WIXY's Gone Bananas

Welcome to the first From the Pressbox of the 2010 marching season. Thursday evening the Rittman Marching Band was in Mogadore for their first performance of the season. I give you the whole performance, dirty lens, background noise and all. But my favorite student musicians gave a fantastic performance.

Hadn't planned on being away this long. Attended a class reunion, which I did most of the planning. It went very well and we are going to do it again in two years. I'm still unemployed. I guess I hadn't yet met the interviewer and/or HR professional who knows when he sees talent in a good looking middle aged person. Either that or they can't afford to pay me what I'm worth. Good news is that next Thursday is the first band show of the season. this year I will be featuring video as well as stills on my "From the Pressbox" posts. Hopefully I won't be such a stranger to my own blog.

Kathy and I were shopping at Evil Big Box Store(tm) #1812 late this afternoon. Kathy now is wearing a "boot" on her right foot as her injury was not a chip fracture but a fracture of the foot. She was using an electric cart and when we went to check out. The customer ahead of us, an employee off the clock, was assisting in putting our merchandise on the belt. This person was told by the cashier that she wasn't allowed to do this. Kathy thought the cashier was being rude, I thought she was kidding. As we were being checked out, the cashier apologized for her demeanor and told us that they can get into trouble for things like that. She told us that they aren't allowed to be nice anymore. So I guess when you are the number one retailer, you can forget about the things that the founder did to help the company get into that position.

For those who live outside of this area, the city of Rittman has a yearly event called the Sleepwalker Festival, which started with the town's merchants dressing in night clothes while serving the customers. It evolved into a three day event. Thursday I was there for the kick off, the Sleepwalker's parade. Here is a small sampling of the photos I took .

I have been singing a new verse of the country song that has become my life. Kathy fell yesterday in her parents' garage and we had to take her via ambulance to the hospital. After x-rays and a CAT scan, it was determined that she had a concussion and chip fracture in her ankle. I have wondered lately if at one point whether I threw my horseshoe through a mirror. I went to church this morning really feeling quite low. I attend a Pentecostal church and people were getting really happy in the spirit. Not me though, I just wanted to go through the motions and fulfill my obligation for the week. Not a good attitude on my part, I know. One of the members come up to me and let me know how much he appreciated the friendship of myself and Kathy. Others come over and prayed with me. Then my pastor handed me his card and asked me to write my cell phone number on it. Our church is going to start a radio ministry and he wants me to be the announcer. I'm thrilled. I know that voice-over tal...

Okay here's the latest: I took a few days to post something in order not to appear to be too bitter. Another week has passed with no job in sight. Hobby Lobby obviously had enough applicants more qualified than me and never called me in to help set up their store. Their loss. I was interviewed on Thursday at a hardware store warehouse. This was after I passed a math test. I felt things went fine, but I will find out next week if and when they call me back for a second interview. This job will be a 27 hour week temporary job which could lead to a permanent job. This point the game plan will be to try and get multiple part time jobs. I'm also hoping that the senate can garner enough votes to prevent a further filibuster on the unemployment extension. I don't think anyone owes me a living, but I paid into the system for almost 40 years. I also think that this being an election year and many voters are not happy with the incumbents, that this would be damaging to many who don...