Blob's Odd Jobs

This book is dedicated to my bellybutton. Thanks for always being there.

BLOB’S ODD JOBS Text Copyright © 2006 by B. Patrick Illustration Copyright © 2006 by Attilio Torre All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced in whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system without permission from the publisher. For information regarding permission, please contact 4N Publishing, 44-73 21st Street, D-6, Long Island City, NY 11101

B. Patrick Attilio Torre

ISBN: 0-9741319-3-8 ISBN 13: 978-0-9741319-3-1 FIRST EDITION Printed in Singapore Layout and design by L.J. Ruell Distribution by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, 1045 Westgate Drive, Suite 90, Saint Paul, MN 551141065 www.cbsd.com Visit www.4npublishing.com for more information on 4N Publishing’s books

A book by 4N Publishing

Blob Robertson, the city’s friendly fire hydrant cleaner, loved his job but was feeling unappreciated.

As soon as he finished washing a hydrant, a blog would come along and dirty it again.

Blob was frustrated, so he decided to look for a new job. But what would he do? The only job he had ever held was washing fire hydrants.

He looked in the newspaper and saw three jobs that sounded exciting.

“I will be a cloud watcher,” exclaimed Blob.

Blob put on his cloud watching uniform and went to work. He lay back on the grass and began watching clouds.

“That’s a nice one. It looks just like me.” Blob waited for the next cloud. “Hey, that one kind of looks like me, too.” When the third cloud floated by, his eyelids started to droop.

Then, his eyes closed, and he fell asleep…only to be woken by a loud roar from his boss, Mr. Gleebinglob. “SLEEPING ON THE JOB?!? YOU ARE FIRED, BLOB!!!”

Feeling discouraged, Blob admitted, “I guess being a cloud watcher is not the job for me. I will try the next job. I will be an ink pen refiller.”

Blob put on his ink pen refiller uniform and went to work. All he had to do was take ink from the tank and fill the pens.

“No problem,” Blob thought and grabbed a funnel and a cup of ink.

But there was a problem. Blob’s hands were too big and clumsy. When he tried pouring the ink into a pen, he spilled it all over himself.

Soon enough, he felt the hot breath of his boss, Mr. Jinglebob, on the back of his neck, and he heard the dreaded words...

“FOR BEING SUCH A SLOB, YOU ARE FIRED, BLOB!!!”

“Oh well,” sighed Blob, “maybe being an ink pen refiller is not the job for me, either.” Blob had one more job to try, and he believed that this would be the best one of all. “I will be a sock inside-out turner.”

Blob put on his sock inside-out turner uniform and went to work.

After turning only three pairs inside-out, he noticed a pair that looked like two cute snakes. Blob could not resist placing them on his hands.

Because he was having so much fun with the sock puppets, he forgot all about the socks piling up behind him.

“Oh no! The day is almost over, and I still have all of these socks to turn inside-out.”

“THIS PILE IS AN OUT-OFCONTROL MOB!!! YOU ARE FIRED, BLOB!!!”

Too late! There was Blob’s boss, Mr. Smithingblob, with an angry scowl on his face and an all too familiar shout...

“Maybe I’m just not good at any job,” groaned Blob. He was almost home before he realized that all of the fire hydrants he had passed were a mess. No one had washed them since he quit his job as the city’s fire hydrant cleaner.

The blogs were desperately looking for clean hydrants to use.

Blob immediately went to work.

He cleaned every one of the hydrants until they sparkled in the sun. All of the blogs thanked Blob, which made him feel very good. As he wiped off the last hydrant, Blob declared, “Even though it was fun to try new things, THIS is the job for me!”