I am a cat person, not a dog person...

...although you'd hardly be able to tell that these days. Not that we still don't have a million and one cats (er, 46 between me and my mom and three different properties...) but I seem to be acquiring dogs rather a lot recently. Mom and I took a stray shihtzu/lhasa mix away from a yardsale last weekend, as the person having the yardsale kept kicking at him and saying, "get out of here, you damn stray!" and he was just too cute to allow that to continue. Luckily, we were able to find a home for him, and took him there this evening.

Of course, at my house, in addition to Duke and Koala (and the multitude of kitties), I now have two chihuahuas! Can you believe that? I've never really been a fan of small dogs, but I love these two.

Twitter is six months old. I found her in mid-October, huddling against the door of a closed business on State St. here in Waycross. She was riddled with fleas, scrawny, terrified, and obviously had mange. Luckily it turned out to be demodetic mange, which is not contagious to people or to other animals, and she is being treated for it. Her skin now looks much better, and her hair is starting to grow back. She's also no longer scrawny and much braver.

The Old Man showed up in my neighborhood last week, skinny, freezing cold, and riddled with fleas. He is obviously quite old. He has old dog teeth, grey hair, and arthritis. He also looks rather pathetic. He's very calm and sweet, and mostly just wants to sleep in front of the heater.

The Old Man, wrapped up in blankets.

Twitter and The Old Man

Another update on Big Guy

Big Guy is doing well, although he is not yet completely healed. After having the drains in his one wound for a week, he had them removed, and the wound was re-sutured. He got all of his stitches out a week later. That night (this past Monday), the wound where the drains had been popped back open. I took him back to the vet Tuesday morning, and they decided that at this point the best thing to do would be to let it heal on its own. (Apparently, too much flesh and skin were lost during the removal of the necrotic and otherwise damaged tissue for it the wound to successfully close.) Anyway, I now clean it and coat it with medication twice a day. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. Additionally, he no longer shows any traces of having been feral. He wants to do nothing more than play with and be petted by me :-)

Update on Big Guy

UPDATE: I just spoke with the vet (it's about five hours since I dropped Big Guy off). Upon closer examination of his wounds, the vet decided to go ahead and keep him overnight to make certain that no further infection developed. Some of the wounds had developed necrotic flesh, and there were several un-ruptured abscesses (including the one in his back foot that he wouldn't let me touch this morning). He has numerous sutures around the area where the dead flesh was excised, and he had a drain installed in one of the worst wounds. Plus, he won't be allowed into a litter box (at least not one with cat litter in it) until the injury in his back foot heals! And did I mention that they went ahead and neutered him, too? Poor guy is not going to be happy! We should be able to pick him up tomorrow morning.

The Misadventure of Big Guy

Big Guy is a semi-feral cat who found his way out to our land all on his own several months ago. At the time, he was completely feral, and it took several months before he would come near us, and even more before we had even the slightest chance of petting him. Recently, though, he’d become quite brave, allowing me and my mother to pet him, and even to pick him up! (Well, he really did not enjoy being picked up, but at least he let me do it.)

Every day when I go out to the land and call, the kitties all come running from every direction. They watch as I feed the horses, then follow me eagerly over to “their” part of the land – the buildings where they’re fed. Friendly and feral cat alike do this every day. Sunday, I noticed that Big Guy wasn’t around. Now, these critters have plenty of land in which to roam, so if one doesn’t show up for dinner one night, it’s not usually an issue. However, when Big Guy wasn’t there on Monday, I began to worry.

The last thing I do every day before leaving the land is to pump water into the horses’ trough. The trough is near the north fence, and beyond that is a tangled wilderness of pine trees, palmetto, and blackberry bushes. As I approached the pump, I noticed what looked to be a cat, lying in the brush. I walked to the fence for a closer look, and sure enough – it was Big Guy. My immediate thought was that he was dead. I called to him and he didn’t respond. So, I went out the front gate and traipsed through a rather extensive bit of brush and blackberry bushes (which, for those who don’t know, are riddled with thorns) to where I’d seen Big Guy.

As I drew closer, he lifted his head and struggled into a sitting position; I could see that one of his front legs was swollen and bleeding. Feral cat or no, I wasn’t going to leave him out there. I scooped him up and carried him back out, through the tangle of thorny blackberries, to my car. I did not have a cat-crate with me. What I did have, was a pit bull. Now, Brin loves kitties, and Big Guy and Brin had met before on numerous occasions, but it was clear that the kitty did not want to get into the car or be anywhere near the dog… much less get into the car with the dog! Nonetheless, I managed to get all of us inside, at which point Big Guy urinated a copious amount all over me and the driver’s seat of my car. Then we drove to my house.

Once I got Big Guy inside, he was amazingly well-behaved – especially for an injured semi-feral! I placed him in my bathroom sink and examined his wounds. Something – probably a dog, though possibly another cat – had managed to sink its teeth into both his front legs, creating three nasty punctures in each, all of which had abscessed. I did my best to drain and clean each injury, and he was very patient with me. When I was finished, he downed a bowl of canned catfood, and snuggled into a laundry basket for the evening

This morning, I noticed that one of his back feet looked large and deformed. At first I thought that perhaps he did indeed have a deformed foot… but when I touched it, it was hot… and he reacted rather violently to my attempts to inspect it. So, after that I took him to the vet. I had to drop him off to go to work/school, but the vet called a couple of hours later to update me.

He said the wounds had been inflicted by another cat, and that in order to treat all of his various injuries, they would need to sedate him. He also suggested that while he was under sedation he go ahead and neuter him - in order to curb his enthusiasm for future catfights. Unfortunately, the local vet is not cheap; however, given that he was already going to be under anaesthetic and given that I'd like him to be traumatized as little as possible, I agreed. I suspect Big Guy is going to be VERY cranky when all of this is over!

Help support Brierpatch Cats!

Help support Brierpatch Cats (the non-profit my mom and I are starting - http://www.brierpatchcats.org) by purchasing a 2010 calendar!Just click here or on the photo above!

Do you use flickr?

Because I do! I know I haven't been much of a blogger of late... and I know not everyone wants to sign up for facebook. I've been trying to make sure that I upload the same photos to both facebook and flickr, since you don't have to sign up for anything to view my photos over there. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/janekeeler

My puppy, Twitter, plays with Teardrop the kitten

Okefenokee Humane Society News Update:

Below is the entire text quoted from this article in the Georgia Times Union:

Okefenokee Humane Society asks sheriff to investigate fired director
By Carole Hawkins

WAYCROSS - The Okefenokee Humane Society board wants the Ware County sheriff to investigate former shelter director Lori Hartmann's use of shelter funds.

Since firing Hartmann three weeks ago, the board has discovered past due bills totaling $8,500, treasurer Sirena Cady said Thursday at a specially called meeting. Cady said it appears Hartmann also made personal purchases on the shelter's Lowe's account and wrote herself and family members checks that the board had not authorized.

Board members voted unanimously to ask the county sheriff to conduct a criminal investigation.
During a telephone interview Friday, Hartmann called the assertions ridiculous. She said she has not hidden purchases or paychecks and had already informed the board that shelter finances were falling behind.

She said she believed she was fired for personal reasons and was being discredited.
In an Oct. 10 termination notice, Hartmann was told she was being discharged for failing to perform her duties in a manner acceptable to the board.

Cady said over the last three weeks she has uncovered multiple unpaid bills, which were unknown to the board.

She also detailed the following financial issues:

- Internet services were discontinued for non-payment.

- Hartmann had purchased a more expensive cell phone service a few months ago.

- Late payments to the IRS and Georgia Department of Labor for payroll taxes had incurred penalties.

- The county paid an overdue fuel bill for Humane Society vehicles and docked its monthly check to the shelter.

- A worker's compensation insurance payment of $754 is past due.

- Hartmann had opened a Lowe's account for the corporation in December that the board, which was seated in January, knew nothing about. Monthly bills were being sent to Hartmann's home address. The account balance is $3,194.

"There are purchases here that don't appear to be items that were used at the Humane Society," Cady said.

That includes two charges for carpet installation, which were made in December at a total cost of around $2,000.

"There is no carpet at the shelter," Cady said.

Numerous payments had been made to Hartmann's husband and daughter, Cady said. Hartmann also wrote herself checks for bookkeeping services and paid herself overtime, even though she was a salaried employee, Cady said.

Hartmann admitted she made some personal purchases on the Humane Society's account but said she paid for them when she did so. She admitted part of the outstanding balance was hers and said she would pay it.

Hartmann said the first time she made a personal purchase on the Lowe's account, it was a mistake and former board president Millie Hopkins had told her to "just work it out."
Hopkins couldn't be reached for comment.

As for overdue bills, Hartmann said she had kept the board informed. She said she had told the board about the overdue second- and third-quarter payroll taxes and submitted regular financial reports to the board.

"I didn't do anything wrong. They knew about everything," she said. "They've been in financial despair. I've been telling them that for months," Hartmann said the board knew both her husband and daughter had worked there and said she paid them as contractors when they did.

She said over a year ago Hopkins suggested she hire her daughter.

Her husband performed maintenance work for the shelter on an as-needed basis.

"Millie knew he was there. And [board member] Jim Morton talked to him last June about building decks for the dogs and fixing fences," said Hartmann. "He was doing it in front of them and they knew he was getting paid to do it."

Hartmann agreed she had written herself checks for bookkeeping services but said former shelter director Kaye Thompson had also done so.

Rather than paying a more expensive accountant, the Humane Society paid the director to prepare the agency's tax documents, Hartmann said.

Hartmann acknowledged charging the Humane Society overtime, but only as an accounting technique to increase her tax withholding. Her take-home pay, including both regular and overtime hours, totaled her agreed-upon salary.

The Humane Society board voted to reaffirm Hartmann's dismissal Thursday.

The organization has been working to negotiate terms of payment with its creditors.

Just a reminder....

...I still update facebook more often than I do blogger. Join me there! Also, I am sick. Boo!

Alas, no house.

Well, my mom decided that in the end she didn't want to spend the money it would take to get the house moved out to the land. She had decided to go for it based on an estimate that turned out to be a 50% less than what it turned out to actually be, so it's certainly an understandable decision. Disappointing, though :-(

Purchase the best of my Kyrgyzstan photos!

I finally finished my coffee-table book of photographs from Kyrgyzstan. You can get it in either soft-cover ($39.95) or hard-cover ($49.95) - and believe me, the hardcover is a MUCH better deal. Simply click here or on the picture above. You can see the first fifteen pages of the book on the website... but that doesn't even get you out of the capital city! The book is 114 pages long and contains 188 color photographs, each with a detailed description and/or explanation. Enjoy!

House-Moving Woes

Mom just spoke to the other house mover in the area. His price is all-inclusive (roof removal, foundation pouring, permit/escort acquiring, etc) but it would come to $25,000! He seems to be a lot more competent than the other guy as well. (The other guy didn't think that we would need to pour any sort of foundation under the pilings, whereas this guy says that would be a definite requirement, which was what I had thought.) While that's a hell of a house for $25k (there's no way we could get something like that built out there for that price), we don't have that kind of cash on hand. And while normal people would just go get a loan, my mom is very Ayn Randish in a paying cash for items kind of way. Mom is going to think on it for a day or two before making her final decision. What do you guys think?

House moving decisions and dilemmas

So initially, we'd spoken with a local house-mover who had quoted us a price of $1500/day to move the house. He also said he "didn't think it would take too long to move." At that point in time, he had already seen the house and had told us that it was definitely moveable. After getting the go ahead at the end of last week from the current owners of this house, we called him back, and agreed to meet Saturday morning to look at our land (and the "road" to our land) to make sure it was somewhere he would physically be able to move the house to. We also planned to then go with him to take a closer look at the house. He checked out the land and the road, and didn't think that there would be any problems there whatsoever. Then we drove out to Blackshear to take a look at the house. We got there, and the first thing he told us was that we would have to get a carpenter to remove the roof. (I don't mean a roofer taking the roofing off, I mean a carpenter/contractor/construction worker with a crane who could separate the attic space, rafters and all, from the rest of the house, and place it on the ground, and who could then reattach it to the house once it was moved.) Now, we had assumed that since the house mover had already seen the house when he gave us his quote of $1500/day, that would be all-inclusive. This having-to-hire-a-contractor thing came as rather a shock. It was also somewhat bizarre that the house mover could not (or would not) recommend anyone to do the roof removal. He told us to just go through the yellow pages and select whoever gave the best rate. Now, surely, as house moving is his business, he has encountered tall houses before, and therefore should (in theory) be able to recommend a contractor. Right? This just seemed a little odd to us. There is one other house-mover in the area, and we are going to call him and get an estimate and see whether or not he does the roof removal himself. Right now we are trying to get recommendations for decent contractor who has the necessary equipment (like a crane...) needed to hoist a roof off and then back on to a house. No idea how much that part of the whole experience will cost, although chances are, it will double the costs. BOOOOOO! Suddenly the entire project is looking a lot more expensive than it did just a few days ago, and looks very well like it might drain all of my mom's savings in one fell swoop. That being said, even if it ended up running $20,000 to move it, there is no way that we could get a house of that size and quality built out at the land for $20k, so it still seems like a good deal. Thoughts? Also, for those of you who wanted interior pictures, here they are. Keep in mind, the current owners are using the place for storage right now, so it's somewhat full of junk at the moment.

Front porch


Living room, looking straight back from the front door


Livingroom, full view from front door - the ceilings are something like 12ft high!


front bedroom (just back from the living room)


This is the only room in the entire house with water damage.
(Located in roof and wall and furniture underneath leak)


bathroom behind front bedroom


The diningroom (to the left of the front door when you walk in) also has incredibly high ceilings.



The ceiling in the kitchen, however, has been lowered.

first rear bedroom

second rear bedroom


rear bathroom


laundry room

House Moving!

A couple of weeks ago, and ad appeared in the local paper, offering a free house to be moved off someone's land. This is what my mother and I have been on the lookout for, although previous such offers have turned out to be for houses so far gone that they would have disintegrated on transport. One such house was in great structural condition, but was filled with bats. And bat guano. When we saw this house, however, we thought that we must simply be in the wrong place. It looked to be in too good of condition to be offered for free... but nope, it was the one. The owned warned us of "really bad water damage" - and after seeing some of the other houses that have been offered for free, we were prepared for disastrous conditions inside - but it turned out that the water damage was minimal and easily repairable. The house itself was huge: 3 bedrooms, a huge kitchen/dining area (bigger than mine, for those of you who've seen my house), a huge living room, two bathrooms, laundry room, and a screened in front porch. The owners told us they were going to wait until the following Tuesday, and that they would be in their business at 9am on that day... and that the house would go to the first person to make a commitment. This gave those of us interested enough time to track down a house mover and to make an estimate. We found a house mover and got a reasonable sounding rate, and waited for Tuesday at 9am. I called them at 8:50am that Tuesday... only to find that someone had just beaten me to it. My mom and I were second in line for the house. We expected that meant that there was no chance whatsoever that we'd be getting it. Then, this afternoon, the phone rang while I was napping. It was my mother, calling to tell me that we'd gotten the house. The people who had beaten us to making the offer had apparently fallen through on how they were going to finance the move. I was really excited, although promptly fell back asleep. I awoke an hour later and had to actually call my mom to confirm whether or not it had been a dream, or if we were actually getting the house - and we are! (Well, it's not 100% definite; the house mover has seen the house, but still needs to check out our land and our "road" - but it seems as though we'll be getting it!

Taxes, money, and (sadly) rethinking Nicaragua

Property tax bills have just come in the mail. As you might know, between me and my mother, we have four properties, so this isn’t exactly a fun time of the year. Additionally, my house is in the city of Waycross, which has absurdly high property taxes, considering. My first year of home ownership, my property taxes were nearly $500. Now, I pay a monthly fee for water/sewer/trash, so what is it my tax dollars are paying for? The non-existent police presence? The fact that the defaced street signs which say I live on the corner of Ass and Ass have been there since before I bought my house? Anyway, after I had to pay my first outrageous property tax bill, I applied for homestead exemption. This greatly reduced my property taxes; last year they were something like $60.

This year, there was a yellow notice attached to the tax bill which reads:

The state homestead tax relief grant that funded an increased homestead exemption for homeowners for the last several years will not be available this year. Declining state revenues during the current recession means there is no money for the state to give tax relief to homeowners. This will mean a property tax increase of $200 to $300 on the 2009 tax bills for many Georgia homeowners. The grant appropriated by the General Assembly and the Governor for the past several years to counties, cities and schools had given tax relief to homeowners in the form of a credit on their tax bills. According to legislation passed this year, the grant will only be made available in the future if state revenues grow at least 3% plus the rate of inflation.

I owe $416 on my property taxes this year. I should at least get some new street signs.

Meanwhile, as much as I do very much want to go to Nicaragua as part of the WorldVets.org spay/neuter program, my mother pointed out to me that for the amount of money I’d be paying to take part in that program, I could pay for all of the kittens we got this spring to get fixed, now that they’re getting old enough. After thinking about that, it is kind of hard for me to justify going, despite the fact that I really would love to make an overseas trip to pretty much anywhere right about now. So, that being said, I’ve decided not to go to Nicaragua :-(

To Rob B and Diana E, it turns out that I entered the wrong email address in ChipIn... it’s still *my* email address, but in ChipIn sends money to PayPal based on the email address provided, and to receive money through PayPal, one’s email address must be confirmed. In order to confirm your email address, you must provide PayPal with your bank account number. I have only one bank account, and it is linked to my pre-existing PayPal account, and therefore can't be linked to any other. As a result, I can’t “confirm” my account or receive your donation anyway – must be a sign that I’m not meant to go. No worries; PayPal will refund your money if I can’t confirm my account (and I can’t).

So much death...

Starting this past weekend, my mom's dogs had been digging out of her backyard. She keeps Brin (the brindle pit bull) inside anyway, but I ended up with Brin and Bitsy (the rat terrier) over at my house, while she did everything she could to keep Blackie (Brin's brother) and Hope (a doberman mix) from getting out. Tuesday, one of her cats, Annette, was supposed to go to the vet to get spayed, but she was nowhere to be found; we have yet to see any sign of her. Wednesday morning, one of the kittes, Silvie, was lying dead in her yard. There were no visible marks on her, so we didn't know if one of the dogs had gotten to her or if something else had happened. Wednesday afternoon, mom returned home to find another cat, Jessie, lying dead in nearly the same place as she had found Silvie that morning. The body did look as though it had been disturbed by dogs (saliva all over his side), but there were no visible bite marks, and we all know that any dog that finds an animal corpse is going to play with it. We didn't want to jump to any conclusions... especially since it seemed so weird for there to be two dead cats in the same place in such a short space of time. And especially since when Blackie and Hope were around cats in the presence of either me or my mother, they showed no signs of aggression. We took the two bodies of the cats to the vet to be necropsied, so we could learn if it had been a dog, or if perhaps one of the neighbors was putting out poison. The necropsy was scheduled for this morning. We ended up cancelling it, as Blackie got ahold of and killed another cat, Stormy, this morning. We cannot have a cat killer on the premises, no matter how sweet of a dog he is to us, so sadly, we had him euthanized this morning.

Please Vote!

I haven't posted about JPG in ages, but here's a submission I have to Issue 23 under the theme of Decay. Please either click here to vote, or click on the picture below. Thank you, thank you! (BTW, this photo was taken on in the village of Khuzhir on Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, Siberia.)

Chip-in counter isn't working....

...but thank you to Diana E. and Rob B. for the donations!!! :-)

Combining my favorite thing with what I want to become...

My friend Linda pointed out to me that WorldVets.org is taking a spay/neuter trip to Nicaragua during the exact same time that Waycross College has its spring break. The trip is open to vets, vet students, pre-vet students, vet techs and vet assistants. Now, how could I possibly pass up the opportunity to do my very favorite thing (travel to a foreign country) while assisting with something I care a lot about (spaying and neutering dogs and cats) which could help get me into vet school? Well, there is the problem that I am completely broke, as my ten hours a week at minimum wage doesn't even cover all my bills, much less allow me to put money into savings for a trip to Nicaragua. I have several different ideas for how to come up with the funds. One of these ideas will involve completely refurbishing my online store - but I can't start on that until after this week of exams is over. In the meanwhile, I am simply asking for your help. And as my birthday is September 25, you could also think of it as a birthday present :-)

:-(

I’d never met a dog like Dewey before. Don’t get me wrong – I love Koala and Duke, but they aren’t anything like my little Dewdrop. I knew he was sick when I brought him home from the shelter... but I thought I would be able to save him, or at least that my vet would be able to do so. My little guy got a month of love and affection and attention, but despite the best efforts of both myself and my vet, he died in my arms Tuesday night.

So many enemies...

Towards the end of my sojourn in Kyrgyzstan last year, a new teacher arrived at the school where I had been working. Initially, we hit it off. When asked why she had decided to come to Kyrgyzstan, she told me that she had read a book entitled So Many Enemies, So Little Time by Elinor Burkett, which was the travel memoir of a journalism professor who moved to Kyrgyzstan to teach in 2001. She told me that this book had inspired her to look for a job in Kyrgyzstan herself. I had been planning to order a handful of books as a welcome back to the US present to myself, and I added Burkett’s tome to my list and went ahead and ordered it. Then this new teacher and I had what you might term a falling out. By the time I left the country and returned to the US, I greatly despised her. Additionally, in the interim this new teacher had read Saffia Farr’s Revolution Baby – a book which I loathed – and enjoyed it! As such, I had two different reasons to think that perhaps So Many Enemies wasn’t actually worth my time. I shoved it aside, read other books, and months flew by during which I didn’t give it so much as a passing thought. Then, one evening a couple of weeks ago, when I was rummaging through my bookshelves looking for something I hadn’t yet read, I stumbled upon it and decided to give it a shot.

It turned out to be pretty good. Unlike Farr, whose narrative was clouded so much by her utter dislike of Kyrgyzstan, and whose descriptive abilities were somewhat limited, Burkett presents an incredibly accurate and easy-to-picture view of what life in Kyrgyzstan is like. Granted, a lot of what life in Central Asia is like would indeed be viewed by most Westerners in a negative light; however, she presents it in an impartial manner which allows the reader to be the judge. Must be that journalistic training, you think? Burkett, like myself, was abroad during the events of September 11, 2001, and I found that her experiences of what life was like for an American overseas at that time were quite similar to my own. I also discovered that Kyrgyzstan has apparently not changed much at all since her time there (2001-2002) and my time there in 2008. In addition to describing her life and work in Kyrgyzstan, Burkett writes about her travels during that time to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It was specifically interesting to read about her reception in and descriptions of pre-War on Terror Afghanistan and Iraq. I know people who have been to these countries much more recently than 2001-2002, and their more up-to-date descriptions of these places seem so very different from Burkett’s. Sadly, it would appear that things have gone very much downhill. I wish Burkett would return to these countries now and do a piece on the contrasts she would find.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is, that despite my rather silly delay in tackling this book, it turned out to be pretty good, and should be very much on the to-read list of anyone with an interest in Central Asia.

Time spent in my neighborhood...

It probably doesn't say much for my "parenting" skills, that Koala, my puppy that I raised from a baby, is such a bad, bad little girl. Not that I don't love her to death, but she has no manners whatsoever. And for a small/medium sized dog, she is incredibly strong. While Duke can definitely knock me over if he so desires - which is not surprising, as he comes up to my waist - he doesn't ever so much as consider doing such a thing. Koala, meanwhile, for all her diminutive stature, can - and does - knock me over in a heartbeat. Not to mention her love of tying me in knots with the leash and dragging me hither and yon. I took Duke, Koala and Dewey for a walk around my neighborhood this morning, and barely made it home... solely due to Koala's antics. Of course, watching me battle my way out of the various leash-knots Koala managed to tie around me and the other two dogs as we hobbled around the block provided obvious fodder for my neighbors' laughter. Sigh.

Now as you probably know, like to call my neighborhood 'the ghetto' as it is one of the worst (if not the worst) neighborhood in Waycross. That being said, Rob - who hails from Trenton, NJ - scoffs at the notion that anywhere in Waycross could possibly be considered a 'ghetto.' Nonetheless, as I've mentioned quite a few times in the past, it's not the best of neighborhoods. [Examples of this from my own personal experience can be found here, here, here and here.] My street is known to pretty much everyone in the community as the place one goes to buy drugs. I find this fascinating, as most of the houses on my street are rentals. Do these people get into dealing because they move to my neighborhood, do they move there in order to deal, or is it just that my neighborhood is the place in Waycross where the dealing is the most obvious? My street has five blocks, and I know there's one group (gang?) of dealers on each block. The group one block to the north of me is absurdly obvious in their marketing techniques - waving their arms and shouting while making crack/pot smoking gestures. They, unlike the other two groups, still haven't caught on that I *live* in the neighborhood and am not there to make a buy. (Of course other than Rob, myself, and our respective visiting family members, white people only ever come to my street for the purpose of purchasing, shall we say, goods or services. Unless of course, it's a landlord collecting the rent or remodeling after an eviction.) Definitely an interesting world in which I live!

Unemployment and Food Stamps, aka: Why I am annoyed at the State of Georgia

According to the Georgia Department of Labor’s website, if you leave your full time job in order to go back to school full time, you are eligible to receive unemployment. You are also eligible to receive unemployment (albeit less) if, while being a full time student you work part time. Now, according to these factors, I should be able to receive some form of unemployment benefit. Sadly, that is not the case. Why? Well, you have to have made a certain amount of money within the past year to qualify. If they counted “the past year” as being from August 2008 to August 2009, I’d be fine. Unfortunately, they count it from – of all absurdities – April 2008 to March 2009. They don’t count overseas employment, and as I only worked in the US from January to March 2009 (if going by there scheme), I haven’t made enough money to qualify for unemployment benefits. Grrrr.

Then there’s the whole food stamps thing. I figured, I’m super-poor, why not apply for food stamps? Every little bit really does help, and if I could get some money to cover some of my foodstuffs, that would be great. Anyway, first you apply, and then a week or so later you get an interview. In the application, they ask you to list your mailing address and your physical address. Now, let’s just say that after the baseball-bat-to-mailbox incident in my neighborhood, I’ve been receiving all my mail at my mom’s address. I don’t even have a mailbox at my house, so yes, my physical address and my mailing address are different.

DFACS (the Department for Family and Child Services, aka the food stamp folks) sent me a letter to my mom’s address stating that my telephonic interview would be today, 8/25. It was at a time when I was available, so I wasn’t concerned. Then, a few days later, I came home to find another letter from DFACS, this one wedged into my front screen door. It stated that my telephonic interview would be on 8/24, right in the middle of my physics class. Same case worker and everything. It also said that if I couldn’t make the interview, I should call and reschedule. Which I did. Except that all I was ever able to reach was the case worker’s voice mail. I did leave her a detailed message, but... I came out of physics and turned my phone on to discover a message stating that my application for food stamps had been turned down because I did not participate in the interview!

I immediately called the case worker back, and again, only reached voice mail. I left a message again explaining the two letters and the two different dates/times for the telephonic interview, and I expressed my desire to have an interview at the scheduled time on 8/25. Of course, she didn’t call at 9am. At 9:10, I called her and left a third message. I was planning to go down there and talk to them in person after class, but she called me at 9:45. The interview did not last long... apparently, if one is a full time student, one must also be employed a minimum of 25 hours/week in order to qualify. This is pretty absurd, considering that if I had the income generated from 25 hrs/wk of employment, I wouldn’t need food stamps! Grrrrr. Thus ends my first ever attempt at seeking government assistance; back to going it alone, as usual.

Who needs gainful employment when one can work less than 10 hours a week at minimum wage?

I have a job! I managed to snag one of the few student assistantship programs available through Waycross College. I’m certainly not going to make my fortune doing this, as I will be working ten hours a week or less for a whopping $7.25/hr, but that’s a good chunk of change more than no income at all… and besides, I couldn’t cram a full time job in around this course load anyway! I’m working for the PREP program, which is a program Waycross College runs with the local area middle and high schools. It helps keep at-risk students on track for college (at-risk being defined as those from low income families, families where neither parent went to college, and single/no parent households). I’m helping with the middle and high school students over in Pierce County (Blackshear), which is a bit of a drawback, as it takes a good 20+ minutes to get to the schools – luckily my car gets excellent gas mileage! So far, all I’ve done is paperwork (apparently that’s a big beginning of the school-year task for the program), although eventually I’ll be planning events and fund raisers and helping with tutoring.

One bizarre thing to share: the architectural design of Pierce County High School is based off that of a tri-level women’s prison! My first day there, I kept thinking that the building had a very strange design and that it reminded me of... something. It wasn’t until the PREP director told me that it was based on a plan for a prison that it all clicked into place. No, none of the cell – er, classroom – doors slam shut with a clang when the bell rings, but once you know what you’re looking at, it’s simple to take any scene from any prison movie/show and superimpose it on your surroundings. Not as creepy as the morgue-turned-dorm at Sewanee, but still a tad disconcerting. And at least the PCHS kids aren’t saddled with that horrific “mouse ears” design of my former high school. *shiver*

Back to School!!

Today was my first day of school in eight years! I feel a little rusty being back in the classroom after so long, especially since the only “classes” I’ve taken since graduating from college were my rather pathetic attempts to learn Korean and Kyrgyz. The students at Waycross College range from those fresh out of high school (most of them probably fall into this category), to those in their twenties and thirties, to those in their fifties! While I’m not the only “old fogie” enrolled at WC (and yes, it totally amuses me to abbreviate it as such) thus far, I’ve only encountered one other person already in possession of a Bachelor’s degree, and she is there simply to take art classes for fun. I don’t think there’s anyone else there in the same situation as myself.

I only had one class today: Physics. I have to admit that physics scares me somewhat. It was the only class I ever dropped when I was at Sewanee, and I did so because I was doing rather poorly. In my defense, I was 19, away from home for the first time, and spending every evening partying like a rockstar. Certainly none of these things apply this time around! It doesn’t seem hard at all as yet, although we covered very little ground in our first class. I suspect it will get tougher as it goes along. Tomorrow – biology and chemistry. I’m looking forward to biology; those of you who went to the same high school as I did and who remember Mrs. Mac probably understand why I can’t say the same for chemistry!

As a side note, WC has super-awesome wireless internet, which means I’ll probably be spending a lot of my free time on campus taking advantage. My mom’s response to this was, “Oh no! I’ll never see you again!” (I have no internet at my house, and have been going over to hers at least once a day to make use of the interwebz.) Of course, she teaches history at WC, so I’m not really sure what she’s talking about :-)

One last tidbit of news – I’ve actually started posting things over on the Brierpatch Cats Blog, although sadly, they're not the happiest. Go check it out. Hopefully there will be some good news over there soon.

Not exactly news, but...

...the road to The Land is flooded again, after being passable nearly all summer.

Signs of the times: Waycross Signage

While I do find this amusing,
it doesn't exactly make me want to go in there and buy food!

When teaching English overseas, I found that my students always wanted to translate the idiom "fed up" as "full" - After struggling to explain the correct meaning, I know this sign would totally throw them off!

Recommended blog!

Oh, this amuses me to no end: http://waycrossga.blogspot.com/ - specifically the "Drugs & Thugs" segments. Here's a quote:

In the 1900 block of Hazel Street, a house under construction was inspected by members of the Waycross Liberation Squad and found to have un-needed items like a portable air compressor, a framing nailer, a cordless drill, a metal chop saw, and a skill saw. The squad members quickly liberated these un-needed items (and probably headed right to the pawn shop).

My mom lives just down the road from this house, and I actually saw the squad cars there the other evening and wondered why...

Freedom and Poverty! And Blogging! And Pets!

Scare crow??

I was driving down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere today, and in front of a house (which looked unlived in) was a dead crow up in a tree. Not only was it dead, but it was TIED TO THE TREE. Talk about creepy. Like horror movie creepy. I got a close-up of the dead bird. I was going to get a distance shot to show the whole scene, but then this car pulled up and wouldn't drive past my car, so I felt like I had to get out of there right away!

Koala!

My baby's growing up!

Beagly is a mutant.

Normal dogs have five toenails on the front feet and four toenails on the back feet. Then there's Beagly:

See that toenail on the upper left?
That's not supposed to be there.

And check out the weirdness on the bottom of the foot, too.


He is a cutie though.

More kitten cuteness!

Beagly and Koala

(Beagly is my mom's beagle.)

In the news in Waycross, GA

(see large version)

Mucking about in Clough's Bay

My mom and I went on a rather lengthy horseback ride on Sunday, through a rather swampy area just west of her land known as Clough's Bay. Let me show you some maps of where we went before I get into the pictures. Our route is marked in pink:

It was a very sunny day. I remembered to take photos of my shadow,
but neglected to apply sunscreen...


We took the dogs Blix and Brin with us, and they had a ball.
(A good 40% of the "roads" we followed were underwater.)




We rode into some areas that were burnt during the fires of 2007.
(and yes, that's a "road" there!)


There's a lot of desolate land out here...


And we rode through it!




Some places really looked more like canals than roads...


Dr. Seuss Trees!!!


(At one point, mom decided to give her rear a break...)


This is what comes of not wearing sunscreen!