Attitude

Its been fun answering honestly whenever someone asks me “how are you?” I stopped by Garner’s world-famous Agri-Supply to get parts for the damaged trailer and that question was inevitably asked.

“Look at him,” one good ol’ boy shop worker called to the other. “The kind of week he’s had and he’s still smiling.”

After his buddy picked his jaw up off the floor, the first turned to me again.

“I can tell you gonna be okay,” he said. “If that don’t faze you, nothin’ will!”

True enough. Its been a wonderfully fun day. I spent the evening wrestling two gleeful, giggling kids.

The van? Its just a thing. The job? I’ll find another. The love of my family and friends? That’s what its all about.

Silver lining

It hasn’t been all bad news this week. We got word from our insurance provider that we’ll be getting a hefty check for our totaled van: one pretty close to Blue Book value! The folks at Farm Bureau were easy to deal with and seemed to get things done quickly.

The other nice thing is that we don’t need to replace the van right away. I obviously have no job to drive to (and didn’t drive to my last one) and since car dealers are losing their shirts right now we can bide our time to the end of the quarter or later if we choose. The money may come in handy for more immediate needs (like, uh, the mortgage) in the meantime.

Or I may get that scooter I’ve been meaning to get and become one of the cool kids.

Trifecta complete

As Chris so helpfully pointed out (or was he cursing me?), trouble comes in threes. If so, I can now breathe easier because this afternoon as I prepared to resume job hunting I discovered my laptop will no longer power up its hard drive. Its not that the hard drive is broken – its just that my Thinkpad isn’t powering the drive at all.

I think its an internal power supply problem rather than the drive itself, which is good news and bad news. The good news is that I don’t have to fear losing any of my data. The bad news is that there wasn’t valuable data on it anyway and I can change a hard drive in my sleep, its so easy. Vague power supply problems, not so much.

I am so buying a lottery ticket tomorrow.

Seven days

Last week I felt like I could change the world. This week, not so much.

Why I was laid off

My former place of employment was an interesting place: one with a split personality. There were offices in the U.S. and a headquarters in Germany, with radically different business styles. Different styles is precisely why two offices are needed – a company needs to understand the business culture of the country in which it does business. What works in Germany does not work here and vice-versa.

It was in this cultural tug-of-war that I got caught. My official boss was in Germany while at the same time I had a boss that was local. Each had different visions for what my role was supposed to be. The adage about pleasing two masters applies here in a big way.
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Job hunting

I updated my resume last night and snagged about six job descriptions off the Internets to get me started. I’m holding out for a cabinet-level position with Obama’s administration but if that doesn’t come through I’ll need a backup plan.

Still trying to decide what I’d like to do. There are plenty of things I can do, but I’m not the same person now as I was when I did those things.

I should have more to say about the layoff experience later today. Right now I’ve got a Parks and Rec tour of Sanderford Road’s new neighborhood center to attend.

Totaled

Just got word this morning that the minivan’s a total loss. Apparently I smacked into that tree hard enough to bend the frame, though if you looked at everything but the driver-side door you’d think the van was in great shape. Ah well.

On the bright side, my coworker pointed out that with the economy in the pits and the end of the year approaching, its a great time to buy a new car. I don’t know if we’ll go that route but its good to know.

War and peace on Veterans Day

Walking around the State Capitol building on Veteran’s Day, it occurred to me again how strange its monuments would seem to visitors from another planet.

“Why do you celebrate war so much?” they might ask.

Good question. The Capitol grounds are peppered with statues of warriors toting weapons. Kids play on cannons and machine guns. Its as if conflict is the only path to glory.

But where are the peacemakers? Why are there no statues of Dr. Martin Luther King? Or Mother Teresa? Or the countless home-grown heroes in every town of our great state, quietly doing their part to make a difference in someone’s life? The teacher, police officer, coach, or parent: the one person who gave a kid a glimpse of his or her potential.

Then I remember the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, forever strolling outside of Marbles Kids Museum, and it gives me hope that someday we’ll get it right.