T minus 2 days until.. ugh. 25

I hate starting out blog entries like this, but unfortunately life doesn't always give you pleasant things to talk about.

I just found out today that, Kelly Birch, an old coworker of mine from the Rafter Six Ranch died in a boating accident last week.

Way back in 2002 when I started at the ranch, Kelly and his commonlaw wife Donna, took me under their wing as they were newly arrived and so was I. They invited me over to their house for dinner and drinks, and got me away from the ranch when the drama that comes with living with most of your coworkers got to be too much. In the fall, when several coworkers and I decided to move out and into a place together, we selected a house just down from Kelly and Donna's and we all migrated in and out of each other's houses as if they weren't seperate residences.

Kelly loved to bug people, and I was a favorite target, not only because I was an almost constant fixture at the ranch, but because I refused to pay any attention when he instructed me not to date Donna's son, Jay. Of course, I did anyway, and it ended on sort of a down note, to which Kelly liked pointing out that he had told me all along not to go that route.

In the fall, when I left, I fell out of touch with them.

RIP Kelly.

On a brighter note, as I mentioned back on the 12th, I have someone new in my life. I haven't figured out a clever moniker for him yet, so we'll just settle with Mr. V for now.

Things are still going well. He bought a house the day before our first date, so this entire month has been a flurry of house related activity. Saturday, we took the afternoon almost completely off, and went out for dinner and a drive. We passed the Inland dealership, and he saw a new Dodge Challenger sitting there that he had to go check out quickly. Somehow I think one of their employees is going to get severely reprimanded today, since the car was completely unlocked, so he got to sit in it. Had we been less honest (and in possession of a car trailer), I might not be able to write this as I'd be on the lam with a really cool stolen set of wheels. Thank God for honesty.

Yesterday, his mom and his sister came over to prep and paint his walls, while we did yard work. We've decided that whoever owned his house prior to him must not have done proper yard work in at least the last decade. We managed to acrue an enormous pile of garbage from the house, garage and yard, and an even larger pile of wood that his neighbour has kindly offered to haul off and use in a massive bonfire. We were dirty, tired and cold but extremely pleased with ourselves, and hope that white shite stays away until next weekend so we continue on getting the yard up to par.

In any case, the house is a vast improvement to the handyman's special I first saw a few weeks ago, and the yard looks much better than the landing pad of broken gyprock, dead trees and broken down fences that it was, and with any luck, he should be able to take up residence in the next few weeks.

As for me, no word on the interview yet, which means I'm still not sleeping well. My entire life (and my family's lives) are all in limbo until we figure out what to do. If I don't get this job, then I can apply for school, dad needs to go find a local job (we can't afford to have him work in Tumbler any longer) and I can work for mom while she's out of commission the next 6 weeks following her surgery. If I do, then dad can take over for mom. I don't mind either of the options, since I'm feeling fairly optimistic about everything in my life right now, but I hate not knowing.

And yeah, I'll be 25 in 2 days. Bring on the walkers.