Sun Rise, Sun Set

I've been looking for the upside, the silver lining. Morning light is surely a part of that. It's light when my alarm goes off now. Indeed, most people are already at work at 0800. But then, as I clatter around with the coffee things and feed the cat the sun breaches the top of the trees and paints the western wall of the kitchen yellow. I know that will change as we sink into winter, but for now it's nice.

Hey, and at least it's dark when I go to bed! I still have to keep a blanket over the window though, or I'd probably wake up too early. I need my rest, what I can get of it.

Let's see...The flat, pebble strewn roofs of a warehouse complex make a nice pattern of foreshortened parallelograms as I climb the ramp onto I-70 westbound into the city, if I'm going that way.

I'm learning new parts of Indiana, and of Indianapolis. Perhaps for the first time ever I realize that Indianapolis is truly an American city, in the 21st century. It always sort of seemed like a really big small town before. I'm exaggerating, but there's some truth in it.

I got my first paycheck this morning and said, "Hot damn! I'm liking this!" but it turned out to be a mistake. I had two vacation days coming that I was going to lose. I only got to take one as a day off but was supposed to be paid for both. Somehow or other it seems they paid me for two weeks out of my new roster instead of two days out of the old. I'd like to keep it but I think I'd rather get the vacation time. Plus I got taxed at a much higher rate, I can't afford to lessen the deficit all by myself. No, the verdict is still out on the pay.

I don't get to watch the sun rise every morning anymore, but I do get to see it set at night. That's not an upside , it's not the same. I will say this though: when I get home at night I can appreciate the stars for real. I used to always look up as I left the house, and again at certain points along the road, but I was in a hurry, on my way to work. Now I'm coming home from work, in relaxation mode, and to top it off the sky is clearer at night, without the mists of morning. The Milky Way is awesome!

Oh, didn't I tell you? My very first day back from vacation we had a meeting at work. They wanted to tell us that Electrolux was moving its operation up to Chicago Land before we heard it though rumor. Still I was the only one who didn't already know, since I'd been gone. My job would end by October. Welcome back!

They said I could always go back out over the road, or regional but I refused. "I want to go home every night!" They promised that if something opened up we'd get first pick. I was stressed. I knew that I'd be able to get another driving job, but would I like it? And as much I detest Company I really do like those three weeks of vacation. I couldn't imagine starting over with nothing again.

Well, a position opened up delivering pallets to customers in the area and I took it. I won't go into the downsides right now, they're manifold. I'll fill you in on that later perhaps. Is this move a good thing or a bad thing? Right now the downsides far outnumber this paltry list of pluses so I'll have to fill you in on that later too. I'm not sure; and not sure that I'll ever be sure that driving a truck is better than abject poverty.