End and Beginning

LAST RODEO: It's all such a blur, I honestly can't remember how much I've posted here about my job of the last 6 weeks or so, working for the Washington's Employment Security Department (ESD).

It has been an eye opener. The tsunami of COVID--19 has crashed on the unemployment department so hard. They are dealing with over 1.1 million people with claims. The demand is unprecedented and, as you might have expected, led to some serious problems. Even just managing the volume would be hard enough, and then factor in a Nigerian crime ring hitting the department. It's a mess. :(

I tried to leave it better than I found it, and in my closing hours exchanged emails with a high, high up policy person about (fixable!) deficiencies in the management, training, and more. There are a whole lot of people there at ESD who are  so well intentioned and are working really hard -  but maybe not as deftly as they could and should be, IMHO.  I do feel like I was listened to. I do hope things will get better.

Monday I start my new gig - back with King County Elections. I *really* enjoyed working for them during the presidential primary. 

NIGHT GARDEN: I usually only shoot our 'campus' during the day. Over last weekend I took a few nighttime shots. 

Here's the upper east deck, complete with a hops plant climbing the wind-fueled art.

And right now our front yard is exploding with daisies! I took a photo of some under our porch light. It was so bright, they were in full bloom at about 10 at night.e

ALL IN: Last night, we watched a Washington-centric special, All in Washington. It was a program to raise spirits and money, featuring a number of our favorite local artist. We donated, and so did many, many others.

If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch the special, too: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08BQ6XG9L
We re-watched it again tonight.

The event raised over $45 million for Washington's most vulnerable.

Playing Catch Up

TRY HARD: Turns out it's really hard to spend nearly nine hours on a computer all day for work and then another hour or so at night writing about what happened during those nine hours during the day. Forgive me for our absence. I think I'll try to start blogging on the weekends to make up for the M-F dearth.

FLY, FLY AWAY: Another day, another swarm. A couple of days back, our left hive (we've dubbed it Laika) had a minor swarm. 

The photo at the top of the post is a still shot of the swarm in progress. It really doesn't capture it well. The speckles are bees on their way out of our place. 

Tuesday, while I was working at home, I heard that familiar sound of a crap ton of agitated bees. I looked out the window and, sure 'nuff, another swarm in the offing, this time the Kirby hive. (We named them after the dogs' personalities. The eastermost hive if full of aggressive, more 'mean' bees, which earned it the Kirby hive label.) 

The 'good' news is, a swarming hive means your colony is thriving to the point they've overgrown the hive and some of them are up and gone. So we've lost some bees, but that's OK. Godspeed to them on their way to creating new colonies. In speaking with a couple of other local beekeepers, they've had swarms this week, too. All in all, that's a good sign for regarding the health of local bee colonies.

MAIDEN VOYAGE: Saturday night we actually had company!

Totally at-a-distance company. A socially distanced dinner with a couple of friends.  We dined outside and I served up the dishes in separate containers - theirs and ours - so no worries about mutually touched utensils. 

Ribs were on the menu. I pre cooked them in the pressure cooker, made BBQ sauce from scratch. They were finished on the barbie, over briquettes. But not just any barbecue - it was the first time we put the Partio-Cart to work!

 This mid-century modern marvel is such a wonderment!

We can't wait to bake a cake in its oven.