Tinfoil Dinners

First off, I'll be opening up the door for two golden HOTIs in the coming days. It's the absolute best deal ever and I really don't like doing them. But I need to pay off a few sub-contractors so away we go.

Friday night I headed up to the reservoir above Spanish Fork to a Father-sons campout. I took my six and nine year old sons up there. It was beautiful beyond compare, I could see almost the whole of Utah Valley. My wife had prepared us tin foil dinners with hamburger, potatoes and carrots with her own amazing blend of spices and butter. I took some great pics, but for some reason when I email them to myself from my phone it takes like two days, so no pics here. I do love my sons so much.

Amazingly, I managed to cook them just the right amount. It was delicious.

On occasions like this, driving up there, I feel like I have to teach them some life lesson, or tell them something useful, but I think what really sticks with the kids is the stuff I just blurt out here and there when I'm not really thinking about it. Probably not all bad. For example, one day I took the kids on a ranting tour of the house saying "do you really want to live in a pig sty?!?" Well, turns out my eldest daughter took that to heart and is now a bit of a neat freak, which is fantastic. The neat one in the family. She's in middle school now, which is freaking me out.

Like how I used freak twice in that last paragraph?

I certainly didn't stay the night. Jonah stayed up there with my brother-in-law (who is an avid camper) and I took Griffin back with me. I got a good night's sleep. And went back the next morning for breakfast.

Flash back to Wednesday night. I got home with an ice-pick headache and the world crushing my skull. I could tell something was wrong. As I walked down the hall, my legs started buckling under me. "Help, Tamie, help" I couldn't even say it very loud, it was like a dream. My wife came out and half-carried me to the bedroom. Later I realized that I was convulsively curling up into the fetal position. I had a complete meltdown. My lovely wife made me a nice healthy dinner and helped soothe and calm me. I got a good night's sleep and was right as rain the next day. I had puked it all out (mentally speaking).

That episode helped me as a person. It made me realize that indeed mental stuff can actually physically affect your body. I get that now. Mind over matter goes both ways.

Anyway, I wanted to do a lot of writing today, and prepare the D&D adventure, but I really just lazed about in bed all day. I took the older kids to Stake Conference and visited one of my new home teaching families. But OTHER than that I was a useless lump. How can I be so tired.

I made a post on my facebook page about unemployment and some people took umbrage I am afraid. But I've been thinking a lot about it.

Let's say there's 9% unemployment. Of course even the number is suspect because it comes from the government. Are some of those people purposely unemployed? More interesting is teh question: are some people unemployable? I've been doing a lot of interviewing over the last few months and I'm convinced that some people are barely able to get themselves dressed in the morning. What they really need is a factory job where they are told what to do and when to show up. There's a sense of victimization that comes off of some people, like "what's the problem with you people that you won't hire me?" Or I've been applying all over, to hundreds of places. Smart employers have the hawk-eye out for certain problems, most of the time when I'm interviewing, the person will say something where both Sarah and I take a sharp breath (ie they just blew it). Now, if that person only knew the truth of the situation they could have avoided it.

I'm going about this all clumsily. I'm just saying that self-examination, and figuring out the truth of the situation is everything. If you're the victim, then you are indeed helpless. If there is a problem with YOU, then that's the best news ever because it means you can do something about it! The trick is to figure out what that is.

If the problem is everyone else, then there's nothing you can do, except maybe figure out how to accept it.

The other idea I had is: Why do you need a job at all? Wouldn't it be better to not have a job and just have all your time to yourself? Or to do community work. Most people don't want a job, they want money! Well, what do you need money for? You need lodging, food, entertainment, a car to impress the opposite sex or whatever. Well, how could you get those things without having money?

How could you live your life without a car? Get everything within walking or driving distance!

Find a nice home with lots of rooms. Get your name on the lease with the option of sub-leasing. The get three room-mates and divide the rent and utilities three ways; ie get them to pay your rent and utilities for you.

The Apaches had a list of like fifty foods that could just be foraged for out in the wilderness. I can't believe how much edible stuff is just out there.

Just an idea, I'm not saying it's a good one.

Let's say aliens came down and gifted every human a no-maintenance robot to do all labor for that person. How high would unemployment be then? Maybe unemployment's not bad on the net. The real problem is not having food/shelter etc.

Again, I don't mean to be insensitive. I'm trying to help. If you've been looking for work for a year and rejected a hundred times, you should take a step back and try and figure out the broader situation.

A) it's you. And you can research, refine and do something about it.
B) it's the hundred other people who are wrong in which case whew that's a relief and you can get on with your life in some other way. There are other ways to get money.

The Hawaiian Shave Ice stand downtown brings in about $8000 a month.

It kills me inside when I see people without work. It's one of the reasons I decided to grow BTP instead of play it safe. It's horrible to be unemployed. I remember the feeling well. In 1999 I just graduated and had that pit-of-the-stomach feeling going in hither and thither filling out applications. I really worked super-hard to get an HR position at a local community college. It paid $42K a year, a fortune for me and my dream job. I was crushed when I didn't get it. But it changed my life forever as it made me look outside the box. Next stop was San Francisco.

So, don't take offense. Unless that will help break your mind and see things in a new light.

This afternoon it started thundering and raining. My favorite.