Pawn Takes Bishop

Pawn Takes Bishop

The Job at Wilsons only lasted one day. I convinced myself writing this blog, that staying there even temporarily was counterproductive. It would prevent me from looking for better work if I committed to stay on rather than end it before it began. If Chuck had gone ahead and signed me up with the proper tax forms as an employee, I would have felt honor bound to give two weeks notice. In four weeks, working at Wilsons, I might be laid off simply because I finished the bricks. He certainly seemed to have little interest in me helping out with plant related things. His nursery after all, is a fruit stand that murders plants, not nurtures them.

So then. Today I started again, with 6 copies of my resume I set out to find every nursery in the vicinity and make a call on the owner. This was in part hobbled by the fact the jeep is parked until next Monday.



Robert came to me and warned that he had checked the engine, and that it had a blown head gasket. He knows mechanics and can fix it cheaply, but not until his next day off on Monday. Until then, driving it is a risk, one I can't afford to take. Blowing an engine right now would blow a lot more things. Transportation. Vehicle ownership. A thing to call my home when all other homes are gone. The damned Jeepney Driver VII is suffering from a mental break down. Head gasket blown. It truly is a crazy jeep now.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 





Susan managed to poison herself with an Oreo cookie cheese cake, which she only took a single bite from. But it was enough to totally mess her stomach up. She is very intolerant of chemicals in processed foods. All day she was nauseous, but still managed to haul me to three different nurseries in her fuel hybrid car. We also saw a historic oak that sat at the edge of a giant soy bean field, where the beans stretched for miles along the river bottom next to beautiful rolling wooded hills filled with deer. The tree was massively old and twisted. Did I take a picture? No, I forget to do that a lot a key moments in the day. Just picture in your mind a Tree Ent that doesn't move any longer. That was the tree.

One of the three nurseries I cold called upon seemed to give me some hope of consideration. Dave, the owner seemed impressed by my knowledge, and I sort of showed off a bit by helping a customer with answers his own staff lacked knowledge about. Will it work into a job? I wish I had Dorothy's silver slippers right now. Then I could say definitively yes. (Though gardening in silver slippers may look a little queer, at least the commute home would be easier when I commanded them to fly me.)

Sean was meanwhile going to his first attempt to work at the Wet Branch Saloon or whatever the name of the place is. He borrowed a suit from Grant, was given a proper introduction by Noah and Robert, so it was sort of a household wide effort to get him on in the Family business. In this case the family doesn't own the business, just they all seem to work for it. He met "Chef" the man with power to hire and fire and was given an interview for early next week. Tuesday I think I heard. No wait, NEWS FLASH... Robert and Noah just returned and Sean is hired. That is good news. Now at least one of us is employed.

• Sean and I played chess this evening and made a list of equipment we will need for our welding business. Its a wish list of course, but we are planning it ... HARD. We are going to get rich fixing hitches and broken farm implements.     Sounds as likely a way as any of making a living. When I get money this time I plan to weld my piggy bank shut!

 Sean, Barnaby, Kodiak and Noah's Elbow