Site News

I still seem to be having issues with connecting to my site on and off as well as with the SQL server. Screw it. I am going to get my sales and staffing shortly and go to bed. I am mainly just working on the finishing up touches on the new site but I keep finding stuff to change and fix. It’ll be done at some point soon 🙂

I sent emails to my Representatives last week about the REAL I.D. Act (in opposition) and just received this one back from Phil Gingrey’s office.

June 28, 2007

Mr. Richard Miles

SomeStreet

Somewhere, GA 30179

Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 418 the Real I.D. Act as introduced by Chairman Sensenbrenner of the House Judiciary Committee in the 109th Congress.

Considering our nation’s recent focus on Homeland Security and the War on Terror, I believe it is more important than ever to examine and reform existing immigration laws. We must control immigration and prevent terrorism without tarnishing our history as a nation of immigrants.

I agree, it is important to update immigration laws to represent the ever-changing social landscape and needs of our country. During our current national crisis, we must be especially careful to balance security with legal immigration. I believe our limited economic resources dictate a need to manage and thoroughly examine our immigration levels to ensure that we are not overstretching our national and local resources.

With a porous border, our current level of security must be bolstered to apprehend illegal aliens and intruders looking to endanger our country and its citizens. I believe the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission to strengthen our border security and the move by Congress to include these recommendations in H.R. 10 were appropriate. However, on December 7, 2004, S.2845, the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 cleared the House/Senate Conference Committee without the immigration recommendations and passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 336 to 75.

These immigration provisions included: eliminating the Western Hemisphere exceptions for United States citizens, modifying authority to waive documentation requirements for Canadian, Mexican, and Caribbean nationals, establishing a standard for identification required by aliens, and establishing minimum national standards for State-issued driver’s licenses. In response, Chairman Sensenbrenner introduced H.R. 418 the Real I.D. Act (the left out 9/11 provisions wrapped into a separate new bill), which passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 261-161 on February 10, 2005. I believe this legislation is necessary to regain control over our border and strengthen current immigration policy.

Again, thank you for sharing your concerns. Please feel free to contact me again if I can be of further assistance. Also, you may like to know that you can contact me via email at gingrey.ga@mail.house.govor my website www.house.gov/gingrey.

In other words, “Thank you for contacting us but we feel like more big brother in your life is just what you need in addition to more money in the federal governments coffers, so…

PREPARE TO BE BOARDED BREAK OUT THE FUCKING KY BOY!!!!”

Everything comes with a price I suppose. My back is playing tricks on me this morning and my arms and legs are like jelly but I am ready to get back out on the lake. Man, that was a blast.

Today won’t be quite as much fun. I still have one on vacation and another off and it’s the last day of the fiscal period so I have to spend the day closing numbers and then go put up the delivery truck at the store where she is on vacation. Being so sore that should work out some of the kinks. Somewhere around 150 cases of miscellaneous food and other stuff will come in around noon today.

The wife should get paid today so I think that she and the girls are going to rent a car and drive down to the redneck riviera tomorrow for a couple of days and hang out on the beach. I am jealous, but luckily we will head the other direction at some point next week and go to Hilton Head, Bluffton, and maybe Savannah.

Still have to maybe set something up in Atlanta next week as well. I suck at putting together social crap like that. If it doesn’t involve beer and a grill in my backyard I usually defer to other people to set this stuff up, but maybe I will call a couple of folks and see if they still want to get together. There are a couple of unanswered emails in my inbox about that very thing.

…just in case you need a visual aid

Our multi-unit get-together today was a blast. We ended up going to the lake in the gated community where my boss lives. I’ve a fairly large area, and we were using an island. I got there about 11:30 or so and he came to pick us up at the marina and took us all out to the island. Lots of good food, ribs, hot dogs, plenty of side dishes, and even beer.

I ended up getting on this floating thing and getting pulled behind the boat a couple of times. I was about the only one that didn’t get dumped off. It fit up the three or four people, so at one point there were three of us getting pulled. The two of them fell off at which point I went airborne and came back down with a resounding thump as my breath went out of me. By god I held on for dear life though.

I do have a nice little sunburn now and I am sure that when I wake up tomorrow not only will my sunburn be hurting like a bitch but my back is probably going to be killing me as well.

I did let my boss know that I would be late tomorrow as I will end up taking the wife and girls where they need to go prior to coming in. I have a ton of work to do tomorrow. Luckily my manager comes back from vacation on Saturday. Damn I am ready for that.

We had a pretty good time at the Braves game tonight. They were playing the Nationals and overall is was a pretty boring game, at least during the first few innings. One thing I noticed is that attendance is way down over the last time I was at a game a couple of years ago. We were supposed to go have Mexican before the game but my boss decided that we didn’t have enough time so he brought pizza and snacks to one of my stores and we hung out in the back and ate until it was time to go. Don’t get me wrong, I like pizza but this was the third night in a row. I’m done with Pizza for a few days.

The three district managers all rode together and a couple of store manager rode with us. I guess we are all the old folks that like to get sleep and show up for work on time, so we left my boss and the other younger guys there at the top of the 8th. The score was 4-1 Braves when we left. I haven’t checked to see what the final score was but it turned out to be a pretty good game after all.

It was Bat night, so I brought home an Andruw Jones bat for Pete. She loves it. What was really funny is that they check you for weapons and shit right at the gate, you go in 20 feet and they hand you baseball bats. What the fuck is up with that? I told the other districts that we would use them to beat the shit out of the homeless guy that was asking for money when we left. They just got this shocked look when I said it. Had to be there I suppose…

I should have been up 45 minutes ago. That’s one of the reasons I get up so early. It gives me a bit of cushion should I need to sleep in a bit. I tossed and turned and had a pretty hard time sleeping last night. I suppose I shouldn’t have had that darned nap yesterday afternoon.

I never have understood how people can regularly show up late for work. As a manager I generally cured that of 99% of my employees. The ones that can’t get to work on time just didn’t get the good hours and I eventually replace them. When people know upfront what you expect and you send them home once or twice for being late, either they find another job or show up on time.

It’s a bit more difficult since these folks have a set of managers between myself and them. I have sent several home already but it hasn’t fixed the problem so far, although a couple of them seem to have gotten the message. I will just keep on harping on them until they get it right. Being late is just one of those things that irritate the hell out of me. I’ve already had a couple of the folks that are consistently late come to me asking for raises and they were genuinely offended when I told them that I wouldn’t even consider going to bat for them when they can’t get to work on time. There are other issues involved as well, such as being lazy as hell, but showing up when they are supposed to is a bit part of it.

Time to start getting ready for work. Rather than posting a bunch of pointless stuff this morning 🙂 I have just been taking it easy and trying to catch up with a few sites that I haven’t been to in a while. Today may very well end up being a long day, but let’s hope not.

The Wife has something like five more days of teaching summer school before she’s done. I know she will be pretty happy once that is all over and done with. This has been a hard session and may just be the end of her teaching summer school.