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Working, wondering, moving, ibuprofen, and experience... (08-04-05)

Life

The dog days of summer are well and truely underway in Vermont. For better or worse, this summer has been rather quiet. Lots of work, wondering about the future, a move, and lots of ibuprofen (RSI / tendonitis - it's no fun).

My Parents' Anniversary Experience

My parents also made it to their 40th anniversary, way to go for them! They are also in the process of moving to a small town in Maine just outside of the Bath, a well known military ship building town. Never ones to let reality stand in the way of progress, my parents moved to their new house on schedule, the only problem was that the construction of the house was way, way, behind schedule. Not to worry, they even decided to have their 40th anniversary celebrations at the new house. So, my sisters, their husbands, a few newphews and I met at their newly (being) constructed house. We got to meet lots of builders and my nephews loved looking at all the heavy machinery just outside the door.

Of course, a nearly constructed house means that lots of things aren't done, so we had lots of bbqs (no kitchen), ate outside on the deck quite a lot (unfinished dining room), and swatted lots of mosquitoes (my parent's house is next to the water). All in all, it was a good time. By the end of our visit, the well even started running clear enough so that we could shower.

The Pain of Work

Ah, work! Where not to start? Work has been ok, but the career front has seemingly stalled out. Eventually I heard back from the Air Force about an application for a civilian special agent position - no luck. Unfortunate, but that is life. So I redoubled my efforts at work, made some great progress coding an application for internal use, and then got nailed with lots of typing pain. Two weeks went by and I was diagnosed with tendonitis. Right now the outcome is rather uncertain. I should not type, but that is hard to do in my line of work. So, the injury persists.

Life Outside of Work

I moved finally! My previous house was literally going to the dog. To summarize a long saga, my housemate was given a dog. She instally bonded with this strange mutt, and then the dog was run over. This affected my housemate greatly, so she soon found another dog. Unfortunately, this dog was terrified of me and was occasionally aggresive. The little mutt bit me, uriniated everywhere (both couches, the carpets, all the floors, on the kitchen table, and my bed). After the dog bit me, I yelled at it, that literally scared the sh*t out of the dog and it defecated on the floor while running. Wow, did that leave a nice brown skid mark! Eventually, I got tired of all this and I quit cleaning up after the dog, leaving the trouble for my housemate (I did clean my bed quite promptly though). I never did mention the running crap or the time it made me bleed, somethings are better to let pass.

After even more time, I grew tired of the dog and some other behaviors exhibited by my household companions. At that point, I just had to move. But where to go? I did not want to commit to a long-term lease, so after some looking, I found a great low rent house to live in - my parents' recently vacated home! So, I am back where I grew up, it is pretty comfortable, but not what I had envisioned a year or even six months ago.

Community

In spite of my transient mentallity, inevitable ties with the community have been growing. That has mostly been very good. There's not too much around here for strong Christian communities (next time I'm moving to a red state!), but some do exist. After months of church hopping, I managed to settle into an area church (if a 45 minute drive counts as local). The preaching it good, if not very direct with a little bit of fire and brimstone thrown in for good measure. I think my attendance has swelled the ranks of single 20 and 30 year old attendees by a third. In this part of America, I guess God isn't too popular with my demographic.

I have also managed to find a bible study to settle into. At times, some of the group really seems to contribute the mental part to fundamental, while other brave individuals supply the fun part, occasionally these two groups even overlap. Overall, it is a wiley crowd united by a common love for Jesus, which in it's own way, makes this group very amazing.

The Future

Yeah right - like I have a reasonable clue! From my perspective, my plans are mostly like castles in the air. I am just trying to figure out how to put a foundation under them.

Cheers,

Hanging out on the dock with my (well, my parents') dog, Molly.