It's been a long week and I'm a little tired! The Census is well underway and as usual, everything should have been done yesterday, so while last month there were a lot of days where there was no work (and no pay), now, it's all the work you need and more! Yesterday I was in charge of an operation that involved doing an entire mobile home court in a town about 35 miles from me. There was only 1 person who showed up to help me, a sweet lady of about 60 years old. But we did OK, getting count of about 145 people. After that I was up until 1:30 am doing repetitive forms and back up at 6:00 to finish by the deadline. The sad thing is that a good amount of the respondents had already done their census forms (or said they did) and sent them in, but we still had to do it, just to make sure. Yes, there were also a lot who hadn't done it!
I ran into a lot of Spanish speakers and since I don't speak Spanish, I basically handed them a Spanish form and pointed to the items that needed to be filled in. They got the point and most were very nice about it. There was just the one Smart Alec who said he didn't have to. (Did you know it's the law, you are required by law to fill out the census!) I said, "Actually, yeah it's the law." He said, "Why are jew lying to me?" "Sir, I'm not lying! Please call my boss if you have questions!" (I flashed my badge with phone numbers). Luckily, there were no more comments from him after that.
I had a really scary moment when I walked into a fenced yard, knocked on the door and a very irate golden lab came charging out of a dog door! I wasn't too worried at first because Golden Labs are usually nice, aren't they? But this one apparently sensed my surprise and alarm and started snarling, barking and growling. I was not about to test him and proceeded to get the gate open as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, it was a trick latch and my fumbling fingers couldn't seem to open it. I prayed that I could get this gate open because the dog was upon me and my hind-quarters were very unprotected and exposed to sharp teeth. But I couldn't get the thing open. I had trapped myself in the lair of a howling monster - my imminent demise was certain! Fortunately the neighbors across the street saw my plight and started calling said monster off. The woman actually came over, yelling Spanish at the dog and even though he was still barking, it distracted him enough and gave me time to figure out the ridiculously complicated latch and hurriedly make my exit. Needless to say, I was very grateful to that very kind woman for saving my buttocks from being punctured! So yeah, I'm a little gassed! Nothing that a great weekend can't cure though!
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