Sunday, August 31, 2008

Kick me when I'm down!

Okay...so you think you had a really bad day? How about this?

The company I have worked at for the past eight years had a nationwide cutback last week and I was one of the people who got layed off! So now I have no job, no paycheck, no medical insurance, no life insurance, etc. etc. etc.

I took the news pretty calmly as I was escorted out of the building with my little box of personal belongings in my hand. As I made the 45 minute drive home, I thought about what I was going to do now that I was unemployed. It's not very easy finding a job these days, especially if you are 58 years old!

When I got home I checked the mailbox and found a letter there from the NC Department of Motor Vehicles. Thinking this cannot be good news I sat down to read the letter. Because I am diabetic and have had several eye surgeries my vision is really poor. In fact, I can really only see out of one eye as the other is nothing but a big blur. I also have no peripheral vision at all in either eye, so I can't see up or down or sideways, just straight ahead.

Now in addition to having no job I no longer have a driver's license! That ought to make it really hard to find a new job now since I can't drive anymore. I live in a small town where there is no public transportation and not very many places to work within walking distance, so I am really in a mess now!

I am trying to look on the bright side of all of this and find the silver lining...but it's extremely difficult. I always wanted to work from home anyway, so maybe this is my big chance!

I am open to any suggestions. If you know of a legitimate work from home opportunity please let me know. I have excellent computer skills. I already have a small web design business with a couple of dozen clients, but that doesn't make enough money to pay the mortgage. I will try to expand upon that business but meanwhile I need a regular income. So I am all ears...please leave a comment with your suggestions or email me at cmmdtp@gmail.com.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Praise Band Questions

I play in our Praise Band at church and have a few questions which I hope I can get some answers to here.

We play your standard hymns and a little contemporary Christian music as well as some original songs. I play the guitar, mountain dulcimer and harmonica. We have two other guitar players and a few vocalists. Our problem is coming up with new songs to do each week.

Where do we find Praise Band music? We are not really crazy about the contemporary Christian music that is out there and we can only play so many old standard hymns over and over again!

We have taken some old rock and roll songs and changed the lyrics around to fit the church crowd and that seems to have worked well. Everyone likes the songs we do with the dulcimer, but it's hard to find mountain dulcimer music.

We play every week and we keep recycling the same songs over and over. Where can we find good praise songs?

Anyone out there with suggestions? Please leave your comments here.