Another Day 43: Life Goes On

 

Holidays and weekends don't count, so I'm holding at 28 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. Friday marked 6 weeks without a job. I haven't been unemployed since 1985, so this is a hard adjustment.

This morning the auction people were back. People came to pick up stuff they bought yesterday and (as of 9:30 am) it looks like they're going to try and sell what is left. I imagine after today they will haul away whatever is left and that'll be the end of it. I'm going to make sure my house is not full of "stuff" when I die - I don't want my family to have to go through any more than is necessary to close out my estate. Shortly after 10 am they started with the auction spiel to sell the crap this is left. I was again surprised at how many people showed up. They're probably hoping to get the leftover items at rock bottom prices. They were still picking the bones at 1:30. I guess they want to squeeze every penny they can out of the estate. I guess that's fair compensation for Bill's family that cared for him in his final years. I don't have anything of real value other than my home, so that's where my survivors will gain the most, unless I still have significant investment savings. One of these days I plan on buying a space to put Alex's ashes and my ashes. By 3 pm it appeared they had sold everything and people were loading up their treasures and leaving. Good riddance. Bill was never married (as far as I know), so I suspect a lot of the "stuff" in his house came from his parents or grandparent's estates. Either that or he liked antiques and bought a lot of that stuff. I don't really care for antiques and I'm not much into wood. Alex loved wooden stuff and when we moved to our apartment in Liverpool he picked out all this gigantic heavy wood furniture. They took that all away after the fire and I wasn't sad about that at all. By 5 pm the tent in the yard was down and the auction team was clearing up the last bits of junk that were left. The next activity at the house will be Doug getting it ready for his daughter and her kids to move in ! His health is not the greatest since his stroke, so I'm not sure how much he can actually do. Hopefully he doesn't overdo it and have another stroke !

Today was another beautiful day. The forecast had indicated a cloudy day but we had mostly blue skies and sunshine, with the occasional clouds floating by. Tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be hot - forecast high is 86 ! The rain forecast for Wednesday through Friday will bring temps in the low 80's, which will be perfect.

I'm hoping to hear some good news from Kurt this week. I'd really like to get that Accenture job confirmed so I can restart my professional life and move forward with my personal life. I feel like I'm kind of stuck in a holding pattern. I'm going to be so disappointed if they don't approve the proximity exception. I really want this job and I know I'd be great at it ! I think Kurt knows that too and he really wants to hire me. All I can do is keep waiting and hoping.

I've been putting off hanging the blinds in my office because I'm never confident in my abilities. However, it dawned on me this morning that these blinds are basically idiot proof. You mount the brackets wherever and then snap in the blind. You can shimmy it around to make sure it is 100% centered in the window. Plus, the interior frame of the window is 24" and the blind width is just under 24", so they will fit perfectly. After 3 cups of coffee and a few new videos from my favorite YouTubers, I was ready to rock and roll ! By 11 am I had installed one and then it was time for a break before I tackled the other one ! By 1:30 both blinds were installed, the window sills were clean, the carpet where the tv bookshelf goes was vacuumed, and the bookshelf with my new tv was back in place ! I need to do some more cleaning and organizing in there so that my office is ready to go if I get the Accenture job. I also decided to put the air conditioner in the window today, since it's going to be so hot the next 2 days. I'm sure we'll have more hot days and if I do get the job I'll need that to keep the office cool. I had the air conditioner in by 3 pm and I panicked a bit because it didn't start up. I have it plugged in to a power strip and thought maybe that was the issue, but I hit the reset button on the power cord and also turned the power strip on and off, then plugged the AC back in. It started right up that time, so it's ready to attack the heat tomorrow. I can sit in my office and watch tv and get some things done while I'm escaping the heat !

It seems the auction activity has kept away the orange cat with the 3 kittens, but I saw one of her kittens this morning. I also saw one of the tabby kittens that I think belongs to the white/grey tabby that is always outside my back door. She is not friendly (always hisses at me) but she is always looking for food. The kittens are all so cute ! I'm sure orange momma will show up for food once the activity at Bill's house quiets down. They live under his front porch, so she is probably hiding until everyone is gone. The young male orange cat was here this morning to eat. He is the only stray that lets me pet him. I tried to pick him up one day and he wasn't having that. He likes to be petted and he'll let me rub his belly, but that's the extent of our "friendship".

While searching Google maps yesterday for the brick house on Scenic I also looked at my own house. The photo of my house is from 2019, so it still looks a wreck. However, I noticed that Google also has an older photo, from August 2013 ! Back then Alex was still alive, the tree on the driveway side of the house was still there and the fence and associated gigantic weeds were still there ! The house next door was red back then. The houses across the street were pretty shabby and the run down auto shop building was still there. The landscape of the street looks much different now. The house next door is white, the house that is kitty corner was redone and looks much nicer. The rental across the street is being maintained better and the auto shop building is completely gone. Last week I noticed they knocked down another dilapidated building (3294 main st) on the main drag. It's across from the house next to me. Tax records indicate the county took it over in 2020 and it was sold to some weird LLC in 2021. The same LLC owns the building Stephano's pizza is in. Looks like the taxes on the demolished building stopped getting paid as of 2014 so the county probably foreclosed. The downstairs was zoned for retail and there were 4 apartments. Must be whoever bought it didn't have the money to fix it up and rent it out. I never saw a "condemned" sign on it, so maybe the owner has other plans for the site. I'm glad to see yet another eyesore gone from the village, even though the current owner was paying the taxes every year. It'll be interesting to see if anything is built there or on the site across from me. The old Kwik Fill site down the street has been empty for quite a while - zero interest in building there I guess. I'd be happy to see it be a green space, though the village would like some tax revenue. I'd love to see it rezoned residential and have someone build a house there.

I have a hard time with social media these days as my life is so unsettled, so I find it hard to see the amazing lives so many of my "friends" are living. I'm ashamed of the way I look and don't want to admit I gained all the weight back, so I don't post photos or status updates. I will return to that space when I get the weight off again. I'm fat, lonely and unemployed. I was going to say "it doesn't get much worse than that" but I stopped myself, because I have it much better than many unemployed people. I have enough money to live and even if I don't get a job I can opt to take my retirement and still survive. I need to stop letting the negatives in my life be an excuse for self-sabotage. Gaining all this weight back is nothing more than self-sabotage. I worked so hard and then threw it all away. Last night I finished the ice cream and I'm not buying any more. I haven't had any candy in probably a week, even though I have a few Twix bars in the fridge. I have 6 pizza crusts left but I have 3 unopened bottles of pizza sauce. I will continue the pizza until that is gone. I use the sauce generously so that it'll be gone faster !

Tomorrow is the big day ... I will be back on the treadmill x2 each day going forward. I'll really need the AC in that room since it's going to be so hot the next 2 days.