In Which I Tell You All The Interesting Things I've Done Over The Last Week / Sunday, August 29, 2004
So, since Tuesday I guess...
Umm... Well I worked Wednesday through to Friday, I'm getting better at it now. I've got a trial app (an application with no money, to check it'll go through before he pays anything) which I won't get any money on until it's actually gone through. he had a blockage removed from his heart three years ago. I'm not sure if it'll stop him from getting it (I hope not at any rate!) I did actually sell a cancer policy to a copper, she already had lots of life insurance. The problem with cancer policies is that they don't really give me much money immediately, I only get 25% of the 40% I should be getting of each policy, usually I get 65%. The rest goes in my bucket, which is there in case they cancel their policy and I don't have to pay the company back they can just take it out of there. That works out at about $15... $15 for the week isn't too great! Maybe next week will be better.
I'll also be working in a more affluent area when I'm out by myself which will mean bigger policies, but unfortunately rich people are harder to convince about security after they die. Still if I sold two policies to the richies, it would be the same as 4 policies to the poories. I did do a whole presentation by myself (once Crystal actually let me without butting in!) so overall even though not very fiscally rewarding, it was educationally rewarding. I just have to learn to make friends with people quicker.
So apart from boring work (which is actually quite interesting, meeting lots of nice people) what else have I been up to? Well I've been watching the Olympics when I get home in time. Did anyone else think that the Olympic flame looked like a big spliff? At least from the side it did anyhow. It's good seeing people win something they've been dedicating their lives to winning, they're always so happy. It almost make s me cry really (alright I'm a great big girls blouse, but at least I admit to it!)
Saturday I didn't work. I put together a bit of a song, now all I have to do is work out some words to it. That's the hard part...
It was Joe's Birthday on Saturday, Gordon and Stephie came over. i had practice to go to though so I didn't get to celebrate with them much. I made him a cake (Lord knows we can't afford to buy anything at the moment, I had to scrape together 55 cents for a lighter!) I also applied for a credit card, I hope I'll be able to get one, otherwise I'll be screwed for the holiday. Unless I can sell a few policies in the next couple of weeks.
Today was a good day, church in the morning (I messed up one song) and church in the evening, that contemporary service I was going on about. The monitor (the speaker the band listens out of and guitarists put their foot on when playing a solo) wasn't working very well (it kept cutting out) but we overcame that. Boy I tell you, the Holy Spirit was in that place tonight. I think that's the best service I've been to at that church. The song I messed up in the morning I got right in the evening. So that was good. It was all very exciting. A good 60 people turned up (or is that 60 good people? Whatever!) I came home and Ash and I watched the closing ceremony for the Olympics, and I came in here and started writing this. Once I've finished it I'm off to bed. So there you go, all up to date. Hurrah!
Ash is taking time to get used to the anti-depressants that's she's on now (she just changed medication.) It's all a bit upsetting really, there's nothing I can do to cheer her up or fix her(it's a chemical imbalance in her brain, not actually anything making her sad. That's a common misconception with depression. It's not actually triggered by any outside thingys. It's all in the head) I wish I could help he in some way. All I can do is pray. Only one guy I know can fix her proper for good and that's my Lord. I guess I just have to trust in Him more. Easier said than done, but I know he'll help me. What was it Father Vic said in the sermon today? "The Lord fixes a fix to fix you and if you try and fix the fix by yourself without his help he'll just fix another fix for you to fix with his help." Something like that. I know it had a lot of fixes in it! So I guess this is a fix that we've got to fix. Along with the fiscal situation, Ash's job, and about a million other things. I can still praise the Lord though no matter what kind of crap He's putting us through. After all I'm alive, Ash is alive, I have friends and I'm able to help other people worship Him (and that really is only the start of that list!) So I can praise Him everyday! Hallelujah!
Everybody heard of 50 pence yet? Rich told me about him the other day. Well here's a site with all his songs to date on:
Singing Fish
/Hopped!
9:37 PM
In Which I Can't Think Of A Title / Tuesday, August 24, 2004
I didn't work today. Well at least I didn't work at work, I worked at church instead. I was stuffing envelopes for the Alpha course, and helping to write a bit in the newsletter about it. The Alpha course that is, not me stuffing envelopes.
So that's been my day. Nothing really to report. I have spent most of the day singing Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus is Coming To Town for some bizarre reason, I can't really explain why....
That's really about it. Nothing more to say. I know some of you are real happy about that. At least you managed to read this one to the end rather than put it in the "look at later" file!
/Hopped!
6:13 PM
In Which I Sell My First Policy / Monday, August 23, 2004
Just a quick one, I thought you'd like to know that. It was only a small one, my commission will be about $100, but it's a good start.
The gymnastics are being a bit controversial aren't they? Did anyone see the high bar contest? That Russian dude should of got more eh? All of those gymnastic fans going crazy. I was thinking, it could be the start of gymnastic hooligans out rioting on the streets. They wouldn't be like normal hooligans though, they would do double flips over the cops, be swinging from lamposts and all that crazy kind of stuff...
Anyhow, it's late. I'm off to bed. 'Night!
/Hopped!
10:46 PM
In Which I Tell You What I Forgot To Tell You Last Night / Sunday, August 22, 2004
Right, it was the main reason for me writing yesterday, but I got so tied up in writing other things that I completely forgot about it. So I'll just start with it this time. Word of warning to Lindypoo... That's right, more raccoon stories... You know our four friendly neighbourhood raccoons that I told you about, well they came back last night. While Ash and I were out having a cigarette. We were sitting in the chairs justin front ("Justin Front" is a good friend of mine... oh alright it's a typo!) of the catfood, the raccoons main target. Two of them just ran straight past us and started tucking in, so they were within a foot behind us (although we couldn't see them because they were behind us) and one of them ran up and stopped about two foot in front of us. The Mama raccoon was standing well back, and called them nack after about a minute and they ran off. Ash and I just froze... Those little guys have big claws and big teeth and probably rabies so it's a bit of a scary situation to be in if you're surrounded by them and one of them starts hissing at you! Imagine being in the middle of a load of badgers... I'm sure it'd be pretty much the same. I went out this evening at about the same time with a camera, but they didn't show up. I guess they just don't show up when you're expecting them.
Apart from that excitement, there's not much to tell. The service at church today was excellent. The band was really tight, I only fudged about four notes, there was about nine new people there, so all in all a success. We all went out to Macallisters afterwards and had a jolly good time there. There's going to be a contemporary evening service starting next week. We're going to be playing about 14 songs in total. The sermon is only going to be seven minutes long according to Chandler, the youth leader. That makes a change from the sermons that Father Vic gives. Today's sermon was about five sermons in total. Four too many for that service. He needs to learn to keep the message short and sweet. At least he's starting to loosen up a little. It's wuite a big change going from a normal service to a contemporary one, the main difference being that a contemporary service is actually fun. Isn't that what the Lord wants? To Rejoice with Him, rather than just go over the same old stuff? Sure! Repetition equals lack of passion in my book. Unfortunately if there's one thing that's resistant to change in this world it's the church.)
Poor old Paula Radcliffe eh? Such a shame. Still she gave all that she got, and you've got to respect her for that.
The other thing that's happened is there has been a major miscalculation with out budget. Business' in this country don't think about taking money out of your account as soon as they can (which is clearly bad business sense, after all if they had $30,000 worth of cheques that they waited a month to cash, then they would loose money that they could've gained in investing it for a month, right?) they just wait until you can't possibly afford it, then get together with all the other places you go to and say "Now! Let's screw them over!" So Ash is feeling pretty down right now, I really don't care. It's only money. If there is one thing that I've learnt it's that money comes way, WAY down on the list of thing that actually matter. No matter how much you have it's not enough. In my opinion the most important thing is to know that God loves you, next is knowing that other people love you (everybody's loved by someone, it's just some people won't even think about saying that until it's too late..), next is your health, then about a hundred other things, and then money. Sure money is helpful, but it's not what life is all about. God will provide, just trust in the Lord (that's what life is all about!)
Anyhow, that's a bit preachy, sorry. In fact this whole post is a bit preachy in a way. By the way, if anyone has any questions they want to ask a man who is truly in love with Jesus then you can email me and I will try my best to answer them to the best of my ability, or get someone else to answer them, or just tell you I don't know the answer (No one knows all the answers, that's where faith comes in..) For example, don't try and make me explain the holy trinity to you, all I can say about that is that an omniscient God knows how it works, that's someone with more knowledge than everyone living or dead put together, so that's good enough for me.
Whoops, still preachy. I'd better go to be before I give you all a headache! Goodnight!
/Hopped!
10:27 PM
In Which I Go To A Party! / Saturday, August 21, 2004
Yup, went to a party in Jackson, MS. It was GG's (Granny 'Gomery) 76th birthday. It was fun, but I'm sure it wasn't as fun as Rich's housewarming/engagement party that was probably going on at pretty much the same time... It was just coke, no Jack to mix with it. Still we had tasty tacos and everyone had a good time catching up.
I read a really cool comic book on the way there and back called Marvels. Boy! I tell you it was real good. It was about a photographer who was living in New York while all of the superheros were about, and he's telling the whole story from what he saw, and it's actually painted, not inked like most. It took the artist four months to complete one comic (usually an artist will do 3 or 4 comic books a month) and it's super realisitic. It very easy to call the bloke who painted all the pictures an "artist" because each panel is like a mini work of art. As it's so realistic you can look through it and see famous people in the background. The Beatles and Sean Connery (among other's) show up for Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman's wedding. If you are at all interested in superheros, comics, or just want a really good read and admire some amazing artwork, then buy this. If you only own one comic book it should be this one.
The evening has been spent practicing for Church tomorrow. We're starting to sound pretty tight now, at least better than we were in the beginning. Chris the drummer (who also plays sax, guitar, piano. He'll tell you what chords are playing on a song: "That's A minor seventh, E with an added fourth and a C sharp major ninth add 13... Basically he's on of those really talented types, which would be really irritating if he wasn't such a nice guy who just enjoys playing) listened to my music after we were done. It was kind of embarrassing really, because before that, we listened to some of Dave's friends stuff and that was really pretty well polished and musically accomplished - almost symphonic, and then he listens to me singing "Cheeseburger and fries, biggie size biggie size biggie size." Still he said he liked it, but then he's not really likely to turn round and say it's rubbish is he? I've noticed that no one that's gone to my website has commented on any of the music, and no ones said anything about it on here... Ash said to me... Oh I can't remember exactly what is was but it was kind of... How do I say... Forced. Oh well I enjoy singing along with myself in the truck and it entertains me making it in the first place, and pretending that people actually like it.
Well it's time for bed I guess... Oh, here's a funny website, I'm sure that you've probably seen al these videos before, but if you can watch the cat montage without laughing once then go to the doctor, you're either very depressed or dead.
Unoriginal.co.uk
'til next time.... Which might be tomorrow, or it could be next week... Who knows? My life is one big mystery!
/Hopped!
10:16 PM
In Which I Have A Very Full And Exhausting Week / Friday, August 20, 2004
I tell you, this work thing isn't as easy as I remember it being.
I've been in training all week, learning all the crafty tricks of the trade. It's all very interesting really, at least up to a point. Then it just gets confusing. There's lots of leading questions and stuff. For example: "Isn't your family's security important to you?" "Nah who cares about them let me keep my money!" - That would be the wrong answer, by the way...
In response to not being able to afford it... A little background first: The basic policy we sell is called Hour Power, where we take an hours pay a week and give a policy that covers the whole family. (Oh, not policy, that's a word that I should try and avoid. Along with insurance, calling the company American Income Life, even though that's the name of the company. American Income is preferable..) So if they say they can't afford it I'd say something like "Let's say you went to work tomorrow and they said they could only give you work for 39 hours rather than 40 hours. Would you have to quit the job and go find another one? No, you'd just adjust your budget. That extra hour a week is something you can live without. Or imagine if your boss told you that they would give you an extra hour, 41 hours rather that 40 hours, would that mean that you'd be able to take your dream vacation? Go and buy a brand new Lexus? So It wouldn't make that much difference in you life. Whereas God forbid if you were to die tomorrow, your wife and kids would have to live without you income at all. Doesn't it make sense to you to give that one hour a week for the security your family deserves if you died?" Crafty eh? One of the many tricks of the trade I've been learning this week. Still it's not like it isn't true, I'm just pointing out the obvious right? Really I'm there doing a service for them. After all, they truly would be screwed if they got hit by a bus tomorrow and didn't have any insurance. Anyhow, that's just an example of what I've been learning for the past week.
Me and Crystal (my immediate manager) went out on Wednesday night to go sell some policies. The good thing is that I saw my first sale, the bad thing was that it was at 11 o'clock at night. I didn't get home until 12. Who buys insurance in the middle of the night? Crazy people. It really annoyed me. I asked before we went there at 9:30 when we were five minutes away from Jo and Lloyds (we were housesitting again) if I could possibly get dropped off. She just laughed and carried on driving. Don't get me wrong, I would've gone if I was going to get any money out of it. I got bugger all, just very tired.
What else have I been up to? Well I've been watching the Olympics of course. Seeing a lot of Americans winning lots of medals. I've got to say that the Gymnastics has been very exciting. The men's team event, men's all-around, and women's all around all coming down to the last round. How about that come back from Paul Hamm in the all around eh? I thought he'd lost it for sure. He obviously didn't though. Good on him! How many medals have Great Britain got? 10? I think that's right. I only get to see the Americans winning things see. The Americans get upset if they only get a silver, as if being second best in the world isn't good enough. Bloody Americans. It was funny watching them loose the basketball against Puerto Rico though, especially as they're all NBA players who demanded to stay in a hotel rather than with the other athletes. It made me laugh anyhow. It was a bloody close game between them and Greece as well. Only 6 points in it. Maybe they won't get a medal... No I shouldn't say that. It's wrong to speak ill of other people...
Anyhow, that's my week really. Oh, by the way, in case I didn't tell you before (and I don't think I did) there's a new song on my website. Here, I'll link straight to it from here so you can have a listen (if I can) here it is: You Never Really Know oh, and all the other songs are working as well, albeit at not very good quality, it's only a free site you know, and recorded on a analog four track, and mixed by me, who hasn't really had much experience at being a producer. The again I haven't really had much experience as a songwriter either, so that probably explains the overall rubbishness of the whole music part. I do like that one though, I think it's lyrically passable. Maybe a bit predictable, I mean what else is going to rhyme with "Sometimes I wish" apart from "I could be fish"? Well i guess I'm just going to have to keep on practicing. I also like Cheeseburger and Fries, musically I'm pretty impressed with it, it's got a good riff and a pretty nifty solo at the end. Lyrically, well you can tell I wrote it in five minutes while I was taking a crap (crap was flowing out of both ends! Hee hee!) Anyhow, enough of me babbling and making excuses. Just listen to it and tell me what you think, or don't bother if you don't want to hurt your ears. It is mercifully short though. Something I'm trying to learn, can't have a pop song over 3 1/2 minutes, 5 minutes tops. Ooops, I'm still babbling on about my music. Well I've been told to talk about what I'm thinking about, and that's what I'm thinking about. Especially as I recorded my presentation onto a CD and put my songs on the end to fill it up. It's easier to tell what's wrong/right with them when you're listening while driving. I'll just stop now though, it's getting late and this is an extremely long paragraph.
Has everyone in England heard of Goldie Lookin Chain yet? It's full of drug references and swearing by the way, and there's different stuff on the low tech and high tech versions. Anyhow, if you haven't heard of them (and aren't easily offended), there's the website. Goodnight!
/Hopped!
9:55 PM
In Which My First Day Goes Alright / Sunday, August 15, 2004
I went to that meeting on Friday, it was alright. My boss Joey is a very hyper guy. There's one guy who's been working there for 3 1/2 weeks and he's already got a promotion, I've just got to work my butt off and get the same! Ash and I really need a car, I was driving Ash's old Honda on Saturday to get to work (yes, I have to work Saturdays. 6 days a week, Monday to Friday is evenings. Well when I say have to I have to if I want to make any money. The only thing I really have to do is sell $4000 (I think) of insurance a month. Then I get a bonus. My first target is $6000. After that or 45 days my commission goes up from 40% to 50%. That's about 12 policies. With 30-odd appointments a week I should be able to do that!) and that's falling apart, the engine is almost gone, the mirror, seatbelts, and a/c don't work. If you turn the engine off, you have to put the bonnet (hood) up for 15 minutes before it'll start again. Not really a great car to be going round selling insurance in!
I went out in the field for the first time on Saturday with Crystal who has been working with them for five months. We didn't make any sales, but I learnt a lot. I have a presentation I have to learn, but there is actually a lot of things that'll help me cue up what I have to say, so my memory of it doesn't need to be word perfect. I spent Friday night putting it all onto CD so I could listen to it while I was driving. I've got to learn half of it by Tuesday, and the rest by Wednesday. No problem!!
That's it really, church was alright today, we weren't very together on a few songs, but they were tricky songs to play! I've been watching the Olympics. Do Great Britain even play in the footie? I guess it's because it's the same time as the football season in Blighty if they don't. They'd only miss four games though...
Thanks everyone for the congratulations. Tata buddies!
/Hopped!
4:43 PM
In Which I Pass! / Thursday, August 12, 2004
Woohoo! I passed! No matter what you say, a pass is still a pass. Okay, I did it by the skin of my teeth, I got 70%. The passing grade is 70%. It's still a pass though! Woohoo! Now I've gotta get out there and sell some insurace! Anyone want to buy any?!
That's all I've got for you, I know that you were all dying with anticipation to know if I'd passed or not, so there you go, now you know.
Tim sent me another entertaining website: crykam airtos (I'm guessing that's Dutch or something for rubbish bin paper tossing game) Enjoy! I just got 1030 by the way...
/Hopped!
2:50 PM
In Which I Study Study Study / Monday, August 09, 2004
I've got a date for my exam, Thursday at midday. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it! Hopefully it'll all go alright. I just have to spend the next three days studying my butt off. Apart from studying I haven't really been up to much. I put a few new photos on the website. One of particular interest is this HUGE cricket-type thing. I'm going to try and put the piccie on the blog again, maybe I can get it to work this time...
Joe found it and caught it. There was a boy trying to catch one down the road so I gave him our one.
We went to Dave and Willa's (the next door neighbours) last night and had steak. I had a big porterhouse, the ladies were eating filet mingnon. Lots of them couldn't finish theirs, so they gave them to me. I just can't turn down a well cooked steak! (not well done, medium for me thank you!) Needless to say I was stuffed by the time I got finished!
Well that's about it really. What have I been thinking? "To hold a licence in Louisiana you must be 18 years old, reside in Louisiana, Take the relevant pre-licencing course and fill the appropriate forms and fees","Two type of assignment of insurance contract. First one is collateral which is a partial claim of the entire policy and the other is Absolute which is all of it." Lots of other boring stuff like that. I just hope and pray that enough of it can sink in before Thursday!
So that's it. I don't really know why I bothered to write this today to be honest, it's not like I've done or thought of anything interesting...
Funny page - courtesy of Tim Cooke.
/Hopped!
8:44 PM
In Which We Finally Finish The Gates / Saturday, August 07, 2004
Yup, they're done. Good thing too I say, glad to have it behind me. I'm pretty knackered now though. It's been a long and frustrating day (they don't go up easy you know). It means we can put the doggies out in the garden and not have to worry about them legging it off into the woods, which is great. No more standing outside in the heat getting bitten by mossies shouting out "Poo poo and Tee tee".
Ash and I watched The Kids Are Alright yesterday evening. Very good. They really knew how to put on a show. I don't think any band could possibly be as exciting as The Who to watch play live. Pete Townsend is probably the best showman in all of rock (not so much now as he only plays acoustic because the loudness he was playing earlier in his life has messed up his hearing. Funny thing: He went to a doctor about his hearing, he said that it was loud music causing it and Pete said "Does that mean I should stop playing then?" The doctor said "definitely not! Just learn to lip read!") There aren't many guitarists that'll throw a guitar 30 foot up into the air, catch it and carry on playing. The whole band were just perfect. I don't think there will ever be the same musical compatibility in a group again. What would The Who be without Keith's wild drumming? (we already know the answer to that one. Pretty bad), or John's contently jamming bass? Roger Daltry's screams? Pete's Showmanship and adventurous songwriting? Each member was as important as the next, none of them were replaceable. I just wish they would learn that. To Pete and Roger: If you're going to make another album don't call yourself The Who because your not. Good luck with it though!
I went to practice for tomorrows service today, it was good fun! Maybe it's because I was tired and everything seems a little more surreal when I'm like that, or maybe it just was genuinely fun. I quite enjoy playing the bass, it's better than just playing the same guitar rhythm as some other guy. Oh, I know part of the reason it was so much fun, because the drummer was there. It makes it more of a breeze and actually more happening if you've got a drummer playing behind you. I mean that I can syncopate my bass lines, and not worry so much about loosing the beat. I like syncopation, it's fun! If you don't know what syncopation is, listen to some James Brown.
I've got a new phone. The aerial broke off of my old one. It took a lot of going to different places to get it sorted though. Now I have a Nokia 3100 A very funky little phone. It's got a colour screen and everything! Very exciting.
Anyhow, it's late and I have to get to bed. Good night!
/Hopped!
10:41 PM
In Which I Annoy Linda Fourfold... Again / Wednesday, August 04, 2004
It turns out that it did work after all, so here's pretty much what I wrote before, but different.
Arses! Big fat hairy arses! I just wrote the longest, best ever blog entry in my whole life... no in the entire history of blogging, ever. I go to publish my amazing epistle and I get a page saying "You know that thing you wanted me to do? Well It's not happening. Oh, and if you go back and try to do it again your stuff wont be there anymore. It was a very good post though." Even a computer thought it was good, and computers can't think! That's how good it was. I'll try and recreate it with the help of my short term memory. Uh Oh! Drugs from my youth have completely wipe that out! Crap! I guess I'll have to just start over. It won't be as good a second time though. That's not what is going to annoy Linda (my darling sister) though. If you are Linda and you're reading this right now and you don't want to get annoyed, ignore the next paragraph. In fact, you should probably stop reading right now and just leave the rest of this as a lost cause.
You're still reading this aren't you lindypoo? Well don't say I didn't warn you! I saw Rocky, Randy, Ralphie and Regina last night. Four little cute raccoons eating all the cat food. We were looking out the window and I was literally this close > <>
Talking about nocturnal Mammals, I saw another kind of nocturnal mammal the other night while I was out having a ciggie. I'll give you three guesses. Okay, a clue: It's a marsupial. A kangaroo? in Louisiana? You must be kidding! They aren't nocturnal anyhow. If a kangaroo was out at night it'd probably be lying unconcious on the floor because he would have jumped and bumped his head on something he couldn't see. Have another guess.... That's right! Well done you! It was a possum! Here's a chocolate bar for you. You just have to come and pick it up. (competition not open to anyone who can actually come over to pick up the chocolate bar without having to travel for more than 2 hours - I have to go and buy it see?) He just walked across the lawn, and straight up a tree as easy as he was walking along the ground. It looked pretty funny to me. Especially with the lederhosen he was wearing.
Well apart from those two bits of exciting news Life has been pretty boring really. I've been helping Joe build gates. The plan today was to build all the gates and be done with it. We managed to finish off the gate we started yesterday. Lots of problems with that, which I won't even start to go into. It was the hardest one of the lot (two six footers covering a 12 foot gap and meeting in the middle. The meeting in the middle part was where some of the problems arose...) so hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to do the rest of them and get it all done and dusted. I've been studying in the evenings for my exam, which my adorable nagging wife told me that I had to get it done by the tenth or I'll be in trouble.
Anyhoo, that's all that's happening in my life. Ash however is having exciting times, which means exciting time for me too been as we're, like, married and all. She isn't enjoying her work. Her boss is the queen bitch, she'll have a go at her for things she did 6 months ago. she just won't let it lie. That bit's not too exciting, but the exciting bit is that she's applied for about a billion other jobs (okay a slight over-exaggeraration) and they are all in Virginia, the state that is famous for the appalatians and cousins marrying. So we could be moving there if one of the jobs comes through. I'm all for it. We wouldn't have to put up with heat to compare to hades every summer, and there's actual mountains there, the main feature down here is swamps. They don't make too many hills down south. No really it's as flat as a pancake. People up north are more likely to go outdoors and look at wildlife through binoculors rather than a gun sight. Louisiana is know as the "sportsmans paradise" Even though every professional state team here is rubbish. It's a sport to go and kill things see? Even if they are dressed real dapper. I could go on about the bad things in Louisiana, but I have to study sometime tonight, and besides, Christmas is coming.
The rub of this move is that I am doing and exam for a Louisiana state insurance licence, which unsurprisingly enough only works in Louisiana. Also I'm going to be working for a company based in Louisiana, and I don't know if they've even got an office in Virginia. Something for me to find out at any rate. That's the only bad thing though. Oh and leaving relatives behind here, especially Joe. Without me to help him out in the garden (yard) I'm afraid that he's going to work himself into an early grave. Well it'll work out alright I'm sure.
Here's a link for you, it's a very funny website that Ash sent to me.
WinRG
/Hopped!
3:33 PM
Lindypoo, you'd better not read this. It'll annoy the bejesus out of you. Don't say I didn't warn you...
You're still reading it aren't you? Oh well let it be on your own head. There were four raccoons in the garden last night, tucking into the cat food. One mummy and three little (not that little though) babies. Well we're guessing that's what it was. They were very cute. There was Rocky, Randy, Ralphie, and Rosie. Well that's what I'm calling them anyhow. No pictures, the camera was out of batteries. Sorry! Hopefully they'll be back sometime soon though!
On the subject of seeing nocturnal mammals, I saw a possum the other day when I was sitting out having a ciggie. He just walked along the grass, turned and walked just as easily up a tree. It was kind of funny. Ash says that possums sleep upside down in trees hanging by their tails. I'm not too sure about that myself...
Recently I've been studying and helping Joe put up gates. It's a blooming nightmare I tell ya. It's taken us two days to put up one gate. Okay it is the hardest one (2 x 6 footers making 12 foot gap in total) but still... You know. Crazy! Certainly is starting to drive me that way... Especially in 3000F heat. Okay that's a bit of an exaggeration. It's only 91F/33C. With a 49% humidity that makes it feel like 3000F. They saaaay it should only feel like 97F/36C, but I don't believe that for a minute. Mr weatherman in your air conditioned office. Try go building some gates than tell me about your fancy heat index! Ohh it makes me mad!
Anyhoo, apart from that, not much going down. Working, studying, working, studying... It's all a big circle of boredom really. Still, holiday soon.
That is nothing going on in my life, in Ash's life (did I already tell you about this? I don't think so) and therefore directly relating to my life there's a change a gonna come, to quote Otis Redding (yes yes I know, or Sam Cooke. He wrote the song that was afterwards made famous by Otis, but who's going to know that apart from someone who's super anal about their should music? So get off my back about it alright? ALRIGHT?! Good!) Ash is getting really really really pissed offed (or if your American just pissed (which means drunk in the Queens English. "One ish qu..qu..quite pisshed. Philipoo, go fetsch me a bucket!" so try and avoid that confusion if you ever meet the queen. If she's angry don't say "Oi! Liz! Are pissed again?"))with her boss, who is like the queen bitch (can I say that in an email to friends works? Whatever, no other way to accurately describe her...) She still brings up mistakes that Ash made when she started, which was 6 months ago. Let it lie woman! She never will. So Ash has been searching for other employment. "Not so life changing for you Pete!" I hear you cry. "Well hold on! I haven't finished yet!" I reply. She's looking for jobs in Virginia, a state well known for the Appalachian mountain range and cousins marrying. I quite like this idea (not the cousins marrying, the moving to Virginia thing) it's not excruciatingly hot, there's actual hills and stuff, it's close to Washington so my friends can just take one flight and we can give them a lift from there, rather than getting a connecting flight to New Orleans. The rub is that the exam I'm taking for my insurance licence is a Louisiana licence, for a Louisiana company. The licence doesn't work out of state, and neither does the company. Even if they did then I would have to get a new licence to sell in Virginia, so I'd have to sit another test. Oh well, the price we pay. I've already paid for the exam and everything, so I might as well take it.
That's it as far as news goes. I'm going to revive the funny-link-at-the-end-of-my-blog-so-it's-actually-worth-reading-it-for-some-kind-of-small-reward-at-the-end-of-it (FLATEOMBSIAWRIFSKOSRATEOI for short) because I've been sent a couple of them. Obviously some of you will have already seen some of these. If you've got any your hiding from everyone you can tell me about them, and I'll tell everybody else. Here it is:
WinRG
/Hopped!
2:36 PM
In Which I Say Thanks / Monday, August 02, 2004
Thank you to all the people that emailed me. I'm feeling a lot happier right now. Obviously I still miss y'all but I know that you miss me too which makes me feel a lot better. Just a quick one because it's bed-time. Sorry I haven't written recently but I've been awful busy. I just want you all to know I feel happier, and I'm looking forward to Florida (only seven weeks to go!) and I really really appreciate all your emails. I'm sorry that I haven't replied to you all individually.
It still irks me about no-one wanting to come over for almost nothing with the booze offer. Money isn't an excuse anymore, only time.... I'm sure the offer won't be about forever.
Anyhow, that aside I love you all. Thanks once again.
/Hopped!
9:41 PM