Here Comes the Sun

It's nice and bright and sunny outside now. The ground is almost dry and you almost can't even tell it rained cats and dogs this-

ohyeahthatsrightgottadropwhatimdoingandgooutsidenowbye.

Three Weeks Notice

So I did it. I gave notice. And people here are really sad. It's ridiculous how sad they are, but at the same time it makes sense. It's not about me, really. It's about the amount of work to do in the office and the fact that they are understaffed with me here. The fact that transitions are hard. The fact that no one seems to know how to do my job and I'm just now figuring it out after three months.

But they don't much seem surprised either. They seem to understand. They know I've put up with a lot here and that things are not run efficiently, to say the least. They are excited that I have such a fun job opportunity. They are happy for me. And sad for themselves. I hate letting people down. I just hate it so much. But again, that's not a strong enough reason to stay in a situation that is not right for you.

So, I'll be relieved when this day is over. It's raining buckets anyway, so it's a pretty depressing day. The good news is that it's pay day so I have some money to go buy a decent rain coat. They tell me I'll need one here. Yeah, I am kind of sensing that, what with the hydroplaning all the way to work this morning and what-not (it's sort of like surfing, only different).

Hope y'all are doing great.

My Coworker Has It

I just found out that there is a thing here known as "The Crud," or "The Humboldt Crud." My coworker has it and announced it at our staff meeting. Everyone nodded knowingly. After the meeting I discreetly asked her, "what do you have?" Sort of fearing for my life and all.

"Ah, yes, you are new in town, that's right," she replied. Then she explained what it was, even saying getting it is like a rite of passage.

Right.

Me being slightly less gullible than previously went online and Googled it:

The Humboldt Crud Exhibit A

The Humboldt Crud Exhibit B

I don't have it. But it sounds like I have something to look forward to. Oh, crud.

Also,

I seem to have embraced the area's allergies. Fun, fun.

P.S. On a positive note, it is really pretty outside. I should take some pictures of my new neighborhood. I'm lucky to live on a lovely street.

Seasonal Humboldt Advice of the Day

The best advice I've heard so far about winters in Humboldt County (which I have yet to fully experience) is when it stops raining and the sun comes out, stop whatever you are doing and go outside and soak it in (the implication being that you don't know when the sun will come out next, or how long its visit will be).

In other news, I am 99% sure I'm quitting my job. And starting a different one.

Ah, fickle fickle me, right? What's new, some may say.

Two Weird Things About Yesterday

1) The internet went down in the entire county.*

2) There was a 100% chance of rain according to the forecast for yesterday and it didn't rain at all.**

*How can the internet go down in an entire county, you may ask? Good question, I may answer. It has something to do with a fiber optic cable being cut, possibly by a branch of a redwood tree falling on it from the crazy winds. Or so I hear. Only the cable being cut part is confirmed. I suspect the second half of the story is something like an urban legend, but I actually don't know that for sure. Something else of note: this isn't the first time since I've been here that this has happened. Gee, it sure is backwards here sometimes. According to "the hype" (aka what people I have talked to in Humboldt County think) Wisconsin is about as backwards as they get. I can't think of a time when the internet went down in an entire county in Wisconsin, but hey.

**Speaking of crazy winds, there was scary, tornado-like weather going on all day yesterday. A warm strong wind and dark ominous sky. But this isn't tornado territory so I was the only one scared. It did eventually storm last night (regular, not thunder) and it didn't let up until about mid-day today, so I guess last night still counts as yesterday. But still, when you think 100% chance of rain, do you think bright sunny day? Because that's what yesterday was. I just can't keep up!

In other news, I realized the other day that I have been saying "eh" a lot lately, as if I were Canadian or from the midwest or something. This is only strange because I don't believe I ever said it before. It's like I'm trying to prove I speak Wisconsin-ese or something. It does come up a lot that I: a) have such a distinct accent, or b) don't have an accent at all (depending on who you ask, which in my case is nobody, just a "fun" side effect of having only a Wisconsin driver's license to produce whenever asked - but now that has changed, thank goodness). So I don't really know if I sound distinctly midwestern or not. But I did have a girl at the bank tell me that she wished I had that "cute Wisconsin accent." So at least we've determined my accent/lack-of-accent is not cute. In case that is information I can ever use. I am relieved, let me tell you.

Oh yeah, and if you've actually read this far, I got a cell phone over the weekend and I have my very own phone number now. Yay.

Google Loves Us, Yes It Does

I just read in the paper that Humboldt County has been blessed with the Google Transit feature, which if you are unfamiliar, is where you can get up-to-the-minute Humboldt County public transit information by plugginig in your starting address and destination address (after Googling "Google Transit" of course).

Why is this cool?

Two reasons:
1) Humboldt County is the only rural area in the US to get this feature.
2) Humboldt County is the only place in the US in which Google calculates your place-to-place using multiple transit services.

Nifty, eh? I think so.

Also in the news, OK the same news article, the Google Street View VW Beetle has been spotted around Arcata. Street View is a Google project that takes photographs of every inch of the city and puts them on the web.

Why is this newsworthy? Well because Street View is only for the big cities. Except apparently for Humboldt County. Yep, Humboldt County is on the map. The Google map. Heh.