Its been a while. I guess if I wait until I have something important to say I may never post.
Whats been on my mind?
Work has been pretty bad lately. I work for the county in Social Services. Mostly I work in the back with computers, and mail. I am busy, but little direct client contact, and I like it that way. But lately management has been royally screwing over the section of clients that I process. Their way of getting caught up on the back log of applications we can't keep up with is to send letters to the people telling them they are denied. Their thinking is if they still really want it, they will call or come in right away, then we will look at their application. If they call or come in in a couple weeks, they have to start all over in the application process. I am so pissed! I have complained like crazy to my co-workers and bosses, but apparently don't have the guts to take it high enough. That pisses me off too. I am quite disappointed in myself. I am usually not too afraid of stuff...besides needles, dentists, relationships, that kind of stuff. But in this economy....I need the job too much. Yeah, its probably not life and death, but definitely not right. I may not always have that much sympathy for all of the clients, but I do have a strong sense of fairness, and this is not fair.
I went to the Sawdust festival recently. Its a summer thing in Laguna Beach. Very cool arts stuff. I love to look at stuff I could never do. I also get inspiration for the few things I could do if I worked on them. There is some music and the food is pretty good. Parking is tough. Take no chances! If you think you will be safe for 5 minutes, DO NOT COUNT ON IT!, the parking Nazi's will get you.
I so appreciate art talent. There is a ritzier art thing close by. Laguna has tons of art, and artists, but I am mostly at Sawdust. One more week for this summer.
I finally went to see my friend Mark. He was in the hospital almost 2 months, and is now is a nursing home. He is hoping to be able to go home again with a lot of help. He has had ALS for about a year now. We will see. I had not seen Mark in I am guessing about 7 years. We are both older now. First I had to find him.
He was not in the hospital any more and they wouldn't tell me where he went. Call nursing home I think he was going to, they will tell me nothing. Finally see an e-mail from his sister telling me where he was going. The street zig zagged in a way that I did not realize when I saw the map, so I missed the second part of it at first.
Get there, he is not in his room, and have to pick him out from all the people in the dining room, while trying not to embarrass either of us. Right now he is very hard to understand, but he is as sharp as ever. I find him (great view from the nearby window), ask how it was there. It took me a few trys to figure out what he was saying. He said "he felt like Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest...ask where Nurse Ratchet is...he says there are several. It made me laugh. He may look different, and not be able to do much, but it is still Mark.
Talking to Mark is a bit like playing charades. Sounds like.... He is hoping when they get his medication right, he will be able to talk better. He is pretty bored. He is only 53. He is in a wheel chair. The first time I went he did not even have a remote control for the t.v.!
I take him some books on cd and music cds from the library to try and pass the time, keep his brain occupied. Its not enough, but its something. His sister is back east, dad is 75 miles north, and old. I keep thinking. "damm, it could be me".
My oldest duck, Vito, died last week. I believe it was natural causes. I had him 17 years, since he was an egg. He was the first to hatch here. I buried him in my yard along with way too many others. They are pets, and I miss him.
That's about it.
