Holding Pattern

I haven’t written in here in nearly a month because there really hasn’t been much to say. My life is in sort of a holding pattern right now and there’s no indication I’ll be given a set of directions soon, so I continue to hover in place, hoping things will work themselves out so I can land safely sometime soon. It’s really all I can manage at this point.

As it turns out, my father’s throat cancer is worse than we though. He has a lump near his tonsils which has worked its way into a gland in his neck. So the treatment for it is more aggressive than anybody anticipated. He has to undergo radiation treatments five days a week for seven weeks. Then, on top of that, he has a round of chemo once a week to go through. So far, he’s only had minor reactions to all of this, but we all know that in the next week or two it’s all going to catch up with him and kick his ass. Since he’s always been kind of a wiry little guy, we’re all concerned about his weight and the fact he refused to have a feeding tube put in. If his weight drops drastically from all the treatments, he’ll have no choice but to have one inserted if he wants to stay alive. But, for now, he seems to be eating well and his spirits are up, which is all I can really ask for. If he’s not worried, then neither am I. That’s just how we’re both dealing with it right now.

All of this puts a crimp in my job search plans, though. Should I have to fly back to Massachusetts for any reason, I may need the vacation and leave time I’ve earned as a fifteen year employee. If I start at someplace new, that time is just lost and it would be unfair to have to jet out on a new employer for two or three weeks. So I’m staying at the drug store for the time being, still only receiving an average of thirty-two hours. It’s not a good situation financially, but I’ve been thinking about volunteering at down at Virtual Scavenger’s to get some hands on computer experience for my resume and maybe make a few connections in the IT field. As a non-profit organization, they obviously won’t pay me for my services, but I figure it will look better on paper than just “I dick around with computers in my spare time.” Plus they have a decent reference library and some classes I may be able to access on the cheap. It’s not the traditional way one gets into the field, but I figure I’ve never been a traditional kind of guy anyway, so I really have nothing to lose by getting involved. I’ve been doing this kind of work for friends for years, so I might as well give it a shot and see if it can pay off in the long run, even if there’s no money in it at the moment.

And speaking of money, the batch we were going to get back from the IRS this go around has already been spent. Lynn and I hit a large pot hole one night and it tore up the front right wheel to the tune of $500.00. This, of course, was going towards the “emergency fund” in case my father took a turn for the worse during his treatments, so we’re back to square one on that front. If something goes wrong in the next week or two, I have no way of getting home. That’s pretty worrisome, but I figure if things get bad, friends and family will provide. They always do. But it just frustrates me that we can never seem to get a leg up when it comes to good luck. I’m not a huge believer of karma, but I figure I must’ve killed somebody’s puppy in a past life because of all the shit 2008 has handed me so far. Between the robberies at all our are stores, my dad, the car, and the ongoing back problem (I’m doped up on muscle relaxers as I write this), I can honestly say this is one of the roughest winters I have ever experienced. Sooner or later, though, this whole mess has to turn itself around. It can’t stay bad forever, right?

There has been some news on the robbery front, though. The police in Fishers, IN caught this joker red-handed while they were staking out one of our stores. At first, I didn’t think this was our guy since Latasha pegged him as a white guy when he robbed us. But the more I read about Mr. Lindsey, the more I believe he was the one who jacked us up. His M.O. is the same as our guy and the language he used in the Fishers robbery is word for word for what we were told. And since he’s a pretty light skinned guy, I believe Latasha could’ve misread his ethnicity under all the stress. If he’s not our guy, then he’s definitely involved in this string of robberies somehow. The coincidences are so great you can’t discount them. Either way, though, it has been reassuring knowing that somebody out there was finally making an effort to catch this guy, and maybe it will send a message to others considering ripping us off at gunpoint. Considering our luck of late, I’ll take it as a good omen. But if anybody wants to sen along an extra helping of juju, I’ll take it. At this point, I’m not proud. I’ll take whatever goo magumbo I can get. Right now, though, I’m going to let this latest muscle relaxer to kick in and curl up in bed with that cat. If that doesn’t raise my spirits some, then I don’t know what will.

Until next time, you all have a good one…