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| The Spread at Mary's Party! |
So September has come and gone, and I'm still unemployed (sort of). This has gone beyond frustrating and is now downright scary. My contracting agency is being kind enough to throw some little tasks my way so that I'm not completely without income, but it's very hit and miss and just barely above what I'd be making if I was on unemployment.
Meanwhile Cheryl is doing an amazing job of keeping us afloat. She's magic! (Must've gone to Hogwarts...)
The company keeps saying that the job is just around the corner, but no one really knows why it is taking so long to get started. Especially me.
Anyway.
I was sick for most of August. Nothing alarming, just a low-grade, sticky-lung, no-energy kind of pseudo-pneumonia that gave me a cough that lasted for weeks but not sick enough to head for the clinic. One of those types of illnesses where you start out feeling zonked out in the morning but slowly gain strength during the day and then suddenly the rug gets pulled out from under you around 8 pm and you just can't stay awake anymore.
It wasn't completely gone by the beginning of September, but started to abate. Slowly.
September 2nd (Labor Day)
On Labor Day, we took the opportunity of the holiday to get a little work done around the house by sorting through all the artifacts in the house which were not currently in use, and hauling them over to the Storage Unit for safe-keeping. One of the artifacts which was already in the Storage Unit is my old 2000 Toyota Camry, the one I happily tooled around in way, way back in 2020 and has been sitting here since January of 2023 waiting for me to have the time and inclination (and garage space) to get it fixed. While pulling it out in order to put more stuff in, the silly car sprung a brake line leak. Happy little brake fluid formed a little river underneath the car when I pressed the brake pedal, and no brake action actually occurred. Thinking quickly (which is not one of my strengths normally), I pulled the parking brake handle and eased it to a stop, so all control was not lost. But now I have yet another item on the List of Things To Do Soon. Ugh! I don't know when I'll find the time for it.
Meanwhile, we finished filling the storage unit with all the other clutter we'd hauled over, shut the door with a bang! and went back home to enjoy a family Labor Day cookout. Which was yummy and relaxing.
September 5th - Something to Do
My contracting agency has assigned me to do some screening interviews while waiting for the background check for my new job to complete. It's not much, but it's better than the Unemployment Check (currently around $300/week). And it's actually kind of fun, talking to engineers from all over the world about their careers and skills and experiences. Many of those guys are my age, almost ready for retirement but needing a few extra years of income; some are actually post-retirement, having gotten bored and looking for a new challenge. We have fascinating conversations.
When I'm not doing the interviews, I'm working on various projects around the house. The Elantra, for example. It's been sitting in the 3rd bay for a long time and now I finally have some time to look at it. I pull off the valve cover to check on the valve springs and the cylinders and the timing chain. From the description Firestone gave us when the car first died, I had suspected that the timing chain had broken. But this turned out not to be the case, as I can see plainly that it is still all in one piece.
So what could it be? This will require more investigation.
September 7th - Fall Cleaning and Car Repairs
Such a busy day! I went over to the storage unit and grabbed a few of Deb's boxes so that she could look through them and figure out what should be tossed and what should be kept. Deb brought Emmy along so that Grandma could have some fun, too.
While all that fun was happening, Dylan and I were installing a new fuel filter in his huge truck. The truck is so huge, in fact, that we had to remove all the other cars from the garage and park the truck in at an angle so that it practically filled the entire space. It was a lot of fun and it only took us three or four hours to get it done.
Then after all that work, Cheryl and I were obviously too tired to cook, so I went out and grabbed dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants and brought it home so we could relax in the comfort of our own over-stuffed house.
September 11th - Visiting Emmy & Simple Fish
Deb asked us to bring their old cat tree over because she's giving it away to a friend of hers. While there, we took advantage of the opportunity to play with Emmy. Cheryl read some books and I got down on the floor to play with her and her toys. She sat at her little table and fed me some of her dinner! She's so good about sharing. One for her, one for me; one for her, one for me... and so on. Then she got in the tub for bath time and showed us how much she loves the water. Inspired, we went out for dinner at Simple Fish (a sushi place) and had a wonderful, relaxing meal.
September 13th
Tonight was supposed to be a Dungeons and Dragons gaming night, but one of the members of the Dungeon Master's immediate family was not feeling well so we had to cancel. Which is just as well since my head was pounding from the tension of trying to complete all these screening interviews while still waiting for my new job to start. Cheryl made a delicious dinner and then we watched The Quatermass Experiment (with David Tennant) on streaming TV.
September 14th - Babysitting Emmy
Today was our day to babysit Emmy from 9 am to 12 pm. She was a little fussy at first but quickly settled down to play and read books and go on a walk (I walked, she rode on my shoulders) around the neighborhood where she was able to interact with our neighbor's dogs and also interact with the branches that were hanging down too low from the trees in our yard as we walked underneath. Grandpa, pay attention to where you are going!
After Emmy was picked up by Deb, we started in on our normal Saturday chores; and then later on it was time for Mary and Adam to host the Gaming group while Cheryl and I sat upstairs and just goofed around on our laptops. She plays with spreadsheets, I watch YouTube.
September 16th - Dylan on Travel, Meeting old friends by Happenstance
Dylan headed out early in his company-rented car for Cincinnati where he'll be installing some testing or painting chambers at the GE Engines facility. Meanwhile my company has loaded me up with more screenings to keep me busy and earn a (small) paycheck while waiting on the next gig. Cheryl and I do some grocery shopping for Cooking Club at the local 'fancy' store (Horrock's) and bump into an old friend we haven't seen in-person (we see her occasionally on Facebook) for many years, so spend nearly an hour re-acquainting ourselves with one another. It's a strange feeling to run into people you haven't seen for a long time, realizing your lives have continued to move along different paths -- and it's been a long, long time. How have the years moved by so quickly? Makes me sad.
September 19th - Art Prize and Salmon Dinner
Cheryl went on a school field trip to the annual Art Prize festival downtown. Her charges were a gaggle of unruly, highly random young girls with too much energy and not enough common sense, but she managed to wrangle them through the town and didn't lose any of them, even when they wandered into a bridal shop (to look for prom dresses) and the coffee shop (spending money on expensive drinks!). She came back tired but happy to survive. We had a nice salmon dinner with Adam and Mary out on the back deck. Might be our last outside dinner as we expect the weather to turn cold any day now. Mary spent the evening packing for her trip to Cincinnati.
September 20th - Mary Drives to Cincinnati, Meeting more old friends
Mary left early in the morning to drive down to Cincinnati for the weekend. We had a very nice visit with Deb and Mason and Emmy over at their place, then drove over to Culver's (our favorite fish'n'chips spot) for dinner, just a short hop from the Swiders. And since Home Depot was right there in the same parking lot, we stopped by to look at some things and just happened to run into our old friend, Mike, whose kids I used to teach in Sunday School. So we caught up on things, mostly the progress of our kids on their way to adulthood.
September 21st - More Car Repairs
Fixing the parking brake on the Sonata. Found out that the console tray is broken so we had to order another one. Cheryl made Pilenta Pie! And sourdough bread!
September 23rd - Dinner with Mary, Cooking Club Shopping, Meeting even more old friends
Rain again. Cooler. A couple screenings. Dinner with Mary -- breakfast sandwiches with bacon! Then grocery shopping for Cooking Club. Bumped into Steve Mullan and caught up some. Finishing screenings.
September 29th - Mary's Birthday Gaming Party
Mary's birthday isn't until tomorrow but she wanted to have the party today because that's when her friends can come over and help us celebrate -- so they did! We had plenty of food and plenty of fun, since she had decided to have a Gaming Party and all of her friends are serious gamers -- and that means video games as well as board games. Everyone had a lovely time! Especially Mary!
September 30th - Mary's Birthday
We didn't do anything special on Mary's real birth-date. It was a Monday, just another work day. And I had a sinus headache that just wouldn't quit. Still, I think she had a good birthday. Dylan worked hard to make that happen. I'm glad they get along so well.