WIP

The new space I'm liking
The bank book I'm not
I hear the clock ticking
Will I stay in this spot?
The senate keeps voting
... to pay us or not?


I wanted this to be a little lighthearted, but I'm out of words & out of energy.  This holiday season has been more than the usual High Drama & I'm beat to hell, emotionally & physically. 

Year in recap:  Layoff. School.  Family drama. Exams.  Interviews. Research. More interviews. More fam drama.  More interviews. Packing. Part-time work. Moving. HIGH family Drama. Holidays. More part-time work. More drama. More holidays...  oy.

I'm done.  Can we please move on to the new year?  Here's my resolution:  Study some more.  Research/write some more. FIND A FULL TIME JOB.

That's it.  Wishing you joy & peace...

Giving thanks

I have a few things to be thankful for this year, and this is as good a time to name them as any.  In no particular order:

• completed course of study and passed certification exam that will set me up for a new career
• was available and able to help my mother after a nasty fall that resulted in broken bones and surgery
• had time and opportunity to do extensive research for WIP
• had the great good fortune to meet and talk with many wonderful, wise (and often weary) people in the course of said research
• found new apartment at significantly lower rates
• opportunity to work at the No1 BFTS museum
• food in my pantry/fridge - haven't drawn on the food bank yet
• 10yr old car still runs good
• income - limited, but it's an income
• Friends & Family (and oddly, Facebook that helped me reconnect with many of them)

My hierarchy of needs is not extensive or fancy. Like so many others, my long-term unemployment has made me rethink my needs and priorities.  It has distilled my life to its most elemental essence. It's been an interesting and eye-opening test of my resilience.  And frankly I think I'm stronger for it. For that and much more, I am thankful.

I leave you with a traditional English blessing:

For food that stays our hunger

For rest that brings us ease

For homes where memories linger

We give our thanks for these

Veterans' Day

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. (Edmund Burke)
Thank you to all service men/women who gave their time and often their lives in service of this country.

Expert packer on the job again

When I was a kid we moved around a lot.  Like every 3.5yrs we're packin' up the house & moving.  Not necessarily very far, but far enough to be in a new school district.  I've lived in almost every little podunk town within 50mi radius of Dallas, and there's a bunch of 'em.  One would think that as I grew older I'd grow out of that pattern.  But alas, NOT.  If I'm in a place for more than a coupla years I start gettin' antsy.  Pretty soon I'm gonna pack up & jump.

But the last few years I've had this need to just stay put.  Kinda outa character for me, but there it is.  So this time, this move, is really hard because - for once in my life - I'm not just packing everything & off to somewhere else.  This time I'm letting go.

So many boxes of stuff that hasn't been touched or even looked at in years... no room for it.  Gotta go.  And that box of paperwork that's been hidden in the back of the closet?  Shredded!  (Whew that was a chore & a wonderful release too!)  Furniture sold. Books packed. Post Office notified. U-haul reserved.

If I'm not around for a while, don't panic.  I'm just on the move again.  I'll be back soon enough...

Ground loops, wind shear, engine trouble...

and I haven't even left the road.

Another wonderful day spent at the BFTS picking Henry M's brain.  RAF cadet, pilot, war-bride-in-reverse, mayor, museum director.  Font of information and all around good guy.  Generous with information and his own perspective on history.

   "You are talking with other pilots, aren't you?  Remember, it's been 60 years..."

Be that as it may, this wonderfully generous gentleman has taught me a great lesson:  there is way more to know about this than I ever planned on when I started this project! 

Next up:  flying!

Whatever happened to...

the cents symbol?  I looked for it last night while writing my post & couldn't find it on the keyboard.  I know it was there on my typewriter when I learned to type in high school!  Where oh where did that little key go?  Oh, I know the correct way to designate cents:  dollar sign, zero, period, numbers to two decimal places.  But what about that other way... that little symbol that looked like a C with a vertical line through it?  What happened to that symbol?  Is it a sign of our economic times that we have moved past the need for it? 

I don't know about you, but I use my pennies.  Okay, so the cashier usually gives me a look when I dig them out of my purse, but they are still legal tender and I intend to keep using them.  And yes, I'm of an age where  I remember going to the local store & buying candy for just a few cents.  Now, my grandkids won't take pennies.  They know they can't get candy (or anything else) for pennies.  They want quarters.  Not nickels.  Not dimes.  Quarters.

I refuse to allow pennies to become obsolete. I will speak up and fight for the rights of that lowly coinage and it's symbol! 

Now, time to take that jar of copper to the bank & cash it in...

Overload

I started to try to write this as something lyrical and poetic, but the truth is my brain is on overload. 
This week I've talked with some folks who lived in this area during WWII, recalling life with food, gas, and clothing rationing.
Blacklisting if you refused to work for the government on their terms.  (this blew me away)
Cotton trucks loaded with a crop that brought only pennies per hundred pounds. 
Weekly or monthly trips to town to spend a quarter. 
Movies for 9cents. 
A hamburger for a nickle.
Party-line phones.
Asking neighbors for gas-coupons in order to make a trip to a funeral in another city.  Using farm-use-gas to get back.
Gold stars in windows for sons/husbands/brothers lost in battle.

There is so much more in the tapes that needs to be absorbed and integrated into the story.  I can feel the characters growing, becoming multidimensional.  Real.  I can feel the town growing, changing, shifting around me, so much more - and less - than the town I know now. 
I only hope that my storytelling skills are up to the challenge.

And among all this madness there were the job interviews.  Roller coaster week.  Nothing poetic or lyrical to it.  I'm pooped.