The musings of a madman...

       For all of my discussion of how much I hate talking on the phone, there still remains a precious few people who I will actually call.   Usually it is because I know that person will be in a car and a text conversation will be disjointed as fuck or take longer than the time I have to deal with whatever needs to be discussed.   Or it is more business than can be conveyed via text. Worry not, though…   I can still only be counted on to make one or two calls a week to people I know.   Otherwise, it will be a text message or one of a constant barrage of memes on Facebook between my bouts with the FB filters.      So following last week’s kidnapping fiasco , I simply sat on my couch and spun through mid-afternoon on my lunch break instead of wandering outside back into danger.   Needless to say, I found this painfully boring.   When I get bored, I will either do something incredibly creative or something INCREDIBLY stupid. I grabbed up my phone, turned the TV off and prayed the do

     Y’all remember back in the summer when I was desperate and fishing for anything that could make me some money while I was furloughed? [ link ] What about now?      Okay, so Tuesday I am in the house minding my own damn business on my lunch break, chilling on the couch watching Judge Jerry when I get a Google Duo call from the studio exec whose brain I thought I was picking, but only now realize was giving him a little free entertainment while killing some time of my own. Executive: “Hey buddy, how goes it?” Me: “I’m the one who calls people ‘buddy’ around here.” Executive: “Huh?” Me: “It’s my thing…   MY dogs are buddy,   my nephews are buddy, random kids in stores are buddy, OTHER peoples dogs are budd--…” Executive: “I gotcha.   How’s life?” Me: “As normal as can be expected.” Executive: “So you had some interesting ideas back in the spring, and I--…” Me: “You’re calling to make me a rich man and tell me I am done with this damn company?” Executive: “

        2017… In 2017, Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey closed up shop and shut down the Red/Blue/Gold lines for good.   I didn’t mention it at the time because I legitimately thought that they would wait a few months and regroup before going “haha, SIKE!!!” and rolling out the new schedules for the next year, then I would wait until February and drag my daughter and now-wife out to the coliseum for a couple of hours.      2018… My only circus options were UniverSoul Plane Circus which usually swings through here but is so small that they’re setting up shop in the mall parking lot and not even in the coliseum or its lot, some localized circuses in places where I haven’t left anything and then there is good ol Cirque Du Soleil, whose shows I have seen two of in my actual-adult-age (over 21) trips to Las Vegas, but not the times the travelling show has come to my city.      2020… (and yes, I skipped 2019) Excusing the universe shitting its collective pants for the world wi

      Life is fucking hilarious sometimes… Back on 05/20, I was invited into a one on one with my manager and HER manager and informed that I was being furloughed on 05/26 and that it would last until 08/30.      The way things were in play with unemployment eligibility and leave time payout, things were not framed to be as bad as one might have thought they should be.   I ain’t living like that though.   I know two speeds: “control” and “motherfucking panic.”   That said, I was NOT prepared to do anything short of wilding the fuck out.      I finished the week and collected my holiday pay for Memorial Day, then came the panic.   I woke every day at my normal time, made my omelet and sat down to the computer and hopped on the Google machine to see if I could locate the name of someone who could put me in the direction of generating some income doing something I know how to do.   That said, I miraculously found myself with the contact information of a couple of television