I have been so busy at the store and at home that I haven't had time to do much creative stuff here at the blog. I enjoy writing. That is fun for me. I want to continue working on my little stories that I hope to make into a book. But I just haven't had the time to post much. I have only had time to do some quick hits by commenting.
I like commenting at Lem's place because those guys put up some interesting posts. But the recent influx of Leisure Suit Larry has made it a lot less fun. It is back to the same drivel that we had almost a year ago. You would think that when people left and stayed away from their site they would get the message and leave them alone. It is obvious that both of them post under the same handle at different times. The tone and the level of discourse is definitely very different. Why can't they stay in their own sandbox and ruin those peoples fun?
For a couple of weeks I have been enjoying posting at PreviouslyTV which is a site devoted to TV shows. They seemed to have a free and easy way about them unlike Television Without Pity which had draconian rules and where I got banned four different times. But it seems like they have tightened up now that they got popular and I am getting warnings and cautions about stupid jokes because they are politically correct tight asses like just about everyone these days. So I am dropping them as well.
It is time to hunker down and just post more stuff here. Concentrate on this and leave the rest behind. It might mean that I would post less. Or post a little and then go back and add to it later. I might start a chapter of "Joey Gallo" or "Doc Holliday" and come back to it to edit or enhance it. I have done that before but I need to concentrate on it more.
I should just go on vacation and say "Fuck it."
15 comments:
Doc and Gallo great. Reality TV, sucks. Just my opinion.
I only cashed one ticket @ Arlington today. But the weather was beautiful and Arlington attracts Chicago hotties. My bride pointed out they were all wearing black/white summer dresses. I just see tits, legs and asses.
I was supposed to leave on vacation this morning, but I'm at work because lazy shits don't want to work anymore and they quit when the busy season hits. The hidden joys of business ownership. My wife and daughter went to Hilton Head instead of the whole family going to DC.
I'm glad you have the resources to pursue your creative side.
I just hired a new girl who seems to be terrific. I am crossing my fingers that I might train her up by the end of the summer and we might be able to get away.
Otherwise I am chained to the store.
I do have some free time. Everyone does. It is what do you do with it. Watch TV? Read? Surf the Net? Facebook?
I need to utilize the time wisely.
windbag, I know the feeling of sending the family off and running the business. We small biz folks have the best work ethic of anyone.
I have plenty of free time, but actually getting away is next to impossible. Something always comes up, even with having delegated 98% to my manager. For instance, I have to go to the next county to renew our passports because our courthouse doesn't handle that anymore. So, I'm there at the courthouse, 45 minutes away, and I get a frantic call from the restaurant that a piece of equipment went down. Abandon the passport renewal and head back.
Hey, I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining. That's just my reality. Many people working in food service aren't there by choice, but by circumstance and aren't exactly self-motivated go-getters. The other day I got another frantic call...a piece of equipment wasn't working. It was the breaker. That's all, but the people didn't have the sense or concern to check out an obvious solution.
With missing this vacation (the second time in three years) it's not because of any self-delusional feelings of being indispensable, it's because we lost two cooks right in a row and my manager is about at her wits' end. I can't just breeze out and wish her well.
I'm working on a solution to all this, but I'm not sure how it will play out. Hopefully, the end result will be that I'll be free and clear from the day-to-day picayune nonsense. Hopefully.
As far as changing my priorities, I have two...my kids. Getting my son situated at NC State in a few weeks, and headed down the golden path of a career in computer engineering and helping my daughter figure out what she wants to do and getting her headed down that path are my final two priorities in life. I care about nothing else. Nothing. After those two things, I can sit on the bench and watch the clock run out. I've lost interest in everything else. Everything that has come to define who I am are things that I wouldn't choose again, given the chance to re-pick.
I think it's great when people have life-long interests and activities and are able to devote an increasing amount of time to those endeavors. I wasn't born suited for anything in particular, just hard work. It's paid off here and there, but with age, it pays off less and less, simply because I can't keep the same pace.
@nick, I agree about the work ethic. What drives that varies from individual to individual. Some for the sheer love of what they do, others for the obligations they've acquired, and still others for the cash it generates. Or some combination of those factors and others not mentioned. Regardless, working for yourself is a different critter from working for someone else. Not better or worse, just different.
Windbag ... you have your hands full if in the retail food service industry. I am always in awe of anyone who can manage that without going nuts or becoming homicidal. Next would be "retail" sales like Trooper does. I have worn the uniform, and remained affiliated as a DOD Fed, with exposure to crisis after crisis, and a few bullets, and I know that I wouldn't last a month in either of your businesses...retail food service or retail sales items.
When in a position to hire, even for technical fields, I'd look at a younger person's resume for experience in retail food service or clothing sales...even if just part time in high school or college or whatever. That experience was my indicator of "Grit" ...something I always needed around me in people.
It's too easy to ruin things on the Internet.
The Internet magnifies locusts.
I am always in awe of anyone who can manage that without going nuts or becoming homicidal.
I wish I were worthy of your awe.
I'd look at a younger person's resume for experience in retail food service or clothing sales...even if just part time in high school or college or whatever.
Smart move. Especially ones who have worked the same job through high school or through college, too, if the circumstances allow. My former emplyees who are the most successful (Ph.D. in biology/teacher/computer programmer/speech therapist) worked for me through high school and at least one summer between college. They usually outgrow this place, which is a natural progression, but the point being that they arrived with a worth ethic, perseverance, and were forward-thinking young people.
FWIW, all of the success stories I cited were women. All played sports, which is something I look for. People who play sports are accustomed to working through the rough spots and can take orders from someone other than Mommy.
Football players are an exception. They are only able to work in 15 second bursts and they require a group hug every 43 seconds. Isolation in the kitchen doesn't suit them.
The absolute hardest thing in a small business is hiring employees. It is the worst.
We just hired someone who looks pretty good. I don't know what is wrong with them yet. We have to see.
In the meantime the one we hired a couple of months ago has just been screwing up left and right. I am trying to work with her to get her to change but it is really hard to do.
Windbag .... oh, no, you and Trooper and anyone else here (that I may not realize do it) who has to deal with the General Public in accommodating fashion have earned my awe. Really. I know when there are things I cannot do...you guys do one of them. Bagoh20 does another one...jumping off cliffs hanging from a kite...uh, no, a parachute is hard enough and that kept me pucker tight for hours each time.
Most of my working career, in uniform and as a DOD "fed" involved positions of authority where I did not have to deal with the GP other than occasionally with contractors...who can try the nerves of a Saint at times, other times they make life good. Bulk of the time I had STFU authority...which spoils you.
Do that stuff every day as a restaurateur or shop keeper, for women's clothing no less, and I'd be institutionalized by now. Some of Trooper's stories leave wondering how avoided just slapping snot out of some people. :)
Some time I will relate the story of how, due to bureaucracy and a cake eater Commanding Officer, I had to hire "Larry, Moe, & Curly" to crew a seagoing tug instead of multiple Army or USCG or USN crews I had access up and down the Atlantic Coast. Our Chief of Contracting Division had to physically restrain me when "Moe" of the crew showed up demanding I give him 2500 gallons of diesel that he'd left in the vessel. That Chief was a beautiful black woman who always looked like she stepped from a Channel Catalog, so I didn't mind a bit...and I even listened.
Did I mention that beautiful women, whether physically or intellectually, can almost always have their way with me? No? Good. Don't tell anyone...they might call me a bigot.
Real reason is that my first instinct if I disagree with a woman is not to want to slap snot out of them. About 90% of the time I find women as managers have not lost the ability for rational thought. YMMV
That, and they generally smell better than the average guy :-))
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