to show her how it turned out, and she decided she wanted that set as well. She said she'd have to find or even buy new clothing to wear with it, because she doesn't have much in the line of those colors. But she said she loved them so much she had to have them. So a biiiiig thank you to her!
At any rate, the flight itself home was nice. I sat by a couple from Long Island who were going down for the husband's business to a convention. The woman and I talked on and off through the flight. She saw my box of finished jewelry also, and thought it was all very nice and was very interested to know I'd done it all and taught myself how to. She asked me some spots to tour while in New Orleans, and I offered some suggestions. I told her if she ended up in our area or came back for a longer stay, to drop me a line, and I gave her one of my cards.
It was nice to come back home to my mother and my animals. Mom was real glad to have me home, and the cats were overjoyed. I really wish Mike could have come back with me. He'll be out of school really soon, which is a plus. And he has his internship this term. By the looks of it, things will be working out very well for him. His boss-to-be seems very awesome, and with a name like Thor, how can you go wrong?
Everyone seems happy that I'm back. Alan and Laura, our neighbors, had some surprises for me. Alan saved me some deer jaw bones, and they are beautiful! Laura said that if they grow well she has some seedlings she's going to give me.
At any rate, time to get to the bad news now that the good news has been told. The bad news is that while I was gone, since my mother's knee was injured and she was down in her back too, no one took care of my pond for the majority of the time I was gone. Needless to say, almost two months worth of debris collecting at the bottom was NOT healthy. I came home to find EVERYTHING dead. Not just my fish and the majority of the pond plants (besides the anakaris), but also the other plants I had bought to put in the area around my pond and garden. The only survivors were my basil plants, the water anakaris, a single small blooming plant, and my lily which is hardly holding on. Everything else is dead. Gone.
My spice plants were drown to death. Bless my grandma for doing her best to take care of everything the times she did come over, but I don't know how many times I took my sage and rosemary and catnip OUT of the bowls she kept putting them in that had standing water to keep them moist. They don't need to sit in water like that! They're arid plants. Everything else is gone. Even the little starter seedlings of spices I had started in the egg cartons, save one small sprig of basil. I was very depressed to come home and find the plants as well as the pond dead. I was under the impression my plants were doing very well.
It isn't really anyone's fault, but that doesn't change the fact that $60+ worth of fish/pond things and over $60+ worth of plants are gone. And I don't have near enough money to replace it all on my own. I can say almost certainly I understand what happened to the pond. I feel bad about it, but I was under the impression someone, anyone, was cleaning out the debris. Needless to say there was leaf litter, small branches, and even pinecones in the water when I came home, and a slight algae buildup. The majority of plant matter that fell in probably came with all the rain and bad weather we had here while I was gone. The plant stuff decayed in the water and spiked the ammonia and nitrate levels. And without anything in the water besides the fish, all the sludge remained. The plants... I don't know. We got plenty of rain. So I can't say for certain if perhaps they got too much, or if perhaps it was really rainy and then there was a period of a lot of sun... maybe that happened and the poor things got cooked. I just feel very horrible about it, and seeing those dead husks and the rust hued water when I first went back there was very disheartening after all the work I put into it, and how well everything was doing when I left.
On top of that, a handful of items were damaged and broken by the careless people who check baggage. One item I was aware of right away. I got stopped going through gate security and they checked my carryon. For what reason I have no clue. I think it might have been the camera, or maybe the jewelry. Whatever the case, I had looked away across the terminal for a moment when the man was roughly pulling stuff out of my backpack and then shoving it back in without a care on how it had been to start with. He had removed the box of my jewelry, and when I looked back he seemed to be stuffing the baggies back in and in a slight hurry to close it. He stuffed it back in my bag and didn't even bother to really look at anything else in that compartment, and told me to have a nice day. I found it odd, but dismissed it figuring they were busy, which they were, and my flight was boarding. So once we were on the plane I took everything out to reorganize so it would fit under my seat... only to find one of the multi strand necklaces I had in there broken and beads everywhere. That was enough to boil my blood, as they were all FINE when I put them in early that morning. So I get home and check my luggage, opening it to find everything totally misplaced. They'd put a heavy tag on my bigger bag because I carried rocks home. However, I had EVERYTHING perfectly arranged. The rocks were in the bottom end and were still where I put them... but everything else I had been so careful about arranging was all fouled up, and a handful of other things, including a glass item were broken. I am very angry because I made sure to situate and pad things extra careful. They're getting a phonecall from me.
Anyway, now that the bad news is out of the way, everyone should be ready for the very ugly news. As if it wasn't bad enough to come home and find everything outside dead, here I start making some small attempts to get things back to normal. Sunday when I got home, I went and drained the pond and then took it into the yard and scrubbed it down and washed it out real good. Then I filled it again and started the water filtration system with the Cycle and all that good stuff. Monday I went out and got a few things I needed, including snakefood and another round of Cycle and other pond stuff. $8 total because they had a special package, yay. I went and picked up some aquarium gravel at Wal-Mart, and some cat treats. They only had two bags of the gravel I needed, so I have to wait till I can find more. But it's enough to start with.
So anyway, I come home and do stuff around the house. Getting things back in order, tending to animals, unpacking a few things at a time.... and mom calls me on her way home, slightly earlier than I expected her home. She tells me we have to talk when she gets home, and I figured right away something was wrong, and I asked what, but she wouldn't tell me on the phone. So I brooded and waited. She finally got home, and broke the news to me.
She and her really awesome boss Matthew, both got laid off. They cut them loose. This is a very horrible situation. Bad for us, but especially for Matthew who has a very sick wife in and out of the hospital. Added to the fact my mother's knee is injured, and she will probably have to have surgery. She had an MRI, and has fluid and a cyst, as well as torn meniscus. So she'll probably have to have something similar to what I had done.
It was just such a shock. The bastards waited till after Joint Commission (the really HUGE inspection thing mom and Matthew and everyone worked soooo hard for..) after all that work was done and their asses were covered, then they dropped the axe. After they had that meeting just before I had left for NY where concerned employees expressed their distress over the people the hospital had just fired then, some of which had been there since the doors first opened! Ooooh, but administration staff claimed that they wouldn't be laying anyone else off for a long while. Yet then mom and Matthew, the headers of their department for crying out loud, get canned? Not because of their job quality mind you. If anything they always did everything above and BEYOND the requirements and put their all into it even when they got paid not nearly what they deserved and got shit for raises...but they got laid off for 'business' reasons.
Because of the medical scams no thanks to those fuckup doctors in California who were under the Tenet Health system... those doctors trying to put more money in their pockets fucked it over for everyone. Chain reaction through the company trying to cover its ass and pay expenses against law suits. So they start dropping people left and right. However, this particular facility has dug its own grave. They decided it was best to get rid of two senior employees who had been there YEARS, to hire on new people who know NOTHING about the new phone systems or any of the other things my mother and Matthew took care of? All to pinch pennies, when they are already horribly understaffed and worn thin as it is. They're going to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off when they realize just how much work mom and Matthew did there.
So in short when it rains, it pours. I've had a handful of people tell me they want to help contribute to the pond and sacred space living again. So donations and trades are currently greatly accepted. Donate a few bucks, the pond will live! Everyone who has expressed their concern and wish to help so far are getting special little somethings as thanks. I'm also VERY much trying to do anything I can to bring in money at this point. There's a vet clinic I think I have a good chance of getting a job at, and I'm going to go see Debbie and John at Delta and explain the situation and tell them I NEED something. Anything. There might be a position open at Sears in Fine Jewelry too.
I'm also currently working on designing a handful of new dreamcatchers that will be unique and different from others you might find. I just hope the physical pieces will reflect well the mental images I have of their creation. Staffs too. With these bones I have, I can finally start on a piece I have wanted to try for ages. I basically finished a website I was working on for watergazer. I'll wait till she's approved of it before I share though. I'm also working on some artwork that I am hoping will have a chance of being put on production lines. Paws tightly crossed.
So off I go to work.
Kelly got that reddish/orange necklace mix that she commissioned me for, and loved it and the earrings that went with it. I also brought along the green/blue mixed set just to show her how it turned out, and she decided she wanted that set as well. She said she'd have to find or even buy new clothing to wear with it, because she doesn't have much in the line of those colors. But she said she loved them so much she had to have them. So a biiiiig thank you to her!
At any rate, the flight itself home was nice. I sat by a couple from Long Island who were going down for the husband's business to a convention. The woman and I talked on and off through the flight. She saw my box of finished jewelry also, and thought it was all very nice and was very interested to know I'd done it all and taught myself how to. She asked me some spots to tour while in New Orleans, and I offered some suggestions. I told her if she ended up in our area or came back for a longer stay, to drop me a line, and I gave her one of my cards.
It was nice to come back home to my mother and my animals. Mom was real glad to have me home, and the cats were overjoyed. I really wish Mike could have come back with me. He'll be out of school really soon, which is a plus. And he has his internship this term. By the looks of it, things will be working out very well for him. His boss-to-be seems very awesome, and with a name like Thor, how can you go wrong?
Everyone seems happy that I'm back. Alan and Laura, our neighbors, had some surprises for me. Alan saved me some deer jaw bones, and they are beautiful! Laura said that if they grow well she has some seedlings she's going to give me.
At any rate, time to get to the bad news now that the good news has been told. The bad news is that while I was gone, since my mother's knee was injured and she was down in her back too, no one took care of my pond for the majority of the time I was gone. Needless to say, almost two months worth of debris collecting at the bottom was NOT healthy. I came home to find EVERYTHING dead. Not just my fish and the majority of the pond plants (besides the anakaris), but also the other plants I had bought to put in the area around my pond and garden. The only survivors were my basil plants, the water anakaris, a single small blooming plant, and my lily which is hardly holding on. Everything else is dead. Gone.
My spice plants were drown to death. Bless my grandma for doing her best to take care of everything the times she did come over, but I don't know how many times I took my sage and rosemary and catnip OUT of the bowls she kept putting them in that had standing water to keep them moist. They don't need to sit in water like that! They're arid plants. Everything else is gone. Even the little starter seedlings of spices I had started in the egg cartons, save one small sprig of basil. I was very depressed to come home and find the plants as well as the pond dead. I was under the impression my plants were doing very well.
It isn't really anyone's fault, but that doesn't change the fact that $60+ worth of fish/pond things and over $60+ worth of plants are gone. And I don't have near enough money to replace it all on my own. I can say almost certainly I understand what happened to the pond. I feel bad about it, but I was under the impression someone, anyone, was cleaning out the debris. Needless to say there was leaf litter, small branches, and even pinecones in the water when I came home, and a slight algae buildup. The majority of plant matter that fell in probably came with all the rain and bad weather we had here while I was gone. The plant stuff decayed in the water and spiked the ammonia and nitrate levels. And without anything in the water besides the fish, all the sludge remained. The plants... I don't know. We got plenty of rain. So I can't say for certain if perhaps they got too much, or if perhaps it was really rainy and then there was a period of a lot of sun... maybe that happened and the poor things got cooked. I just feel very horrible about it, and seeing those dead husks and the rust hued water when I first went back there was very disheartening after all the work I put into it, and how well everything was doing when I left.
On top of that, a handful of items were damaged and broken by the careless people who check baggage. One item I was aware of right away. I got stopped going through gate security and they checked my carryon. For what reason I have no clue. I think it might have been the camera, or maybe the jewelry. Whatever the case, I had looked away across the terminal for a moment when the man was roughly pulling stuff out of my backpack and then shoving it back in without a care on how it had been to start with. He had removed the box of my jewelry, and when I looked back he seemed to be stuffing the baggies back in and in a slight hurry to close it. He stuffed it back in my bag and didn't even bother to really look at anything else in that compartment, and told me to have a nice day. I found it odd, but dismissed it figuring they were busy, which they were, and my flight was boarding. So once we were on the plane I took everything out to reorganize so it would fit under my seat... only to find one of the multi strand necklaces I had in there broken and beads everywhere. That was enough to boil my blood, as they were all FINE when I put them in early that morning. So I get home and check my luggage, opening it to find everything totally misplaced. They'd put a heavy tag on my bigger bag because I carried rocks home. However, I had EVERYTHING perfectly arranged. The rocks were in the bottom end and were still where I put them... but everything else I had been so careful about arranging was all fouled up, and a handful of other things, including a glass item were broken. I am very angry because I made sure to situate and pad things extra careful. They're getting a phonecall from me.
Anyway, now that the bad news is out of the way, everyone should be ready for the very ugly news. As if it wasn't bad enough to come home and find everything outside dead, here I start making some small attempts to get things back to normal. Sunday when I got home, I went and drained the pond and then took it into the yard and scrubbed it down and washed it out real good. Then I filled it again and started the water filtration system with the Cycle and all that good stuff. Monday I went out and got a few things I needed, including snakefood and another round of Cycle and other pond stuff. $8 total because they had a special package, yay. I went and picked up some aquarium gravel at Wal-Mart, and some cat treats. They only had two bags of the gravel I needed, so I have to wait till I can find more. But it's enough to start with.
So anyway, I come home and do stuff around the house. Getting things back in order, tending to animals, unpacking a few things at a time.... and mom calls me on her way home, slightly earlier than I expected her home. She tells me we have to talk when she gets home, and I figured right away something was wrong, and I asked what, but she wouldn't tell me on the phone. So I brooded and waited. She finally got home, and broke the news to me.
She and her really awesome boss Matthew, both got laid off. They cut them loose. This is a very horrible situation. Bad for us, but especially for Matthew who has a very sick wife in and out of the hospital. Added to the fact my mother's knee is injured, and she will probably have to have surgery. She had an MRI, and has fluid and a cyst, as well as torn meniscus. So she'll probably have to have something similar to what I had done.
It was just such a shock. The bastards waited till after Joint Commission (the really HUGE inspection thing mom and Matthew and everyone worked soooo hard for..) after all that work was done and their asses were covered, then they dropped the axe. After they had that meeting just before I had left for NY where concerned employees expressed their distress over the people the hospital had just fired then, some of which had been there since the doors first opened! Ooooh, but administration staff claimed that they wouldn't be laying anyone else off for a long while. Yet then mom and Matthew, the headers of their department for crying out loud, get canned? Not because of their job quality mind you. If anything they always did everything above and BEYOND the requirements and put their all into it even when they got paid not nearly what they deserved and got shit for raises...but they got laid off for 'business' reasons.
Because of the medical scams no thanks to those fuckup doctors in California who were under the Tenet Health system... those doctors trying to put more money in their pockets fucked it over for everyone. Chain reaction through the company trying to cover its ass and pay expenses against law suits. So they start dropping people left and right. However, this particular facility has dug its own grave. They decided it was best to get rid of two senior employees who had been there YEARS, to hire on new people who know NOTHING about the new phone systems or any of the other things my mother and Matthew took care of? All to pinch pennies, when they are already horribly understaffed and worn thin as it is. They're going to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off when they realize just how much work mom and Matthew did there.
So in short when it rains, it pours. I've had a handful of people tell me they want to help contribute to the pond and sacred space living again. So donations and trades are currently greatly accepted. Donate a few bucks, the pond will live! Everyone who has expressed their concern and wish to help so far are getting special little somethings as thanks. I'm also VERY much trying to do anything I can to bring in money at this point. There's a vet clinic I think I have a good chance of getting a job at, and I'm going to go see Debbie and John at Delta and explain the situation and tell them I NEED something. Anything. There might be a position open at Sears in Fine Jewelry too.
I'm also currently working on designing a handful of new dreamcatchers that will be unique and different from others you might find. I just hope the physical pieces will reflect well the mental images I have of their creation. Staffs too. With these bones I have, I can finally start on a piece I have wanted to try for ages. I basically finished a website I was working on for watergazer. I'll wait till she's approved of it before I share though. I'm also working on some artwork that I am hoping will have a chance of being put on production lines. Paws tightly crossed.
So off I go to work.