Working Woman

I really did enjoy working for the US Census in 2020.  I love talking to people so the part time job as a census worker was a natural fit for me.  When I got an email saying that the Census Bureau was looking for part time workers, I decided to apply and I got the job.  

What does a Census worker do in the years between the decennial census? Well, collect information on employment and unemployment, health, crime, education, consumer spending and much more.    The particular survey I will be working on is called the Current Population Survey. Each month, during the week of the 19th, I will be asking carefully selected households about their employment, hours of work, earnings and other demographic and labor force characteristics.  The "unemployment" report that you hear about in the news at the first of each month comes from the survey I will be involved with.

Before I could start work,  I spent a week in training in Burbank.  First time I have even flown into Bob Hope Airport.  Much nicer to fly into this small regional airport than into LAX!

The foothills around Burbank actually look a lot like our foothills.

Except for the palm trees!  

All week the Californians apologized for the hot weather, noting how hard it must be on Idahoans.  We had to tell them that it was 10 degrees hotter in Boise right now.  There is a heat wave with 'dangerous' temperatures every day.

I spent the next 4 days, 8 hours a day in class learning all I would need to know to use the laptop to record and transmit responses; encourage participation and work with my team.  

I was glad to find out that my 'old brain' can learn new tricks!

The government rents office space from one of Netflix's beautiful buildings.

It was their 'animated division'.

The whole week wasn't work and studying as I did get to watch some soccer games in the hotel lobby bar, including an Argentina game.  Fun!

I got back on Saturday and the 'survey' week started on Sunday.  

You receive 'cases' on your laptop that you are supposed to interview during the week.

Some challenging cases, some easy and cooperative.

Truthfully, I still believe that the number of 'nice' people far outweighs the number of 'not so nice' people.

I come home exhausted every evening.  The 100+ temps don't help.

I am really glad that I'll only be working about 9 days a month.

And I have a new appreciation for full time working moms.

How do they do it?

 

California Here We Come

Our close friend Larry Helmandollar died June 6, 2020, which was right in the middle of the pandemic.  At that time it was impossible to have a funeral or service of any kind in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he lived or in Auburn, California, where he was to be buried.  After a delay of more than a year, we were finally able to travel to California for a memorial service and burial.  Perfect opportunity for a mini-vacation!

I was able to show George the area where I had worked for 3 weeks as a part of the Idaho team sent to California to finish the 2020 Census .  We started in South Lake Tahoe and drove all around the west side of the lake where I had spent days and days tracking down addresses. It is such a beautiful part of the world. 

On many of those days, I drove past Emerald Bay.  It's easy to see why this is one of the most photographed spots in all of California.  

I may or may not be addicted to McDonald's frozen coke.  It hits the spot after a hot day of touring!

After our Tahoe adventure we drove over Donner Pass to Auburn for the Memorial service.  Then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  We discovered that it is a bit like Yellowstone - smells and all.

On our drive home we discovered Lake Abert which is a large, shallow, alkali lake in Oregon.  It is approximately 15 miles long and 7 miles wide at its widest point and is slowly drying up, losing about 90%of its volume over the last decade.  No one really knows why.

Our last night was in Burns, Oregon population 2870.  It is about the same size as Lonoke, Arkansas was when I was growing up.  It reminded me of home in some ways.  We had a delicious dinner at Boomer's Place, best French fries I've ever had.  And then our hotel location gave us a front row seat to the town fireworks show.  

Such a fun trip!  Great to show George Lake Tahoe, to honor Larry's life and to see some new places.  

Iowa Hill, California

 As we were working to close out the census in California, many of the cases were considered 'the most difficult'.  This could be because of multiple refusals from the occupants of a certain address or because the place was remote or difficult to locate.  

On my next to the last day, I received an address that just said, "Iowa Hill Road" with no number or other information.  Other people had found it, but the occupant refused to answer any questions.  When this happens, the address just keeps coming up until someone is lucky or charming enough to get at least a count of how many live there.  So I plugged "Iowa Hill Road" into my GPS and set off. I knew about the multiple refusals but I didn't know just how remote and difficult to locate this address actually was.  Definitely qualified as the 'most difficult' of cases!

First it was yet another trip over Donner Pass towards Roseville.  Once I got off the freeway, the little road followed a stream bed and actually reminded me of Maui's famous Road to Hana.  It was green and lush vegetation along the edges of a twisty road.

When I came to a State Park, I stopped and asked the park ranger if anyone lived further up the road on Iowa Hill.  He told me that there was a whole community up there.  When I asked him if it were safe for me to go up there as a census worker, he said that it was pretty off the grid but that if I went to the general store I should be fine so off I went.  I thought the road before was narrow and twisty, well this next section was really narrow with switchback curves.  I prayed that I wouldn't meet anyone coming down as I was going up.  I honked my horn on each curve.  I wish I could have gotten a photo of the road but I decided that concentrating on the road was more important that a photo!

Here's one description I read of the road 

Be prepared to blare your horn as you encounter the unknown in tight twisting turns that will literally have you on the edge of death defying cliffs that plunge over 100 stories below. We took the ride in an SUV (not wise) and continuously worried what we’d do if we encountered traffic in the other direction. There’s little room to navigate and passengers looking out their windows see little to no pavement. 

The road 'in' is over the more gentle slope and the road 'up' is on that steep side. And yes the address I was seeking, was at the very top of Iowa Hill! That sign does say a 15% grade! Crazy!

During the gold rush days of the 1850's Iowa Hill was a boom town since there was gold in those hills! By 1856 the mines were producing $100,000 of gold per week. The town had over 140 buildings with a population of close to 10,000, one of the largest towns in California by the 1870s.  Some say it was even considered as the site of the California state capitol! Unfortunately several fires destroyed the town and then hydraulic mining was made illegal.  With all that and the difficult location, Iowa Hill's population declined.  Today there are about 200 who live there.

It seems to be a place where those who want to live 'off the grid' make their homes.  With a road like this one, it isn't destined to be a growing metropolis but it is really beautiful and I loved the adventure of driving up there.

Oh, and I did get a count of how many people lived at the address I was seeking!

Donner Pass

 I just got back from 3 weeks working for the census in California.  Most of that time I was in the Lake Tahoe area which was very pretty, but I also spent some time in Roseville and in the little communities around Donner Pass.

What a spectacularly beautiful area!  My favorite places are in the mountains with lakes and pine trees!

While I loved the scenery, I did not like driving over that pass  (elevation 7227 feet) and I made that drive 4 times.  Two of those times were on a Sunday afternoon when lots of people were driving back to central California from their lake vacations, pulling boats and campers and trailers but still zipping along at 75 miles per hour.  Add to that the semi trucks and it made me very nervous.  

I stopped feeling sorry for myself when I thought of the ill-fated Donner Party that I had heard about in history classes for many years.

When I reviewed the story I learned that about 60 people were trapped by an early snow at Donner Lake about 3 miles from the summit.   That is the lake you can see in the earlier photo.  Of those there were 19 men, 12 women and the rest were children, 6 of whom were babies or toddlers.  Many of these people starved to death or died of exposure.  Winters here are particularly harsh.  One man I talked to said that a couple of years ago they got 7 1/2 feet of snow in one 4 day storm.  Some house have ladders up to their 2nd floor windows to use when snow covers their doors.  

I don't even like to think about what it would be like to be living in make-shift log houses with no food during one of those storms.  We all have heard the stories of cannibalism and shuddered.  I like this historian's thoughts on the matter. 

 Historian Ethan Rarick wrote, "more than the gleaming heroism or sullied villainy, the Donner Party is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous"

Seeing Idaho!

We moved to Idaho in 1988 - 32 years ago.  Of those 32 years, we lived 5 years in Barcelona and 8 years in Portland but still that's 24 years living in Boise.  Well my census job has taken me to places in this beautiful state that I had never seen before.  In August, I saw much of northern Idaho.  This last week I've explored closer to home in two counties right by us, Elmore and Camas Counties and I've gone places that I've never gone before.  

For 3 days, I was Fairfield population around 500.  Even though it is a lot smaller than Lonoke, where I grew up, it still made me feel nostalgic for small towns.  People were super friendly and helpful and knew a lot about their neighbors.  That makes census work a lot easier.  By the 3rd day I felt like I had made friends all over town.

Saturday I drove for two hours to an even smaller town called Prairie.  The drive was spectacular as it follows the Boise River Canyon. 

I didn't take this beautiful photo. 

It was smoky from the nearby fires when I drove up there so my views were more like this...

On this little dirt road, the sign that said, "Watch for Stock" was necessary.  This cow was very interested in me.  Some of his friends were standing right on the road, so I am glad I was 'watching out'.

 

I finally got a photo of some of the wild turkeys.

Yesterday I went to Pine and Featherville, two more small towns.  The drive was also beautiful!

There were fires in the area but actually I think it was smokier in Boise than where I was.

The fire was about 6 miles from the towns I visited.  Before I headed up there, I stopped at the corral which was right at the turn off, to get advice from the cowboys.  They assured me that where I was going was perfectly safe.  You have to trust an Idaho cowboy! And they were right.  I had no trouble at all.

I did see the fire fighter base.

And I found the 'Church in the Valley by the Wildwood' that I had sung about when I was a child.

I enjoyed lunch at this beautiful spot.  While I was eating I noticed a large bald eagle and watched him swoop down and catch a fish right out of the river!

Idaho is close to finished with the 2020 Census.  We might be there first state in the nation to finish!  Yeah Idaho!  Louisiana and West Virginia are not far behind though, so it is back out on the road tomorrow to try and finish up Elmore County.  We really hope to be #1 in the USA to complete the count.  Every time I get frustrated with some of the organization and bureaucracy of the Census Bureau, I remind myself that getting an accurate count of 330 million people is no small feat!

Thankful for HOME 💜

I have continued to work for the 2020 Census since my adventures in northern Idaho.  Our state will be one of the first to be completely finished with the census.  The cases that are left are the particularly difficult ones.  Sometimes I am assigned a home that has refused to do the census multiple times.  Now we just ask for a count of how many people live there and call it good.  Other cases are in luxury apartment buildings with restricted access.  We are calling apartment managers and real estate agents, hoping to get at least a count of how many people live at the address.  With all the concerns about privacy these days, even getting that much is a challenge.

On my way home after a particularly challenging day when I was hot, tired, and hungry, I happened to notice a man crossing the road who appeared to be down on his luck and possibly homeless. My heart ached for him.

Next I got a rush of such gratitude. I was going home to a cool house.  There was food for dinner and a comfortable bed to sleep in.  And best of all, someone who loved me was waiting there.

I have had these blessings for all of my life and yet so often I take them for granted.  

I am a lucky woman and I should never forget that.

"It's not happiness that brings us gratitude; it is gratitude that brings us happiness."

The fortune cookie I got the next day after this experience said. "Your home is a pleasant place from which you draw happiness"

Adventures in North Idaho

 After working locally for the census for about a week, I was asked to travel to Northern Idaho to help with completing the census in rural Idaho.  Always up for an adventure, I said yes and headed off to Ponderay near Sandpoint way up in the panhandle of Idaho almost to the Canadian border.

You probably know of this area of the state because of the association with some unsavory groups that are occasionally in the news.  You remember Ruby Ridge, which was made famous by the 1984 standoff between Randy Weaver and US Marshalls, well it was about 27 miles away from the hotel where the 20 of us sent north to help complete the census stayed.  With so many ranches, farms, vacation cabins, and the occasional compound of militants, enumerating takes a long time and a lot of people.   

Let the adventures begin!

My hotel room was small and reminded me of a cruise ship cabin but this was no vacation.  I worked 10 - 12 hours many days.  I worried that my old brain and body couldn't handle it but in fact it was quite invigorating!  I can do hard things!

Each morning I received on my government phone a list of 'cases' or addresses that I was to visit.  Most of the days I drove well over 100 miles and one day over 200! 

For my first week I spent my days in Priest Lake which is just beautiful!

Many people have vacation homes there.  I particularly liked this one.  The family flies to their lake house in their float plane. Nice!

I could enjoy my lunch in spots like this.

My animal adventures were quite tame compared with other's experiences.  One lady said that she parked her car and walked up to a house.  When she could see the driveway, there was a bear sitting there.  And yes, she did skip that house!  Another man was chased away from a house by a flock of aggressive domestic turkeys.  I saw many flocks of wild turkeys but they were more scared of me than I was of them so I never got a good photo.  

This cute black billed magpie seemed to think he needed to be counted in the 2020 Census!

And there were lots and lots of deer.

Many times the roads were dirt, narrow and rutted.  One of my cases was up this rather pretty road.  This is the wider part of the road!

Here is how my car looked after a few days of this.  Notice the flower stuck in the car!

People often ask me if it was scary.  I got nervous a few times.  Once I am sure that my guardian angel was looking after me.  I had three houses at the end of a LONG dirt road.  I think it was probably 15 miles on a very bumpy, narrow road.  By the GPS, I knew that two houses were straight ahead and one a slight distance to the right.  For some reason, I decided to go right first, where I met a very nice man staying for the weekend at his mountain cabin.  After getting the information I needed from him and enjoying a conversation with him and his wife, he asked me where I was going next.  I showed him on the map and he hesitated before saying, "Don't go up there.  The two guys who live in those houses suffer from PTSD and they DON'T LIKE strangers. They have No Trespassing signs, accented with a sign that says, 'We don't use much ammo.  We get you on the first shot'." That convinced me that they didn't need to be counted and I marked the houses as dangerous.  I know that I would have turned around at the signs but the road was so narrow, there is a good chance I would have been backing down that primitive road for a mile or so.  Not my idea of a good time!  Thank heavens for guardian angels or tender mercies or whatever you want to call my choice to go to this house first.

So I was only scared a couple of time and I can honestly say that people were overwhelmingly courteous. There was the occasional grouch but most people answered our questions cheerfully and helped us identify vacation homes or vacant homes which made our jobs easier. 

Another day I had 42 assigned apartments on Budweiser Lane.  I wondered how a street came to have that name.  Turns out the apartments are for migrant workers at a huge farm called Elk Mountain Farm.

And it is the largest hops growing farm in the world.  Hence the 'beer' name!

 On Saturday, I headed home and those guardian angels went with me.  I was zipping along on US Hwy. 95 near Grangeville, Idaho when my car started acting weird.  Warning lights came on, the air-conditioning and radio went off, and finally the car started slowing.  I was worried as there was little shoulder and quite a bit of traffic.  Amazingly, just as the car slowed to an almost stop, a little road appeared on the right, I turned on that road and managed to get the car to the side before it completely died.

I said a quick prayer of thanks and started to call AAA but there was no service.  Just then a nice man stopped and told me that there was service just at the top of the hill and even offered to drive me up there.  I called AAA and George and we arranged that a tow truck would take care of the car.  In non- COVID times, I could have ridden with the tow truck driver to the mechanic shop in Meridian but they don't allow that now, so George started the drive north to pick me up.  Oh another tender mercy was that I had very little idea of exactly where I was but there was an RV park just by the road and they had a brochure with a map so when I called AAA I could tell them precisely where I was.  A little thing but it sure made this experience easier.   

The tow truck and George weren't going to arrive for about 3 hours and mercifully there was a beautiful cemetery right at the top of the hill.  I sat on a bench that was the grave marker of David and Dianne Mager.  I was in the shade, with a place to sit, where I could see the car so I passed the time reading and enjoying some snacks. Plus I had cell service!  I think at least 5 people stopped to be sure I was ok and to see if they could help me in anyway.  Nothing beats a small farming community for friendliness!

I love the idea of having a bench for a grave marker so much I may want that when I die.  

My car arrived in Boise like this....

And I was allowed to ride the 15 minutes to Grangeville in the tow truck with the very nice driver and his beautiful dog Cosmo.

A fitting end to my two adventurous weeks!