Well, I know that I've been promising to get some information of a better   
   sort out for awhile now.  I've finally got a chance to do a pretty decent dump   
   of some.  You may have seen bits of this in other echoes, so I'll keep portions   
   of this brief, but there are some other things that I can expound a little more   
   on in here, as well.   
     Obviously, given my few years of significant financial struggles as a single   
   father, the biggest positive right now is the fact that I nailed down not just   
   one, but two job yesterday.  One is a 'paycheck'...  That is, doing some   
   kitchen work now that I've passed the requirements for security badging at the   
   airport where the place is that gave me the promise of hire.  It's not a lot of   
   money, but it's enough to try to make sure that the gleaming axe of   
   homelessness over my head is starting to dull a little bit.   
     Next up, I finally broke into the world of IT.  I thought that the personal   
   recommendations bit and how some people were saying the job was pretty much   
   gold was overstated with this guy who was looking to outsource some work, but   
   the phone interview yesterday _started_ with a 'you're hired, this person's   
   word is good enough for me', and ended with some really great words about pay.    
   I should be able to not just tread water, but work from home, when I am most   
   productive, for a significant enough source of income to be able to finally   
   start saving again.  It'll be so nice to be able to do some nice things for my   
   son and get him a new wardrobe that I don't even know how to start...  I'm   
   still kind of in shock about the whole thing.  I mean I've applied for so many   
   friggin' IT jobs over the past 6-8 months, courted so many recruiters, and then   
   this one just falls into my lap and it's like ideal.  I'm very happy and   
   optimistic about it.  Looks like it's going to be some simple wordpress and   
   e-commerce stuff for starters, and then after that short 'proving ground'   
   period a little more challenging work and definitely more hours to be had.   
     So...  Other than that.  I got my son's bike into working order and we got   
   everything we need to be street legal.  Finally got his bike modified for his   
   slightly smaller stature, too.  So we're going on a nice bike ride today and we   
   did several miles the other day.  I'm having an interesting time teaching him   
   the rules of the road, being as this is a metropolis and I'm used to   
   smallville, but I'm trying to make sure that he knows how to use the roads the   
   right way, and making sure that he also knows the proper techniques for riding   
   in the road, as I'm pretty sure sidewalk riding is illegal here.  I'm hoping to   
   be confident enough in his ability to start letting him out to ride to the   
   closer parks that aren't beyond any major thoroughfares fairly soon here.  I'd   
   say he's about ready, actually, it's just that I'm nervous because of the   
   assholes that park so close to the corners that you can't see when there's   
   traffic until you're out into the middle of the intersection.  Drawing that   
   line between being a good parent and overprotective is tough, especially with   
   the only kid I've got.   
     Anyway, there's some other stuff, too, but I'm gonna leave it at this for   
   now, and write a little bit more later.  I've got some other things I need to   
   get done in the interim.  :)  I hope this is a nice change after all the shit   
   of the past few months/years of disaster and stress.   
      
     -D   
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