11 May 2011

Turmoil and Toil

Since my last post, I had my computer go bad on me. Taking it to the repair shop (Clayton Computer in Concord Village), the technician said the motherboard on the 4 year-old machine had gone bad and would be too expensive to replace it. He recommended I get a new computer, which I did, thanks for a load from my parents. I got the laptop (an Acer Aspire, by the way), from the shop, the home internet and TV connection went bad. I had to wait until the next day to have a technician fix the set up, so we could watch TV and get back online. It's all better now in that regard, although it was a lot of trouble. More than I need right now.
On Friday, 29 April, I had a nice breakfast meeting in Richmond Heights with a woman I met about two weeks before at a networking event in Creve Coeur. She's a financial planner, but she had told me she was in my shoes (between jobs) and wanted to help me as best she could. I gave her a briefing on my background and she appreciated that. She also got in a plug for her services. I saw her again yesterday morning at a networking event in Clayton.
I had some games the past two weekends, including tournament games in Cottleville, Missouri and league games in St. Charles, Maryland Heights, and Mehlville. Last Sunday, my crew had four games at Mehlville High's artificial turf field, on a rather hot day, with high school age boys. I was one tired referee when the last game ended -- my calves were cramping me during that match.
On Wednesday, 4 May, I traveled to Hitters' Choice Cages in Eureka to present its owner, Tony Kirk, with IPMS/Gateway's Bob Stroup Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2010. He had been unable to attend the banquet last December to receive it, and he's been too busy with work at his place to come to our meetings, so I came to give Tony the award. He was most appeciative of it, and thanked me for coming out to give it to him. I also gave him some flyers for our Invitational at Hitter's Choice Cages this September, and Tony said he'd display them at the place.
I was at a trivia night last Saturday (7 May) at CBC High School, which benefitted New Dimensions Soccer in St. Louis. I joined four others at a table and we did pretty good -- about the top third of all tables that night in correct scores. It was fun and I was happy to help a good cause.
Last night, I was dining at Pietro's in south St. Louis with the WAWWA (We Are Who We Are) social group for young adults with Asperger's syndrome. I joined about six other WAWWA members and two counselors from TouchPoint Autism Services, which suns WAWWA. We had a fine time with Italian cuisine and conversation. I mentioned my online radio interview last month and my work editing Naturally Autistic magazine, and the group (especially the counselors) were real impressed. I gave the counselors the Naturally Autistic web site that they can check out and I'd give them the link to an archive of my radio interview.
I am hoping to hear soon about a temp data entry job I'm up for, which could start as soon as tomorrow (Thursday). I should hear either way from the temp agency later today.
Later.