Catch 44 Again

Bureaucracy strikes again. In May after I had taken all the job finder classes available to me at the federally funded NOVA center, and it was clear I could use some training, and the center had hyped a program which paid tuition and extended unemployment insurance, I talked with a training adviser who said I would not be qualified until September, when my insurance ran out.

In September I tried to make an appointment again, but was told my NOVA membership had expired. No warning, no reason. In order to get the appointment I needed to go through the registration process again, and that was not available until today.

So I had to sit through the whole 1-hour talk covering things I already knew, been there, done that. Had to fill out all the forms again, but after the talk when the staffers came in to collect the passports, proof of unemployment and unemployment insurance, I showed my NOVA membership card and they were able to find those in their files.

I still have to wait for email Monday or Tuesday, make an appointment for Friday to get a new badge with a new membership number, before I can talk to someone about a training grant.

One thing they said in the hour is if you don't use the center for 90 days, your membership expires. They probably said that the last time, but I was not expecting to be unemployed this long so I didn't pay attention.

One reason I didn't use the center is at the training adviser's suggestion, I paid $300 to an adult ed center to take a Python programming class, which turned out to be useless as a job training tool. Once a week with no practical applications did not work. And I was busy rehearsing for the operetta.

---

Talk was over at about 3:30, so I went to the underground lot and once again the charging station was broken. :-(
Not a huge thing, I only needed an hour's charge.

Ingressed a bit, then to Starbucks, sat outside and enjoyed the almost summer weather. They are next to a fitness center, so lots of eye candy in stretch pants. Ingressed some more on my way back, made a field between a portal at the train station and one way far away. Surprised me.

Home, added chopped clams to the bacon onion dip, boiled a couple of turkey hot dogs, put the latter on buns with Dijon and sauerkraut and had dinner while watching the 49ers give the game away to Arizona. It was boring and even at first, but then  there were lots of turnovers. Make mine apple. Bad joke, sorry. Comcast FAIL, even though they claim to auto-extend the length of recordings if a game is still going after the scheduled end time, this time they cut off with 4 minutes on the game clock. Turns out both teams scored again.  :-(

Another FAIL is it did not record Timeless, which I'd scheduled weeks ago. I may have it on the bedroom Tivo. Must check. Comcast does let me see it on demand, though.

Scattered a bunch of marigold seeds on the bare patches of the front garden. Watered them this evening. I expect the blakbirds to eat a lot of them, but their foot/claw action should plant a few as well.

Got email from my favorite motel in Santa Barbara with a promo code to get 30% off a fall reservation. FAIL #1 is the code was one character short of what the site requires. FAIL #2 is they had no availability for any weekend dates this month. FAIL #3 is weekday rate is $190 a night.

Trimmed my beard this morning, it looks less bushy but not less ragged.

Also this morning, since I had time to kill, I went online again to mymedicare.gov looking for the link to pay my bill. As lemmozine mentioned, it's $121.80 a month. Finding nothing, I invoked online chat. Someone named Ricky took 10 minutes to join the chat after saying Hi. Ricky's first answer is there is no online payment option. Second answer was it can be done with my bank's online billpay, and she included all the pertinent info & instructions for that. Third answer was where I could mail a check or credit card info.

My next Q is I had applied for auto-pay a couple of months ago, but had no reply from them about it, and have not seen a debit in Quicken. Ricky's answer is auto-pay went through, effective this month, and the reason I saw no debit is my last payment was in September for $243.60, two month's worth, so I am current.

Next Q was what happens to auto-pay next month when SS payments kick in? Answer:  auto-pay will automagically stop, and the $ will be deducted from SS.

So I'm set. No worries. Until I have to pay the car lease, the mortgage, the rent and groceries.

Coincidentally, my Medicare bill arrived in the mail today, showing November's bit will be deducted from my bank account.

---

Went online to King Size, my favorite clothing source and bought 4 long sleeved shirts. Doctor's suggestion, because my arms are sunburned from driving & being in the sun. For my skin, apparently sunblock is not enough, and all but a couple of my shirts are short-sleeved.

I see in the basfa minutes that the lovely and talented [Unknown site tag]radar will be in charge of Convolution 2017, which was set up originally as an alternative to baycon, and is moving it to San Ramon, way out of my commute range. Not such a bad idea, though, since fandom has steadily been moving in that direction. The con itself is less about science and more about para-stuff and fantasy, so I wouldn't have gone anyway.

Plans for tomorrow:
TGIF means very little to someone out of work for > 6 months
Follow up with the recruiter who said he was putting my resume in front of Verizon. Still no call from his boss.
The usual job foo
Refill the hummingbird feeders
Clean & refill Spook's water fountain

Ashamed of Myself Today

I did nothing useful. The only times I left the house were to unplug the car and get the mail. Oh, sand I went out on the porch to bring in the hummingbird feeders, refill them and put them back out.

TV woke me at 7:30 with hurricane news on every local channel. 3,000 miles away, and they are taking up air time as if it's right off our coast. Idiots.

Showered & dressed by 8:30, Automation guy phoned to let me know Amazon has a push on to hire quality people, so they are offering $3k to employees for each person hired & retained on the employee's recommendation. So he has recommended me.

Emailed the recruiter about Verizon, instead of the "I have presented your resume to the hiring manager" answer he promised, he tap danced around it, saying I'm on Verizon's short list and now it's up to their HR. He also ignored my question of whether I should be expecting a call from his boss. So I've written off that opportunity.

Spook has been as lazy as me. She spent most of the day splayed out on the floor of whatever room I was in, or curled up on the nearest (to me) cat tree.

I cleaned and refilled her water fountain, but while it was in the sink she parked herself on the mat on which it rests. Had to push her off to put the fountain back.

Spent way too much time on FB. It can be a huge time sink because it constantly updates. I don't follow Twitter hardly at all, never have gotten into that format.

Nothing of note in the mail or delivery today, but in the park mail slot was a notice that next Mon-Wed the community hall would be closed as they replace the carpets.

I watched a little bit of college football, but none of the games I caught were any good. NatGeo had a bizarre hour-long special following two American alleged PhD's in paleontology into the Siberian tundra in search of mastodon remains. They wanted hair, skin and especially blood. A very strange show in a number of ways, but it boils down to them appearing to be rank amateurs. NatGeo found them superb guides and translators, but the vehicles they used were whatever they could find in the middle of nowhere. When they finally found a part of a mastodon carcass, the way they took samples was crude and invasive. They got some liquid out, but it wasn't blood. They could seriously have used a veterinarian to help them. While they had a firm handle on the outer anatomy, they were clueless about the innards. To make them look worse, the last scene they were surrounded by Russian and former Soviet scientists who actually did know what they were doing, and made it clear our guys were SOL.

Breakfast was a banana and walnuts. Lunch was dim sum (steamed pork buns, ha gow & sui mai). Dinner was reheated Banquet fried chicken and I cooked up some quinoa for the first time ever, and much as I hate to say it, it was excellent. Couldn't hardly tell it is bird seed. Very easy to prepare, just add a cup of it to 2 cups of chicken stock, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes (or till it has soaked up all the water).

Dessert was a pair of Hershey's dark chocolate pudding cups, another first for me, and I prefer them to the Jello ones. More al dente.

Plans for tomorrow:
Unknown. Plan A was Renn Faire but the temps are back up, 94° predicted. And it's Oktoberfest theme weekend, not my cup of tea
Plan B was Ardenwood farm, but this is harvest fair weekend, so way crowded.
Maybe a movie.