Today I splurged a bit and took the boys to see Superman Returns. Not a bad film, certainly not something that would turn me off of Superman or off movies in general. But definitely not the way that I would have done it, you know, if I had millions of dollars to make a movie. I thought they should have made it a more intense story with Lois being married and the kid not being Clark’s. I would have put Superman in traditional red, not the dark red, almost brown, that he’s in. Also I would have gone with a bigger Superman and probably a bit older. Otherwise it was good. Picked up where Superman II left off pretty well and carried the baton of the franchise admirably. The problem was there was no wow, nothing that made me want to dig out old comics or go home and put on a cape. My 16-year old said it best, “It was better than I thought it’d be.”

I don’t want you to think that it was a bummer of a movie so let me give you the best parts, to my way of thinking. Tearing the wing off the plane, cool, because that’s what should happen. Bullet to the eye, spoiled by the trailer, but very cool. New Lois Lane, much hotter than before. Special effects, as flawless as you’d expect in a big budget picture. The new chest emblem, pretty sweet. Lex Luther, more evil, less cheese, all around better.

I had something I wanted to tell you about on Friday, but I didn’t get around to posting and I can’t think what it was. Don’t you hate it when that happens.

Today came with more ‘good’ news. The letter from the auto finance company finally arrived and it would seem that the car sold for nearly market value at the auction. Which is great because it means that the total unpaid balance of the loan comes in at less than $2,500. You divide that up between the wife and I and it’s a fairly easy pill to swallow. I’m not saying it’s great, but I expected the number to be closer to twice that, so I’m as happy as one could be about owing money.

Finally, the bank has come through with what looks to be some good news. They’re going to do the deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. All the signatures have been signed and the paperwork is off to their lawyers. I’m supposed to call the lawyer on Friday and get the details about when, where, how, and all that jazz. It’s not good to lose the house, but if I’m doing it anyway, this is the way I wanted it to happen. Deed-in-lieu looks a little better on the old credit report and it doesn’t leave me with a balance hanging over my financial future. This is good. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong to break the deal.

Looks like my parents won’t be making it up here this year, my grandfather (mother’s father) has taken ill and this may be his last hurrah, so they’re staying down there with him. Since I’m not working I may shoot down there to see how everyone is doing. I know that my grandmother would love to see me and both my remaining grandfathers are having health issues. Just seems like this is a trip I should take. Besides, it’ll give me a chance to check out the job market down there. Wouldn’t something in the keys be great?

I checked out two HVAC schools today. The first one is local, right here in Southfield, offers a 40-week course (4-days a week / 4-hours a day / 640 total hours of training), and offers financial aid in the form of pell grants and student loans. The second is in Indiana (tuition includes hotel, food, transportation, and laundry), offers a 28-day course (7-days a week / 10-hours a day / 700 total hours of training), and offers financial aid in the form of student loans. Both schools are just under 10-grand and neither include the certification for refrigerant recovery that the Feds require (that’s a state-by-state test that here in Michigan is about $50), both claim to cover all aspects of HVAC (including boilers and oil-fuel systems).

That’s a lot of money. I’m not sure if it’s worth it so tomorrow I’m going to do a bunch of cold calls to local heating and cooling companies and pick the brains of those who will let me. I’m going to ask them things like: Does this certification mean anything to you? Is it something you look for in an employee? Would you rather see a college degree? Do you think it’s worth it for someone with my experience? We’ll see what kind of responses I get.

That’s it for now. Later.

Welcome to August my friends. It’s damn hot around here, 100 yesterday and expected to be the same today. Sunday I had the pleasure of helping a friend move out of his third floor apartment and into a second floor apartment across town. It was only 95ish, so that was a load of fun. But he did furnish pizza and plenty of liquids, and as an added bonus; he now has to help me move. I believe it’s in the guy’s book of rules. There’s no way out of this one.

I haven’t been writing at all.

Late night binge eating has kept me from losing any more weight. But I did buy some dumbbells and two more jump ropes (I’ll find one I like yet). I’m still doing the exercise and watching what I eat, but damn it all I keep slipping up when the sun goes down and the world gets quiet.

I realize now that my wife’s we can still be friends speech before she left was just exactly that. Can we still be friends? We probably could if I didn’t still want to be married to her.

My 2-week hiatus from the working world is over and I’ve started working on resumes and making some cold calls. I know that I could make much better money if I found another tech job, but I’m leaning more toward HVAC or something in the trades. The one other thing that I’m looking into is some sort of maintenance job where I get a free apartment. At this point I have many leads but no really solid possibilities. But then it’s just two days into the job search.

Oh, and I’m really starting to dislike this big ass house. It’s very lonely.

Sad news and a loss to fantasy fiction, David Gemmell died Friday morning of what would seem to be complications from heart bypass surgery. He was 57. Gemmell was one of my favorite authors, though I’ve only read five or six of his 30 novels. He wrote about heroic adventure, heroism, leadership, and redemption in a way that really captured heroic fantasy. On a side note, he didn’t get published until he was 38. I’ll be 38 a little later this month, maybe this will be my year.