Sorry if this seems to have been a long time in coming, but the most amazing thing has happened lately; I'm workin'. The phone is ringin' off the freakin' hook most of the time with people who want me to sub. Meaning what, exactly? What becomes me most at this point, and at points in the recent past, is not necessarily being the full-time hero, but more like the "White Knight." The cavalry riding in; the superhero saving the day; stop me when the inappropriate metaphors just make ya wanna GAG, but there it is. Transient heroics, at their finest. I could hope for more security, and theoretically, I should strive to attain it. Indeed, I will. But at the moment, the pure, unmitigated notion of being *wanted* really makes me smile. Doing so at the school my daughters go to, where my youngest can come up whenever she sees me, and give a big squeeze and a kiss, well.....there's just NOTHIN' like that! Shelby, my oldest, seems to be attempting to hide from my presence, or so she claims, although she did coerce me into line-dancing, teeny-bopper style, at the dance she attended that I chaperoned. Things that make ya go "hmmmmmmmmm..." None the less, for the better part of the last month, I have been working 4-5 days a week subbing, and the kids all seem to like "Mr. K." Almost like a "best of both worlds" thing. Cool. Clean hands at the end of the day; the hope for some sort of future. There isn't a great deal more I require, with the possible exception, of cleaning up the mystery of income taxes I paid to the South Korean Government. That could be incomprehensible.
And I should really clarify about me and cars; they will always be there, always be part of my life, everyone around me knows THAT; but, in the manner, I suppose of every middle-aged guy, it's a lot about my childhood. The upshot of that, of course, is that my collection of Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightnings, and other die-cast cars of similar ilk, is now massive. Probably at least 4-500 of the little ones, never mind the ones in larger scale. All the ones *I* like, of course, and a few that noone else would probably want, and I do simply because they don't. The Johnny Lightning 60s Citroen DS springs to mind. In larger scale, it's the Mercedes 540K from the 30s, the E-Type Jag and the 166 Ferrari that I love most. The T-bucket street rod, Porsche 911 and others are notch or so down the pole. So, perhaps it was all just me bein' a big kid. No sweat, I'm still makin it back around to the windward side of life.