It’s Too Hot For Good Composition. I’ll Just Use Lots Of Asterisks.

I’m in another one of those bloggy dry spells where there’s a bunch of stuff going on that I can’t write about. It’s not bad stuff this time though, it’s good stuff that I don’t want to jinx!

After much thought and examination of my Moving Forward options, I finally (and somewhat reluctantly) decided that I was approaching things from the wrong direction. I need to break my financial dependence on Steve first, and THEN get out of Dodge. Most of my MANY plans for immediate departure basically boiled down to “…and then I’ll probably be okay until I can find work.”

That’s wishful thinking in this economy. What if I CAN’T find work? Lots and lots and lots of people are out of work right now. People are losing their homes all over the place, and I was making plans to just blithely walk away from mine, with two kids in tow, trusting that God would provide.

He HAS provided. Right here. I just need to tough it out until I know for sure that when I leave it’ll be a step up and not a step down.

Job opportunities are about nil in Anza right now, but I am not without prospects. I don’t want to say too much about that now. Further updates as events warrant.

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Those of you who have known me for very long, and those of you who know me IRL, know that I am all about the communication, the problem solving, the win/win solution. In general philosophy I am something very close to pacifistic. I certainly do not endorse violence as a viable means of resolving issues. The occasional incident when my head explodes and I do something…non-tranquil…always comes after my very best efforts at respectful and amicable communication have utterly failed.

That said, if I had known how many annoying issues I could resolve with one well-aimed Blizzard, I would have lofted one at Steve’s head MONTHS ago.

I’m just saying.

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Filing for divorce in California is a bureaucratic labyrinth. The upside is that if you’re church-mouse poor like me they let you wander through the maze for free. I keep telling myself that it’s a Learning Experience.

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It turns out that a single parent cannot have a social life, happy children, an orderly garden, and a clean home all at the same time. Best I can do at any given time is three out of four, and usually it’s more like two out of four. Most of my corn plants burned up in a sudden heat wave during which I forgot to water the garden for something like four or five days straight.

Learning Experience. I’ll get the juggling act mastered eventually.

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My new grooming budget goes like this: I let my hair grow out until it becomes a nuisance, and then I go to this great-but-expensive salon in Temec to get it bobbed up to my chin and highlighted. I tried going to a cheaper haircutting place in hopes that I could then afford to get it cut more often, but both the cut and the highlights were of unacceptably low quality, and also the chemicals burned my scalp and then my hair started breaking off. So…I keep plunking down the $150 at the good place every four or five months. It’s about that time again. This week or next, I think.

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Luke just wandered in from his bedroom, where he’d been trying to invent a Wallace-And-Gromit-esque “getting dressed device,” and sadly announced that things had not gone as well as he’d hoped.

I call it a good effort, anyway.

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I’m fattening a steer, but he’s refusing to fatten. I don’t know if it’s the heat or the flies or the solitude or what, but he just picks at his food and looks all grouchy. From now on I will only fatten steers in the wintertime, and if possible I will fatten two together so they won’t be lonely. Not sure what do to about this guy though, other than hope that this heat wave breaks soon (and hope that that’s the problem).

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I’ve been feeling the need for another pilgrimage to Mt. Rubidoux, but it’s way too hot to plan one now. Fall seems like too long to wait. Sigh.

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It’s HOT.

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Okay, that’s everything.

PS: It’s hot, folks.