Hurricane Irene and the Early Autumn

The remains of a category 2 hurricane passed by Saturday night, toppling power lines, rattling windows, and knocking over trees. In the city, it was mostly wind and rain, but out in the county it sent lights flickering out.

I spent the evening over at Hillary’s, celebrating her birthday with Dan and Emily. The following day, the simmering heat had been replaced by an autumn chill. The morning was cool and the air smelled of damp earth and fallen leaves. Autumn is almost here!

Things have been stagnant lately. I really need a kick in the head, or the pants (Emily would probably oblige), or something. I haven’t been writing much and I’ve just barely been scraping by with my minor responsibilities at eFiction. At the Science Center, meanwhile, things are the same. $8.50 an hour for about 25 hours a week, with no other job prospects on the horizon. I’ve applied places – APL, etc – but the available jobs really seemed to have dwindled since last year. Funding is being cut for all sorts of scientific research and places like NASA and Northrop Grumman aren’t hiring entry level people like they used to.

C’est la vie. Now, more and more, I’m beginning to contemplate the possibility of working on a PhD. Where else do I have to go? With a masters, I can easily leave the country and find a great paying job somewhere else (Japan, anyone?), but would it really be the sort of job I want to work on?

There’s no telling, but autumn is here, at least, and hopefully it will kickstart my motivation. Writing, at least, doesn’t always feel like a deadend, and I have plenty of stories to tell.