Of weekends and workaholics

I love weekends, but then again, unless you have to work them, most people do. I just wish my body understood that there are certain days of the week it could sleep late if it wanted to. Not working, I guess it just doesn’t get the message.  Rob’s body does…he’ll sleep late this morning, but the poor man is a workhorse. Sometimes I don’t know how he does it.

Rob is the County Planner/Project Manager for our county.  He’s the first one they‘ve really ever had and he's now been doing it over 10 years.  There was a guy before Rob, but he managed both the city and the county land use business. Now there’s a City planner, too.  Rob’s job is a bit controversial and I worry about him. We are in the midst of working on getting zoning here…. I know, can you imagine a place that doesn’t have it yet? It’s something no one likes, not even Rob, but it’s a necessary evil. In a perfect world, everyone would respect their neighbors and consider them before doing anything on their own property that might affect someone else….but this isn’t a perfect world.  Johnson Co has become a haven for a few scoundrels who have learned there are no rules here and are just out to make a buck. We don’t even have building codes in the County, can you imagine?  I’ve seen bad electrical wiring, shoddy construction, you name it, around here.  But we have a pioneer spirit around here, too.  People don’t like being told by the “gummite” what to do with their property…. So, it’s been rough, and I worry about the toll it takes on my husband. People in town can't seperate Rob the County Planner from Rob Yingling, resident and shoot him dirty looks and talk nasty behind his back...it's his job, folks..... Because he really cares, he’s been working on zoning regulations that encompass our county’s unique needs.  We have a lot of agricultural land, ranches and a lot of open space that needs protecting and we also are trying to keep the density of population close to the services in town.  Some yahoo started a subdivision of trailers 12 miles outta town with no thought that police, fire, ambulance all have to go out there to save their butts and the folks who live in the city end up paying….

Rob’s other big job is our web design business, Bighorn Web Design. We have about 75 clients. Real estate companies that we do daily work for, an auction company that keeps us busy, several others that are very frequent updates and right now we are getting in tons of work from all our outfitters sending in pictures of this years hunts.  Oh, and Rob designs the ads that flash on the screen at the local theatre before the movie, too. He does all this work after dinner in the evenings (sometimes til midnite) and on Saturdays and Sundays after he cuts firewood for our woodstove and his summer gardening chores. He keeps saying he’s going to start getting rid of the business….

Then, there’s his fun job, Wild Wyoming Images. Rob has one of those natural eyes for photography. He’s been taking photos since he was a Chief in the Navy and when he started doing websites, a lot of the clients had no photos to add so he started taking shots of their stuff. Turned out he has one of those magical eyes for composition. And he has the patience of Job when it comes to wildlife photos.  Not me, they didn’t have those ADHD and stuff for diagnosis when I was a kid, but I’m pretty sure I’m one of them, lol.

One shot Rob took out at the HF Bar Ranch is of about 30 horses running toward us, the ranch runs the guest horses out to pasture every evening to graze and Rob got right out in front of them and caught a fabulous pic of them with this beautiful speckled paint in front, named Chocolate Chip.  It is now on 4 billboards on 1-90 advertising Buffalo as “More than a One Horse Town”. He’s also been published in fishing guides, magazines and tourist guides. We even did scouting for Vanity Fair once, that was a hoot.  Right now, we are working with Caters News Agency in London, perhaps gonna hit the big time with Rob’s smiling Moose photo, keep your fingers crossed.

Hold your family close, know that if you have someone in your life that works hard like my husband does, they are probably doing it for you. My medical bills are horrendous. I have Medicare from my disability and we also have pretty darn good health care through Rob’s county job, but we still somehow end up paying about $15,000 a year out of pocket.  The  insurance companies always find a way to not pay for things. My co-pays on my pills are around 300-400 a month, too.  It just never ends. I got a settlement from the hospital when I got stuck, I do get 70% of my RN salary for the rest of my life and Social Security Disability but because they only gave me a few months at the time, I wasn't even thinking about health care coverage when we settled, dummy.  Just got my w-2 from the hospital the other day for taxes.  It's so weird to still see it come from there and it says "sick pay".  Bet they hate writing it, too!

I’m so thankful I have someone who thinks I’m worth it.  I hope you do, too.  Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

And, on he sleeps…

No wonder he’s upstairs sleeping.