27 August 2009

I haven’t been posting mostly because I’ve actually been busy lately. Not too bad, but it sure is nice to have things to do with my time.

College:

Well, I signed up for 4 classes for a total of 13 credit hours. I tried to get into one more class but it didn’t work out yet. I’m still trying, but I might have to get into it kinda late. We shall see…

But as it stands right now I will have the Associates degree at the end of this semester. Yay! It won’t be worth anything, but at least I’ll be able to put on the resume that I have a degree.

I’m trying to get my head right for studying. I’ve never been one to “study” and I really don’t have the skills to do it. I’m a “hands on” type of person, and just reading something from a book tends to go over my head.

On top of that three out of four of my classes are pretty much just book stuff. I have a World Literature class, a Philosophy class called “Self and World” and a Humanities class that is called “Technology in Culture”.

The “Technology in Culture” should be my easiest class, just due to my mechanical background and my love of old technology.

The hardest one will be the Philosophy, I think. Just because I’m not one to sit there and analyze things to death. I’m not one to see the deeper meaning of a story and the allegories and the double meaning of a sentence and what that deeper meaning is. To me a story either conveys information or it is entertainment and the meaning is easily understood. I’ll probably have similar problems with the World Lit class, but probably not as bad. I hope!

The only class I think will actually be hard, due to the sheer volume of information, is going to be the Intro to Microbiology. But that, at least to me, is a mechanical thing and I can get my head around that pretty well.

Hunting & Fishing Assoc.

We had our latest handgun class this week. I think it went very well. We had some really good students.

Rumor has it that the Association Treasurer has quit. If y’all remember, a few months ago I was expecting to take over the job from him of keeping the membership rolls current, while leaving him with the actual Treasurer job of handling the money. Well if he has actually quit, I’ve been told that I’m going to be nominated to the post.

I don’t mind this too much, but if things go the way we hope in the next few years, this job could be handling several millions of dollars. Yes, you read that right, MILLIONS. Personally I don’t want that kind of responsibility hanging over my head, but as far as I can tell I might be the right person for the job for now. We’ll know for sure on the 14^th of next month when the next meeting will happen.

Work:

So far I have two applications in at the VA center, and I have four more in at the various hospitals in the area. I really hope to get into the VA, but like I’ve said, it’s one tough place to get into.

I spent last afternoon and evening helping out a friend put up hay in the barns. Man, talk about one hard ass job to do! Some of the hay bales were super heavy and I probably handled each one twice. I was the one loading the truck. Everyone else was handing them to me to arrange on the truck and then on the unload I was the one stacking them in the barn. We did something on the order of 260 bales in about 3 ½ hours. But I made $50 in cash, so that was pretty good.

M told me that a friend of hers at work has a father who needs someone to do hay also, so I might be able to pick up some more cash here soon. But since I start school next week it might be hard to do, scheduling wise. Wednesdays and Thursdays are pretty well packed with school.

Get this: on Thursdays I drive 26 miles to the main campus for a class then I drive almost back home to take a second class at the College annex here in my town, then I drive all the way back out to the main campus for a second class, then drive all the way home.

Money Issues:

The only problem is that my car has been having issues. I honestly don’t know what is wrong with it but I wouldn’t trust the thing to get me to and from the main campus all the time. At least I have the motorcycle and I expect to be driving that as much as possible. Instead of dropping several hundred dollars in the car, I’ll just spend $50 on a good quality rain suit to wear on the bike. Just in case of rain.

So far we’re up to date on the house payment and M’s truck payment. I’m fairly certain we’re almost paid off on the truck, so that will be good. I’ve essentially told the credit card companies to go hang themselves for now, I won’t lose my house to pay them and when I do have some extra money for them, they’ll get it.

As of right now the savings account is just about empty so we have little to no backup if there’s an emergency. One more reason to ride the motorcycle instead of the car, because the car isn’t completely broken, yet, and I can make due with the bike.

Add to all of that, that I dropped $321 on school books that we didn’t really have to spare, but I obviously needed, the car sits in the driveway.

All in all we’re holding our own, but we aren’t actually progressing, yet.

I’m Alive… So Far…