Built Stuff

I just finished up a project for my mom, she wanted new covers for her crawl space access at her house and I built them for her. It was something to do while waiting for the phone to ring...

I re-applied yesterday at another place I used to work, to see about getting back on there, but haven't heard yet... I hate looking for work... I don't think anyone likes it but its what we gotta do, right?

Another Day

I didn't get offered a job on the spot, but anticipate an offer soon. The other opportunity I really hope for I learn more about next Thursday, over a week away, so I still may have to make the tough decision... Just not today.

I did some laundry, dishes, and a little bike riding today, and watched TV. Yawn.

Interview

Today I have a job interview... wish me luck!

I'm waffling about whether I should take it if offered a job on the spot, I have another opportunity I'm interviewing for next week that seems like something really exciting and new.

Last night the meeting was really good. I like the Monday night meeting I go to the best (its my home group). We have a lot of fun there, and it is like a family.

Easter

I had a wonderful holiday, everything was fun. I went to the convention and worked the merchandise room for a few hours, and they had the "alternative" store on Sunday morning. I guess it's something they do every year at the end of the convention. Other areas, regions, etc. bring their merchandise and sell it to convention goers in addition to whatever NCCNA merchandise is still left.

I got posted at the exit door and made attempts to convince customers to use the entrance, which was a longer walk. I wasn't always successful, but it was really fun and I saw a lot of happy people.

Then I went with my wife to a brunch at the Elks lodge that my mom had gotten us tickets for. I have a hard time eating in moderation when confronted with a buffet... Hey, I guess I'm an addict...

But what the heck, lots of yummy food can't be a bad thing, right? It was also very nice to visit with my mom and step-dad and I get to visit them again on Tuesday.

Then we went to see my wife's mom and there was more food. Her sons came by later on after the older one finished work, and we ate again. It was a really fun visit with both the boys and my mother-in-law, we all talked a lot. Then we went to church, kind of...

We go to a thing called Celebrate Recovery. We like it! We were way late and missed the singing and stuff, we showed up right on time for the small groups. But we were both still glad we went, and have missed a few Sundays lately so it felt good to be back.

What a Happy Easter it was for me!

Today, I am getting started taking care of important business. We dropped my wife's car off to be fixed and walked home to get exercise and we have many more mundane chores ahead that we are blessed to be able to do! God is good to us, and Life is Good and Things are Fine!

Convention

I went to a meeting with around 1500 other addicts last night, and it was cool! I saw many of my friends there. If you've never been to an NA convention, try it sometime...

I'm excited to be going back there tomorrow and Sunday morning, and maybe even today.

: )

What a Difference

Today is much better! I helped set up merchandise for the convention last night, and then today I e-applied for a few jobs and got a couple leads! One seems like an excellent opportunity, and may well be a life changing event! The other may pan out too, but seems to be honest like just more of the same... Still, it is nice to not feel so hopeless! Yay!

I am feeling hopeless only rarely, but on those days (like yesterday) it really is an icky feeling. I am so glad that icky feelings pass! The cliche is so true. This Too Shall Pass... I truly believe it.

KBR

I went to an appointment with EDD yesterday, and today I find myself kinda depressed. The job prospects seem poor right now and I might have to go overseas with KBR to make ends meet. I do like adventure, but I don't want to leave my family and fellowship behind. I want to live here, with my wife and seeing my daughters often.

I need to snap outta this funk!

This afternoon I'm supposed to go downtown and help unload merchandise for the NA convention that is in Sacramento this year. Maybe being of service and getting out of my self will help.

I am looking forward to the convention!

Parked outside our complex, the "OVH"...

Monday

Yesterday was big fun! I went to the air show but forgot my camera (sorry).

I stayed the night in the motorhome outside the airport by a bend in the road with a view of the gate where I planned to go in. In the morning, some Caltrans guys came and set up a command post there just inside the fence and then some cops came and put traffic cones to block off the area I had parked in. They were nice though, and let me stay parked until I saw cars going in the gate down the road.

I was the fourth vehicle through, and got a prime parking spot where we had a nice view of the airfield. Later on my wife came with her mom and dad, and then some friends of mine showed up in the afternoon. We had a chili dog feast and my mother-in-law made salad and cut up fruit. Yum!

The Blue Angels' Fat Albert plane blew a tire on landing, and then parked right in front of us. We were amazed how many people were in it!

I have a background in military aviation maintenance, and acted like I knew more than I really do the whole time. I told everyone who would listen all about it. Maybe I know a little about Mach numbers and formation flying from my experience turning wrenches, cleaning canopies, riding brakes, adding fluids and changing tires, right?

Have I mentioned I want to go back in the service? I am concerned though that I am getting too old and fat! It's a nice day here maybe I should go bike riding instead of hanging around here in front of my screen...

Nice Day

Hey its beautiful outside and my adventuring plans for the Mather air show tomorrow are coming along nicely. Maybe today is a good day to wash the RV!

Shhhh..........

I found a place near my home where I can park my motorhome next to a sewer clean-out hatch in some pavement. It is in a public place. I went there this morning at almost 6:AM while it was still dark and was able to dump the storage tanks! Yay!

I know it doesn't sound all that exciting but for me the alternative, when my tanks were nearing fullness and I wasn't in a campground with a dump station on the way out, has always been to drive to a state park at Folsom Lake and pay $7 plus the fuel to go there. So as you can imagine, free and right around the corner is way better.

: )

Smog & Register...

Yesterday, I had the motorhome smogged. We have called the motorhome by various names, most notably The Flyer or The Hobomobile.

The smog guy let me disassemble the interior doghouse, otherwise he said he'd have to charge $30 extra!

I forget sometimes how close my foot is to the valve cover while driving...
Impressive large engine, huh? It likes gas! I get 6 or 7 mpg, depending whether I'm in town or out on the open road.

Then, on the way home I saw the Blue Angels flying low over the freeway, so I went to Mather and watched them for a while.

I kinda wanted to scout out the best place to park early on Sunday when I come out for the air show. I hope to get my motorhome camped somewhere with a good view, and have a chili dogs feast for my family and friends.

Pictures!

Arden Ponds, seen from the bike bridge. It sure was a nice day Wednesday! I saw a turkey, and took lots of other pictures too. A couple more highlights...

Possibilities

I have had a much better day or two since posting last, and just now got off the phone with a man who called me after seeing my resume... Yay!

I don't have a job yet or anything, but am just excited about the possibilities. He sounded like a very nice man and it could be the thing I am looking for! But I will have to wait and see.

I have been reading email from monster and careerbuilder with job listings every day, and replying to those ads that may seem like a fit, but sometimes it seems like those e-applications just disappear into a big black cyber-hole... It is encouraging to get a call!

The one other time a guy called me after seeing my resume I had emailed, I got the job. The trouble was just that the job was still in the homebuilding industry and didn't hold up to today's market, so I worked for just a few months and then became unemployed again.

This time the job is not related to construction but to repairs, which still happen even in bad homebuilding times. I was hoping for my career to take this path. Blogging for a living would be better still, but not realistic especially short term.

Hey how about some pictures I took yesterday while bike riding along the American River Parkway!

Tough Days

I've had a couple of bad days. I think I might need to do better about praying in the mornings!

The short ceremony had already happened hours earlier when I arrived there with my kids an hour down the road at the appointed time. Long story short, I went there because my wife's co-worker had called and "guilted" me into it. My wife had rescheduled it, and did not know we were coming.

Then we went to a stuffy lunch with a high ranking officer, and I got in trouble for childish behavior. Hey what can I say, my daughters and I have enjoyed shooting straw wrappers at each other ever since they were little. I didn't know that once a guy made some rank everyone had to stop having fun around him!

Maybe I don't want to go back in the service.

Or, maybe I just need to do better about knowing what behaviors are appropriate in which situations... Could it be that some people don't want to act like little kiddies in front of the big whigs? Hmmm...

Yesterday was the only day off my wife has had for three weeks, and she came home with a whole carfull of stuff from living in a hotel for a while. I had the big idea that it was important to unpack the car and suitcases and get everything washed and put away in one day flat. I could do all the physical stuff like unloading, washing, bla bla bla and she could take it much easier and just put the stuff away. No problem, right?

My wife's idea was that her one day off was for relaxing, vegging out. No problem, right?

Go figure, we clashed... I ruined her plan.

For most of the day I did fairly well at attempting to motivate her towards my production goal despite her having a different picture in her mind of how the day should go, but later on in the afternoon I became unhappy with the lack of progress.

Somewhere I've heard it said that I don't always get to have everything my way right now. Why do I have trouble remembering key things at key times?

Fun Night

I spent the whole day yesterday helping a friend move, and finally got home to my daughters an hour or two before dark. So, I decided to indulge our pizza craving and we went to Mountain Mike's. After that we went to a couple of local dollar stores looking for a thing to play iPod through my truck's tape player because our old one broke. We couldn't find one but got a bouncy ball instead.

Then we went to my favorite coffee shop and sat in a meeting. The chairperson closed by showing us the miracle of NA, which I found inspiring... Check it out... First, she asked how many uf us wanted to become drug addicts when we grew up, and no one raised their hands. Then she asked how many were happy with who we have become today, and the roomful of hands (including mine) went up. Wow.

After the meeting I helped re-stack the chairs, and then found my daughters outside up the walkway a ways playing with the bouncy ball. While we waited for the kareoke to be set up, we played "monkey in the middle" for half an hour or so and it was really fun! I think that ball was the best $1.07 I ever spent.

Then we watched kareoke for about 1 1/2 hours. If you've never seen sober people doing kareoke, you should some time it is so fun. I finally overcame my irrational fear of singing badly, and did it! I was nervous but had fun, and my daughters cheered me wildly afterwards.

Some of the people in our fellowship around here sing very well, and at least one guy I know is even a professional. Others, of course, sing like crap and the kids seem to want to sing too and mostly suck at it, but it is still fun to watch. Our favorite moment: One guy couldn't hit a note in his song at all and gave up partway through but the DJ had stepped outside, so the roomful of people started singing along with the music which was still playing. Towards the end, the guy stepped back up and finished the song! And, he could actually sing!

Busy

Wow. I am really blessed!

I went to an awesome dinner last night with my wife and her pals from her reserve unit. As we arrived there I remembered it was six months ago tonight (Sep 8th, '07) that we had been there together the evening she left for Iraq. For a most of the six months since, she was deployed.

Tomorrow I get to go watch her re-enlist, and enjoy another get together with her (our) pals. My own re-enlistment was fraught with peril, and sure enough I got popped a couple years later... I don't miss having to fear the consequences of using! I want to go back in the service.

Today I helped my friend move, and finally got to meet his wife. She is wonderful, she puts up with him! I am a little sad he is moving so far to Galt, a town forty(ish) miles away. I hope to still see him at our home group most Monday nights.

Imagination

I guess addicts aren't the only ones with bizarre money making ideas...

Excerpt from Shoemoney's top ten worst money-making ideas...

1 - ShoeMoney Petroleum Company -

(I cant believe im actually telling these in public)

Ok Follow me here -
I want to purchase a Gas Station and Give away Free Gas

The catch is like the gas would come out really slow and also you would be limited as to how much you could get per week. (Like max 50 gallons a week).

How do I make money ? EASY - I would setup paintball guns around the gas station with webcams that would let people from the internet take shots at the people filling up there cars with gas. You could charge per shot or a xxxx amounts of shots per month for a set fee. PROBLEM - I talked to a city council member about this and he told me there was a “no flying ordinance” or something rule within city limits however I could maybe do it in the country…

Funny stuff, huh?

A friend I hang with at meetings suggested there may be a market out there online for clean piss... Personally, even if I could find room in my program for a product designed to decieve, I would just have to charge way too much for shipping and handling...

Challenges, Faith, 9th Step

I have been reading stuff for days. It seems like the web is full of work-at-home ideas and get rich quick schemes. It reminds me of those times when I was told "The dope man don't like strangers, so you give me the money and wait right here. I'll go around the corner, and be right back with the sack, ok?"

I can't afford to buy in to most of these schemes. Best I can tell though, there are legitimate ways to get paid for working at home, and with my honed skeptic's eye I will move forward and try to swim with the sharks. The good news is that I have time, I'm not desperate (yet). I can afford to swim slowly, and endure a couple of bites along the way. I am making the Leap of Faith!

Oh, and I spent several hours with my daughters and ex wife yesterday. I picked the girls up from school and the ex fed me dinner and we watched American Idol. I chickened out of making my amends to them all... All three of them made the 8th step list, and I've reviewed with my sponsor and I'm supposed to be doing this thing, but so far I've only spoken to my wife. I haven't done the letters for the ones I'm supposed to write about either...

I have been a notorious stepwork slacker at times in the past, and the serenity level in my life has been adversely affected. Duh. I need to get busy, despite my mind racing all the time with new ideas and dreams about what my new life and career might look like.

Starting Today

So now it begins, my excursion into blogging! I am inspired by the first blog that ever caught my interest, The Adventures of Tioga and George. I'm not sure yet how to add a link in a blog post, but here is the URL copied/pasted:

http://vagabonders-supreme.net/blog/blog.html

In really like George's blog because it is quick and easy to read. Fans can follow without a large time commitment to reading, and catch up quickly if they miss a few days. He puts up lots of pictures, too!

It may just be because I am not skilled at searching, but I haven't seen a blog yet by a traveling recovering person, exploring new places from that perspective. We think differently... I may be able to provide some entertaining insight for the "normies" out there, and for my own kind maybe some Experience, Strength, and Hope. For now I am still struggling with the traveling part, although as I write this I am in a hotel room on a military base, one hour down the freeway from my home.