A Mass Of Ignorance

The last two days here have seen no school. It's not unusual to see a few days of school missed here during the winter months. Snow days are common and I'm betting the snow storm predicted for Sunday, into Monday, will be part of the reason there will be no school on Monday.

Why only part of the reason?

It's Wisconsin and teachers, along with other unions of government workers, are protesting the Labor Bill newly elected Gov. Scott Walker is trying to ram through stripping government workers of the majority of their collective bargaining rights.

Welcome to mini Cairo, Egypt in the Upper Midwest.

I'm not a fan of unions in general. I've been a member of a union in the steel industry in the past. I've also worked in supervision in the steel industry and have had to deal with unions from the "other side of the fence." There are pros and cons that I've weighed when thinking about unions.

Thousands of people have descended on Cairo Madison to protest this Bill. State democratic legislator's have fled the capital to avoid a vote and table this issue as the Republican controlled government apparently has the votes necessary to pass this Bill. (They just don't have enough control to vote on it as it takes twenty senators to do anything and they only have nineteen. The fourteen democratic senators who've fled have managed to stall voting on this Bill.)

It's a mess.

An unnecessary one.

Do unions have too much power? A better question to consider is why have employers surrendered so much power to unions over the years?

This event has gone national as far as the media coverage goes. As I've read through comments to various reports most of the people commenting, who oppose unions, are basing their opposition due to the fact that their own wages and benefits are less than unionized workers. That's not a logical argument to me quite frankly.

While I'm not a fan of unions I do believe they have the right to exist. This Bill isn't just about the wages and benefits aspect of unionization. This piece of legislation would end collective bargaining rights. Fundamentally that is wrong. It's also fundamentally wrong that Wisconsin isn't a "right to work" state. People should have the choice to opt out of belonging to a union as well.

What isn't being reported, or is being under reported, is that the unions are willing to sit down and discuss cuts in their benefits. The Republican controlled government in Wisconsin doesn't seem to be interested in that though. Their goal is to eradicate unions.

Personally I think legislation needs passed to make Wisconsin a right to work state. No one should be forced to be a member of a union. Unions also have the right to exist as well. Compromise and common sense on the parts of all involved is sadly lacking. The arguments people are using to point out how lazy and worthless union workers are, are laughable to me. I've worked in a non-union environment for the past ten years and I've seen my fair share of worthless workers parade through here. Being a union member isn't exclusive for that issue. While it may be true that unions may protect a worthless employee more so than a non-unionized work place, ultimately it's the employers fault for allowing this to happen.

The biggest issue here is the cost of health care, not actual wages. (I don't think there are too many people who feel teachers are overpaid.) I've seen this coming for several years. Health care costs have sky rocketed over the past ten years. Employers have carried the brunt of these costs and a lot of people are clueless how much those costs have increased.  It's an expensive cost of doing business and many businesses, and state governments, cannot maintain the cost and expect to survive.

Tax payers are up in arms over this issue to some extent. They also have a valid argument since ultimately they're the employer in this case. They can't be ignored either. (That's part of the reason this is such a mess.) Tax payers can't pass the costs of this on to consumers like other businesses can. The tax payer in this case is the consumer as well. Now that I think of it, as a tax payer and consumer, we're getting "double whammied" by the cost of health care. As a consumer we're also paying more for goods and services provided by businesses due to health care costs. I can guarantee you businesses aren't absorbing the rising cost of health care without raising their prices to maintain profit levels.

It's a complicated issue and placing 100% of the blame on unions is wrong and naive. It's a mass of ignorance on both sides of the issue and a mess with compromise and common sense suffering. In other words, it's the American way of late.

UPDATE: Just as an update the two major unions in WI are willing to accept the wage/benefit concessions but the Gov is unwilling to talk or negotiate with them. It's all about busting the unions, nothing more.

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/5f58bdd4-3be8-11e0-a659-001cc4c03286.html  

I Want A "Do-Over" This Week

Car Problems? Check.

Computer problems? Check.

Work Problems? Check.

Monday started off as any other Monday for me. Wake up, eat some breakfast, shower, and head to work. The only problem is that my car apparently wanted the day off. Trudged back inside, called son the mechanic to make arrangements for car problem, then called taxi to ferry my ass to work that day. Relatively cheap repair as the shop where my son works gives healthy discounts to family members. Car tow, new starter, and new oil pan gasket replaced for less than $260.00. (Apparently small oil leak from oil pan shorted out starter.)

My daughter's car also felt it was time to rebel against her as well. She fried her clutch on Monday for the second time in the last year. This wasn't a complete surprise, but not one I saw coming quite this soon as we'd replaced her clutch last summer. The kid likes driving a stick, but driving a stick isn't her forte. Mom and Dad raided their respective "piggy banks" and shelled out about $4000.00 for a different car, with an automatic transmission to keep the kid mobile.

My computer has been dying a slow death. Not a huge surprise since it's over six-years-old and gets a lot of use. Talked to the "Geek Squad" at Best Buy and they summed up the problem in a few words. After doing some remedial math on repair costs versus a new computer cost a new desk top computer was purchased last night. Nothing fancy but another $525.00 down the drain. (Well not exactly $525.00 but who counts pennies?)

I worked the last couple of days with the new kid we recently hired. I've been pretty impressed with him honestly. He's pretty sharp and nothing like the "Worthless Co-Worker" he replaced. He informed me yesterday that his girlfriend dumped him the day before Valentine's day. I momentarily felt bad about this until he told me the reason for the dump. Apparently she doesn't want to move to the other side of the state with him for a new job he accepted. His last day is an undetermined day next week. The boss, who has been off the last two days, has yet to be informed. That will happen today I guess. I don't see him staying beyond this weekend because the new place that hired him wants him "immediately" and he's raring to go. Since I'm off today and tomorrow I'm guessing Saturday will actually be his last day.

So the hiring process commences again. Hopefully it won't take 3 months to get him replaced as it did with the "Worthless Co-Worker." I'm not holding my breath though as it always takes an ungodly amount of time to get people hired here. The one thing I do know is that the boss will be thrust into panic mode about this. March isn't a good month to be short handed for us as we do a couple of off-site sales events in addition to having a store to staff. Compounding this is his wife is pregnant and due in late March as well. He had planned to take one week of vacation when the baby arrived which probably isn't feasible now.

That's been my week so far, how's your week going?

The Only Thing Missing Is Fish

Ice fishing yesterday comprised of 11 hours of time, 3 different locations, and a crappy photographer. True to his word my kid drove right up to the first spot of fishing. In the first spot we fished at we were sitting on top of 22 feet of water with the fish finder showing a ton of fish under us. Unfortunately none of them were hungry as we sat there for two hours with nothing to show but a few weak bites.

Naturally this wouldn't do and my son the fishing fanatic decided we needed to move to another location. He was in a fishing tournament the previous weekend and decided that that's where the fish were. He also assured me it was a spot we could drive right up to like this first spot we tried. So we packed up and headed out to that spot. Again the second spot showed a ton of fish under us and we were sitting on top of 11 feet of water. We caught a ton of fish in second spot. Not one keeper in the bunch though. I don't think I've ever caught so many fish at one time as we did there. Every "Bambi" in this lake was biting, but not one fish worth keeping. (Or taking a picture of.)

The crappy photographer (me) failed to take any pictures of our second stop of the day, which was a shame. This spot was like a small city with hundreds of vehicles and ice shanties set up.

My son decided after a few hours in the second spot another relocation was called for. He was genuinely flummoxed by the lack of sizable fish being caught. The first spot we went to was his favorite spot and had never let him down before. The second spot he had done well in the weekend before.

As he was mulling different spots to move to he recalled me telling him where I used to catch a lot of fish when I was a kid and he'd never been there before. I reluctantly agreed to try this spot as he'd been bugging me in the past to go there. My reluctance was related to a couple of factors. One being we were talking about a spot that I hadn't ice fished in forty years. Two being there was no easy access to this spot and no way possible to drive right up to this spot. In other words we were going to be hauling 250 pounds of equipment on a hefty hike to get there. Welcome to my nightmare folks.

We arrive there and he's in love with the spot. There's about a dozen people set up in this area. It's a big area and a lot of deep water ranging from 40 to 60 feet deep in places. He decided to drill several test holes to set up the fish finder for the best spot. I swear I drug that ice shanty for over a mile as he went from spot to spot looking for fish. He wasn't pleased with the test results and I finally had to put my foot down, before collapsing with exhaustion, to tell him we weren't going to catch any fish by simply drilling holes in the ice.

We were seeing fish, just not the appropriate number to please him. He took pity on me and we finally set up in what he deemed was an acceptable location. And yeah, we didn't catch a thing worth keeping once again. We finally packed up and got off the ice before dark. I was beat. Him, not so much. He decided he wasn't done fishing for the day and decided he was heading to the "dam" to catch fish. When he asked me if I wanted to go I politely declined stated he was nuts. He got out his cell phone and called a friend and they made plans to hook up for a night of fishing. 

A phone call from him later last night found him to be pretty happy. He was finally catching fish and wished I was there. I told him it wasn't the end of the world that we didn't do that well earlier in the day and maybe I was bad karma and all he really needed to do was to get rid of me to catch some fish worth keeping. He didn't quite buy into that so I imagine he's going to want to drag me out again in the future. Below are a few pictures, all from the first location we started out at.

Time to drill a hole

Truck sitting on top of 28 inches of ice.

Setting up the ice shanty.

Just about fully set up.

The kid in the shanty.

Fish (depth) finder to the left, heater in the center, my knee on the right.

What Happens When One Doesn't Want To Go That Extra Mile

I'm off today and up before 5:00 am. This is my first weekend day off since last October and most normal people would still be snoozing and dreaming about a Saturday filled with, well, more sleep for instance. Someone must have revoked my "normal people" status though. I've been kicked out of that particular club.

Now in all fairness I knew I was going to be getting up early today. I'm not wired for sleeping in late and my son, the ice fishing fanatic, wants my company on the ice today. You know, you can raise your children, get them out of the house on their own eventually, and they still want to make your life miserable on occasion.

Yesterday was my granddaughter babysitting day. I asked my daughter-in-law if they had big plans for the weekend and I knew I was trouble. She stated their plans were her and my granddaughter going to her folks on Saturday and my son and I were going fishing, which was news to me. Who'd have thought my normally scatter-brained son would remember the only time I stated I had this particular Saturday off was over a month ago?

I was less than thrilled with this news. Don't get me wrong, I like to fish. I even like my son. I'm just not fond of combining fishing with ice, unless it's ice in the cooler on a hot summer day to keep my diet Coke cold.

My daughter-in-law left for work and I spent the afternoon thinking about all the reasons I didn't want to go ice fishing today. Mostly centered around the fact that it's cold out and the "good fishing hole" is about a 3/4 mile walk hauling about 250 pounds of ice shanty and fishing equipment.

I mean seriously, there's a reason this blog is called "Just Plain Tired." And I'm not exactly a spring chicken any more either. My idea of a great day of fishing is backing the boat in the water and cruising to the fishing hole. This time of year I look like an Alaskan sled dog pulling shit behind me, huffing and puffing, because I smoke too much.

My son arrived home from work and I saw he was well prepared for today. He's got a bucket of minnows and a bag of fishing jigs. There was no talking him out of this nonsense.

I think I surprised him with no argument about going today. He was well prepared though. I'll have to give him that. He stated that he called his insurance company to double check his insurance coverage. My first thought was he thought it would be on his dime if I keeled over today and he wanted to make sure he didn't have to pay any hospital bills for kidnapping me today.

That wasn't quite it though, although me keeling over was on his mind. No, he called his car insurance agent to see if we drove out on the ice and went through said ice, if his insurance covered the cost of replacing his truck. Never mind we'd probably drown. Apparently his insurance company will replace the truck, whether we'd survive this type of mishap or not.

So keeling over has apparently been check mated. The cold has been tempered somewhat as well as it's supposed to be in the 30's as well today. (Much better than the -16F last month when we ventured out.)

I dunno. While not hauling 250 pounds of crap is definitely appealing I'm not sure I'm totally on board with falling through the ice and drowning. I better get off here and make sure my will is up-to-date. I may also have to scrounge around and find a couple of life preservers as well. There's no sense in drowning on a rare weekend day off I guess.

Maybe my next post will have pictures. I am currently charging the digital camera. That doesn't necessarily mean I'll remember to take it along today, but it'll be charged anyway.

Just Random Ridiculous Crap

1) The lure of plastic, as in a credit card, seems to know no bounds to some people. First Premier Bank offers a credit card to people with less than stellar credit. It's a credit card with a typical credit limit set at $300.00 and an interest rate of 79.9%. There's also fees of $135.00 per year to own the card as well. The fees include $45.00 to open the account, an annual fee of $30.00 the first year, and a monthly fee of $6.25 for the pleasure of having this card. (The annual fee goes up the second year.)

Oddly enough (to me at least) this card has proven very popular to people. The CEO of First Premier Bank said while the card was popular the majority of people who had one ran it up to the credit limit, then defaulted on it. (Big surprise there, huh?)  A person can have several opinions or thoughts about this I guess. Two come to mind here. One being, how desperate do you have to be to want a credit card with an interest rate of 79.9%? The other thought is that a large default rate isn't surprising to me. I would think most people who would accept a card with this interest rate and fees probably have little to no intention of paying their bill. I can't feel sorry for the bank though. I'm sure the minority who do actually pay on time still allow this bank to swing a profit.

2) In regard to my last post -- the silly little mall marketing girl was terminated. (Almost forgot about that.)

3)  The last few days of work have been strange. I've had random high school and college aged girls who work in the mall randomly greet me when they see me at work. Some of the girls I know, some I don't. The weird part of the greeting is the word "Dad" they've thrown into their "hi's" and "hello's." All I get is a big smile and no explanation from them when I ask them why the "Dad" is thrown in there.

I ate lunch with Jackie today and when I told her about this she about died with laughter, then refused to tell me what the hell was going on until we were about done eating. A few years ago the girls who worked in the mall decided to take a poll about who was the creepiest guy who worked in the mall. Over the years this poll has taken on quite a new life and now they vote using several categories describing guys in the mall. Some flattering, some not so much as far as the categories goes.

I won the home away from home "Dad" award for some reason. My boss won the "Flirt" award. The "Creep" award was won by the guy who I've always referred to as "ex-convict" who works for the Gold Buyer's kiosk. He's a combination thug, wannabe gang banger I've marveled at keeping his job. Some of the other categories were "Old Pervert", "Hot Guy", "Geek", etc....

When I asked Jackie how she voted she said she didn't get to vote. Apparently this is confined to the younger generation. She just happened to have a couple of college girls working for her this year in her store and knew about the results because of this. She did say had she been able to vote the proper category for me was not listed that she'd use. Apparently "Pain In The Ass" wasn't a category. Given our history, I can't argue with that one I guess.

Silly girls anyway..... and there better not be any child support involved in this or I'm going to ask for a recount or new election. Of course with my luck, if I were to complain I'd probably get recast as the "Old Pervert." Maybe I'll just grin and bear it for now.

Some People Can't Just Leave Things Well Enough Alone

It's no secret that the mall marketing bitch person and I don't get along very well at all. I know I posted about a run-in she and I had previously. Perplexing to me is that post is nowhere to be found now to reference to. I don't know if I somehow deleted it or if Blogger somehow ate it.

As a recap she decided that in addition to her marketing duties for the mall she's also in charge of individual store operations as well. As we were shorthanded throughout the Christmas shopping season there were several 12-14 hour work days worked alone in our store. She decided breaks weren't allowed and much to her dismay I didn't bow down to her self delusional authority in this area. She pushed the issue and ended up getting in some hot water when she ran to the mall manager to complain about me. (She forgot there were witnesses to our encounter in December and her version of the confrontation didn't mesh well with mine, nor with the people who witnessed it.)

This thing just hasn't died out yet. In an effort to save face she has told anyone who actually listens to her, her version of the encounter and how she "put me in my place." Now for the most part the people she's told this story to is the maintenance and janitorial staff and other store staff at the opposite end of the mall from our store location. (Her version wouldn't fly at our end of the mall, too many witnesses saw the encounter.)

The mall is an interesting place to work and crap like this just keeps getting recycled. Every few days since we had this run-in someone stops into the store to let me know how her version of the story is evolving. The latest version is that she holds my job in her hands and I'm at her mercy to keep my job. She may rival the ex-Worthless Co-Worker in the stupidity department. I'll say it's been an amusing side show over the last couple of months.

No one actually believes her version of the story as most of the people she talks to know me as well, if not better, than they know her. Contrary to how I may appear in here at times with work issues I'm well liked and even tempered for the most part. I just simply don't tolerate bullshit.

Very few people like this girl in the mall. She's always on some weird power trip and used to getting her way. In reality she's at best inadequate at her job. She gets away with that for one reason only. She's 25-years-old and "hot." Every guy that works in the mall wants to see her. She reduces most of them into drooling babbling idiots. While most of them acknowledge she's a snobby bitch, her looks trump this to many of them. They just simply want to ogle when she walks by.

I'm a few years beyond the drooling and babbling stage when it comes to a pretty face. She's just simply an insecure, self entitled bitch who relies on her looks to get her by in life. Sadly, in many cases this works.

This amusing sideshow moved center stage yesterday. The mall manager stopped into our store to talk about "a problem" that needs resolved. Apparently this girl really holds a grudge. She informed the mall manager that I somehow interfere with her doing her job and that I intimidate and harass her whenever she comes to our end of the mall.

Oddly enough I've only seen this girl one time since we had our little run-in last December. That one time was at least a month ago when I decided to punish myself and go to the other end of the mall to the food court to eat lunch one day. She was heading in my direction and when she saw me approaching her she abruptly turned around and scurried back to her office to avoid me. I haven't seen her at our end of the mall in two months.

I informed the mall manager of this and told him maybe he should check with the other stores at our end of the mall if he wanted to verify this. I told him she's been sorely missed, by a lot of the guys who work at this end of the mall, because they miss seeing "eye candy." Her absence at this end of the mall hasn't gone unnoticed to say the least. Since he's been out of the loop I also informed him of her stories she's told about this incident that occurred in December and that the real reason she hasn't ventured to our end of the mall is that she knows most people are on to her bullshit and she's embarrassed to be seen down here.

He went off to canvas the other stores to verify her absence, then stopped back into the store to inform me he no longer had a problem with me. He had another problem to deal with now as apparently no one recalls seeing her in quite some time at this end of the mall. He also talked to a couple of janitors who told him about her bragging about trying to get me fired as well.

We talked for a few more minutes and the gist of the conversation was that I'll probably not be seeing her again in the mall, at least as someone who's employed by the mall. I was decent enough to tell him that firing her wasn't absolutely necessary if he could just simply tell her to keep her trap shut, do her job, and that I couldn't care less if she comes to this end of the mall because she means nothing to me and has no affect on me. I don't interact with people who I dislike unless they choose to speak to me first. Intimidating or harassing petulant little girls isn't my style.

I don't believe he thinks she's worth the trouble to keep employed though. We'll see what happens.