"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Wednesday, July 3
My Odious Adventure
Or, Where The Hell Were Bill And Ted?
Just got back last night from a job-hunting trip to Dallas/Fort Worth. Things, ahem, didn't go as well as I had hoped. To begin with, I didn't get to bed until after 11:00 the night before I was supposed to leave, and I got up about 5. Result: 5 hours of sleep.
I spent the morning running around in Fort Worth, checking out the various places I had earmarked as potential jobs. What a disappointment. Many businesses that I judged to be large operations turned out to be hole-in-the-wall shops. The two places I visited that I still think had real potential were closed and locked - probably a good sign, as that means they were most likely out working.
In the afternoon I went over to Dallas and checked into a couple of places there, the best being All Bases Covered, a small-business consultancy. Since I did small business consulting for 5 years and loved it that's the kind of place I'm looking for. I definitely got a good vibe there, and the woman I spoke to was very nice to me (thanks, Lori), and even gave me her bosses' name and cell phone number. I can only hope that she doesn't get in trouble when I call him every day for a month.
So, then I checked into my hotel and waited for the traffic to die down before I went to get something to eat. I ended up watching Law & Order on A&E until 8. Then I hopped in the Saturn and headed out. About 10 minutes later, while driving on I-635, I heard a "whump" like I'd driven over something. Immediately my engine temperature went to the red, my alternator voltage went to zero, and my power steering died. I got off the road and looked under the hood. The belt that drives everything in the engine was hanging loose, and my coolant was spread around over everything. A good Samaritan gave me a ride to a hotel, and I phoned a tow truck.
He got there about an hour later, at 9:30, and we loaded up and headed for Saturn of Plano. Once we got there, we had another problem: they had a locked gate blocking access to their service drive. The tow truck driver was up to the task, though (I wish I knew his name so I could thank him). It was a flatbed truck, and he just extended the bed across a little strip of grass and over the curb, and we dropped it in their driveway. He very kindly drove me back to my hotel, and I ate a honeybun from the vending machine and went to bed a little after 11.
I woke up about a quarter to five the next morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and showered and dressed. My hotel was near the airport, 25 miles from the dealership, but I'd noticed an Enterprise car rental place right up the street on Plano Parkway, so I caught a cab to the Enterprise at the airport and rented a car there. The Enterprise guy very kindly agreed to waive the $75 fee for leaving the car at another location (thanks, Brent!). So I was back in business.
I went to Saturn and got them started on my car, then had an appointment with a recruiter. It made me feel a lot better to have someone to talk to about looking for work, someone who I knew would be out there looking for me. It was also nice to talk to someone who could tell me what was really going on in the job market, even though I didn't like what they had to say. They don't expect the overall job market to start picking up until late August or September, although I may be able to find something before then.
Right after I left there I got a call from Sara at Saturn. Broken belt tensioner, cracked radiator. With the tow, about $1000. Doh. Double Doh. I had to have a car though, so I bit down hard and said OK.
I dropped resumes at a few more places, then picked up my car and dropped the rental. As I was walking from the Enterprise place to the Saturn place (only a block) it started to rain. I got rained on for over an hour on the drive back, some of it very hard rain indeed. I finally got home just after 8, ate a pizza that my wife had ordered (thanks, Gina!) and went to bed.
