Made the call and AT&T support wasn’t too bad, once I got the right department on the phone. Account and port numbers in hand, I finally made it back over to the local Comcast office, for the second time this week. Going through the steps and checking the IMEI numbers, the attendant found the prepaid phone to be locked onto the AT&T network.
Going though the dial * plus options, the unlock website, and finally six one one and with three attempts to navigate the automated system, I reached the unlocking department. Maybe just ten minutes on hold and my request was submitted. Okay, now just a one to two day wait for the ticket to go though. I’m glad I was helped by the same person today- it saved a lot of time in not needing to repeat my requests. Now, an appointment set for Saturday at noon, to hopefully complete this entire process.
The idea of going back to work kinda scares me, worries me, makes me anxious, makes something that causes my forehead wrinkle a bit. Not that I have any red flags, well other than the obvious: it’s been a while. Really, I think the anxiety is a result of the mental effort taken in scanning for those red flags, whether they exist or not. Those red flags of course, could be a thousand things and on different scales too. From the mundane things to setting an alarm and having food for breakfast (or the time to fetch it on the way,) to my larger more unique issues.
Before my interview, I need to fill and send a pdf application ahead via email. One of the questions has left me wondering all week. It’s a simple question- actually no, it appears as a simple question, yet it seeks an essay answer from some or a just check yes answer from others. Distilled, it’s the reverse of a felony checkbox. There if you check it says (hopefully not, yet sadly, often realistically,) don’t hire me. In my case the question that questions me is this: (paraphrased from my memory)
Can you perform the essential duties of this position, with or with reasonable accommodations for the handicapped if necessary and what accommodations would be necessary?
My gosh, answer “No” to that and that most certainly means that you are not to be hired. Normal (and, again, I know I’m using that word loosely as a contradiction to myself, in this case handicapped, disabled, differently abled, dirt dabbled?) people would just answer.. Yes, hire me. That’s pretty easy huh. Now for me. So far I’ve gotten that I can’t be required to sit or stand or move for long periods of time without being able to alternate into one of the other modes. I need to have near constant access to a bathroom (spasms in my back/leg/abs sometimes trigger my bladder too.) I need to be able to write things down or photograph them if I need to remember them for more than a few seconds sometimes (easily solved with scratch paper or post-its in an office environment.) For sitting, I need a reasonable ergonomic chair if I was expected to sit in it for more than a minimum amount of time.
How much coddling is acceptable to still have your essay answer still quality as a “Yes, hire me.”
Are these the things you skip on an application the come catfishing your way into the interview? Heck, I’ve got a heck of story and I know the words will fall from my mouth, yet would I limp away with a job offer in my pocket?
Wanna know how that question sounds to me? Something like “Please describe your inadequacies.” Maybe this is an essay that will get easier to write with time- not time since event, rather the number of times I’ve told the story. Now this post makes one, I can call it a draft. My essay on the application tomorrow will now be two. Odds are, the drafting process, the evolution of a story in time towards its own version of perfection, will improve version number two offer version number one above.
Never made it to the bike shop and that is still on my short list. Tomorrow’s focus is the interview and maybe after that I’ll stop offer to Lansing Ave- maybe even lunch at the Greystone Tavern. I wonder who owns it now and if they still rent out the upstairs. If they’re empty I’d ask for a tour- that would be so cool to walk through those dusty rooms again. Seems like I heard that they went vacant and off the market after the landlord issues a decade ago.
Hmm, it’s just shy of eleven, so I could say that I have a few extra minutes tonight. It’s “that time of year ago” in local politics for the local voices that want to be relevant to stand up and say the things that easy grab the ‘people’s’ attention. An annual budget and water rate increases. Happens every year and it pretty much has to happen every year- though it, like all public government should be properly managed to ensure continuous quality and cost effective operation, it should not be abruptly defunded except in dire financial situations.
Yet, it’s easy. It riles everyone up. It makes a lot of people angry. What, what? Why? Imagine a reputable person (in the beholders eye,) someone they trust for information telling them half truths about an issue specifically to invoke the call to action. The action requested? Obviously you must agree with the ‘reputable’ person on the narrow context issue they’ve exposed- else you’re just as guilty as those in their issue. Is it social manipulation? Is the games people play? Is it merely the social construct we know as “politics” that sits deceptively close to the actual business of government.
Water. Darn good water, available on tap (and on flush,) and with sewer return. None of that is a given in this world. Each of us (adults) are liable to find our own food and water in this world. If you live in the city, that means city water. Convenience is through the roof and the cost, it’s reasonable, well under a penny a gallon. Love it. You don’t? Go chill in the desert for a month and consider the price of water. Consider how much five gallons of water weighs and let’s say, it’s only one hundred feet away. How much water would you use? Would you let that water run out of you jug while you brushed your teeth? Would you still run your dishwasher every night or just wash a plate or two by hand?
Yet here we all, all civilized and stuff and we’ll use a completely routine financial process- one well documented and demanded by state law- as a ruse to create hatred and mistrust targeted at our local city elected officials. Generally at least six of them took on the position with nothing more than the truest motives of servitude to their neighbors for the betterment of our City for a minuscule public salary. Welcome to May, time for those that want that salary and postition themselves to stand up and shout the same rhetoric as last year. It’s sad.
Anyway, enough of that, it’s only May.. you know, I have until October to run as a write in.. hmm.. Honestly, I would, except that honesty doesn’t win very easily.. people like to come out and rally against water bill increases. Who wants to vote for the guy that says “and I’ll vote for it next year too!”
Had some fun playing radio tonight, mostly using the FT8 digital mode and testing out my newer antenna, the vertical mounted on my fence line. Another item for the short list, I want to maximize my horizontal antenna and I have an idea to get it up sixty feet- that’s a half wavelength at forty meters. Yet, I’ll have to climb the tower again and be up there for a while- long enough to need the belt and climbing gear to be able to latch on once I get up there. Once at the tower top, I’ll have to lower the mast to attach the balun to its top, then hoist it back up and secure its bolts.
Then, for the front support of the wire, I’ll move the black fiberglass mast (currently angled off the house,) and attach it to the top of the flagpole, hence moving eight feet higher and thirty feet further away and it should be the perfect distance to suspend my seventy foot, eighteen gauge end fed wire antenna. Hmm, tomorrow is only so big, we’ll see.
Time to rest.