Yes, I am at work. Not posting from the hollow today.

This has been a really great experience so far except for dealing with a huge copier that has NO love for the Randy.

I had a scary first day, as all first days are, but I am getting settled in and am picking up things VERY fast now..... I already completed all the work I am to supposedly be "trained" on on Monday night. WOOT!

I think that got their attention.

I really think they are happy with me so far and the office staff here is great. I am waiting to get my ACTIVE license from Alabama NOW (always something!) and then I am off out into the field to work and sell for the realtors I am working under right now.

It's nice to be out of my Yoda jammies (with footies) and out here mixing it up with the world again.

Hiya Streamers!

Not much to report.

Job is good. Difficult, but looks like it could work out good.

SO!

Here are some photos instead!!

I think most of these were shot last week or so....

This is an old abandoned store and homestead left from way back lord knows when.

I might go back and get that scale if they don't want it.

But,.....where do I find the owners?

Oh....as I live and breathe!

I don't have the photo up yet but there is a NEW mongrel OWNED by the neighbors, of course!

Oh, it's CUTE!! hee hee

a kind of half lab, half retriever mixey kind of dog.

BUT!

It is ALL puppy, again just like the last unfortunate neighbor's dog....

It has come over to our house and WONT LEAVE!!

This one's worse so far as damage impact than the last dog.

It has chewed up or fully destroyed all kinds of neat things like an umbrella, bags of potting soil, gardening gloves, ashtrays, a pack of photo prints I had developed, a broom, various gardening tools and all kinds of other doo-dads one finds in a car port.

Oh, it's name is "Five-o".

Little docile "Snowball" the old grouchy poodle came to visit this last weekend and he had no love at all for the "five-O"

Matter of fact, I had never seen "Snowball" get so damn snippy before!

I have carried the dog back several times to no avail and even put it on their back porch, piled up all their lawn furniture to block the stairs out, only to have it escape in about two seconds.

So, I just sneered and left all the lawn furniture piled up as maybe like.... a hint?

Dog is currently outside eating the van.

Pics coming soon.

Where have I been?

That seems to be a question that I am getting from some people.

Well, it's been a good week and a bad week.

The good news is I was hired on Wednesday by a local broker as a licensed assistant to two of the better known and busier realtors in the area. I start tomorrow! so.... YAY! Assisting is the best way to start by getting good mentors who know the ins and outs of the area and can give me a good heads up on everything before I get out on my own.

The bad news is that I am living with one foot in my old life with Secret and my new life on my own and it has been very difficult living here. I have become very depressed and anxious and all the bad stuff that comes with that. I suppose Secret and her kids are living the same nightmare as me. I just want to go and they just want me to go but I cant just go now until we get our financial entanglements worked out.

So, we are all kind of stuck.

Havent felt like writing.

Havent felt like doing much at all....

I'm ok. I look forward to going to work tomorrow.

So, eventually all will be well and hopefully I will still be friends with Secret and the kids when all is said and done.

I've missed being here and I have missed my friends here.

Hopefully, I'll be around more this week.

Randy

Damn...

I wish I was sharing a photograph that I don't think could ever be recreated.

I ran to the local store tonight and when I left I put some good music on my car CD player and decided to take the long back way around to the store just to get away and think and unwind.....

Ok. Well, there is this beautiful little farm near our home that has a pond on it and I often will see the cattle of this farm stroll into the water for a cool dip. They love it, I can tell, because they just stand there in the cool water and chill.

Anyway, I rolled by there this evening, just as the sun was beginning to set... and it was a lovely sun, it was a perfectly round red sphere and it was just veiled in clouds enough so that you could look at it briefly to enjoy it's perfection...

So, the sun was setting as I came upon the cow's pond and I pulled up on the most perfect photo opportunity I have ever seen. There were two cows, nose to nose in the water, which was up to about their necks and the sun was reflecting perfectly in the still water right between the two cows and there were just a few scud clouds about from some dying thunderstorms to frame the whole thing up. Everything was perfectly mirrored on the water's surface.

I hit the brakes on my Honda and got out of the car to look. Damn! I didn't have my camera and it didn't matter because my memory card was full from shooting pics at the C-team ball game earlier in the afternoon anyway.

I just crossed my arms, shook my head, and smiled that this was one of the most perfect images I had ever seen and this moment was going to pass forever and not be captured...

It was sublime!

Finally one of the cows moved and stirred the mossy water and the spell was broken.....

It was just a minute of time of forever that a photograph could have captured, but it was not to be.....

Who knows?

Maybe it was just too beautiful to try to capture on film and things happened like they were supposed to...

I think it would have been one of my best photos ever, but now, it's one of my best visual memories ever...

for me only....

...and God, the artist of the whole masterpiece, of course.

Ok. and thanks to the cows for being so still!