December 2007

Another Day…

rmiles7721December 23, 2007Parenting/Family

…another dollar, or at least 50 cents.

My brother and his family should be arriving at some point this morning. They called last night and said they were on the way, so I don’t know what time they will be here. Particularly with the rain that has been pretty persistent over the last 24 hours they may have been delayed a bit.

Rain?

Yep, thank goodness. We certainly need it right now. Not that a couple of days of rain is going to fix things here but it certainly won’t hurt. It would actually take about three months of steady rain to get the water table back to where it needs to be, but every bit we get over this winter will help to alleviate the drought once it starts getting warm again.

I am spending the day again at my busiest store. With tomorrow being Christmas Eve, the Wal-Mart is sure to be pretty busy which means that I will as well. We have a bit of prep work to finish up today and tomorrow. Most of it is stuff that is going to have to wait until tomorrow anyway at least. I told them to wait until then to do salads and tomatoes. I will go cut them myself at all three stores in the morning since they would get mushy doing them too early. Most of the managers will be very busy tomorrow so I need to make sure to finish any last minute items.

…

Toward the end of the summer I noticed that we apparently have mice. Over the last few weeks the cat has caught several of the damned thing. Mostly babies but that means that somewhere around here is the momma. Good cat. Better than my plan. I am the kind of guy that would wander the house and pick them off with a .357 but for some reason shooting holes in the floor just doesn’t seem like a real good idea. That and the fact that the local police seem to frown on shooting up houses in my area. I don’t know. One of those things I guess.

…

Got the paper towel holders installed in the restrooms at work recently. With the changes in law that the state implemented we are required to have paper towel holders so that people can use them to open the door with. After you wash your hands when you touch the door you have re-contaminated yourself with someone else’s feces. Nice thought this early in the morning. Next thing you know I will be required to install wipes in my restrooms. Actually the paper towels are a great idea, unfortunately what happens is that customers tend to shove them in the toilet and clog it up. My how I would love to come visit them at their houses…

Glavine’s Back…

rmiles7721December 22, 2007Site News

I haven’t been keeping up with the news about the Brave lately or I obviously would have seen that Tom Glavine has signed a one year contract to come back and play with the Braves. That kicks ass. I really like Tom Glavine and was sorry to see talks break down with the Braves and have him leave for the Mets five years ago.

The move back to the Atlanta Braves is actually a cut in pay for him prompted because of the simplest things. He wants to be near his family and was willing to take a pay cut in order to do it. I can certainly understand that, not that he has to worry about his salary. Even with the pay cut the contract he signed was $8 million for one year. Damn. Obviously I am making more now that I have several restaurants but that’s still 10 times my last twenty years of salary.

Getting Debate Videos on my Phone

rmiles7721December 22, 2007Technology

I did a write-up on Avot mV and their official blog a couple of months ago and what they had to offer mobile users. Since then the site has really improved and now they also have the political debates that have taken place recently on Avot mV channels. There are channels for republican ads as well as another one for democratic candidates.

If you want to check it out from your PC prior to using it on your mobile phone they have a desktop PC widget on the website so you can see what kind of videos are available. What’s cool is that you should be able to access the site not only from Pocket PC/SmartPhones and iPhones but regular mobile browsers as well, such as the one included with the Motorola Razr. I just tried it from my wife’s Razr and it worked very well, particularly since Verizon has recently expanded their broadband area so that I can access it from my house. No more 2400 baud speeds when I am on the Internet from my phone. Very sweet.

I had a few issues connecting to the site tonight from my phone, apparently Verizon has a DNS server down or something, but I have been able to get to the site using both Pocket IE as well as Opera Mini. The nice thing about using the Samsung that I will most likely replace in the next two months is the slider QWERTY keyboard. It makes getting to the site even better because I can view it in landscape mode.

Anyway, Avot mV is for mobile users what Youtube is for PCs. It allows me to have unlimited access to any web based video. Supposedly I should be able to play videos from Youtube and MySpace on my phone but I always seem to have problems and until earlier this evening I have never had one accessing Avot mV. You can check out their product site to get more information about Avot mV and what they have to offer. Their corporate site offers more insight into the technology behind the streaming video services offered as well as news updates.

One of the cool things is that it’s easy to search videos, just by typing a few characters to go on rather than full titles and words. You can also personalize the video listings based on your preferences, organize them into playlists and use Avot mV’s integrated messaging features to share your videos with your friends and family members. Did I mention it’s free? Yeah, that’s right. Obviously it’s going to use whatever air or data time you have set up for your plan, in my case I already pay for an unlimited data plan because of email so it really is free. It works on most carriers including support for 3G, EDGE, EV-DO, and WiFi.

Radiskull Hate Snow…

rmiles7721December 22, 2007Entertainment

I came across Joe Sparks’ work back around ’99 or 2000 and I never get tired of the Radiskull and Devil Doll cartoons. The are hilarious.

There are links to all eight of the episodes at Joe Sparks’ home page. This is the third one. Go check out all eight of them if you get the chance. They are pretty good for a laugh.

What a Day…

rmiles7721December 22, 2007Parenting/Family

The Marine just got home from the movies. He and a friend went out to the movies and dinner and are both staying here tonight, most likely to play the X-Box 360 all night. He still hasn’t gotten his mom a Christmas gift. I am starting to get really pissed off about it.

The wife drove him to Carrollton first thing this morning. He is to be working at the recruiter’s office the week after Christmas, which is how he got two weeks leave. The problem is that he forgot his service shoes, so his recruiter was supposed to meet him at the station in Carrollton at nine this morning to take him out to Dobbin’s Air Base and get a pair. Apparently the guy never showed so they will have to make the trip tomorrow or Monday. That would be fun…driving to Marietta on Christmas Eve. Not.

I just got him alone and read him the riot act about the gift though, so hopefully he will get it taken care of in the next 48 hours.

…

Today was pretty busy. One of my stores sits in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart so I spent the majority of the day there, other than a couple of quick trips to the other two stores and one to pick up my change order from the bank. Crap, I could have used a cart for that. $2300 in ones, fives and rolled change takes a couple of trips from the bank to the car. I probably could have carried it in one trip but had I dropped it picking up $2300 in LOOSE change would have been no fun at all.

…

While I work a lot during the holidays there is a bonus. All of my managers have to work as well, so they are responsible for shift change. Except for Christmas Day I won’t have to go back in at all for shift change or hassle with the employees at all, although since my phone has been ringing off the hook for the last few hours you wouldn’t know it.

Had to cover a shift for a friend of mine in another district and then I spoke for a while with one of my cooks. It was pretty depressing. His mom passed away last night and he was worried about losing his job if he wasn’t able to make it on Christmas Day. I reassured him that he would still have a job regardless of what his manager said. He may be there anyway. He is pretty dedicated and he can’t afford to miss any work. This is a terrible time of year to lose anyone though. I hate it for him and wish him the best.

Mr. Christmas Spirit

rmiles7721December 22, 2007Parenting/Family

Thursday night finally got to me and I don’t think I have fully recovered yet. I had fully planned on sleeping in yesterday since I didn’t get to sleep until after three yesterday morning. The wife and boy had to go out so I was up by eight. They didn’t make it home until the afternoon and we ate and I got to nap for maybe an hour. Just not enough.

At that point the boy and I went out to pick out my Christmas present. They had looked at several different leather coats but it was decided that I needed to go pick it out myself. It just makes it easier to do it that way. I know it’s supposed to be a surprise but I am funny about my clothes and if you are going to spend that kind of money it’s best to try stuff on and see how it looks and fits.

It took forever to get in and out of the mall with the Christmas shoppers. Had to also stop by Wal-mart for a few miscellaneous items that they had forgotten on the trip earlier in the day. It was also pretty crowded but nothing like it will be this weekend. We finally got home around seven last night and had to wrap gifts since the girls were out with a friend.

I had planned on going to bed early last night as well but with the present wrapping and whatnot I didn’t hit the sack until pretty late and it took forever to get to sleep. Maybe tonight I can get to bed at a decent time. I don’t particularly want to face Christmas day with only ten hours of sleep between now and then. Luckily all of my managers are in place until Wednesday so I shouldn’t have to go back in unless there is an emergency. I know a couple of them are behind on the prep work that they need to have finished and it’s not for lack of me trying to have them do it, they are just dragging their damned feet. I guess they just magically expect for it to get done for them.

I will go to the bank this morning as I have to pick up the change for Christmas. It’s a chunk at around $2200 for the two stores. I told them Thursday to make sure and wait on their deposits so that I could get the stuff. One can only hope that they followed directions. I don’t have enough in my checking account to cover the change purchase if they didn’t.

I am somewhat pissed off at the Marine right now. Originally he was going to get something for his mom for Christmas but he just doesn’t have the money, so I told him I would get the expensive present and he needed to order the other one that she really wanted anyway. The kid waits until yesterday and wants to search online for it. Friday night before Christmas. It would be OK, he could just make her something and then get her the gift late but she refuses to help search for the damned program online and I can’t find it. Whatever it is that she wants isn’t something that’s sold at Amazon or Borders and searching on the web doesn’t bring anything up, at least on the first page or two and that is unusual, particularly since I was searching by name. My brother will be in town on Sunday night so they can just go the fuck out on Monday and find her something.

I went ahead and kept him on our cell phone plan because even with the unlimited data plan that he uses it will still only cost him about $50 a month, which is half what he would be paying on his own plan. I just deal with the family minutes and make him pay the $45 for the data plan and another $5 for the extra line, which is half the cost. He is supposed to have set up an automatic transfer to my account every month and hasn’t. When I reminded him on the first he asked if he could pay it on the fifteenth and I told him no problem. I asked him again last night and am still waiting. With the data plan he’s on my cell phone bill is touching just under $400 a month now and this time next month I am going to take the hit and cancel his phone. January thru March are the crappy times at work and aside from what I make online that we will use on vacation in February I am not going to have any extra since most likely I will owe the IRS at least a couple of grand and I have to make sure that’s set aside. I don’t have very much taken out of my check during the year since I’m not particularly impressed with the idea of giving the IRS an interest free loan during the year. I would rather owe them a bit at the end than get a chunk back. I like keeping my paycheck when I earn it personally.

He’ll pay it, that I don’t doubt. I am just slightly pissed off. He’s spent seven months earnings on DVDs, music and game consoles, maxed out his credit card and has no money. I bought the bus ticket for him to come home for Christmas as one of his two Christmas gifts and he just needs to suck it up and start paying his fucking bills and saving some money. He still has yet to sign up for their retirement plan although he’s had the paperwork since June. I guess most of it is the fact that he’s been overwhelmed with his freedom to spend his money any way he wants now. He will figure it out, but with the fact that he will be stationed out in California he needs to figure it out soon if we wants to be able to fly home on leave next year.

I suppose that’s about it this morning. I need to start getting ready for work but don’t really want to. I just needed to rant for a moment. I am actually extremely happy he gets to spend the holiday here. This is just a rough time for me. I spend quite a bit of time at work during the holidays and it seems to get harder every year and there’s not a lot of support from my family on that end and it seems to get worse every year as well. Sometimes it’s hard being Mr Christmas Spirit around here. Sometimes I feel like the lone fucking ranger.

Now that I have that shit out of my system I think I will go listen to some Christmas music…

I don’t normally rant and cuss in my open-trackback posts but since this is the only thing I am posting this morning it is going to be my open-trackback entry for the pre-Christmas weekend.

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There’s Right and Then There’s Not…

rmiles7721December 21, 2007Site News

I had one of the guys I used to work with call me a few days ago trying to come back to work. We have a long history together. I actually worked for him for a while back in 1988. He has been in and out of our company for several years until he sued us a while back for a worker’s comp issue. I honestly don’t know if the claim was real or not but what I do know is that he settled for a couple of grand because his shoulder hurt. I have had a couple of worker’s compensation claims before, that’s what we have WC insurance for. No big deal, they take care of you and you get your self back to work. Settling for a couple of grand and being out of a career forever just doesn’t seem like a real wise move to me.

The last few years he has had some issues with diet pills along with some other stronger prescription medicines he shouldn’t be taking. They can be real helpful when used as directed but otherwise I have seen too many people abuse them.

He called me suggesting that I work him under somebody else’s social security number and that stuff just isn’t going to happen. There is no way I am going to endanger my career just so he can get a couple of weeks of work in. I don’t like very many people enough to do something like that for them.

Car Insurance

rmiles7721December 21, 2007Uncategorized

The wife and the Marine had to run to Douglasville this morning. They are going ahead and getting some Christmas shopping taken care of this morning at the Mall. She hates going to the mall even more than she hates shopping but it’s one of those things I suppose.

I was reading this story over at CNN last night about one mall where the police are really creating a presence and they had some news crews out there filming some of the things people would do. Purses and phones in plain view in their cars, expensive gifts left in eyeshot and even worse, some of them wore open.

Even if you keep your stuff locked in the trunk there is still the danger of it coming up missing. This time of year criminals are out because they know that people hide stuff in their cars. That can make a car more of a target and even effect your car insurance policy.

I had to get online last night and renew my car insurance. The company had called me day before yesterday and told me I had underpaid them by $15 by mistake so I had to get on their site. Most of them allow you to pay online which certainly makes life easier. Fifteen years ago it would have just been canceled and I would have had to deal with going out and getting car insurance quotes and renewing the policy. Cheap car insurance is easy to find but I prefer to keep the same company rather than having to switch every couple of years.

Iron Man Trailer

rmiles7721December 20, 2007Entertainment

I guess I am on a video kick tonight, so here’s another for ya’

Just pretty much trying to stay awake now. I have to drive in to Atlanta in an hour and a half or so to pick up my son at the Greyhound station and have been up for about 20 hours now.

This looks pretty cool. I have enjoyed the movies from Marvel the last few years and this looks pretty neat.

I guess the trailer has been out for a while but this was the first time I have come across it.

The REAL White Trash Christmas…

rmiles7721December 20, 2007Site News