thinking about work

The town I live in is very busy with tourists and fishermen in the summer and the months on either side of summer. In the winter, thing screech to a halt. Lots of people who work in the tourism/fishing industry go on EI in the winter (Employment Insurance benefits, for those not in the know). In order to qualify for these benefits, however, you have to have accumulated something like 910 hours in the last 12 months.

That is not my case. In my best week with the fish job, I think I claimed something like 28 hours. And that was working six days. My next paycheque will have five hours on it. (Now granted I took time off to work at the yarn shop, and there was a funeral, but still.)

The fishermen keep saying fishing has been terrible. It seems like (or I keep hearing) that the hook & line fishery is winding down for the season. There are a few boats heading out now that the storm has passed. But winter has begun here. The storm season has begun. That means less fishing. That means less work.

Now I can't go to my landlord and just say "if there is fish work for me, I can pay my rent". No. That wouldn't go over well at all. I need to know about an income. If we are staying here through the winter, we need to find jobs.

I mentioned in a previous post about work I wouldn't have considered in another location but here it is different. I applied for a number of positions at a resort today. It's withing walking distance of my house and hopefully one of them will have flexible enough hours that wouldn't get in the way of my knitting work. My knitting work is my priority.

I know it's a weird thing to be able to say that, a unique thing, and that's why I am embracing it. But it's true: I committed to the yarn shop long before I moved here, long before the shop was even open. Long before I knew I would be depending on my work for our household income.

When it comes down to it though, circumstances have thrown us into a position we were not prepared for but must deal with nonetheless. We are managing for now but what will happen next month? These are uncertain times for us (more waiting...) and luckily I have lots of knitting to keep me busy. Knitting and my Internet connection, these are my lifelines.

staying put - for now

Well they decided to give the job to the other guy. No Montana for us. Alas!

Turns out Santa Fe had restarted their hiring process when the first guy they hired didn't work out. I misunderstood then, that it just meant that Dan was once again shortlisted rather than had a firm offer.

A strange thing has happened though, in that we have shifted our mindset. Remember that Pause I mentioned the other day? I have lots of stories to relay about the funeral and the family drama around it. But I got back and now Dan's saying things like "If we're going to spend the winter here then... " since it now seems like we'll be spending the winter here. And what will that mean? We'll both have to take on more part time jobs. Technically he has two and I have four (but three of them are knitting related so I count them as one). If we both get another job, we can survive the winter. We've had another possible opportunity present itself that would have us remain on Vancouver Island for another year or so, but it's only a big Maybe so I'm not going to mention it here.

The good thing about staying here, for me, is that my yarn/knitting/crochet career gets to advance quickly. Ellie just asked me today if I would like to now work two days a week here instead of one. Yes! She's putting together a knitting retreat in the spring and she would really like my help for it. I'll be designing some projects and we'll put kits together, we'll do some more project classes. My knowledge of the industry is galloping along in leaps and bounds (to mix metaphors, ha). Ellie has also asked me to knit swatches with every major yarn that she sells. I tell ya, this getting paid to knit thing is really working out for me.

Our first winter storm has happened (which means no fishing; which means no boats of offload) and we are getting a taste of what our winter will look like. Wet and windy, obviously, but now that we have a new-to-us futon (story later) for more seating in our large living room, we can have all kinds of friends over to hang out while we make cookies, assemble a smoker (to smoke fish with, which Dan and I referring to as a 'fumarole' since 'smoker' seems somewhat offensive to us), knit and crochet.

I was talking with the friends that were over last night about work in this area. I was saying that there are jobs here that, in Victoria, I would have looked down my nose at taking, but here seems like an interesting possibility. I think I will apply at the Gallery. Why not? Even if I don't know much about art, I might now more than anyone else who might apply. And I'm all about learning new things.

Then these same friends and I went rollerskating at one of the community halls. I haven't been on roller skates for at least 20 years. It was fun! I didn't fall! There were about 80 people there, lots of kids and mums. Once I got the hang of standing up and rolling, turning, and stopping, I had to make sure I didn't run over the kids. I sweated profusely for an hour and had way more fun than I thought I would. I've written down the date of the next Rollerskate night in my calendar. :-)

Pause and ramblings

Ever have one of those moments when you are in between things and you have a feeling that something big is about to happen - something that will change your perspective or your life?

So I just did a six day stint at the yarn shop. Then worked at my fish job yesterday where there was High Drama (won't go into details, some locals read my blog).

Today Dan and I will drive down to Victoria, tomorrow fly to Kelowna in the morning and attend the funeral in the afternoon, fly back on Thursday and drive home Thursday night. In the space in between - the time in Kelowna... I'm sure I'll be exhausted by all the people. I get peopled out pretty easily. You can be sure that I'll be visiting both the yarn shops in Kelowna - research you know, in case I ever want to open my own shop one day.

Dan and I have been waiting a long time. Waiting to get married, waiting for me to finish my degree, waiting for our honeymoon, waiting for one of us to find a job, waiting to move, waiting for the contract that never came, waiting for another job... As someone who often lives in the future, Dan is great at pulling me back into the present. In my mind, I have already moved to Montana, but he reminded me yesterday that he is competing against some very high caliber brewers and might not get the job. Oh yeah. There is still a chance we might be here through the winter, if none of the other things pan out.

The fish job is really busy right now. The weather is good and the trawlers are going nonstop. They offload at night, go to their fishing spot, fill their holds in a day's fishing and come back to offload at night. Every night. Dan has worked his ninth graveyard in a row, he's sleeping now. I asked the plant guy last night how long we can expect this to continue like this, and he said until the storm moves in.

Waiting for the storm to move in.

Waiting for good weather so I can cut the grass.

Waiting for Dan to wake up so I can vacuum.

I keep getting told that, as a knitting teacher, I must be very patient. I wonder which came first: the patience to knit or that knitting has taught me patience? I'm not actually very patient. Not in every circumstance, anyway. I know now that I can start a project and see its completion (university degrees and hand-knit socks alike). I also know now that, as the cliche goes, good things come to those who wait. I don't regret moving to this little town. We were desperate to get out of East Sooke.

I've had a lot of interesting experiences here and made some good friends. I have way more of a social life here than I did while I was living in East Sooke/Victoria. Before I would have to go into town and make arrangements with people to come visit, or drop in on the regular coffee break with former coworkers. Friends would seldom come to visit us. It was a 45 minute drive, depending on traffic.

Here we live in town, and all summer long we had people drop in on us, especially if the front door was open, which it was in good weather. Most of the people in Victoria who never or seldom came to visit us in East Sooke said, when we told them we were moving to Ucluelet, they would definitely come visit us here. Yeah right. It's been almost six months and in the time we've been here, other than family we've seen only one set of friends (and many thanks for making the effort!) though I do have a regular Skype date with another set of friends (who helped us move here so, technically, they have been here!). It means a lot to me to keep those relationships going.

I often muse about how strange our relationships are with people we have moved away from. I have moved away from places quite a lot and there are some friendships that continue to grow, even from a distance. Others often fall off because some people are just not good at keeping in touch. Keeping in touch requires effort on both sides and in my experience, I have been the one making the effort. At some point I get bitter and resentful and decide not to chase that person around anymore. Why should I make them be friends with me? I'm obviously not worth their effort...

I can't blame someone if they don't want to read my blog. Lots of people aren't blog readers. I was one of them until I decided that blogging was a good idea. Then I started reading other blogs. But blogging has given me a whole new appreciation now to people who do blog on a regular basis - because it means they are showing up at the page. As a writer, I have a lot of respect for showing up at the page.

Sorry this got a bit rant-y.

too busy to blog

Hi Friends,

As you know (I think?) I've been working at the yarn shop this week. The hours are mostly 11-7, and I have to drive 35 minutes to Tofino. On two of these days, I taught some girls in their home before opening the shop, and on the same days I taught classes at the yarn shop, making for some very looooong days. I come home, Dan has either left for work or about to leave for work, and has been working nights (last night was seven in a row for him). I get up and leave for Tofino, he's still sleeping.

Today is day six of six for me at the yarn shop. I have to say it's been a lot of fun! Since I have started running the shop while Ellie is away, my knowledge/experience level has grown tremendously and I have an entirely new perspective on yarn shops. As we (me and Dan) are investigating other places to live, I am looking at what the LYSs offer in terms of yarn, needles, classes, etc. If the yarn shop I want isn't in the town where we end up moving, I am now more informed in case I want to open up my own one day.

The other day Carol, who comes to knit night, brought in her spinning wheel. She had lent me her drop spindle in the summer to see if I was interested in spinning. Nah, not so much. But the spinning wheel, WOW, I took to that way more quickly. I want one now. Not now, actually, but when we move and get resettled, I will start doing my homework. I know it is a big investment (but not so big as a loom or knitting machine, things I also want!) so I will have to think carefully and test drive as many as I can. But yes, I think I might just go the way of handspun. For some of my crafting, at least.

So my uncle passed away on Thursday morning, the funeral is this coming Wednesday. I'll be flying out of Victoria on Wednesday morning, attending the funeral, staying the night in a hostel downtown, and flying back the next day. See, I haven't seen most of these people in a very long time and there's a whole bunch of family politics that might just come up. I want to be absent for the drama, since none of it involves me. I will not take sides, and I would only feel resentment towards these people who are kicking up drama when we are supposed to be gathered for a sad reason. Yes, I can take my knitting on the plane!

Dan and I have some interesting options before us. He's been shortlisted from 42 applicants to 6 for the job in Helena, Montana. Santa Fe has given him a firm offer. He's been shortlisted for New Hampshire and there is also a job in Maine for a wooden boat related job. Now that would be cool.

I'm getting really tired of this house. Sure it's big and has lots of natural light. But all the walls are dark, making it cave-like. The kitchen is all painted dark grey. I could make a long list of complaints, but I don't really want to be too much of a downer but suffice it to say I have outgrown this house.

Righty ho, I have to get ready for my day at the yarn shop!

My uncle steps over to the other side

I received word this morning that my uncle died at around 4:00am.

I'll find out later today when the funeral is. This will mean I'll be taking a trip to Kelowna for a couple of days.

Grief has been sneaking up on me all morning...

How to Choose a (Knitting) Community

Dan has been offered a job from Santa Fe, shortlisted for Hooksett, New Hampshire, and has interview today with Helena, Montana. We might have to make a decision about where we want to live.

There are some big things to consider. Quality of life. Can we afford land? Will there be jobs for me? Most importantly, are there local yarn shops?

To the latter question, in all three cases the answer is yes. Sort of. There are three or for (or more?) in Santa Fe. I've been to one of them. The two groups on Ravelry are active and have good-sized followings. The closest yarn shop to Hooksett, NH is in Concord, which is not that far away. They have an excellent lineup of yarns and I would be happy to go there. I noticed they don't list classes on their website so I wonder if they offer them? The two yarn shops in Helena don't have a web presence at all - no websites, nothing on Ravelry.

This is an interesting question then. All other things being equal, what is important to me? Where I am currently there are only a few people who are on Ravelry, but it's a new yarn shop and we are trying to introduce people to it. There is definitely a knitting community here, as we routinely fill up the yarn shop on Stitch Night every Wednesday. It's hard to know what it's like in these communities.

At the moment, Helena is at the top of my list, but I confess that it's lack of activity on Ravelry is a bit discouraging. A little more investigating is in order.

New Mexico and Montana are places where family would come to visit. New Hampshire, not so much, I think. At least not my family. Dan's family would probably come, though less often than if we were living in the west.

I don't know. No sense fretting about this until we actually have options laid out before us.

My Uncle takes a turn for the worse

Bad news. Remember when I told you about my uncle (mom's uncle, actually) who had a fall in July and was in the hospital?

I called my great aunt a few weeks ago to get the real story. She was doing the best she could and said that Unc was learning to walk again, that he had been transferred to a facility closer to their home. That was about it though, she didn't give details.

It's really frustrating to have experience in health care and end-of-life issues from a clinical/academic standpoint but to not have family members who are capable of reporting the level of detail I would like. I'm not complaining about my aunt so much as my other family members, especially when I got conflicting reports.

Tonight I got the call from my sister who heard from our mum's second cousin telling us that Unc will probably not last the night. Something about his toes and foot have gone black (did he have a thrombosis? He must have, that's the only explanation. ) They made the decision to not amputate because there was only a 30% chance he would survive the surgery, and he's on his way out anyway. He's 84.

This is pretty rough. I have made peace with death long ago (and promised to write about it at one point, but didn't) and given that we have now had a month and a half to get used to the idea that Unc wasn't long for this world, this comes as no surprise.

And yet.

If he does pass in the next day or two and there is a funeral this week, I won't be able to make it. Not unless the funeral is on or after September 20th. See, I have had a prior commitment for months now to look after the yarn shop while Ellie is away at a family wedding. I can't back out.

I haven't been to a funeral in 17 years. I haven't seen most of the people that will be at this funeral in 24 years. I could make the trip in about 10 -12 hours (drive, ferry, drive) and I would really like to be there.

So please, Unc, hang in there just a little longer. Is it selfish to ask this?