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.