Taxing support

[bill_schubert]

So the schedule is open today for anyone who wants to work.  And, with little else to do I'll probably take up a couple or three hours and see if I can help some people.  Having really only worked one day the angst is still high and my help takes forever.  On the up side I had some great conversations yesterday while we waited from some tier 2 to answer my question.  It was fun for the most part talking to the people who call in.  So far they are just happy to be talking to a real person and getting help.  

Once I get better at it I'll enjoy it more.  I've only obligated for 10 hours a week, signed up for about 15 a week for the next month, and can hop on and do more if I want.  The calls are backed up so logging on means immediate calls back to back.  They do not time us on the call, we can take long as we want.  They do grade us and listen to the recording (do not want THAT job) with both AI and human but there is no time expectation which is really nice.  

Unlike Seattle, where I can see in the susandennis front door camera that they have streets filled with snow, our roads are dry.  Everything else is covered with ice so there is certainly a fear of power outages.  But other than that we are snug, full of food, and able to safely go somewhere if we want to.  We don't really need anything so I'll likely do some online work and then just watch some Aussie Open matches recorded last night.

Looking at our weather which is going down to 11 (-12) degrees this time tomorrow so I'm going to bring in our outside water hoses.  This is as cold as I've seen it here but the only thing that is in danger, really, is our watering system and not much I can do about that.  I can get the water hoses off their racks and pour some boiling water over them to unscrew them and bring them in.   Other than that not much to do other than cross fingers that the power grid holds up.

Comments

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

I'm very curious re: power outages: what do you keep in the way of emergency lighting? Battery-powered flashlights (aimed at the ceiling, to bounce the light over as wide an area as possible?) Battery-powered lanterns? Oil lamps?

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

So, there's a frequency element to preparation. I've got a few flashlights around, probably some candles, and a lot of batteries. But in 12 years of living in this area we've lost electricity maybe four or five times and never for long. So I don't have much prepared and don't much worry about it. Especially where we now live the infrastructure is very new so when I say we lost power, it was for seconds. The loss tripped off the cell tower and local cable but I'm sure that was just for their safety and they came back up in half an hour.

This is a fairly safe area from a disaster point of view. No hurricanes, few tornados, no earthquakes. This particular area was bulldozed to add a neighborhood so no trees or brush to burn.

So I'm lazy with prep.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the same, here (not that you asked.)

Himself has a bunch of oil lamps which had belonged to his mom. He's only got a handful, though, compared to the more than one-hundred he claims she kept.

We are in the northern half of the state, so if there occurs one of those big, cyclonic storms which can affect most or all of the Great Lakes, it'll affect us, too (usually), but like you we have few tornadoes, rarely blizzards and rarely deep, deep snowfall; usually no ice storms; no drought or rather what we think of as drought parts of the country would be dancing on air if that were all the "drought" they had to contend with in a year's time and had our precipitation the rest of the year; ergo, no forest or brush fires; hardly ever any flooding worthy of national news; no mudslides; no avalanches (snow.) We do get small earthquakes a lot oftener than I'd imagined but they're so small, if frequent, that for the most part ordinary folk like myself don't notice them.

If ever you're stuck for area lighting, you can make vegetable oil lamps out of a glass jar (or a fireproof pan or dish---make it a bottom-heavy one, though, so it doesn't flip over), an improvised wick of hemp or jute cordage or a twist of paper and, of course, vegetable oil. And of course observe all the precautions about not leaving open flames unattended.
...come to think on it, I expect you already know all this stuff....

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they don't hold you to a time. I know most companies just want to get the most work out of their call center staff but it just leads to lousy customer service. Hope your watering system is ok!

[wildcelticrose2.livejournal.com]

Yikes, that's cold.

I hope this tax gig works out better for you than the other one did.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It is a better deal so far and more interesting.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I won't find out about the watering system for a couple of weeks anyway. This is the longest extended freeze we've had since being in Texas. I'm thankful every day that we are in this house rather than the one we last lived in. This one is boring but solid.