So Close, Yet So Far

I learned how to use my dad's digital camera this week.  It turns out that the owner's manual is pretty helpful and fairly accurate (if you don't mind flipping back and forth between pages).  I learned how to finalize the pictures left on the camera, and I put in a new disc and took shots of the outside of my apartment building.  I also learned that my computer's CD drive can read the mini discs from the camera, so I was able to see 4 discs worth of pics my dad took.  The only thing I haven't figured out yet is if I can view the unfinalized pics still in the camera through the USB cord to my computer.  (I tried it this morning, but it didn't seem to work, so I have no photo of my apartment for you.  Not yet, anyway.)  Now that I have all that figured out, I can start taking pics of my furnishings (to prove for insurance purposes that I own things) and owl collection (since I can wrap and stow them into a fragile container quite easily).

I found out this week that the San Antonio job within my company was "withdrawn".  That's two down and five to go (not counting two others I'll apply for today).  All of them are outside my company, which means I'd have to start all over with benefits, vacation, and retirement savings.  (I could transfer my current 401(k) into my independent IRA, so that wouldn't be a problem.)  Most of them are in southern California and one in Maryland (the two for today are near Atlanta).  Naturally, I'm hoping for one of the California ones, since I'm not very accomplished at managing snow removal, although the Atlanta ones would make the move less expensive.

I've had more dreams than usual this week, not even counting last night's nightmare about work (the first in weeks, so I must be feeling better).  I had one dream about Tintin, although when he left with a knapsack full of jewels, he seemed less on a return-them-to-their-rightful-owners mission and more on a Robin Hood one.  Another night, I dreamt I was at a shopping mall in a world where talking animals and humans interacted normally.  (Maybe it was Narnia.)  Three beavers and I had to evacuate a restaurant when animal handlers attempted to transfer a tranquilized lion from one site to another.  (Maybe it wasn't Narnia, after all.)  I made sure the restaurant door latched securely behind us.  When we were allowed back inside from the mall proper, the male beaver, still terrified of the lion, scurried into the ladies' restroom as a woman was exiting.  I approached a waitress, to ask her to perform a "search and rescue" mission, when I woke up (on my own, without the usual interruption of my alarm clock).

I didn't have this song stuck in my head when I woke up, but you can understand why I thought of it.