Adrian Bacon

Here’s something interesting.

I lost my job on February 11th, I interviewed for the job I have now on March 11th, and I started that job on April 11th.

So, it’ll take me a couple of months to work out my finances and get everything stabilized, but I have a job.

What a relief!

Well, it happened faster than I thought it would, but at the end of the day, it was inevitable. The company I was working at as a contractor is going through a workforce reduction/restructuring, and as a result a lot of people are losing their jobs or getting shuffled around. The good news is I was not let go for cause and can apply for any positions which are posted. I plan to do exactly that along with any other jobs elsewhere I want to go for.

So, first order of business Monday morning will be to call everybody I pay money out to that I’ve not already called and either try to work something out or cancel them. If they are not essential, then I will be canceling them. I’ve already cut Cox cable TV along with Tivo, and reduced my internet speed. I still need to call my mortgage company and try to work out some kind of reduced payment until I get a job. Then it will be the credit cards, same deal. If they won’t work with me, they won’t get paid. Then utilities. I need to write a letter to my term life insurance and terminate the policy. I find it weird that I can only cancel via written notice. I’ll spend this weekend finding the policy number so that I can get the letter written and in the mail by Monday. Then car insurance. I’ve paid for my car, so I think I’ll bump it down to minimum coverage and try to work out a deal for how to pay for it. The car insurance is essential. I can’t drive without it. Next will be cell phones. It will cost me more to just cancel things, so I’ll reduce it down to the absolute minimum and try to work out a reduced payment from there.

After that the only other real expense I’ll have is food. This weekend I’ll need to work out a weekly menu. My goal is to get my entire menu to under $100 a week. I think it’ll be tough, but it’s doable to at least approach that.

After that, I’ll be applying for unemployment and food stamps. That will help. I might try to go for AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Control System).

Once that is all done, I’ll start to apply for jobs. I’ll spend this weekend also polishing my resume in anticipation for the intensified effort to find work.

I haven’t done my taxes yet, so I’ll do that as well over the next week or so. My return should give me a little more buffer.

On the internet hosting front, I’ve got some cleaning up to do to reduce expenses. The cost reduction will be minimal, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while and this a perfect time to do so. I’ll also have enough free time to actually do it for a change.

When life hands you lemons, use them to make a margarita. I don’t drink, but I like the analogy.

Speaking of which, since I’ll have a fair amount of free time, this is a perfect opportunity for me to launch a new show over at quicksurf.com. I’ve been mulling over doing something new over there, and this will be a good time to do that, so keep any eye out for a new show to go live some time Monday afternoon. I think I’ll call it “Geek Tech Today” or something like that. It will be a daily show. I’ll start it as audio only for the simple fact that I just don’t have the computing horsepower to render a daily video show at any resolution. I have enough trouble getting my other two weekly shows rendered that doing a daily video show is out of the question right now. So we’ll start as audio only, do the usual online exposure push and see what happens.

I view this as good. It’s giving me a chance to reset my financial baseline with no questions asked, which is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Expenses have a habit of creeping up on you and it’s not until you’re treading water that you even realize that’s the case. It’s time to clean the money house and I’m going to do so ruthlessly. I have no choice.

I’ll also spend this weekend taking care of me. The reality is that I did just suddenly lose my job, and there’s very little difference between that loss and any other sudden major loss in life. I’ll be needing to do some house cleaning in my noggin so that I can keep moving forward in life, because life does keep going on.

From here, it’s a simple matter of hoping I get a job before I lose my house.

I have a new goal for 2011.

Many of you who know me in person know that I’m not a big guy. I’m 5’11″, and weigh 125 pounds on average.

Well, my goal for 2011 is to put on some weight. I want to put 25 pounds on by the end of the year and weigh about 150 pounds. Obviously, I don’t want this to be fat, so it will have to be muscle.

I’m starting by supplementing my diet with high protein drinks like what is pictured above. From there, I’ll need to come up with an exercise/workout plan. I’ll need to average putting on 2 pounds a month, which should be doable.

I’ve always struggled with putting weight on, so we’ll see how this experiment goes.

Just a quick update on life since I’ve not done a lot of blogging lately…

I’m now 35. I meant to do a version 3.5 post, but life has just gotten in the way.

My older sister’s tumor is roaring back with a vengeance.  She’s been doing Chemo therapy.  It’s too early to tell what’s going on with it.

My work status is uncertain at this point.  I’ve basically spent the last nearly 4 months not being sure if I’m going to have a job or not.  Of course I’ve been actively looking for work to cover my risks, but it’s still been really sparse out there in job land.

I’ve moved this blog to a wordpress.com hosted blog.  Squarespace is nice, but costs money every month.  Wordpress.com doesn’t.  Given my job situation, I think that’s fair.

That’s really about it.  I’m really stressed, but trying to keep it under control.  I’ll continue to back-fill some of my archive posts from quicksurf.com as I have the time.  It should be a lot easier than doing it with squarespace.com

Update: The surgery went as well as could be expected. She is recovering and back home in Oregon. Thank you for all the emails and such.

I have bad news. My older sister has a tumor growing in her spinal cord. I can’t really go into details for her privacy’s sake, but she will be going to Barrows Neurological Institute here in Phoenix Arizona. Strangely enough, Barrows happens to be the only place her health insurance pays for when it comes to this type of thing, even though she doesn’t actually live here in Arizona.

So, this is actually going to happen pretty fast, like in the next few weeks, which is good for her, because she is experiencing an inhuman amount of pain and is maxed out and can’t take any more pain medication without seriously risking her life.

Unfortunately, this is also a very high risk surgery. So much so that it has been put off as long as possible due to the potential consequences of the surgery. There is an excellent chance that she will not be walking, or have much lower body function/control after the surgery. Barrows is the best in the United States for this, but the nature of what’s going on with her is going to make it extremely difficult to remove the tumor without doing major damage to her spinal cord.

The effect on the family has been fairly devastating. She’s the oldest sibling of the children in our family, and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and doesn’t deserve any of this, and yet has taken it all in stride. Almost as if it where happening to someone else and not to her. For the rest of us, it’s been very nerve wracking. Literally. Seeing her with her struggles to do the simplest of things, and knowing it’s being caused by a cancer in her back that you can’t do anything about makes me feel sick to my stomach.

All I want to do is crawl into a little hole and hide, but, I can’t. I’m her younger brother. The guy who has a house in Phoenix Arizona located less than 10 minutes from Barrows. The guy who’s making a room available to her in his house while she’s not in the hospital. The guy who’s going to pretty much see this whole thing go down in a very up close an personal fashion. The guy whose going to be right there helping her with whatever she needs because she probably won’t be able to do it herself. I’m scared to death, and I’m not the sick one, she is. Fortunately, I’m not alone. Phoenix is home to most of our extended family, including our parents, so I will have a fair amount of help. But still. I’m scared. I’m scared for her.

Update: It’s been replaced… I bought a 40 Gallon GE Energy Star unit to replace it with.

So, what have I done in life since my last blog entry.  Quite honestly, nothing.

Oh, I’ve done things, and lived life, but much of it is routine stuff, like going to work, going grocery shopping, etc. etc.  The stuff I’ve covered on Twitter.

I’ve also done things worth blogging about if I were inclined to completely throw the notion of privacy out the window, however, I like my privacy, and much of what I do is off limits anyway simply because it involves other people that aren’t keen about being blogged.  Since I’m not keen to damage and/or burn bridges, that is off limits.

Did I just say that?!? You mean I have a life outside of the online persona that the rest of the world sees?!?

Yes, I do.  And in fact, this may come as a shock, but I’m a pretty busy guy offline.  I do my best to provide appropriate exposure to what may be interesting, but there’s a lot that will remain in real life simply because it will.

So, for all intents and purposes, the viewpoint my audience sees is I didn’t do anything interesting or worth blogging about.

Why am I blogging again? Till next time.

So I got home from work yesterday, it was cold and windy.  Rain was on the forecast.  I lazed around the house and watched TV until about 11 pm.  By this time I was pretty sure the power was going to go out, as it was absolutely raining cats and dogs and a giant wind storm was really kicking things up.

My power company, SRP, seems to have some faulty equipment in my area that they aren’t going to replace until it completely dies and won’t come back online, because every time there is any kind of weather that is worse than no rain and no wind, the power goes out for at least a few hours, so with the storm that was currently rolling through, I had no doubt that the power was going to go out.

I went to bed, and fell asleep.  I woke up to a giant buzzing sound outside just in time to see all the electronics that generate some form of illumination go black. “Great, the power just went out”. I grab my phone, and use it as a flashlight to get my flashlight.  I look out my windows, “Yep, it’s not just me”. Call SRP’s outage hotline.  It’s in my phones address book, that’s how often I use it.  I report the outage, stumble around to light a few candles so it’s not completely pitch black (it makes taking bathroom breaks much easier, I generally have a night light in the bathroom for nocturnal usage), and go back to bed knowing that it’s going to take a few hours for SRP to respond.  This was at about midnight.

I next wake up to the dogs barking wildly at the SRP truck outside.  It’s 3 something in the morning.  Thank goodness.  I’m frigid… “Why is it so cold? I have gas heat.”  Then it hits me, I might have gas heat, but with no electricity to turn the blower motor, the heat will never kick on. I’m really shivering at this point.  I stumble into the kitchen and look at the wall mounted thermometer.  The air temp in the house is 58 degrees Fahrenheit, a solid 10+ degrees colder than the coldest setting I’d ever let the house get. “SRP is here, the power should come back soon”.

I bundle up and get back in bed.

After much tossing and turning, I next wake up to the sound of silence and uncontrollable shivering.  The SRP truck is gone.  I still don’t have power.  I look outside across the street.  Their porch light is on.  It’s almost 5 in the morning.  I check the temp.  It’s 51 degrees in the house and 41 outside.  I can’t seem to warm up.  I call the outage hotline again.  They know I still don’t have power, they’re troubleshooting. There’s a small cluster of houses down my alley that still don’t have power.  I’ll get a call when it should be back on.  I’m exhausted and can’t stay awake.

I next wake up to my alarm on my phone.  It’s 6 am.  Still no power.  It’s overcast outside and really dark.  I consider taking a shower so that I can just go into work, but realize that it would be kind of difficult to do with no lights.  I consider making a cup of coffee, but realize that I can’t because my coffee maker won’t work without power.  I am still uncontrollably shivering… I layer on more clothes, trying to warm up.  It’s now 48 degrees in the house.  I decide to go back to bed, so I reset my phone’s alarm to 7:30 am, in hopes that it will be light enough outside to shine in my bathroom’s window and make taking a shower easier, either that, or the power will come back before then.  I turn my bedroom light on so that when the power comes back, it’ll wake me up.

I pass out.  My alarm goes off.  I am uncontrollably shaking.  All I want to do is go back to sleep. Still no power.  It’s light outside, so I go into the bathroom and start the hot water.  One of the beauties of having a gas hot water heater, is it uses no electricity.  It’s entirely self contained, save the gas line, and water pipes.  It has a pilot light (which didn’t blow out with the storm, thank goodness, it’s outside in a water shed), and as long as it’s lit, regulates the water temperature to whatever it’s supposed to be at.

The hot water starts.  I switch the water flow to the shower head, and start turning up the cold water until the temp is within the non-scalding range, which considering how cold I was, probably wasn’t that warm to begin with.  I get in, and over the next few minutes, start turning down the cold water flow until I can barely stand the hot water.  Despite all this, I still feel frigid.  I feel my outer limbs starting to warm up, but at my core, feel extremely cold.  Since I still don’t have power, my bathroom fan isn’t running, and I have to say, it’s amazing at how foggy a bathroom can get when you have no fan to suck out the freshly moistened air, from the fairly hot water streaming out of the shower head. I go through my usual shower routine to get clean, then just stand there under the shower head trying to warm up.  Every minute or two, I turn down the cold water a bit, and suck up the warmth.  Not much times goes by and the cold water is shut off completely.  The hot water temp has plateaued.  A few more minutes, and it’s starting to cool down.  I shut the water off and get out and dry off as quickly as possible.  I throw 4 layers of clothes on because I’m still freezing cold, and head into work.  Outside, it’s soaking wet, and freezing cold (for Phoenix).

I get to work, and it’s freezing there as well.  Apparently, there was some power loss and no heat over night.  I’m really glad I put so many layers of clothes on.

At almost 9 am, I get a phone call from SRP, the power should be back.  I breath a sigh of relief.  I just have to get through the day.  I can’t seem to warm up.

I struggle through the afternoon to stay awake.  The crappy night’s sleep is really starting to take it’s pound of flesh.

5 pm rolls around. Even though I got to work a little late, I decide to make the time up later in the week, and go home, hoping that the power really is back on.

I get home.  The porch light is on, I breath a sigh of relief.  I go inside.  It’s a cozy 72 degrees inside.  I sit down on my couch.  The next thing I know, it’s almost 9 pm.

I eat some dinner, jump on the internets, check my email, watch a few YouTube videos of some of my subscriptions, and decide to write this blog post.

I think I’ll go take another nice warm shower simply because I still feel a little chilled at the core, then go to bed because I’m still really tired.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Have you ever told a white lie? You are going to love this, especially all of the ladies who bake for church events: 

Alice Grayson was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church Ladies’ Group in Tuscaloosa, but forgot to do it until the last minute. She remembered it the morning of the bake sale and after rummaging through cabinets, found an angel food cake mix & quickly made it while drying her hair, dressing, and helping her son pack up for Scout camp. 

When she took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured and she exclaimed, “Oh dear, there is not time to bake another cake!” This cake was important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church, and in her new community of friends. So, being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of The cake. She found it in the bathroom – a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and then covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect. 

Before she left the house to drop the cake by the church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter and gave her some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the moment it opened at 9:30 and to buy the cake and bring it home. When the daughter arrived at the sale, she found the attractive, perfect cake had already been sold. Amanda grabbed her cell phone & called her mom. Alice was horrified-she was beside herself! Everyone would know! What would they think? She would be ostracized, talked about, ridiculed! All night, Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people pointing fingers at her and talking about her behind her back. 

The next day, Alice promised herself she would try not to think about the cake and would attend the fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a fellow church member and try to have a good time. She did not really want to attend because the hostess was a snob who more than once had looked down her nose at the fact that Alice was a single parent and not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa, but having already RSVP’d, she couldn’t think of a believable excuse to stay home. The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust old south and to Alice’s horror, the cake in question was presented for dessert! Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw the cake! She started out of her chair to tell the hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the Mayor’s wife said, “what a beautiful cake!” Alice, still stunned, sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, “Thank you, I baked it myself.” 

Alice smiled and thought to herself, “God is good.”