"Wormer Dropped The Big One"

As I and many others await an impactful Arctic Blizzard within hours, I guess its only appropriate the week wraps up with another hammer blow. The bad news I was expecting did come this week as I got word on Thursday I was laid off from my work. I had hoped it might not come until next week or even after the first of the year, but I could see it was inevitable from what I was witnessing in the factory itself as well as the larger news from the outside world. The factory laid off 75 workers in November and I was part of a 40 person layoff which reduces staffing to only about 35 -40 people in the factory side with another 10 or so in the administrative side. So about 70 % or so of the employees have been let go in the last six weeks. I have my doubts seriously about getting called back anytime soon given the huge numbers of workers that have cleared out and the continuing strongly negative economic news regularly. I did apply for unemployment and can expect a check sometime during the week of Christmas and weekly afterwords, but I do not know yet now how much it will be for. I have a parttime job I may be able to fall back on at The Wrangler, but I will not follow up on it until I get an idea of what my UI benefits will be and how much working a job for 8 - 12 hours a week at best will be a factor. Until then, I am just relaxing at home and looking at hunkering down for the next several days with this monstrous Arctic Blizzard about to arrive and besiege us with subzero cold, ferocious north winds, and some yet to be determined amount of snow.

Prior to getting the word on the layoff, this week was not filled with full workdays. I did get a full day on Monday, but Tuesday was one with no work; Wednesday was only a five hour day; and Thursday was only three hours before being sent off for a final time. If I do get called back, I believe it will not be until at least March, probably April.

With so much free time suddenly, I basically relaxed. I was fighting a cold for much of the week, but it eased by Friday. But I got out and spent some time perusing some books and periodicals at the two local bookstores / newsstands. On Friday I took a day trip to Denver, leaving Cheyenne around 1pm. I stopped at the Newsland in Federal Heights. There used to be five Newsland locations in the Denver area, but this site at 92nd and Federal is the sole survivor, and I anticipate it will be gone by the end of 2009 or so with the changing habits of readers, the relative remoteness of this remaining location, the presence of the internet to empower consumers to get their reading materials from, and last but certainly not least, the economic downturn and collapse. Its too bad as the store always had a selection of periodicals and even books that were not available at other retailers and booksellers.

After spending about 45 minutes there, I made my way south along Federal Blvd into NW Denver. It was the first time I had driven this long stretch of road in 3-4 years and some changes had occurred, but some of the more unsightly problems and eyesores remain unfortunately. I then went down Speer to the south and east by downtown into the Cherry Creek area battling sluggish traffic. I made my way south along Colorado Blvd to El Cheapo Discs, a used CD store next to where I used to work at a now defunct Radio Shack. I spent about 45 minutes browsing through the merchandise and made a few selections until my friend Matt joined me. We then went to a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant for a healthy dinner and conversation. Then I made the trip home with an arrival back around 10pm.

Saturday was a quiet day at home for the most part. I did go out and check my mail and pick up an inexpensive ($6) pepperoni pizza at Blackjack. But mostly I rested and halfheartedly watched some college football (Richmond / Northern Iowa) and basketball (Mississippi / New Mexico & Utah / Oklahoma) on the tube. I guess this will be the centerpiece of the daily repetoire for the coming several days with the brutal weather looming, and probably beyond as well.

As the late afternoon and evening continued, I got some pictures from my sister M of her Christmas decorations in and out of her home. I also got a phone call from my brother H and we had a nice broad conversation. I watched the Heisman Trophy Award ceremony, the movie "Fargo", the newly colorized presentation of the 50th anniversary of the 1958 NFL title game between the Colts and Giants that included a lot of rich and insight commentary and memories from participants in and witnesses to the game; the Portland St / Brigham Young game, and the movie "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy".

I also got a little work organizing paperwork and materials on the desk in my office, and that job is now about 95 % complete and organized. Its something I will be working on in the coming weeks with the new amount of inactivity that awaits me.

Sunday turned out to be bitterly cold, but skies were crystal blue clear and the wind was calm. We barely got a dusting of snow fortunately so this weather turned out to be far from being blizzard thankfully. But temperatures barely reached zero after a very cold night as the front came in on Saturday night around 7pm to 8pm as the mercury dropped by 35 to 40 degrees in a little more than an hour or two. Sunday night will be coldest night with temps falling to near 20 below zero before the winds come up and shift resulting in a "warming" to above zero. But this entire week is forecast to be very cold as 32 degrees will not be seen for the next several days. Snow is also forecast to fall for at least 50 % of the coming days in the next week or so. When it is this cold the atmosphere cannot simply hold any moisture whatsoever for even a minimum length of time. Thus we are in the heart of winter, but unfortunately the equinox is yet to occur.
That does not bode well in the short term.

I arose around 9:30 am, had some oatmeal for breakfast, and watched some NFL until around 2:15pm when I ventured out. The White Knight was a frozen rock and lumbered hesitantly down the street once I got it moving. I picked up the Sunday newspapers and made it over to the Shadows sports bar in downtown in the old train depot building. I had not been in here since last spring. There were only about 10-15 people there so I had plenty of room to spread out the papers and read while keeping an eye on the four late NFL games, one of which featured the Steelers and Ravens which was why I ventured out as that game was not telecast locally. Once again, for about the fifth time this season, the Steelers pulled out a last minute victory over Baltimore. I had a burger, a pop, and a bowl of carmel vanilla ice cream which felt good for my dry sore throat. I returned home after sundown obviously but the Ford ran a little better having its fluids thawed out just about 2 1/2 hours earlier.

Sunday evening I relaxed at home: I clipped coupons, did the puzzles in the papers, watched 60 Minutes ( a couple of alarming reports in the program) and kept an eye on the Giants / Cocaineboys game. With my other Sunday programs on hiatus for the holidays, I tuned in to watch a report on CNN about the rapidly deteriorating environment and natural world. I later caught the news and watched a couple of old movies halfheartedly before calling it a night.

.....

*****