Its 11:46 am

  Its a beautiful cold day here in SE Michigan. Its been a LONG time since I have written anything and I have missed it. On the other hand,I have caught my passion for reviewing back and have been posting not only CD reviews on Entertainment Vine but have stretched myself to include books as well. 
   Even as I type this,I am listening to the soundtrack to "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man" and know I have to finish my review of "Face to Face",one of the most heartbreaking yet compassionate books I have ever read.
  I also am job hunting.....many of you may not know,but I lost my job  about 7 weeks ago and now am struggling with finding a new one in the state w/the highest unemployment rate is not going to be a easy dance. But my wife is happy I was downsized because I'm home at night....but I'm very depressed about this. I feel totally directlessness and lost. Fustrated as well...
   I have joined a Job Search support group at our local church. I have been twice,its pretty interesting to say the least...between 12-20 people have shown up,all over 35.
Some are vastly more educated or skilled then me,some have just become unemployed,some of have been out well over a year. Some are calm,others seem at thier wit's end because of the lack of money,some actually have found work and just came by to thank the group for the support. 
   I feel bad,really bad,for about 3 or 4 of them....one is mentally off,she hasn't found work in 18 months...she gets interviews but never a call back and she is perplexed as why she is not getting a 2nd interview. I happened to sit next two seats from her and watched.
She mumbles to herself,writes so hard she went thru her paper. The guy next to her
 caught my eye,we both just shook our heads sadly. I felt I wanted to say something to the group moderator but left it alone.
  The one thing that really surprised me happened in Detroit. About two weeks ago the city said it was handing out applications to families in danger of being homeless,you had to file it to qualify for help. 50,000 showed up for 3,400 spots. The scene at Cobo Hall was a disgrace,8 people were hurt,3 badly,fights broke out all over the place. People actually thought they were getting MONEY that day! (Sorry,you have to be a bank or insurance company for that). Hustlers went among the crowd selling fake applications to folks for 20.00 despite the color on the application being wrong. It was a sad day for Detroit. All across the country,this was being handled but only in Detroit would it almost cause a riot.

    So I am deciding on what to do....to go back to school and do what- yet risk getting into debt w/student loans and not have a job to actually walk into. Personally I think we are in the eye of this recession...the mainstream media is talking recovery but why are foreclosures still rising? Jobless claims are down but that happens every holiday season,if they are still falling January and Feburary,maybe,just maybe we might see a glimmer of hope. But I think this winter is going to hit hard and be a very rough one.
  
  But not all is doom and gloom,the fact I'm still here is proof of that. See,my family dodged a real bullet this past week. Every winter in the cold weather states,you have to have your sprinkler system winterized,this is done by blowing out the water and air in your pipes as not to have them crack when it freezes. You can call  any number of outfits to do this service. It runs about 30-40 bucks. 
   We called the same outfit we used last year and set up a appointment to have this done. Well the guy no-showed,I wasn't sure if we had the date right,so I rescheduled him but once again....no sprinkler guy. So I called a different service,set up the date.
  There was a bit of urgency because winter is coming here rather soon,as least as far as temps go. Its been way colder then usual here. 
   So last Friday,the new guy shows up....and after 15 minutes,he knocks on our door and tells me he smells gas. I go outside and we both go to the meter and stand there. Sure enough,a strong smell of gas...so I called DTE and they sent a tech over in 10 minutes. Turned out we did have a leak in a gasket. Between the cold weather and a sharp nose,we were blessed. Just a week before during a mild day,my wife and I had trimmed a huge tree right next to the meter and had smelled nothing. I guess one should have the meter checked once a year,its a free service.

   Can you imagine Rush Limbaugh as a NFL owner? Wonder what the drug policy would be? *LOL*

  The Yankees are up 2-0 against the Angels in the ALCS,A-Rod is trying to earn his pinstripes by having a great playoffs as is the player who should be the AL MVP,Derek Jeter. Been a fun post-season so far....only 6 games to win. Let's go,Yankees!

   And just throwing this out there......has Law & Order: SVU jumped the shark or what this year? Bring back Diane Neal before the ship sinks.

thanks for reading.

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