Well, the job hunt is going as usual...slowly and painfully. I've been courting Sprint for over a month and that has just gone all over. First they were hiring and they interviewed me and all they needed was the regional manager's approval, but he never came down to interview me. So, I went back week after week checking up and the story has changed every time. Maybe there would be a job, maybe there wouldn't....maybe the regional manager would be down, maybe he wouldn't. As things stand now, they are trying out a schedule with the few workers they have to see how that works. They may or may not hire a part time guy in a few weeks. Thus, for now, I have no choice but to put Sprint on the back burner. As for the other jobs I've applied for, nothing has come up. Not even the Malt Shoppe called me. To date this year, I've now applied for at least 40 jobs or so, about 10 of which interviewed me and none of which hired me. I just emailed about a paper route I may run with my sister, which would be enough to cover my rent until a real job finally comes my way.

In other news, my paycheck from Phantom still hasn't come. It was due two weeks ago, but they split the check wrong or something and sent it back to corporate in Ohio. It came in to Salt Lake at the regional office on Friday and they promptly mailed it to us. We expected it to come the next day like it did last time, but it didn't. Making us more nervous, it still didn't come yesterday when the post office opened up again after Labor Day and now, with it not here with our mail today, we are extremely frustrated. I have a $310 check in the mail that will bounce without this check and I'm already in the negative because I had to make a $25 payment I didn't have either because of this check.

Aside from these nagging negatives, life is good. I did a wee bit of exercising this morning and today I will have 3 meals for the first time in ages (I usually miss breakfast and just have lunch and dinner).

Here's to a better day and maybe a job soon...

It seems that once again, I failed at keeping up with this blog. I ought to devise a way of reminding myself to update this thing, though I'm not sure anyone really reads it anyway...

I did notice something somewhat interesting while reviewing my blog a minute ago. It concerns the weekend I re-started my efforts and posted my previous post. I mention continuing to work in the kitchen. Well, I was let go from that job 10 days after that post. Lame. Since then life has been ridiculously hard. I took a sales job selling attic insulation door-to-door. At the time there were rebates through Rocky Mountain Power and Questar Gas which covered the entire cost of upgrading attic insulation for those who qualified and 70% for those that didn't qualify for the 100%. It was an amazing deal that sold well and was making me good money, till some companies abused the rebates and took advantage of consumers, causing a huge reduction in the rebates and putting our company out of business. For months again I struggled, then I found an ad for fireworks sales. Since I had absolutely no one wanting to hire me (and I had applied for numerous jobs and interviewed at quite a few), I sent the ad to my brother (since he was 21 and I wasn't) and we ended up getting that job. We wouldn't get paid for that till August, so the whole summer I lived off of the generosity of friends who sent me money and a monthly $200 food stamp allotment. Though I did not want to go that path, I was left with absolutely no alternative. Anyway, I don't really like talking about it because I am intent on leaving those things far in the past. Right now I have one final check coming from the firework stand which will pay my rent for this month. I'm close to having work and then the real recovery can begin.

I hope to keep a constant update going on this and maybe one day someone will read it.

After an unsuccessful attempt at starting this blog over the summer, I am now making attempt number 2.

A funny thing happened this morning. I awoke to what seemed to be a familiar noise. Being a little groggy, I was unsure, but I believed I heard 2 short bursts from a hot air balloon flame. Given where I live, the time of year and the weather outside, I quickly dismissed the notion of a hot air balloon being out there. Then, I heard it again. This time it was unmistakable. I looked out the window, but saw nothing. Figuring it was a car, I laid back down to sleep more. But there it was again. This time, being completely sure it was a hot air balloon, I got up, opened my blinds and looked around. Sure enough, less than 20 yards away, only 20 feet off the ground, was a huge hot air balloon. Apparently it was landing in the high school driving course lot that is behind my apartment parking lot before taking back off on it's tour. It was quite a sight, seeing a hot air balloon literally right outside my window. I haven't seen one so close since following some in Texas years ago. It was quite an excitement.

Well, not much else is going on. I'm looking for better work, but, with the slowing economy, the job search is slow. I'll continue working in the kitchen, but I hope to find work in a pharmacy or photo lab. We'll see what happens.

I'll do my best to keep things up to date with this blog. If it doesn't work out, maybe I'll go back to the newsletter I used to do every week. TTFN, that's all for now.

~The Colonel