This is going to take a bit more work. The average Toastmasters speech I’ve given is 5 to 7 minutes long. At the end of this assignment, I will have to give a similar speech while also playing a sample of the podcast itself. Since the post has to either be 6 ten-minute episodes, or 10 six-minute episode, or there abouts, so that it all adds up to 60 minutes. Which will be the longest Toastmasters “speech” I will have given. Of course, this one is broken up in to multiple smaller ones so it might be easier.
Certainly, easier than the actual speech I need to do soon which will be twenty minutes of me standing in front of the club. What in the world am I going to speak about then? I have no idea.
We’ll see what happens with that speech and this podcast.
Hopefully, it will be interesting enough that I’ll keep doing it beyond the first series of episodes.
Thank you for sticking with me, especially over the last couple of months when my posts, blogs and social media alike have been at a minimum. For a while all I was capable of doing was Youtube Shorts as I let you know the emotional struggle I’ve been going through.
I also did a Toastmasters speech on what had happened. I would like to share it here with you in both text and as a Youtube video:
Most of my weeks, if I don’t have anything to do, or have a job, the days go flying by.
This week, however, crawled by and there were plenty of things to do, and then it came to a screeching halt right in the middle of it.
I won’t go into detail of why we went on a road trip Wednesday, but my parents and I wanted to visit an old friend. My parents live about thirty miles from me, and our friend is an additional fifty miles.
Getting to my parents wasn’t a problem. It rarely is (except when there are major traffic issues around downtown Los Angeles, but I’ve learned to deal with them and how to drive around them).
I picked them up and grabbed a quick lunch from one of our favorite family run restaurants before heading out.
Then we drove on down to our destination, only getting lost briefly because I had put in the wrong address in the GPS, which added fifteen minutes to the trip.
Once our visit was done, we headed back up, with plans on what we were going to do for dinner.
Then we hit the traffic, only miles from my parent’s home, and it slowed to a crawl.
Eventually we were down to about three exits and we would be home, and then the car dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree. The Battery Light came on, and then the Oil Light came on, and then the steering wheel began to shake crazily.
I had to carefully move to the side of the freeway with my emergency blinkers on. I shut everything down and start back up again, move a few feet and have to start all over again several times. After which not only were then did the Battery and Oil lights come on, so did the Engine light.
Even with the emergency lights on people were honking at me to get out of their way. I was terrified that we’d get hit and my elderly parents would be injured.
Thank God, and I really mean that. When we finally reached the off ramp the engine ran fine again, but there was no way I was going to drive it more than a block at this point. I just needed a safe place to park. Luckily there was a small shop that had a good parking lot and I was able to safely get into a spot.
We then spent two hours sitting in the parking lot waiting for a tow truck to show up.
The tow is a story in itself, because there were two drivers. One was new and was training, and my car was the class room.
My sister had to come pick up us and take us home and the tow followed a few minutes later.
I ended up spending the night with my parents, and then in the morning called another tow to take the car down to the dealership for repairs. (This dealer ship is where I bought the car. Actually, I’ve bought all the cars I’ve owned so far from this dealer. I’ll write about them someday.)
I was dreading the cost of all this. I really can’t afford anything like this right now. As you know I need to find a job, so paying for car repairs isn’t going to happen.
After I leave the car off, I walk back to the restaurant I mentioned earlier, for breakfast. Then I spent an hour or so walking about the neighborhood, and I get a phone call from the dealership with the news of what’s bad with the car.
The problem apparently is a fuel Injector Pressure Sensor. That sounded like it was going to be expected.
It was going to take to the next day in order to make the repairs and so I rented a car so I could drive home and back.
Turned out that since it was related to the fuel, it falls under the Emissions Warranty and so there was no charge for the repairs. Not for the parts or the labor.
Praise God for that. We had been figuring out ways to pay for it all, but it was taken care of on its own.
In the end all that I had to pay for was the rental car. A nice car, but I didn’t like it and certainly wouldn’t buy one in the future.
On Friday I am able to bring my own car home with no problems, and no financial stress. Praise God.
In the meantime, my employment agency has submitted me for three different jobs this week, so that’s a positive way to end the week.
All has been good, and I pray that next week will be just as good.
I apologize to everyone that has been reading my blog, I have missed several weeks of posts since I began my new job. I’ve been very busy and my time has been limited. That is no excuse for not completing what I promised at the start of the year to post at least one blog per week.
I just completed the first week of a new job, and I just can’t stop smiling about it. This is only a three-month temp contract position, but it is making me very happy. Let me tell you a story.
I’ve been busy with several things, most of all preparing for a potential job opportunity.
Well, that job opportunity turned into an actual job, which I’ll be starting next Monday.
I can’t tell you much about it, maybe next week I can tell you where I work, but let’s just say I’ve been there before and I am very happy to be back. Even if it isn’t where I want to be. (Does that make any sense what so ever?)
This new job also came through an employment agency and is only temporary, but it is schedule to last three months until the end of the year. So that is good news.
On top of that it isn’t too far away from home either, so there is no ghastly long commutes on the freeways.
Again, apologies for a very very late blog. Hopefully I’ll have more interesting news to tell you in a few days.
Thank you for all the support and the prayers. It was felt.
When you have a lot of other things to do, writing a blog can easily slip your mind.
This one didn’t come as easy as last week’s My Little Pony rant. So, let’s see where it takes us.
As you know, I’ve been searching for employment. I’ve been search for quite some time (it feels like forever). I did have a ten-year job at the Fullerton College Foundation, as the Assistant to the Executive Director. That ended in January of 2020, and soon after, the world shut down.
Hi all, Thank you all for your prayers for my father. He has a lot of healing ahead of him. Because of that I’ve been on the road a lot and haven’t had a lot of time to think of blog post ideas. Hopefully I will do better next week.
