Changes

There's been a lot of changes since last time I filed something on this blog.

I no longer work as a hotel desk clerk. Don't ask for extra towels during the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m shift at one of the town's hotel, 'cause I ain't there. After five months of checking guests in, scrambling to ensure the rooms were clean, folding towels and sheets in the laundry during down times and worrying that the dude who kept coming to the fourth floor, which allows smoking, would trip another fire alarm because he was smoking something besides cigarettes, I'm out. Long story not worth telling, but the scheduling guy quit when I took a week off to go to Chicago in February. When I returned, I noticed I was not on the following week's work schedule. Nor the following week. I had been forgotten, but I saw it as divine intervention in a way and I didn't question why I was left off. I didn't like the job, it paid horribly and the hotel, I presumed, was always on the verge of being shut down for some crisis or another.

But I'm not lamenting the loss of my part-time job in an unstable profession because I finally obtained a full-time job in yet another unstable profession. Yes, I am back in the newspaper business. After I was laid off in October by the newspaper where I had toiled alone as a bureau reporter for nearly 20 years, I was picked up by the daily paper in the town in which I live. I was out of news for four months and two days, but I stumbled my way back in, poised with my reporter pad in hand and an inquisitive "How do you feel?" question a-ready. In a sense, I am working for the paper I competed with for two decades. Talk about odd allegiances.

This time I sit in a newsroom with other reporters and I cover a local beat, rather than the entire quarter of the state. It'll take some adaptation; since there are fewer reporters at this paper, we are expected to crank out more dailies on a quicker pace. There's really not much time to develop a story. We just write. I am truly shovelin' words at the News Factory this time.

And I also work as a part-time security guard during 12-hour shifts on weekends at a local retirement apartment complex. It's mind-numbing work. For the most part, I sit at a desk and answer phones, read books and try to find magazines on line that take freelance writing. But occasionally it gets busy. I've had to help a few residents after they've fallen and I've summoned paramadics a time or two when things really got serious. It is a rewarding job helping older folks.

So, I work seven days a week, trying to carve out some semblance of financial stability for Holly and I. I have no more weekends, I have to mow the yard quickly in the evenings, hoping I have enough stamina to beat the fading sun. And I can't just drop things and haul off to Chicago like I used to love doing.

But it's a job. Actually, it's two jobs.

Despite the 65 hours a week at work, though, I'm finding I do have some time remaining in the days for the continuing APBA replay of the 1991 season I began in 2015. In August, it'll be three years since I began rolling this replay. There's been a lot of life changes since I began, and I've written of that here before. Whenever you start a replay, you know things will cross your life during the replay's duration. This one has been the most eventful I've done in the 20 years of rolling games: Meeting the love of my life, traveling to Chicagoland now 23 times and back, getting a new car, losing a job, struggling, dealing with health problems, shutting off the cable and internet to save bucks and fearing money issues have all been part of this replay.

The other night, though, all that was put aside and I rolled several games in a row. Minnesota beat Detroit and the Twins continue their lead in the American League West. Boston clubbed Texas and Oakland out-homered Cleveland (Canseco was on pace to hit 61 homers for the As, but has cooled off lately). The Cubs swept Houston in a three-game series and St. Louis is getting closer to National League East leader Pittsburgh after going on a winning streak. The problems, while still lurking around the corner, waiting for me to face them head on again, were at least secondary during the game play. It was a moment of peaceful bliss.

I get home earlier at my new newspaper job, so there's more time in the evenings. I'm also learning again to sleep for only 4 to 5 hours a night, so that frees up time for an extra late night game or two.

Life changes, but the APBA game stays the same. It's really one of the main reasons we play this game.