Just as I suspected

In April, we had near record highs. The whole month was beautiful and warm, and we topped 80* by the middle of the month.

Now it's May, and the highest temp I'm seeing on the fifteen day forecast is 73*. We've had over an inch of rain in two days. It's fine; I'm not complaining. Better 73* than 93*, and when it rains I don't have to drag sprinklers around the house at regular intervals. It just confirms what I suspected; April and May switched places.

I'm glad, actually. I'm more inclined to get out and walk when it's cooler. This buys me some time to get ready for summer, and it lets me wear my winter clothes a little longer. The only casuality might be the cute skirt and top I bought for confirmation, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing work around.

Day 1

Today was the first whole day of The New Job. All I can say is that I hope they're all more or less the same.

I had, oh, maybe a dozen customers in 6 1/2 hours; some were rather interesting characters from neighboring stores.

More importantly, from my perspective, I got 50 pages of Rogue Pawn edited and summarized. I found a few little details to work out. For instance, if one is living in a remote area, what would one use to make bread? Wheat takes space to grow. If you're in hiding, you're not going to grow wheat in a wooded area. Corn would work, if you happened to have seed corn with you when you fled the castle, fearing for your life. Yeah. Same thing with green beans. In fact, it's the same with most of the garden, unless I can find a way to explain how they got the seeds.

The other thing I have to work out is Sieger's culture shock when she's forced into society. There are spots when she's smart and savvy, but it's too soon for that. She's still young, and having been sheltered her entire life (to the point that she didn't see anyone but immediate family until adolescence), she shouldn't have the self-confidence she's displaying. It's funny that I thought I got to know her in the process of writing the story, but there are things I still don't know. This could be a long but very interesting process.

And I'm getting paid to do it, in a round-about way!

Be careful what you pray for

I've known for years that I need to be fairly specific when I pray. I learned that the hard way when I prayed for patience with my kids and God's answer was, "OK. Homeschool." I'm still homeschooling, and the forseeable end date is sometime in the next five years, but I don't know when.

Anyway, employment has been a hot topic here. We've been waiting six long months to find out whether Eric's contract will be renewed. The foreseeable date for that is sometime in the next five years, too, but it will be dragged out in 30-60 day extensions. It's good to know we still have the paycheck, but not so good for making plans that might require travel reservations of any form. I thought I'd been very specific about praying for resolution to the contract saga, but there must have been a night when I just prayed for a job.

Silly me.

I had another part time job fall into my lap Sunday. Literally. At church, too. One of the guys in the choir works with a store that sells dried fruits and nuts; it's like a health nut candy store. They've only been open about six months, and they needed a reliable person to mind the store while they're out making deliveries to other stores/beauty salons/doctors' offices, etc. I dropped in on my way home from church and, after talking with the owner for half an hour or so, was asked when I could start.

I went in for orientation yesterday, which consisted of a guided tour and an opportunity to ask questions before being left on my own until their other employee came in. I decided to do a little re-stocking, and that's when it dawned on me: I may not have had my last Christmas in retail after all.

Crap.

Oh well. It gets us out of debt faster.