Rant #2,530: Here, There and Everywhere

Happy Friday!

The days kind of blend one into the other for me, but as I look on the calendar, it is Friday, so the work week is coming to an end.

It used to be my work week, of course, but that ended more than four months ago.

But I still have to do my due diligence today, I have to continue to look for a job and answer job notices, and I do it on Saturday and on Sunday, too.

Sunday is the magical day in an unemployed person's life, because that is the first day that you can apply for unemployment for the previous week, so I do that, to get it out of the way.

Now that I actually can do that--there was a period where I was blocked from applying, but happily, that was fixed--I just want to get it over with, and it takes about two minutes to do, so I celebrate my Sunday by doing it.

And I probably will be doing it for the next few months, because I do not see any light at the end of the tunnel as far as getting a new job is concerned.

But that being what it is, I have laundry to do today, I also have to transport my son back and forth to work, I have my exercises to do, I have to take my son to basketball later on, and I have some other things I have to do to keep myself busy as maybe not a bee, but certainly I am not sitting on my rump doing nothing.

And when I really am out of options about what to do, I have fallen into a routine, not that I necessarily want to, but it kind of happens naturally.

I usually digitize some records each weekday and sometimes on the weekend, just to keep myself busy. It is fun, and it allows me to put this music onto a thumb drive and listen to these tunes in the car.

I invariably watch some TV, and although I don't necessarily like what I see on daytime TV, I have kind of found something of my own niche, watching "The People's Court"--I just love Judge Marilyn Milan--and "Judge Judy"--who I really do not like.

Heck, it kills two hours right there.

Today, as I said yesterday, I have to go to the local Job Center today to demonstrate that I am living up to the contract that I signed, that being that I have to apply for at least three jobs per week while I get unemployment insurance.

It is very degrading, they feed me the lines that they are supposed to feed me about "not giving up" and "older workers ARE valued," which I know is a load of nonsense, but I have to go with the flow, not upset the applecart, and just yes them to death, even though I know that it is all a game that I am losing.

Yes, it is such a droll day ...

Looking back on other February 21s in the history of this Rant, I found a couple to talk about, and even when I was working, it seems today has really been such a nothing day on the schedule.

On this date in 2018, Rant #2,087, "Automatically Sunshine," I wrote about how the weather was so crazy, and that "as the day goes on, it is going to feel more like May 21 than February 21."

It has been crazy weather-wise this year too. In my neck of the woods. We haven't had a real winter, with nary a hint of snow--not that I am complaining--and temperatures anywhere between 15 degrees and 70 degrees, so nothing much has changed during the past two years.

Going back even further, to this date in 2014, "Mumps To You" spoke about "one of the biggest current news stories in my neck of the woods is that there is a mumps outbreak at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. It has spread to two campuses of the New York City-based college."

Well, now we have to worry about another disease, the coronavirus, which has hit Asia and is being spread elsewhere. Mumps was scary, the coronavirus is scarier, but you can't get crazy about it, you just have to live your life and hope that it is contained to some degree.

The weather and health ... two major topics in our lives, and two topics discussed right here at the Ranting and Raving Blog with regularity.

But back to February 21 ... happy birthday to Tyne Daly, Kelsey Grammer, Christine Ebersol, Alan Trammell, and anyone else out there born today.

That is really all I have to say about today ... thank God it's Friday ...

But I still "work for the weekend," even if I don't have a job, so yes, happy Friday, but an even happier Saturday and Sunday to you!

(And remember, next Friday, February 28, is not the last day of the month ... the calendar gods have given us February 29 this year as the extra day of Leap Year, so just be aware that we have that extra day in 2020.)

(And on Saturday, the spring training season begins, so baseball is just around the corner ... just what I need to bring up my spirits a bit!)

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.