The morning to top all mornings (this week anyway).

Seriously. What the hell is up with my life? I am 32, healthy, with two lovely children and an even lovelier wife. I am far from lazy, but can be intuitive and highly creative. But today, I donít give a ratís butt.

I woke up this morning to find yellow tape just outside my front window. Curiously, I wandered out in my PJs and flip-flops, coffee cup in tow, in what has become my customary morning uniform these last 11 months of on and off employment. A Detective walked up to me in the yard and told us to go inside and stay away from the windows as there was a pipe bomb lying across the street. How very nice.

This was not my first run in with a Wausau Detective this week. Iíve actually played a part in fingering an accused arsonist. While working at a friendís garage sale last weekend, I saw a very suspicious character that we called the police about. After seeing a picture that matched the description I gave to police, I confirmed it was he, and theyíve come to my house on two occasions since to ask more questions.

So, as we patiently waited for the bomb disposal truck to arrive, I was struck by the ironic twist that my home insurance had just been cancelled last week. If for some reason the bomb squad fudged the disposal and it blew, my house would have probably lost itís windows and I would have no way of paying to fix them. Not good for the resale value.

And then there was yesterday, another crisis averted of a different proportion. I had to come up with nearly $500 by noon, or lose my electricity & gas services. I swallowed my pride and paid visit to the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and Energy Assistance. My pride has been dealt another blow in this series of avalanching financial ruin.

On Monday, it was the issue was convincing the bank not to venture into Legal proceedings to get the house back. Foreclosure is never pretty and even more de-humanizing than I could bear at this point. Theyíve agreed to allow me to sell it myself and not play bad guy. God Bless them for it.

Last week, it was the loss of the potential job in Huntsville, dropped insurance on the house and car, and a credit card in collections. Before that it was the cable, Internet, cell phones and long distance. You can see that having a pipe bomb in my front yard is merely the icing on the proverbial cake called, ìmy life.î

Care to comment?

 

How not to start a morning...

Self explanatory I'm sure. Unfortunately, they had already removed the
yellow "police line" tape.

"Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they come for you?"
SING IT!

That blue mailbox sure does look menacing.

And here lies said pipe bomb.

There are times when one must take a deep, penetrating look at how life treats us. This can be a positive, or negative thing depending on the conclusions you might draw. Personal experience is a powerful teacher, but often a poor historical reference. What I mean is, the mind has no vocabulary, only emotions felt during different events. We then apply words that describe the emotions and visual memories as best as we can.

Sometimes accurately, and other times inaccurately.

Today I face those emotions. Some passer-by might see me at my titanium powerbook and assume I am a well-to-do designer or video professional, perhaps even an Internet guru of some sort. The fact is, like many people in my field, I am an unemployed IT analyst with nothing but this laptop to show for it.

Spending just a few moments on my blog, I figured I'd ad "Comment" ability to the site to make things more interesting. My buddy, Matt, has it set up on his site and I, the blogging mentor, found myself being surpassed by my own blogging mentee. I visited said mentee this past week. He & his wife are good folk - please go to his blog and read his July 16th entry for his account of my ankle slashing beer bottles!!!

In other news, I'm back in Wisconsin, Internet access free. Kinda sucky, considering how much my life revolves around the technology. This may explain the absence of consistent blogs, but this too shall pass.

Fancy me. I've neglected you again dear old friend.

My life has once again taken a break neck turn for the better. What's amazing to me now is the lack of effort that my life needs sometimes when I get out of the way.

To catch you up to speed, I went to a family reunion about two weeks ago. My brother drove down to meet us (we had flown) and high-jacked me to attend a conference in Huntsville, Alabama. As things would have it, the people there are opening a coffee shop and need somebody to head it up.

Hmmm...Who do I know that might be able to help?

So I headed back home on a Thursday, only to return to Huntsville again the following Thursday (with wife & baby in tow) to interview for the job. Well, I'm now back in Wausau, sitting in a coffee house checking email and pondering what I will need to purchase for the new place I'm about to open. Irony?

So the house has a "For Sale" sign in front of it. Anyone want to buy a beautiful house?

Oh and my friend Matt started a new blog. Matt works for this amazingly creative joint called Rocketown and is genuinly a swell fellow.