It's too bad you can't get WC as consultants - I understand their rates
are much lower.  We've been having a small bit of fun with the state
board for the better part of the year because we didn't hire our first
person in the same quarter we originally thought we would.  The state
didn't seem to get that we have all the proper paperwork, using a
payroll service to make sure it's all on the up-and-up, and decided we
should just pay them $3500 because they seem to like that number.  The
accountant keeps sending them all sorts of evidence that we are up to
date on our payments and started to pay at the appropriate point.  The
payroll service (Paychex, by the way - not an endorsement, but I used to
write part of their system, so I know they know what they're doing) also
pays the WC payments for us each month.  We don't owe them any damn
money and all the state's doing is making it so that we owe our
accountant more for his services.

I read this morning that the Plaza is being renovated (although to me it
sounds more of a remodelling job in some parts) and that a "number of
preservationists" are up in arms about it.  I did learn that specific
interior parts of a building can be designated as historic.  I can
understand an exterior only vs. the entire building, but a part of an
interior being historic seems a bit odd.  Unless, of course, it's a part
that was imported.

- Pam

Gabriel Orgrease wrote:

> I  started out today at 4 AM. Last night I crashed early, but I seem to
> wake up these days at 4 AM no matter what I want.
> I had our Worker's Comp audit today. This after having spent last week
> in New Orleans & MS.
> I was in fear.
> The lady had to sit with me in the cold cause I have not ever figured
> out how to make the furnace work in the office.
> Turns out we had been filed as architects (???) and we are going to get
> an undisclosed balloon as CONTRACTORS.
> She took sympathy on us.
> Well, the furnace worked for about fifteen minutes in the Winter of 2004
> and then I got bored? The phone rang, whatever.
> I'm not yet tired of business... but I can't for the life of me figure
> out why I have nothing to do during warm weather and everyone wants
> everything either the day before Turkey or Jesus or New Years.
> We have a reputation developing for showing up in Nor'easters, thunder
> storms & blizzards.
> I don't know how to balance all of this crap... and after NO & MS a
> large part of me says I don't give a crap.
> Some people say we charge too much, other people want to know why we are
> not done yet and they don't seem to care how much we charge.
> I'm standing on the beach in friggin Bay St. Louis wondering what our
> house would look like after the hurricane of 1938.
> There is somethign to be said, Marcus Aerelius, for being able to let
> all possessions go to the wind & water.
> I asked several times with discretion in the Gulf region re: suicides. I
> got to hear about a few.
> I recently saw post-1938 hurricane pictures of Spastic Beach.
> I get like 6 calls from people wanting us to either get started or give
> them an estimate or bend over. I can't always tell quite which.
> One architect says, "Well, I don't see anything on your website that
> says you have experience with bluestone paving."
> Then I'm being told the Regency is an important hotel and I am asked to
> look at their terrazzo entry plaza. My comment, "Seems to me every hotel
> in NYC is famous."
> That and a wall near Sing Sing. If you seen one then you've seen another.
> In MS I'm standing on a pile of rubble that was some nice person's
> house... do I care about the pre-bid walk about? Do I care to convince
> the unsure potential client? No.
> My answering machine in the office now says to either call me on the
> cell, if you know it, or leave a message on a phone system that I have
> no idea how to connect with.
> So I get an e-mail... I see the e-mail after the fact... to short - if
> you care about this project you will attend the mandatory pre-bid
> meeting -- too bad that on that day I'm standing on the beach in MS.
> Another customer calls and says they need an invoice before the end of
> the week for work that we have not yet done... well, to be honest, we
> had not even heard of the work until the phone call.
> My kind of client.
> White oak is expensive. I figure up a price for a custom faux-heritage
> picnic table at like $5,000. I don't even have time to figure out what
> the hell that is about.
> Got to keep moving.
> Then I find myself getting chewed out, yelled at, argued with for
> something that I thought we had a handle on.
> Transit strike... no subway... throws a kilter... when I was standing on
> the beach in MS the client wanting me to hurry up said there would be no
> strike. Effin liar!
> I wake up not even looking for it. Weather happens and I can't stop to
> worry about it.
> I want to take a month off and go hide and work on my novel. The hero
> made a bologna sandwich and it threw me off my stride. Off stride now
> for more than a year.
> Damn how they dumped that cigarette machine off the canoe into the lake
> in for us on the shore total blackness.
> I'm getting chewed out by a whipper snapper.
> I can't do diddly about it because the guy we were all depending on, my
> hero, does not answer his cell phone.
> Contingency plans. Life sucks then we are dead. I'm sorry... but I'm
> gonna smile all the way.
> I hustle all day and eat lunch at three. Not exactly good maintenance
> for a diabetic. The damn cell phone keeps ringing.
> My hero calls back. Turns out the reason I got my butt reemed for most
> of the day is cause raydome's 86 year old father-in-law has to get
> circumsized on Friday.
>
> ][<
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>