Another Day 39: Life Goes On

 

Holidays and weekends don't count, so today marks 26 days unemployed. Considering I'm getting paid, am I really unemployed ? I guess so. It's going to continue to be a scary place until I have a job and unless the Accenture job comes through, I don't know when that's going to happen. For now, I consider this time off to be an extended vacation. This past Friday marked 5 weeks without a job. I haven't been unemployed since 1985, so this is a hard adjustment.

I haven't received a response to any of the jobs I've applied for recently. I'm hoping to get some interest from Infosys, since it's basically the same as the Accenture job. It would be nice to have an alternative job possibility if they're not able to get that proximity exception. There are tons of billing specialist jobs out there but the pay is really low. I can't see going from a $90k job to a $60k job at this point.

I didn't get much done around the house yesterday but I did vacuum the carpet. The goal for today is to get my old laptops shipped, but I have Amazon shipments scheduled to arrive so I wanted to wait for those. As of 7:44 am, neither package had a status of "out for delivery". I checked again around 11 am and status had not changed, so I suspect it will not be delivered until tomorrow. I did a little cleaning up in the pantry this morning and restocked the cat food cans on the kitchen table. I also fixed the smoke detector in the hallway, which I recently noticed was hanging from the ceiling by its wires. I just needed to seat it on the screw in the bracket. Then I decided to try again to get the tv in my office working. It still won't turn on so I ended up ordering what appears to be the same tv from Walmart. It should be delivered on Friday. As soon as I start a new job I'll want the tv for background noise. It cost less than $160 with tax since it's only a 32" tv. I'm going to try and return the old one to Costco. The worse that can happen is they decline to accept it.

I want to get my office in shape because if I do get the Accenture job I think he'll want me to start right away. To that end, I sat down with the shredder today and finished off all the junk left from my days at AT&T. I was thinking about putting up the shades in my office but the grass was getting long and it's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I decided to take care of that. I dropped the wheels down to make sure I got it short, but that make it clog up a lot. The big battery died pretty quick as a result and once the small battery died I had no choice but to take a break while they charged. I finished the side yard with the wheels on the same setting but I lifted the mower by one notch to do the area between the sidewalk & street, the front of the house and the driveway side. Both batteries were dead with just a couple strips left, so I took another forced break while they charged. I may get out there with the weed trimmer tomorrow since it's not supposed to rain until evening. It's supposed to be 87 tomorrow so I better get out there early !

I was feeling a little weak when my second forced break rolled around, so I had 4 pieces of string cheese. That gave me the boost I needed. I haven't yet returned 100% to the Nutrisystem program, nor have I been on the treadmill. Getting the news that the Accenture job was still on the table just threw me for a loop and once I was showered, dressed and made up there was no way I was wasting that - hence the trip to the casino. I have a Nutrisystem breakfast and lunch most days, but I've been eating pizza for dinner every night and I'm back into ice cream. I haven't kept to my resolve to only have 2 scoops either. Maybe if I get the Accenture job I'll be able to refocus on getting the weight back off. I am forcing myself to get off the couch each day and do something. I gave myself a few weeks to grieve the loss of my job, but it's time now to regain control of my life and make the best of it. 

I went outside around 5 and finished the rest of the yard. I'm going to try and get out there tomorrow to trim the weeds. There isn't a ton so that shouldn't take long. I was too tired to even think about doing it today. I completely forgot today was garbage day so that didn't get put out. When I heard the garbage truck I went and looked out the door and was thinking "did they change trash day to Monday?" .. lol .. omg ! No idiot - today is Tuesday ! I put a recurring reminder in my phone so that I don't forget again !

Sigh. I'm still hoping to get the Accenture job and being able to move over to the "fresh start" blog I have ready and waiting. The first line of the first post says "Today was the first day at my new job." I cannot wait to expand on that post ! I am so ready to leave the first half of 2024 behind. 

This morning I saw 2 more kittens, which means there is a total of 5 amongst the 3 females that I'm feeding. The new arrivals are tabby's that look like Princess, Abby and Lucky. Sweet little gray fluffballs. All of the kittens are afraid of me and run away when they see me at the door. There used to be a tabby female that came when I put out food but I haven't seen her in a while. I also haven't seen the older orange male lately. He was in rough shape as he appears to like to fight, but he may have been pushed out by the young orange male that hangs around now. I really hope I get the Accenture job so I can feed them canned food twice a day and get them another house. I promised I would do this if I get the job, so I hope it happens.