So lessee. Interstate 95 south is closed just north of The Big City. Interstate 476 has several accidents, with lane closures. Train and bus service is suspended. The airport is closed. And the condo hasnât been plowed out yet. To paraphrase Dylan, I ainât going nowhere. My carâs in there. Somewhere. And weâre looking at…
Newlanâs truism: An “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job. I received a letter about a week ago from the state â my unemployment runs out in four weeks. I canât claim to be in a panic â Iâm not â but I am…
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been fostering cats for our shelter for nearly a year now. Jumbo, Sisco and Kira, Simon and Garfunkle, Purrly Girl and Onyx (I did not name those two), Bandit and Murphy, Max and Millie, and poor Augie, who we took in as a hospice kitty. A dozen cats in…
This is Karen Ann’s Tea Room. I’ve been hanging out here since September. It’s close to the cats that I do vet checks on twice a week, which makes it very (too) convenient. They have good food, Morgan blend tea, WiFi and a relaxed atmosphere. Some days I show up before noon and don’t leave…
It would have been a wonderful thing, if Iâd have offered to do it immediately instead of trying to leave the store at first. It was having to return to the back counter because of the lost glove that forced me to take an âIâ rather than âthemâ approach to responsibility. Apparently this was something…
Today was my annual transplant check up at Big City Hospital. I walked the distance between the train station and the hospital, perhaps a dozen city blocks. My legs were burning by the time I got to the hospital. Being a stay-at-home slug has done nothing for my physique. The walk was even worse back…
Still breathing. Still unemployed. Trying not to hyperventilate. It’s easier during the day, when I can keep myself busy, distracted. Three in the morning is worst. Dr. Who did not drop by with his TARDIS over the holidays. The wreath that HAD to be finished by Christmas was finished this morning. I estimate I put…
Itâs been yet another while since Iâve written. I have a theory that I shall now make public: at the heart of every Christmas tree, menorah and Festiva pole lies a minute black hole that sucks all available time into it. Itâs the only possible explanation. The alternate reunion (dubbed âPlan Bâ) was a success….
I graduated high school in 1974. Yeah, OK people, do the math, get the giggles out of your system. This makes 2009 the time for my 35th high school reunion. I have attended one high school reunion in my life. It was, to say the least, painful. It was the fifth high school reunion, when…
Iâve become quite settled in my jobless routine. Which is why it was so unsettling to read in the national news about problems at a sister corporation to my former employer. The problem is related to some of the things I once had some peripheral input to, and itâs a big enough fiasco that my…