It's Only A Matter Of Time

My job for the last 22 years has been in the print media. Specifically circulation. While the circulation of the paper I work for has declined exponentially over the last few years, it remains afloat through a series of sales/mergers/acquisitions. There has been an increased effort to promote the "eEdition", an online version of the paper that looks identical to the print version. The difference being you can click on links such as advertising or articles or you can download coupons, etc. This "eEdition" is just another step in the progression away from a "manufactured" product distributed by employees and contractors. The Christian Science Monitor has announced that they will no longer print their daily newspaper and become an online only publication. This does not bode well for my future in this line of work.

Back To The Real World

The vacation in tropical paradise is over. I've been back to work for three days and I had to get sick. Here I was the only person in our family to take "Airborne" for the trip and I'm the one that gets sick! I'm sitting in my recliner blogging in my pajamas. No waves crashing in the background, no tropical birds chirping, no ceiling fan gently whirling in the warm air. Just the unemployed next door neighbor listening to rap/hip hop at unhealthy decibel levels and the guy across the street drinking a beer in his garage staring into our front window. The neighbors two doors down sitting on the couch on their front potch listening to loud mariachi music. I don't know why I would rather be in Hawaii than at home!

Our neighborhood has steadily degraded over the last few years. One neighbor has a pot card which gives him the right to grow six pot plants. I'm sure it's for his terminal illness that he struggles with every day. No...wait...that would be his laziness that he "struggles" with as he sells his medicinal pot to the neighborhood hoodlums. I hope I don't sound too acidic, but I really loathe the fact that he is obviously sponging off my tax dollars in some way. In the 22 years that I have lived in this location, I am not aware of him ever having a job other than delinquent or drug dealer. His live-in girlfriend goes to work every day. His two older brothers go to work every day. All of his neighbors go to work every day and he just bilks us out of our tax dollars for whatever "assistance" he is on.

Dirtbag

On a happier note, I will be a grandfather soon! Possibly mid-April of next year. I'm definitely way too young to be a grandfather. Although I can also say that about being a father as well. My daughter was born 10 days after my 20th birthday. I was deployed with the Navy at the time in Puerto Rico. I didn't get to see her for the first time until she was three weeks old. It seems hard to believe that she's old enough to have children! We were dropping her off at pre-school just a few short years ago. Time moves rather quickly and you really don't notice until there is quite a bit of it behind you.

I'll leave you with a very short video of what I had to leave behind in Maui.