happy St. Patrick's Day

kiss me, I'm Irish!

Most people assume that I'm Irish due to my red hair and very red beard. In fact I am, but only a bit.

My great-grandfather on my father's mother's side was born in Ireland in the 19th Century. He was killed in Belgium, quite near the coast, near the end of World War I (just before 3rd Ypres).

Speaking of my hair, I've been letting it grow. It is now wildly curly, and I've had to start parting it in the middle again. If I part it on the side (as I do when it is short, but long enough to comb), it piles up very high.

The way it looks now is not quite a Kramer; more of a Tom Waits (see the link on the sidebar, under "Music") or a Lyle Lovett effect. Especially once I've been sweating for a while.

The mention of sweat brings up another topic: my daily quest for work.

For the past five working days I've been employed - via a day-labor service - at a lumberyard. I love the work; it is often very strenuous, but I've worked ten hours every day and they want me to keep coming back.

I'm not the biggest guy they have, nor the strongest, but I work hard and keep busy. Only two of us from the labor pool have been consistent in coming back. Every day they send at least three of us, and not one has come back for a second try.

On Tuesday, one guy walked off the job after only one hour. Another stayed until 3:30, but by 2 PM he was getting sloppy with his work. They told him that they "won't need his services again". Today they sent another guy home at lunch, with the same ultimatum.

The day laborers drop like flies at that job. But like I said, I love it. I'm working for a guy from my church and we get along famously. I feel like I've known him forever and we only actually met two weeks ago. He has encouraged me to fill out an application for a full-time position, but starting next week I'll have a slightly more lucrative day-labor job with a different company. More responsibility, a bit more money and far less chance of getting a hernia. Similar work, though; shipping and receiving, stocking shelves and pulling orders for customers. I'll get to use a computer, though.

This afternoon the labor pool gave me a drug test in preparation for that job, and I passed. I was fairly certain that I would, but I did smoke small quantities of weed several times during the past month. I also have to take a computer-based test tomorrow.

For the past week I've been living in a motel. After paying for the room, I'm lucky if I have $10 per day for expenses, but I've already put in 40 hours this week and it is only Thursday. Tomorrow I should get ten hours of overtime pay. I might even be able to afford to go to the laundromat instead of washing my dainties in the motel room sink.

Praise Jesus!