A Pest Control Summer

Ah summer! Barbecues at the park, jumping off the rocks at Tubbs Hill and watching the fireworks on Coeur d'Alene Lake; sipping a cold beer on my parent's deck overlooking Cougar Gulch, that walnut and cabbage salad my mom makes, corn on the cob and apple pie a la mode. That is summer. But pest control! Selling pest control door to door--who would have thunk it. For the past three years my summers have been radically altered. The current poet laureate, Ted Kooser, said that all the years he was an insurance salesman, he didn't even have a summer. I can certainly sympathize with him; however, I can't really say that I haven't had a summer, because there's a certain thrill to selling pest control, even if it's not like going camping and swimming. And our Sundays are always fantastic. We live for Sunday. The pastor and folks at Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis Maryland have been very hospitable. We've enjoyed their warm fellowship immensely.

So, yes, I'm back at it and quite thankful, despite my and my companion's convictions that this job sucks! I'm ahead of where I was last summer in sales. My goal for the summer was 170 accounts and I'm at 100 now, even though I'm only half way through my time here. I'm leaving August third, and the proximity of that date is what keeps me going. I'm leaving then to make it to the Trinity Festival. And then I'll be working in Moscow until I can figure out where to teach or where to go to graduate school. That's the plan anyway. Everyone enjoy your summer and I hope to see everybody soon!