I'm Back! Waaayyy back, in fact...

[Elspode]

May 2003 started out unassumingly enough. Certainly, like all Springtides, it was filled with hope and promise, but soon dark clouds - both literal and figurative - began to gather.

Although my family was blessed in that we did not suffer the horrific affronts served up by Mother Nature in the first days of the month, other difficulties manifested in short order. Neighborhood gangsta wannabees bore down hard on our children, even to the point of an assault being committed upon our youngest as he stood inside our own front door. The middle son was stalked almost daily as he walked home from school, enduring catcalls and being spat upon. The night before I was to pick up my eldest for Heartland Pagan Fest 2003, his apartment was burglarized as he slept in his bed, awakening only when an arm reached across his face to steal the telephone from his headboard. By the time I'd scurried back into town, relieved to find him safe, he'd taken stock of his losses, including his computer, his wallet, his checkbook, his keys, a pair of pants, and any sense of security he'd once tenuously held. Seems like rather a lot to absorb for a young man with cognitive disabilities and a seizure disorder, living on disability and a meager part time, sub-minimum wage job. We try to take solace in the notion that, somewhere in suburban Grandview, a crackhead enjoyed another day, free from the burdens of having to work for a living, and sated to the point that he need not claw his own eyes out to stop the hallucinations. At least my eldest hadn't been threatened with violence or sucker punched in the face like his two brothers.

The Heartland Fest itself was a brief but welcome respite from the travails of the mundane world (funny how something that a major portion of world would view as the height of sin and immorality turns out to be the only entirely moral and enlightening part of my entire month), but as it always does, it too soon came to a conclusion, and I returned home battling a nasty respiratory infection, causing me to extend my vacation by two fateful days.

Yesterday, I dragged my ass in to the office and dug into the incredible backlog of work, barely putting a dent in it...after all, I'm the only one who does what I do there, and it therefore went undone in my absence. Today, the first day I'd felt at all well in nearly a week, I was unceremoniously handed my final check plus two weeks severance pay and shown to the door of the company which I'd helped to start from the ground up in August of 2001.

I wasn't exactly thunderstruck...this particular storm cloud had been descending ever since the financier who bankrolled us got a whiff of what our little startup could mean once he'd lopped off the pricey, experienced heads of those who got him into this market in the first place. People who lie through smiles, people who shake one hand while stabbing you in the back with the other are a cherished fact of the American way of business, and I'm no Pollyanna. I've been paid and paid well for what I provided these past 22 months, and I'm certain his conscience is clear. For what it is worth, I wasn't even the first to go...someone with 25 years of experience and who was responsible over the past fifteen years for more roofing sales in this market than any other individual had that dubious honor.

I doubt that the back-stabber will lose a lot of sleep over the fact that he reneged on raises, profit sharing, 100% insurance coverage and pretty much every other agreement which we'd all sealed with a handshake back in the days before 9-11. I'm even more certain that he would not be at all disturbed by my evening's activities, which have included figuring out how little of my various and sundry medications I can get by on now that I will have no insurance to limit my monthly med spending to $300.00 instead of the nearly $700.00 it will cost without the Blue Cross copay. Some of it is discretionary...I don't *have* to have arthritis medication, for example. And poverty is excellent motivation to limit one's carbohydrate consumption in order to cut down on one's diabetes meds.

Still and all, I wouldn't need all those things had I lived a better life before now, and so it is with some humility that now begin the arduous task of trying to make sense of the message the Gods are sending me. So far, all I've come up with is "Trust no one until they've proven trustworthy" and "The love of a good woman is more precious than the finest diamonds." The solutions to the current list of life's maladies are going to be tough to find, I fear, but find them I will...or rather, *we* will, my family and I.

And so...suggestions for employment options would be most welcome! I have extensive experience in the construction industry (13 years in commercial roofing office management and administration), with emphasis on Personnel/HR (and the myriad of avenues therein), DOT, OSHA, EEO and Work Comp compliance, payroll, AP/AR, union reporting, certified payroll, Federal/State/Municipal contracts, AIA forms and contracts, roofing construction submittals, warranties, products, MSDS, Municipal Codes, computers and small office applications/networking, most MS applications, writing of contracts and proposals and all other forms of professional business communications, specification and procurement of office equipment and systems, I type on the order of 70 WPM and I provide customer service second to none, in a pleasant and professional manner.

Someone, somewhere, needs someone who is not only like me, but who *is* me. You know where to find me.