Get a Job

For the first time in at least 8 years, I'm thinking about the possibility of trying to get a job with someone else. A job that pays reasonably well, has good benefits, a good 401K program, and fewer worries. I don't know that such a job will be available to me. I'm not sure I want it. We'll see.

Blather

This morning, as my wife and I walked from our cars (we had reason to take both today) in the parking lot to the office door, we noticed the temperature was very cool, a truly welcome respite from our blistering summer weather. It was cool enough this morning that a sweater would have been comfortable...but the afternoon sun has long since swept away the coolness of this morning.

I left the office early today, about 3:30, to stop by the pharmacy to picku up a couple of my many prescriptions, then went to the post office to claim our mail (and restart delivery) that had been held since last Thursday. The mail was, by and large, junk mail with no appeal whatsoever. But picking it up was a treat; I was out of the office before closing time. I need to do that a bit more often, but then I need to devote more time to getting the job done, satisfying clients, and getting more to make up for the dwindling revenues.

For now, though, I think I need to get away from the office more frequently just to clear my head and prevent me from complete psychological burnout. It's strange to feel that burnout almost immediately upon returning from a 5-day hiaitus from work.

I'm blathering on. I will stop.

In a corner

I feel a little like I've been hit, hard, by a powerful boxer whose only goal is to kill me.

Today, first thing, a staff member who I thought was solidly in our court...someone who cared about our business and about us...quit. She gave two weeks notice. She was offered more money, better benefits, all the things that we cannot offer. She is someone I really like, a person who seemed to understand that we're a small business with lots of constraints upon us. But, in the end, that doesn't matter. I don't blame her. She needs to look out after herself. We simply cannot compete.

I'm ready to throw in the towell, but I'm afraid it's too late. We don't have the staying power to throw in the towel now. I'm down at this moment. Very, very down. Our financial reports tell the story; we've been depending on an association that is dying. Our revenues are drying up, fast. This is ugly.

We even talked about just walking away from our business. We can't do that; we don't have any equity. We have no money to fall back on. I've not felt this far down in many, many years. There just doesn't seem to be any options that have happy endings. I don't know what to do. I have never felt quite this way before. I don't like it. I don't like being in a corner, with no where to go.

Labor Day

We awoke on September 2, a Saturday, and decided we'd had enough of St. Louis, so we headed south toward Little Rock. We weren't quite sure where we were going...Little Rock to see the Clinton Presidential Library or Hot Springs to see the...hot springs? It didn't matter much, we were just ready to hit the road. So we did.

It's quite a drive from St. Louis to Little Rock. While we were in no particular rush to get there, we didn't dawdle. It took us the better part of the day to make the trip. We went through Little Rock because, by the time we reached Little Rock, it was too late to visit the libary on Saturday and the Sunday hours are 1-5 pm. So, if we wanted to see the library, we'd have to find things to do in Little Rock for half the day on Sunday. We opted not to wait. So, we went through on the way to Hot Springs.

The traffic in Hot Springs on Saturday afternoon was horrendous. We did not know what to expect, but a traffic-snarl in the midst of a hundred-twenty-thousand-acre strip center wasn't it. We wandered the streets for awhile in awe at the massive amounts of low-end retail and heavy traffic. It was not something I'd drive cross-country to visit. (As it turned out, we were in the wrong place...more later.)

We attempted to drive into the downtown area, but the traffic was almost at a standstill, so we veered off and decided to have an early dinner. We had seen a sign for Coy's Steak House and my wife had read something about it being a first class place, so we went looking for it. We got there early, probably about 5:30. Parking is all valet (interesting, though...in a land of geezer retirement, the valets were geezers). We went inside and were quickly seated (despite not having reservations, which they say are advisable) in a little booth set in an alcove. I ordered ribeye, medium rare, and my wife ordered steak Oscar, medium. My steak was medium-well and had a distinct flavor of liver; my wife tasted it and agreed my taste buds were not playing tricks. Her steak was rare. All in all, it was a miserable disappointment. I would have sent mine back, but didn't want to deal with the delay.

After dinner, we headed south to find a place to stay in, or near, Arkadelphia. We had phoned several places in Hot Springs but everything was full. My wife pulled out the AAA book and made a couple of calls and we got reservations at a Best Western. It wasn't a bad place, but didn't compare to the Holiday Inn Express where we stayed in Fenton, MO the previous two nights. We decided we'd head back into Hot Springs early the next day to avoid the godawful traffic tie-ups.

The next morning, we did just that. We got up at a reasonable hour, loaded up the car, and made the 30 mile drive north back into Hot Springs. The parts of Hot Springs we had seen the day before were not, as you might imagine, what draws people to the town. The draw is the old downtown area, with its hot baths, nice architecture, and interesting shops. Here are a few photos I shot while wandering around.

After a brief wander through town, we decided to take a duck boat tour. Duck boats are military craft that traverse land on four wheels and take to water, as well. I didn't get any photos of the beasts. The duck boat tour was rather lame. We went from downtown Hot Springs about five miles south to a parking lot of a restaurant on Lake Hamilton. The parking lot had a boat launch where the duck boat gently crept into the water. We did a slow-speed tour around some fancy homes and boat docks, then back on dry land and downtown again. It was about an hour listening to the geezer driver telling duck jokes.

We then wandered a bit more and decided to head south toward Arkadelphia again, but we opted to have an early lunch, so we stopped at a little place on Lake Hamilton called Doe's, where we had a nice lunch of specially jazzed-up tamales I(apparently a big deal around Hot Springs) while sitting outside on the water, watching as pontoon boats pulled in, tied up to the dock, and their passengers came ashore for lunch.

Somewhere along the way my wife bought a marzipan pig, pictured here, which she said was not very tasty. On the road, I stopped to take a picture of a 1961 Rambler that was for sale.

We got back on Interstate 30 and headed west, not knowing whether we would drive all the way back to Dallas or not. We did. And so here we are on Labor Day. We'll pretend we're still on vacation today. Despite a dreary, wet day, we'll act like we're having a grand old time in our 5-days of retirement.

Arkadelphia

Tonight, after a long day of driving, my wife and I are staying the night in Arkadelphia, AR. That's as much as I can bring myself to type at the moment...we're tired! More tomorrow or the next day about our trip, our visit to Hot Springs, our disappointing lunch and dinner, and other fun and exciting experiences. But not tonight.

September 1

This morning, we awoke late, as we had no particular reason to rise early. That, and we had decided last night to wait until the traffic cleared before going into St. Louis. So, we waited until about 9:15 before we set out for The Loop, an area of St. Louis my wife had identified as 'worthy' of our attention. We followed a similar path to the one we followed the night before, but this time around we went further in. Here are a few photos from the area:


We wandered around for quite some time. We visited the library, walked by the police station, took a look around a little outdoor marketand just bummed around. It was fun.

We saw an Ethiopian restaurant called Red Sea and had hoped to have lunch there, but it apparently is not open for lunch. Bad news; it had kitfo on the menu that was posted on the window...I wanted it. But, we made a good adjustment, and decided to have lunch at Saleem's. We had a sampling of appetizers: hummus, garlic potato dip, baba ghannouj, and fried eggplant smothered in a garlic & tomato salsa. The fried eggplant and baba ghannouj were my favorites; my wife liked them, too, but she was enamored with the garlic potato dip.

We had checked earlier on a tiny little place next to the outdoor food market; its menu was particularly interesting, Mama's Coal Pot. We went back because we wanted to know what the menu item called "snoot" was. The guy told me it is pig face, with the skin peeled off to make cracklins. I still haven't seen it or tasted it, but I want to.

After lunch and a bit more walking, we headed to the famous Arch, where we went up to the top. I could not figure out how to turn off my flash, so the photos I took at the top were not of decent quality because the double-paned glass made my flash reflect back...bad photos. I did, though, get a few photos outside, including this one that shows the scale of the arch; that's my wife standing next to it.

After our Arch trip, we went to The Hill, the famous Italian neighborhood not far from downtown. First stop was at Volpi Italian Foods, where we bought some very brilliant green olives (vacuum packed) from Italy, along with a similar pack of red olives. We also bought some sorpressa hot salame, and some anchove-stuffed olives. We then wandered to Shaw's Coffee, where I had an iced coffee and my wife had an Italian soda. The place is situated in an old bank building; we sat in a tiny safe, which was furnished with two soft chairs, a glass-topped table, and an interesting chandelier, along with hand-painted murals on 2 walls and an entire wall of safe-deposit boxes(the 4th wall was all mirrors). From there, we wandered through the streets, which were filled with incredibly narrow houses with miniature front yards; all of them had porches, only a few feet from the sidewalks. I imagine people used to, and still may, use the porches and evening walks to visit with neighbors.

For a variety of reasons, we left there about 5:30 pm and headed back to the hotel for awhile. Later, we opted for a simple, casual dinner. We found the Fenton Bar & Grill, which had an outdoor deck in front, and had our dinner there...a hamburger for me and a dozen buffalo 'trash' wings for my wife. 'Trash' wings are ostensibly especially hot, the waitress told us, because they are pulled from the grease when only partially done, dipped in hot sauce again, and then fried. They tasted OK, but they had absolutely no hint of heat. The place was obviously a neighborhood hang-out; it appeared to us that many of the people there tonight were shift workers (and their friends and family) who work at the nearby Chrysler plant.

Enough of this...more some other time.

August 31, part 2

The terrain on the drive from Tulsa, Oklahoma through Missouri into the St. Louis changes, but the changes are subtle. It's generally gently rolling hills and moderately wooded landscapes for most of the way, but as St. Louis gets closer, the hills become more pronounced and the cut-throughs into hills start becoming larger. More layers of cream-colored and tan and light brown rock become visible in the cut-throughs.

Our trip from Tulsa to the St. Louis outskirts was uneventful. We listened to CDs and passively watched the scenery roll by. I was particularly involved in a 2-CD set of John Prine's music, while my wife was more interested in a Crystal Gayle CD of Hoagie Carmichael music. After awhile, we turned off the music and just experienced the road. I like that.

The closer we got to St. Louis, the stranger the livestock. One area, in particular, seemed to be a gathering point for farmers/ranchers who were into exotics. First, we came across a ranch that advertised itself as a large supplier of exotics. Then, we came across a place that had lots and lots of llamas wandering about, in the same pastures as kiwis...lots of them. For a fairly long stretch of road, we saw signs that the farmers and ranchers were experimenting with odd beasts from around the world.

Clayton is a suburb of St. Louis that finds space in the guidebooks, maps, etc. as a spot to find good food in a distinct St. Louis neighborhood. We drove from our Holiday Inn Express in Fenton, MO to Clayton. We aimed for BARcelona, a tapas bar that had received some positive press, although one reviewer called it "snooty." We found it quite the contrary.

BARcelona caters to twenty-somethings (or, I should say, they were in abundance when we were there) who have just gotten off work in offices that require them to dress the part of aspiring young executives. The women were decked out in clothes that almost certainly cost more than a sensible person would spend and the men (few though they were...the place was almost entirely packed with women) were in their finest suits.

We were seated in the larger of two rooms. The entire front of the restaurant was open to the alfresco dining on the street, though, so "room" doesn't quite do it justice. It was far too loud, but we were able to tolerate it.

The menu was full of interesting and inviting tapas and we decided to have a nice little sampling of them for dinner. My wife insisted on the gazpacho (she has decided that almost no restaurant in Dallas actually serves gazpacho as part of their regular fare), and we picked some other items that were particularly interesting, names, alcachofas (battered and fried artichokes), queso de cabra al horno (an exceptionally good baked goat cheese, sitting in the middle of a wonderful tomato salsa), tuna tartare with apples and caperberries, and hot bread. The alcachofas and queso de cabra el horno were excellent, particularly the latter. The tuna tartare was good, but a bit bland, though the caperberries were wonderful. The place keeps very good olive oil on the table, which is good with salt and pepper for dipping the hard bread. Over all, I'd give the place a rating of 7 on a 10 point scale...but the queso de cabra el horno was 10+ in my book. I would go back for that and that alone.

After dinner, we headed straight back to the hotel, where we dawdled about, watched a little news, got online to read email, and then made an early night of it...I was asleep by 10:30.