my left shift key is stuck. this computer is just two weeks old. What the crap?

national park update; a hiker with a broken leg had to be plucked from long's last Thursday, and a man died on old Fall River Road monday trying to stop his car with child from rolling backwards. you can check the Trail-Gazette for full details.

work was better today than monday, when i came close to sending my crew back to Romania in body bags. When they finished what they'd been doing, they'd sit down. That's not how we roll in housekeeping. When you're done with one thing, you look for other jobs that still need to be done.

i did manage to find pleasure in unexpectingly walking into a room where they were sitting down and chatting, which inevitably caused them to leap up from the chairs and beds with sheepish looks on their faces. i did this at least three times.

A scene that characterized the whole day came in the afternoon when we went to clean one of the reunion cabins. We treat them like a lodge; first clean all the bathrooms; then partner up to make beds; then dust, windows, vacuum, etc. one girl--who i think just looks sinister, and generally can't be trusted to do much work--made a double bed in one room, then grabbed the vacuum.

i stopped her before she went back into the room and said, 'Remember, we do this like lodges. finish all the beds, then you can vacuum.

''okay,' she said and then took the vacuum into the room; i finished giving directions to someone else when she turned it on.

'no, you need to make all the beds, then vacuum,' i repeated. 'okay,' she said and continued to do the exact opposite.

At this point, i took hold of the vacuum handle and flipped off the power switch. 'NO; BEDS FIRST, THEN VACUUM,' i said through gritted teeth while touching the bed to illustrate. Then i unplugged the damn vacuum.

'okay.'

i'm surprised that i didn't really lose my cool, considering i'm not as dumb as she plays. She just didn't want to do what i told her to do, so she though she could play the 'language barrier' card. please, the mexicans who are less educated than her can understand that much English.

i just have to hold out till november, then they go home.