Payback is a....

OK, someone up above has a sense of humor. I am always complaining about people who do not use their turn signals. It is one of my pet peeves. Well, today I think all the time spent behind someone not using a turn signal has evened out. I tried to drive to the other side of INDY today and I got behind three (3) different people who left their turn signals on. I mean, block after block of not knowing when this person was going to turn. FINALLY I got past him, and my blood pressure starts to decline when someone turns onto MY road and the signal does not go off. I am talking about 5 minutes after I got around the first one. Not again. So I follow this old lady about 3 miles when she finally does turn the way she had been signaling. And finally on my way back home a dump truck gets in front of me with his signal flashing. That does not happen for very long, because I can not stand a dump truck being in front of me so I just pass him through a double yellow line, I do not want and can not afford a broken window from following behind a dump truck.

TUESDAY

This morning before going, just after the kids left for school, I walked through the house and turned off 14 of the 17 lights you could have on in our house. I do not know how they all got turned on. This morning when I woke up, no lights were on. I think Noah or Josiah just goes around and turns lights on just to see how I react. You see, before I was laid off I would just turn them off and not say anything, but now, since the money is TIGHT, I have to mention to everyone that I am turning off a light. I know a lot of them are mine. Like right now, I am typing this in the living room with a light on. My house is so bright that I can not even tell the light is on. (just jumped up and turned it off). What else.....Oh yea, Josiah does not know how to shut a door. He is 12! Refrigerator, Garage door, front door, it does not matter. If he gets the milk out for cereal he leaves the door open the whole time he is making his breakfast, unless Susie or I mention it to him.

we have started recycling plastics. I decided to start slow and just do plastics. Well, it is amazing how much plastic we go through in a week. Then I go to throw it out at the recycling dumpster and it is so full that I can not get another thing in. I am tempted to just toss the junk, but I drive to another recycling dumpster and toss it in. OK, I saved the EARTH but I drove 10 extra miles to do so. Is it a push? Does the junk I put in the air by driving extra = the amount of landfill space? who cares? At least I got those lights turned off!

The Job Search

This is not fun!! Just thought I would let you all (2 of you) know that from the start. I have no degree, not yet at least, so I can not even get in the door to interview. I have no experience in supervising people, so I can not get in the door to interview. It does not matter that I get my degree in april and I have a 3.92 gpa. It does not matter that I have not learned anything new in my college studies since I have been living this stuff for the past 20+ years. I applied for a manufacturing supervisors postition. I could not even get an interview because I had not supervised people before. I guess my time as a sergeant in the Army taking care of troops does not count as supervision even though I had these kids for 24 hours a day and we were training for war not producing a product. I guess that was awhile ago but they did not even take into consideration that I have worked in high speed manufacturing for the past 19 years. I was a team leader the last year and I carried my supervisor for the past 3 years. I was in charge of quality and NCM in my department. All of this can not get you in the door, but the same guys who cannot make it at one place can go to another and get a job just because they have "experience". People may say that UNIONS have ruined American manufacturing, I say that is a factor but not the factor. HR people who have abandoned common sense for "paperwork" are as much to blame. When I got to Navistar the best supervisors I had were from the floor. The ones that drifted from place to place on "experience" were usually terrible.



OK my rant is done.......have a great day!

A political minute

OK, so I have no idea who I am voting for in November. I have watched both conventions and still have no idea. I like some of what Obama says and some of what Palin said last night. I really am not too enthused about McCain and Biden. I am tired of business as usual. I am tired of the two party system, with no one trying to make any headway into the real issues of today. I know first hand we are not moving in the right direction on the domestic front. I know that even though unemployment is low, there are not a lot of "good" jobs out there. The middle class base is shrinking. People are hurting. Schools should be teaching not preparing for tests. They should not be using the kids as fund raisers. Spending money on swimming pools, football fields and the like and not having enough money to hire new teachers when class rooms get too big. Houses are being foreclosed, people are filing for bankruptcy, bills are not getting paid. The big ticket items such as abortion and marriage are important but they are not the only issues. Actually, Like Joe Lieberman said, those issues can be put on the backburner when it comes to the real issues of today. Maybe (but unlikely) this year with people like Lieberman and Palin we can get people talking about the real things. The things that heal a nation not divide it.

I guess I wish it was Obama vs Palin. The issues would then rise to the top.

long day in Johnson County

Went to Franklin again this Tuesday. It is the home of Tuesday's Miracle. Long story, but free organic foods are given away. People get tickets starting at 7:30 am and recieve a time of 12, 1 or 2pm to get in line to get the food. I usually get there @ 8:30 and get a ticket for 2pm. Then I stay there all day. It is nice, I get a nap, do homework and catch up on my reading. I basically stay in line for 5 hours for some free food. It would not be worth it to drive home and back. It works for me. The cool thing is you never know what you will get. But, back to the wait. It is funny how I will wait forever for this but I have a hard time when two people are in front of me at Kroger.

Not so funny story from last time I was there. A lady was in front of me in her van with three children under 5. Those kids did great most of the time. But they were kids. Well in their not so good times she would yell at them. I mean really lay into them. I really had to bite my tongue. I was thinking dang lady, you brought them here, kept them in a van for 5 hours and are mad when they cry about it. It's one of those times when you would love to tell her what you really thought. But, I guess I do not know what is happening in her life. AND I have yelled at my kids but usually when no one can hear me.

On a different note, I am thinking about joining the National Guard. Yeah, you heard me right! I spent 5 years in the ARMY so it would be only 15 more to get retirement. I loved it when I was in. I have to lose about 40 pounds first, so if you see me with a cheeseburger in my hand smack me. I don't know, just a thought at this point.

Random Pictures

(some new/some old)

Noah third grade (2008)

Josiah in Middle School

6th grade (2008)