Things Are Looking Up!

We’re moving out!

We’ve finally had it with our neighborhood and current abode. My wife and I live in a small house (not the one pictured) and since we’ve had children, it’s only gotten smaller. We always knew we would have to move eventually because there’s not enough room to expand our current home. However, we never thought we would move into our dream home. We have been truly blessed recently by finding a home that we both love.

My wife and I have lived in our current home for about 10 years. The neighborhood was fine a decade ago but after the housing market tanked we found that a lot of our neighbors were getting foreclosed on and their houses were becoming rentals. Now, I’ve rented in the past and I’m not one to look down on anyone for the way they live but renters hardly ever make good neighbors. In my experience. I know this doesn’t always apply to everyone but my neighborhood, my street, has suffered from renters moving in. The remaining “owners” that haven’t been foreclosed on have started moving out because of the recent tenants.

For some reason, that I don’t really get, renters don’t seem to take pride in their home. This isn’t going to be everyone’s experience but it’s mine. So, rather than deal with the hassle that comes with living next to renters my wife and I decided that now was a perfect time to buy a new home. We figured that it’s a buyer’s market and we might be able to find a good deal. We had no idea that we would find our dream home. Almost.

I say almost because there was one thing that each of us had to sacrifice. My wife wanted a pool and the house we finally found does not have a pool. So she had to come to terms with that; we decided we could add a pool at a later date once we’re settled in. I wanted around 10 acres but the house we found only has 3. This is still far better than our current home. There’s also plenty of available land around our property that we may be able to buy at a future date. We’ll be out in a rural area with little to no neighbors and the ones we will have are seeking peace and quiet just like us.

The other big selling point for our new home was that there isn’t any sort of home owners association. An HOA is offensive to me as a freedom loving American. For some reason these HOA’s have spread like wild fire in the last decade or so and I really don’t get it. It seems like every house our agent wanted to show us had an HOA. I couldn’t make him understand how repugnant the whole concept was to me and my wife. I just can’t rationalize spending money, that I earned, to buy a home and then turn around and pay a group of people to tell me what I can and can’t do with it.

It seems absurd to me but here in Florida, they’re everywhere. When did Americans stop caring about personal property rights and individual freedom? I know it seems trivial but freedom is usually lost through a series of minor assaults. It’s a combination of government and private citizens working together to deprive individuals of freedom for the collective.

And, it’s everywhere. It’s a constant brainwashing. People don’t just accept HOA’s, they think they’re a good idea! I have a friend that bought a house a while back, about 4 years ago. He found a great house and asked me to come take a look at it. I did. While he was telling me about the neighborhood he mentioned that the place had an hoa. I told him that was too bad and I asked him why he wanted me to see a house he wasn’t going to buy. But he was going to buy it. The hoa was a big selling point for him. He’s educated and successful but somehow he was convinced that an hoa was the way to go.

I asked him why he thought it was a good idea and he said it was a way to make sure that his neighbors kept their grass cut and didn’t paint their houses some crazy color. He seemed to think the hoa was there to protect him. Why would anyone care what their neighbor does? He said because it affects property values. Huh?

I just don’t understand why Americans, known for our love of freedom, are some of the easiest manipulated people on the planet. If George Clooney or Angelina Jolie says it, then it must be a good idea.

There’s a whole generation of people coming up that would gladly give up every freedom they had so long as they didn’t have to fend for themselves.

 

But, the good news is that we’re moving out and we found a great home. There are great deals out there for anyone looking. I know that Florida was hit pretty hard when the market tanked.

I hope anyone else out there that’s looking for a new home finds what they’re looking for.

I probably should have made my hoa rant a separate post.?

Weekend with the In-laws

Another Weekend with the Family

 

This picture is from the grand canyon. It comes on the jump drive you get when you buy the pictures at the Skywalk. It’s really neat, if you’re ever out that way. This picture really captures the peacefulness of spending time with the ones I love.

This weekend was another weekend spent with the family. Things haven’t been going too well at work. Mostly because of the whole raise (or lack thereof) situation. I’ve been turning down overtime and not working weekends, which is unusual for me. Upper management is starting to take notice and my immediate manager questioned me (again) about my attitude.

I’ve been trying real hard to prevent the company’s lack of communication about compensation from affecting my overall disposition and performance at work. It would seem as though I haven’t been too successful in my efforts. Basically, I’m still upset that they have yet to even address the raise situation. If they’re not going to reward my (or anyone else’s) efforts with a raise, then the least that we should expect is for them to address the issue. It’s already the middle of March. We completed our reviews in October. They’ve had plenty of time.

But, like I said, I’m not going to continue to sacrifice and spend extended periods of time away from my family if they’re not going to reward my efforts. So, I’ve cut back on accepting any overtime or weekend work. I did, recently, accept an offer from my manager to handle a new account’s roll-out for new cctv equipment installation. But that was just me trying to be a team player and not causing someone else to have to pick up my slack, which is what would have happened.

Because I’m cutting back, I have more time to spend with my family. That, is a VERY GOOD THING! It’s the only good thing that’s come of this situation.

Enough of my whining!

The wife and I took the kids over to my sister’s house and spent the weekend with the cousins and my brother in law. My brother in law is a great guy and we really don’t get to spend as much time together as I would like. I don’t have any brothers and he’s probably the closest thing to that.

There aren’t any kids in our neighborhood that are close in age to my children so they don’t get to play with other kids often. They really enjoy playing with their cousins. With everything that seems to be going bad right now, from the economy right on down to, you name it. It’s nice to be able to get away with family for a little while and just forget about the chaos of life going on around us.

I hope any and every person that reads this post has a good family to fall back on. I truly wouldn’t know what to do without mine.

I hope everyone can get away every once in a while. A little quality time with the people you love can fix just about anything. I should know, I’m a repairman!

Fun Weekend Getaway

Fun weekend getaway for the family, with the fishes!

This weekend I was able to getaway with the family to SeaWorld. It was a great time. We stop by a couple times a year and the kids just love all the animals. They’re currently revamping their penguin exhibit so that was kind of a let down because it was closed off for construction. But everything else was open and we had a blast!

My oldest is at that age where he has a thousand questions about everything and I was struggling all weekend just to keep up. I have never imagined myself as a know-it-all, but having kids has really helped me realize how much I don’t know. My little guy seemed to only ask questions that I couldn’t answer. It was almost as if he would start a line of questioning and once he detected some lack of knowledge on my part, he honed in on that topic. It was fun and I’m picking up a book on whales first thing tomorrow.

They were doing some kind of BBQ event and we took full advantage of all the booths. I can’t remember the last time I ate so much. I love bbq, my wife isn’t a big fan but she will eat it and my oldest son will only eat chicken fingers. That being said, those guys selling the bbq made a few bucks off me and it was all good. They even had live music. You really haven’t jammed until you’ve heard a country band do a R&B cover of Baby Got Back. It was hilarious! But, everyone seemed to like it so I kept my thoughts to myself.

The kids enjoyed the animals and asking me questions I couldn’t answer. I enjoyed the bbq and the heartburn that followed (small price to pay). And, my wife enjoyed taking pictures. She LOVES taking pictures of the family on any and all outings. I can’t post my family pics here for obvious reasons but I will post some shots of the animals. Later this year, during the summer, we hope to go to their other park and swim with the dolphins. We’ll see.

This little getaway was a real stress reliever. Sometimes when things are going bad or I’m losing sight of what really matters, it’s helpful to just get away with the family and focus on what really matters. I didn’t think about anything that was bothering these previous weeks while I was out with the family this weekend. And that’s just what I needed. Maybe it’s what everyone needs.

Automatic raise?

This is just another rant about my company. I work hard every day and try to give my company 100%. I have my off days just like everyone else but I always try to give them their money’s worth. I’m not one that “expects” a raise. I believe a raise is earned. My view is that an employee should do their job duties to the best of their ability everyday. Doing your duty earns your paycheck. However, going above and beyond those duties earns your raise.

My company conducts performance reviews on an annual basis. This means that I have to work hard all year long, out-performing expectations consistently, before I see a raise. I know some companies do reviews on a quarterly or semi annual basis, but not mine. I’m cool with this. I was informed of this policy before I hired on. But, ever since the economy slowed the company has seen fit to use the economy as an excuse to lower (or even skip) raises from year to year. Although, they were able to spend 2 billion dollars to acquire a competitor recently. And they continue to expand job duties and add performance expectations. They also insist on raising standards from year to year. I’m cool with this but it has to be a two-way street.

I’m aware of my options. I could leave. I’m also aware of the fact that my job isn’t mine, it belongs to the company. It’s their job, their money, and their decision to make. I know all of this. The problem is that I have worked for a lot of companies in my short life and this is the only company I have ever envisioned myself retiring from. I really like this job and this company.

I enjoy almost everything about my work. And I’m good at it. Which brings me to my review. Every year that I have been with this company I’ve gotten great reviews. I always exceed expectations. I am definitely an asset and not a liability to my company. I have never gotten a complaint from a customer. I don’t have any safety or ethics violations and, like I said, I’m good at my job. But my raises have consistently been below industry averages (with a few exceptions).

Whenever I try to talk to my manager about my raises he is less than helpful. He practically runs from any conversation about money. I’m not one of those guys that wants anything other than money from my employer. I don’t get a sense of purpose from my job. I don’t derive any level of personal worth from my job and it doesn’t effect my self-esteem. All I want is to be rewarded (in cash) for my skills. Anything else I get from my friends, family, and church.

Just recently I spoke to one of my managers about the raise situation and I was told “No one has gotten a raise yet”. I don’t understand this mentality. Should I feel better because no one else has got raise? I responded by saying that I have no control over anyone else’ work ethic or efforts, not to mention that I have no interest in anyone else’ financial situation. I didn’t see how one effects the other.? My manager seemed confused and almost offended by my response.

When did we get to a point in this country where we should take comfort in shared misery? Why should I feel better about a bad situation just because I’m not alone? How does that help me? I don’t wake up in the morning and say “what can I do to get Bob a raise?”. What I do is get up and try to figure out how I can give some extra effort to EARN the recognition I need to receive a good raise. I don’t believe a raise should be automatic and I don’t think everyone should get one. It should be based on effort. It should be earned.

The whole entitlement mentality irks me but it seems to be the trend. We’re all entitled to a raise and if no one gets a raise, then there’s no problem because we’re all in it together. At my company there are over-performers and under-performers. If everyone was an under-performer I don’t think the company would be okay with that.

Another issue I have is that middle management, that’s who I answer to, likes to respond with “at least you have a job” or “you’re lucky to have a job”. I don’t know which bothers me more. I’m not “lucky” to have a job. I have a strong work ethic and I make substantial sacrifices to meet my performance goals. I have cancelled numerous plans (many at the last minute) to ensure certain jobs were completed on time. My point is that I have earned my position in the company. If it was “luck” I would have been fired a long time ago. I get the point they’re trying to make, it’s a bad economy and some people can’t find work. Okay. But lucky? No. I’m not lucky. I work hard and earn what I get.

I guess this post is more of a vent than a rant. I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that society is slowly minimizing the individual. It seems like people are moving toward a collective mentality. We’re being viewed as a group. This is a hard adjustment for me. I remember hearing stories about the Soviet Union and how productivity was discouraged. Initiative and drive were stifled and creativity suffered. I remember a quote I heard once. A guy visited the USSR and was in a cab. He asked the driver why no one was really doing anything. The driver responded by saying “they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work”.

I see that in our country’s future. Why should I go above and beyond if I won’t be rewarded for it? Or, worse yet, why go above and beyond if I’m going to be viewed the same as everyone else?

If there’s no incentive to distinguish myself from anyone else, why would I? The answer is that I wouldn’t. And, that’s what I’m pissed about. I don’t want to be that guy. But, in my situation, I only see 3 options. I can either accept it and keep on working hard without any incentive. I can quit and find another job. Or, I can stay and adjust my performance to my environment. I’m drifting toward the latter. But the worst part is I’m not alone. I look around and I see a whole country drifting toward the latter. The sad part is that there’s a large portion of the country that doesn’t even know they’re drifting. Or maybe they just don’t care.?

I dropped the ball today.

This is embarrassing. I was working on a project recently and because of the equipment involved, there was a substantial amount of money on the line. For the customer, that is. Well, I was doing what I always do and not really paying attention to much of what was going on around me when I heard a horn repeatedly going off.

This may require a few lines of back story. See, I work for a company that’s owned by a very famous company that a lot of people don’t like. Even though my job “duties” don’t involve the parent company in any way, I still have the parent company’s logo and lettering all over my company vehicle and uniform. Imagine driving a truck and wearing a uniform that said, uh, UPS (not the company I work for, just an example). You’re driving this big truck with big U-P-S lettering on the side and then you pull in to a parking lot and someone walks up with a UPS related question. My response is always, “You’re not going to believe me, but, I don’t work for UPS”. I’ve had people say “So, it’s camouflage, huh?” and some come right out and call me a liar. Either way, I don’t work for the company that has emblazoned it’s logo all over my truck and uniform. At least I don’t work for that division of the company.

I really wouldn’t have any idea about how to work on the equipment that the parent company services. I do something TOTALLY different. In the service/repair industry my situation isn’t all that uncommon. But it’s hard to explain to people, especially when they’re upset. I’ve had a cop pull me over in drive time traffic and berate me because he was upset with service he was getting (more like not getting) from my parent company. I’ve even had  an irate customer run me off the road on a major highway. These instances are few and far between, but I’ve got friends that work for other companies and they’ve never experienced this kind of hostility from customers of their companies.

Back to where I was. I was working, outside, and about 30ft up in the air. My parent company is disliked by many. Some dislike this company passionately. So, I’m doing my thing and I hear a car horn going off repeatedly. I look around and there’s a guy doing donuts in the parking lot, not far from me, laying on the horn and giving a one finger salute to someone. I didn’t know who but I thought it was funny. You don’t see that everyday. At least I don’t.

Then I realized he was pointing it my way. Then I saw my truck and it clicked. So, I started laughing. It was funny. In the process of laughing at this guy’s rage and the absurdity of it all I dropped what I was holding. Straight down. 30 feet. It broke. And there went $1800 in hardware. I don’t think the madman in the car saw that I dropped what I was holding.

So, he didn’t realize it but in a way he inflicted a little pain on my company. We now have to eat the cost of the hardware that I dropped. I thought about coming down quickly and telling the guy what happened. I thought maybe I could give him a little satisfaction. But by the time I got down he peeled out but not before offering me a little snack. Follow? Think deep-throat.

I really dropped the ball. It takes a lot to make me laugh so hard I forget what I’m doing and drop a $1800 piece of equipment. I hope any readers out there found this as funny as I did. One person that won’t find it funny is whoever handles parts acquisitions for the account I was working on.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching

 

In my home, next to the wife’s birthday, Valentine’s Day is the 4th biggest holiday of the year. Falling behind Christmas, Easter, and her birthday, of course. It really is a big deal. And, rightfully so. Every year I try to do something that lets her know how much I love her and also express my amazement that she settled for me. And believe me, she SETTLED. I, on the other hand, definitely married up. She’s a great wife and we have great kids but I’m cheap and we both acknowledge this. I can’t really help it. I’m cheap about almost everything. She points this out constantly and it only seems to really bother her when she thinks I’m being cheap about safety. I’ve been known to cut corners on safety in an effort to save a few bucks. But, in all fairness, I cut corners on everything to save a few bucks. It’s just that when it comes to safety she feels that we shouldn’t worry about the cost.

I grew up real poor. I’ll save the woe is me stuff but I’m no stranger to going to bed hungry. I’m still poor by my own standards. I work a blue collar job and consider myself lower middle class. However, I have a college degree and we’re probably middle-middle class (did I just invent a class?). Well, you get my point. What I’m driving at is that I don’t like to spend money and society has made this holiday about just that. I know the day should be about spending quality time with the one you love and you don’t really need to spend a lot of money to show someone how much you care. But, that’s not the reality of it. It’s almost impossible to get a decent box of candy and a dozen roses for under $100. That may not seem like much but expensive is relative.

I also know that roses and chocolates are the cliche gift to give, but that’s me. I grill on the Fourth, sing carols on Christmas Eve, and carve pumpkins on Halloween. I’m all about the cliches. I love the hokey Americana of our holidays. I’m not so big on Christmas lights, they drive up the light bill. Just kidding. Basically every year I have the same problem trying to find something traditional yet unique and within a reasonable price. That can be harder than it sounds.

I remember last year I went with Sharis Berries. Funny story. I couldn’t make this up. I spent about $80 for some berries and a couple of individual cheesecakes. First off, let me say this place sells the biggest strawberries I’ve ever seen. I don’t eat strawberries but the wife loves them. Anyway, I placed an order and all was well. I even paid extra to make sure they arrived in time. Like with most online orders I had a tracking number. They shipped my order through UPS. I’ve never really dealt with UPS, my company and I usually ship through FedEx. So, like any anxious husband I was following the package from day to day to make sure my extra shipping charge was well spent.

Their packages are shipped with dry ice so they generally arrive in a couple days. I followed my shipment to my town and saw that it stopped. For three days. No movement. So I called the UPS customer service line and was told that because I was the receiver and not the shipper, I couldn’t be told what the problem was. I called Sharis’ customer service and had the rep contact UPS. The Sharis’ rep put me on hold and when she came back she said that she would refund my money and send me another package. Two problems. First, why did I need another package? Second, another package wouldn’t make it in time.

The Sharis’ rep told me that the package made it over 1000 miles to within 5 miles of my house and then an employee of UPS at the sorting facility opened it and ate the contents. That’s a true story! Now, this could happen at any shipping company so I don’t think it says anything about UPS except maybe they should keep a snack machine on the premises. I have other stories like that regarding various holidays, it seems that things like that happen to me all the time.

This year I was hoping to maybe go to the beach for the weekend. You can do that in Florida in February. It’s nice. But my wife would probably see it for what it is, an attempt to save money.

 

We always have fun but maybe not a good choice this year. I’ll probably just go with chocolates and flowers and a fancy dinner at the Outback. I’ll probably slip in a special surprise for her this year though. She really is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and after you put all the cards, candy and commercialization aside, that’s what it’s all about. Taking time to tell your significant other that you love and appreciate them. It’s amazing to me that I found anyone, much less my wife, that would want to spend the rest of their life with me.

 

Hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day.

Dr. King Weekend

Today is a holiday for my company. I’m not sure how many companies celebrate Dr. King’s birthday by letting their employees off, but mine does. Where I grew up, at least in my family and community, Dr. King’s birthday/holiday wasn’t anything we recognized. It was considered a “black” holiday and didn’t really apply to us. At least that was the thinking back then. For some of my family it’s still the same. I know calling something a “black” holiday may immediately make some think “racist”, but you’ll just have to take my word that we never intended it that way in my home growing up.

I’ve got an uncle that calls King, Marther Luther Kings. I’m not sure if he really doesn’t know his name or if he does it on purpose. He also refers to Oprah as Ofra. He’s kind of a weird guy in general though. But, like I said, King’s holiday was never celebrated in my home or community growing up. I don’t think it was the result of racism or hatred but I never asked either. I never picked up on any racist or hateful remarks regarding the holiday. It was just a holiday for a person that we didn’t know much about and someone that didn’t really effect our lives in any noticeable way. Or, so we thought.

It was not until I got into college that I found out more about his contributions to society. He did a lot for the poor and lower working classes. He really lived his convictions and was a leader with character (sorely missing today). I know he has his detractors and critics and I think legitimately so. In America, everyone has detractors. I think it’s a real testament to our country that people can and do stand up and complain about Dr. King. In this country there’s someone out there to complain about everyone and everything. I think that’s a big part of what makes this country so great. Not that we are a country of complainers but that in this country we have the right to voice opposition to anything and everything.  You don’t have to look too  far to get both sides of an issue.

The only down side to Dr. Kings critics is that some of them are labeled as racists. I believe calling someone a racist without rock hard proof only hurts free speech.  Some may be racists, but I think they represent the minority of his detractors. I for one take issue with his Christian beliefs. I was raised in a pretty conservative, Christian home and my beliefs tend to run very close to traditional Christian teachings. So, Dr. King’s take on some very key Christian doctrines run afoul in my home. But, I can still respect his position on many other issues. I can’t think of any one person that I agree with all the time on every issue.

The point of this post is that now I have my own family. It’s a little embarrassing that I didn’t know more about a great historical figure like Dr. King until I was in college. I have my own children now and I hope to break that cycle with them. I’m going to teach them about all great Americans. Whether their contributions seem to directly effect us or not. If someone makes a great contribution to America then it benefits all Americans. So, later today when we’re grilling (no good American holiday forsakes the grill), I’ll take a little extra time to educate my children on just why today is a special day and the man it honors is deserving of that honor.

Here’s hoping everyone has a great holiday!

Funny story about a trip to Wal-Mart

This happened just before Christmas. About 2 weeks before Christmas I was in a Wal-Mart doing some work. Wally World is one of my company’s bigger accounts and I’m in and out of them a couple times a week. When I’m there I wear a typical service tech’s uniform, khaki pants, polo shirt and a name badge. Now, my uniform doesn’t look anything like a Wal-Mart employee’s uniform, at least not to me. But that doesn’t stop people from constantly coming up to me and asking me where the toilet paper is located.

Well, me and another tech were doing some work right up front, in the entrance of a Wal-Mart one morning. The store we were at was in a medium sized city but I would still call it rural just because of the county it’s in. It’s on the outskirts of a medium sized city. But, this city is more of an urbanized farm town, of sorts.

Anyway, my friend and I were working when this man came running up to me saying he’d been attacked. I looked at him and saw that his eye was swelling shut. I looked over to my partner and he just kind of shrugged his shoulders. The guy was about 5’10″ and maybe 180lbs.? He was talking pretty fast and by the time I had taken in the info, he’d already went on to say that he needed the police because he was attacked in the parking lot and his attacker was following him into the store.

There was a lady next to him and while the guy was telling me he was attacked, she was saying “call 9-1-1, my husband was attacked”. So, I assumed that the guy was her husband. After all, they came into the store together. At the same time. They were both borderline yelling.

I was just about to tell the guy that I don’t work for Wal-Mart but by then several managers were walking up. So, I just turned back to what I was doing. Right then the guy turns to the woman and screams “You whore, you whore. You F—ing whore!”. It was then that I realized that they weren’t together.

So, after hearing the guy scream out those profanities, I stopped what I was doing and turned to watch the show. The guy’s eye was still swelling. It was almost cartoonish the way his eye was swelling shut right in front of us. This all took place in a matter of minutes.

About this time a guy came casually walking in. This guy was at least 6’3″ and had to be at least 250lb. He was noticeably bigger than the other guy.

The bigger guy goes up to the smaller guy and says “don’t call my wife a whore”. I figure that the big guy is about to pummel this little guy because the little guy is still calling his wife a whore. Then, the little guy proceeds to spit directly in the bigger guys face. Not once but 3 times. Right in front of everyone. The big guy doesn’t do anything.

By now the Asset Protection Coordinator (LP) comes out and gets between the two guys. The whole time, all the big guy says is “follow me back out to the parking lot”. The little guy won’t move though.

The little guy eventually runs out to his car, bends his tag up, and takes off like an Ethiopian with a lunch ticket. The cops do eventually show up and after reviewing the video and getting a statement from the big guy, the altercation went down like this:

Big guy pulls into a parking spot and gets out of his truck. As he exits his vehicle and closes the door, he turns around to see the little guy standing there. Little guy tells big guy “you took my space”. Big guy says “Nope. You’re crazy”. Little guy hits big guy and is surprised when big guy doesn’t fall down. Little guy is even more surprised when big guy hits him back. Little guy lands on his back and his mother (Yep, MOTHER!) gets out of their car and begs big guy to not hit little guy. Little guy looked to be in his mid 40′s.

After that, little guy gets up off the ground and runs into Wally World looking for help, followed close behind by big guy’s wife.

All this over a parking spot.???

Different part of town and someone could have ended up shot.

This whole scenario was funny as hell to watch. I’m not sure how well the humor translates to a blog but more importantly, there’s several good lessons to learn from this.

You’ll have to mine out the lessons on you own.

Well, it’s been over a year…

I started this blog back in 2010 and today is the second day of 2012. I posted 2 or 3 posts in 2010 and NOTHING, in 2011.

2011 was by far, one of the least productive years for me in recent memory. My wife and I had a second son and we couldn’t be happier. We saw our favorite singer back in Sept and we were lucky enough to get awesome seats. We were three rows back from the stage and we both had a blast. That’s about all I accomplished.

I picked up a copy of Rosetta Stone and had hoped to learn either Spanish or Hebrew, I didn’t learn either. I also hoped to finally start playing my guitar but that didn’t happen either. I’ve had that guitar for 4 years and never once tried to play it.

The few bright spots are that so far, my family and I have been blessed to still have decent jobs and I’ve only seen a small reduction in overtime. My friend AJ made it back from the mid-east safe and sound and he’s getting out of the military after 11 years. He says it’s just changed too much and he can’t take it anymore. He had planned to be a lifer but the B.S. has forced him out. And that’s saying a lot considering he’s a SEAL.

We work together for the same company and we’re starting a business venture together, so we’ll have plenty of time to mend any hurt feelings that occurred prior to his leaving. This year I’m hoping to set attainable goals that will afford me the ability to spend more time with my friends and family.

Anyone that eventually finds this blog, here’s hoping that 2012 is the best year of our lives. That’s saying a lot because I’ve had some pretty good years.

Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.

Yesterday I was working at a customer’s site, it had been a long day and I was tired and a little out of sorts. I spent 3 times longer on a task than I should have. This was almost completely due to the incompetence of another person, someone that was suppose to monitor and approve my work. I ended up wasting many hours because of there inability to perform their job. This seems to happen a lot in my line of work.

One of the few downsides to my job is that I’m always waiting on someone else’ approval and quite often the one giving the approval isn’t as knowledgeable in their field as I would expect. If a guy is going to have a title such as Network Administrator, you would think they would know something about networking. That’s not always the case.

I take great pride in knowing that I’m not just good at my job but I’m generally very knowledgeable in my field. It makes my life easier to know that if some problem pops up out of left field, I’m suited to handle it. It seems that people are not so keen on being good at what they do, they just want to be good enough. Being just good enough isn’t good enough.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I was sitting in my vehicle in the parking lot after the job and working on my paperwork when my boss called to check on another job across town. I was talking to him and organizing my papers when a car pulled up. I wasn’t really concentrating on the car, the papers or my conversation with my boss. I was just sort of trying to halfheartedly multitask. It was later in the day and I usually wear sunglasses when I’m driving but the sun was going down and I was parked, so I didn’t have them on. This matters later.

Four people got out of the car, 2 guys and 2 really hot women. Because my attention was divided between tasks, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to what I was looking at. I was chatting away with my boss about another job and I was paying pretty close attention to the two pretty women. Maybe too much attention.

Well, they walked out of my view and went to a store close by. That was it, I assumed they would be shopping for a while. They weren’t. They came back across my field of view in short order. The first one back was the prettiest of the two ladies. She was dressed in a revealing outfit. Very tight shorts, revealing, and not much of a top in terms of concealment. I guess I was looking a little too close because her boyfriend had stopped just inside my peripheral vision and he was looking at me pretty hard. After a few minutes of him watching me watching her he moved to directly in front of my vehicle and stopped. Then I started paying attention to him. He was staring directly at me and he looked mad.

I then realized that I didn’t have my sunglasses on and he could see where I was looking. Now, my first thought is, don’t get mad if your girlfriend dresses in revealing clothes and guys look at her. She’s obviously doing it for the attention. I’ve seen hand towels with more fabric than this woman was wearing and this guy’s pissed at me? That was my first thought. Then I realized that I may have been looking too hard. Either way, what’s done is done.

This guy looked like he wasn’t going to let it go. He was still standing there just trying to stare me down. Its been a few years since I was in a fight but I’ve won more than I’ve lost. This guy was about my size and he looked soft in all the right areas so I figured if he makes a move, I like my chances. What I didn’t like was he had a friend with him and who knows if the girls would get involved.?

The whole thing felt like high school. Very immature for sure. So, this guy is still standing there. I assume I know where this is going so I start paying attention to my surroundings. The hotter of the two hot ladies was already back to their car. The other hot girl was close behind her friend. The other guy was just passing Mr. Toughguy and he was headed to the car. He seemed aware of what his friend was doing but he didn’t show any interest in getting involved. At least that’s how it looked from my perspective.

Mr. Toughguy was still trying to stare me down and now he was starting to flex and roll his shoulders. I guess he was trying to intimidate me but I already knew what I was going to do and it wasn’t going to take long. Unless this guy was some kind of MMA star, he was about 3 mins from being unconscious. I figured whatever I did I would have to do it fast just in case any of his friends wanted to help.

So, toughguy’s not moving. I pushed my laptop over into the passenger seat and unbuckled my seatbelt. I left the engine running, just in case. I reached over and popped the door open and was just about to get out when something happened.

Mr. Toughguy lifted his arms and through his very loose NBA jersey I saw his sports bra. He had boobs! Mr. Toughguy is a Ms. Toughguy. He was a she. This took the wind out of my sails for a min. I had to reassess the situation. Two guys and two girls didn’t get out of the car. Four girls got out! These were a bunch of lesbians. I can usually spot this kind of thing but these girls were really playing the part.

Needless to say, once I realized what was going on I busted out laughing. She saw right away what I was laughing at and she lost her momentum too. She looked a little disappointed that I didn’t get out to fight after that. She got in her car and left. Later that night I thought about the absurdity of the whole thing and couldn’t stop laughing. It was pretty ridiculous.