I'm not going to go on about how I hate trips to Cancun. My new driver, Carlos, makes it easier. Yesterday, he came into Soriano's before I was ready to check out and joked with the cashier about what a dangerous pair we were...he a chilango, a native of Mexico City, and me a foreigner without a Mexican ID. It was minutes away! ha! Potential bandits foiled again.
Anyway, we go back for taxpayer IDs etc this morning. The plan is that Pascal and Anne Marie will ride the ferry with me. They have decided to spend their last night in Akumal so they can scuba Cozumel. These are folks who took their certification dives in 1 degree Celsius water in Montreal and our cold wave at 55-70 is nothing!
Last night to celebrate my new papers we went to Miguel's so they would not have to return to Montreal saying I made the best mojitos on the island! I am a bit slow this morning!
Mike brought my new camera to the table, bless his heart, so the blog will soon be illustrated again. This CoolPix is a bit different, but I read the manual this morning and made the settings, so manana baby!
In Cleveland, they are still bleeding. 50 in all were cut from the newsroom. No list was published of who got axed, so they are still counting amongst themselves. There was no respect for seniority or work quality. It was like a gunman went in and strafed the place. Silently. Only using the same script by phone. You have been selected...
Yes, I was a lucky one. Now, to figure out how to transfer money to the credit union account to help people pay bills.
December 4, 2008
December 2, 2008
And I'm counting my blessings
I am being lazy today, trawling the web, looking to find names of friends who didn't make it to work today. At the same time, I am counting my blessings. I found a post newsie niche in life, spending most of my time on the island, doing very little, greeting guests, paying hired hands.
I got news this morning from the lawyer to come pick up my f'ing document. It will have to wait til tomorrow since I am waiting for the f'ing vet. He was born here, but his wife, a French Canadian, went through the f'ing document thing too. Then she became a citizen.
Carmen is fine tuning my bedroom with Lora's help. As if to supervise, Lora plopped herself on the bed and posed. She's not allowed! Con que direcho? With what right?
So, I am enjoying the sweet life, but also realize the world isn't right. It's the economy, stupid. Yesterday, I got an email canceling a December reservation. This particular couple has booked and cancelled three times since September 25. So, the bad news is, December 17 through Jan. 15 is open in one unit! In a recession, there is worse news to be found, and I am grateful.
The vet came and gave Lora her pedicure and anti-tick shot. His wife is French Canadian and we got to talking. Ana has just returned from LA where she took a course in movie makeup. Pascal, renting with his wife in back, is a movie set designer, so Delfino wants Ana to meet him. I sometimes have whole strings of days where I believe there are no coincidences in life.
Tomorrow, friends from Wisconsin arrive with my new camera, replacing the one claimed by a bus tire in Merida. I still can't get over my brother: The camera fell in a very busy street in the rain and I saw the bus run over it. My brother's question was, did I go back to see if the memory card might have survived. It's your turn to scratch your head. I'm done!
I got news this morning from the lawyer to come pick up my f'ing document. It will have to wait til tomorrow since I am waiting for the f'ing vet. He was born here, but his wife, a French Canadian, went through the f'ing document thing too. Then she became a citizen.
Carmen is fine tuning my bedroom with Lora's help. As if to supervise, Lora plopped herself on the bed and posed. She's not allowed! Con que direcho? With what right?
So, I am enjoying the sweet life, but also realize the world isn't right. It's the economy, stupid. Yesterday, I got an email canceling a December reservation. This particular couple has booked and cancelled three times since September 25. So, the bad news is, December 17 through Jan. 15 is open in one unit! In a recession, there is worse news to be found, and I am grateful.
The vet came and gave Lora her pedicure and anti-tick shot. His wife is French Canadian and we got to talking. Ana has just returned from LA where she took a course in movie makeup. Pascal, renting with his wife in back, is a movie set designer, so Delfino wants Ana to meet him. I sometimes have whole strings of days where I believe there are no coincidences in life.
Tomorrow, friends from Wisconsin arrive with my new camera, replacing the one claimed by a bus tire in Merida. I still can't get over my brother: The camera fell in a very busy street in the rain and I saw the bus run over it. My brother's question was, did I go back to see if the memory card might have survived. It's your turn to scratch your head. I'm done!
December 1, 2008
I'm a lucky one!
Some six years ago, I was freaking out. I was "bought out" at work. They sent me home first, to return to Human Resources, and bargain my exit. I was the first of dozens and as someone with a disabling illness, would be the test case for how to COBRA a long time employee with health issues being severed to save money.
Since then, there have been dozens. Hundreds actually. Now, the worst. The books don't balance and 37 were to be laid off this month unless volunteers stepped forward for a not very generous severance package. Two weeks for every year worked. No health insurance compared to the paid two and a half years I and the others in the buy out groups got. No one year or more salary. Two weeks immediate pay and the two weeks a year somehow parceled out. They'll get to come back for their stuff and final paycheck in a couple weeks.
No, there is no good way to do this, as the editor wrote the staff this afternoon in an email. So here is how they will do it at The Plain Dealer tomorrow:
Reporters, line editors, photogs are to get up and sit by the phone. If the editor does not call you by 9:30am, you are safe, not one of the 27 who didn't leave of their own choice. Report to work and watch the continuing decline of advertising revenue on the antique vessel, turning your own work product into blogs for the newspaper's web sites.
We all knew this was coming for a couple months now and I said more than one prayer of thanks as I shared my Thanksgiving traditions with my Mexican neighbors and talked to my American neighbors back home.
A couple weeks ago, John Tidyman declared my contributions to his book a wrap. I haven't heard yet when it will be published. But I look forward to reading the volume put together by those of us who worked in the newspaper business when there was still competition and a market for newspapers. So sad!
Since then, there have been dozens. Hundreds actually. Now, the worst. The books don't balance and 37 were to be laid off this month unless volunteers stepped forward for a not very generous severance package. Two weeks for every year worked. No health insurance compared to the paid two and a half years I and the others in the buy out groups got. No one year or more salary. Two weeks immediate pay and the two weeks a year somehow parceled out. They'll get to come back for their stuff and final paycheck in a couple weeks.
No, there is no good way to do this, as the editor wrote the staff this afternoon in an email. So here is how they will do it at The Plain Dealer tomorrow:
Reporters, line editors, photogs are to get up and sit by the phone. If the editor does not call you by 9:30am, you are safe, not one of the 27 who didn't leave of their own choice. Report to work and watch the continuing decline of advertising revenue on the antique vessel, turning your own work product into blogs for the newspaper's web sites.
We all knew this was coming for a couple months now and I said more than one prayer of thanks as I shared my Thanksgiving traditions with my Mexican neighbors and talked to my American neighbors back home.
A couple weeks ago, John Tidyman declared my contributions to his book a wrap. I haven't heard yet when it will be published. But I look forward to reading the volume put together by those of us who worked in the newspaper business when there was still competition and a market for newspapers. So sad!
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