Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Looks like things might be improving for me on that front, though the reason behind it is kind of sad.

My boss said that we can start putting in more hours, and he told me that he'd be doing a review on me soon and putting me in for a raise. So the other part-timer and I can go up to 39 hours pretty much effective immediately (except we're closed Friday-Sunday this weekend for Easter, and since I really didn't get any time off for Spring Break, this is a good thing). So between the additional 20 hours and the raise, that should be good for at least $150 a week.

I'm still going to look into other jobs over the summer that are more in line with what I do. I freely admit that I am a rather lazy person in many regards, this job is boring even unto me. But it is a good opportunity to get my homework done, but that only takes a third or less of my (formerly) 19 hour work week. I'll have to see how I can work in the additional hours, especially factoring in having to do two or three more shoots for my portraiture class.

My boss also told me that there's a full-time position opening up, so if I decide to stay, I'll definitely be putting in for it.

Here's the sad reason for the hours becoming available. In my corner of the computer center, there are a total of four people. Two full-time (including my boss) and two part-time (including me). There's another full-time computer person in the center, he's pretty much the head honcho. I've never known what was wrong with him. I thought he might have MS, he was always on a walker or with the forearm crutches, he wore an eye patch, he had a soft but steady voice. He was obviously physically frail.

I found out a week ago that it wasn't a medical condition per se, he had a motorcycle accident, and it was a doozy.

He was riding to Albuquerque on back roads and he had a stroke.

On a motorcycle.

He went over the handlebars, breaking both femurs (the upper bone in your leg commonly known as your thigh). Damage from the stroke, lots of damage from the wreck. And he wasn't wearing a helmet, so add some additional brain damage and head trauma to the mix.

He was discovered by a farmer on a back road near Moriarty.

This was two something years ago, and he made it back to work. He seemed to be doing fairly well. He sometimes used a walker, but mostly used the crutches. Well, last Friday as he was heading to his truck to go home, he fell and broke his femur again.

The initial reports were that he fell and broke his leg, subsequent reports are that his leg did not fully heal and broke while he was walking with his crutches, causing the fall. I don't know which is the accurate report, I suspect the latter.

Well, the additional hours are available so that my boss can begin covering Stan's job while he's out. People started saying "Oh, he'll be back in a couple of weeks." I was thinking that we'll be having snowball fights in Alamogordo any afternoon now if he's back before the Fall semster. Now they're saying that he might take a medical retirement and retire for good.

I feel really sorry for the guy. He's less than 10 years older than I am, it's kind of funny how someone i their mid 50's would seem ancient when you're in your 20's or 30's, but when you're in your mid 40's, suddenly he becomes "not much older than you are". He has a wife and one or more kids, I just think it would really suck to take a disability retirement when you're still potentially vital, and he's the second person this year who is well under retirement age who might have to do it. What's worse is the other potential early retiree is my renter and friend, Michelle. She hasn't hit 40 yet and her fibromyalgia is just wiping her out. She had a $70,000+ job and was working on a Master's in Accounting, and that's all going out the window.