The Waiting Man

Trying very hard to shed some baggage from last year that's very much unwanted on the continuing voyage.

The warden of the current Debtor's Prison is making that rather easy ~ recent discussions about my future at the institution are not predicting a long stay there... which I'm okay with really, as long as I can handle the ongoing expenses. Which is something I've taken in hand in the past week & hopefully have reduced the size of the river of repayments flowing out of my bank account with distressing alacrity.

Nothing like impending release/relegation/rejection for getting galvanised for action. Various prospective employers will be hassled this coming week ~ from the baker of the pie-in-the-sky job of the last six months or so, to the bar manager of an almost-local hotel for as many bar shifts as I can get.

Other than all that, it's been a rather good start to the year. Domestically & personally, things continue to consolidate & improve, with tentative plans for the future cautiously beginning to think about the possibility of maybe daring to raise their heads above the trenches. Musically, I'm retaining just one project from the past, as it promises to actually go somewhere with someone else in the driver's seat & little required of me other than guitar-playing & the occasional rehearsal/song-learning session. Which leaves me clear to imagine/plan what kind of music I'd like to do for myself... if any. I have some ideas, but not much in the way of drive, but that may change as other parts of life improve. Crisis is the worst environment for creativity.

Two gigs in the last week have ensured my love affair with music continues. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Hyde Park Barracks were a lot of fun & a band I should really investigate further. John Cale at the Enmore Theatre was an inspiration, as he has been every other time I've seen him. On the immediate-future wish list are gigs by Jeff Beck, Faith No More, Jane's Addiction & My Chemical Romance.

Probably the last post for the year, given what the next 24 hours holds... more on that next year.

In summary:~ ( A year of losses & gains, both intentional & not so. )

This is how I feel at the moment:~...



There is a light in the distance, but I'm in a dark place & there are stormclouds between me & brighter times

The new job is, as pretty much expected, a no-brainer occupation. The trouble with this is, you work with people who have no brains, ruled over by a control-freak with an over-developed mothering complex. This authority figure sends out more mixed messages than an MPD afflicted teenager with ADHD... the kind of person who as good as tells you to find another job one minute, tells you who to contact to get one, then gives you dirty looks & attempts at sarcasm when you do exactly that.

Boy, do I know how to pick 'em! At least this job isn't as downright physically perilous as the last. We don't sell anywhere near enough plasma or LCD screens for me to get any kind of back injury carrying them around... although I did manage to cut my hand yesterday & I have no idea how or when. Didn't even know 'til I happened to notice blood on a piece of paper, then discovered it was mine. But their OHS officer can't be accused of shirking her job. She just happened to walk in when I was standing on an office swivel-chair moving screens & cables (In an extremely cautious fashion I must add... I know the risks, consequences & my limitations!!) & was told in no uncertain terms to get off the chair & find a ladder. After my last job, I'm not used to that... danger was the only part of the business that was good ~ as some long-time readers will recall.

Discussions continue with the friend who assures me the 'perfect job' pie is still in the sky & will soon be available for nourishment, as soon as his half-baked MD can tear himself away from Melbourne for a day or two... I can understand the reluctance to leave there, but dammit!!!... it's been nearly two months since this 'possibility' reared its head... Man can't live on the retail award wage alone. Lately I've been living the punchline to the old joke ~ "If you think nobody cares whether you live or die, try missing a couple of repayments."

Still, if money is the only thing I have to worry about, I'm better off than some. But that doesn't stop me worrying...

Time to retire the Debtor's Prison Userpic then... 'til next time.

As of today, I'm a gentleman of leisure ~ except I'm not that gentle & leisure isn't what it used to be. Today has been by turns domestic & trying to be pro-active & productive scaring up the next career opportunity. And chasing up exactly what I'm owed for my sentence time in DP... in case the next opportunity doesn't knock for a while.

( Then... Now... Soon )

Still hab a bid ob a code dough... bud id's a bid bedder, dags por arsging!

Here's hoping for a quiet, injury-free & only-slightly-damp day.

In the latest of a long line of mishaps at Debtor's Prison, yesterday I had to take our truckie to Manly Hospital A&E after he fell off the back of the truck. No real extenuating circumstances ~ the truck was virtually empty, he wasn't carrying anything, wasn't on the phone or otherwise distracted, he just walked backwards off a 1.5m gap between floor & ground, hit his head on a concrete wall & fractured two fingers trying to break his fall. I didn't see it happen, having turned away to get the next thing we were to load, but I heard the landing. Fortunately his neck & back were intact, so there were just some grazes & a rapidly swelling right hand to deal with. Out with the First Aid kit & then into OBluV8 for the trip to Casualty.

No chance of brain injury, as there's no evidence of anything but vacant space in the allotted cavity. Is it cynical & uncaring of me to admit that my first thought, after ascertaining he wasn't paralysed was So it's true what they say about dodgy goods... they 'fall off the back of a truck'.

In other news, I attended my first trivia quiz in quite a while last night. We didn't win...

Please... people. Have a little consideration for those of us in sales at this time of year.

Try to remember that we are not gods. If your order has not yet landed on my delivery dock, I cannot simply click my fingers & make it appear. Neither am I willing to get in my car & drive around the state looking for the truck with your stock on it, just so I can tell the driver to go faster. Understand that our suppliers are only human too & that they are trying to co-ordinate stock shipments all across this wide, brown land to other people, just like you & me, who are making similar demands. They do their best & I cannot do any more about that.

Also, if you are ringing me to enquire about whether I have certain products available, please actually know what it is you're looking for. I don't have time to play psychic detective & figure out what picture is in your tiny mind. Neither do I have any interest in the fact that you bought it from my company 3 years ago from a lovely young man who... blah blah f@#%ing blah. He's not here any more & I can't ask him, so I'm asking you... for the last time... WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?!?!

Now look what you've done ~ you made the nice Store Manager cry...

Many years ago, I made my escape from retail sales into the world of corporate & gov't sales consultancy. I swore I'd never return to retail. Unfortunately, I have & I continue to swear about it.

"We don't need the forklift to lift this thing." I said.

"No no, I know exactly what to do, I'll just bring the forklift out, up the front footpath & we can fork this thing into the truck easier than carrying it." he said.

"Don't take the forklift up the footpath, you'll get it bogged... it's happened before." I said.

"No no, it'll be fine. I have a forklift licence, I can do it." he said.

"It won't work. the path's not wide enough & it'll bog." I said.

"No no, it'll be fine. No worries." he said.

( Guess what happened 45 seconds later? )

Under what circumstances does homicide become legally justifiable?

With a bit of luck, I've just taken the first small step in climbing out of my financial hell-hole.

After twenty-five years in sales, my resistance to an attractive-looking/sounding presentation & offer is still incredibly low. You'd think I'd be better at resisting techniques I'm a master of myself. Doesn't mean it's always a bad thing though, as hopefully is the case here...

Out of the goodness professionalism of my heart, I came down to Debtor's Prison this morning to help "MD"/CN organise today's deliveries, as there are a lot of them. I arrived at 9.45am to find the place closed with no sign of life. Turns out he "thought" I was working today. I had made no such arrangement, but... c'est la mèrde, n'est-ce pas?

So, I am working today. The bright side is, OBLuV8's registration is due at the end of the month, same week as the lease payment for it, so I could do with the extra money from the extra day... such as it is.

A visit to my doctor today, to find out if the lethargy, headaches & swimming-through-treacle feeling when moving is a physical illness. Poked at, prodded, questionnaired & finally pin-pricked (just a little one) for pathological purposes. Like taking a faulty product back to the shop whence it came, I walked into the surgery feeling better today than for the last ten or so ~ possibly from having a 'weekend' away from Debtor's Prison... which raises the physical? physiological?? psychological??? question. Guess I'll just wait to see the bad news from my blood samples before knowing which (witch?) doctor gets me next...

One way or another, there are pill-popping days approaching.

Hey Alpha-est of Males!!!!!

I know it was you who came into Debtor's Prison last night & cleaned out the till...

Again.

What the hell's wrong with you?!?!?!

For the few curious... a better-balanced view of my Status Quo Vadis. Little steps taken forward...

( Musical Notes )

( Debtors Prison )

Edit: And here's the score in Texas at the moment ~ one of the best photo galleries I've seen. Wish I was there with my camera!!

Two things I forgot to bring this morning:

~ My mobile phone.
~ A guitar... it's deathly quiet at Debtors Prison today, I have no CDs to play & I have a 30s jazz ballad to arrange for a video shoot tomorrow night. I could be doing that now instead of wandering the floors, obsessively checking webmail & LJ & playing so much Spider Solitaire my tiny mind could explode...

I try to look away... but even on the Sydney Morning Herald website, the trashy, the tragic & the just plain turgid leaps out & says Click on me! Look at me!!... clean that vomit off your monitor!!..."

And so ~ home after an eventful week at work that isn't over yet. All I can say now is: Watching playback of security cameras is mind-numbingly dull. No wonder they gloss over this kind of drudgery in detective novels... Conclusions drawn so far don't include the identity of the thief, but do indicate that I can remain Zen-style still for long periods of time & I may be developing a bald patch... but it changes location through the day.

OBluV8 'major' service, tune & brakes ~ Check.

Bank balance depleted to worrying level ~ Check.

Fill up with petrol on the most expensive day of the weekly cycle ~ Check.

Mad round of phone calls to clients & suppliers chasing stuff that should have been easy/taken care of ages ago ~ Check.

Raised voice telephone argument with "MD"/CN over lack of 'best business' practice & the repercussions thereof... Round One ~ Check. Round Two ~ Pending.

Incredibly strong desire to run/drive away to Melbourne for a week at 5am tomorrow ~ Check.

So that's what I'm doing.