The Aerie
My publisher seems to think that just because I've been watching three TV series simultaneously, I must have too much time on my hands.
He is of course correct.
However, that will be changing shortly.
First I picked up a one-day job next Tuesday, for which I am profoundly grateful. The money was going to go a long way towards staving off insolvency. Then, just this evening, I picked up a two- or three-week assignment at a good rate. Knock the two jobs together, and I just may be able to pay the mortgage for another month.
Not too bad. Meanwhile, work continues apace on picking up some kind of management position, and this will allow me the time to complete that process properly.
I'm quite pleased, especially since I didn't do anything to gain this work - just posted on Monster and replied to the e-mails. I'm also aware that I'm lucky - not every body has work calling them up. On the other hand, 25 years of deliberate effort has gone into that luck, so I guess that makes it all an accomplishment.
On top of all of this, another surprise today. My wife and I had signed the kids up for the youth group at church (yes, I'm an atheist who goes to church - long story). We thought that this also signed them up for the weekend retreat coming up Friday. However when she called to check on the details she found that they were not signed up - we had managed to miss the registration details sent by mail. (Gosh, I wonder how? Could it be that our home is a mess? Heaven forfend!)
Anyway, we were told it was now too late for them to sign up. The church had had to give a final count to the camp on Monday and that was that.
Well, I'd put a lot of work into convincing my eldest son that he was going on this darned trip, and by gum I wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily. So I called up the camp that hosts the retreat and asked about adding people to the final count. I figured if they got a certain fee-per-attendee, why would they turn down two more if we were willing to cover the cost?
"No problem!" It was as I thought, in fact they were quite willing to accept a couple late filers.
I tried to call the organizers at church to notify them of this policy, but I couldn't seem to reach them at their desks and I didn't trust them to return my calls on time for Friday's trip. So I drove over.
Sure enough I caught the two women in their shared office, suspiciously close to those unanswered telephones. I explained that we had been confused by the process, and wanted to sign our kids up to attend.
"You were confused by the two mailings? With the notification requiring registration?"
I nodded, giving them the vacuous stare of the easily-confused. Believe me it wasn't hard.
"Well, we had to give a final count..."
"...to the camp, yes," I finished. "So that's the sticking point? The final count?"
"Well, yes..."
"So you're both fine with it though right? I mean, if it were up to you?"
"Well, of course..."
"Great, because I already talked to Sharon out at the camp, and she said it would be no problem."
Ha! By their stunned looks, I could tell that my parry and riposte had struck a point! NOW I had them! The twins were as well as packed, and once we stuck our youngest in a kennel the wife and I would have a relaxing weeken...
"There's just one problem," one of them said, a cunning look in her eye. "We're already short one chaperone on the boy's side, and you'd be adding one more boy to the mix."
But I wasn't about to let them trick me out of a weekend alone with the missus. Nope, those twins were going on that trip, and I wasn't about to let the lack of a chaperone trip me up. I immediately volunteered to chaperone.
Ha! So the twins will be off to camp, and the wife and I can drop off our youngest with Grandma, leaving just the two of us alone at home for a relaxing weeken...
Hey, waitaminute.
Posted by Albatross at September 20, 2005 9:48 PM | TrackBack