I had my interview – of sorts – yesterday. She didn’t really ask me anything, just wanted to know if I had any questions. Does that mean it’s a given I’ll be hired? Or does it mean a pro forma interview but there’s no way they would hire me in a million years? That is the essential question.

She did point out that it takes a month to get hired; that you have to be able to lift 40 pounds (I used to lift Kiernan when she weighed 42# per the Publix big scale in the lobby..?), pass a background check, buy no-slip soled black shoes, black pants and black t-shirts which is the uniform. Gee, how colorful! I guess stains don’t show, but seems like it should be like the pediatric ward at the hospital. Uniforms with Pokemon? Wait – I know – black uniform is fine, but flexibility with aprons? That’s where Pokemon can make his appearance – or maybe Sonic the Hedgehog or a Minecraft cow? Plain white apron with decals? Worth exploring? Absolutely.

Ok, so I went ahead and ordered the apron from Etsy. That’s a vote of confidence that they’re so desperate for help that they might even hire me. After all, I showed up, on time, didn’t have two heads or roll on the floor, frothing at the mouth. I didn’t talk too much (self-coaching there) and I agreed that I wanted to pursue being hired. What else could I have done? I didn’t mention the writing part (see previous post re: Pandora papers). I was humble, pointing out that it wasn’t a question of the job being less than what I could do, but rather expressing my concern that maybe I wasn’t good enough for them. And if I don’t get the job, at least Kiernan will like the apron, her being a big fan of Pikachu (that’s that rabbit on the front – I guess he’s a rabbit..sigh.)

OK – enough on that for now. No debt ceiling crisis at least until the end of the year. Ho hum. I really don’t want to talk about Washington and/or politics. Instead, let’s talk about something really interesting: um..yeah. Cryptic crosswords!

I signed up with a site that provides a new cryptic a week. It was highlighted last week in the puzzle section of the NY Times, and for $48, I get a new puzzle each week that’s just challenging enough to make it worthwhile – plus access to the previous 79 puzzles in their archive. So far, I’ve been able to solve them all, with a little help from WordPlays, but only indirectly. Two guys create the puzzles and run the site. They seem very pleasant, and one of them responded to my e-mail, complimenting them on getting onto the NY Times puzzle page and saying I enjoyed the puzzle. Great fun. I know – ho hum..

The writing is going well..I’m on Chapter 12 of The Cheese Stands Alone, and Book 2, Chapter 6 of The Reconvening. I’m ready to start on the outline for the parody of Covid vaccine wars, and, of course, The Algorithmic Brain is finished and partially uploaded to Kindle Vella. So the only big writing issue now is getting Emily to finish working with me on the story set in Siberia called Permafrost Hell. Everyone loves a monster story, right?

That’s it for today – other issues to worry about.