For the first time since 1968, I live
outside of the Kansas City/Lawrence area.
Here I am under the magnolia tree in our front yard, April 2010:
In 2007, after being unemployed ... again ... I took
a contract position in Nashville, Tennessee, working for the State on its
Medicaid system, TennCare. I worked there during the week and flew home
to Overland Park on weekends.
In Nashville, I had a room in the home of Mike O'Neill, who is a friend
of my brother-in-law, Rick Yord, and was the drummer for Colt 45 and the
Kansas City Blues Band back in the 1970s. Another guy who was almost
famous. Mike has a pretty nice home, as well as a recording studio
onsite, and some talented people in his circle. It was a great situation,
but being away from my family was too much.
Out of the blue, a recruiter called me to pitch a "permanent" job in Olivette,
Missouri, a close-in suburb in St. Louis county. At my age, after being
underemployed since 2004, the phrase "permanent job" sounded pretty good.
To make a long story short, I got the job; this was May of 2007.
In June of 2009, I was laid off from that job due to poor business conditions.
Sigh. Since then:
Nov 2009 - June 2010 - contract position with BJC Healthcare, rewriting old
server code. It was a challenge, a lot of fun, and a success.
June 2010 - Feb 2011 - contract with Wells Fargo Advisors, formerly known
as Wachovia, formerly known as A.G. Edwards;
Feb 2011 - Oct 2011 - contract with S2Tech, creating procedures to load Virginia's
Medicaid claims into a data warehouse.
BelleAnne started Fall 2009 at a new Costco, decorating cakes about 32
hours per week. She doesn't make a lot of money, and it's hard work,
but Costco's health insurance can't be beat!
For a regionally-known performer, moving to a new place means having to
establish oneself all over. The obvious place for me to do that is
in the Jewish community; popular-music performers my age aren't in demand
unless they're already famous. (Loved the movie "Crazy Heart".) I've
been called upon to lead services at B'nai Amoona, Traditional Congregation,
and Shaare Zedek.
We belong to Congregation B'nai Amoona, a fairly-large Conservative synagogue.
BelleAnne and I play and sing in the "shul band," known as Harif.