Cons of being a freelance writer:

-no health insurance

-no steady paycheck, no retirement fund

-no time off over the holidays. (only anxiety because everyone you're trying to get in touch with so you can meet your deadline has taken time off during the holidays)

Pros:

-instead of working with one boss, you work with lots of different bosses (editors). You continue to work with the nice, helpful, cool ones and stop working with the condescending or bizarre ones.

-you don't have to listen to your co-workers talking loudly on the phone or typing loudly on their computers when you're trying to concentrate on something.

-when you're tired of staring at the computer screen, you can leave your desk at 3 pm and go for a two hour walk in the bosque.

Okay, so this is a pretty simplistic breakdown of my life, but the fact of the matter is there are good and not-so good aspects to being a freelancer.

But at the end of the day (well, at the end of yesterday, especially) I feel like the luckiest person in Abq to be able to goof off with my dog in the bosque (And yes, I did have a plastic bag to pick up his poop, so as to not contribute to the fecal coliform problem in the Rio Grande, but he didn't poop on our walk.)

I was so happy, feeling the love for the Sandias, the cranes still hanging out in the fields, the other walkers, etc.

And then I got back to my car which I had parked on Veranda. (You know where I mean, probably -- Veranda north of Candelaria where it dead ends at the acequia). For the second time this year, my car was splattered with ketchup (catsup?). And of course, yesterday, it was frozen onto my car.

So, I asked this nice fellow who happened to be getting his mail if he knew why on earth my car would be covered in ketchup. For the second time.

Apparently, based on what he told me he's seen before, I was lucky my car wasn't covered with trash.

So my question is; has anyone else had trash or ketchup thrown on their car over there?

I'm guessing it's the guy who owns those two old houses at the end of the road on the south side. (One of which I used to live in, so I'm familiar with the landlord's behavior.)

All right then, back to work....