It's been an eventful couple of weeks. The good news is that I found a transcriptionist position, and I couldn't have landed a better one if I had been asked to design it myself.

There seem to be a number of MT jobs out there, but finding a company who will hire newbies and who will hire newbies for something other than 2nd or 3rd shift is the hard part. I was not looking forward to working later afternoons and evenings, because my brain tends to be winding down just when I would need it the most. I did receive an offer from one company to work a Tuesday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift. But you know what?—I've worked for myself for so long that I just didn't want to be an employee tied to a shift.

Last Monday, just when I had resigned myself to accepting that position, I received an invitation to do another round of testing with a different company. I went ahead and completed the test and submitted it, and Tuesday morning they sent me an invitation to become an independent contractor with their company. Being an IC means that I get to decide when I want to work. I do have to fulfill a work quota, but when and how I get that done is up to me.

By Wednesday I was up and rolling. I received my account specs and login information, and when I logged in for the first time, I realized that account I was working on was for an oncology practice. You have no idea how much I was hoping to get an oncology account. I have the background (fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), and while I liked most of the different kinds of reports I typed during my coursework (except psychiatry), oncology remains my favorite specialty.

I have a phenomenal account manager who has been great about helping me get started. Working almost doesn't feel like work because it's so much fun. Cancer treatments have changed a lot in the past 20 years and I am learning a tremendous amount.

So I've had a much better week this week, and I think it's mostly due to finally having the uncertainty of the past two months out of the way. I feel like I am getting my routine back (it helps that school starts soon for the girls). I even feel like knitting, and that's a bonus.

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We've had a good 10 days of really hot weather, punctuated by a few good rainstorms. The garden looks wonderful. So far we haven't been overrun with zucchini, although that may change in the next few days. We've had blueberries and a few raspberries, some beans, and now we've got collards and arugula and another crop of lettuce. The sunflowers are taller than the husband (and he is 6'4").

We did have a thunderstorm the other night, with lightning, and now we have a fire up on the mountain above our house. I drove down the road and took a picture for you. I also labelled where the fire is in relation to where we went hiking a few weeks ago.

DNRC has been flying helicopters with water drops over the fire during daylight hours since last night, but it seems to me that they are having a hard time getting a handle on this one. There are a lot of dead, brown trees up in those woods, and they want to burn despite the amount of moisture we've had this year. And it's going to be hot and dry until the middle of the week, when temps are supposed to cool off some.

I am almost ready for fall. Not quite, though. I need a few more weeks. Sometime this week I need to pickle the beets from the garden.