in the realm of the fictionman

Tap, Tap, Tap...

We have no Internet right now. The upside I'd we might get to say goodbye to Earthlink. This would be a good thing.

It is, it turns out, possible to blog by IPhone. Don't expect flowing verbosity until we're back online properly. We do have a lot going on. Bear with us a little more...

Ashes to Ashes

You can't dig a proper hole in the ground in December. For one, there's snow on top. Then there's the whole hard thing... which hinders the whole hole thing.

So no burying G'Quan. And I wasn't going to keep her around until spring. And while I considered for just an instant cleaning the bones and using them for something, I know her bones weren't in the best shape to begin with.

One of the problems had to do with eggs. I could see she was bloated a little with them. They interfere with good digestion and rob her of calcium. I had been supplementing, but that only goes so far. She needs time after to recover. But sometimes she has had trouble pushing them out. Eventually they can get reabsorbed if her body decides they won't come out.

But there were other things going on. It hasn't been a good living condition downstairs since the flood last year. Paint fumes, even with open windows and fans. Sanding dust, that even with everything covered became all-pervasive. Cleaning over the weekend, stirring up all manner of dust and cat hair/dander.

Too many straws to know which one was the final one. There is some guilt going on, but I do know it's not really my fault. I could have done better. Next time I will. I'm having to do better on a lot of things. One more for the list.

We had little anoles in the motorhome. We got the iguana pretty shortly after settling down again. Anoles don't live all that long. Iguanas can last 15-20 years. This one made it...8? Middle age. About my age, proportionally...

Tonight I dropped her off at a pet crematorium. $12 cash. The shop was mostly closed, and he was willing to take what cash I had on me rather than reboot his computer for the credit card. It was supposed to have been $30.

I would say more if I were more awake. But I'm exhausted. Amy is already asleep. So I'll cut the post short. Maybe that's appropriate.

Continuing the Wintry Death Theme

This morning got off to a start other than expected. I was planning on getting to work half an hour early, to make up for having to leave early for allergy shots.

I got up on time, and I was on schedule when I went downstairs to feed G'Quan the iguana.

She was dead.

I didn't get to work half an hour early. There are now no pets in this house. We're discussing what kind of smaller critter(s) we want living in that cage...a little later.

Hang Up And Drive

So Tuesday I'm driving home after work. I'm all but a block from the office. Stopped at northbound River Rd in Rosemont, in the turn lane to turn left onto Higgins. In in the right-most left turn lane. There's nobody in front of me. I had just missed the light, so I waited.

Green arrow. I start into the intersection. I'm most of the way through the turn when another car appears out of my blind spot. Someone from the right moving fast. It seems like she's cutting me off, but I feel the impact. It's almost minor enough to not notice.

Actually more aware of her spinning and fishtailing out of control. Oh, and that's my front bumper that she ripped off...

She ends up over the curb, only stopping once her rear wheels hit it. I calmly pull over onto a paved spot off to the side. She's out of the car within about 30 seconds, talking to someone on her cell phone. Her hands are shaky as she asks repeatedly if I'm okay. It only occurred to me later that she must have been on the phone the whole time. In retrospect, her hands probably weren't calm enough to dial.

A few people pause to ask if we're okay. Nobody stops as a witness.

Under two minutes and the police arrive. They're always close by in Rosemont. I'm pulling my bumper out of traffic. They spend a lot more time with her and paperwork than they do with me. The officer agrees with my theory that she ran the light, but he can't prove anything, so he can't issue a ticket. I lower the rear seats and put the bumper in the car to take home. I'm not sure what to do with it, but I don't feel right leaving it there.

...

So since then I've talked to her insurance company. Their appraiser guy came out and took pictures. Tomorrow I call them back and see what happens next. They were waiting for the police report yesterday. Country Companies. My insurance company says they'll (Country) probably take care of me okay. At least it isn't a cheap-o internet company.

As usual, we'll see...?

36

Friday I turned 36. Yep, 36 feels just like 35. No surprise there. It has become one of our little family traditions that birthdays are days to reflect back on the past year from a more personal perspective, and look forward to the enxt one.

This past year I got out of the RV business and back into Corporate America. I went from getting nowhere near enough money to almost enough. Then I got promoted. I got out of the Admin career path and into the Analyst path. I got my first ever salaried position. I went from almost enough money to just barely enough.

And it was the year I got off my metaphysicall ass and committed myself to shamanism as a path. Next is the year I start to see where that might be headed.

Naturally, they're all years of change. This year, apparently was path changes. Who knows, maybe next is also the year of location changes. We'll see.

Meanwhile, more than a week later...

Thursday Wednesday already. Nearly two weeks. Lots of things I've meant to post... but... where's... the... time...? Wherediditgo? [No, not actually two weeks, but my brain seemed to think so when I started...]

The rest of the shamanism seminar left me optimistic and frustrated at the same time. I can do this stuff. I can help people.

Of course, I need to learn a lot more. The next major step is a week-long residential thing. How's that s'posed to work? There's a two-week long one after that. Yeah, same question, but maybe bold the word "that".

Then of course, before I can really be helping people I need to practice. Yeah, there's logistical challenges in that, too.

So... optimistic and frustrated.

Last Thursday we gave away stuff through the local Freecycle (of which Amy is a moderator). It was two specific things, plus accessories. We gave away our cats, Nora and Cinder. It was not easy. It was not without emotion. Jareth was mostly fine (it did take him a couple of days to really get that we didn't have them anymore), Kayla doesn't know any better. They went to a recently divorced guy who needs the company. They'll have more room and more attention.

Half our house (Amy and Jareth) were allergic to them. With the "flood" that messed up the basement back in December (and still not fixed) we pretty much haven't been able to really see them much. The kids couldn't go down there, and we couldn't let the cats out. Hard as it was, it really was the right thing to do.

We keep telling reminding ourselves that.

Last weekend (already...) we had an impromptu garage sale. We didn't advertise. We hardly prepped. We took stuff that had been boxed, spread it out on all the tables we could arrange, and Amy went nuts stickering things with prices.

We made some money. We made some room in the garage. I'll make more room in a couple of hours when most of the rest goes to the curb. I'll be curious to see how much of it is left by morning.

A Full Day

We're getting ready to go see Pixar's Ratatouille. For free.

Work rented out a theater for it. It's a foodservice company. They have executive chefs and a "culinary innovation center" in the building. And it's a movie about a rat that wants to be a great chef. Hey, it works.

I'm expecting Jareth to have a great time. We get a free drink. We get popcorn. There's goodie bags and everything. They were talking about getting little chef's hats and aprons for all the kids. There's going to be something like 175 or so of us there, including spouses and kids.

Then we get the kids to take as much nap as possible after lunch. For tonight we drum!

Quiet for a while... (angst)

I haven't been posting for a while, haven't I? (Duh...)

Lots of things have been keeping my mood down, and I don't want to just complain all the time.

So, just what's going on, you ask? Oh, where to begin...

Money is tight (as in short), and we're still trying to get the family room and downstairs bathroom back from December's little flooding incident. So we have no room in the house. The kids have no room to play. We have a tiny back yard and we can't even let Jareth play out there unless one of us is out there to watch him. Amy has been trying, and lately she's been managing to take him out to a lot of things.

We want to move, but we can't. We need a bigger car for Amy, but we can't afford one.

On top of that, the next chance for babysitting we get we'll have to use to go see a lawyer.

Yeah, that's the biggie. That's the one I've wanted to post about. But I think I'll have to pick my words very carefully. Let's just say that it got started because of a position Amy's mom should never have put us in, and that whole family (starting from at least Amy's grandmother) was as messed up as it was largely because of the way they used money to control each other and "buy" love.

The whole thing is making Amy physically sick.

And the more lawyers we deal with the more I dislike them as a whole. I'm thinking that the whole point of a legal system is to make money for lawyers. When lawyers get involved the only ones who don't get hurt are the lawyers.

I do have an unrelated post written out on paper, but I didn't want to go a month or two of nothing and then just post it. It doesn't warrant that kind of reading into. I'll try and get a post together explaining "the issue" when I can. We'll know more in the coming weeks.

My job may be changing from an admin role to more of an analyst role (which means more money). There's also a raise ("merit increase") coming. I think I find out the details on that today. It goes into effect July 1st. I just hope it's enough to make a difference.

We're going camping this weekend... :-)

Turbulent Streams of Consciousness

My grandfather died just before Jareth was born. Since then both grandmothers have died. The last one has her memorial tomorrow. That's also the day Kayla turns one. Her party has been postponed a week (however we end up doing it... we can't have it here!)

Last weekend Amy and I made drums. Amy already blogged about it, and posted picutres. A few days ago we painted them. Tonight we made drumsticks. (Padded ones, in part to protect the painted drum surfaces.) Tomorrow we're going to a drum circle.

It'll be a wierd day. We'll do our own small celebration for her birthday. Then, we'll in some way end up celebrating it at the drum circle. We've already warned them we're bringing cupcakes. She'll get more celebration from strangers than family on her birthday. But we live odd lives.

I'm tired. Far too many nights in a row of being up later than intended and failing to get up on time. Far too many things being set aside and neglected.

And that's all the brain I have for posting recent events. There have been things I've wanted to blog about, but I can't remember them. C'est la vie?

Didn't See That Coming?

Today at lunch I had the personal laptop out, writing. Some things I just don't feel right doing on the company laptop. Like writing.

One of the guys walked past and noticed.

"Writing a book?" he asks.

"Yes," I say.

"Really??" he asks as if he doesn't believe.

"Yeah," I say. It seemed to take about half the subsequent conversation for him to really accept it.

It doesn't bother me that he was surprised by it. But I can't help but wonder what his conception of me included instead...

A Little Here, A Little There...

Another stint of non-posting. It hasn't been intentional. I can't promise it's over. Lack of time and a bit of a low-energy time. It seems like--no, I do spend more time deleting spam comments than I do posting. Quite a bit more time. But I'll have a point where I've got five minutes. Rarely enough to post anything, but enough time to delete spam. At least it doesn't take long to do.

And then I'll have something I want to post, and by the time I get the chance to it just doesn't seem relevant. Amy and the kids are excited to see me by the time I get home from work. I'm not the type to just ignore them for 15 minutes or more to get a post up. Oh, and in a few months the domain name is up for renewal.

I did just go through and update the template a bit. Fixed a broken link. Deleted the "tip jar" since it won't work right. Paypal won't let two accounts have the same checking account. It's not something I need anyway. I also replaced the old picture of Jareth on the sidebar with a current picture of Jareth and Kayla together. Hey I had a little time while the kids are playing, Amy's researching new car seats for once we can afford the new one we need badly, and we haven't started working for the day yet. But it's lunch time already, so I guess I'll probably take care of that next...

Ducks in December

There is a tiny strip of woods alongside the Des Plaines River behind the building at work. For a few days now I've been wanting to go stroll it. Today I did.

Here in December, on one of the last days before winter officially beings, two ducks took their own stroll down the same river.

There was a calming quiet in that woods by the water. No humming office equipment; no grinding construction from the other side of the building; no constant babble of people walking by.

A soft barely rain started when I reached the water. It was beautiful by itself, but made more so by the juxtaposition to the glass bottle litter strewn all around. Rain softly fell on the carpet of dry leaves, yet not a drop fell on me the drops were so scattered. Oh, but I could hear them making crinkling noises--the soft forest footsteps of unseen spirits.

That same light rain that dotted road and sidewalk ended after my second step from under the empty branches. Goodbye my ducky friends. The land of glass and concrete and steel is waiting for me.

The Latest Round of Ack

The past few days have been a whirlwind. I'm not going to be staying up late enough to chronicle it all just now. It's nearly midnight as it is.

So it was a bit before my alarm went off Wednesday morning (so figure about 4:30) when Amy woke me up. We had water, she told me.

Now, when we moved in the water softener was old and not working nicely. Neither of us actually like soft water. But there was a bypass valve at the top. So we had pushed that so that water would just go around the water softener. We got rid of the salt tank some time ago.

Well, it turns out that that very bypass valve happened to fail utterly, sending all the incoming water pressure into our basement. The bathroom was about 3-4 inches deep by the time I got in there and shut the water main off.

Down in our basement, where this happened, is also where the family room is. That's the room for our computers. Amy's computer came so very close to unhappy wetness.

Fortunately I have an iguana. She has a very nice cage, with her own little pond and waterfall. For this I have a portable sump pump, with which I empty the water out of her cage. This very sump pump got rid of a lot of water for me.

I had the presence of mind to call the insurance company, along with a plumber. I want to say that Farmers has been just great, and I will never buy discount insurance over the internet just to save a couple bucks. I've had a few people tell me I did everything right, and that early call to Farmers was one of those things.

They sent out Service Master (who I sold a couple motorhomes to just after Katrina, although a different office/division). Service Master ripped out the carpet and set up a bunch of drying equipment. By Monday everything's supposed to be dry, and they can do the damage assessment.

So now the computers are upstairs while the downstairs dries out. Downstairs is utter and total chaos. The rest of the house is slightly better. It looks like we're out the plumber's bill (rant on him later, perhaps...) and our insurance deductible. But maybe that's it, although it might force us to remodel down there earlier than planned, and the remodel will take more than Farmers will pay us, so we're still out more. But it could have been much worse. Thankfully Amy woke up to pee and heard the water...

So things are a bit topsy-turvy right now, and we're even more short of sleep than normal. And now it is past midnight. I think it might be time for bed now.

G'night?

(Teasing With) Some Details

It's interesting. I don't recall having reservations about mentioning Sara Lee in blog posts. Maybe I didn't mention them by name, maybe I did. I don't feel like searching to check.

I don't really recall saying much about the recall center, except perhaps some amusing or frustrating moments/calls from time to time.

As for the dealership... on one hand I've wanted to plug it properly. On the other hand, I haven't been sure how appropriate that would have been, and it would have limited the kinds of things I could have said about them and my experience there.

More than at any other job, I've kept my personal and professional lives separate there. Some of it comes from having spiritual views differing from the mainstream. Retail working on commission isn't the time or place to spark controversial conversations. Not when your pay depends in part on your customers liking you. Just not good odds. I also got the feeling early on that it might not have been a comfortable conversation to get into with some of them. Out of the work place, a month from now, chatting comfortably with a beer or something, yeah, then there's a conversation that could be very interesting with at least one of them in particular. But not, I think, at work during a professional setting.

So maybe that flavors how I feel about posting about the new company.

As for the job itself: They're a foodservice logistics company. A distributor. They have trucks that leave their distribution centers (DCs) full, make delivery routes, and then come back empty. They also have trucks (theirs and suppliers' both) that bring goods to those DCs and go the other way empty.

Someone realized that didn't make a whole lot of sense. So they've built a new logistics team to redo how they handle shipment planning. They've been letting each DC handle the day-to-day, get-it-there-on-time planning. Tactics, short-term. The new team will be about figuring out the strategy, the longer-term planning, and letting the local DC teams implement it.

I'll be the admin support for that group and their leadership. Probably a lot of communications, schedule management for the meetings to coordinate it all, some reporting... stuff like that.

--I had meant to post more about the job and company, not on why I've been vague in general. Of course, now I'm getting low on time to get out of here. I'm kinda trying not to count the days, but at the same time I kinda am... :-)

I Got One!

Today I got and accepted a job offer. It's the second best pay I've ever gotten. (The first best was computer work I got on a short-term contract type basis through a client of Dad's). It's the best benefits package I've seen. It's better hours, and at least not a worse commute.

My boss at the dealership is happy for me (he would never begrudge someone taking a better opportunity--that's one of the things he's cool on), but not happy about how it affects the dealership or him. There are a number of skills I bring them that they just don't have. They're going to have to make changes to adapt to me leaving...

My stomach was in knots since last night when I found out the offer was coming. I didn't know the details. I still didn't until mid-afternoon today. I'm not nervous about taking it. I'm not worried about leaving what I have now. What's to be worried about?

Actually, it'll be a relief. There are still some questions unanswered. They're overnighting me a benefits package. I start Monday November 13. I still don't know what my hours will be. But they'll be Monday through Friday, so they'll be better. :-)

Here's Why People Don't Like or Trust Car Salesmen:

A couple days ago we got a sale flyer from the Chevy dealership at the Auto Mall in Huntley. There was also a scratch-and-win thing. Normally Amy just recycles these, but on impulse she did it.

We won the Grand Prize, a free vacation. 1 chance in 52,000. So tonight we went to find out.

The sales guy hardly waited for us to get out of the car, and was waiting behind the car just about before we'd turned it off. He was introducing himself before we had even gotten to the back seats for the car seats fo the kids. We told him we were there because we had the thing which said we'd won. He took the flyer and barely looked at it. There was never a single "congratulaions," which was Red Flag #1.

It was hard sell before we'd even sat down. He proceded straight to getting information from us, wanting to run my credit before even answering questions. When I didn't follow the script, we had a floor manager talking to us. I had to work (hard) before they'd accept they weren't running credit on me.

Then I had to work to get the info on the "vacation."

Things he lied about said which I don't believe:

• The payment were all based on a 740 credit score, which he said was average for Illinois. (It's actually 682, slightly higher than the 675 national average)


• Most of what they were selling were being sold for the remaining bank balances less discounts (reposessed cars). There were payment listed for each. When we asked about actual prices, he explained that there no prices, just payments.


• When I asked how old a car could be and still be eligible for an extended warranty he flat out said that he wasn't allowed to discuss that because he wasn't licensed to.

Once he eventually realized we weren't buying anything right then, he dropped us as if we were contagious with barely a handshake. It was only then when I was finally able to get the "vacation" details. (It's just a three day hotel stay. Nothing else included.)

Getting into the car on the way out we had a "floor manager" come stop us to see if there was anything they could do to get our business that day. In retrospect, I was far too polite to this guy, and should have told him exactly what I thought. I'm torn on whether to call or email the dealership tomorrow. I'll tell the story at work tomorrow and see how they react.

In the mean time, if someone asks me for a recommendation on where to buy a car, I can honestly tell them Huntley Chevrolet was the WORST car dealership I've ever experienced, and I would not recommend them under any circumstances.

(Oh, and in other news, there'll be a blog post coming soon about the interview I had earlier today. It looks like I'm going back for a 3rd with the company president.)

More Updates and a Bit of Cuteness

Yesterday I had a job interview that may have gone very well. More details on that probably after the second interview either later this week or early next week. I need to buy a second suit, first, though.

Sunday was a family day, in part as an observance of fall. We went to the Stade Dairy Farm in McHenry. They were having a fall festival thing. They had kid funhouses, a variety of mazes including a big corn maze (a maize maze) and and a maze made inside two cattle trailers. That one was his favorite.

But there was one moment in the petting zoo that I had known was going to happen, sooner or later. I just hadn't expected exactly what would happen. But where there's a cow, sooner or later there's ... cows do that, you know.

So kids were petting the cow while parents watched on. And then the cow did one of those things that cows do. Some parents looked away. Some older kids looked away. Someone said "eew." Some parents turned their children away or covered their eyes. My kid just cocked his head and watched.

And what did my kid say to fill in the silence that followed?

Holy cow, lots cow poopie.

...Next Thing You Know, a Couple of Weeks Have Passed.

Sunday we had some family and a friend over for a Work Day in the garage. The garage has been a huge mess, over-stuffed with stuff, for far too long.

So we pulled everything most of it all out of the garage and spread it all out, sortof into semi-organized zones. We got the walls and floor swept (it needed it).

Thanks to Freecycle, we had gotten some free gondola shelving. Those got assembled along an entire wall (20 feet long, 8 feet tall). Lots more organizing space. There was another shelf system we'd gotten, but it needs to go against the wall that'll get built for Amy's workshop. That's another Work Day all by itself.

Tiring and frustrating, but very needed. Now the known garage sale stuff is all in one spot. We can find (most) things if we need to. Things are (mostly) grouped with like things. Boxes are off the floor, and backed safely away from walls (a few boxes had gotten nasty where they had been up against the concrete foundation and had gotten damp. We might also have the biggest garbage pile we've ever had at the end of the driveway. Naturally, the recycle pile is bigger than the garbage pile. Today is garbage day. I'm hoping the garbage and recycling trucks take it all.

In other news...

Things have been a little slow at work. There have been a couple of units sold that they've been waiting to determine accurate costs on before paying me, so between deals still being finalized and finished deals waiting to be paid on there are seven all stacked up for me. Some of those I'll get paid on this afternoon, some next week, and a couple the week after that. I need to get some more deals in that pile and keep it going... :-)

I have started looking for a "regular" job. Something 9-5/8-5 Monday-Friday. Something with consistent, predictable pay. Something with about half the commute, letting me get home a good hour and a half sooner each day. Something with benefits. I have applied to a few things, and have an agency working a couple more for me. Later this morning I'll call a couple more agencies--ones I've used with some success in the past.

Or maybe I'll sell cars. When I got hired at the dealership there was a training company that has a lifetime job placement service. I'll call them, too, but any kind of dealership job I'd probably need a signing bonus to make work. If it might be a couple of minimum-pay weeks at the beginning (and it's reasonable to assume that) then I'd have to be able to afford that. I can't right now.

So, we'll see.

I'm Out of my Blink Sync...

Today was the first day of fall. It started and ended with rain, which isn't what I normally think of for fall. Spring perhaps...

Equal day and night today, yet the day felt so short. They only get shorter from here on out.

Fall is a time for gathering the harvest and reaping the rewards of summer's labor, of being thankful, of spending evening time with family before the nightfall of winter...

Yet this morning I applied for a job online. It was the second one--there was also one I applied to Tuesday. In Lake Zurich, nonetheless. I'm not feeling thankful for much right now.

One of the bigger RV dealers in the state laid off half their staff. Dealers all around are seeing sales and traffic going down much sooner in the year than normal. As it is I'm not making what I need.

I haven't the stockpile to make it through winter. I feel like a squirrel with too few nuts piled up. So maybe the commitment to get another job will make me succeed in sales in time. I'm halfway considering car sales. I've got half the skills already, and there are dealerships offering salary+commission with signing bonuses (boni?). Or a regular 9-5 job. I was writing when I had a 9-5/8-5 job. I had time for things back then. Now my commute is too long. Add that to working until 6pm and there just never seems to be any time.

So, it's time for something to change. I'm getting sick of ending my thoughts with "we'll see."

Something I Haven't Done in a While

Early this afternoon I was on th recliner upstairs. I was burping Kayla, who had just finished a bottle. She was drifting off, so I reclined to make it easier for her.

We ended up napping together, her snuggled up in my chest, for about an hour. I can't help but wonder if I'll get that chance again...

A Brief Quiet

As she's been posting on her own blog, Amy is on vacation in Florida. She's posting much more about these few days than I, but heck, it's her vacation.

It leaves me playing Mom for a few days. We dropped her at the airport about 6:30 am Monday, and pick her up again around dinner time Thursday. I'm also taking advantage of paid vacation days. At the recently raised pay rate at that.

I've been working around their respective schedules, and have gotten less done than I'd hoped. Posted by fictionman at 06:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)