Click images for desktop size: "Supergirl" by DC Comics It snowed last night.

A long time ago I got a phone call from a woman I'd met a couple of times at different parties. I'd only given her my number because she was a PA at Universal and I thought it might be worth a shot to get me some work. That's all parties were to me back then: Employment Networking.
She called me and spoke with some urgency. We met for coffee at Schwabbs. She got right to it. She wanted to borrow $55,000 from me. I was sort of flattered that anybody actually thought I had
Click images for desktop size: "Reading a Story" by Tissot $55,000 in a lump or that I could even raise it. I was also pretty astonished.
I figure she had to be pretty desperate to ask a stranger for a pretty hefty amount of cash. I listened because I thought she was going to tell me about loan sharks or bookies threatening to kill her. Her story was interesting but not that dramatic.
She lived a pretty lavish lifestyle for a PA (production assistant) which is pretty common for Hollywood. She gotten into debt and wrote a bad check. She kept two checking accounts at two different banks and she figured out this, to me, byzantine scheme. Bank A was now overdrawn by (for example) $100. She wrote a check to herself from Bank B for $125 and deposited it in Bank A. Except Bank B was now overdrawn by $100. No problem. She wrote a check on Bank A and deposited it in Bank B the next day.
And she kept paying bills and writing checks for new stuff. Her solution was to just keep increasing the amounts of the bad checks she wrote to herself. Until now she was writing checks of over fifty grand to herself every day and sweating getting to the bank. And terrified of getting caught.
I don't know but I figured this was pretty serious bank fraud. I was surprised that she'd been running
Click images for desktop size: "Save It" by DAB this scam for nearly a year. I figured thirty thousand didn't bother her. Not even forty thousand but fifty thousand set off the alarm system in her heart. The wonders of electronic banking.
With two major banks involved I could see her being panicky. I'd have been panicky over the hundred bucks.
She offered up a lot of justifications about expecting to take care of the overdraft with her paycheck but she let it get out of control.
I'm not to concerned with morality or judging. I'm not much good at that stuff, although I did feel a twinge about the fact that she worked in Universal's Black Tower and still needed an extra fifty grand and still drove a Jaguar.
There was no question I wasn't going to loan her money I didn't have. On the wild shot I did have it her story certainly wouldn't have instilled any confidence in me making that sort of loan.
What I did take away from it was her sense of dread. Of having to wake up every day and rush to the bank, knowing that if her timing was off her whole world would crumble into black pea sized hunks of coal. The rush of fear she felt every time someone might call her name or make a sound that sounded like her name every time she went into the bank. How the blood must have rushed anytime the bank teller took an extra second to look at her, the check, the computer screen.
I felt for her but had no answers or help for her.
(Later I heard how some actor who'd gotten to be a regular on a sitcom loaned her the money and was ticked off that she stiffed him.)
I went to the doctor today. Before I went to the doctor I picked up the "estimate" on working on my teeth on the 31st. It was nearly $1,400 . . . There wasn't even a minus for the 60 bucks I got charged for my "consultation" which I about 25% expected/hoped for.

Click images for desktop size: "Dental Reminder" by Unknown The doctor wrote me my scripts but said I was looking totally stressed out. He wants me to get a Blood Pressure machine and take my BP in the morning 3 times a week and then again three times at odd times during the day. RAH!
He also wants a full on diary of my glucose count for the diabetes.
And I have to get a full panel blood working . . . Double Rah!
I probably need a blood panel. My cholesterol has always been excellent but I was having some issues keeping my good cholesterol above 4. I did it by eating lots of olive oil. I'm always concerned about what else they might find. Especially in the blood count bit.
I'm having a lot of stress. The pain. The extra pain in my mouth. Having to think about the dead. The money. It gets in the way and stops me from enjoying what I have to enjoy. I do have a lot to enjoy. A lot of happiness.
Right now I figure I feel as close as I ever could to the grief that woman felt while she ran her scam, except I'm not scamming anything. Not intentionally anyway and not in any way I'm aware of. I'm just being ungracious enough to keep staying alive.
I'm hoping the blood pressure will drop after I've had the dental work done.
Oh well.
I did manage to send out 32 resumes with a cover letter offering up my services as a volunteer football/athletics coach.
I was surprised just impressive my resume is. I've coached so many great kids. It feels tawdry to take any credit for the great things they did.
I sent it to every pee wee team I could find and to every high school in this part of the state. This part meaning some of them are nearly 200 miles away. I figure if they're interested I can leverage someone local.
I love coaching. I'm good at it.
I think my players love me nearly as much as I love them.

I updated to Movable Type 4.25. No big hassles at all. The main point of the upgrade was "vital" security fixes and enabling some features I'll play with. Mainly to see if I can do anything with them. Mainly its about "social networking".