8/9/99 I need a hobby.

Things aren't getting better.
I see that it has been over two-weeks since I last updated my page, and by the looks of things, life has pretty much stayed the same.

The similarities:
I am still insanely broke...I'm just holding off the inevitable phone calls and warning letters.
Monica is still sick...It seems like forever since she felt good for two days in a row.
I work too damn much... and sleep to damn little.

The differences:
I should be getting a bonus on Friday...probably $800 after taxes - $300 goes to Ted as a payback on a loan.
The kids came home from my mother in-law's house on friday, both toting little kittens. Great, put litterbox detail on my list of chores.

I have gotten myself thinking about classic Vespa and Lambretta scooters again, man, are they beautiful! If I had a standard of living that approached that of my co-workers, scooters would be my new hobby, but the ear-marks of my life are perpetual poverty and the inability to leave the house.

Somebody recently asked me what my hobbies are. Hiking? Well, I do own some hiking equipment, but I haven't hiked in over a year....I think that disqualifies me as a hiker.
Cycling? I do have a bike that I love...an 8-year old Marin Muirwoods mountain bike. It's hanging in my garage, begging me to ride it through the gravel quarry that is less tha a half a mile from my front door.

To be perfectly honest, I go to work in the morning, put in my eight hours, return home at night, so that I can carryout my duties as a father of two, pet-owner of three, and the husband of the perpetually ill. And it has been this way for a long time. I used to think things would get better: Monica would feel better, get a job, we would have enough money to actually buy a few of the niceties, and with the health and money....just maybe a little time for a hobby... a little time for me.

the non-hobbist