...And Another One

We got a phone call around midnight. Like any phone call in the middle of the night, it was not good news. My uncle had just died a few minutes earlier. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer last winter, so it wasn't a real surprise, but this makes three funerals in six weeks. Enough already.

Which also means that my 80-odd-year-old parents are road-warrioring their way up to Michigan for the third time in six weeks. So if you see a tired-looking grey Chevy Blazer hoofing it up I-75, you may want to give it some room. If you see a tired-looking grey Chevy Blazer broke down on the side of I-75, please stop and help. Their first trip, they got held up on the way back due to car trouble. Then the last trip, they took our car up while their's was being worked on. Then as soon as they got back, they had still more work done on it. We're hoping they at least get back to Michigan before the thing craps the bed again. Their car is only a year older than ours, but it just doesn't seem very... I dunno... durable. Even when I was just tooling around Z-hills while they had our car, I felt like I was leaving a trail of debris behind me. Anyway. Something else to worry about during tax season.

Speaking of which, I'm working 7 days, but still only getting 40 hours a week. I hate working short little shifts. The problem is trying to cover all the hours the boss-man wants the place to be open with only two people, neither of which is supposed to work any overtime. Once peak season is behind us, things will normalize a bit, but even then, I'll be driving up to Wally World waaaay too often for the hours I'm getting paid for.

And then there's this:



This is what walks by my little temp-cube office. All. Day. Try focusing on doing someone's taxes when all that is walking by. Try focusing on doing someone's taxes when all that is sitting on the other side of the desk. Maybe a bunch of short little shifts ain't such a bad idea after all.

And just to completely change gears mid-post (or grind-it-till-you-find-it), here is Jon Katz's TEDTalk from a couple months back. Timely considering all the medical crap we've had to deal with lately (there's been a constant stream of not-dead-but-could-be-soon news mixed liberally with our recent funerals). Enjoy:


And that's all I have time for today, kids.