A Quick Update

I’m sure that some of you probably thought I was seized by the government for my last post but not yet. Things have been chaotic though. On the sixth we sent our exchange student Rui back home to China which totally sucked. We had her for ten months and still didn’t get to spend enough time with her. She’s doing fine in China though and my correspondence with Jes our next student I have discovered that she is mostly vegetarian. That’ll be interesting to say the least. It’ll probably put all of us on a better diet that’s for sure. 1.1 also had another wedding to be in as another flower girl which she pulled off perfectly. In between watching kids and taking care of the household tasks I’m trying to find time to write. I got a couple ideas from when we were at the wedding particularly about Butlers Bridge which is an interesting little road we went down on the way to and from the wedding. The night of the rehearsal dinner we took it home and noticed a path going down to the left that had a sign saying no through trucks so we assumed that was the way to the old bridge where they used to hang people. We went past it again twice and it’s not there anymore. Next weird place is the Seven Bridges in north Georgia. People say that when you drive your car down one way there’s seven bridges and when you drive back there’s only six. Interesting. I’ll let you know what comes up. If you have any weird occurances like that let me know. I’d love to hear about them. Be specific too because we travel as often as we can and who knows maybe one day we’ll be in your neck of the woods and stop by to see if it’s true. We go around Bryson City in North Carolina a lot and sometimes we go down towards Tampa and St. Petersburg in Florida. I’d love to hear about a few local myths and legends and who knows if I like it enough I may try to turn it into one of my many novels that I have yet to finish.

P.S.  In now reviewing this post I forgot to add one major detail.  After the wedding was over we drove up to the one remaining slave quarters on the plantation.  I walked in and stood still for a moment and then i realized something, there were foot steps on the floor above me.  Pretty strange occurrence especially considering that we were the last people on the property so I feel quite comfortable in saying it was a ghost.  Not to mention it gave me a real creepy feeling just walking in there.

Things Have Gotten Weird Again

Since my last post we have lost two of our cayuga ducks, lost another cousin a few bits of wit and some car keys.  To really help with things Kat’s getting yelled at at work and causing her to stress which is never a good thing with sunburn.  Yes all my girls are sunburned.  To top things off I get to spend the weekend building a chicken coup with a 138% chance of rain so that’ll be lots of fun.  In more weird news Rui our exchange student is going on her first date.  They grow up so fast don’t they.  Now if I can pull myself together this weekend I’ll be okay but so far I don’t have time to do anything useful.  Maybe we’ll see if after Rui’s track meet her new boyfriend can bring her home so we can focus on building everything.  We’ll see.

More Red Tape

It’s not secret that I despise America.  Slowly our civil liberties are being stripped away while the economy slips into decay as the ever consuming rift dividing poverty and wealth threatens to engulf the nation as it slips into a caste system.  To add insult to injury the government abandons those who truly need help.  My daughters will be out of health insurance on December 31 because the government has turned their back.  We officially make too much money to get government assistance of any kind and yet are not able to even put gas in our car or food on our table much less talk about doctors visits.  The worst part of it all is that it is a four dollar difference.  By the government standards we are four dollars above the poverty level so we can afford to eat cake and drink wine.  Quite the contrary.  Tonight for dinner we’re having left over ham that someone donated to us over Christmas.  I don’t know what we’re going to do when it’s finished.  All we have left is a bag of chicken wings so skimpy that it will last just one meal between all of us.  I have no way to feed my family and no one will help.  Looking for a job is out of the question because in order to afford fuel, car insurance, and daycare I’d have to be making atleast $20,000 annually and there are no jobs in Georgia that will pay that much starting.  We will finally be caught up on the mortgage just in time to get another bill from them and start the new year in the same shape in which we left the old; broken and battered and generally worse for wear and looking for help which will never be given.  We have been abandoned by the one entity that is supposed to protect us and nurture us as we grow and thrive while we instead wilt and suffer.  What makes it so horrible is that we’re not the only family with this problem.  You look all over the nation and millions are in the same position we’re in.  My only true wish is that I had the money to leave before it gets worse, but alas what money we do save gets sucked away on fuel expenses so we can get enough money to scrape by.  We’ve already decided that no matter how much money we get back on a tax refund it’s already spent on something to try and make life bearable.  My current thought is to get the roof replaced.  Maybe if roofing tiles are cheap enough I can do it a bit at a time.  But then again that would entail that I actually have the time to do it and the money for the tiles.  I guess I’ll look into it though just in case.  Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to wallow in self pity and will be out for the rest of the day.

Update

In case you’re wondering my interview was a flop. Apparently the lady I interviewed with called the staffing agency and said that I refused to work weekends and had to be off at a certain time and had to have lunch at a certain time and a whole bunch of other bull$hit. In good news I stumbled over some old disks that I had from when I got my laptop for college and now have a copy of MS Money and Streets and Trips and Encarta which is a really good encyclopedia in case you haven’t used it and it’s highly recommended. I never would have been able to get out of high school without it.

Energy Shortage

No not to worry your lights are fine. I’m talking about my energy. Hosting an exchange student and looking for a job is less then relaxing and right now I could really use a vacation. In case you were wondering I did manage to loose yet another job (this time it really wasn’t my fault. The bitch boss decided to put one of her friends in the position). As it turns out the only other offer was unreasonable because we have only one car (the window in the cougar won’t roll up so as it stands it’s inoperable because there’s no way to drive it when I’ve torn the door off to fix it) and the van is really turning some miles (over 100) per day so far. Needless to say I’m exhausted and my new meds haven’t helped. The doctor put me on some medicine that is supposed to help me but so far it has only made things worse. I still have all the symptoms and now I’m groggy and hazy as a result. I also think the police are after me for some reason. The past few days I have seen cops everywhere and they always make it a point to look dead at me for some reason. I think they’re after me. Some crazy guy with no job must surely be up to some kind of trouble.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Well it’s yet another year that I lose a chance at fame and fortune and a good publisher and on what should normally be a great day has started out to be shit. I woke up this morning being pushed out of the bed again after 1.1 had nightmares last night and climbed in bed with us. After I recover from my downward journey I go to get in the shower only to realize that we have no towels. Undeterred I resolve to use my nice soft terry cloth robe only to have it smell like my dirty socks yet I still persist unabated. Finally I make it through the toy booby-traps and get into the bathroom to see half a dozen ROACHES climbing all over the tub. I gave up after that. I sure hope 2.0 has a better birthday then I have so far.

On a positive note though 2.0 did take her first steps yesterday. She managed two steps before she freaked herself out. On a good and bad note I got the Camaro back from Florida but the Cougar’s FUBAR again. I have found work though but because of the hours and distance I don’t have time to cook or write anymore so while I’m getting money my dreams and aspirations are slowly slipping beyond my reach. Kat’s been very supportive, though, I’m just not sure if I’m cut out to carry so much on my plate. Eather way as it goes I have another psycho appointment on the 31st to try and find out if I’m psychotic or just the doctors are. If this one is anything like the last one then it’d be very possible that they’re the ones with the problems. The last one redefined the phrases bitch and bad doctor.

Work, School and Caffeine

Well it’s safe to say that life comes at you fast. Over the course of this weekend I had a small vacation, went an entire day without spending any money, built a bed and found a job. I’m sitting up at Kat’s work waiting for one of the sales guys to get in to take me to a new job right down the street. That’s all fine and dandy except for the fact that we still have only one car and 1.1 starts school today thirty miles away so Kat’s driving all that way back down there to drop her off with 2.0 sleepily in tow. The good news is that after a while we should have enough money to start traveling again. Not sure yet though if the next trip will be Britain or Prague. Anyway I digress to my usual ramblings and complaints of the general public. Now we all know that people do stupid things but there are some things that are not only stupid but defy logic, common sense and possibly child negligence laws. One such event happened yesterday when we noticed a four year old drinking coke out of a baby bottle which was intended for a little girl who appeared to be slightly older then 2.0 so just over a year. Now if a baby has coke in their bottle it will definitely rot their teeth before they grow in so that defies all three of the conventions I mentioned earlier. To top it off we noticed the mother drinking coke out of a baby bottle as well. Safe to say that some people shouldn’t breed and if they do by choice or mistake then they shouldn’t be allowed to raise the poor things. There’s plenty of good parents out there who can’t have children but want them and if they were allowed to have the children born to the bad parents then everyone can be happy and well educated.

More Words to the Wise

If any dudes out there are considering getting married I have but one word of advice: Don’t. It’s not bad at first. The food’s good the sex’s good the food sex’s good and you get that wonderful thing called “house-sex” which may or may not be intertwined with borderline or completely illegal sex. That part’s not all that bad but when the kids come along it really takes a hit (reference This). After a year or so a little thing called the Honey-Do list pops up. Chances are that the Honey-Do list has always been there but just resorted to minuscule tasks such as change the oil in the car or replace the brakes or something of that sort. Sometimes it may even be fun and pertain to something like see who can have the most orgasms in eight hours but eventually, especially after kids, it will become more grueling and less enjoyable (possibly to make up for the lack of sex due to children). Take for instance my Honey-Do list for the day. The main thing on the agenda was fix the lawnmower: Done. I finished about 8 am and went around the back to check out what all fruit we have coming in. When I finally get back to the house around 8:15 I hear the most awful noise in the world: My wife taking a hammer and drywall knife to the tile kitchen floor. I admit that I kinda set myself up for it by saying that I was going to do it this weekend but I’d never really allowed for delaying it so as it was I end up having to assist in removing all the tile (with the assistance of my lovely air hammer) and replace it with el-cheapo Ikea laminate flooring (hey $0.69 is not only a damn good position but also a damn good price) while she spent the rest of the day reading the new Harry Potter (which apparently the bastard-ass jock doesn’t die). As of 8:30 this evening I have just a little over half of the tiles removed and just finished spending a half hour washing pieces of grout out of my hair. So gentlemen do yourselves a favor and don’t get married. If you’re worried about the sex life just know that Thumbelina and her four sisters will never turn you down.

The American Dream

So when exactly did the American dream go from being about having a good job with good pay and being able to come home to a spouse, kids and a nice warm meal fit for a king but at the cost for a pauper? It seems like these days the American dream has morphed into a menagerie of disappointments and let downs beginning with working over forty hours a week to barely be able to afford gas to get to work to work the over forty hours with a side of reduced retirement prospects and the slow and eventual abolition of social security meaning that when Generation X gets old they’ll turn into Generation Octogenarian-seeks-third-full-time-job-to-pay-gas-to-work-first-two-jobs! Still it is America so I guess that stands for something, I just don’t quite know what yet. As I write this I’m looking for work and trying to figure out where I’m going to get the money to fix one of the four dead cars we have so I can actually get to it and be able to afford for Kat to get to her job during the day. If anyone knows of any needed freelance work (particularly in writing or editing but I’ll do assassinations too if they have good vision and dental coverage) then feel free to drop a line at my email link somewhere on the page. In the mean time remember to work hard, Uncle Sam needs your money to support his habit; after all it’s not easy trying to scam billions of hard working tax payers out of their money.