Currently Reading: Ender In Exile by Orson Scott Card
I just updated the reading list this afternoon and I noticed that I haven't posted anything here in almost a month. My last entry was at the beginning of November. Sadly, there hasn't exactly been a flood of e-mail asking why I wasn't posting. That's ok. News from my world is trickling out through CC and via word of mouth.
So, what's been going on? Well let's get this ball rolling . . .
I'm unemployed again. No, really, it's true. Here's what happened. Slowly but surely I was losing money at the salon. Most of us were asked to work fewer hours to save money. No big deal there. Always a slow period before the holidays. Things were bound to pick up. Only they never really did. Worse, we've got a few people on payroll who just HAD to work a full 35 hours a week because if they didn't, they'd lose their benefits. So those people got their hours. The rest of us, we had to cut back. Again, not a big deal. Annoying, but not a big deal.
Then one day I show up and there's another groomer in the salon. She's misread the schedule and shown up on the wrong day. Boss tells her it's ok to stay and finish the day so she'll maintain her hours (even though falling short a few hours every now and then really doesn't matter). Now we've got a problem. Instead of flying solo for the day, I have to share everything with this other groomer. By the end of the day, her mistake cost me about a hundred bucks. That's how much of my business I had to give to her.
After a few days off, I go back on Friday and get into an argument about all of this with my boss. She doesn't seem to be particularly sympathetic at first but when I start bringing up numbers it sinks in. Here I am, been there longer than anyone but the boss and I'm having trouble just breaking $800 a month. Worse, with the holidays coming up, I was going to have to share even MORE of my days because corporate had this funny idea that there was going to be a huge surge in business. That was surely bound to take even MORE money out of my paycheck.
Well, during all this arguing, a bather, who's only been there a month, heard something she didn't like. Not really sure what it was because no one ever told me, but she wrote a little letter to the store manager saying she was DEEPLY offended by whatever it was she heard and she had no choice but to file a formal complaint against me.
Ok.
Next thing I know, the store manager is telling me I have to go home for the day because I've somehow offended this person (not that anyone ever told me what was so offensive).
Ok.
Next day I get a phone call telling me I'm "on suspension" while they figure out what to do about the whole situation.
Ok.
A week goes by before I finally learn that I have, in fact, been fired. Yeah, they left me hanging a whole week. When I finally got someone to tell me what was going on, all I he said was that they couldn't find my phone number to tell me. Couldn't find it? It's posted in at least two places in the salon not to mention in the computer in my personnel file.
So now I'm unemployed again.
I'm looking for work now. Been out there filling out applications anywhere I can find that's hiring and sending e-mail off to various small grooming salons and vet clinics seeing if they're hiring. So far no luck so what I've decided to do is offer my services freelance until I hear something. I printed up a flyer last week and posted it over at the mailboxes where everyone will see it. I checked yesterday and a few of the little number tags were missing from the flyer so I know at least a few people are interested. No calls yet but I'm sure something will come up soon.
CC, in the meanwhile, is over in Manila. She was supposed to be gone until the 12th but unfortunately that got changed to the 19th. Her boss wants her to stay a little longer. Can't turn down the boss in a situation like that.
You know, I suppose I should be a whole lot more bitter and depressed about all this. I'm sitting here in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week waiting to hear from people. My wife is on the other side of the planet. It's cold and gray outside. Christmas is in a few weeks so everyone's got that holiday-crazy look in their eye. But you know what? I'm actually pretty much ok with this. Yeah, it sucks but you know what? It can always be a LOT worse. All I have to do is open the newspaper and I can see how much worse things COULD be.
So I'll just keep on working at it. Every day I contact a few more people or put in a few more applications. I try to stay busy to make sure I don't get the blues or anything like that. Don't want to get lazy or go soft.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Yeah, about that election . . .
Ok, so what are my thoughts about this election we had?
1. The press really is in the tank for the Democrat party (with only a very small handful of exceptions). I guess it makes for better ratings.
2. In a few months we'll have a black president. Can anyone honestly call us a racist country at this point? Some folks will need to re-think their position.
3. Thank goodness, no more wall-to-wall election coverage complete with the usual asides about how the Republicans are evil and somehow caused the worldwide collapse of the financial markets even though they haven't had a majority in Congress in years and the president really doesn't have much influence over those things.
4. What will comedians do for a punchline now that they're unable to fall back on a. Bush being stupid or b. Cheney being evil? They were pretty lame jokes anyway.
5. Could have been worse. Could have been Hillary :-)
6. They better not mess with Obama while he's President. I do NOT want to have President Joe Biden damnit!
7. Since Bush was the cause of every major problem in the world, from global warming to oil shortages to Russian expansion, does that mean in January all those problems will end?
8. Tina Fey did a pretty good Sarah Palin impersonation. Will she now don black-face and wig and try Michelle Obama?
9. Well, that's one way to get Biden out of the Senate.
10. No more damn election commercials! WOO HOO!
11. Oh dear, all those Democrats who fled to Canada and France during the Bush years will suddenly be flooding the borders coming back once he's gone. Will we have enough available jobs to handle all that extra labor? I mean, what with Starbucks closing so many locations, where will all those art and humanities majors get jobs?
12. Next time around, CC will be legal to vote. She'll be a citizen of this crazy place we call the USA. How cool is that? :-)
1. The press really is in the tank for the Democrat party (with only a very small handful of exceptions). I guess it makes for better ratings.
2. In a few months we'll have a black president. Can anyone honestly call us a racist country at this point? Some folks will need to re-think their position.
3. Thank goodness, no more wall-to-wall election coverage complete with the usual asides about how the Republicans are evil and somehow caused the worldwide collapse of the financial markets even though they haven't had a majority in Congress in years and the president really doesn't have much influence over those things.
4. What will comedians do for a punchline now that they're unable to fall back on a. Bush being stupid or b. Cheney being evil? They were pretty lame jokes anyway.
5. Could have been worse. Could have been Hillary :-)
6. They better not mess with Obama while he's President. I do NOT want to have President Joe Biden damnit!
7. Since Bush was the cause of every major problem in the world, from global warming to oil shortages to Russian expansion, does that mean in January all those problems will end?
8. Tina Fey did a pretty good Sarah Palin impersonation. Will she now don black-face and wig and try Michelle Obama?
9. Well, that's one way to get Biden out of the Senate.
10. No more damn election commercials! WOO HOO!
11. Oh dear, all those Democrats who fled to Canada and France during the Bush years will suddenly be flooding the borders coming back once he's gone. Will we have enough available jobs to handle all that extra labor? I mean, what with Starbucks closing so many locations, where will all those art and humanities majors get jobs?
12. Next time around, CC will be legal to vote. She'll be a citizen of this crazy place we call the USA. How cool is that? :-)
File this under I for Irony
Currently Reading: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
You've all seen the way my wife eats right? You know she has a fairly average filipino diet which means LOTS of pork and LOTS of fat. She eats the skin off the chicken. She eats the skin off MY chicken. She likes to get KFC and crunch that batter.
Me, on the other hand, I trim the meat extra lean. I don't like fat. I eat pork, sure, but not that often because it gives me gas. I don't eat the skin off MY chicken let alone off anyone else's chicken. And when I go to KFC, even though I love the taste of those 11 herbs and spices, I still take off the skin.
This being how things are, how come MY triglycerides are elevated into the bacon area and HERS are just fine? That's just wrong. I'm on my feet 6 hours a day and usually in motion for at least 4 of those hours. My weight is holding nicely around the 130 mark and rarely pushes close to 135. In fact it's more likely to dip down to 125 instead. My waistline has only gone up an inch, maybe an inch and a half since college. And I'm the one with the one month supply of Lipofen to get the bacon out of my blood.
Genetics. The one area where it really IS ok to blame your parents. :-)
You've all seen the way my wife eats right? You know she has a fairly average filipino diet which means LOTS of pork and LOTS of fat. She eats the skin off the chicken. She eats the skin off MY chicken. She likes to get KFC and crunch that batter.
Me, on the other hand, I trim the meat extra lean. I don't like fat. I eat pork, sure, but not that often because it gives me gas. I don't eat the skin off MY chicken let alone off anyone else's chicken. And when I go to KFC, even though I love the taste of those 11 herbs and spices, I still take off the skin.
This being how things are, how come MY triglycerides are elevated into the bacon area and HERS are just fine? That's just wrong. I'm on my feet 6 hours a day and usually in motion for at least 4 of those hours. My weight is holding nicely around the 130 mark and rarely pushes close to 135. In fact it's more likely to dip down to 125 instead. My waistline has only gone up an inch, maybe an inch and a half since college. And I'm the one with the one month supply of Lipofen to get the bacon out of my blood.
Genetics. The one area where it really IS ok to blame your parents. :-)
It Could Be Worse I Suppose . . .
Currently Reading: Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Well, here we are. Election day has come and gone and now the dust is settling and we're all starting to get back to work.
Fall is a great time of year. Generally I have the most sinus/allergy attacks during spring and fall but the weather is great and the fall and spring colors are a nice change from the wash of green in the summer and gray in the winter. CC and I often travel this time of year, before the prices go up. Of course, since we did all our traveling over the summer, we'll be staying home to enjoy things locally.
Over at the salon you can tell it's fall. We're starting to see the regulars come back in more often. More rain this time of year means more muddy lawns. Cooler temperatures make the grass go dormant which adds to those muddy patches. Walk outside and chances are you're crunching leaves and little twigs. Ideal conditions for groomers. Dogs get messy. Their hair gets all tangled up. They'll need to be cleaned up :-)
It's certainly a lot better than it has been the past few weeks in the salon. Actually the whole store has been depressing. People haven't been out shopping nearly as much; they aren't even browsing. On the weekends, when we usually have a crushing load of work, we've been spending far too much time cleaning and re-cleaning or reading or just sitting there staring out the window.
Good to have work again :-)
Well, here we are. Election day has come and gone and now the dust is settling and we're all starting to get back to work.
Fall is a great time of year. Generally I have the most sinus/allergy attacks during spring and fall but the weather is great and the fall and spring colors are a nice change from the wash of green in the summer and gray in the winter. CC and I often travel this time of year, before the prices go up. Of course, since we did all our traveling over the summer, we'll be staying home to enjoy things locally.
Over at the salon you can tell it's fall. We're starting to see the regulars come back in more often. More rain this time of year means more muddy lawns. Cooler temperatures make the grass go dormant which adds to those muddy patches. Walk outside and chances are you're crunching leaves and little twigs. Ideal conditions for groomers. Dogs get messy. Their hair gets all tangled up. They'll need to be cleaned up :-)
It's certainly a lot better than it has been the past few weeks in the salon. Actually the whole store has been depressing. People haven't been out shopping nearly as much; they aren't even browsing. On the weekends, when we usually have a crushing load of work, we've been spending far too much time cleaning and re-cleaning or reading or just sitting there staring out the window.
Good to have work again :-)
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