Struggling to stay

So I changed employers again after my former employer renigged on assurance that he would do all in his power to keep me. The trouble now? Well, as a 60 year old, I'm discovering that I don't deal with staying up all night to stay to the same sleep schedule if I'm not working!

Last night, my wife said, you stay up, take me to work in the morning, and then you can sleep. I've had coffee, eaten an orange, wrapped a banana in a tortilla with some peanut butter, had 3 fun size 3 Musketeers, played games on the computer, watched a movie, watched sports, avoided infomercials, and am hanging on the ragged edge of drifting off into la-la land.

Currently, I'm blogging and watching the Tonight show. My lovely bride should be getting up soon, then I just need to hang on long enough to get her to the store and make it back home!

My lesson this post? That I simply ain't as young as I like to think I am.

However, the schedule I have at work continues the trimming process on weight. In getting ready for this job, I purchased new jeans - down from a 48 when we moved here to a 42 in less than 6 months. And I purchased a new belt this last week since the others wrap around me from the middle to the left hip. I've heard others talk of doing much the same.

For the most part, I get along well with my coworkers, and Bob and I (who were hired at the same time) seemed to have gotten a bit of a reputation for dealing well with paper goods and chemicals - which includes laundry products, dish products, cleaning solutions and powders, air fresheners - that sort of thing. We keep getting singled out to deal with those. I've had a little experience with pets, and have offered help on other grocery aisles as needed.

My wife's alarm just went off, so time to go and help keep her moving to get her to work on time.

Peace, and less weight!!

What a birthday!

Turning 60 was really something! My daughter got tickets to the Denver Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs at Invesco Field. We arrived really early, stopped at the restrooms and found our seats. The section slowly filled, and we were lucky enough to have nice people on either side of us. The couple next to my daughter was a unequally yoked couple - he was for KC, she was for Denver - and the two next to me were two young guys. We shared stories, comments, angst over difficulties and screaming deliriously at the good plays. The shouting of celebrating fans was audible two blocks away.

Unfortunately there were obnoxious people for both teams - an unfortunate part of professional sporting events. There was an inebriated KC fan a few rows above us that spilled beer on the two people in front of him, and yelled offensive comments at the woman who rides the horse across the field for touchdowns. And there were drunken Denver fans that heckled KC fans offensive ways.

And my wife bought the expansion for World of Warcraft so I would be on the same level as my daughter, with whom I game regularly. AND I got to spend time with our grandson!

Turning 60 was no problem at all, in fact it was pretty doggone NICE! So don't worry about it, aging old is natural, but you don't have to grow old! I'm proof, and enjoying every moment of it!

Peace, and remember the Broncos won on my first trip, for my birthday!!! ;-)

Don't listen to the hype

Well, I went and talked with my boss, told him finances were really tight and if I didn't find a way to have more money, I'd have to look elsewhere - like an overnight stocker at Walmart. He told me I was the one person on staff he really didn't want to lose and he postulated that I'd be photo team lead with an increase in pay and mentioned the 6 month raise of 3% that would put me within range of that overnight stocker position with the premiums I've been earning. Sounded really good!

Then this week, he began to waffle. He showed me reports that said the coworker I was in competition for this position had beaten me in every category in the last month. Today I went in and he informed me he "had to give it" to my coworker based on the month's report. I've had an assistant manager telling me I would be it. Today that coworker came in to help unload the truck and stock shelves - I was pulled out of the lab to work truck and he was put in the lab.

So I have a pretty clear picture of my role in this store! If I'm offered a full time, permanent position at the other "W," I'm gone and no regrets. I've worked my backside off to earn that position since the store opened in late July, to be told one month was enough for me to lose it. Not even my coworker can believe it, and has been apologizing to me for getting the position. I'm telling him it is not his fault, and I mean it. My frustration is with a 30 year old boss that doesn't have the hutzpa to be boss.

Another lesson learned! Peace!

Family Visits

We learned a very difficult and trying lesson of life this last weekend. Thanksgiving came, and brought our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Unfortunately, my wife started a new job just a very short time before they arrived for a large retail corporation. She couldn't get time off , though she had asked for it. I was able to ask for and get time off. It is very hard for her to deal with because she loves our son and his family very much. Of the 3 full days they were here, she got to be with them less than 4 hours. That included a family dinner.

Our grandson is such a cheerful baby that it is hard to believe, and we got some wonderful pictures of 3 generations, including our grandson in the dress his great-grandfather wore as a baby.

This visit was complicated by the decision of her parents that they would make their snow-bird trip to Las Vegas now. So, while we tried to enjoy the first visit with our son's family since June, we also were caught marginally in the hectic pack and stack of getting ready for their move. Her sister was nearly run ragged trying to appease, pack and shop for them. She was also the chief aim of their confused state during all of this.

The lessons? Simply that life happens! You never know for sure what life will throw at you as you try to plan for events like this. And, be ready, because when you are trying to celebrate, life just might toss in a lemon or three!

My lovely wife's greatest concern is that our son understand she tried to get time off, and couldn't. I've tried to assure her he does understand, often not having time off when we used to visit. But the emotional loss of not visiting and not playing with our first grandchild, coupled with the emotional and physical stresses of Black Friday are not allowing her to accept that.

I will continue to assure her, and to mediate the different views until we are able to reach some balance, and gain some perspective.

I hope you will do the same. For far too many people are caught on the horns of puzzles and conundrums they cannot fathom. We need to start helping them find that balance!!

Peace and happiness this holiday season!

Happiness or Bills

There is a lot of talk around our country today that we should be looking for jobs that make us happy, that happiness is the most important factor. It sounds great, doesn't it? Don't worry about finances or how your "happy job" affects those around you, just find a job you enjoy.

Well, let's look at that a bit more closely from a couple of angles. First, the job you enjoy might not be one you are particularly good at, or that people think you are good at - for whatever reason. Does that make for a good career choice? Perhaps that answer to that depends on why others think you aren't good at your career - is it because you really cannot do what needs to be done, or is it that you challenge the comfort zones they don't want challenged? Or consider the overweight, out of shape bloke who figures his happy job is NFL quarterback or corner back.

From another angle, if the family's finances are tight, and another job will offer greater pay, thus a bit more breathing room - do you stay happy or change jobs? That pressing question looms in my own life now, and I have to tell you that at this point there is no debate. Happiness will not be the final decision maker. I need the finances, so I'll make the change - because I'm sure the corporation that I currently work for won't be willing to match the possible pay rate of another job. Even if this turns into a short term job, the greater amount of money will be the deciding factor. If necessary, I'll look again.

I've found that I can do many things, and sometimes, happiness in work is highly over-rated. You can make happiness by doing what you do well, taking pride in what you do, and offering what help you can to your co-workers and supervisors.

So, consider carefully when you need to make that decision, but I'll hope you don't face it often, because it can be a tough decision.

Peace!

Take a lickin' and keep on tickin'

Yesterday I arrived a work and started the Start-up checks, only to have the printer jam, repeatedly,with nothing that I could find to correct the problem. Calls to the tech line only delayed the inevitable, and finally a service call was instituted. I went to lunch, despairing of the day's ability to right itself.

One of the assistant managers came up to the break room to say the technician had arrived, but was doing fine without me. When I came down, he was one of those who had helped set up the lab, and recognized me. He showed me how to correct the problem, and gave a few other tips. While this was happening, another assistant manager arrived to close, and questioned whether I had mentioned wallets not printing right - instituting a battle over who controlled the printer -- me trying to catch up, or the tech trying to correct a persistent problem.

I turned the lab over to my relief after pointing out ALL the rolls of film yet to be developed or processed. The tech was glad to see me go, because my relief didn't argue over control. But I heard that when he left, the screen was still full of internet and kiosk orders, and she was told not to process ANYTHING until the screen was empty.

Thus I came in this morning to finish the last couple of orders, call people to let them know orders were ready, or rolls hadn't developed in a manner they would want.

My lesson from this? Simply that Timex was right, we need to learn to take a lickin' and keep on tickin' - as John Cameron Swazey used to say. The tough stuff of life is only a momentary difficulty. What is good will end - but so will what is bad - so we need to keep on keeping on - push through the momentary distractions, keep helping, working, smiling and laughing. Keep finding good even in the bad, or because of the bad.

"What?!?" you ask. Let me illustrate with a story I've used several times, about a single mother (how she became single isn't important) who worked as a waitress in a truck stop. She did her best, and as Christmas approached, wondered how she would make Christmas real to her children - only to find her car with new tires, food for Christmas and boxes of presents for her family as she exited on Christmas Eve. Her life was nearly overwhelming, but by smiling and doing her best for those whom she served - life had a bright spot as others reached out.

So keep on ticking no matter than licking you might get, and you will find there is good all around.

Think about it! Peace!

Laugh a little

Well, another lesson of life is the need for humor! Take today. We got in the car to run a couple of errands, then drive to the town in which my wife and I work. The radio was on a classical station, there was a score playing that made me think the car was having MAJOR issues - until I heard the drum-roll at the end of that score.

We both had a good chuckle over my "WTH?" moment. That is something we need desperately in our lives right now - the ability to laugh, even at ourselves. We aren't all THAT important, after all; nor are we all that serious! Think I'm wrong? Take a look at what's still coming out of the elections - that Obama is going to establish a Marxist dictatorship, that Bush is the model of clear speak, that Sarah Palin is the victim without an justification - even though she continues to speak all manner of untruths, out-right lies, deliberate obfuscations.

If we aren't a laughable people, I don't know what is! A graduate school instructor once told a class I was in, "If you don't think God has a sense of humor - LOOK IN A MIRROR!" I remind myself of that as one of the most important lessons I was taught, and am still learning!

Think about it! Peace!!