...

...and my dog is acting like a nutcase. She never gets to go with me so she's not accustomed to all the excitement. Being pushed around in a cart - reminiscent of her jogging stroller we had in Mississippi. Growling at Guinea Pigs. Rows upon rows of squeaky toys. It was all too much. By the time we got to the register she was a basket case. She goes into a "lights are on, nobody's home" mode that involves full face panting, glazed eyeballs and attempting to scale anything to get to mom....

If there are 2,000 applications for one mcdonald's job and your application is #1,992 you aren't getting the job. You aren't even getting an interview. This is what I've gone through over and over at every job I apply for. I can't even afford to commute 35 miles away by train to go where the jobs are because the train fare is too expensive for a daily commute. If I lived closer with a subway link, it'd be doable. Still a little expensive, but much more doable.

Thanks to the online...

WOMEN LEFT BEHIND; Back in the mid-1700'rds there would be as many as 5000 ships at sea at any given time and that meant that a lot of wives and mothers were left behind. Deck hands were paid very little and I could find nothing that suggested the shipping companies made any provision for the sailors families. How the women lived stretches ones imagination. The women usually died young often leaving orphans and the sailors created more orphans at every port of call.
Meanwhile the shipping...

...and it's time for work. I look out and see him craning his neck so far he was nearly sitting on his hind end... meerkat-style. I figure he's hunting a squirrel. As a Hawaiian transplant, he's enthralled with squirrels. Like furry geckos of the trees. Or nearly so. I follow his stare and see two deer making their way along the creek below the duplex we're renting - for now. Woods, deer, creek, cul de sac...I've cleared some of the woods and planted flowers under the trees. If it weren't for the...