By gosh, I'm a writer!

I regret that I have not posted a single update to this site in more than a month. My life is getting back to normal. I am pretty much completely over my mental health crisis. Working at the Canyon View branch has proved much slower paced and less stressful. AND, I am more than making up for the 5 hours of Sunday overtime I no longer have to work each week on free-lance writing jobs.

I posted a small classified ad on a web site and soon after heard from a gentleman in Leicester UK who is himself a free-lance writer who outsourced about ten travel articles to me. I found the work of researching and writing these pieces very easy to do. And while I only earned a penny per word on these assignments, the extra $50 was a big help. A much greater help was my client's suggestion that I look into a web site (http://rentacoder.com). And boy I'm glad I did. While many of the jobs on that site are indeed for software coders and other IT professionals there are a huge number of writing and website marketing jobs available. I sent out a couple of dozen queries and then picked up a $45 job which consisted of writing one travel article (about roller coasters believe it or not) and analyzing the site's social networking efforts and making a report with recommendations on how best to market the site through social networking.

The client seemed very pleased with my work and had tentatively agreed to hire me to work 5 hours a week (@ $15/hour) on the web site. Then two days later he sent me a message telling me that he has decided to suspend publication of his travel site but will "definitely" use me again for the two new sites he is launching. I am not holding my breath for that. BUT. Just yesterday I won a $50 job to rewrite a three page marketing white paper for a software company in Israel. Ron and I both worked on it for a bit less than an hour total between both of us. The client was very pleased with my work and I am now in discussions with him on a possible $200 project to re-write two pages of his web site.

In the old days it was so expensive to try to break into free lance writing because the only way to break end was to spend a lot of money of paper, typewriter ribbons and postage to send work off on spec to editors who most likely would only reply three months later with a thanks but no thanks postcard. By contrast I currently have 15 active bids on the RAC site and I have a feeling that a company that produces study guides for the SAT college admissions test is going to hire me for a $500 project to write 100 practice test questions for the Reading and Writing portions of the exam.

So I have been very busy with getting bids out there and corresponding via e-mail with editors and other people who need good writing done and I think it is realistic to hope that in the coming months. I have as always been reading books but have not had the time or energy to post reviews on the books blog. I am also having a little technical glitch in that I no longer seem to be able to upload pictures into my blog posts. Ron and I believe the reason for that problem is that our newish Compaq lappy remains out of service (Ron found a replacement power cord online and ordered it and we hope it will be here by Thursday) so I am struggling along on the 10 year old Toshiba lappy. Like a Timex watch this baby has taken any number of lickings and kept on ticking. (I have firmly decided the next lappy we buy will be another Toshiba; I had been reasonably pleased with the two Compaq desktops I've owned but a less than a year old lappy that goes out from a two foot drop is garbage, in my not so humble opinion.)

The other issue with updating the books blog is that I am overdue with my hosting fee and I have not wanted to IM my tech guru for help until I pay his bill, which will have to wait until around the 20th of the month when my next Rentacoder payment comes in. (Your earnings aggregate and are paid semi-monthly.) So things in the Libdrone household are back to about as normal as we ever get and I believe I will change the name of this blog back to Libdrone's Journal or some such.

So how has the past month been for you?

Saturday turned out to be

a kind of "lost day". Ron and I both got Extremely agitated Friday night and neither of us was able to sleep much. Ron spoke to "Roberta" on the phone and let her know I was Not coming in to work 'one last shift at Fakewood'. It really worries me that now they are sending me to what sounds like it is going to be Another stressful library and I begin to fear I am going to just totally lose control or end up having to retire on disability. And the main problem with that last bit is that since I have not earned much money in the last 10 quarters my disability income would not be even what I have been making at the library. What I am Hoping to do is to sign up for good short term and long term disability insurance at this year's open enrollment and then plan on going out on diability Next year when the coverage is in effect and would hopefully pay me additional disability income as well as my low social security benefit.

But Ron told me that he read my hip x-rays right along with the orthopod last week and that the x-rays clearly show Very Severe arthritis. He said when I showed the doctor how I had to get down on the floor to shelve on the bottom shelves, the man was "Shocked and Amazed" that I was able to move so well with almost NO cartilage in either hip joint. I feel sure that I could get disability for both my hips and my mental illnesses, but it would not bring in enough for us to be able to pay our bills. and honestly we are struggling and are not Really able to pay our bills as it is now. So, Ron and I have agreed that I will try very hard to begin developing an income as a free lance writer so that by the time I just physically Can't do the library job anymore we will have a real and sustainable income to live on.

I have wanted to be a free lance writer pretty much all of my life and I have to say that I feel a real thrill about having sold my writing last week (even though it was only $25) in that now I really Am a freelancer. And I am learning how to bid for jobs and making the contacts I will need in this career. I am scared, but hopeful. Staci is back in town doing more work over at Kathi's. I have been really happy to see her a few times and hope to get to spend some time with her while she is here this trip. Anyone know of any writing gigs? If you do, please give me a holler.

lots of news from Friday

worked a 7 hour shift at a small library branch, let's call it "tiny town right next to the state's mental hospital--Library. I absolutely love working there. When I arrived there was only a small number of books on a to-be-shelved cart. started at 10a then had everything in the book drop checked in by 1o:30. By the time we opened the library at 11am I had shelved all of the returns. No page work left to do the BA printed an items pending list and I went around the library gathering materials that patron's have requested a hold on. (the IP list at this branch came to just a tad over two pages. at Fakewood we often have 15 or 2o pages of IP requests to pull and only the BA's get to pull them. Checked in the IP I had gathered, printing out hold slips for books that were to be picked up at tiny town lib and correctly flagging and shipping books that need to be at other branches. all and all an easy day.

Until three pm when the tiny town supv told me that Polly the HR lady had sent an e-mail and I needed to read it and reply immediately. Rather than tiny town lib, where I REALLY wanted to be assigned to, I have instead been assigned to the Canyon Peak library. Much of the e-mail was devoted to telling me that Canyon Peak is implementing new work room procedures this week and the staff is Upbeat about trying the new methods. The NEW methods seem to me Very Much like an alternate work room system that we tried for about a month at Fakewood awhile back. Most of the staff became quite frustrated with the new system which was actually less efficient than the tried and true methods we have used for Years and pretty much Everyone was happy when the Managing Librarian declared the experiment a failure and we went back to tried and true. I have an appointment to meet with Holly Tuesday afternoon before my shift at Canyon Park. I am very concerned that her "best solution" for addressing my problem of two much stress is to move me to a branch that sounds like it is pretty stressful these days.

No clue how all will end up but it is a relief to know that I will not have to continue working at Fakewood and I don't consider my transfer to Canyon Peak to be the likely last word.

Thursday

was an okay day. I ended up staying up way, Way, WAY too late bidding on freelance writing jobs at a site called rentacoder. the guy that is buying my articles (sent the last one off today but I have a feeling he's going to want a rewrite) told me that rentacoder is where he got his freelance career started. (and he is now to the point of outsourcing some of the jobs he is able to get). It is hard to tell what kind of going rates will actually prevail. Someone in Austin Texas who basically wanted 10 articles and a biography for a new blog. A guy in Mexico bid 100, I bid 150. The job went to someone in India who agreed to do the whole project (at least three hours work) for 4 dollars. sigh

since I was up so late I slept til noon. and didn't do too much today. I did get a call from the HR lady who told me that I will work at a small library tomorrow but will have to work at Fakewood on Saturday. The work week Begins on Sunday each week and from the last voicemail we received (after a call where we spoke briefly) it sounds like they will be offering me a choice of two possible transfer positions and it will be effective next week, staring on Sunday. So off to bed to get my sleep so I can be ready to work at 10:30 tomorrow morning, at a very pleasant little branch that is not a bad drive from here. 3 or 4 miles at most

more later

how did it get to be Wednesday already?

Well I worked my Monday shift back at Fakewood and managed to keep my stress down to a three xanax level. That Roberta was not scheduled to work this Monday was a big help. Tuesday I had an appointment with an orthopedist. He took one look at my x-rays and expressed surprise that I was trying to go back to work, since the x-ray indicated to him my arthritis was Really bad and he would have thought I was there to get paperwork to retire on disability. I went more or less directly from the orthopedist to the human resources department. Honestly, I almost feel a little sorry for Polly. The orthopod stated I needed accommodation in having at least three hours of "sedentary work" per shift. And Polly seemed truly distresses at this additional requirement thrown into my list of disabilities requiring accommodation.

I believe that Polly IS really listening to me, trying to understand what I need and trying to arrange for a transfer. I do agree that this is a very complicated ADA case and I am giving her time to try t0 work it out. But I did feel the need at our last meeting to point out to her that if I don't feel she is proceeding in good faith and as much speed as possible I might feel compelled to bring this matter to the attention of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I also tried as subtly as possible to point out that if this does become a legal matter, the lib system will almost certainly incur WAY more than my annual wages in attorney's fees, even in the event that the library system were to prevail on some or all of the various legal challenges that might arise if the matter were to become acrimonious rather than collaborative as it stands now. I didn't have the heart to even hint about the bad publicity the lib would surely receive.

We were able to get a wireless adapter hooked up to the old Toshiba so I am online from home. The black box in puter's power cord makes the cord an Expensive replacement item. It looks like we will be able to get it for about $60 at Walmart, however that will have to wait until we can afford to spend 6o bucks. A little it of good news on the income front. I placed a tiny free classified ad offering my services as a writer and editor. A full-time freelancer outsourced 5 450-500 word articles to me. I have submitted and he has accepted four of them already. Once he accepts the fifth he will Paypal me $25 for all five pieces. It is a far cry from the 10 cents a word I had hoped to ask for, but these articles literally can be researched and written in about 15 minutes. After the first one, where he did ask for a rewrite and explained more precisely exactly what he wants, every article I have submitted has been approved with no requests for rewrites or revisions. Twenty dollars an hour sounds good to me at this point. And the gentleman who is purchasing my articles has also given me some tips on how to build up my own freelance writing business. After all these years of insisting I was a real writer, I have thank the Lord, actually turned pro this week. I am pretty happy about that, even as I dread having to go back to work Friday.

Sunday

well I survived my Sunday 5 hour shift at Fakewood it was NOT easy. I did feel nervous a lot of the time but fortunately I did not hyperventilate as I had on Friday. I did keep once again detailed records of Exactly what I accomplished during the 5 hours I was paid for:

12:10 pm. arrived and found the outside book bins are overflowing

12:15--1pm checked in 121 items after emptying one very full book bin onto the desk

1--1:15pm put away checked in materials on workroom holding shelves. filled out two A/V problem slips (cd and dvd containers returned empty of their discs) checked in and put newspapers out for patrons to read and checked in a meeting room key from the book drop

1:15--1:50pm shelved 2 cart shelves Non Fiction plus a handful of paperbacks and magazines

1:50--2:05 Break

2:05--2:20 put into shelving order a three cart shelf cart of large non fiction Art books

2:20--2:55 sheved 3 cart shelves of heavy art books

2:55--3:05 helped outgoing page get her checked in materials cleared from the check in area

3:05--4pm checked in 127 items and had all put away and check in desk cleared at exactly 4pm

4--4:20pm made pick up rounds of assigned areas

4:20--4:55 shelved 3 cart shelves of Non-Fiction DVD's

4:55--5:15 performed closing duties. made sure all patrons exited the building. made sure the meeting room was fully secured. locked the outside door shortly after 5 pm. changed the Open sign to Closed. Made sure all restrooms cleared of patrons. Locked inside door.

I get tired just thinking about having to go back and do it all again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am enjoying being able to get online and write and send on my old Toshiba lappy. Not sure when I will have the money to replace the power cord on the new Compaq lappy. AND I have picked up a small free lance writing gig. 5 articles, 450--500 words each, $25 cash by paypal. It aint gonna pay my bills but I suppose it is a start. Hope everyone's weekend went well and I will keep you posted.

Back on the chain gang

So keep your chin up boy
Forget the pain
I know you'll make it If you try again
There's no use in quitting
When the world is waiting for you

Supertramp--Gone Hollywood
on the album Breakfast In America

Went back to work at Fakewood Library. Didn't want to but there was no choice. Thursday at our meeting around 11am Polly told me that she will transfer me but first has to decide where would be the best place to transfer me to. Then according to the union contract they will have to give the employee they are swapping me with 14 calendar days notice. Polly agreed with me that the library system has been swapping people from one branch to another, not as a "transfer" but just to cover one particular shift. She said that she would make some calls and try to arrange some temporary transfers for me. However she called back yesterday afternoon to tell me that she had not been able to arrange anything and I had to either work at Fakewood Library or not get paid.

It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. While my supervisor, Roberta, seems utterly clueless and steadfastly argued to me that she made NO mistakes whatsoever in her handling of this, I was mostly able to avoid any but the most banal contact with her at work yesterday and my 7.5 hour shift went okay. I am however being quite anal about recording Exactly what I do and how much of it I do each hour at work. Yesterday's notes:

10:30--10:50am-- created a new cart stocked with two cart shelves of Mysteries. Shelved the cart.

10:50am--11am-- created a new cart stocked with three cart shelves of Mysteries

11am--11:15 am-- received postal mail delivery. pulled out all newspapers from the mail bin. Checked newspapers in on the newspaper tally sheet. Put all newspapers on the display shelves for patrons to use.

11:115am--12noon checked in returned library materials. checked in 145 items and had all put away on the holding shelves and the check in desk cleared for the next page by exactly 12 noon.

12noon--12:15 pm Break, as per union contract and branch rules

12:15--12:45pm-- shelved cart with three shelf carts of Mysteries as well as about 1 dozen paperbacks and 1 dozen magazines

12:45pm--1:00pm--shelved 1 cart shelf of Non-Fiction

1pm--1:15pm-- located a particular magazine per managing librarian's request. This required going down to the (non-public) basement old magazine stacks and then out to the public magazine racks where the requested issue actually was located.

1:15--2:00pm--checked in returned library materials. checked in 166 items and had all put away on the holding shelves and the check in desk cleared for the next page by exactly 2pm

2--2:30pm-- unpaid lunch break per contract and rules

2:30--3pm--shelved 1.5 cart shelves on Non-Fiction

3--4pm-- checked in 147 items of returned library materials. had all put away and desk cleared for next page.

4--4:15 pm-- Break, as per contract and rules

4:15--4:30 pm-- did clean up and pickups in children's and reference section per daily page schedule

4:30--5pm-- shelved 3 cart shelves Fiction.

5--6pm--- coordinated with other page on duty. performed evening pick up rounds and other closing hour tasks as per regular schedule and arrangements

My stress level was dangerously high at the beginning of the day. (I was literally hyper-ventilating non-stop when shelving in Mysteries at the start of my shift). I did take a total of 3 xanax to get through the day yesterday and also took my afternoon dose of the new med at lunch. Today I am enjoying being off and not having to go back in to work until tomorrow. Also am counting the days until I get transferred to small branch where I hope and pray I will get along well with the supervisor and my co-workers in the new location.

More later.