Just a quick note. Today was the day I was supposed to mix concrete and pour it into a pre-fab mold several times to create a nice and neat looking walkway.
Guess what, it is raining. Yeah, the very reason why I need to do this has shown it’s ugly head and spat in my face.
-WW
I can’t believe what I saw last night… it was something I thought I would never see: Very few kids on Halloween!
Now, you have to understand that I am in a new neighborhood so this could be completely normal. After speaking with my neighbor, however, I know for a fact that either parents are spooked, kids are spooked, or both. I’m sure it doesn’t help that the FBI have announced that there is some type of “threat” just hanging out there that can possibly strike in the next week.
This of course makes me just have to bitch about two things: Hoaxers and the media. I’ve always been very open about my contempt for the news programs and their switch over to sensationalism journalism that seemed to have shown its ugly face back in the height of OJ and just hasen’t recoverd. Watching the news now a days it seems that all of them figure they have to have at least three Anthrax related stories a day or they aren’t hitting their quota. Why, I say, why? It’s not like the people of America aren’t freaked out enough so could you please make sure to say the word Anthrax at least 40 times per news broadcast so that we can get even more people huddled in to the corner and paralyzed with fear?
Ahhh… but I said something about hoaxers, didn’t I? Well, let’s take a quick look at what has happened. In the beginning of the month (October 5, 2001) an email started popping up in people’s email boxes and has taken on a life of it’s own being forwarded by every paranoid person (why is it that people both still believe these unconfirmed email stories and continue to forward them on?). Now, granted this email was quickly judged by many as a new Urban Legend because it fit a lot of the elements an Urban Legen has. Now, Urban Legend or not people as a mass are panicy and just plain stupid so you just know that there are some people that got this thing and kept themselves and their kids locked in their basements on Halloween rather then let them trick-or-treat or go within 10 miles of a mall.
My question, of course, is why do people do this type of ridiculous crap? Most of the times his type of email actaully exists as to be a very un-noticed type of virus. This happens from the number of forwards that the email may go through without an editing. The list of recipients and its trial gets so fat and long the email itself becomes a large size and when forwarded inside of a corporation can exponentially eat up space. Something like this, however, in a time of war and fear is both melicious and evil and just seems un-American to do. To be honest, it disgusts me completely and makes my stomach turn.
Then again that might be from all the candy I ate tonight because there were no kids.
-WW
The Final Day of Freedom…
Today was one of those days that you both look forward yet regret seeing go by. It is my last day as a man free of "the system" and able to do with his day as he pleases.
Now, I didn’t really have to do with my day as I pleased because there was still a lot of things to do before I go back to work next week. My mother is coming in to town for the weekend, there are phone calls I need to make that I still have yet to do and there is also that damn walk way. With everything that I have to do today there is no way that I am working on the walkway. I will have to wait for Sunday to come to be able to work on the damn walkway.
I guess you could say today is less like the last day of a vacation but more like the last day before you leave for a vacation. There are all these little things that you have to put in order before you get ready to leave the scene. There is just this frenzy of the un-done that you have to work on and overcome. It gets overwhelming and at some point you just have to bite down on the bit and
get it done.
That is what today is. Bite down on the bit and get it done (unless you are the !@#$ walkway).
-WW
For the first time in a long time I did not wake up and instantly start
scouring the various job postings on the world wide web. As a matter of fact, I
got up… put on whatever rags I have that are passing for clothing and just
lounged on the couch for a good hour and a half. Why did I do that? Because I
could. No other reason. I just could.
This, of course, got cut short by a horrible realization: There is still
stuff to do! Any time you think that you don’t have to do anything at all you
will undoubtedly make a self-realization about all the things you have neglected
to do for quite some time. Here is one of those dilemmas.
When we first moved in to our house the backyard was near perfect. We had a
patio with cover, full landscaping, and fancy cement walkways bordered by red
brick. The only thing that needed to be done was to have some cement poured into
a square area that would be the "dog run." Dog run is a really nice way of
saying the place I’ll lock the dogs during the day while we are gone. They won’t
be doing any running but they will have plenty of space and everything they need
so life for them should be good. There was even a gate that just needed to be
re-hung and life would be grand.
Now, being the dreamer that I am I imagine continuing the nice brick bordered
walkway pattern down to the big square area where the dog run will be to keep
things pretty. So, I get a contractor to come in and lay down the cement for the
dog run so that the area would be nice and pet friendly, leaving a dirt
area 14 feet long by six feet wide between the dog run and the walkways. We’ll
just glaze over the fact that the contractor dumped all the excess dirt from
digging out the area for concrete in this same area (even though he was told not
to).
A week after he is done I regret very deeply not having had him do the entire
area since I know I do not have the discipline or the attention span to continue
the pretty bordered walkway. I know I now have a very large area to fill in.
Around the same time I see this fancy mold that you mix cement to pour in to to
make very nice decorative
European style walkways/stepping stones. Perfect! Get
it!
Fast-forward to today when I am sitting on the couch, hand in my waist band
and watching Springer. My new hours are going to have me home hours after my
lovely wife Denise. She is going to have to let the dogs out of the dog run.
Should it rain, she will have to walk through mud. She will have to walk through
mud that she shouldn’t have to because I’ve had a mold that I could have started
sculpting a walkway out of six months ago… SHIT!
So, needless to say I spent an hour and a half digging in the back yard. Even
though the dirt was only put there a short time ago it has settled quite well
thanks to the foot traffic my loving animals have provided (hell, some of it was
like trying to dig up rock). Oh yeah, there’s also a thick layer of concrete
slop that the contractor obviously spilled out there that I still have to get
through.
Let’s face it, I should get used to the grief now because there is no way a
walkway is going in before I start working on Monday. I’m just plain screwed.
-WW
I am sitting here in shock because it turns out that my six month seclusion
from the work force is actually coming to an end. It almost feels like a dream!
The offer letter came today. I will actually have a real job starting on
Monday. Benefits, hours, a desk… the works.
I know this sounds like a very silly thing to write about but I have to tell
you this has been one of the scarier times in my life. In my last entry I
mentioned sending out nearly 600 resumes. I think that may have actually been an
understatement. So, when you think that I was sending out over 100 resumes
a month and not really hearing or doing much you can imagine how I thought my
jobless period may never end.
The funniest thing is that having a job isn’t the end of the road however. I
still have to deal with the financial recovery period. I wish I could say that
years of saving my pennies helped me get through the past six months, but it
didn’t. If it weren’t for our families and a friend I can tell you I would have
been living in a motor home in my mother-in-law’s driveway. With four dogs that
would have been fun.
Anyway, I have to go loose my mind now and drop six months of tension and
stress.
-WW
