The other morning, on the way to work, I tried to get through an intersection but it appeared there was an accident under the light and at least 10 cars couldn't get through. To avoid it, I made a right turn into the parking of a drug store that went out of business nearly 3 years ago.
There was usually trash and overgrowth of shrubs in this place and more often than not, some homeless people had taken residence in the store front covering. I noticed there were 2 police cars side-by-side and they were talking. Having seen this hundreds of times, I didn't pay any attention to them.
Before I could exit the parking lot, I heard a siren an saw red and blue lights flashing in my rear mirror. I stopped. Rolling down my window a cop came up to my car asking if I knew why I was pulled over. My response was "I have no idea." He explained I was cutting through a parking lot but my reply explained about the blocked intersection and... the drug store was not in business anymore.
While he was checking my identification, the 2nd police car pulled alongside me and a woman officer got out. She mentioned it was 'private property' and I was trespassing. I said, there were no signs stating this and she pointed to a (really small) sign pasted on the side of the building column that read: Private Property - Keep Out.
I chuckled and said maybe they should have chained the entrance with the sign or posted it in a place where the warning was visible from the street and not AFTER someone enters the property. She nodded and somewhat agreed but said they were only giving me a warning and I shouldn't cut through the lot anymore.
The other officer came back with my ID and repeated it was only a warning. They had trouble with homeless people camping out in the lot leaving garbage and the landlord called on the help of the police to get them out.
One of my sales associates left the company last week. He may have told the owner sooner, but I heard about it on Wednesday, he was gone by Friday noon.
I won't miss him.
As sales staff, we all have a list of responsibilities. He wasn't pulling his weight and it's been going on for a long time. The 2 managers before me bumped heads with this guy that ended up in arguments. They were right and he was wrong. I've asked him to follow his jobs more closely and he said he would but the same problems came up over and over. Basically, he over-designed layouts making the installations difficult. His drawings were always lacking notes and interpretation how his projects were to be installed sometimes often failed. It always took more time and materials to finish his projects and get paid.
Getting him to have his clients choose hardware when they selected doorstyle and color never happened. It was always after cabinets were installed and required an additional trip where we had to pay the installer to go back.
Our IT administrator was out for a few days and as soon as he returned I had the password to this guy's account changed and all his mail gets forwarded to me now.
I haven't looked at the history of emails on the computer that was assigned to him, but the new stuff had lots of spam and BS subscriptions that were not work related. I'll get to his old emails in a few days. It won't surprise me to find a stack of complaints from his customers.
Other than personal, there was no stated reason why he left, but I suspect is had something to do with his clients no longer wanting to work with him. One contractor said he was pleasant to work with in the beginning, but didn't listen to his customers needs/wants and always steered the design to what he wanted and not what they wanted. Hearing that from several unrelated sources was unusual. The same pattern over and over.
I was more concerned with the 'bottom line' in that, he wasn't selling enough to justify his salary. Add the number of mistakes and reworks of his designs... The company didn't profit from having him. I have other sales people who can share the projects he was working on and it won't be long before he's just a memory.
A common response when someone posts an 'off the wall' blog, comment to a blog, forum thread or comment is to tell the person "Go take your medicine!"
I'm not a pharmacist, nor do I play on in a TV show, but I'd wager money to say there's no medicine for what craziness I'm witnessing on CS and It didn't didn't (only) come over when another dating site died, I'm really sure most of it was indigenous.
I had an annoying week and some coworkers noticed my rare moodiness, but it's the weekend and my wife and I will be busy doing some house painting together. It's work for a goal and though it would be nice to visit the beach in this 100 degree weather, we will be 'brushing up' on our remodeling skills. Brushing up... get it?
et cetera (or etcetera) is abbreviated as etc.
For some reason, many people spell it as ect.
If you say et cetera three times, someone will think you are repeating actor Yul Brynner's line from the Broadway musical and movie THE KING AND I
I know there is a rock band with the name Nine Inch Nails abbreviated NIN where the 2nd N is backwards, kinda like the backwards R in Toys "R" Us. Anyway, with all the music videos I've seen, I have no clue what they look or sound like!
The catchy logo and sound always stuck in my head. (note to self: do some band research)
This blog is about excessively long fingernails.
I remember reading a news story (a few years ago) seeing a woman's photo where her acrylic fingernails were at least 3" long. She had some amazing paint job that looked like an airbrush technique you'd see on a customized racing motorcycle.
The woman had a job working for the county and was cited for the (excessive) length of her nails. Aside from the constant distraction from customers always commenting about her nails, they were a hindrance to her getting her job done. She refused to cut them and risked losing her job.
There was no medical reason nor 'handicap' that would legally allow her to have nails so long, she was seeking an attorney to defend her case against the county.
Unfortunately, I didn't see a followup story to her plight, so I never got to hear about the outcome. Either way, it 'could' have been newsworthy so others would understand the power of dress codes, especially when working for government agencies.
Two weeks ago, I was in downtown Miami having dinner at a restaurant and saw a woman with a 'Medusa' braided hairstyle that could easily have been 20 pounds of hair down to her butt. She was wearing a uniform with the ID 'County Corrections'
Logically (in my mind) that was a hazard and shouldn't be allowed. She puts herself in harms way should an inmate decide to tug on her (fake) locks and make a break to escape.
It's my thought and my blog, but I'm surprised the county would allow her to have such a vanity style that could be devastating to her and put the liability on the county for allowing such a situation.
Next blog subject: Fat cops, fat cops... whatcha gonna do!
(sung to the tune of bad boys)
I usually select French bread for sandwiches. When it's not available, Cuban style bread is my second choice. Sunday, I tried something different. I'll categorize it to be hand-made bread and not the ones typically produced by machines.
Already cut in 1/2" slices, darker in color, harder in texture, I toasted 2 slices with butter and the flavor was really tasty. Three hours later, I had indigestion that required antacid and a glass of sparkling water.
Tuesday night, I tried one slice dipped in soup... again, I'm up in the middle of the night drinking sparkling water to make the 'bubbling in my stomach' go away.
I'm thinking it has to do with the yeast the bread was made from. Not a totally new experience, I've had that with Rye bread (made from scratch) at the Publix Bakery and learned to avoid some of their products.
Another cup of soda water and it's off to bed!
I've always found it odd how famous people die with an audience.
Yesterday, fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt passed away with an advanced form of cancer at the age of 95.
It's understandable when someone is near death and it comes as no surprise, however reading the news story and the 'friends and family at her side' line came up again. I believe it's used too often as though the passing of someone was a performance.
It's my opinion... you probably have one too!
I say 'dropping out' for lots of things. 98% of my phone usage is via cellphone mostly to other people using cellphones and there are times where their audio doesn't come through clearly and I'll say "Your audio is dropping out, please repeat"
If I received all the necessary information from a meeting to achieve my goal and the conversation turns to BS, I'll politely thank the person (or people) and announce I'm dropping out to deal with something and excuse myself.
I've been dropping out of my blog participation. There is so much to do at home. My wife and I are spending weekends 45 miles away in Miami doing renovation projects that keeps us busy 2 days a week.
In previous blogs about drones and model helicopters, I found myself dropping out of drones for lack of time. Helicopters were my first love and I get more enjoyment spending an hour a week practicing. They are fully aerobatic, capable of performing loops, rolls and inverted flight. The only problem with that hobby is a loss of radio signal, mechanical failure or pilot error (often called dumb thumb movement) and a model will be dropping out of the sky!
Thanks for reading my blog...
I suppose there are times in one's life where they have to kiss some asp, so my suggestion is to use a barrier of lipstick. Yeah... that's the ticket!
Life has it's ups and downs and sometimes (on good days) I feel like the organ grinder where I'm orchestrating things to my tune.
There are days when my workload is too much, especially when I get BS calls like the guy who has water damaged kitchen cabinets and wants to salvage the doors and drawers and only buy new boxes. I told him it's not worth the labor uninstall the old boxes, take out all the old parts and inventory them, install new carcasses and install the old doors and drawers to the new boxes. It's faster at the same price to purchase new.
I'm trying not to be the monkey and getting involved.
He's stopping by the office to show me what the existing doors look like and explain his part in the inventory.
Some days I feel like the grinder... and some days...
Hold on to your seats kiddies... because MANGO SEASON is just around the bend.
Grocery shopping today and mangoes from Central America around $1 each.
I found a different variety from Mexico that's $2 each.
My tree bears over 300 per season... so many I have to give most of them away!
The photo is what's coming up this season from my place.
I was hired to work as a draftsman for a cabinet manufacturer around 1977. This was right after a housing market slump. The company downsized to survive and the factory manager was doing the drafting by himself. Having me onboard allowed them to process more orders. Business picked up and within 2 years, there was enough work for another draftsman.
Enter Paul... who had worked for the company many years before. He left to start a family business that ultimately failed. When asked to return, he was pleased and accepted the offer. I was in my 20's and Paul was in his late 50's. He already knew the owners and upper management and I was warned about his temper. For the most part, there was no conflict between us, we each did our work and had a supervisor who processed the orders for us to work on.
Somewhere into my second year, I was promoted to assistant processing manager. That meant I was the person checking Paul's work... that's when I found out about the temper he had! He was conscientious about his work, but when I found mistake or decided to have him revise something he 'flew off the handle' as they say and there was always some confrontation needing a reason for the change. He was paid hourly, so it wasn't like I was asking him to redo something for free.
Paul was a tall slender man, divorced, kids, previous military experience and lots of tattoos on his arms. There wasn't anything wishy-washy about the guy but rumor was he was a weekend drag-queen at a gay nightclub and actually got paid to perform.
The factory manager knew Paul for many years... he was the rumor monger and it appeared he had nothing better to do in his life but to share things Paul told him in confidence and tell others. The story I heard was Paul lived his life as a man but was never comfortable in doing so. After going for some medical testing (to find a reason for his dilemma) they found (in addition to his working male parts) he was born with an ovary. That must have been the deciding factor for Paul to begin hormone shots as the first phase of the transition to be a woman!
Paul was wearing men's clothing but it became apparent he was sprouting breasts.
Nik-Nik shirts were in fashion and people in the office were gossiping about it. Soon after, Paul began treatments to remove tattoos and had to have his arms bandaged to avoid infection. After the tattoo removal came electrology treatments to remove facial hair. He would avoid shaving for a few days so the could see each follicle and treatments were only a few square inches at a time. That must have been a few weeks of hair removal sessions.
All of this was really superficial and the more serious changes were to come later.
Paul had the first surgery as in castration. I believe he took a vacation and went to Mexico for the procedure. From what I've read, many transsexuals don't get to that point. They take the shots, medicines or have breast implants and call themselves women! After the first surgery, he took another vacation for the second surgery where they removed his p*nis and used the skin to create a va*ina. He returned from Mexico, but had complications with bleeding and had to be hospitalized in Miami.
By then, Paul had the documents to legally have have his gender changed. This involved banking, drivers license, voter's registration.
One Monday morning, I arrived to the office and saw a purse on his desk. It was done. Paul had transformed into Paula. Women's clothing and mascara.
The amazing part of the whole episode was Paula had become the nicest person to deal with. It was though all the little things that annoyed Paul, didn't bother Paula.
Probably part of her therapy, Paula started to openly discuss the transformation, psychological adjustments as well as phasing out the memories of being Paul for the first chapter of her life. The part that mortified everyone was when the factory manager asked to be the first to 'bang her' when all the parts had healed.
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