Fortunately I was allowed to go and see my daughters (4 and 8), so I took them out to eat at Einstein Bagels, which is where my eldest daughter likes to go for breakfast.  They are usually pretty good when I take them out to eat, and after breakfast we headed down to Topeekeegee-Yugnee Park (popularly known as T-Y Park), which is only a couple of miles up the road from where they live.  T-Y Park is pretty large, 150 acres, and they enjoy not only the playground, but also walking around the large lake, feeding the Squirrels, and especially petting each and every dog that passes or comes close to them.

Today it was pretty hot and sticky, close to 90 degrees and not much of a breeze at first, so I took them to the playground, where they had a good time, and then we wandered across to the lake.  It has been raining so much the last couple of weeks, that the level of the lake is close to 2 feet higher than normal, so it’s larger, deeper, and the fish seemed to be having a good time, as well as the dogs that were swimming in there.  Walking around the far side of the lake we found someone who had 2 large black dogs that enjoyed swimming, and they would race each other to get to every stick that the girls threw into the water.  They had a great time.

We also fed the Squirrels, or at least I did.  Someone had left a pile of peanuts on one of the picnic tables, so I grabbed a few and had the Squirrels eating out of my hand.  Unfortunately the first Squirrel who I tried to feed wasn’t too sure, so instead of reaching out for the peanut, he clawed my finger and then bit it, his claw drawing blood, but so far I don’t seem to have suffered any infection.

Being a Friday there were fewer people there than usual, and subsequently there were more Squirrels, Birds and Iguanas out.  We usually see quite a lot of Squirrels, and birds too, but today I managed to get some good photos of a Blue Jay, almost got decent ones of a Kingfisher, and I got excellent ones of a couple of the larger Iguanas that were out sunning themselves on the grass.

Their Mom wanted them back by 12:30pm, so after the park we headed to Wendys, usually easy to get a quick bite for lunch, but today it was packed, and since this must be about the slowest Wendys in the country (service is always horribly slow, pathetic, and they take an hour to clean up and mess or restock too), we headed to McDonalds instead.  Now this isn’t the best either, but today it was practically empty and at least the service was quick.

Back to the house, dropped them off, got my usual myriad of hugs from my eldest, much to the disgust of her Mother, who usually just wants me out of there as quickly as possible, and back home, via my local Walmart to do my weekly grocery shop.  Now for the last 2 months they have been completely revamping the food section, and it’s a nightmare trying to find anything.  So since today was chaotic in there, I just got most of the essentials and then headed to the Farmers Market down the road for the rest.  The service here is really good, friendly, and the prices are good too.

I had a phone interview, then found out at the end of the day that the client wants me to start on Tuesday.

My funds had really begun to run low, but fortunately this should work out in money starting to come in before I run out.

The day didn’t go too smoothly though, in fact it didn’t go smoothly at all.  Murphy played his trump cards, but it didn’t do him any good this time.

The day was due to start with my sorting out our storage units with my ex-wife, but due to rain early morning, we didn’t start until 11am.  At least the day from then on was great as regards the weather, even though the early morning forecast was for it to get worse.

I heard from an  agent that I have been working with that I had a phone interview for a position at 2pm.  Got the details for that, and proceeded to sort out storage.  This involved moving lots of boxes and furniture, sorting things out, repacking, tossing out, so by 1:30pm I was hot, sticky, and dirty.

I went to Wendy’s to clean up and prepare for my interview, was just about to order something to drink after cleaning up, and the phone rang.  The agent said that things were running late, so would 2:15pm be ok!   I ordered my drink and thought, ok, I have neough time to drive the 1 1/2 miles south to the Goodwill store to drop off some things we are getting rid of.

I had only got half a mile down the road when the phone rang again.  The interview was going ahead at 2pm after all – 2 minutes time!   So, I instantly hit traffic, made it to Goodwill within 5 minutes, dialed in on the conference call, and began the interview.

I was aware after about 10 minutes that the phone battery was starting to run low, my having been on the phone for a while already that day, and I don’t have a car charger since I never needed one for this phone.   Well of course the interview went on and on, and I got more and more beeps.   I said to the person interviewing me that I thought my battery was about to die, and as I said that I got a “boodly-boop’ing” sound and the phone went off.

PANIC MODE!   Holy crap, what am I going to do:?

I decided to head back north a mile to my ex-wifes parents house (where she lives), to see if I could use their phone.  Hit traffic of course, so by the time I got there and tried to call it was already 15 minutes after the battery went dead.  I also could not power my phone on enough to get any numbers out of it!   DRAT DRAT AND DOUBLE DRAT!

Plan B – I headed out to Radio Shack, ironically just up the road from Wendys where I had been 30 minutes before.    $21 and five minutes later I have the phone plugged in, but it won’t work because the battery is stone dead.  The phone needs a good 10 minutes of charging before I can use it.  After 3 attempts to call the agent during which the battery died again, I finally sewed things up.

I then went back to Goodwill, dropped off the items I no longer needed, back to my ex-wifes to watch my daughters do their homework, then off to the park with them for an hour.   They were very good today, my youngest who is 4 1/2 was climbing like a monkey, while my eldest who is 8 1/2 was having one of her sad moments, missing her brother (my son who is 28 and lives in England) and her Grandad (my Dad who passed away almost 2 years ago).  She is a very sensitive girl, and although she only met them when she was 2, she misses them.   I told her about when her other Nan (my Mum) passed away 12 years ago, and we both pretty much ended up crying.  Odd situation to see at a park, luckily there was nobody else there.  My youngest joined in and we had a good group hug.  They love hugs, and so do I.

Off then back to Wendy’s to grab a bite to eat with them, before taking my youngest to a swimming lesson.  She did really good, no problems putting her head under water, and I think she will soon be swimming like a fish.   While I was at Wendys, the agent called t0 let me know that I had the job.  Phew!

I dropped them off about 7:30pm, then headed the 30 miles back home, and spent the best part of the last 3 hours catching up on mail.   Wrote to the family about my new job, and now this post.

Since I missed my morning walk today, because it started to pour with rain just as I was about to set off, I am headed out in a few minutes.  Yes I know it’s 11:15pm, but a nice walk around Deer Creek should do me good.  It’s nice and peaceful, good for clearing the head, and I hope a stiff back…