August 2007

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Kasee

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SSgt. John T. Self
29 years old from Pontotoc, Mississippi
314th Security Forces Squadron
May 14, 2007

A kindhearted patriot. That’s how SSgt. John Self was described by those who knew him. “John was a good boy, a good boy who loved his country and who loved Christ and for that he’ll move on to a better place,” said Laron Self, Sgt. Self’s grandfather, fighting back tears.
SSgt. Self was killed, and three other airmen wounded, when an IED hit the Humvee they were traveling in while on his 79th patrol in Baghdad, Iraq. “John volunteered for this deployment while he was deployed to (Southwest Asia),” said Chief Master Sgt. Keith Morris, 314th SFS security forces manager. “We discussed this deployment via e-mail. He said he made his decision to deploy again to gain experience.”
“He could always find the humor in anything regardless of the situation,” said Senior Airman Daniel Hunsperger, a member of Self’s fire team. “He believed in everything he did. This was obvious to us after learning he had only spent two weeks home between his last deployment and volunteering for this one.”
On May 23, SSgt. Self was laid to rest with a crowd of hundreds to pay their respects. People lined both sides of the highway for more than 5 miles waving flags as the hundred-car procession traveled to the burial. Shouts of, “We love you John,” and “Thank you, John, could be heard as the train of cars passed by. “That’s a hero,” Susan Chambers, one of the many mourners, said to her son as she pointed at Self’s casket.

I have meetings tomorrow afternoon in Oxford, Alabama at 4 PM central time after my normal daily stuff. Normally I don’t get home until 9 PM or so on the days that I have my Alabama meetings. That’s one thing I am learning to truly hate about having more than one store. Normally I could get out of the meetings as a manager and maybe go to 10 or 12 a year but now it’s at least one a week and sometimes two or three. Damn. All the time we spend in meetings we could probably drum up all sorts of business just by hanging out in the stores.

I can’t kid myself though. Most of the meetings are held after first shift during the time when I would normally be at home anyway, which is exactly where I would be tomorrow if I didn’t have to drive to Alabama.

I received a phone call from one of my managers about Two this morning. Of course I didn’t answer but checked my voice mail first thing this morning. Had it been from either of the other two I probably would have picked up the phone but this is from the guy that can’t wipe his bum without calling me fifty times today.

Apparently he had been getting calls from his employees all night long and had spent half the night at the store. I honestly think he’s lying and just wants to call in on me. For one thing, in the four months that he has worked for me his employees have never been able to get in touch with him before when they need him. He just doesn’t bother answer his calls and they normally end up calling me. He left some rambling voice mail about the bathroom door being locked and they didn’t know what to do and then he goes on to explain that he didn’t know what to do because he didn’t know how to handle it.

I didn’t even bother to call him, although I will call shortly to make sure his ass is out of bed and on the way to work. Why is common sense so uncommon?

Time to go to work I suppose.

Almost forgot to post this today…

(more…)

…take a dump that felt so good it was like a mystical experience and tears streamed down your face?

Me either. Just wondering.

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I hate my employees at times. I am at my busier store today and tomorrow and usually the people there are pretty good about showing up for work and on time. Quite a few of the ‘veterans’ there I have trained over the years or they know how I am about people that are late or don’t show up, so they have kind of spread the word.

It’s not that I don’t doubt that the guy is sick, but as far as I am concerned, you don’t call in two hours prior to your shift unless you are on the way to the fricking hospital. 90% of the time that I wake up feeling like crap byt the time I am at work or at the very least halfway through my day I don’t feel as bad as I did. I guess that’s just the hourly mentality in this guy. “Oh, I can’t come in, I have a cold sore wah wah wah”.

I’ve been in a pretty foul mood all weekend and it has sort of carried over to today if you couldn’t tell.

I was already pissed off because I had to sit in a meeting until five this evening because the food cost is out of line at two of my stores. I am having a hard time tracking it because my managers aren’t doing their job, so I get to sit in this damn thing every Monday for awhile.