Note: This is a stream of consciouness brain dump and may seem disjointed, please bear with me. Also, my spellign and grammar probably suck. Don't hold it against me. Part the first, in which I explain my "absence": So, 2 weeks ago I announced that I would be mostly offline for the foreseeable future. Well, that foreseeable future is now the past and I'm mostly online again. Many of you know I was laid off from my job in January (before I knew anyone who will likely be reading this), along with all of the other remote employees because we were an easy group to cut. Shortly after that, they realized their mistake and hired a few of us back on a contract basis, not as normal salaried employees. This was good and bad - good in that I was able to negotiate a higher rate than what they had been paying me as an employee. Bad in that the rate was hourly, and I had to bill them and wait for the invoices to go through layers of process, approvals, amendments etc... before finally getting paid, sometimes months later. Throughout all of this there was always the looming possibility of my contract ending, but it was always renewed and it seemed the work would never be finished. That along with a not terrible severance package kept me afloat and led me to a short sighted complacency. I didn't spend enough time looking for a new actual job because I thought my current situation would continue indefinitely so I was caught by surprise when my contract suddenly wasn't renewed and, hey look, rent is due! The property management people were nice and understanding of my situation and were very accommodating and had let me stretch and slide things a bit when necessary, but they like to get paid just as much as I do. So, they very understandingly and accommodatingly told me I couldn't live there anymore. When I wrote my last blog I honestly had no idea where I would be sleeping that night. I ended up staying in a hotel for a few days, slept one night in my car at a campground and (ultimate in humiliation) spent a couple of nights on the couch in my ex-wife's living room. Throughout all of that I had very limited internet access and no place to set up my computers. Now I have moved back to Tucson and have become the very image of the stereotypical loser - unemployed middle aged man, mooching off of his dad and living in his spare room. Except the "spare room" is the second bedroom in a tiny two bedroom apartment. I love my dad and think he's one of the greatest people I've ever known, but I so don't want to live here very long. I almost wish I had never left Tucson five years ago in the first place - I had a nice three bedroom house in a good neighborhood with a huge yard for my dog and a decent kitchen. My mortgage was about half of what it cost to rent my two bedroom apartment in Carlsbad. But, I always try to be accommodating and when my ex told me of a great job offer she had in Cali, I decided to go along with it because I could work from pretty much anywhere. (We had agreed when we divorced to try to live close to each other for our daughter's sake). Thinking back, I could have said "no" but I never do that. Huh. (sarcasm) I wonder why things never go according to *my* plans? Sometimes it sucks being the nice guy. On the positive side, it seems like many companies are advertising jobs right up my alley, even if few are actually hiring. Hopefully it won't take long to find a new one. Even though San Diego is not my favorite place to live, I plan to move back there in the not too distant future because I can't stand being separated from my daughter for too long. Part the second, in which I describe my harrowing move: Where to start - OK, Wednesday of last week. I rented a U-Haul truck to load up things from my old apartment. Of particular interest was my daughter's bedroom furniture - about two years ago I had refurnished her room with very nice things - and she wanted that at her mom's place instead of in storage. So we got that all packed up and loaded, along with everything else, and moved over to mom's and went to return the U-Haul truck. Well, the people at the rental place said that I returned the truck damaged. Huh? What? I had had the truck for less than 24 hours, and had driven it a total of 12.6 miles, never going under any trees or overhangs, but they said one of the tiny little lights along the top was broken and they never let people rent trucks with broken lights. Yeah, sure. It didn't get broken while I had the truck, so it must have been already broken when I took the truck, but, I didn't mark it down on the inspection paper, so I had to pay 175 dollars to fix it. Frakkin' censor-bypass-heads. I swear, next time I rent a car or truck or anything I am taking a video and emailing it to them before I ever get the keys so I have proof. Starts with "F" and rhymes with truckers. So, after the U-Haul incident I went to assemble my daughter's furniture and - lo and behold - the screws and bolts are missing and by this time it's too late at night to go back to try to find them, so, one more day of delay. I went back the next day (Thursday) and luckily found the bag I had put them in near the trash. So, I got everything assembled then spent a fun and teary day with my daughter playing games and talking. I left about 6 PM went to fill up my car with gas, only to find that the gas station I had a gift card for had all their pumps blocked off because they're remodeling. Crap. Luckily I found another one on the way to the freeway, but not before I took the first of my travel pictures (you can see some of them in my FaceBook album). I was going to take more pictures but 1, it was dark because I drove over night and 2, from San Diego to Tucson is the most stunningly boring drive, ever. The radio in my car wouldn't pick up anything good, so I was gonna listen to the music that I copied to my phone before I left, but somewhere in packing my car I misplaced the adapter that allows me to plug my headphones into it. Grr. So, it was a long, boring, silent drive. I amused myself by singing aloud to myself. And taking pictures. And stopping at just about every rest stop along the way so the trip took about 11 hours instead of the usual 6 and half. Part the third, why Tucson almost, but not quite, sucks: It's frakkin' hot. I got into Tucson about 5 AM and it was already close to 90 degrees F. It was a little too early to go to my Dad's place, so I had breakfast and then went and hung out at one of my favorite places in Tucson, Reid Park (pictures to follow), for a little while, then went and strolled around a mall in the nice cool air conditioning for a couple of hours. When I got back in my car it was like an oven. I had forgotten to put up the window shade (don't need 'em in San Diego) so I could barely touch the steering wheel without burning my hands. According to a temperature display along one of the roads it got up to at least 114 degrees, which is unusual for late August. My dad told me later that this has been one of the hottest, driest and longest summers he ever remembers here. Yay, lucky me. I'm just hoping we get some big scary weather soon so at least I'll get to see a nice lightning show. I miss those. Otherwise, I love it here. Even though I'm not in my old house, the city still feels like home. The roads make sense, I can see for miles in every direction and I get the people. I had a minor scare after I unpacked my car. I got my computers and TV/DVD player all situated and was about to reward myself by watching Dollhouse, only to discover my DVDs were missing. I searched everywhere but couldn't find them and was beginning to think maybe they somehow fell out of the car on the drive. I don't know how that would have happened, but it was the only thing I could think of. Thankfully after most of a day thinking I'd never see them again, I found them underneath something my dad had helped me carry in from the car. Whew. OK, now for the touristy pictures... Here's a weird ... thing. I don't know what it's supposed to be, but it reminds me of a set from the original Star Trek Here's a pretty Gazebo thing... And here are some cool shadows underneath it... Here's the stage where a local community theater group does Shakespeare in the Park on summer evenings. I saw Much Ado About Nothing and Mid Summer Night's Dream there both for the first time, along with many others. They were quite good. Here's a sign for the zoo. I always feel bad when I see it becasue it makes me think of the polar bears there which have no business being in Tucson in the summer. Here's another "artsy" thing. Those are Eucalyptus trees that have been cut off at the trunk, then had the branches trimmed, then turned upside down and poainted red. Yeah, I don't get it either. Hey, look! That's the McDonalds I worked at for a day when I was in high school I was on loan from a different McDonalds where I really worked. This one, across the street from Park Mall. And my last piture - every city park in an arid desert needs a display of decadence, so... Thanks for reading and paying attention. Have a pleasant day!