15-I-2003.
For the novak [new year] we took the last batch of sarma of 2002 to the kids in Richmond, and picked the last time's pots. The rain was heavy, a real summer shower, except it didn't mean to drum it out in five minutes, but shook the tambourine all morning. Fist third of the way I couldn't drive faster than 80 (i.e. 50 here). Then the rest was almost dry. Then on the way back the pavement was wet around town, and just a slight drizzle. There we managed to park right in front of the main door (second time in history), all the folks dispersed in their directions.
For the doček itself we sat with Lena, watched Blackadder and played canasta. As skilled as she may be when there are two players, as much she lacks a sense of card when three, and I wasn't doing too well either... so we both ended far behind in both games (one unfinished from a couple of days ago). For dinner, czarski sandwiches. We each had a glass of some may-be-passable californian wine from a bag. The guys sell it in boxes, and the box contains a sturdy plastic bag with a tap near the bottom. Tear the box where the tap is, put the glass under it and hit it. Cheaper than any beer :).
And then... without job again. I need to return the laptop, Berix needs to sell it, she's under. The eHosp is no use, they have another bout of reorganization, and us subcontractors get a hollow nose all the way to the eyes until they get their ducks in order. Tough shit.
At least this time I got reserves - we managed to save, so I was at ease yesterday, writing checks for Nina's tuition (only 60%, the rest comes from the grant she earned in high school) and their rent, plus a lot left for our rent, and there'll still be a three weeks' check from Berix. She's not bankrupt, by a narrow margin. There's a few small things I need to finish for her, then to move into new labor victories. Now I have the recommendations from the top heads in the trade, I'm of a much higher repute than five quarters ago, I have some backing, and even this informatics industry seems to be on some rise. So I'm not too worried, I'm more sorry for her.
On seventh, I had to explain to dad how come Marla was married, and then came to Richmond with a boyfriend. Ehh... I think she paid some guy 200 dollars to get a paper that she's married. Such cases usually get checked only for a year or two, or at least there's a story circling that they do.
So being unemployed doesn't mean much now, the gig with Gary had a good start. Maybe my 40$ per hour isn't much, but he's paying fast, over PayPal, sometimes within just a couple of hours. I'm not billing him in any regular intervals, but rather when I finish some larger chunk, and he confirms that the chunk works. After eight years of fiddling with medicine, I'm finally doing rockenroll - such is the subject matter in the data. Though, I'll keep mum about the contents, it's more like a doctor's secret, whatever I learn from them (data ARE plural!) stays between him and me. As for the design, he accepted my colors... Finally getting rid of that greyness. Rockenroll, buddy!
The other day at the register I heard from the customer in line complaining to the cashier that the Feud Lieon's supermarket in Danton [actually Daunton, but the natives pronounce it like this] now works only 7 to 23 - they kept open 24 for years. Danton is a petty village with just five streets.
Dad reports that both the polish phone from the market and my red phone from Šibenik had croaked, both being of about twenty years' age, so he bought a new one. Later Števa complained on that, why didn't he buy one at DBA. Wha, what a downfall, the software alone sufficed for a good life for years, the batch of fax machines in 1991 was the only time we had to do retail.
On tenth I ran into an ad from some company in Cueblo in New Mexico (though, frankly speaking, there was nothing wrong with the old one, but Amers have to do a remake of anything they like). There's one guy I know, a co-owner, looks interesting. We'll see.
Did a bit of trading with Ricardo, he replaced his motherboard, and I took his old one, so now I'll have a computer only four times faster than the old zmajček, which now becomes Lena's. Now I need to dismantle two to make two - some parts will heve to be moved from one box to another, and one of them is currently a heap.
He bought a doll for Go, for drawing - put it in any position you want and it's your pretend model. At least its proportions are anatomically correct, so she doesn't need to bother any warm body to pose for her.
We bought a zero mark machine (hair mower), so the trio in Richmond have a tool for their hairs, and partly for Ricardo's birthday, but then it turned that nobody was using it, so we brought it home and I trimmed my beard with it, to 13mm. Good machine, a Remington, must be hitting the targets. I used to do this with scissors for years, and it would usually turn uneven, once the beard is washed and straightened. Already looking better now.
Nina filed a complaint on getting B in biology - having had an A for the whole semester - and she got it. The order to adjust the grade from B to A had five signatures on it. The paper arrived to our address - the picture shows her openng the envelope. Of course, there was no surprise, as we already had it for two days, and she got an email from the professor, very short - „your A is on the way“, yup, rhymes.
Sixteenth.
Worked two more weeks fro Berix, a dime was found to cover yet another paycheck. She thought she'd have enough to cover until sixth only. For returning the laptop we agreet to meet about halfway, somewhere near Winchester, just didn't set the date yet. And I get to keep the chair :). Summing it up, the long term problem was that she didn't dare take more work, fearing that we may be overwhelmed with the amount, time getting tight, deadlines missed and then it would end badly, if customer sues etc etc. Then when she needed more work, couldn't find it, ran thin on money, doesn't have enough to pay me, secretary, or herself.
The market however, at least in my narrow line of work, somehow livened up. I got three responses last week - apart from the one in Cueblo, there was one form Dallas, and someone from Atlanta called this morning. Cueblo is ranking low in our eyes, the only good thing there seems to be clean air - houses are expensive, water is a problem, the elevation is considerable (but the air is clean), terrain is thin on greenery, population is sparse. This could mean that many things we took for granted are simply absent, or quite expensive. Which would mean that the hefty salary they promise doesn't have to mean much.
We found somewhere (Keemart? Kvatro Stađone?) a ham, whole, at 70 cents a pound. There's some water injected, but they didn't steal more than 10% of mass that way. Well, at that price... We used it to also enrich the sarma and generally our lives all winter. We're pretty much aborigines here - the apartment below us has its third tennant already, the team at the rental office is completely new, and in the dozen apartments visible from our windows there were at least fifteen arrivals and departures in this year and a half.
Smokin Joe (the indian shop) didn't have tobacco, just ready made cigarettes, so I scratched for some five days. Now that I dropped by, they still didn't have tobacco in bags, but at least there's the cans, so I'm off scratching. The ready made isn't bad, it's actually the same tobacco, just doesn't have the same taste, a habit is a habit. At least now I have a can with a proper lid, the old one's was cracked already.
Nineteenth.
Went for a ride to Winchester. Berix sent Sharlene to meet us halfway, to return the laptop. The thing costs just enough to make sending it a bit risky, so a drive was easier. We met exactly fifteen minutes ahead of the agreed time, at the exact spot. A lovely day for a ride, but with some chilly breeze, so the encounter was cut short to a five minute takeover and split. We did stop to take a sandwich for Lena and then drove back. So I drove two hundred miles, on a known road, watched a long sunset and that was it, putuj dupe za kašiku supe (travel, ass, for a spoonful of soup). In our culture there's no theory that anyone would travel so far and then do it in five minutes at a restaurant's parking [lot], not even to sit for a coffee. Guess the question would arise of who'd foot the bill, and she also left a two years old child with her older sister.
A message from Atlanta was waiting for me at home - the job interview will be tomorrow at 14:30, over phone. The result of that is that they'll call me next week when they finish talking with other candidates (said they called me first). It took more than half an hour, with four guys in the room on their side. Doesn't look bad, the job is interesting, the team seems to work together well, just that there's more work to do than they have the time for, so reinforcement is needed. And the business logic is sound: they are a replacement for health insurance, they're an intermediary between employers and doctors, they handle the payments, and their profit is a share of savings, i.e. the discount they get for paying straight without doctors having to handle insurances.
They asked whether I'd come to Atlanta for a talk - well, that's some seven-eight hours of driving, why not. I guess they'd pay me a motel room somewhere for the night. If we go for it, it'd be some time in about ten days. By then the weather should ease up - we're under some stronger cold wave, even the heating didn't manage to make more than 19°C by afternoon.
On twonysecond and third until lunch I rebuilt my machine, suffering like never before, but eventually got it to work nicely, at least the parts I finished - fox, mail, music, and the rest will go one by one. The new box is a song, at least four times faster than the old one. Lena's box is next to be rebuilt, so Lena can play on it.
Mentions: Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), Cueblo, DBA, doček, eHosp, fox, Gary Brandywine, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Marla, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), sarma, Sharlene Weiter, Stevan Garaj (Števa), zmajček, in serbian
2-IX-2024 - 3-IX-2024