I am out of coffee and I don't really feel like moving from my chair.
My daughter is here to help me but she is fighting off something she apparently picked up visiting me in the hospital and is sleeping in. My wife is at work.
I have been trying to come up with a good solid future plan.
I think I need to get my certification for Sports Turf Management and pursue the offer with my local country club.
I seem to have some really good contacts in the Regenerative Agriculture world, I have no capital to spend and I suspect my efforts will be for naught.
I keep hearing from people from my old job. The low level bitterness that is/was the undercurrent of Uni job is amazing. Several people feel I was made an example of. Although no one understands what I could have possibly done to get fired but not banned from campus or escorted out by security. I am surprised that everyone was not given a sticker and a piece of candy and told they were special after my departure but I guess they just went for the bury it and it will go away program. It doesn't really matter. The texts will taper off in the next couple weeks and it is just as well.
HR has not actually taken the steps required to continue my benefits through the COBRA program. I have not called them. They don't want to work any harder than they have to. They probably don't actually know how to do it. The past is any indication of the future, everyone with experience has quit and the office is understaffed with new people who have no idea what is going on.
I shall continue making lists of ideas and soldier on.
I have been encouraged to "write." I have no idea what to write about. Apparently this blog is not particularly interesting to anyone other than grumpy farmers. This is a diminishing group!
There should be no shortage of grumpy farmers. I used to be just a complaining farmer but now I'm grumpy too.
ReplyDeleteWriter-wannabe's buy a lot of books about how to write. There are some good issues out there that lay out the mechanics of putting together a good novel. Outside of that lofty goal all the other books state simply that you need some structure including dedicated time and writing about anything. There's a guy named Bill Holm who was an interesting chronicler of his somewhat odd life. I liked his words. The first time I actually tried to put together an article I wrote about snaking a floor drain. Somewhat proudly I sent it off to Bill Holm with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Of course never was there a response. Damn him.
ReplyDeleteEvery morning I do the stupid Wordle challenge in the New York Times. Not wanting to be like people who subscribe to The New Yorker simply for the cartoons, I force myself to read five articles in the NYT before attempting to work out the five-letter word of the day. There's a small group of Wordle nerds who happen to be my friends on Facebook. We share our successes. This seemed rather lame so last spring I started to write a short chapter in a story and post that along with my Wordle score. In my work life I wrote a lot about business things including strategic plans, manuals, user instructions, etc., and that's pretty boring. Always I've been better at making up stuff, including some trivia, some facts. My life believes me to be a habitual lier and tells people it's impossible know when I'm telling the truth. OK. That's not a writing success but I'll take it. So I'm back at it, each day adding a short chapter about Lois. Her husband was a Gulf War veteran/hero. Unfortunately he died unclogging a corn bin. When I stopped writing last spring she was leaving the small town going where she did not know. Her niece, an innocent cosmetology student was going to house sit. Now after a time yet identified is headed home on a series of Megabus rides (you should try that to better understand 'crazy'). I've written about the burned out driver and this morning I shared the first passenger, Muhammad, who riding east to hook up with his cousin so they can go search for their families in Gaza. Perhaps tomorrow a guy will jump on the bus, sit next to Lois and tell her more about turf than she ever knew or cared about but she listened because she was polite and the guy was on crutches. Of course when she finally gets home her niece is all tatted and pierced and smokes weed as much as one can.
Of your posts I can remember I've enjoyed everything that involves breakdowns because in my post career life I do more physical things and break equipment, tools, materials, etc. I also enjoy all your posts about repairs on the White tractors because they demonstrate fortitude, 'farmer fixes' and I learn stuff.
Your posts while at the University were interesting particularly in your co-workers and student helpers and obviously you were good at your turf job. There's this notion that jobs go one to another in some sort of ascending fashion either in challenge, title, compensation, etc.. But the reality is some moves are lateral. The college gig was not your future, probably a holding zone that gave you time to observe.
Your leg issue is just another divine intervention to allow you to envision 'next.'
FYI I am a compulsive list person. I user Evernote and Microsoft ToDo. Evernote is much more robust and works really well for documenting everything you have to remember, need to do or should do...all in a notebook and note framework. MS ToDo is good for more simple lists like what to I need to get today at Menard's (FYI today it's 75' of ceramic wall tile, grout, 8' of j-channel and a 34" wide sliding barn door).
Back to the writing framework. Avoid distractions like music, YouTube, the dog and anything in the 'I really should...' category. Just put words down.
When you leg is healed work on a YouTube channel. Check out the Millennial Farmer on YouTube. He's quite the jerk, narrow in education and intellect but very successful (in part due to his father who did the real work).
I wrote a 1000 word response but I cannot see it which tells me it either has to be approved (a reasonable person would not) and/or I can't actually use my Google account. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteOK that's weird. My brief comment posted which means either you deleted my 1000 word comment or I screwed it up or the Chinese deleted it.
ReplyDeleteThe short version of the long comment is 'just write.' You do produce posts on equipment repair and breakdowns (I'm fond of both) which are good and would actually make good video blog pieces. But I can see that you like words, as do I and that may age us. Even as I mention video blogs, those are outdated; everyone wants 'reels,' a brief video, addicting but a waste. TikTok really is destroying America and the world. Just write about anything for an hour a day. Turn off the music. Throw the dog outside. Avoid excuses.
You could write about turf, your co-workers, found objects and students. That was more interesting that the college politics and quirks. You might find the country club gig less political although the country club crowd has its' quirks. I'd suggest watching Caddy Shack every day for a week or two, blow up some gophers with fertilizer explosions for practice and make a run at it...when your leg won't shatter again.
ReplyDeleteMy long post was about my re-start of a series of short stories about a woman from a small town whose Irag War veteran husband dies in a elevator bin clogged with corn. She's been on the road and is now returning on the Megabus. Each day I write about another of the passengers. I am better at some sort of combination of reality and fiction and pure reality.
Art, No 1000 word response. Watching Caddy Shack was exactly how I prepared for my job interview and how I maintained working at my University. I have been trying to follow your writing formula. The point is to write and become better. What I am writing about is less important.
ReplyDelete