Good News About My Job & My Foot

My weekend started off well, after a busy Friday at the car rental branch. On Saturday (9 Nov.), I drove in the morning to Columbia, Missouri to attend TigerCon 2013, a scale model contest hosted by the Central Missouri Scale Modelers. The show was held at Hickman High School and I had company from four others from IPMS/Gateway who separately made the trip. It was a nice show, a little thin in some categories and in vendors. I helped judge several categories I was not entered in, and came away with third place for one of my entries (a J-10 fighter in Out of the Box--Military). The other four from Gateway also took home at least one award.

The drive home was made a bit more challenging by a toothache, which got so bad I called my dentist. He agreed to see me the next morning at his office, where he worked to clean out the tooth and stabilize it. He did say I will need a root canal on that tooth in the next few weeks. I was most grateful to him for coming in on a Sunday morning to do this.

Later that Sunday (10 Nov.), I was at the Autism-Aspergers Meetup at the Maryland Heights Community Center, where they had a presentation on body language and voice tone. It was rather interesting, although it was hard to comprehend some of this material at times.

After a full day of work Monday, I drove to St. Louis Futsal Academy in St. Charles for a futsal referee recertification clinic. Having provided proof I passed the written test and paid for registration, I received my new futsal referee badge for 2014. The referees there were given a rundown on the league setup for this season, points of emphasis, and some on-court training in officiating signals and mechanics. I followed along as best I could with the boot on my right foot due to tendonitis.

Speaking of the boot, it came off the next morning at the podiatrist's office during a follow-up visit. He examined my foot and said it was getting better, although concerned that long-term I would need surgery to clean out the Achilles tendon. Now, I am wearing a wrap bandage over my foot, and can ease back into workouts soon. That is such good news; I have been chomping at the bit to get back to walking and running, aiming towards getting back to refereeing soon.

There was nothing unlucky for me about Wednesday the 13th. The area manager for the car rental firm called me late that morning to offer me the full time vehicle service position I recently applied for, which I immediately accepted. He added that the position, which was to be at the Manchester branch, would instead be at Ellisville, so I would not be going anywhere. This will start on Monday (18 Nov.), and my colleagues at Ellisville were so happy for me. (They didn't want to see me leave their branch.) Getting this level of position (with the benefits associated with full time status) is a big help for me.

I'm working this Saturday morning, then its volunteering Sat. and Sun. at the St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), which began tonight. Looking forward to this event. More info at www.cinemastlouis.org.

Later.