April 14
Life has been very interesting lately. As you may know I have been out of work since February 1st last year. My unemployment has run out. On Wednesday, March 28th, after discussing the situation with Faun, she reminded me that she had suggested, quite a while ago, that maybe we should move to a smaller apartment. I took Faun to work and went down to the apartment manager's office and spoke with Kelly, the manager about this great idea of Faun's.
He was not only OK with us moving to a smaller apartment, but; thought that it was a good idea too. He even had one next door. I signed a contract then and there.
On Friday, Kelly gave me the keys to our, new smaller apartment. I began moving stuff immediately. I moved almost everything myself. Only needed help with a few items. Faun packed and boxed stuff when she wasn't at work. We got the whole mess done in one week. By Friday, April 4th., we were done :}
It only took another week to recover. Now, we are back to looking for work.
April 21
Faun went to a temp agency to apply for some positions she had been told about. She spent about an hour and a quarter there jumping thru hoops, then they told her that the guy she has to interview with is on vacation and won't be back until next week.
When she was done we had to do some minor shopping, fix a lunch and head her off to work. We were dismayed when we noticed that she was half an hour late. She told the boss that she overslept. No prob.
May 17
On May 6th. I was forced to concede that we needed help. I applied for General Assistance and was approved. Because Faun has a job we didn't get much of a grant, but; anything is better than nothing.
Two days later I interviewed for a print shop customer service position and ended up being hired to do quality assurance on a new website that is not online yet.
Now that I'm working too, we make too much money to get General Assistance, but; not quite enough to make ends meet.
Hopefully, the pundits are correct about the technology sector beginning to turn around. If we're luck, I'll get a normal QA position and get our income back to where it belongs.
June 22
Hoping everyone enjoyed the Sunny Summer Solstice Weekend. We did. We laid about all weekend :}
Work still continues to be a challenge, but; now we have a programmer. A lot of the pressure to 'fix' things has been taken off of me. Thank god!. Now, I can begin to think about testing. Of course, we still don't know when the site might go live. The programmer in Atlanta says the end of June, but; I don't think so. There is just too much to fix that the guy in Atlanta won't do. And without proper documentation there is really no way to know without going through the code line by line.
I think my project this week will be to take the so called 'documentation' we've been given (something like 1500 printed pages) and tear it apart to see what he (the programmer in Atlanta) says that we have. Then I get to compare that to the contract to see how much has really been delivered. Fun ! Fun ! fun!
July 26
This is the email I sent to my employer Saturday morning at 4:44. I suppose this is what I get for wanting something to put in the Adventures.
David-
The excitement began this morning at 2:02 with a blaring car horn. I got up from bed and stumbled into the living room to look out of the window. I noticed an orange flickering reflecting through the window panes.
When I finally got to the window I found the neighbor's car fully engulfed in flames. I looked for maybe 10 seconds to see what else might be burning when I noticed our van was on fire too!
I called 911 to report the car fire and was informed that it had already been called in as a dumpster fire. So I told them that there were at least two vehicles on fire too
Faun grabbed the camera and we headed out to wait and see what the damages were. The van is a total loss and our nerves are frayed - can't sleep until we can get it out of our systems.
We are unhurt. Just suffering the loss of a good friend. Because the van was on contract, we have full coverage. Don't know if that covers renting another vehicle until our claim is settled.
The policeman I talked to lives in Mundelein. He said that we could probably get the apartment complex to get us a car because, it was their plastic dumpsters that burned and started everything else burning.
Will let you know if I'll be in to work on Monday. Photos online tomorrow :}
Maybe Eina can give me a ride :} Faunz humor.
mikeb
August 27
1990 FORD E-150 CONVERSION Van, white, 116k mi., updated a/c, new exhaust system, am/fm/CD, many new parts, $1,600, Some rust but not too bad.
We have named the van, "Daisy the Phoenix," in honor of "Miss Daisy," John's Mercedes that we borrowed and Phoenix the van that arose from the ashes of "Masher Skaggy". Somehow, it seems appropriate :}
We bought Daisy the Phoenix on Saturday morning and immediately decided to take "Miss Daisy" back to John in upstate Wisconsin, a trip of 400 miles each way. Faun had to the work next weekend and so it would be another two weeks before we would have another chance to return Miss Daisy. We actually left about 3:30 PM.
Faun had been having trouble with a sty in her left eye but; had been treating it with boric acid. It seemed to be doing better. I could not even see it. Once we got underway, Faun's eyes started to get kind of gooey. So we stopped about 200 miles into the trip and got some anti-histamine eye drops.
She used the eye drop and they seemed to help, but; did not clear things up completely. So Faun used the eye drops again. This time her eyes got so dry that they started tearing so badly she could not see. We pulled off in Osseo, Wisconsin, about 130 miles short of John and Loretta's place in Lyken.
We found a place at a truck stop to leave Daisy the Phoenix and drove the rest of the way in Miss Daisy arriving about 11:30 PM.
Sunday we slept in late and had Swedish Oven Pancake with bananas and jam, juice and milk. A really great breakfast. Faun's eye was much better. About noonish John & Loretta and Faun & I loaded into Miss Daisy for the ride back to Osseo where we had left Daisy the Phoenix.
When we got there we found Daisy the Phoenix immediately because, the parking lot we had left her in was empty. After a coupla photos, we went to the Dairy Queen and had some ice cream before starting back to Chicagoland around 2:30 PM.
About an hour into the trip home, Faun started to get a headache. When we started digging in our stuff, we found that we had left the one gallon zip-lock bag with meds, deodorant, toothbrushes, etc. at John & Loretta's. We started to return, but; decided that if we did that, we would not get home until after 3 AM. So, turning around again and headed home.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived home about 10:30 PM and called John & Loretta. Luckily John was still up and said he would UPS our goodies on Monday. We got 'em about 9:30 AM Tuesday.
Loretta had gone to the Twin Cities and was staying the night at Peter's place. Monday they went to the state fair.