Time flying v. standing still

It is 8 degrees outside right now.

That is so very wrong.

But what’s unfortunate about that is the weather is beautiful. It’s clear, no precipitation and, more importantly, no wind. “Eight degrees” and “beautiful” should never go together.

The wind here just brutal, so any reprieve from it is utterly fantastic. I’m just dreading the rest of the winter.

Or, I guess I should say, winter. Technically, this is still fall, as I’m reminded by the fact FSU lost a horrible football game yesterday. Winter won’t begin until December 21.

I’m sort of looking forward to that, if only because that’s also the winter solstice and therefore on. Dec. 22, the days will start to get longer again. It’ll be colder, for sure, but it won’t be dark at 6:17 p.m.

Yeah, just like in PC, I look forward to crossing off dates on the calendar.

There are still two little landmarks to cross before I hit that solstice, though.

The first is Nov. 30, which is the last day of my $50k in 30 days fund-raising campaign. The early results of the direct mailing are in. I had a $4k day on Saturday, which put me to the $17k mark – not counting that automatic match I mentioned last week.

The next landmark is Friday, Dec. 13. According to the little journals I have to do for AmeriCorps, that’s going to be week 21 – the halfway point.

That’s a bit bittersweet. Except for the weather, I feel like I just got here, but I’m halfway done.

So far, I’ve done far more than I did while in PC (not that I didn’t try), and in some sense time is flying. But in others, it’s standing still, too. I have stuff I’ve been working on for what seems like forever, but I haven’t even made a dent.

I learned another crappy thing about my position with AmeriCorps – it’s not being renewed.

This is bad, and it’s wrong. My organization signed on with another organization for two volunteers for multiple years. The one was Epic Fail, and she is not being replaced, nor are they putting anyone here after me.

So for me, this creates a dilemma because I am still pursuing the State job, for which I am still undergoing clearances.

Assuming I clear that, it is possible – though not extremely likely – that I could get an offer in January or March.

I feel the odds for January are virtually zero, but on the off-chance if I got an offer in March, I’d have to accept and would feel very guilty about it.

This would leave my organization, and flood recovery overall, in a lurch.

I’m expendable; I’m comfortable knowing that. But my position is not. It doesn’t matter if it’s an AmeriCorps position, pro bono or funded by a grant. The position is needed.

When the VISTA people came to visit me previously, I lobbied for the next volunteer to be placed here in April, because that’s when the Hope Village campus reopens. There’s a big need for continuity. Me leaving in June would have been hard enough.

Now, I’m going to have to go out and find a grant or something to fund another position and hope we can get funding by March.

Incidentally, when I got a visit from the VISTA people, I got a lecture (a nice one, I mean) about how VISTA is *not* the same thing as AmeriCorps. Apparently, the VISTA people are not AmeriCorps, although VISTA is one of the AmeriCorps programs.

It makes no sense to me, either, honestly, but I don’t like identifying myself as a VISTA because, well, no one knows what the hell a VISTA is. (For the record, it is a Volunteer In Service To America.)

As far as I am concerned, I am an AmeriCorps volunteer, and that works for me.

I just wish there would be another AmeriCorps volunteer coming here after me.

Pee and Toast

FINALLY. I have heat and running water. I’m in the house and it’s everything I remember it to be.

It’s been just wonderful, although today I learned that there’s a leak in the ceiling in the breezeway. I have to call the owners about that and see what they say. It looks like it’s been repaired before, so clearly they know about it.

The house is pretty big and I am sharing it with a roommate for about a month. She is a member of the church who just moved back to town (air force) and is buying a house.

I’m in the main bedroom and it is more than twice the size of the entire RV.

The best thing is the bathroom. It has a deep tub and a shower. And bother have running water! Oh, my.

The first night, I caught myself pouring a glass of tea around 8 p.m. I caught myself and first thought, “No, wait, it’s after 7 p.m., you can’t drink liquids” and then I thought, “Holy cow, yes you can!”

I no longer have to pull on boots, a coat and a hat to go pee in the middle of the night!

Oh, these small hurdles are just so fantastic.

I also have a garage, which is wonderful for my little car. I mean, that poor thing is as Southern as you can get. It was probably made in Tennessee, and it lived in Louisiana before moving to Florida. It groans at me in the snow – of which there is PLENTY right now.

I’m still getting used to some things, like where the light switches are and the fact that there is no garbage disposal. Not that the RV had one or anything, but these days, most sinks do, you know?

The TV has a satellite package but none of the ESPN channels. This has worked out just fine so far because I had to work during the FSU game on Saturday anyway. I trust the Gator game is on ABC or something, but if not, I will watch it at Hope Village in the rec chapel.

There is no DVD player but I brought mine over. The Internet is pretty darn slow and I can’t Netflix but I will deal with that.

Walking to Walmart seems like it would be quicker, since I am technically only four houses away from it, but I can’t just cut across those three other backyards, I have to walk back up the street, around the road and then back down the sidewalk.

My solution to this will be to try to avoid Walmart. I usually do this after Thanksgiving anyway, and since I’ve pretty much done the Christmas shopping (since I’m not buying gifts and all) and can now make my own sweet tea, I don’t have much of a reason to go.

At some point, I will have to start grocery shopping. I’ve bought minimal goods so far, like pasta and alfredo sauce. I’m still eating leftovers from Hope Village, although I did make rice tonight to supplement the meatballs from HostFest. And I bought another Key lime pie, although not with the coupon that was in the paper since I had left it in my car. I will save that for another day.

I still have a ton of leftovers. Most of it is still in the freezer at Hope Village, but I’m pulling out some stuff and bringing it over. I grabbed Salisbury steaks yesterday, thinking it was the salmon. I have pounds and pounds of salmon. It’s very briney.

I also have eggs. We somehow had two cases left over and I bought a dozen home and gave away a few more dozen before realizing I could just take the rest of the stuff to the food pantry, which I did today.

But now I have a dozen eggs of my own, and I’m making scrambled eggs in the morning.

And toast! I haven’t had toast in so long. It’s just so cool to be able to cook my own breakfast. I am so sick of that Corn and Frosted Flake mixture I’d been eating.

Hot food! Late-night liquids! Does it get any better?

Self-portrait in my new bed.

Yes, yes it does!

I’m in the midst of my fund-raiser right now (www.hopevillageND.org). A donor gave us $25k and agreed to match, dollar for dollar, amounts raised up to $50k more. (This is the Zac Brown Band contest winner … so glad I don’t listen to people who try to tell me what I can’t do …) So the whole package had the potential to be $125k to flood recovery (not just Hope Village).

It ends Nov. 30, and I was starting to sweat, even though it was just this past weekend that I got the entire mailing to the post office. I had $14k as of this morning.

Then, I got an email from another place I’d asked. I wrote a grant for the entire match amount -- $50k – and they granted it in full.

I swear, I was so excited I was completely useless for anything else. So that’s, so far, $139k for flood recovery, with the direct mail just hitting mailboxes this week.

I’m so pyched. And to think, according to some little blurbie thing I saw on Facebook, an average AmeriCorps volunteer brings in $8k in grants.

I am so above average. But you knew that. 

Happy Thanksgiving. I know I’m thankful.

Oh, s---!

Well, it’s a bittersweet day. I have been sitting at the office in the church and working on hand-addressing 2,500 envelopes, content in the knowledge that tonight I’ll be soaking in a bathtub in my warm house. And it’s snowing outside. Still and again.

The owners of the home I’m moving into were due to fly out at noon this morning and during, my breaks in labeling the lopes, I have loaded up my car.

And the folks who just came by for their church portraits let it slip that all flights were canceled today. I went online to verify and, sure enough, I’m sleeping in the RV at least one more night.

Oh, I am so disappointed, but I can’t say I am surprised. The visibility is miserable and I’m not excited about driving any time soon.

I was excited about wearing my new boots, though. I got some Patagonia boots on sale from someplace for dirt cheap, but when I wore them for the first time yesterday, the suede split! I have to ship them back tomorrow and I am bummed about that.

But there’s enough snow to warrant my taller LL Bean boots, which are also awesome.

In the mean time, I’m hanging out in the church again, addressing envelopes and watching Netflix. I’ve been alternating between “Monk” and “Frasier” with an occasional movie or documentary thrown in.

I do not want to spend more time in the RV, where I again ran out of propane in the middle of the night.  Again, the electric blanket is all that I need, but it’s still really annoying.

And cold. So very cold in the morning. I got up, threw on the sheet and got dressed under that as I stood in front of the space heaters.

Went into the church for breakfast and went back to the RV, where I got validation of how cold I had been.

There, hanging out of my faucet, was an icicle. Inside the house. Oh, my, it’s cold inside.

The high today is 12, and tomorrow it’s 20.

It is so frightening that I am looking forward to it being 20.

But I am. Not as much as I am looking forward to it being May, but I am.

What a disaster

This week, I kicked off a big fund-raiser for long-term flood recovery, which was cool. This has been in the works for a couple of weeks and I’m glad to have gotten it started.

The hard part, of course, is sustaining it, especially in the face of new disasters.

Minot’s flood, even though it affected a full quarter of the population, never really got the attention of the nation. Recovery here is incredibly slow; beyond the fact that fewer than 200 people had flood insurance (seeing as how we're not in a flood plain), we have a short, short building season and there aren’t companies headquartered or based here to hand out money hand over fist and all.

And now there’s a new disaster to remove us even more from the public’s eye.

It’s pretty awful, to try to figure out how to fund an operation to rebuild homes when people would much rather contribute to a high-profile disaster. I mean, what’s North Dakota in comparison to the nation’s largest media market?

That’s not to take away from the devastation along the East Coast, but it’s just another challenge.

We don’t have Bruce Springsteen to hold a benefit concert the week after. We wind up having the only celebrity in sight call in a favor with his wife to get the Black-Eyed Peas to perform. (Apparently, Josh Duhmel, whom I’ve never heard of, is married to Fergie, whom I’ve also never heard of, and she is a singer with the Black-Eyed Peas, which I only know of as a restaurant that, I think, went out of businesses, but it is apparently a band as well. I don’t get out much, do I?)

So I do not know how this fund-raiser will do. And I worry about recruitment for volunteer teams next year. And I worry about finding grants to continue to fund the care and feeding of the volunteers who do come.

There aren’t going to be many teams coming here through the winter, unfortunately. We don’t have another coming in until Nov. 12, but there are still a few for the winter. I’m not sure when the next one after that is supposed to be. I’d like to get more local volunteers, but right now it’s not looking promising.

Part of that is the three inches of snow that just came down. Yuk. I didn’t even drive anywhere this weekend because I just don’t want to deal with the snow. Which doesn’t bode well since it’s only November.

The good thing about it being November is that, in seven days, I get to move into the house. It looks like it’s a go, but I am going to have to fork over some rent. At this point, I don’t care. I am so tired of throwing on a coat, boots, a hat, scarf and gloves to go brush my teeth or whatever. Just tired.

Weekends are boring, and I have to work my trips into the church to brush my teeth, wash dishes, etc., around church services or risk getting caught in the bathroom with a toothbrush in my mouth, which is kind of a surprise to early morning church-goers. At least there were no funerals or weddings this weekend.

I walked to the Y around noon on Saturday for a shower. It feels like going to the hammam in Morocco. I load up stuff and walk down there,  then trudge back clean. Bishaa!

This weekend I had planned on going to see “Argo” but it wasn’t showing at the matinee time and I decided I’d just get it on Red Box or whatever when it comes out on video. Seven-seventy five for an afternoon show doesn’t work for me.

So between that and the dreaded “wintery mix,” I just stayed on campus, which means I’m going nuts now.

I started taking FEMA classes online to stave off the funny farm. Between yesterday and today, I took seven classes. I decided I’d take all the communications-related ones and add them to my resume. There are four of those left, and then there are something like six others that sounded fairly interesting.

But there are a slew of classes overall, so I might just kill lots of time with them. I figure if the State job doesn’t come through, maybe I can opt with FEMA. God knows it pays so much more. I am checking those job openings on usajobs just to see what kinds of gigs they have.

Despite the fund-raising kickoff and being incredibly busy, it seems like it’s been a dull week. I’m not entirely sure why that is, because I really did do a slew of stuff. Maybe I’ve just already mentally blocked everything.

I’ve ordered some new snow boots and bought the new Toby Keith CD plus a George Strait No. 1 hits one. When those get listed as highlights, it’s time to slit your wrists. (Nothing against TK or Strait, and the boots *are* awesome, but you get the picture.)

In more Minot flood v. Sandy, here’s a sampling of what we’re up against.

Beyond the Boss v. the Black-Eyed Peas, we have dueling singles.

Rapper Big Reeno for Minot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2I4oV4sbpo

It’s “The Forgotten Disaster,” and, even though it’s not my genre, it’s a really good thing for BR to do. I’m thankful he’s donating the proceeds to Hope Village, though I wish he’d gotten our web address right on the video. (It’s .org, not .com)

Meanwhile, Hurricane Sandy survivors get this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2CcW-OMT8Q

It’s David Lee Roth, but not as Van Halen fans remember him. Instead, he’s teamed up with my favorite country writer, Scotty Emerick, who, while (unfortunately) not seen on video, is the one picking the guitar. 

"One Piece Thermo-Molded Country Plastic Chair," with proceeds to Sandy victims.

I would very much like to read the story of how those two wound up collaborating.