Business Tactics 101

It must be one of the key points of emphasis in business management strategies and courses. I've repeatedly seen it played out to the same ending. You make the rounds of several management types with your concerns. As you explain your issue you notice management staring off into space, far beyond you.You receive either no response or their attempt to cause you to feel guilty because you've worked through your break and lunch for three consecutive weeks (and why not four?) .... Like you're still not doing enough. After awhile, you just give up and in extreme frustration, walk away, secure in the knowledge that they were never really listening and don't give a green rats ass about your problems and the people working for you. They just want to push for more. It's like you've been standing there slowly aging while talking to a cardboard cutout of each management representative.

Your only satisfaction is when karma strikes and you see their methods come back to bite them in the ass. It then feels so good to just stand back and chuckle.

CRAMP!!!

No warning given. Just a slight leg movement and ..... CRAMP!!! Paralyzing. Muffled screaming. It hurt like hell. Like someone thrust a knife deep into my leg. A struggle to crawl over to the coffee table and solid support while I fought to stand. Stood there, bent over at the waist for several moments slowly stretching out towards a closer to normal standing position. Dragged the leg behind as I eventually made my way to the kitchen and water. Worried for a few minutes .... "What if this isn't any better by the time I depart for work in the morning? What if I never walk again?"

The pain, lessened than worsened, lessened than worsened!!! It seemed to extend itself from the epicenter, south to below my knee and north to my hip.

I recall words penned to an online newspaper page where some freakazoid was complaining about Lebron James (I think it was) once sitting out valuble minutes in a basketball game with recurring leg cramps. That he should just suck it up and get on the court and earn his millions. It's the playoffs by God!! That guy had no idea. Not even a masochist could play through this!

Sign On The Wall

This is me these days. I'll have something in mind that I want to look into and literally seconds later, I'll have forgotten it. Though I prefer to think of it as information overload rather than having memory issues. Sixty years of data going in for storage and something's eventually bound to leak out. Has to happen!! I would rather laugh at it than fight it.

An example from a recent typical hectic day in the work world: A chore came to mind requiring a lift truck. An available lift truck was parked about twenty feet away. I hopped into the drivers seat ..... and couldn't recall the reason why. I blame the hectic nature of the day more than any other factor. I generally have a dozen chores in mind that need immediate doing. And my mind is like a revolving door with each chore pasing by my inner eyes in an endless loop.

Senior Blues

OK now my feelings are hurt ..... I was asked if I wanted the regular price or the senior discount. You see, I don't mind asking for it if it's not offered and am even eager to show them my identification, despite my horrifying ODL photo, but I don't want it assumed that I might qualify.

..... And speaking of that horrifying photo, I wouldn't even post that picture on Facebook if my Mother was my only friend.

Kids These Days

Every once in a great while, I'll see a kid where I work, skinny and dorky looking, probably on his first job, reminding me of me when I first started, forty thousand years ago .... well maybe only forty-two years ago, unsure of the routine, afraid to ask questions, terrified of the supervisors. And I feel for that kid. Hoping that he'll figure it all out and move on to something better.

I've seen some of these kids over the years, who seem to have their post-teenage life planned out and they're confident and agressive at moving towards their goals and I feel good for them. But there's others who just seem to be living moment to moment and their words and body language tells you that they have no idea about next week or next year and then you look around at what's going on in the world and I'm almost happy and relieved sometimes that the majority of my years are most likely behind me, unless I live to be 120, but I wonder what the future holds for those kids. And hopefully they'll figure things out like I eventually did. A few things anyway. Like where's the nearest water fountain.

Nightmare # 3047

The other evening, a nightmare of sorts. A dream that my local record store was suddenly under new unfamilar ownership and had expanded into the building adjacent to them, creating much more space and adding all kinds of shiny things that flashed and glittered but offering much less music. Truly a relief to awaken from that dream.

I've had this fear that it would one day go away leaving nothing. I've seen so many local record stores and bookstores fade away in my lifetime that I sometimes want to cry. They add vitality, culture and atmosphere to any street or corner where they are found. There was a day when they were plentiful and if one did happen to close up you could count on another soon opening up to fill the void. Those were days when people would browse bins and racks of music and books instead of browsing their cell phones.

Got Them Jury Duty Blues

"The case has been settled." .... Words heard this afternoon when phoning in for possible jury duty. Two weeks of worrying for nothing. All shot to hell. Seems like 75% of the scheduled court cases end this way. Not that I was overly anxious to report. It's not exactly as dramatic and thrilling as it's often made out to be by movies and television. There's way too much sitting around and wondering what's going on.

This was to be a "special jury panel" and a case estimated to last twelve days involving a murder. Still, I was feeling horrible about potentially missing a substantial amount of work at our crazy busy time of the year and creating a hardship for several other people. But it's been so insanely crazy busy lately that I was beginning to look at jury duty as a vacation of sorts. Torn about not wanting to make life more difficult for co-workers while deperately wanting to get away from the headaches and stress. And it's been weighing heavily on my mind for the past two weeks since my request for deferral was (seemingly coldly) denied.

So until I'm summoned again .....

42 Years

Legs feeling stronger as the days become more hectic at work. (Maybe they even have a little more basketball in them?) They generally call it quits though about a half hour before the end of the shift. The final thirty minutes is usually a real struggle. It's almost like they can tell time.

Difficult to believe that this is my 42nd season in that place. I guess that's rare loyalty no matter how much I complain and moan about the workplace. There was no indication when I started that I'd still be around in 2016, a year that I couldn't even imagine ever seeing back then. Feels like an accomplishment that I failed to get myself terminated at some point along the way. I was teetering on the edge a time or two. If I stick it out for another eight years, I think I'll be deserving of a watch or something.

Thoughts and Musings

• Even if I'm right half of the time, it feels like I'm wrong all of the time.
• Looked on from afar this weekend, as the facts of life played out. The old (Alex Rodriguez) departing, making way for the young (Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin) taking their place. Sad and exciting times in baseball history. 
• A person at work typing a document for many eyes, containing the word "shift," accidently left out a letter in the final emailed version. Speaking purely odds-wise there's a 20% chance of it being any of the specific letters in the word, but in reality there's actually about a 99% chance of the letter that was omited being the one. Care to take a wild guess?
• Don't know why but the song I've been waiting all day to get home and hear is Bob Dylan's, Positively 4th Street.
• Saturday evening, warm and muggy, downtown rocking with live music, clouds moving in, transitional colored sky, shortcut through a lonely alley, bookstore browsing, window shopping, posted events and announcements, lady on the corner making jewelry, man a couple blocks away talking to himself, people having dinner, wailing ambulance racing by, 20-somethings arranging and re-arranging musical equipment in their trunk .... a collage of sights and sounds, worth capturing for posterity.

End Of Week Notes

• I love it when an evening in August feels more like October and less like August. Tonight is one of those evenings.
• Jury duty a week from now. My request for deferral denied. A "Special Jury Panel." If  I end up on the jury, it's estimated the trial will last twelve days. Involving a murder. Sounds awful serious. If making the cut, I fear I would end up like Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men. It may be difficult to convince me of guilt without video evidence of the act or damning testimony from the accused's own mother.
• You know you're getting old and less hip when you see a online list of celebrities known for this or that oddity and only recognize two of the fifteen names.
• Inquired about a guy who was missing from work ...... "Oh he had an argument with his girlfriend this morning and his car broke down" was the response. My understanding of the unfolding events was that the car broke down first and then the argument with the girlfriend who was going to give him a ride to work and well apparently he was suddenly on his own. Sure am glad that I haven't had one of those kind of days for quite awhile. Gave me instant chills.
• There's something satisfying about a life that while it may be boring, has stability in most other aspects. That's where I'm at these days. Don't underestimate stability and a lack of worries.
• A week like no other in Yankee history as I've known it. Five trades, three of them huge, then a long awaited call-up of a young stud from the minors, with the promise of more to soon follow, and capped off with Mark Teixiera and A-Rod announcing their retirements. "Rocking your (Yankee) world" kind of stuff. I'm left wondering if those retiring really wanted to do it or if there were strong suggestions by yankee ownership and management?

Sunday Notes

• It should be a requirement that all books of poetry should be available primarily in hardcover. 
• These days the thing I enjoy the most is being out for a long stroll, eyes open for images to photograph, then once home, a late evening movie.
• Now I've seen it all in the days of my Yankee fandom .... A triple to leadoff the game and thrown out at home attempting to stretch it into a home run.
• Regarding politics, people talk and talk but rarely hear what they're saying. They plead fairness on their part to the views of others but the words are actually just as one-sided as those who are openly partial and insulting.
• Does every generation in their 60's, begin feeling sorry about the futures of the much younger generations following them? Sometimes their future appears pretty bleak.