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Though I was only averaging about four days of temp work each month,
it was enough to keep me from depleting my remaining savings too
quickly and I was relieved when we found out I could get an account
at the hospital's Credit Union. The original bank my mother had put
my money in had started to eat up my remaining cash through
'maintenance fees' when it dipped below a thousand dollars. But by
transferring it to the Credit Union, I didn't have to worry about it
and was able to subsidize my employment gaps by nibbling away at my
remaining saving.
The software start-up company was gone. Apparently the firm
that was going to market and distribute their work didn't pan-out.
Thus the previous year's educational software package was never sold
to schools and my game was equally doomed. Without my help, the
military guy they had borrowed was not enough to get the prescription
tracking software suite completed in time for their first dead line
and the military contract dried up. Al was soon working at the local
newspaper as the computer operator for their systems. As my dreams
had been dashed by the start-up company, now his were as well,
at least for the time being.
As for me, I was still trying to make do with the occasional temp job
I would get while still attending night school classes. Given my
lack of steady employment, I was still qualifying for grants and
student loans to cover all of my business college expenses, so that
wasn't an issue. And the night computer teacher was still a huge fan
of mine and was keeping his eyes open for a computer job for me.
Until then, it was a few more construction jobs.
I got a three day construction clean-up job at an apartment complex
being built just outside of town. While this construction crew
didn't have the temps do work outside of clean-up, they did have the
newfangled air nailers as they put shingles on the roofs and used the
temps on the ground as nailer target practice. I quickly realized
that the way not to be target practice was to stay out of sight under
the eves as I carried my bits of debris to the dumpsters. I finished
these three days without any nails in my back. My final construction
clean-up job before the season wound down was at another apartment
complex where they were installing the drywall onto the framed walls.
The crew laughed and showed how they were walling up eggs in the
frame behind the drywall as they were pissed at their foreman; once
the apartment complex was finished the eggs would eventually spoil
and crack and leave them with a perpetual rotten smell. They had a
good laugh about that and I was once again relieved when my two days
were up and I didn't have to worry about being involved in that
little scheme.
Then there was September with no temp job and I saw my remaining
savings reach the double digits and I hadn't a clue what else I could
do as I could never make it beyond the interviewing stage at computer
job interviews. Then I got the phone call I had been waiting for
from the temp agency: Would I like to work for the Big
Computer Company in town? Yes, absolutely!
Oddly, though, I was to report at night but as it was the first time
I'd gotten any chance to work there I wasn't going to turn it down
and instead skipped that night of classes. I arrived at the main
complex and reached the guarded front doors. I was ushered in and
given a temporary badge and I was there... To empty trash cans
and vacuum the floors. NOT QUITE WHAT I HAD ENVISIONED. Still,
it gave me a chance to roam the whole building and finally see it
after years of hearing about the place. One wing was multi-floored
levels of work cubicles, another wing was a construction floor where
night workers were assembling minicomputers for some expectant
businesses elsewhere in the country. In between the two wings was
the expansive cafeteria. Once the night was done, there wasn't going
to be another night as they only needed me for the one. After this,
I told the temp agency I wasn't interest in any more jobs unless they
were computer related; they assured me they already 'knew' I
couldn't do a computer related job and none would be forth coming.
And that was the end of my time as a temp.
The very next week, the Saturday computer monitor at the Business
College gave them his two week notice and I was immediately tapped to
be his replacement. I was relieved that I would no longer have to
worry about running out of money and not being able to buy food or
gas for myself. Or so I thought as I reached my first day as
computer monitor with my last few dollars in my pocket. The original
guy overlapped with me on this day and I was supposed to learn from
him everything I needed to know to run the TI-990 minicomputer
and keep it backed-up. He showed me how to boot it up in the morning
and where the backup disks were kept and he went out to get a cup of
coffee at the local 7-Eleven... And never returned.
I think this was intended to be revenge for the nighttime computer
teacher wanting me to take his job even though I hadn't asked to,
thus he left me as the new computer monitor without any significant
training with the expectation that I would soon fail and make a fool
of myself as I hadn't a clue. But being computer savvy, I figured it
all out on my own by the end of the day and soon earned some respect
from the doubting daytime computer teacher.
Then I discovered I wouldn't get my first paycheck until the end of
the biweekly pay period in two weeks. I knew, given my current
lifestyle of averaging about five dollars on food each day and maybe
one dollar on gas, what little money I had wouldn't make it until
then. Given my five year long friendship with Jeff, and knowing I'd
have the paycheck in two weeks to pay him back, I asked if I could
borrow twenty dollars to get me through till the following week. He
explained to me that he never lent money out to friends.
I was stunned. But I realized that I had asked and thus I
should have been willing to accept the answer, whatever it was,
without complaint. This was a lesson that I took to heart for all
the future times I asked something of someone, ensuring that I did so
without any expectation of the answer I wanted to hear. I made due
for that final week by eating every other day and thus used the last
gallon of gas in my car to pick up that first paycheck and cash it at
the bank.
The next day the long forgotten grocery store people called up and
offered me a job.
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