Sinner

Backlash duly noted.

I offer my heartfelt apologies.

I didn't mean to abandon you all, but that's what happened anyway. I got some eyesight back and discovered just how many things had piled up on my need-to-do-list. I have spent the last two weeks cleaning carpets, washing walls, painting, cleaning the garage, doing yard work, sorting laundry, cooking all the meals, sending Haggis off to camp.... It's astonishing how many chores piled up.

I didn't realize how little spare time an unemployed bum can have when he hasn't been able to see for five years.

So where to start?

I guess I'll start with the Boss. She has been at her new job for a couple of weeks, and she loves it. Her supervisors think she is the "Chosen One", the customers take an immediate shine to her, and her co-workers are already in love.

Can't say I blame them.

The slower pace and attention to personal service are right in the Boss's wheelhouse. Her people skills are her strength, and if she has a minute to stop and chat she'll charm the heck out of you. After a week; her employees would have killed for her. By now they'd go to the moon without space suits if she asked them to. Again, this surprises no one who knows her. At the clown company they had begun to sacrifice service in a quest for speed (they aren't the same thing) so this return to a more pleasant atmosphere is just the balm she needed.

It's not perfect, though. She is training in Orem which is an hour long commute, so the ten hour shifts that she works actually equal twelve hours away from home. It can take a toll, but it's still fewer hours than she was spending at the clown's. Plus they don't call her when she's not at work. No more text messages every two minutes. No more three A.M. phone calls. No more late night trips to re-demonstrate something to the same people for the thirtieth time (See; even the complaints turn into positives). The commute does take it's toll, and the gasoline bill is crippling our budget. The promise is that she'll get transferred to someplace here in the valley within the next month or so, and that will solve that problem.

I do miss the free food from the clown but we have gotten to try a few of the pies and they are better than cheeseburgers by a sight. In all, I'd say even this former blind man can see we made a good decision.

On to the next...

I've been fixing up the things that were neglected by my bad eyes. Last week it was scouring the upstairs rooms. There is a bedroom, an office/toyroom, and a bathroom. The toys got sorted and reduced to a couple of totes. The bookshelves got a makeover and the desk decluttered. Windows got washed and carpets cleaned. The big girls room got a fresh coat of paint. It went from yellow to purple.

When I was blind, I had picked a color that I thought was kind of a light lavender. But when I started to roll it on, it was about ten times darker than that. It looks like the "artist formerly known as Prince" did the interior decorating. If Grimace ever goes in there and shuts his eyes, we will never find him. It is VERY purple. I am not a fan, but the girls love it and so does the Boss. I'm just glad that it's going to be hard to mark it up with crayons.

I replaced the busted ceiling fan with one of the light fixtures that Beak gave us, and by the time I touched up the paint in the hallway and cleaned the bathroom, I was into the third day of that little project.

Cleaning the garage and mowing the lawn took another day, and we also went to celebrate the fourth over at the Boss's sisters. We had a BBQ and did fireworks, much to the delight of Squizzle. He thinks that the "Snap-it" pops that you throw on the ground are the coolest thing ever. I wish that I'd had a video camera because watching him wind up to throw one hard enough to get it to pop was hilarious. He'd toss them as hard as he could and then he'd growl at them if they didn't pop. If they did pop, he'd clap and giggle and run in circles. He never was able to figure out why they didn't work on grass, though.

One day, we went with the Boss to Orem for a manager meeting, and while she worked, I drove around the backstreets of town to get a little driving practice in. I am the world's most cautious driver on my most rebellious days, but driving for the first time in five years added to the caution. It didn't help that I am neither licensed or insured, so if I had been pulled over it would have been off to jail for sure. But hey, I got to practice sometime and by doing it an hour away from home most of my pedestrian friends and family were kept relatively safe.

While I am not quite ready for driving tests, I am past ready for some employment. I have been spending the vast majority of my time looking for a job. Newspaper classifieds, LDS employment, Utah department of workforce services, you name it, I've searched it. I ask for applications at every business we cross, and I've filled out a hundred of 'em. I even have two resumes, one for English degree related jobs (which is not getting very much use, I'm afraid) and one for warehouse/sales/production/anything else-I-might-be-qualified-for jobs. So far all I have to show for a months worth of applying is one rejection email. I haven't even got an interview yet. I'm getting desperate. It annoys me that I spent all that time and money on a college education and I'm going to wind up in the same joe-jobs I was in before.

If I'm lucky.

Again, any leads anyone has would be appreciated.

Speaking of unemployment, Uncle C finally ran out of time with Jordan District and they laid him off. I figure the whole public eduacation system in this state is going to implode one of these days. I still can't figure out why kids that live within blocks of one another are getting different amounts of spending. The first thing I'd do if I got put in charge would be to get per-pupil spending equal for all districts in the state. It's asinine that a kid in Sandy should get more spent on their education than a kid in Carbon county (Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox).

The real crusher here, other than Uncle C needing a new job, is that I no longer watch Reaggers and Bub, so the funny stories seem to have dried up considerably. That's another reason I've been a while without a post, the funny has deserted me in favor of quiet desperation. But then, right as my mother was informing me of my growing line of hate-mail and chastising me for not posting, something funny happened.

My brother just bought a new car. He picked us up one night for a family get-together when the Boss was at work. We were talking about buying cars when I reiterated my opinion the the dodge rotting in my driveway represented the single worst decision I had ever made. From the back seat, Puzilla's tiny voice piped up, "Don't worry daddy. You're still young. You've got plenty of time to make worse choices than that!"

Can't live with 'em; can't sell 'em on e-bay. Where's the Tylenol?