Just letting folks know that sometime in the next 10 days or so my website will be coming down until further notice. I can no longer afford the hosting fees until I find a job. It was a choice between survival air conditioning in this extreme heat or a vanity website.

It's a miracle! We have a slight breeze this afternoon! Don't know what did it, the breeze cleaning up the air a bit, the 5 degrees lower in temp or the new refrigerator (I'm guessing all of the above) but man, what a difference!!! Makes me want to run up on the roof, fling open my mumu and just go "Aaaahhhhhaaaaaa!."


Just in time to keep things a little cooler while I cook up a storm tonight. Wheeee!

I put a thermometer out on my balcony yesterday. The weather folks said we had a high of 108 in Sacramento but the thermometer on my balcony read 113 at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

We've been having State issued health alerts telling people to stay indoors between 2pm and 7pm when the ozone is at its worst. Last night the smog index reached into the red zone 150+ parts per whatever - unhealthy for everyone. As long as I keep the fans and air conditioner running I'm okay. I bought a new hepa filter for the furnace/air conditioner and that is helping to scrape the junk out of the air inside. The day I wrote the last post on my blog, I felt like I was literally suffocating from lack of oxygen. Felt like I was experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning. That's when I said fuck the cost, I'm turning on the air conditioner and all the fans. I still keep the temp between 82 and 85 inside so I'm conserving as much as possible.

I've been taking as many as 3 showers a day and don't even bother toweling off. By the time I walk out of the bathroom I'm completely dry and my hair dries in less then 5 minutes without being toweled. I keep a spray bottle of water by me and mist myself down while sitting in front of a fan. Without the portable fan aimed at me at all times 24/7 I'd pass out from heat sickness. I'm making a point of drinking extra amounts of water and chewing on ice cubes but my body still feels dehydrated most of the time. I'd go swimming but then I'd have to choose between oxygen depravation and cool pool water.

Once the remnants of hurricane Emily reach the southwest area that should push the high pressure bubble away from us and we'll finally get some wind to clean the air and cool off a little. That won't happen until next Wednesday or Thursday.


Even my refrigerator is having a hard time in this weather. It stopped keeping things frozen/cool yesterday. I pulled it away from the wall and cleaned off the condensers and cleaned all the seals around the doors, but it didn't help at all. This morning I put in an emergency call to the apartment manager's office and I get a new refrigerator, but not until Monday morning. In the meantime I have a freezer crammed full of meat and food starting to thaw out. I bought six bags of ice to stuff around the meat in a futile attempt to keep it frozen. Guess I'll be having one hell of a cooking party Monday night so I can cook up all the food and refreeze it before it spoils beyond safe consumption levels. Luckily, most of my food is in the freezer and not in the refrigerator. Water from the tap is cooler then the bottles of water in there.

Looks like Los Angeles doesn't it? That, my friends, is beautiful Sacramento Valley at 3pm this afternoon, where the nation's food supply is grown. Would you want to inhale that mess if you were a plant? What the hell are we doing to ourselves? Get out of the fucking SUV's already! Why am I having to pay double the cost of fuel so your gas hog can waddle down the road feeding your ego? Your vanity is sufficating me! I can't breathe!!

Today is our fifth day of 100+ heat and there is no relief in sight for the next 7 days. Air quality is at an all-time low. I feel like I am starved for oxygen, or at least in a room with lots of carbon monoxide and can't get enough fresh air into my body. And that's inside, with fans and air conditioners running.[/rant]

Happy birthday, mom! Wish I was there to help you celebrate.


Hope you have a nice cool and relaxing day in your garden with your favorite buddy.

BBQ anyone?



With apologies to the unknown cartoonist whose work I stole and altered...

Stuart and Linda are no longer hurricane virgins. They seemed to have come through it unscathed. A couple of small tornados touched down about 2 miles from their place in Brandon, Florida and they had a lot of wind and rain. Glad it is over with for now and hope their luck holds for the rest of this year's hurricane season.

Speaking of my dad's letter from the previous post, he said he is going to be on jury duty next week. That should be an interesting experience. My entire life, my dad has not been able to sit still for more then 5 minutes without fidgeting and getting up to stretch his legs. Between his fidgets and nicotine habit, the judge will need to give the jury a lot of breaks. Dad is looking forward to the jury duty though. Says it will give him something interesting to do besides listen to Bingo callers. ;)

Got a letter from my dad this weekend with an article my cousin Patty's 14 year old son and his new bait shop business. Quite impressive. That's him and his shop in the picture. You can read the newspaper article about him at The Enterprise of South Boston.Learned he also has a website at http://ericsbaitshop.com/. Stop on by and leave him a note in the guest book.

Hopefully I'll get some of the Hanberry clan stopping by here too. If they do, I urge them to take a look at the family photos elsewhere on my website. And, if any of you Hanberry's have a photo or two to add to the family album, send it to me and I'll include it.

Here's a link to my revised resume. For best viewing, open it in a new browser window.

Sent off my application package for this Web Site and Forum Service and Support Specialist job at Intuit (the maker of Quicken). This would be a dream job for me. Really really hope I at least get called for an interview. The only part I feel weak on is their desire for "Process Excellence / Six Sigma training preferred." I think I have enough experience to overcome that weakness though.

Today I am sending new packages to several of the title insurance companies in the area to see if the new resume will spark any interest in me. Will also reapply at some more employment agencies now that I have a decently presented resume to offer for their "10 second" perusal. :::smirk::: When I was recruiting people for various positions I always thought the screening job important enough to thoroughly read resumes after doing a quick elimination of those with glaringly obvious incompatibilities. This need for a "10 second" first impression just reinforces my distaste for today's corporate culture.

I received the final revision of my professionally edited resume this morning and am in the process of updating my resume on all the job sites I have posted it at. Am also preparing a package to send to Intuit with the new resume in response to a job opening of theirs for a message board manager for their Quicken software.

I should have had my resume done a long time ago. What a difference! It sure re-energizes my job search and boosts my morale. I realized I really do have a lot more to offer then just an underpaid glorified secretary. The editor from resumeedge.com has been giving me quite a bit of advice on how to revise my approach to the job application to better avoid age discrimination and how to handle explanation for the gap in employment from 1999 to now. Even if I don't get a response immediately from the rewrite, it was worth the money just for the boost in self-esteem and confidence.

Here's a quote from the first paragraph to give you an idea of the changed tone of the resume:

QUALIFICATIONS

Award-winning, analytical professional with an extensive technical background and solid experience in message board moderation. Exceptional customer service skills demonstrated by receiving two “Customer First Quarterly Service Star” awards at First American Title Insurance Company for outstanding service in systems administration and the help desk. Strong accounting background with expertise in converting manual accounting systems into efficient computerized functions. Performs duties above expectations proven by consistently receiving promotions to positions of greater responsibility. Capable of managing projects independently under limited supervision. Computer skills include MS Word, Excel, Access, Multiplan, Front Page, and Publisher, Visio, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, BoeingCalc, Basic HTML, Adobe PhotoShop and PageMaker, Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop, and exceptional web navigation skills. Knowledge of the following operating systems: Windows XP, 2000, NT, MS-DOS, and Novell.

I'll post a link to the full resume as soon as I get a chance to create a new webpage and upload it. Might be a day or two.