Clouds Gone Outside, Now In

I'm feeling blue today, so no pictures. Just whiney, self-indulgent words. I get that way when I'm blue.

It's not depression, you understand. Oh, God, no! Not depression! No, this is more fart-around-all-day, nothing-makes-much-difference kinda blues.

The last two days were cloudy with an off-and-on drizzle that didn't even pretend to be rain. Today's gorgeous, though, with clear skies and temperatures in the mid-70s; just a touch of a breeze, what more could you want?

What I think it is is a twofold kind of thing. First, school ended, and even though I'm still studying, there's not that obligation to attend classes and interact with people. Now I've got all this new knowledge and nothing much to do with it.

Second, last week I applied to several jobs that I thought I was eminently qualified for, and I haven't heard a thing from anybody. I did get the automated "we-received-your-application" e-mail, which is nice, but what I want is a call, an interview. I long for those good old days in the 20th century when you could actually contact someone in the HR department and persuade them to arrange an interview so you could sell yourself.

In two weeks I will have been unemployed for an entire year. This is mind-boggling to me. I thought last time (1998) was horrible at nine months of unemployment. This, however, is consciousness-altering.

On the bright side, I've been planning a trip to Eureka for next month. I want to take Steve up to see the town and the area, see if he would like us to retire there. So we're flying in on a Thursday, checking out neighborhoods and housing prices on Friday, then spending the weekend hiking among the redwoods giants, strolling and discovering the town.

We've got our flight, hotel, car rental, all ready to go. The idea of taking some time off and getting out of town for something other than deaths and memorials is very appealing to me. I get excited when I think about the future. It's just the immediate future that bums me out, and that will change as soon as something appears on the job horizon.

And just writing this has improved my mood. I want to go do something really productive, like trim my beard or vacuum the living room. And in the afternoon, back to studying and the job search.

Hey: life is good. Nothing's being repossessed or foreclosed on. I've got these great new skills I itching to put into practice for some lucky company. All the bills are paid. We won't talk about applying for unemployment extensions today. It's much too nice outside and I'm ready for a walk.

I'm Taking You Home, Baby

Please forgive the huge gap between blog entries, but my computer died on Sunday evening, just as I was about to make an entry (no, really; I wasn't just playing computer games and the screen suddenly went black). Well, I was finishing up a computer game and planning on making an entry, when there was a little click and the display looked like this.

Black. The computer would turn off and turn on, all the things inside were spinning and whirring, but nothing on the screen. Monday I called Apple Support, which is not located on the subcontinent, but in Cupertino in California. We went through all kinds of diagnostics (which always makes you feel so smart because you're in on it), but to no avail. Chris (the Apple guy) said it was most likely a hardware issue. Luckily, the machine is still under warranty.

So I took it into Di-No Computers (the world's best computer store for Macs and their maintenance and repair) and they took a look at it. At first they thought it was the LCD display itself and ordered a new one. On Wednesday they called and said it wasn't the display but the inverter circuits (but of course), so they were ordering that piece. Today (Friday) they called and said it was ready. I was so happy. I have really missed the machine, and when I'd done all the paperwork and left the store with it, I put it in the back of the car and said, "I'm taking you home, baby."

That kind of bothered me, because it was spontaneous.

This leads us to the next image I have to share. It's the cat, of course, and here Patty is, involved in her favorite evening activity: When Steve and I come upstairs to get into our robes (loungewear, we call them), Patty races upstairs in front of us and, as soon as the lights come on in the bedroom, she starts chasing the shadows. She just loves chasing shadows. It's the highlight of her day.

Of course, we get a real kick out of it and dance our hands around in the air to drive her crazy. But it got me to thinking about my ardor for my computer. It is my connection to the world, my major work tool, a conduit for my self-expression and my job search. It is my entertainment and my news source. It was really weird not to have it during the week, worrying that a job opportunity would pass me by because I couldn't get a resume out (over the Internet, of course).

Never mind that I have an iPhone and check my e-mail several times a day on that device. Not having the machine sitting in front of me on the desk, not having the programs I'm so familiar with available for my immediate use, I felt lost. For the first time since I was laid off last June, I sat in front of the TV during the day and watched movies. (To be fair, I also cleaned out the entire pantry and reorganized it and did the same with the office). But I rely so much on this device.

I can't help but think that a lot of the time we all spend in front of our computers is just chasing shadows: An acceptable pastime here in the 21st century. And creating so much of my graphics work on a computer now, I can't help but recall my days at college when I had a drafting table and a T-square and I created all my work on vellum paper and illustration board with ruling pens and India ink and registered overlays. All those accoutrements are antiques now.

But it does make me think about the time I spend in front of my best electronic friend, iMac. I need to make sure I put that time to good use, like writing a blog. Right?

On the Homebody Front

A few things to update you on: the carpet shampooer and the refrigerator. (You can already tell how scintillating this entry is going to be, can't you?)

Yes, all the recent changes seem to be of a disturbingly domestic nature. The first improvement is the repair of our carpet shampooer. This has been an ongoing saga, leading back almost a year. I took the thing out last June to clean the carpets (to work off the depression of being recently laid off) and after about 10 minutes the water stopped squirting. This was followed by disassembly, wherein I cleaned all the cat hair out and inadvertently inverted a valve while reassembling the machine. The valve broke, and I had to order a replacement. It arrived in August and still no water flow.

In November of last year, my sister Kittie and her husband Dave were visiting [see Dec. 1, 2009, entry: "'Tis the Season to Be Dealt With]. Dave's one of those natural-born handymen, and after connecting the vent over the stove, I mentioned the problem with this machine. He located the inverted valve and corrected the situation. Still the machine did not work. After a little searching on the Internet, I found a certified repair shop in Arcadia, just south of Pasadena. We took the machine in last Saturday for repairs.

On the way home from Arcadia, we decided to stop off at Pacific Sales (an appliance store) to check out refrigerators. This is a really great retailer, since they actually have salespeople on the floor who know the merchandise and are up front about being on commission. Our current fridge was 25 years old, ran most of the time and made funny sounds while doing so. So we checked out potential replacements and found out that both the state and the City of Pasadena had rebate programs for appliance replacement that were expiring in mid-May. Doing the math, we realized that, with the store's discounts and the rebates, we would be able to purchase a new refrigerator for half price.

I checked online for different manufacturers and reviews of the various refrigerators we looked at, and I ran across some really cool advertising art images from the past that marketed fridges. Here's one from the 1960s, where a futuristic housewife has cloned herself. Why she is wearing a bubble space helmet, I'm not sure. I don't think the men who did the advertising in mid-20th century really knew how to relate to the concept of a "modern" woman, so they put her in space clothes. Anyway, look at that avocado-green job: that's the look of the future, all right!

On Wednesday afternoon the repair guy called and said the problem was a frozen pump: we had not cleaned out the machine after using it, and the soap solution had solidified inside the pump. Repairs were $80. So the next day we drove down and picked up the cleaner. Driving back, Steve looked at me without saying a word, and I replied "You want to buy that refrigerator, don't you?" He nodded, we stopped by Pacific Sales and we did.

The refrigerator arrived on Friday, and the delivery guys had to take its doors off to get it into the house. They also had to remove all of the drawers in the kitchen to get enough clearance, but we made it. Now I open the refrigerator and feel like I live in the 21st century. It has a french-door refrigerator on top and a huge drawer freezer on the bottom. And I haven't heard it running since I first plugged it in.

Today (Sunday) we pulled out the newly repaired cleaner and shampooed the carpets downstairs. It'll take another go-round to really get them clean, but they are looking mighty spiffy compared to this morning. The cats hated the entire process, of course, because there's nowhere to walk that isn't damp. Marcel hates the vacuum cleaner, and the shampooer is bigger and just as noisy, so he split for upstairs. Patty didn't seem to mind the machine at all, unless it was coming directly for her, then she'd move to what she considered safer ground and continue watching the process.

So this picture gives you an idea of how I feel this evening, having been so intensely domestic for the last several days. (Who could resist this pink and mint-green kitchen?) It's been quite a while since we did anything to fluff our nest, and these are both solid moves, especially since we are contributing to the sales of durable goods and the local economy. Things are good.

On the school front, I have finished my Adobe studies of Dreamweaver, and this is my final week at school. It should take about a week each for the Photoshop and Illustrator books, and then I'll start taking the practice exams for each subject. I'm hoping to celebrate the anniversary of my unemployment by taking the certification exams. I already applied to a job at NBC-Universal, but I'm not holding my breath, since they want someone with an advertising background. We shall see.