4th of July - Shirley's first day of work in Tacoma

It took less than a week from Larry's start date (on Monday) to get the marching orders for my new assignment.  The first inkling was a call on Wednesday (two days after Larry started) to confirm I was in Tacoma and ready to work.  I was told I would hear something soon, maybe even Saturday.  Thursday evening I was told that I would get a call Friday morning.  Sure enough, Friday morning I received a call to report to work on Saturday morning.  I was given very little information about the position but hoped it was in the same department as Larry.

Things have turned out well.  Not only am I in the same department but I sit next to him.  It would be hard to be too far away as there are only 4 of us in this department.  We're part of a larger team who work out of Dallas but it's still just the 4 of us here.  We're doing the same job that Larry has been doing for the last 8 months in Dallas.

For me, this job is very different from my last.  Before, I was actively working with people on the phone all day long.  I would take my alloted breaks but otherwise there was always more work to be done than could be done in a day (maybe several days).  In contrast, this job is a piece of cake!  All we need to do is be available to assist others who are taking new claim reports and help out as needed.  So far today I've had 8 phone calls. There are no tasks waiting for my attention and no responsibilities beyond answering questions.  This hardly feels like a job at all!

With all my spare time I've been studying the details of my scope of work so I can assist my customers better.  In about a week I should know it pretty well.  Then what!?

We're sitting on the 12th floor of this building, the top floor.  There are views on 4 sides, though one must get up and walk around to see them.  On two sides there is a very nice view of downtown, on the third side there is a view of Puget sound and the view on the 4th side is dominated by Mt. Rainier.  The weather has been gorgeous since we've been here so we've been able to see it well.  I expect most of the year it is shrouded in clouds or fog.  I only got this one picture today.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take photos of the other three views and share them with you.

So this post was titled as 4th of July.  I supposed I should mention that the fireworks in our neck of the woods, which really is rural, were non-stop from sun-down to well after midnight.  The booms and pops were non-stop for hours and came at a frequency that was fast and furious.  I finally fell asleep from pure exhaustion with the booms and pops still frequent.  Somewhere around 4am I woke up and realized it was quiet.  These natives apparently love fireworks.  I expected to hear more last night but didn't.  Apparently, everyone spent their whole the whole budget in one night.  It must have cost a fortune!