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AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! I hate working on Saturdays. Today I taught my foster parent class. Not the regular class. This is the one for accidental foster parents, the ones who take in a niece or grandchild who’s in foster care. For relatives, we have a streamlined program so they don’t have to go through the lengthy process for regular foster parents. They’re usually not very enthusiastic. They already have their foster child. Often they’d rather not get involved. The regular foster parents are more cooperative and eager to get that first child. They bring all the documents we want and enjoy lively discussions in class. They linger after class and ask lots of questions. The Kinship people complain about the services they get, and hungrily encourage us to let them leave early, which I did. I drove to work in a thick fog. What a mess. Guess who I saw? Thaaaat’s right: Shane. He and a friend were presumably headed for Texas to shop for that new boat trailer. He sped past me, grinning and flipping the bird. I had been invited on the trip, but I had to work. “You need a new job,” Shane said for the umpteenth time. Every time we want to do something, I’m scheduled to work overtime. Shane never seems to work overtime, and he probably gets paid for it on the few occasions he does. Shane is about eight years younger than I, and he never went to college. He makes more money than I do, and learned his craft on the job. He was laid off earlier this year, and got an even better job within the week. I try to comfort myself with the thought that I’m doing important work (“Riiiiiiiiight”, Shane would say). As I mentioned yesterday, Shane seems to be responsible for my site traffic. Since he’s out of the state today, I checked my stats, and guess what! There are only four of you. Why don’t you all come over to dinner? There’s plenty of room, since my table seats six. btw: one ripe fig today
* Friday, December 07, 2001
What I get for thinking so well of myself I had been enthusiastic over my site statistics lately. I've been getting 20-30 hits a day. I got my bubble burst this A.M. when I spoke with Shane. He seems to be responsible for all those hits. He checks this page several times a day (not sure why. I only post once or twice a day). Hi Shane. Since it's just me and you here, maybe we could just email each other. *
We were at Wilda's last night when I mentioned the bloody chicken story (see yesterday's post). Janice said, "Jeff, that wasn't just while you were a kid. I've been to your mother's when bloody chicken was served." I guess I had forgotten how long it had continued. I know my wife well enough to know she'd never bring a piece of bloody chicken to her lips, so I asked how she got through the evening. "Wings" she said. "They're smaller and cooked all the way through." Mom's cooking followed me even to college, 70 miles from home. Once she brought me her infamous Mexican casserole. I didn't want it, so I gave it to Phil at the frat house. He loved it. After he finished vomiting, he said "It's a shame I couldn't keep it down. It sure was good!" * Thursday, December 06, 2001
Once again I mention conclave obscurum (see my earlier post). When I went to the site, I signed up for the mailing list. I was eager to see new creations from them. Today I received an email from Oleg, the artist, saying that all 2000+ subscriptions have been cancelled. He said the pressure of so many people anticipating something new and great from him was too much to bear. Sometimes success is the enemy of creativity. I'll check in on him from time to time to see if there's anything new. I hope he doesn't find his site statistics to be too intimidating. I found the site through Linkdup, a portal site for creative web pages, but I've yet to find one I like more than Oleg's. *
I've been having lots of fun with my new digital camera, but I'm starting to realize what a great tool it can be for work. I spend a lot of time visiting foster homes, and we often have outdated photos of the home and family in the case records. Now I can stay up to date. But the most unexpected benefit is that the camera can serve as a portable copy machine. It makes good closeup photos of pet vaccination records, insurance cards, drivers licenses, etc. The drawback is that the camera doesn't interface with our old computers at the office, but I'm hoping that the new system, arriving June 2002, will be compatible. *
This morning, Janice and I were discussing how many men are picky eaters. I can't tell you how many I've known. Their wives have to jump through hoops to arrange a menu that will offer some variety while satisfying hubby's narrow range of likes. I'm a little on the picky side myself, but it ends at the dinner plate. By that I mean that, no matter what my preferences may be, I eat whatever is served. This is a trait that I learned as a child. In our home, you ate whatever was being served -- and you didn't complain. Being the child of a teenage mother made this especially trying. Mom was learning to cook in those days (she gave up a few years ago. Doesn't cook a thing anymore). She especially couldn't fry chicken. The crust was always a darkish brown, but the meat was cold and bloody near the bone. As I said, you didn't complain about food in our house, so we ate a lot of bloody chicken. Dad was just as bad. He was in charge of the barbecue pit. Since charcoal briquettes came in 20 pound bags, he figured that's how much you use for the fire. It always amounted to a bon fire that constantly flared up and charred the chicken. Though the chicken was black on the outside, we could always count on juicy redness in the middle. Dad, of course, never ate chicken. After I went off to college and got a barbecue pit of my own, I figured out that you could actually cook on a small fire. I thought I was a genius. Later, I started dating a Cajun girl whose mother was a fabulous cook. The girlfriend was a budding chef herself who grew into as good a cook as her mother. She married a very short man who eats what's put in front of him, only now he loves it. The topic arose this morning after a call from Janice's cousin Wilda, another great cook, who invited us to dinner. She's cooking a veal stew and polenta. Her husband, Al, will be having veal stew and mashed potatoes. * Tuesday, December 04, 2001
We're always looking for bargains because, well, we're really cheap. But bargains can be a real pain. I need an oil change right now. I usually get a car wash and oil change in one stop at Todd's Carwash. Wouldn't you know it, Janice has a coupon for an oil change at one place and a carwash at another. I really need both, but going to two different places is likely to be more trouble than washing the truck myself (which I hate to do). I'd rather just pay the non-discounted price. What's worse, they're not likely to fill my windshield washer. Before you call me a whiner, hear me out. For the last several years, I've noticed a correlation between running out of washer fluid and needing an oil change. They fill the fluid at the time of the oil change, then when the last of it his my windshield, and the sprayer makes that dry hum, I look at the odometer, and believe it or not, almost exactly 3000 miles have passed. This has happened too many times to be a coincidence. Todd's staff places a windshield sticker as a reminder, but it has been inaccurate by tens of thousands of miles. The washer fluid has always been accurate. Speaking of bargains. If you have a cd burner, go to Best Buy. They're selling a pack of 110 CDRs for $14.99 after rebate. This is the second deal like that I've picked up from them in the last couple of months. I have enough CDRs to last for years. Maybe I could start some kind of business. btw: Shane visited the website I mentioned yesterday. He described it as "Pink Floyd meets Blair Witch." Damn. I wish I'd said that. * Monday, December 03, 2001
When was the last time a website gave you goosebumps? During a quiet moment, when you have enough time to adequately explore an entire universe of sensory stimulae, go to conclave obscurum You will thank me. * The Christmas season has begun in earnest in Small Town USA. We've decorated the tree and gone to the first of the local events. First there was the annual Shadows On the Teche Christmas party, where the fur coats get their first showing of the season. Tonight we had the Christmas parade. The parade passes in front of our house and is a decent little home town event. In fairly recent years, the little dance-school girls had been dirty dancing in an appalling manner. I think that the number of complaints became too numerous to ignore, so we're back to a wholesome parade. Thank goodness. * Sunday, December 02, 2001
I've added projects to the sailing pages and an introductory page to the old-house pages. Check it out. More to come. * * Archives |
