Job search frustration

It hasn't yet been two months since I got laid off.  I have recovered from the shock and settled into a workable routine of postponed house maintenance, gym attendance, reading, and job searching.  I'm doing a lot of bonding with my dogs.

I've had several interviews, but so far no offers.  Corporations do not make decisions quickly, so I may yet hear back from one or two companies.

The frustrating part has been interviewing for jobs where I am missing a key requirement.  They know I am missing a key requirement.  They interview me knowing I am missing the key requirement.

Then they reject me because I don't have the key requirement.

Why are we wasting each other's time?

Maybe they think I have nothing better to do.  Maybe they think I can use the interviewing practice.  Although since each of the companies have said they like me, I must be interviewing fine.

That doesn't explain why they are wasting their own time.

Dogs expose my predictability.

Bogie cracks me up.  My process for watering the trees is to put the hose out on low and set the timer on my phone for 30 minutes.  Then I hurry outside to change the hose location or turn off the water.

I hadn't realized how predictable this was until I used the timer for something else and as soon as the timer went off, Bogie hurried outside.

So now it’s like a game.  The timer goes off.  We both race outside.  I change the hose location and reset the timer.  And now I use a different ring tone if I use the timer for some other task.

I also hadn't realized how often I comb my hair just before leaving the house.  I combed my hair one afternoon and the dogs were waiting at the garage door with their tales wagging, assuming that we were going for a ride.

Too Cute! Great Dane puppies

Last night I watched  an episode of Too Cute! on the Animal Planet.

 I don’t usually watch it because the puppy or kitten noises excite the dogs.  And did again tonight.  They ran upstairs and outside looking for the source of the noises.  

But I wanted to see the Great Dane puppies. 

It was so cool.  The mother was a Harlequin Dane.  I'm told that Bogie is a cross between a Harlequin Dane and a Merle Dane.  That accounts for his big blotches and little spots.  

There were 3 puppies. I'm not sure what the father looked like.  The puppies were mostly black or gray, with white markings.  None looked like the mother.

It was fun to imagine Bogie as a puppy.  The puppies are tiny at birth, only about a pound.  But they gain 2 ½ pounds per week on average. By the time they were 11 weeks old, and heading to their new homes, the puppies were already 35 pounds. 

This weekend, my friend Sarah said she thought Bogie was taller than the last time she was over.  I shrugged it off as her not remembering his size.  But the show said that Great Danes keep growing until they are 2.  

So maybe Sarah was correct.  Now I wish I had thought to measure Bogie when I got him.  

Still, I think whenever I need to get a new dog, I'll opt for another grown dog.  I don't miss housebreaking and teething. 

But those puppies were adorable.  

Even in Arizona you should check the weather forecast

I've lived in Arizona for 22 years.  You start to take for granted that the weather will be nice.

Since I have the time off while I am looking for work, I decided to reconfigure the irrigation in my strip of lawn.  The heads run right down the center and no matter what I do there is either too much overspray or not enough coverage.

So I planned a layout that would give me the flexibility to change the spray pattern.

I spent about 3 hours digging the trenches to lay new pipe.  Then I quit for the day, planning to lay the pipe the next day.

Only it rained.  A lot.  And this is what my yard looked like.

Flooded trenches

Which wouldn't have been a big deal if I didn't have two dogs and a doggy door.  I could have blocked off the doggy door, but honestly, I don't know if my dogs would know how to tell me they need to go outside.

So this is what I saw when I came back from running an errand.

The foot prints on the tile don't photograph well, but they are there and plentiful.

The carpet shows the foot prints extremely well. 

Shrug. The dirt doesn't bother me.  It will respond to vacuum and mop.  If I cared about dirt in my house, I wouldn't have two large dogs.

Still, if I had read, and believed, the weather forecast, I might have waited a few days.

I didn't even want that job

Yesterday I had a phone interview for a database programmer position.  The HR person for the company found my resume on one of the job sites and emailed me to arrange for the interview.

I responded that I didn't have all of the qualifications in the job description.  But she insisted that their department director should talk to me.

I put my concerns on Facebook.  A friend replied that maybe they had a position not yet posted that better suited my qualifications.

I shrugged and decided I needed the interviewing practice.

Bad decision.

The director was unfailingly polite, but it was clear he was not impressed with my answers.  Answers to questions I never claimed to know.

The more I was unable to answer his questions, the blanker my mind became.  I couldn't even answer the questions I should have been able to answer.

Pro forma, he asked me if I had an questions for him.  So I asked about the location and the culture.

The location was a farther commute than I was willing to drive.

The hours were inflexible and smack dab during rush hour.

There was an actual dress code that prohibited jeans.

This was not a job I wanted.

So why do I feel so stupid?

The lost rings

Bogie's new favorite toy is 3 interlocking rubber rings.  He likes to fetch them.  He swings them from side to side, hitting himself on the shoulders like a ninja with nunchunks. 

This morning we played with them for a while. He stopped to rest and I went inside the house for a moment. I came back outside and we couldn't find the rings. He helped me look for the rings outside and in the house.  

Finally I remembered I had heard him getting a drink of water from the outside bucket. 

He'd gotten a drink and dropped the rings in the bucket. 

And forgot. 

He seemed just as surprised as I was to see them.  

I don't like living in a test market

Someone told me a few years back that Phoenix is a product test market.  Which helped explain why I see new products, fall in love with them, and then never see them again.

I really, really hate it when I find a product I love and it disappears.

Two examples:

Scotch Brite soap loaded scrubbers

These soapy scrubbers are more pliable than the steel wool scrubbers and thinner than other plastic scrubbers I've tried.  And I like that they were made from recycled materials.

If I had known I would no longer be able to buy them, I wouldn't have discarded them for being only slightly tattered.  The ones I have left are beyond tattered, but still useful.

Hefty Fresh Extend storage bags

I have a few of these storage bags left.  I'm learning to conserve my favorite products.  I like that the vegetables that I store in them keep for a couple weeks.  Sometimes longer. 

So, of course, logic dictates that they should no longer be manufactured. 

These are actually still available on-line.  But I am not willing to pay $16 for a 20 count box when a comparable sized storage bag runs $5 for 50 bags.  Around $5 is what I paid when I first purchased them.

This explains why, when I find something I like (t-shirts, bras, socks, etc), I buy multiples.

There have been too many times when I've gone to replace a product I love and it is no longer available.

Sleeping Bogie

 His snoring amused me and he looked so cute. He didn't even wake up when I took his picture like he usually does.

Bogie, sleeping in the arm chair.