Kids These Days.

Kids!
I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
Kids!
They a disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject:
Kids!
You can talk and talk till your face is blue!
Kids!
But they still just do what they want to do!

Lyrics by Lee Adams, music by Charles Strouse.
From the musical Bye Bye Birdie.


Nice picture,huh? No that was not done by Jack Nicholson in The Shining. It was done by 22 year old, I hesitate to call him a man, Robert Tuttle of Englewood,Florida. Why did he do it? According to his mother, he lives at home, he had been drinking when around midnight he got violent. He grabbed an axe and destroyed the kitchen before taking the axe to his bedroom door. Tuttle also took a swing at his mother, but fortunately she was able to dodge the blow. He then forced his mother into his bedroom and forced her to watch movies with him. After he passed out she was able to call police. Officers found a sword, an expandable baton, and some marijuana. An arrest was made and Tuttle is being held without bond.

When I read that I thought it was a sad tale but not blog worthy. Then I ran across a similar story, again in Florida, this time in Fort Meyers. 17 year old Rachel Anne Hachero seemed to have every thing going for her. She was an honor student, had been written about in the local paper, and had been accepted by several Ivy League schools. I would not be surprised if that acceptance becomes denial. Ms Hachero wanted a 2004 Nissan 305Z and wanted her mother to co-sign for it. Mom refused and was threatened with death. Rachel then acquired a pistol, pistol-whipped mom and forced her to co-sign for the car. Mom later searched Rachel's purse, got the gun and found some drugs in it. She called the police but did not want to press charges. The police disagreed and arrested Rachel.

That is part of the problem with kids today. Nobody holds them accountable, especially their parents. I remember my Dad telling us that if we ever got into trouble he would stand by us, but we would have to face the consequences of our actions. Sometimes tough love is called for. It is never nice, but necessary.

Baseball Card Tuesday.

Tuesdays are normally my busiest days. It is the start of my weekend and almost every Tuesday I go to Dalton and pick up my comic books. From now on I will use this day to post a few of my favorite baseball cards. Today's theme is down on the farm. Above you see Rex Hudler demonstrating his milking skills. Nice to have something to rely on after your baseball days are over.


It looks like Orel Hershiser is getting ready to feed the cows. Actually I am not sure what he is doing, but I like this picture.

Don't Try This At Home.

As I sit here typing this post I am looking at the second toe of my right foot. It has turned a very interesting shade of purple. Why is it that color? Before I tell you, I have a piece of advice for you. If on your bucket list you have "run over your toe with a pallet jack," trust me and scratch that from the list. (If you don't know what a pallet jack is, look at the picture.) It is not the first time that I have done that. No, I did not tell anyone at work. It is not broke and I am not the type who runs to a doctor every time he has a little boo-boo. Even though it would not have not cost me anything to go, I do not see the sense in making my employer pay. My toe will be sore for awhile, but it is nothing that I can't handle.

I am not accident prone, but things do happen. I have gone to the doctor three times in all the time that I have worked retail. The first was when I was working in receiving at Kmart. A stack of bleach fell and some splashed in my eye. It was a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The second time I was still at Kmart but working in a different store. I was stocking and when I bent down to put the merchandise out my head hit the corner of the shelf and I started bleeding. I went into the restroom to check it out. I had a cyst on my head which was the spot that hit and was bleeding. Since I could see the cyst I grabbed it and pulled it out. The reason for seeing the doctor was to make sure that there would be no infection from removing that. The doctor said it looked fine but the cyst might grow back. (To stay on subject I will talk a little more about that at the end of this post.) The third time I was working for my current employer. I was pushing a pallet of meat into the cooler. Pallets come in shrink-wrapped but this one was wrapped poorly. A 50 pound case of hamburger fell off and hit me in the head. I was looking down because it was a narrow area and I was guiding the pallet in. I had a severe headache and after about an hour I was getting a little dizzy, so I figured I had better get it checked out. The doctor found what I have known all along, there was nothing there.

Working in retail there are always little things that happen, but rarely anything serious. When I was receiving manager, my motto was if you haven't bled at least once during the day, you aren't doing it right. Most of what happens are cuts, either from paper or using the box cutters which have razor blades. The cuts from box cutters are 95% carelessness or overconfidence.

My toe was hurt because I wasn't paying attention. I had pulled a pallet out of the freezer. Had I been looking behind me I would have noticed a cart. When I ran into it I turned around to see what it was. The pallet kept rolling and my toe paid the price. Oh well, as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. When my toe heals I do not plan on trying this again to see if it is stronger.

The doctor was correct about the cyst, it did come back. I had had it for years but never had it checked. There was no pain involved, although the cyst would get larger and then shrink. That is probably why it opened when I hit it. I had a habit of running my fingers over it while I was reading online. One night when I was feeling it it felt like there was an opening on top of it. I started squeezing on it and got a little blood but mainly a clear liquid. I kept working on it and managed to pull it out again. That was nine years ago and it has not returned.

Overreactions.

A few days ago a man in San Antonio, Texas, went through the drive-thru of a Taco Bell. He ordered 7 of the Beefy Crunch Burritos. When he was informed the price of those had risen 50 cents, his response was to pull a gun and take a shot at the manager. He then pulled up from the drive-thru and put another pistol and a rifle on the roof of his car. The manager locked the doors and called the police. The man took off and was stopped two miles away. He gets out of the car with the rifle. Shots are fired,(not by him. We'll get to that in a minute) and he takes off to a motel where he is living. After a 3 hour stand off tear gas is shot into his room and he is captured. The guns he had were air guns, which explains why he did not return fire. A window was shot out of one of the police cars, but since no BB's were recovered at the scene our suspect is off the hook for that. If the burrito price increase set him off like that, I wonder how he handled the rising gas prices.

The second overreaction took place in Ocala, Florida, when shots were fired because a man refused to kiss a woman. They were neighbors and the woman had developed an infatuation with the man. She was furious when he told her he had a girlfriend and when she demanded a kiss he turned her down. She went to her place, grabbed a pistol and returned. the man had gone inside his home by that time and was not aware she was there. Her tale is she intended to shoot his car but instead put 4 bullets into his house, one of which narrowly missed him. The ages of these people? He is 53 and she is 92. A true case of the fury of a woman scorned.

To borrow from Monty Python, now for something completely different. The last few days at work I was telling everyone that I could not work Tuesday or Wednesday night of this week. Inventory is this morning and overtime had been authorized to prepare for it. My joke was I couldn't work because I had plans, I had to wash my hair. A quick look at my picture and you can see how serious that is. Of course, almost everyone got a good laugh at that. Almost. One woman who overheard me tell someone else said, "Well, I wash my hair twice a day." Some people need to get a sense of humor.

Irony 2.

Monday the picture that I chose said feel better now. Shortly after I posted that I began to get sick. Just a cold, minor sore throat, and a runny nose that contines to stay two steps ahead of me. If you have stock in paper products I am making you a fortune from using facial tissues. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow. This getting sick on my days off is getting old.

Sanity Restored.

A month ago I mentioned that I had lost my mind. I have mentioned that I did not get the managers job and I really am alright with it. However, at the risk of sounding like a spoiled child who didn't get his way, I will never again apply for a managers job. The fact that I didn't get the job is not the problem. My beef is the system used to make the selection.

The interview process consists of the candidate being asked four questions. Those questions cover your experience and how you have dealt with situations and with personnel issues. Each candidate is asked the same four questions. Should someone inadvertently be asked a different question, the other two must be given that question. That is the system. Experience does not count, just your response. I am not interested in going through with that again.

So where does that leave me? Transferring is an option, but the cost of gas has put that plan on hold. Right now I am in a wait and see mode. Lately I have been working more out of frozen and dairy which is what I want. Inventory is Thursday and then I will put in another request to be moved. I'll just take it one step at a time and we will see what happens.

Sunday Song.

This is one of my top 5 favorite Blue Oyster Cult songs.

Things Not To Say To The Police 2.

Well that didn't take long. A man in Sandusky, Ohio called 911 to complain that he was being held captive against his will. Who was his captors? The local police of course. Joseph Walsh had been arrested outside a bar in Sandusky. He would not calm down so the officers handcuffed him to a holding cell so he wouldn't harm himself. While there he placed his call using his cellphone. Now he also faces charges of misusing the 911 system. Mr Walsh is pictured below.



In another jail story, corrections officers in Lake County, California smelled marijuana coming from one of their cells. Searching the cell they found not only marijuana but a cell phone, an MP3 player, ear bud headphones, tobacco, and $140 in cash. How did they get into the cell? They were smuggled in inside the inmate. I'll bet that was painful coming out. That is the second story like this in the past month. Last month a man in Sarasota, Florida was found with a condom placed inside his body. Inside the condom was 17 round blue pills, one cigarette, six matches, one flint, one empty syringe with an eraser over the needle, one lip balm container, one additional unused condom, a receipt from CVS, and a coupon inside of the condom. Why the receipt and coupon is anybodies guess.

Not An Urban Legend.

I love urban legends and the way that people swear they are true. Of course when you ask for the facts they heard it from someone who knew someone whose third cousin had a babysitter that it actually happened too. Of course today it comes in an email that gets passed around. Anytime I hear something that doesn't quite ring true I check out Snopes.com to find out the real tale.

I have a friend in Illinois who I talk to every week. He doesn't have the internet so he is always giving me things to look up. He had heard a tale on the NPR show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, that sounded like a classic urban legend. A flight attendant was fired for putting a baby in the overhead storage compartment. I knew that Snopes had not covered that because I have their RSS feed on my homepage, so I did a search and amazingly I found out the story was true. On a Virgin Blue flight from Fiji to Sydney a father was playing peek-a-boo with his 17 month old son when a male flight attendant picked up the boy, put him in the compartment, and closed the door. The flight attendant has been fired.

The story takes a turn here. The mother claims that she was traumatized because of the incident, her husband was shocked, and the baby is suffering from anxiety and withdrawal. The baby has seen various specialists since the incident. Can you say doctor shopping? Can you say lawsuit? I knew you could. The most shocking thing about this incident is they are Australians, not Americans. I am sure there will be a settlement out of court but in my opinion this woman is going a little overboard here. I believe her husband agrees because they have separated.

Things Not To Say To The Police.

There have been a lot of instances in the last few months of people abusing the 911 system. I am not going back to document old stories but anything new I will comment on. The only thing that I will say about the old stories is if your order is not correct at McDonalds, don't expect the police to correct it for you.

Today's tale comes from East Hartford, Connecticut where Antonio Recinos had a complaint. He felt he had been short changed. What was he shorted on? Cocaine, of course. He called 911 to register his complaint. Before going into detail he had a better idea. He saw an officer so he went up to him to tell his tale. He showed the officer the bag of cocaine and told him he should have recieved more cocaine for what he had paid for it. Of course this got him a free trip to jail. His mug shot is below.

Hard Boiled Eggs, Anyone?

When I started this blog in November 2007 the fourth and fifth posts were about disgusting foods. Some people consider hard boiled eggs disgusting, but many do like them. Personally they are not my favorite, but turn them into deviled eggs and I like them. So what makes them disgusting? The way there are prepared in the province of Zhejiang, China. There they boil them in urine. The eggs are considered a delicacy, and supposedly will stop fevers and revive you if you are feeling sluggish. Incidentally the urine that is used comes from boys 10 years old and younger. It is collected in schools. You can read more about it here and here.

Onto another food topic, but this time not disgusting. Do you eat fat free desserts? Some researchers are starting to conclude that fat free is worse for you than the regular versions. It seems that the process used to make it fat free involves chemicals that can be more harmful than they realized. I have always felt that fat free translated into taste free. The key has always been moderation which is the hardest thing to do. There is no miracle pill that will shed the pounds, and the fad diets will work in the short term but once you stop you go right back to your original weight if not heavier. My doctor keeps after me to drop some weight. I am struggling with that so we will see how it goes. If anyone suggests a boiled egg diet I might be tempted to tell them, if not show them, what they can do with that diet.

A Blessing In Disguise.

From what I have seen I am now very glad that I did not get my promotion. I actually feel sorry for the new manager. She is in over her head and is not getting any guidance for the job. Basically she is learning to swim by being dropped in the middle of the pool. There is no animosity on my part, in fact I am doing as much for her as I can. A lot of mistakes have been made recently and I correct all that I can, even though technically it is not part of my job. Most are simple fixes that should never have happened to start with.

I have never understood that attitude it's not my job. As long as I am on the time clock, I will do whatever is needed. There are certain places I would rather not work, such as fashions, but I have done it before. One of the longest hours that I spent working was when I was sent to the infants department to help straighten. The baby food and diapers were not bad, but having to refold the clothes and sort them out almost drove me crazy. (Of course some would argue that wasn't possible considering that I am already crazy.) The only thing that I have done that was worse was the morning that I was sent to cover the electronics department. I had to be there because that is where all phone calls are routed to until 7:00, when they are transferred to the person watching the dressing rooms. All the freight was out and everything was straightened, so all I had to do was stand around. Some would have enjoyed that, but I'm not one of them.

I could be wrong, but I really don't think our new manager will last more than six months. I have decided that I am no longer interested in the position. We have a career preference page so that when a position opens up that we have checked we are immediately on the list of candidates. Last night I took myself out of the running for the Frozen Foods/Dairy job. This was not done out of spite for not getting the job. I have come to my senses and I don't need the stress.

Sunday Song.

I wanted a time themed song for today. My other choice would have been Chicago's Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Fozzie Hatchet.

No Promotion.

The decision has been made for the new frozen foods/dairy manager position at my employer and the person is not me. Of course this has left me terribly depressed. I threw myself out the window of my apartment, but I am on the ground floor. I turned on the gas but that didn't work real well since all my appliances are electric. In M*A*S*H they claimed suicide is easy. Can I sue for false advertisement?

Seriously, I am not too terribly upset about the decision. I wanted the job, but inventory is less than two weeks away and there is a lot that needs to be done before then. It now is somebody elses headache. Another positive aspect is now I will not have to do any of the last minute preparations. Inventory is on a Thursday morning and I am off that day. It works for me.

I still am going to try and do something else after inventory. I need something a little less physically demanding. We will see what happens.

Star Wars High Heels.

There is my kind of fashion statement.

I was on the go all day today and now I am going to bed. Good night.

How Did You Catch Me?

Some shoplifters are extremely sly and hard to catch in the act. Others are, to borrow a phrase I heard James Garner use when he was playing Bret Maverick, about twelve biscuits shy of a dozen. One of those was caught in the Rome, Georgia Wal-Mart. He attempted to leave through the garden center with a few things hidden in his pants. What was he trying to steal? A rotisserie chicken, some hot wings, a mouth guard and two toothbrushes. How he thought that wouldn't be noticed is amazing. Secondly, those chickens are kept hot so that must have been extremely uncomfortable. Am I shocked to hear about this? Not really. I have seen so much of this type of stupidity I just shake my head.

Last night when I was sorting out a pallet of frozen foods I saw something that made me smile. Some cookies that went to to the bakery department were labeled "sugar free and no sugar added." It was very reassuring to know that.

Irony.

Last Wednesday I wrote about my employers social media policy. After I posted that I read about a news story that struck me as being very ironic to my employers (and several others) policies. I debated about whether or not I should mention it. I waffled more on that issue than a presidential candidate. I finally decided, obviously, to tackle the issue.

The Supreme Court decided that the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church are protected by the first amendment. Basically it is alright for them to shove their hate-filled message down the throats of anyone that they choose, yet if certain people blog about their employer they run the risk of termination. Where is the justice in that? As the saying goes, life isn't fair. To reiterate my position, I am not upset about the blogging policy of my employer. I have no plans of writing anything negative about them anyway.

As for the Westboro Baptist Church, I was not surprised about the courts decision. One of the great things about this country is you are freely allowed to express your opinion. In some countries you can be executed for expressing disapproval with the leadership. The WBC may be legally right with what they do, but they are morally wrong with their actions. That is another irony to this, a so-called religious group being on the wrong side of a moral issue. I am not sure if the phrase is still used as much, but a few years ago Christians were exhorted to think before they acted and ask themselves, 'What would Jesus do?' I really don't think he would be going to funerals telling people their loved ones were going to Hell. They do this for publicity. What would happen if we just acted like they weren't there? Maybe that would be the way to get rid of them.

Job update: I was interviewed Sunday morning for the job. There were 11 candidates and 3 will be interviewed. I was the first. The decision will be made after the other two have had their interviews, so I am not sure when that will happen.

The 300 Million Dollar Man.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. You are actually seeing a picture of a St. Louis Cardinal on a blog by a die-hard Cubs fan. Most likely this will be Albert Pujols' final season with the Cardinals and the Cubs are one of the teams mentioned for his next destination. That however is not why I bring him up. The major stumbling block to his signing with the Cardinals was the fact he wanted a 10 year contract worth $30 million a year. Personally I do not want to see the Cubs give him that much money. Mr. Pujols is 31 years old. I think it would be ridiculous to pay him $30 million at age 41. Problems can crop up when you give big long term contracts. (cough*Alfonso Soriano*cough.)

The real reason for this post is some of the comments made about Albert. Originally I was going to call this post 'Hyperbole', but the statements made about him do not quite fit the definition. According to dictionary.com, hyperbole is "

obvious and intentional exaggeration." The statement that more than one sportswriter has said is that Mr. Pujols is the greatest hitter of all time. The reason I am saying that this is not hyperbole is I believe that they are serious, not making an intentional exaggeration. I will concede he is the best hitter currently playing, but to call him the greatest of all time is premature at best. In my opinion, he is not the greatest hitter the Cardinals have ever had. That honor would belong to Stan Musial. Pujols and Musial have the same lifetime batting average, .331, but Albert has only played 10 years while Stan compiled that over a 22 year career. The funniest statement I read was in the comments on one of the articles about Pujols' not signing when some fan made the statement that "Alberto Pujols is a better hitter than Gwynn, Ripken, Helton, Jackson, Ruth, Gehrig, and Boggs together." To quote Dr.Evil, "Right." Pujols is good, but he is not the greatest.

Social Media.

When I made my return I mentioned that I had changed my name and would no longer mention my employer by name because they have a policy in effect covering social media. In the comments Winthrop J Quiggy said:

OK, I have a question. What would the great evil empire do to you if you happened to mention their name in a post? (I won't even mention the fact that its just slightly disturbing that they would have a work force of people whose job is only to monitor the social media...)

My answer was:

There is nothing in writing and there is a possibility that it is nothing more than an empty threat, but the implication is that you use a public forum to speak ill of them, you will be given the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere. They are extremely image conscious and want to present a wholesome image, not unlike another company ran by a Mouse. I am not going to reread all of my posts, but I usually am a company standard bearer and speak highly of them. Some of their employees are total morons, but I don't hold them responsible for that. I think I will stop the sermon here and work on this theme. I will continue it on Monday.

I really don't have a problem with them having this policy. Like I said, I am a supporter, not a detractor. They are not a perfect company, but that creature doesn't exist. My employer gets enough bad press and they don't want their employees adding to that. Other employers have this type of policy. I read a couple of blogs from people in the restaurant industry and they face the same restrictions. In fact one of them was actually fired because of blogging. (The title of this blog may be NSFW.) He is working somewhere else and they also have a policy about it. The Darden restaurant chain also has a strict policy in effect. I won't post a link to that blog because it definitely is NSFW. There are plenty of other topics to talk about, and when I want to I will talk about work. I just won't mention them by name.

As for my attempt to get back into management, absolutely nothing has happened. No one has the job and so far there have been no interviews. Something needs to happen soon because inventory is in three weeks. There is a lot of preparation needed to be ready for it. I'll keep you posted.

A Busy Day.

I was going to do a post today about social media, but I have been busy. I am going to bed and tomorrow I'll discuss my employers decision about social media. I hope you like the picture.