New Job for Little Kat

Little Kat had previously worked at the same school as Momoko and Kit Kat. Officially he was in charge of computer class for elementary school. His real goal was to provide a break for elementary school teachers to do their planning. It was a cushy job.

Then they redrew the school district lines. Little Kat's school lost 25% of the students. So, they had to cut 25% of the teachers. Momoko and Kit Kat were safe. Little Kat was out. He did not get laid off. He just could not teach at that school. The county assigned him to a high school in the center of the county.

Traffic was bad. Little Kat had to arrive at work early. There was little to no support from administration. He took a lot of work home like grading, planning, etc. He had to deal with unruly high school kids and their parents. It was too much. He quit the job with plans to substitute teach or to Instacart.

Little Kat applied to a number of other jobs. I thought it would take him at least a few months to get a tech job. After interviews at five different places, he got an offer which he accepted. He will be an archivist. He digitizes documents, pictures, video and such. He uploads them to computers and/or the cloud. It is full time. It is a 33% pay cut from his teaching job. But it is a set 40 hours a week in office. No work after hours.

The interesting part of the job is that they have three shifts: day, swing, and midnight. Little Kat wants the midnight shift. He will settle for the swing shift. These will help with the commute as they are after rush hour. Little Kat will get benefits at this job. So, it is better than some gig work like Instacart.

Blocked Sink

My brother said the vanity in his bathroom would not drain. I tried plunging it out. No luck. I tried calling my handman today. Left a message. Then I called a local plumbing company that helped us with our main level toilet. They said they could be out within the hour.

I was in a meeting when I heard a knock at the door. The plumber tried to plunge the sink to no avail. He noticed there was a leak under the sink too. He used a snake to get through some hair and gunk. Then he fixed the leak. He only charged me for the snaking.

My brother has used this sink for 10 years. The plumber said it will probably be a really long time before the sink gives us problems again. He advised against anything other than clearing the trap of debris.

AmeriSun Lawn Mower Failure

At the end of last year, I bought a new lawn mower. My prior one stopped working. The repair shop said it was damaged very badly. Repair would cost as much as a new lawn mower. And the warranty would not cover it. I chose a new lawn mower from Amazon. It was self-propelled. I chose one that had a lot of horsepower.

Well last week, one of the wheels kept falling off. I had to go search for the nut that holds the wheel in. After the third or fourth time, I could not locate that nut. Okay. I started using the lawn mower with only three wheels. I had to hold it right so that it did not weigh down on the corner with the missing wheel.

Today, the self-propulsion stopped working. So, I had to push this thing without a wheel. It is too much of a pain. I plan to call the manufacturer and see if they had a local repair shop that can get this thing working again. For now, I might need to purchase a new lawn mower. Last broke mower took a really long time to be seen by the repair guy.

Common Access Card

I needed to get a government ID. I would use it to digitally sign forms to request things like a government computer. My sponsor told me to just walk in to get it done ASAP. So, I went and was turned away at the gate. They don't even let you on base unless you have an appointment. I made an appointment. My appointment was today.

I drove to Metro parking. There were a lot of cars there. I had to park out in the boon docks. I took a detour halfway through my train ride. I stopped at Fuddruckers downtown. I was surprised how few people were eating there. I got the $9,99 special combo. They gave me so many fries, I had to go back twice to get cheese and jalapenos to eat with them. I read my Jimmy Carter biography during lunch.

I got to the front gate. I had to fill out an extensive two-sided form just to get a temporary pass to get on to base. I was happy the army person helping me gave me a map of the campus. It will still hard to follow. Before I know it, I was at the badge building. They were not taking walk ins. I was 30 minutes early. They fingerprinted me and had me enter a pin. Then I was off to the race home. There was a backup on the highway at my exit.

Government Job Offer

I had been looking for a new job for almost 3 months. I had applied to over 1100 job postings. I was laid off months ago. My health insurance was going to lapse. I jumped on the first job I was offered. The pay was low. $60k less than my last job. Although it was much more than the $0 I was making. It did not pay for certifications. My last job gave me $10k a year. This new job was 100% work from home. Plus it was an Oracle shop, the database I love to work with.

All of a sudden, I got a government job offer. They had interviewed me a while ago. Then they just went directly to a job offer. It was $38k more a year than my current job. They offered a $10k sign on bonus if I commit to working there 3 years. The database was Postgres, which is okay. Momoko and I took a drive to the building in rush hour. It maybe took 45 minutes. The ride home was less. I would be required to work 5 days a week on site. No work from home.

My initial reaction was to take the job due to the good pay increase plus bonus. When I weighed all the pros and cons of my current and this job offer, plus some additional research on pay and tech popularity, I decided to stay with my current job for now. Although it was a lot of work, I could maybe get a higher paying job later.

Vacation Train Day

This morning I got up early and spied on the hotel breakfast. It was a similar menu to yesterday. I reported the variety to Momoko. She asked me to bring her a plate. I had potatoes, hot sauce, and a bagel. Then we headed to the train yard.

This was Thomas the Train day. There were a lot of kids and parents. The ticket counter lady had trouble getting us a ticket. We had to go into the overflow first class parlor. There was no A/C in there. All the windows were open. The train started without warning with a jolt. Our car kept swaying back and forth a lot. The host told us a ghost would whistle at us. The host's timing was off. We had to drive to the ghost.

I stopped by Panera Bread to buy Momoko soup for lunch. She was not feeling well. I dropped her off at the hotel room. Then I got my Fuddruckers burger special. I came back to the hotel. We went to the New Balance shoe outlet. A worker showed us where Momoko's size was. She found some sneakers with MSRP $59.00. They had a yellow 30% off sticker. So, Momoko only paid $41.99. That was a steal. Right across the street from the outlet was Sonic. We got half priced drinks, including a real lemon slush for Momoko.

I was planning to go to Fuddruckers tomorrow. I called them to confirm they had the special on the weekend. They did not. Tonight, Momoko wanted a steak, green beans, and okra. We headed to Cracker Barrel. I wanted the veggie meal with all sides. However, that was just for classic sides. All the good ones were premium sides. I ended up getting a steak. It was tough with a ton of gristle.

Vacation Musical

Momoko and I woke up early to catch the Full Breakfast served at our hotel. When we got there, the place was empty. It was early. We got some small cheese omelets. I also tried a sausage link. Topped it off with potatoes. Momoko shared her bagel with Philadelphia cream cheese.

After a rest, we headed to Walmart. I did not pack undershirts. We also needed something to drink. The parking lot was treacherous with cars. The drive there was confusing with the GPS. I got a 6 pack of Hanes underwear for cheap. We also got Motts apple juice. Then we headed to Fuddruckers.

We both ordered the special. It did come with endless fries. But Momoko wanted to try a new restaurant. We never made it to any restaurant. We went to Pretty Woman - The Musical. We arrived early and ordered appetizers. We also got daiquiris which came with free drinking glasses. They were so good, Momoko got a second one. Two people who sat down across from us also followed in suit.

The musical had a skinny star who had pipes. The male lead was good looking but less talented at singing. It was a very long first act. Luckily, I had ran out to the car to store all our drinking glasses before the show started. Afterwards we ran to the car and drove out a secret exit. I made a bee line to McDonald's. We got a late-night snack and returned to eat it at our hotel.