Last Day of August

 So we have lived here for, more or less, one entire year.  While it is still Hell's Porch Hot, it's the time of year when some days it isn't too bad in the early morning or after 5 pm.  It will still be hot in another month or so but not "cannot do anything outside" hot.

On the last weekend of July 2021, we loaded up a U-Haul and brought our kids and my Honda Element down to Olive Branch, MS.  We got the kids enrolled in school which started that Thursday and Nightingale headed back to Chicago that weekend.  

After things were settled and we realized that I needed to be back there as well to help with packing, purging, and selling whatever I could, I joined her.  

To say we made the move on the Highest Difficulty Setting is an understatement.  The crazy idea was conceived on a visit down here in June.  We would pretend to rent from our in-laws so our kids could register while we waited for our house to sell and then buy the in-laws' house.  Somehow that morphed into buying their house without the renting option.

Because it was so bleeding hot, we didn't really unload the U-Haul in a logical fashion.  It was more just getting it done and getting out of the heat.  We put things in storage but there were a few boxes I would have liked to work on while Nightingale was up north and I had nothing else to do while the kids were at school.

I'm pretty isolated down here.  Working from Home doesn't afford me the opportunity to meet anyone and since I'm not running anymore, that avenue isn't there either.  The only "friend" I've made is the grandmother of one of my daughter's friends.  We meet at the Red Park and we all went to the Zoo once.  

The good news is my kids, especially Boris, are thriving at school.  They both got into SpotLight, and love it.  

Edit from the Future:  I didn't get to finish this post back in August, but I'm publishing it just to get it out of the draft queue.

Avocado Toast with runny eggs

I saw this on Twitter but cannot find the tweet because I forgot to like it.  Or maybe I did but the poster took it down.  Anyway, the joke is:

Made me some Avocado toast. I guess I’m not buying a home anytime soon

These turned out to be delicious.  Now i just have to figure out how to flip them over without breaking the yokes.

Good Bye ChicagoNow, it's been a slice

 I started blogging at ChicagoNow on October 1, 2012, although I haven’t really published much since Boris and Natasha were born. Anyway, the Powers-That-Be at the Chicago Tribune and Alden Global Capital closed the site down today.

No one communicated anything to us either by email or on our Facebook Group. We knew it was coming when our last community manager resigned at the end of June and said we’d heard something in a few days.  And honestly, I suspected the end was coming when our first and best community manager Jimmy Greenfeld took the trib buyout and left.  Then the annoying ads in the middle of our posts came.  

Some bloggers continued to post even though the Front Page (landing page, home page whatever term you prefer) wasn’t updating. A few bloggers wrote goodbye posts that apparently caught the higher-ups’ attention because those were taken down.

It’s kinda crappy the way they chose to go about it. Some of those blogs brought in large audiences which I’m sure led to decent passive revenue. I suspect our site didn’t cost them much especially once they cut the monetary rewards for Best Post and Best Gallery (which I won a few times).

No skin off my nose as I wasn’t one of the paid talents (they use to pay some of the heavy hitters but stopped that years ago and the heavy hitters went elsewhere). But I was hoping to post a Last Post on my blogoversary in October and was also hoping to link to a podcast I might be on; the ChicagoNow traffic would have helped.

When I  joined CN, if you wanted to get a space there,  you needed a pitch.  My wife and I were house hunting and so Adventures in House Hunting was created.  Ironically, sometime after my first or second post, we made an offer on a house.  That house would be the home my kids were born in and filled with treasured memories.

At some point, our Editor announced that you could blog about anything you wanted.  Spoiler alert: you always could, but this just made it official.  

It was like Hogwarts for Bloggers.  I know with Rowling's TERF issues that reference is not as pure as it once was.  I said what I said.

I made many virtual and even real friendships with many bloggers here.  I also pissed off a few and we are no longer FB friends.  boo hoo.  

Some people were really cool, including the heavy hitters.  They gave my Fan Page a like when that thing had more currency than it does today.  Others felt it was a zero-sum game and wouldn't click the button, which is fine.  Except for the one person who kept asking me for tech support but couldn't click like.  WTF.

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Our visit to Gulf Port.

While this is still fresh in my head, I should write about our trip down to the gulf last week.  We went to Gulfport, which has got to be one of the laziest names for a place.  I guess ShipDock was already taken.  This was actually the first family vacation that didn't involve going to visit family.  Instead, Katness came down with her kids and sans husband and we caravaned together.

It was a 5 hour drive and with 3 drivers and two cars, one person just doesn't get a break.  One of our only local friends said that 3 days at the gulf is plenty.  We went down on Tuesday and were going to leave Friday morning but we were expecting to have bad weather late Thursday evening through Friday.  I'm not sure why that would be a problem other than packing the car in the rain.  I'm also not sure why we still left once the weather report showed the rain would pass us.  

But mostly, I'm pissed that we couldn't leave until 6 pm because Katness wanted to take the kids to a water park and get them the snowcones they were promised.  That meant driving 5 and half hours in the dark.

Most of this trip was reliving her last visit here just in her husband's place.  We went to most of the same restaurants as she did last time.  

Edit from the Future:  I was going to write more about this trip last July but life got busy and I had other things that took my time.  The main thing is when we got home, I pretty much ignored Katness and didn't do anything during the remaining days of her visit.  Nightingale went with her to various places of course, but I stayed home.

We got together again in St Loius the weekend of Columbus Day because our kids were off, and by then I was over it.  

2022 is half over

Depending on how you look at it, 2022 is half over, or 50% complete.  So on that note, let's talk about my Steps stats.

I was doing really well at first.  Between NG and I going for walks and my being able to eck out a 1-mile run, I was able to hit the 10K steps usually before dinner time.  Then one day, I did something during a run and my knee had inflammation.  It didn't go away with rest, so I iced and ibuprofen and it eventually subsided but didn't completely disappear.

Since we are on cheap insurance, we tried to wait it out, but finally, I went to a doctor to evaluate.  She gave me a steroid shot and all has been great since then.  Unfortunately, based on our experience with knee injuries, we suspect that there are underlying issues.  Perhaps another lacerated meniscus.  

So I have to do Physical Therapy for a few weeks and if things don't get better, I can get an MRI.  Not sure if our insurance will cover any of it because no one can ever tell you what something will cost.  And half of America is scared of Universal Healthcare because, socialism.

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Down to 8 lives now

The other day I’m doing laundry and I put the load from the washer into the dryer. Before doing so, I take a blanket out of the dryer (from the previous load) and walk not 10 yards away to put it on the sectional.

Ryder: a near-death experience changes ya, man

Close the door and hit start. A few minutes later I happen to walk by and hear a thumping. I open the dryer and see my cat had gotten in there without me noticing. Luckily it had only been 5 minutes and though he was gasping like he was out of breath, he’s fine now, though it took a day before he would purr.

Elsa needs another cup of coffee, or something stronger

We laugh now but I shudder to think what would have happened if I didn’t notice for the entire 30 minutes.  Our Google Research showed that this is not an uncommon occurrence because cats love to explore new places and warm laundry is very attractive.  It also showed that many of these occurrences don't end well, so again, very fortunate.

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Keeping the Faith

 So it's been 2 years since I was laid off from Big Audit 2.0.  Since then I've talked to a zillion recruiters, had dozens of interviews, and one contract gig.  The contract gig, despite its drama, was more of a liferaft than I ever imagined.  It lets me reframe the narrative from "I've been unemployed since July 2020" to "I've been unemployed since May 2022".  Because without a job, I have no power.  No control over my life.  

To say I'm losing faith is an understatement.  I know I've blown a few interviews, but it doesn't seem mathematically possible to have blown them all so badly that no one will take a chance on me.

To be sure, there have been 5 places this year alone that should have taken me on, based on my experience alone.  Two were even contract gigs which would be low risk if it didn't work out.

• There were interviews given by people who don't know how to conduct an interview.  
• There were interviews where the role described did not match the job description given.
• There was a job interview where one of the interviewer was drinking wine.
• There was a job interview where the interviewer was wearing an ill-fitting T-shirt.
• There was a job interview where the interviewer picked his nose.

In my field, there are a few options.  I can work for a law firm and be a Widget Engineer.  They might call it something different.  If I'm lucky, I can find another Audit or non-law firm company that uses the No-Name Software.  Finally, the last option is to work for one of the consulting firms that get hired for short-term implementation or upgrade projects.

And I'm so ANGRY.  Angry that my Office Nemesis is still employed there.  Angry that he was allowed to bully and harass me with no repercussions.  

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