Roomin' House Blues

I have been wrestling with the idea of trying to write a book again.  I have a couple of unfinished novels in my room and easily enough poetry that I could assemble a volume of poetry.  I have newspaper articles littering the landscape of my life.  Working on a book and actually finishing it is a challenge. This time I want to write a non-fiction book, my blogging having gone so well.  I feel this call from God to write a book on Christmas. There are many arguments about the nature and origin of Christmas, and the idea of Christmas has a long and varied history. My friend Mike called tonight to say hi and that he has been reading my blog a lot, so I said that's nice.  Then I told him my idea for this book, detailing how I intend to cover Advent, Christmas Day and the subsequent Christmas season leading to the Baptism of our Lord in chronological order. I discussed how I felt I could answer some of the disputes about Christmas and weave in some...

Today I temped, four hours of very hard work putting door hangers on door knobs.  I worked in a team with a young recent college graduate who had just gotten a degree in graphic arts, and was dissatisfied that he had not pursued fine arts instead.  He observed that much of what they prepare you for in graphic arts today is computer generated graphics. often for games. And this wasn't what the young man was interested in.  But he didn't have the money to pursue a second degree in fine arts. Walking up and down hills and stairs my feet, once young and strong, took a beating.  I was surprised at the toll the work took out of me, not only the feet but other parts of my body. Not a job for a sixty year old. On the way back to the business we were fliering for, the young man and I began to talk.  He was from Oregon and I told him a funny story about hitchhiking through Oregon when I was 19.  My tied feet and body and my brain working to tell stories...

My readers may have noticed that I have not posted much on my blogs for a week, and now I am rushing to make up for it.  This is a consequence of my struggles with unemployment and I owe my faithful readers some explanations, and some details of my activities for the week.   When you are unemployed you struggle against discouragement, irregular schedules, changes in activity and energy levels.  All this last week I have been busy trying to find work on two levels.  On one level there is my full time work job search, the official search which I log for potential reporting to unemployment.  I must do at least three job search each week, but I have been doing usually many more. The other job search is the search for temporary or one day jobs accompanied with getting other resources, like food, for survival.  Most of this temporary job search I have been doing through a feature on the job section of Craig's list called Etc.  Th...