JeffAndJanice.com

Sunday, September 08, 2002

So what's been going on around here? Loaded question. I've wished so many times that my blogs were operable so I could post this stuff. I probably don't even remember half of what's happened since I stopped blogging.

First, I stopped blogging because Geocities canceled FTP service, not because I lost interest. My new ISP supports FTP, so I'm back in business. That's part of the news. I got a cable modem. Nice and fast. But that's minor stuff.

I've changed jobs. I still work for Child Protection, but I transferred to be closer to home. I had been telling people that I don't really live in New Iberia, I just sleep here. I felt like I was always in Lafayette. Lafayette's a nice town, but my home is in the berry (as it's called), and I felt disconnected from my community. That's not the only reason I left. The frequent unpaid overtime and lack of vacation time were major factors. If you're not going to move up in the organization, you need to find a comfortable place to ride it out.

So now I'm working with clients again. That's what they're called: "clients". They're people who have abused or neglected their children. It's not what you're picturing. Most of them just don't know how to cope, or how to function in society. There are only a few that I'd like to take and... oops... does Big Brother read this? My Lafayette job carried a little more caché. I taught classes to foster parents, handled media stuff, and pushed a lot of paper. Never got my hands dirty. Sounds nice, but you just want to rip your eyes out of your sockets after a few years of it. So now I'm visiting the jails and the projects again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Whenever I speak with someone, they ask how much sailing I'm doing these days. Well, it's September, and I haven't sailied since May. The last time, I took my own little boat out with Shane We had a great day of sailing, but the boat leaked like crazy. It didn't make any sense. When we pulled it out of the water, we saw the damage. Someone had hit the boat in the parking lot at the club. Cracked the fiberglass pretty bad. Before launching, we noticed that the bow of the boat was off the bow roller. It had been winched up pretty tight, so we were perplexed that it could have come off. It all made sense once we realized she'd been hit. I took the boat home, and will keep it here from now on. This has really soured me toward the club. I found a witness who said it was hit by someone who had just launched a boat, so I'm sure it was a club member. I get a lot of gee-that's-too-bads from members, but it's just a little cheap boat, and the yachties don't care. I'll make repairs and trailer it whenever I want to sail. Not sure if I want to stay in the club or not.

Even if the boat hadn't been damaged, this has been a terrible summer for any outdoor activities. Heat is expected, but the rain has been non-stop. After three years of drought, the rain has a lot of catching up to do, and it's nealry given us back all three years of missed rainfall. I can't wait for summer to end.

Janice found out she has a heart problem. Nothing too serious. It's mitro valve prolapse. The diagnosis explains a lot of health questions about Janice. A lot of things make sense now. Gotta keep her out of the heat.

We lost a cat this summer, about two days before Janice got the news about her heart. The cat was fifteen years old, and she was Janice's best friend. The broken heart seemed appropriate. That same week, Janice learned that her sister has cancer.

Hate to sound like such a downer, but it's been that kind of summer. I'm more accustomed to posting upbeat stuff.

There are plenty of good stories to tell, but I don't want to blow them all at once.

I'll share my latest thing with you. Bootleg movies. Nothing new, but until I got a cable modem, I couldn't get them. We're watching all the stuff that's in the theaters. We don't even have time to watch them all. I don't distribute them, though. They take up way too much hard drive space. Download/watch/delete. Maybe I'll share some opinions as I go along. For instance, don't bother with "Serving Sara". We watched half of it, then deleted the rest. "Signs" was tolerable, but I'm not sure I'd recommend spending money to see it. "One Hour Photo" wasn't bad, but it was a formula stalker flick. We still have "MIB2", "Mr. Deeds", "Road to Perdition", "XXX", and "The Bourne Identity" to watch so we can clear some space on the hard drive. If any are worth mentioning, I'll let you know.

another hasty insight by Jeff on 9/08/2002

Sunday, September 08, 2002

Archives