Finding your way after job loss!

As someone who has been laid off twice within a 12 month period, I have learned several methods to keep my sanity after the job loss.  The first time I was let go I slept in, let my facial hair grow, and was in my bathrobe more days than I care to remember.  This leads to depressive states, please do not do this!  Get back to you old High School routine.  Get your butt up as early as you can.  Taking care of yourself will lead to a higher self image.  You need to personify this higher image during an interview to get hired.  Plan a schedule, stick to it, and make adjustments when you need to.  The best part of being without a job is being your own boss.  You call all the shots, but rest assured nothing good will ever happen while your lying on the couch with potato chips stuck in that Charles Manson beard you have let yourself grow.

Do some regular form of exercise every day.  Take it from experience, you will have 24/7 access to your fridge and pantry, and you will put on some weight.  If you don't plan for the gain, you will have to buy new clothes to interview in which you will not be able to afford.  A real life Catch 22!  It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do something: running in place, lifting weights, or calisthenics like jumping jacks.  Get that heart of yours pumping with blood early in the morning each and every day.  Exercise is going to get your digestive tract operating on schedule, which will help with your fridge and pantry issues. Exercise becomes a necessary win/win solution to a problem you may be unaware of.  The unemployed have no excuse not to exercise, as they have plenty of free time, and no monetary expense is incurred while participating.

Planning to get a job starts with seizing an opportunity.  To do this you must update your resume to include your last job experience.  Rehearse your speech about why you are not currently working.  Employers look to exclude applicants first because they have an unmanageable number of people knocking on their doors.   Business sweep under the rug the ones that do not fit the criteria for the posting, and when they pick the eventual winner the job search is over for them.  Every other applicant are still searching for a job. Send out that updated resume to as many as possible.  It is not possible to overexpose you resume. Computer trashcans on desktops will not overflow, although many will be deleted.  Do not send your resume more than once to a prospective employer, unless it has been over 6 months.  This can make you look desperate and maybe a little too persistent.

There are plenty of fish in the sea,  so make it your goal to send a resume to every job opening in your field. Join two job boards, such as CareerBuilder, and Monster.  Do the same with your major local newspaper, as  have more local job boards you must be in the know.  In two short weeks you will be an expert just like me in deciphering the bogus responses.  Make sure you post your resume on these sites for anyone to see, and allowing matched jobs to be sent via email each day. It is important you hear from as many as you can, your opportunities need to be as large as possible, creating a realistic chance of acquiring a new job.  Ensure you let all ex co-workers, friends, and family know you are looking for work.  Many jobs are filled with people who know someone, or someone who knows someone.  This can be humiliating at first, but trust me, your people will be sincere in their help with your job quest.

When bona fide leads come your way, the first thing they will inquire about is what happened at your last job.  You will get this question, accept it, and make the time to plan for it now.  This is the first chance you will have to sell yourself to any prospective employer.  Plan the time now to make sure that you have your act together with a great answer ready to go!  This process is known as overcoming objections in sales lingo.  The goal of the job finding process is to accept a position with a company.  To get to an offer you must overcome objections from a prospective employer.  Sometimes you might start with a phone interview, then go to the firm for a panel type interview, and perhaps you will have one more final interview before an offer.

Companies have different styles for the process even though their goal is the same as yours.  They want to pick the right applicant and hire one time for the firm.  Keep in mind their goal is also to exclude everyone to get the best candidate available.  My advice for the interviewee to be as adaptable and  honest as possible.  One must be able to apply your work experiences to the question asked, and be flexible to the prospective employer.  I cannot stress this enough, most of this process is to test the applicant, and appearing flexible is what most firms are looking for, just as they hope you will be on the first day of your new job!  

Effort is the most important part of keeping fit

I have slimmed from 238 to 223 pounds.  I have been keeping that extra weight off for about two months.   I  watch when I eat, and made changes in my habits to live to be healthier.  I no longer eat to live but I live to eat.  Since my early 30's I have not been below 225lbs and most times I was ballooning  upwards of 250lbs.  I was not obese but pretty close.  Every time I look at a health guide my recommended a weight of 177.5 lbs.  I thought no way with my present fitness schedule and zest for eating I will ever be that light again. Then I thought what if I could get down to 210lbs, or dare I dream 190lbs.  I could be comfortable, and healthy enough to add years to my life span.  I have been thinking of my body as a machine which has been stuffed with fuel and rarely used.

I began exercising by punching a 40lb bag, using a curl bar to lift 35lbs with different positions to work my upper body, and of late back to using WII to track progress, and to do some running to get a good sweat.  The first thing I noticed I was more regular, and my body started processing all that fuel it was storing as fat.  The second thing I noticed was I did not feel the need to gorge and eat all the time.  I have an appetite but no need to devour.   I am no exercise fanatic.  I exercise for 30 mins, at least 4 times a week.  I get my heart rate going and I break a good sweat most days.  I have watched  my stomach and love handles wash away before my eyes in the mirror. So perfect because this happens to be where all of my extra weight is stored.  This regular exercise is a win win for me!

The other part of my change was changing my dreaded cycle.  I had an afternoon job, I was eating breakfast, lunch before work, lunch during work, and eating big dinner at 10:00 p.m.  Hello!  Anybody home?  No wonder I was approaching 240 at light speed.  To infinity and beyond.  Thankfully I had a wake up call.  I don't remember it actually, but something made rethink my situation.  There is still some changes to be made.  I drink a pot of coffee each day before noon.  I still smoke a pack a day, but my eating habits are much improved and I have dropped 15 lbs.  I am not depressed, I am look for shorter goals with plenty of time to reach them.  I know I can get to 210,  it might take me till next summer, and thats okay.  Weight loss is not meant to happen quickly, remember it took years to put it on and its  gonna take some time to get rid of it.

Fall Back or Spring Forward?

  As I walk up the street for a walk with the dog at 700AM I am encouraged at the signs for a new day which  happens to be the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  I take Nicky up the block knowing my coffee pot is doing its job and will have a nice tasty brew waiting for me when I return.  I see all the papers strewn by sleeping neighbor homes and the slightly tall grass which will get cut sometime during the holiday.  I see a man from another block jogging down my street with his two young children following on their tiny bikes.  "Dad, slow down" I here as the kids need more time to peddle up the hill of my court.  Dad obliges and then I see a puppy pug heading towards us as I put the lead back on Nicky.  They get to know each other, check vital signs as we continue on.  As we walk I realize it will soon be fall and not because the holiday tells me so,  I feel it because the suns angle has shifted and light is fading faster at night this past month.  The morning air is crisp and the leaves are ready to change their colors.  It will only be in the 80's for the next few days thanks to the passing of Hurricane Earl, and I am grateful I that I will not remember her name in a short while.  Still on this peaceful morning my mind thinks of our nations economy.

This past Wednesday's USA Today cover story was all about the lack of investment and hoarding of cash by many of our Corporations.  Most companies have a lot of cash that gets reinvested daily with the Federal Reserve Banks.  Since our nations latest recession these amounts have increased in record numbers.  The figure reported on this day was over 1Trillion dollars. The money is kept in the nations biggest banks and moved to the FRB's on a nightly basis.  This is money kept as cash for emergencies and other contingencies that big business might need to make ends meet should the worst happen.  This why this number is so easily tracked, and can be figured out easier than an overnight Nielson rating.  A trillion dollars is 1/13 of our nations debt.  A trillion dollars is a huge sum of money. A trillion dollars in cash is too much money wasted right now.

I have known that we are not coming out of this recession until at a minimum next spring, because of my 7 month layoff earlier in the year.  Companies have given up on reinvestment for their business they are hoarding cash because they are scared to do business.  This excess cash that is being hoarded can be used by firms in a number of ways.  They can pay down debt by paying off loans, they can reduce the number of shares of stock outstanding by buying them back.  Firms can invest in areas of growth and thus increasing employees.  They can invest in smaller business which can provide them goods or services in the long term and they can own a stake should it take off.  Right now our big corporations executives are sitting on their hands in the big conference room dreading making any decisions at all.  Smaller companies which historically hire the most people to work during downturns are unable to do so this time because of the tightening credit crunch, and are struggling to survive.

In Maryland the unemployment rate is just shy of 10% in a State of only 5 million people. There is hardly any manufacturing base left to speak of, as this month we lose the mighty Solo Cup plant in Owing Mills with its 900 jobs.  Most jobs available are 3rd party contractor positions for the Govt., or in the fields of medical, education, computer, transportation, and retail jobs.  The retail jobs are dismal as they only average $11.00 an hour.  If this sounds dreary, it is because I feel we are stagnating from a recession with no growth cycle.  This is precisely why big business does not know what to do.  They never got their big profits after a recession they are supposed to.  They blame the recession extension on consumers because we are holding a too much debt and for not  buying the big ticket items.  I don't blame consumers as we had to watch while our taxes helped bail out the big banks and auto industries.  I blame big business for not being innovative and for sitting on their fat cat butts while the economy started tanking in 2008.   Obviously the Fortune 500 is waiting for consumers to blink first and pull the nation out of this economic slump.  As I titled this blog, Fall Back or Spring Forward?  What if we have an extended stay with stagnation?   I am not gonna blink either, but I  might think about growing potatoes in my back yard this spring!

Not a Jiffy anymore

In the 1970's most car consumers went to the local gas station to get basic services like: oil changes, tire rotation, old batteries recharged, and perhaps a radiator flush and fill.  These stations have been transformed into coffee shops on the go, and were are lucky to find an air hose that we pay $1.25 to use.  We can still fill up on gas, clean our windows and sometimes buy oil and radiator fluids if we are having a problem.  Some stations I go to don't even sell these products.  Forget about getting any services, for one thing they don't even have bays nor the mechanic to do any repairs.  Secondly all they are concerned care about is ringing up the register.

Jiffy Lube came along at the right time for American retail auto consumer.  In the 1980's and beyond one had the choice of going to the dealer for the make of vehicle they had, or try to do it yourself at home after trying to buy the right parts at the Trak Auto.  Dealers do a great job, but the expense, time waiting for the service, arranging rides or alternate travel arrangement are turnoffs for getting an oil change or tire rotation.  Jiffy Lube made it possible to get the same work done at one of their shops, without worrying if they missed something or did something wrong.  Policy from the beginning was come back before 3000 miles and they will top you off, or take care of what was missed.  I know this to be true as they screwed my transmission fluid change and my driveway had all the proof.   Fortunately there was no permanent damage to the car. The price was right for the service and I used them as needed.  I don't want to forget to mention the time for the service was usually 20 minutes or less.

Now it is 2010 and I know Jiffy dominates the oil change industry.  From appearances it can sometimes seem they are the only company in town besides the Auto Dealers who provide these services. I know of a couple of places but try to find one in DC or Baltimore.  Jiffy Lube has put most of them out of business.  Even small auto shops want to do the bigger jobs and if you do drop you car for an oil change it might get done in 2 days.  That being said, Jiffy Lube Corporate greed has also raised the cost of that oil change from $23.00 to $43.00 in the last ten years. Sorry, but I don't think  the cost of oil has not gone up that much for 5 quarts to justify the increased fees. This morning I was first in line at 8AM and it took 40 minutes to get me out the door.  Of course they are constantly pushing us to buy that new air filter, wipers, all just for you at a 50% mark up.  I have become lazy and have paid for the air filter at the time, because I know my time running to advanced auto parts might not be worth it.  Not to mention the fact I have no idea where the filter is in my Mazda 3!   Oh I could find it, but is it worth my time?  So today I am blogging that I hope to see the next generation of oil changing company bring their service to the market.  Does anyone have some venture capital to invest?   I will offer my services to market and manage the start up.  The time is now for the next best thing!

Politics not as usual

I blog today because I am sick and tired of the tea party, their rhetoric, their leader Sara Palin and  I know I am not alone.  We have a good two party system in the USA, it has been in use for almost 250 years now.  It is far from perfect, and if some of us would take a little time to show our elected politicians we are alive and we care what happens to us we can easily fix most of what ails our Nation.   The problem is  that we gave the  politicians the keys to the castle, and  then we have sat back on our collective ass and watch.   So  how and what can we do now to make things different?

For us to make a difference and have our voice be heard we have to vote.  Many of us don't make this minimum effort.   Americans have to show that we can live up to the responsibility and deserve to be leaders of the free world.  That means researching the candidates and  voting every election.  We must hold our elected leaders feet to the fire to make a change to our constitution.  We must have term limits for our congress.  We already have this in place for the Presidency.  Why can't we keep Senators to a maximum of two terms or 12 years?  If we do that, why can't we then hold House of Representatives to a max of 6 terms or 12 years also?  Congress has had it made for far too long, and we all know are forefathers never intended that this become a life long job.  In my home state of Maryland we had recently retired Senator Paul Sarbanes decline to run for a 6th term after serving 30 years.  Senator Barbara Mikulski is running this year for her 5th term so she can serve 30 years as well.  We were lucky to have these people serve, but no one should serve in the same office for that long of a time period.

Groups like the Tea Party can strut their stuff because most Americans act like we don't care.  These people prey on the weak.  If you remember any news highlight from last Summer/Fall that had to do with health care and you will see the rhetoric that was used on the elderly in America.  The elderly thought that they were going to be euthanized the moment any cancer cells were found in their body.  They thought their Social Security, and Medicare benefits would be cut off at 70 years old, even thought they paid in the system their whole lives.   The biggest voting bloc in America was mobilized by scare tactics from Rush Limbaugh and his EIB network and these new Tea Toting Partier types.

The truth does not reside with the Tea Party, it is a truth of selfish servitude.   Why would people not believe and rely on the age proven theory that the younger generation will always take care of the older generation if only because their own self survival is involved.   I want to take care of my parents generation, so I too can be taken care of by the one after me, and so on.  These people banked on this kind of scare tactic causing the Democratic Party to have its base split at the core.  They couldn't fight the Republican fight because they had been in charge for 8 whole years.  They stuck it to Democrats hard, showing no bipartisanship, and only today have the "Stones" to accuse the Democrat Party for the same thing the Republicans had been doing, and then they cry "foul".

I give the conservatives in America the golf clap.  Sorry old chaps, they knew they had no place at the table for a while, so they tried to make a new seat.  They almost got to President Obama, and all the while I was embarrassed to be an American and watch the rhetoric the Tea Party try to slay his agenda of National Health Care.  Well guess what, they  gave it a fight, they treated many unjustly and unfairly, but at what cost to them?  The conservatives thought by winning a few Governorships and a Senate seat in Mass. and few house seats that they were setting the table for the 2010 fall elections.   Well good luck to ya Tea People! We know there is no chance of that, I do  believe a sleeping giant is now awake and ready to raise their voice.  Democrats will come out in record numbers for this non Presidential election year, and will squash these "Tea" thinkers.  I think there is a great chance Sara Palin is going to leave this celebrity as quickly as she got it, and I am quite sure this time next year she will be applying for financial aid as she won't be able to get her Governor job back in Alaska!

One two many spaces

I had this thought about why we enter two spaces after a period and a question mark over a year ago. I thought it was a novel and snazzy idea, yeah was I wrong. Get rid of the extra space, and there would be less typing, less use of space saved on hard drives, use space bars, and maybe a couple of less trees might be knocked down.  I had a ulterior motive, I was getting so old that even though I had Lazik Eye repair I still could not tell if I had typed two spaces after a period when I did so on the computer screen.

Turns out this idea has been discussed, prodded, and poked for a long time. Anyway, I thought since today is Earth day I ought to bring it up again as some kind tribute that I am making an effort to reduce my foot print on Earth. I have already done some really small things  I no longer flick my cigarette buts out the window of my car to wherever they fall.  I pickup my dogs poop on a regular basis using those grocery bags.  Oh, guess I cannot count this one because the bags are bad, because they clog up the Bays, Canals, and River Inlets  I don't know what I am going to use when they are gone. I guess my foot print is still as big as my size 13's.

Maybe I can make an impact on my print with this period thing   Turns out that when early civilizations start writing  they did not use any punctuation. George Bernard Shaw wrote that "Punctuation is historically an aid to reading aloud." The extra space at the end of sentences  was incorporated because the typewriter had uneven type fonts, and people could not tell a sentence was over when it was typed. On a typewritten paper two spaces stood out.  Now we type on a computer screen and guess what?  Computers do not recognize the extra space after the period in a browser format. We have come full circle, which exactly what a period is. I am for using the space bar once after a period or question mark, what say you?

This was typed with one space after all punctuation marks, and was in consideration of Mother Earth on our designated "Earth Day"

The jobs come and go, and many times they are the same recycled job

Been out of work since November 3rd, 2009, thats just past 6 months.  Not critical yet in terms of living thanks to my wife being the breadwinner of the family, and because of DLLR and the unemployment checks I get, but it gnaws at my sense of well being  just the same.  I have worked since I was 10 years old, and averaged 32 hours a week during college.  I have not been out of work more than a month during the 23 years I have worked since graduating UMCP.  In the days since May 3rd I have entered 24 resumes to firms supposedly offering jobs that fit my search criteria.  Supervisors, operations managers, dispatchers positions for which I possess experience and have qualifications for.  I enter I will work any shift demanded of me, and have worked third shift many times in my past work history.  I never hold back any required information:  including Age, Sex, Race, SSA number, references, past work history, resume, and complete any physiological tests required, sign up for the company's website, make a password, well you get the idea.  I give them anything they ask for.

Just the same I have notice a disgusting pattern of post a job and taketh away a job going on this past year and a half.  I knew I was going to lose my job last year, I just didn't know when.  I actually had been looking for a new job since February of 2009, and can say that this cycle of employment opportunities has been going on for a long time.  Companies look to the economy, and if they see an up tick they look to expand.  They tell their HR people get the ads out, lets get some bodies in the building so we can handle the increased business.  The problem is they see the down tick within the same short time and usually do not hire anyone.  Look to the last 3 negative issues to see if these jobs I just applied to get filled.  The events would be BP's Louisiana gulf off shore drilling fiasco, Volcano eruptions over Iceland disrupting world airline travel, and finally the Stock Market losing 1000 points in an hour last week.  All these events have brought the bulls to the forefront and put up a road block for our recovery, and I promise you, many jobs will be pulled back from the market place.

Here are three companies who have been playing this I got a job, now I don't peekaboo game for the past year.  There all local to me in the Maryland.  Dreyer's Ice Cream  posted the same coaching supervisor job every month in 2009.  Sleepy's needed a dispatcher, and a  2nd ,3rd shift supervisor. They have an ad out today for the same.  Iron Mountain, which I applied over 6 months ago and never heard back.  Did they ever hire someone?  Did it not work out?  I don't know.  I can't reapply to the current post because I have already applied.  That doesn't seem quite right.  Maybe Iron Mountain never even gave serious consideration for me, as the job was pulled back in the first place.   Do I think I have a chance for this same job now that my resume is on file from 6 months ago?   Ask any HR person, they will tell you I don't have a prayer, and now they locked me out from being seriously considered.  More than a few companies are using this approach now so they can poach current employees and only consider those recently laid off for the same "open positions" they had as long as 18 months ago.  This strategy will keep the long term unemployed until they fall off the rolls of being employable, and won't be good for the USA's economy in the long term future.

The Local Cafe has a soda fountain but it's Coke only

I was at my tiny local diner for breakfast the other day and their soda fountain caught my eye.  Only 3 choices were available:  Coke, Diet Coke, and Water.  Growing up with these machines, my earliest recollection was having 7 choices available.  The four missing would be a combination of Orange, HI-C, Sprite, and Root-beer, Pepsi, Mountain Dew.  I am sure that in the 1970's most of  these machines were full service.  An employee of the establishment would fill your cup with too much ice and not enough beverage.  Refills were usually out of the question, unless you had a quarter and were at Wendy's.  Now of course you fill up your own cup about 90% of the time in most convenience and fast food establishments.  I always make it a habit to steal extra sips as I am filling my cup.  Its not true, but it makes me feel I am  getting back at the "MAN" for his super high prices I have to pay. It is no big deal to young people, but to anyone over 35, being able to choose between Coke and Pepsi at the same fountain machine is the "Bomb"

I  have noticed that you will pay $1.50 or more for a cold 16 ounce sized soda can or bottle, but for that same price or even less you can get a 44 ounce fountain soda of your choice.  How do the retailers do what they do?  The soda fountain machine is the biggest all time money maker in food service, with or without the store having to pay someone to pour it for you.  The fountain soda costs the stores the minimum to operate and sell cold drinks. It alway has been a huge moneymaker, till maybe now.  Why else would my little cafe in Elkridge choose not to supply the other fountain drinks?  Could it be that business is down,  because less people are working meaning less breakfast sandwiches are sold.  No one buys just one drink at a cafe,  they come to get some chipped beef, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, chicken salad sandwich, hamburger and french fries.  I begin to wonder if this move by my cafe is to just hang until better days are ahead? This could be a sign of the times and the options with the fountain sodas are going the way of the Chevy Nova.  I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it, my corporate pals can watch from their store cameras and still see that the soda machines are still the busiest place in the world in 7-11's.  Thank Heaven!

The Las Vegas Diet

I am an average guy with a 6-1 frame who grew up skinny as a rail.  I wrestled in the 10th grade at 130 lbs.  I ate whatever I wanted, and I was still so skinny.    I graduated college at 165 lbs when I was 22 years old.  I worked crazy hours and days for the next seven years so by the time I hit 30 I was around 190.  I ended up working in sales for the next seven years, my nickname was lunch, because I was paid to feed people.   I  ballooned to 240 lbs in my worst days.  My neck was a 17.5 going on 20, my waist went from 34 to a 38, and I had to let out all my business suits for work as far as they would go.  This was until my late 30's.   I went back to work in operations and 5 miles of walking a day on the docks made me fit, but not able to get rid of the gut.  So here I am at 46 years at my half life, averaging 235 lbs.

Parts of my family tend to live old and ripen an average of 92 years on earth.  So I have this nagging thought in my head that I should get this body of mine in some kind of shape, also so I don't keel over with a heart attack one day.    I was laid off from my job, and not working motivated me to do something every day.  Prior to November 2009, I never exercised for any type of routine or regularity.  So I start working out (not like normal people, but like some overweight fat guy), barely stretching and running in place for 20 minutes three times a week.  Starting in December I am able to do more and for longer, I am using Wii to monitor and track, punching a bag, lifting some dumbbells, running in place for 30 minutes at a time.  January rolls around and I quit smoking for the umpteen time.  Every pound I am sweating off is getting harder and harder cause I am eating more to compensate for not smoking.  Now its March and I am feeling more confident about my body, but I am struggling to get below 230lbs, and I am usually between that and 235 lbs every week.  I am still content because I am not smoking and not gaining more weight either.

Now comes the fun part.  We have a Las Vegas trip planned for early April and I throw my back out a couple of days prior and I cannot exercise.  I go to the doctor for pills so I can make the trip and they weigh me at 236lbs.  We have a great time, but by the time we get back I have not exercised  for almost 8 days, I use Wii to weigh in and I was 228lbs.  I thought it must be wrong, so I weigh myself on our upstairs scale and I was 229 lbs!  Now my head is spinning like a top.  How can that be I lost 10 lbs not exercising while I was filling up at the hotels eating a lot of food  and drinking a lot of coffee and beer.  It takes me 12 hours of thinking.   Finally the answer comes to me in the form of Little Debbie, and it felt like a ton of bricks fell right on top of my head.

While flying to and from Las Vegas gambling, and seeing the sights of Sin City, I did not have any access to my pantry.  Kids in the neighborhood all know about my food closet.  When my family and their kids visit they all hit it for chips ahoys, tasty cake cupcakes, pop tarts including cinnamon,chocolate, and strawberry.  My personal favorite is Little Debbie Zebra cakes, cake rolls, their all good and I always kept a big supply on hand.   I must have been eating one roll at a time at a fast enough pace to keep 10 lbs on my body each week.  Now the hard part, can I quit the cakes cold turkey?  Time will tell but I am going to my old stand by diet of a combined breakfast/lunch, some snacking of cheese, chips, pretzels, big dinner before 7PM everyday, and a shrinking cow ice cream sandwich.  The chocolate snack cakes will be a thing of the past for me, and I will have to report the rest down the road in a future blog.

Contractor's Dream: Your job is for the taking!

If you are a homeowner in America the chances are pretty high you had to deal with the contractor.   The contractor is usually a small business man who does jobs by handling a specialty for consumers in a local area.  By specialty it could mean: a heating and air conditioning repairman, roofer, fencer, painter, or a general contractor to remodel your bathroom or kitchen.  Contractors will usually stay in a specific town rarely venturing outside to do jobs, unless business has dried up.  Contractors will tell you what you want to hear when bidding a job, so buyer beware.  They will price too high when they don't want to deal with you or your work.  They will underbid a job when times are tough, and  they usually end up skimping on the job to make it profitable for them.  Understand that when you ask a contractor to do intricate and detailed work you better make sure that the labor is upfront in the estimate.  If the work turns out to be too much it won't be done, and you will surely be disappointed.

Since we purchased our used home in 1995 we have used over 17 general contractors for various work we needed to have performed to improve our house.  The costs ranged from extreme ($45K) having a in ground pool installed to having a new garage door installed ($750).   I have dealt with everyone running these jobs and most of their subordinates.  It is important for me to know who is working in my home, this makes it easier for me to sleep at night.  I also have offered food and drinks to every one of these contractors and workers.  (Okay usually it is my wife, but it comes from our home)  We do this to make people feel more comfortable in our home, and it helps us with being easier to address "concerns" we might be having about a particular job.  Like that pink paint wasn't what we had in mind, and want it redone.  Oh we will still pay for the rework, but it makes it easier to talk to people about.

My family is on the far end extreme end of using contractors.  Most of my neighbors rarely use someone unless they have something not working, like the furnace, or leaky roof for example.  We feel like we are investing our money when we hire someone for a home improvement.  We are not extravagant but we will spend our hard earned money if we see value in the future.  Example, we had a deck built to replace the 1st homeowners do it yourself job, (Greg Bauer) that was falling apart after 10 years.  Hint homeowners, be careful what you choose to do yourself.  Usually you or someone else will have to pay a "Pro" at a later date, if you have no experience on the project to redo your mess.  We shaped and wrapped the new deck around the back of the house for a slimmer look at a total cost of 17K, including removal of old deck.  

We feel strongly that with the addition of the pool a functional, good looking deck was a must.  Would our neighbors have spent that much, probably not.  Then again, they would not have had the pool installed either.  We stand by our decisions, but I will say, knowing how to deal with contractors is the crucial 1st step to improving your home.  I recommend starting with something small like hiring someone to fix your drywall in the house before you upgrade the paint.  This will give you the confidence to work with others, and before you know it you will be working with someone to fix your roof, rather then putting it off because of a sunny day!

Storage Space

Every family in America is affected by the storage space they have in their domain.  Can the closets be crammed  with anymore stuff?  When you walk in the kids room and see the mess, can you even yell at them for not cleaning their room if their toys can't be stowed anywhere?  Can you entertain in the family room without piling all that junk into the garage.  Can you even park your vehicle in the garage?  Are the kids bikes kept permanently on the porch because the garage is a piled so deep and stacked so high with stuff that it can't hold anymore.  I bet the answers are yes for most of America.

The problem is not entirely with the  American people.  Business have an awful lot to do with American's residence busting at the seams.  Stores like Lowes, Home Depot, Target, and Walmart need to move oodles of product to be successful and profitable.  Most of their customers own stock in these Big Box Stores, which do quite well, and return the favor by buying a lot of  merchandise from them.  Go into any of these stores and you will see a whole aisle of cheap plastic products which are used for storage.  Buy these to store stuff to go under the bed, the closets, the pantry, under the couches,  to fill the closets, and under the basement steps. The more merchandise you can store in the house, the more new things you an buy.  If the goods are hidden away, you might even buy something new you already own!  Cha Ching for the stores!

Americans do not clean out their homes at all anymore.  They keep piling up the bins and bags of stuff till it becomes so overwhelming it becomes time to rent a storage unit at a mini warehouse. I would think that would be the reason enough to  force them to go through and get rid of some of their stuff.  Most will fill up the warehouse space rather quickly.   For being lazy,  having too much money for some, out of sight out of mind, people have stuffing their homes for a long time.  

This duplication is a serious waste and it makes a nasty mess of the USA's Gross National Product.  If American's are buying  say 20% of product that they don't need eventually this will inflate the USA's GNP.  This means we are producing and importing more product than needed, and this will cause the value of those goods to go lower than they otherwise would have.   If value goes down price goes down, and now employers have to make cuts, to reduce cost, by letting employees go, and next thing you know we are in the throws an old fashioned recession.  

One could even make the argument that the "storage space" strategy of the big box retailers is harming our economy rather than helping it grow.  Don't get me wrong, Walmart moves some goods in this country.  I been in transportation for 30 years, and I can tell you Walmart's distribution network on the ground is the best worldwide.  What I am saying is maybe, just maybe, Walmart can shoot for a more manageable growth. Walmart has been making serious money in both America and China for over many generations. In the world economy whats bad for the USA is great for China, and we all know Walmart is good for China!  

As I put this to blog I realize that American consumers have the power to straighten this out.  We decide what we need, when we need it, and when we will buy, even with major advertising spending billions to coerce us.  We need to buy American products and services when we are able.  We need to encourage manufactures, suppliers, vendors, and retailers to buy and supply American.  This will put more people to work in the USA, and will also show the "Big Box Retailers" that American's can be the smart consumers just as we were in the Twentieth Century.  This might show China that they will have to make plans for Asia's 3 billion people.  The shoulders of Americans are not that strong, we we can be that smart, our Nations health depends on this.  Buy American when you need something.

Rules of the Road

Once upon a time all teenagers entering the tenth grade would take a course known as driver education.  Teens all over America drooled over this class, passing meant and easy ticket to freedom, the ability to get a drivers licence.  Students today still get their drivers permits before they are eighteen, but the cost of not teaching them in school has become a burden that society has to pay over and over again.

In my tenth grade I could not wait for drivers ed, it meant freedom from bugging my parents and brothers, and sister for a ride.  Actually it was always a no from my oldest brother and sister, but sometimes my parents would oblige.  I would have paid any price to get my drivers licence, even if it meant kissing the butts of the football coaches.  See the  coaches always taught drivers education classes, I guess they always got the gravy teaching assignments.  The coaches were also extremely sexist, they expected the boys to know how to drive before they got to their first class, but were going spend plenty of time teaching the pretty girls in class to do the same.

Drivers Ed class allowed me to practice driving on a computer screen and then go out in groups of 3 and practice for real.  Sitting day after day in front of a simulator learning how powerful a machine it is.

Understanding that I had to treat a car with respect an attention to detail while driving, just as I had with only one other thing in my life up to that point, the television.  We learned acronyms like IPDE: Identify, Predict, Decide, and Execute.  I still use this every day on the roads in the Baltimore/Washington Corridor.  If  you are travelling 295 southbound and you are trying to exit on 495 towards Springfield and you are darting between traffic coming and going from MD 193, and dealing with the entrance to 495 towards Silver Spring, then you undoubtedly are using IPDE every day also.

Cars are built safer now on the inside then they ever were ever on the outside.  Any accident now has a good chance of the driver living except a head on crash.  We have side air bags, front airbags, seats on the frame so tight they can withstand major impacts.  Still no matter what is done, if you hit anything head on, a pole, tree, car, the chances are high and always be high the driver will die in the crash.  Now add in all the distractions from safe driving, cell phones, head phones with Ipods, Now consider all the drivers on the road that never had any formal training before they got a drivers licence.  Now consider all the transients from other states, country's that don't know know our local driving intricacies.  Now consider all these things and it is no wonder that driving in the Washington/Baltimore corridor is the most dangerous in the United States.

If you ask the average driver who has right of way between one getting on the freeway and one getting off the freeway, I would be surprised if 50% of the drivers on the road would get the answer right.  The driver getting on has the right of way because he has to speed up to 65MPH to go with the speed of traffic.  The driver getting off must slow down for a curved off ramp anyway, so he should always let the other driver go by while exiting.  Another of my favorites is not driving in the left lane, that is a passing lane.  No one has any business driving in the left lane at less than normal speed.  When people pass on the right side this makes our roads very dangerous, and I have seen many do this because of Slow-Pokers in the speed lane.  Another big problem on our roads are drivers who drive less than a car length behind another, and flash lights, honk horns, to get around a car.  This can be seen as aggressive behavior, and has been the cause for many problems on our roads.

I write about Rules of the Road is because we have too many drivers on our roads who do not understand them.  We have no one teaching them.  We don't teach our young drivers in the same manner for Drivers Education like we used to do.  Young drivers are the most dangerous on the road because they have the least experience.  We can give them more experience in school and we should.   We need to bring this service back to public schools.

Rebecca and me, or Wii Vs Pong

My daughter Rebecca was born I was nearly 32 years older.  Our generational gap is over 30 years.   I have never felt any "age"  issues because of this  difference with  Rebecca.   When she asks me something now that she is 14,  I try not to explain to her, I give her the answer, because if I don't  I will get the "my father is an idiot look".  Rarely have I ever had to say she was doing something stupid or kid like.  She has been an adult almost right out of the gate.  I always say she was 10 going on 18, adding the appropriate years as she aged.

Now what really excites me is when Becca sponges up some information from me. We would be watching our favorite TV show Lost.  Becca will see one of those blue and white 1970's Darma Initiative Volkswagen vans.  Becca has never seen a van like this in her whole life.  What are those vans?, she wants to know.  I say they are Volkswagen vans that hippies used to drive around the countryside in the 60's and 70's.  Then she would said I thought that Volkswagen made those little cars like bugs.  Of course they did, but they also made these vans so like 7 people could squeeze in and drive from San Francisco to Washington, DC on like 17 dollars of gas, and protest to the government that pot was not legal.

The difference of our generations where it is most apparent is in comparing  the games of Wii  and Pong. My dad brought home a game called Pong for the family in 1976.  Pong was Americas first home computer game, and was also a huge piece of crap.  Pong consisted of using a TV screen to show two paddles and one ball, really a block, which players hit back and forth.  The player who failed to hit the ball would lose the point.  If you saw an air traffic controller's flight screen, it looked much cheesier than that.  Move up to 2006 with Wii exploding on the market from Nintendo with such a force that boys and girls and their parents are now playing video games, sometimes even together as a family!  Wii allows your body movement to affect the Mii, your computer persona, you are playing.  They even have a nunchuck device to allow two handed playing like to fly a plane and shoot weapons at the same time.  I myself even exercise 30 minutes every day with Wii Fit, and I never exercised in my whole life, save for when I was on the wrestling team.

Sometimes I sit an wonder what is in store for Becca's life and what kinds of new technology will be in their future.  Then I just sit back and forget it.  To think what my daughter has seen since her birth 14 years ago:  Laptops with usb technology to allow use anywhere in the home, no longer are we constrained to a big bulky PC, and connections for many externals with a small cable.  We have wireless technology which allows 2 or more laptops to use the same internet connection, and print from the same printer.   Cell phones have grown and improved so much that the technology in the cheapest Samsung flip phone far exceeds any phone ever sold before she was born.  Then there is the Ipad.  This which will allow students and artists and many others the easiest way to page through websites, write and email, flick through photos, or watch a movie all with the touch of a button.  What else is coming for Becca's generation?   I have no idea, but I will surely enjoy Rebecca explaining it all to me!

Partial Bullshit

This blog is in the memory of George Carlin and all that he meant to me.  Carlin was a master of the English Language.  Carlin could take words like Parkway and Driveway and ask questions like "Why do we drive in the parkway and park in the driveway?"  We laughed  out loud at first because of the silliness involved. Later we laugh to ourselves because of the genius of his wit and wisdom, and how damn smart he was. I was 11 when I learned who Carlin was.  I might have heard his "Seven Dirty Words you can't say on Television" when I was nine eavesdropping in my brothers room while he was playing the record.   I learned who George Carlin was when I saw him host the very first Saturday Night Live 10/11/75.  When he did his routine for Baseball and Football in the opening monologue I was forever no good.

That year back in 1975, I am in NYC visiting my mom as my parents split that year prior.  Mom had rented a place near 52 Ave and Broadway. If you have visited Times Square in the last 20 years you may not know what I am talking about, but where my mom lived was a god forsaken hell hole.  If you had the pleasure of visiting the summer of '75 you would remember the stench from the garbage strike that occurred as NYC laid off 3000 garbage workers.  You have never witnessed a garbage strike until you have seen, smelled, and stepped in one like in the Big Apple.  Not only was the garbage bad, but anywhere near Times Square you were rolling into serious drug use, prostitution, and theft to pay for it all.  I remember seeing some things on 42 street which I had no business seeing.  Whores taking care of Johns right in the alley, people shooting up heroine right out in the open, and XXX on every movie house one could see.

Now, these memories are still as fresh for me, but I will never forget visiting my mom during Yom Kipper holiday that October when I was in 5th grade.  I got to watch the Today show on Friday morning with Jane Pauley and Gene Shalit.  That Friday they were interviewing the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players", consisting of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain,Garrett Morris, and Laraine Newman.  Saturday Night Live was going to debut that weekend.  I had no idea who any of them were at the time, but have rarely missed an episode of SNL in 35 years.  Watching Carlin open that first show, I never missed much of his material either.  I always caught him on his yearly HBO specials, and watched him live once or twice.  The master started it all on SNL, the prime time players kept it going for 5 years.  Chevy Chase left for crappy movies, Bill Murray took over his spot, but the rest of the cast stayed the same, and I was right in the midst, not too far from 30 Rock.  Thanks George, I miss you everyday!

Americans for Freedom

When did our Constitution get so muddled?

After 9/11 it has been extremely hard for Americans to speak out against our aggressive actions against the terrorists in the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the reprisals yet to come against Iran, and North Korea. Yes we lost many wonderful citizens during the unspeakable actions Al Qaeda inflicted upon America on 9-11-2001. We lost nearly the same amount of brave people who died 12-7-1941, when Japan surprised us that Sunday morning by attacking our Pacific fleet. Is it hard to believe that the attack on NY/DC that fateful day were any less than the attack on Pearl Harbor on 12-7-1941? We declared war on Japan and entered WWII the next day when President Roosevelt gave the most famous speech to a joint session of congress ever. "December 7, 1941 is a day of infamy..."

The two attacks were different. Japan attacked our territory of Hawaii, and tried to wipe out our Pacific Fleet. The attacks of 911 were attacks on our mainland for the first time ever, and we have not declared war in the traditional manner as a form of reprisal. Al Kida used terrorist activity to board commercial aircraft and attack the Pentagon, and World Trade Centers. Most believe the Capitol and/or the White House would have been attacked if not for the courageous actions of heroes who crashed one of the hijacked planes in the fields of PA. We did start a war in the middle east, but this was under the guise of wiping out terrorists, not taking out a country. Our nation has never declared war for the attacks on 911. Our President did, when he declared war on the Axis of Evil, and by doing so alienated most of our allies except Great Britain, Israel, and Spain. This explains how Iran is becoming a nuclear nation and further muddles the middle east peace strategy, if one really exists at all.

Our nation did many horrible things to avenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor, the containment camps in California for Japanese-Americans during WWII, and dropping the H-bomb on Japanese citizens two times. I know President Truman had to make that awful decision in 1945 to shorten the war and save millions of American solders lives by dropping the H Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  President Truman was under extreme pressure from high Commander Eisenhower and the Military Industrial Complex, who wanted to end the war asap to save American lives, and desire to inflict pain and suffering in remembrance for Pearl Harbor.

Since 9/11 many horrible things to avenge the attacks in the United States of America have been carried out.

Congress agrees to fund the wars in the middle east but never sever ties like the way a war is usually declared. In Afghanistan we went in 2003 to rid the nation of Al Kida, and just miss killing Bin Laden, and almost get rid of the Taliban during the process. Then off to a war in Iraq and after 7 years with mixed results, we are back in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban all over again. We still feel the same threat we did in the past: Taliban, stone age mentality, drug lords, and a safe haven for terrorists. It took 10 years for the old USSR to realize that you can't force a mountain to listen, no matter how many bombs you drop on it. History has a way of repeating itself if you don't pay attention.

When the USA is fighting with troops in foreign lands, we must declare war! Congress is to make this happen by voting for it. The President as Commander in Chief becomes in charge of the war, with Congressional oversight as they fund the war with our tax dollars. This is what our Forefathers intended when the wrote and instituted our Constitution.   That has not been happening since Vietnam, as the President wages war while Congress funds it, and sits back and runs for reelection. The checks and balances in our 3 Branch government system are to ensure politicians carry out the duties of the Constitution of the United States of America. The elected politicians have been doing what they need to get our votes, and simply return to taking care of their lobbyists,and big business as they see fit, not their constituents, which is how it should be. This practice is backwards, and it must end. To do so is mandatory for every citizen of the United States of America!