What a Wonderful Day

I live for days like today. Sunny, very pleasant temperature and no rain. I realize that rain is needed for things to grow but we have had so very much in the past few months. I work a portion of my day outside, sometimes on ladders working up on cable lines and while I love this job to death, rain makes that part of it a bit unpleasant.

It also makes for some rough driving since so many people do not understand that when the weather gets bad you need to slow down because your car is not the same in rain, snow or ice as it is on dry pavement.

Technorati Tags: weather

Christmas shopping

 

I appreciate the guest post, Ignacio Phillips

In general, I’m not a big fan of advertisements for Christmas coming on direct TV when Halloween has barely passed by, but there is one thing I do appreciate about it – it reminds me to get a jump on present shopping so I don’t have to wait until the last minute. However, there’s only so much I can do ahead of time, especially since my sister and I do a large part of our shopping together, but live in different cities. We typically put our heads together on presents for both our parents and stepparents. Also, my mom is really big on stockings and is, in my opinion, the best stocking stuffer that I have ever met. My sister and I feel as if she needs to have an equally awesome stocking, so we wait until we get home to our parents’ house and get things together for that on Christmas Eve. Now, my mom starts shopping for stuffers way back in the spring and summer, so there’s no way that our efforts can hold a candle to hers. We have to give it a solid try though.

Did Everyone Have a Safe Halloween?

 

This post is a bit late but I was thinking last night about my trip home from work Halloween night.

So many areas handle it so very differently. As I was driving through the city, in some of the poorer neighborhoods, the kids were out in force and seemed to be having a great time but there did not seem to be nearly as much adult supervision as there should have been. People darting in and out from between parked cars, after dark and many in dark costumes, is a recipe for disaster.

I drive a work vehicle and as soon as I saw what was going on I probably irritated the drivers behind me because I dropped my speed way down and put on my four way flashers and the caution beacon on top of the truck.

I was able to relax a bit once out of the city and driving through the country although some caution was needed every time I came across a cluster of houses.

The best handled trick or treat was a small country town that I pass through on the way home. They had electronic flares along the center line of the road the length of town. There were emergency vehicles at every major intersection and fire fighters in reflective gear at the other cross streets to protect the kids.

It is amazing how trick or treat can be handled in such an incredibly different way by municipalities no more than 10 – 15 miles apart.

Technorati Tags: Holiday,Halloween,Safety,Trick or Treat

The Occupy Movement. Are They Right?

 

The biggest problem with the occupy movement is that they have no real leadership to bring a focus on the goals.

With folks out yelling and waving signs it gets rather difficult to make out exactly what they want but I believe that I know.

They want jobs that pay well instead of the jobs that are offered now. Corporations are making record profits while offering lower and lower wages. This is the real problem over the years that caused a part of this trouble.

The wealthy were getting more and more wealthy, prices were increasing but salaries were staying flat so it became necessary for people to start using credit more and more to try and maintain a reasonable standard of living.

I do not expect anyone to be paid a lot just because they exist but there are millions of people out there that are absolutely critical to the day to day operations of many companies that are getting paid minimum wage or perhaps a tiny bit more.

This is because there are so many people looking for work that they can get anyone to do the job. The problem with that is that to some degree you get what you pay for and if you do not pay much???

There is no respect whatsoever for experience any longer and the government is just adding to that by paying lip service to the fact that there are companies that are not hiring the long unemployed or those that are older but they are not actually doing anything about it.

I am not a big fan of heavy regulations but for gods sake folks some regulations to keep things at least more or less in balance would be helpful.

I think most of the angst from the occupy folks is that they see us going back to the robber baron days of old.