Downhill

My last big summer project (called closing the books) is DONE - Board meeting on Tuesday and from there, it's a nice, relatively slow downhill slide into fall and holidays.

It is Saturday morning and I'M NOT WORKING THIS WEEKEND! Yeah, ME! It's a first in months, really - and I'm glad for the freedom of having 'nothing to do'. Or at least having 'nothing that absolutely has to be done right now' for a day or two. There's always plenty to do and my to-do list is sitting on my desk at work and I will make notes here at home to add to it. Still plenty to do - there always is.

H. is refereeing his first soccer matches today. They promised him at least 4 games of the 6-8 age group. He doesn't get paid as much for those lower ages - and it is all about the money, to him. But he's learning that you have to work to get experience. And the more you work, the better you get and then you can 'move up'. He should make at least $40 today - the games are 40 minutes long and he gets $10 per game - it's about $10/hour, roughly. That's actually more than B. makes per hour. But B. gets far more hours than H. will - and B. can work year round. H.'s 'job' will end when soccer ends.

West High in Tracy finally has a new football field and stadium. My Lion's group has the concession contract for football games, so I spent last night (from 4 until 8:30) taking orders, filling sodas, making change, etc. It was a 'scrimmage' - not league play - just fun play. And we had a surprisingly large crowd. We sold out of Gatorade, almost sold out of bottled water and sold tons of hot dogs, nachos, Pepsi fountain products and candy. It went well. I arrived home around 9 and was just exhausted. My feet ached and I had an abrasion on my right elbow from leaning down on the counter to take orders. The windows are so low that the only way you can see the person who's ordering is to lean down...and hope they do the same 'cuz if they don't, they're speaking their order into glass and you can't see or hear them. The design of that building is odd - something about ADA compliance. It is the perfect height for someone in a wheelchair to pull up and order - they will be completely at window height. But the people on the other side of the window will have to bend down to see/hear them. And the other 99.9% of the people placing orders who are standing cannot be seen or heard without bending down. Ridiculous.

Today is the Bean Festival. B. is playing jazz at noon and Megan Slankard is playing at 5. So we'll have lunch and dinner downtown today. B. has the entire weekend off - which is a first since he started his job. He's looking forward to some down time with friends and he needs it. He's been working really hard at keeping up at school. It's good for him to have a weekend to be a teenager.

My car is in the shop getting detailed and having an alarm system installed. We will pick it up this morning. I drove the van to the football game and it felt strange. We should have the pink slip shortly - and then we'll get it detailed and put ads in the paper and signs in the window and pray she sells soon. Four cars is expensive to insure and it looks like a used car lot has sprung up at our end of the street!

Oh, one more 'something about nothing' - we FINALLY have GREAT Indian food here in Tracy. A little restuarant called Dhaba opened up and it's FANTASTIC. J. and I have gone for lunch on a few Fridays, now, and it's terrific. Reasonably priced, terrific food. We love it. We just wish we could get the kids to at least try it. The Butter Chicken is my absolute favorite and I know the boys would love it - but the refuse to even consider trying it.