Time Passages

Wow, where'd the last week or so go?

I've had a full dance card during that time and full plates always make time fly by.

Wednesday I took the day off to take Joe downtown to see a lawyer about his third speeding ticket this year. Under NY State law, three speeds in an 18 month period causes revocation of the license. So, we met with the lawyer (the same one that's handling my lawsuit), and then went to DMV so Joe could get an abstract of his license and I could turn in the plates to my father's vehicle that's been sitting in my driveway since June.

We got home around 1:30, not bad for all the running we had to do. So, we fixed ourselves some lunch and I sat down to knit for a little while.

At 4:30 I had a four-hour orientation for the part-time job I took at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Superstore. Yeah, me, a part-time job. It's not that I need the money or that I need more on my plate these days, I just thought a little bit of extra money during the holiday season might be nice. I took the job understanding that I'd be stocking shelves and "receiving." Minimum wage, of course.

Friday I took the day off and went down to my aunt's house. We'd planned the day a couple of weeks prior to that. Now that the leaves and vegetation of summer have died back, we thought we'd go to my half-uncle's property and see if we could find him. He's been missing since July. Because he's got psychiatric difficulties as well as the fact that he's an alcoholic, we pretty much are all of the mind that they'll find him dead somewhere in the woods behind his house. We spent the day walking the creeks and creekbeds in about a 300 yard radius. According to my father, my half-uncle is/was too lazy to go much farther than about 100 yards away. The state police were going to be bringing in some dogs the next day, so we didn't go beyond that 300 yard area.

Saturday we worked for our own business, arriving at the job site around 10:30 and getting home around 4:00.

Sunday morning I was up and out the door to be at Joann's by 7:00 AM, where I worked until noon receiving product, unpacking it, and sending it out to the floor to be put on the shelves. I hit the floor running at 7:00 and went non-stop (except for a 15 minute break) until quitting time -- and I was home before the opening kickoff of the early football games. I was a hurtin' pup by the time I got home, since I did all that bending, twisting, pivoting, stooping, lifting and climbing. I took a hot shower and applied some Blue Stop to the really sore areas and sat in my spot with my knitting and watched football. Applied some Blue Stop before bed and got up this morning feeling pretty darned good except for a couple of minor muscle aches where I didn't apply any Blue Stop. Not bad for an old heiffer.

I work from 5:00 to 10:30 tonight and tomorrow, too.

The store manager insists that they need me most on the registers and, like I told Lisa, since I don't want to work the registers and I'm only getting minimum wage AND I don't need the money, I'm not going to get sucked into doing anything other than what I signed up to do. I guess that's the beauty of not needing the money, I don't need to worry about keeping the job. Oh, sure, I get a 15% discount at the store as an employee but, again, nothing I really need. Just something that's nice to have.

Somewhere in between all that, I've been at my full-time job as well. I had one (brand new) computer go down, the network printer shit the bed, and the guy who fixes the printers won't be in for two weeks. The Computer and Network Services folks brought up a loaner that keeps jamming, won't feed legal sized paper, and is so full of paper dust that it probably will only come clean by sand-blasting it.

The end of the semester is also looming on the horizon and, with that, Christmas will be here -- in just six short weeks. After that, I get about 11 days off and I'm really looking forward to hunkering down without the stressors of work and the holidays hanging over my head. I really love that time because it's always cold outside and I wear sweats around the house, fall asleep watching television curled up on the couch with a cat and an old afghan, do light housework or catch up on projects with the stereo blaring away. Lisa usually takes a couple of days during that time too -- I adore time off with Lisa.

We're working diligently to get a good resume put together for her these days. She's very disenchanted with her job and was alarmed recently when she suddenly realized that she really doesn't care any more. It's time to move on. Frankly, I don't care much these days at my job, either, but I only have 9 years left before I can retire permanently and, unless something better (pay-wise) comes along, I'll stick it out here until then. Lisa, on the other hand, still has about 25 working years ahead of her and still has a chance to get into something that has a good future for her. But, she can't let too much time slip away or, before she knows it, she'll be "too old" to be starting over, too, like some of her co-workers.