Nothing Doing

I keep on telling myself I'm going to write something on the blog, then when I sit down to compose it, I can't think of anything to say.

Stuff is in a holding pattern right now, and although I try to keep myself busy, I still feel like I'm not doing anything of importance, since there's no real direction to work in right now. So here's a picture of the cat with her big, six-toed, snow-shoe paws: This is a typical pose for her on the couch: She looks like she's ready for a manicure.

I realized the other day that she has never known a time when I haven't been at home all day. It's going to be a big surprise if I get a job and start leaving every day in the morning, just like Steve. Working a business would mean even more comings and goings, which would keep her constantly confused (something I attempt to do on a regular basis in any case).

No real job prospects have popped up, and the few that have I haven't heard from. The one prospect that I really hope pans out, the position at Pasadena City College, is still being reviewed by a committee. The woman in HR told me to e-mail her if I hadn't heard anything by next Wednesday.

So I've been filling up my time with constructive things I can do to get ready for opening the business if this position doesn't come through. It seems to me that it is the perfect job: within two miles from home, working for a worthwhile concern doing things I'm familiar with and getting a good salary for it. After 846 days, hundreds upon hundreds of resumes sent, and a half dozen actual interviews, I'm ready to give up on the job market if this one doesn't pan out.

So the brochure is finished and ready to print. The business cards are finished and ready to print. The type specimen book is finished and ready to print. It seems like pretty much everything I can do without spending money I have already done. Once I know which way the ball drops on the PCC job, I'll have a direction in my life.

But right now it's rather schizophrenic: Work on the business stuff, then spend time with online tutorials boning up on Word and PowerPoint (I know both programs but haven't used them in a while, so I'm checking out the latest versions at lynda.com as a refresher course). Everything else has been pretty much normal, mundane and everyday.

The summer is winding down and keeps making meager two- and three-day attempts at rallying one last heat wave. And, while things have been warm, the last hurrah of summer just hasn't happened. We might get rain this weekend (tropical in nature), and by this time next week, it promises to be in the low 70s with another low front out of the northwest bringing rain. Hopefully, that will mean fall has really arrived.

The one thing I have been dealing with the last two weeks is toe injuries. First I bashed the little toe on my right foot and separated the nail from its bed. It's a small nail (as shown here), so its removal was not painful at all, but there was a day or so when I wasn't sure whether it would reattach itself or give up the ghost and come off.

Several days later I whacked my left big toe and broke the nail, but luckily not down to the quick. Then a few days after that, I drove the little toe on my left foot into a chair leg and broke it (the toe, not the chair). That one has been my major bane in the last week to 10 days: At first it was swollen, then it was sore and stiff, and now I'm getting those itchy-twingey pains that come when a bone knits. I rammed my right big toe into the stair riser this evening, but no lasting damage was done.

The phrase comes to mind: "Put on some shoes, idiot," but at first it was too hot for shoes and socks, especially as I was foregoing turning on the air conditioner on all but the hottest days. Then, even as the days cooled somewhat, my little toes were too sore to push into a shoe. Looks like fall is coming just in time to protect against any more tarsal incursions.

I've been very good with my savings. The trick is not to spend any of the money except on must-haves and gotta-pays. Makes for a boring existence, but hopefully this period will be over soon and I will either have the security of a good job or the tight-rope exhilaration of starting a new business and drumming up customers on my own. Just as soon as I know, you'll know.