Leash laws are stupid. Maybe not, I think they just apply them to the wrong people; kids and dogs shouldn't be on leashes but I can think of a lot of adults who could use them.
Things are going. I feel optimistic, which, stupidly but understandably, makes me nervous. Lots of job responses. Not enough but more than I hoped for. Interviews tomorrow, etc etc. I might not have my dream job set up for next week, but I will have a job, I'm thinking.
In all of this I keep thinking of my friend Clark. He died in 9/11 stuff at the Pentagon. He was a pretty high ranking military guy and my friend. He was a maniac who was in charge of nuclear weapons. But he was the kind of maniac who, when faced with the decision to launch would think about people. By maniac I mean that we were together once and he brought a brand new 4X4 truck. Within 30 minutes we had it stuck in 4 feet of mud. Two hours later we were eating barbeque and crawfish at a restaurant surrounded by nothing but empty fields.
He used to send me long emails when he was posted someplace. They were the kind of emails that were more like letters; the real letters where you labored over the sentence structure and tried to communicate where you were and where you hoped to be and not just exchange a few glib words and pockety emotional catch-alls.
I remember how he always compared me to Jack Kerouac, which I never understood. He always said I was like a cockroach and if there was a nuclear war he knew I'd be leading a bunch of kids and a pack of dogs out of the holocaust.
And he said he never understood the code of rules I lived by, but he said I sure stuck to them hard.
I liked him because whenever he was faced with something wrong, some law or regulation that was stupid, his choice was to ignore it. If he had to deal with the consequences he'd put on his hardest glare and get police officers and cops and judges to apologize to him for using his time. I always figured if they didn't back off he'd find their address and target them for a surgical nuclear strike. He was a maniac after all and a high ranking military guy.
I miss a lot of people, I miss a lot of dogs. I miss him.
Tomorrow I have to conquer the unemployment blues.