There Aren't Many Days More Discouraging Than This

There Aren't Many Days More Discouraging Than This

The county commissioners held a hearing this morning at 9:30 to decide who to appoint to the Treasurer's job. Even though I was number three on the recommendation list, I figured that perhaps I could make such a good impression that it just might overcome my deficiencies for the job.

I left before 8:00 AM to drive to the county seat of Idaho City. The road from Horseshoe Bend to Idaho City is only 19 miles long, but much of it is unpaved, so you have to drive very slowly--but I still had plenty of time. About ten miles up, I was informed by someone coming down the road that a trailer had jack-knifed, and the road was completely blocked. There was no certainty about when the road would be cleared. So I turned around, and took the longer road through Boise.

I arrived about 10:15--walking in the door quite literally as the commissioners voted. I explained about the jack-knifed truck, and that, "Bad roads delay more than economic development." But it was too late. One of the commissioners apparently had really hoped to hear from me before voting--so perhaps this was a job that I might have had a small chance at getting if not for that jack-knifed trailer.

At times like this, I try to take some solace in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of more than hour drive each way to work, but at least there are health insurance benefits--and I am increasingly concerned that when COBRA continuation runs out for me in May, there may be no health insurance available for me, at any price. (Perhaps because of the health care reform bill, it seems that insurers are getting increasingly restrictive about who they will take.)

In some ideal America, my research experience and effective scholarship for gun rights would be of some economic value to someone. If there were a national organization committed to gun rights, they could hire me, even at a very, very tiny salary (as long as there was health insurance), to do the type of research and writing that I have been doing very effectively for a number of years as a part-timer. But alas, there are no such national organizations.