Reflections on a Year of Unemployment

January 25, 2007 · Posted in Rambles · Comment 

 

I was going to start this article with a dictionary definition of unemployment, however, my google search for ‘define unemployment’ gave me this statement in the third search result: (link)

“In principle, unemployment is easy to define. A person is unemployed if he or she desires employment but cannot find a job.”

Notice the words desires employment? Sort of changes the entire theme of this article. I do not desire to be employed, ergo, I am not unemployed. So, what does it mean to be employed? Merriam Webster provides us with this definition:

1 a : to make use of (someone or something inactive) (employ a pen for sketching) b : to use (as time) advantageously (a job that employed her skills) c (1) : to use or engage the services of (2) : to provide with a job that pays wages or a salary (a company that employs fifty)
2 : to devote to or direct toward a particular activity or person (employed all her energies to help the poor)

All righty then. Let’s start this over.

Reflections on a Year of Being Employed

The other title I was entertaining, “Reflections on a Year of Not Making Someone Else Wealthy”, just didn’t quite roll off the tongue. Basically, I stopped providing my services as an employee to the local bookstore (Off the Beaten Path) last December of 2006. This decision was not made lightly. After all, I had been employed there for seven years. The reasons for severing the relationship were many and I will spare you all of the boring details. Suffice it to say that it was time to go. Now that I have had a year to reflect on this I have discovered an incredibly depressing fact; the loss of my paycheck has not made a bit of difference. If my calculations are correct those seven years translates to roughly 14,560 hours of my life GONE! Let’s dissect the Webster’s definition of being employed.

The first definition is to make use of someone or something inactive. Exactly how does one make use of an inactive someone? Unless you are in a coma or dead how does someone become inactive? Anyway, the list of somethings that I have employed over the past year is huge. There’s the washing machine, vaccuum, stove, and broom. I also engaged employement from the garden hose, shovel, rake and lawn mower. Then there was a short stint with a snow shovel. And let us not forget the computer, which I happen to be employing right at this moment.

Next definition; to use (as time) advantageously (a job that employed her skills). I am skilled at reading. So I suppose I spent some of my time reading various books, magazines, news stories and miscellaneous information online. I had no idea how very employed I have been.

Continuing right along with the next definition – (1) : to use or engage the services of (2) : to provide with a job that pays wages or a salary (a company that employs fifty). I have been providing my services to dkhosting in the form of bookeeper, Windows nuke & paver, web designer and bill payer. In return for these services I receive a wage of sorts.

Finally, we have my favorite; to devote to or direct toward a particular activity or person (employed all her energies to help the poor). All of my spare energy has been employed in becoming the cat. If you own a cat you will no doubt know exactly what I am talking about. Cats are masters at living the good life. There is a lot of lounging, napping and stretching involved with a few moments of every day involved in exploring the yard or looking for a new comfy place to nap.

I suppose I took some liberties with Webster’s definition and there are those of you who would argue that being employed means that you go to work everyday to a traditional job and collect your paycheck at the end of every week. I may join the ‘work force’ again if an interesting opportunity comes my way, but until that time arrives, I think I’ll practice my napping.

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Where in the World is Steamboat Springs, CO?

January 7, 2007 · Posted in Small Town Life · 1 Comment 

Just to give folks who don’t live here an idea of the whacked out stuff that goes on in a small town, I give you the following example.

First, let me set the scene. On Wednesday, December 20, 2006, the local paper ran a story about the future owners of the ski mountain. In fact, they devoted nearly the entire paper to this event. The company, Intrawest, owns other ski resorts in the country and Canada. To illustrate this, one of the paper’s geniuses came up with a nice little graphic of a map showing where all of the resorts are located.

Where Are We?

Notice anything wrong?

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