The randomizer.

It's starting to get hot at work. They still haven't turned the air on in our back room (the main work area in the bakery is hopeless re: air conditioning, the ovens just nullify it). We have another oven coming in next week, I just realized that. Damn, it's going to be even hotter this summer. And I can't dress for work like I did when I worked for my dad, which was shorts, sneakers, and an apron. I don't think the Amish women (or the managers, for that matter) would appreciate that. I have gained a few pounds since those days, the rolls aren't just in the oven! Har!

Speaking of being a fat guy, I went to the Goodwill today. I loves me some Goodwill, especially when I take the time to look at the clothes. I love my long sleeve button down shirts, and 'tis the season right now for those! I bought a bunch of them, and I also found some shorts and a few short sleeve shirts. Because I am overweight, I usually have trouble finding clothes at the Goodwill. Everything is usually a med. or large, and I need extra large. Today the Goodwill was k-rad because most of the stuff was TOO BIG. That was a very nice feeling. I like buying clothes, but I triple hate the shopping part. Goodwill makes it easy! Good on ya Goodwill!

Sarah took our niece Erin to a Horse show and carnival in PA today. She has been using her parents' car (a 14 year old Volvo), but they didn't want her to drive too far in it, because it randomly gets stuck in 2nd gear. Lovely. So Sarah and Erin came to work to pick up our Saturn, and Erin was extremely excited about the fair, plus the fact that she will be sleeping over tonight. She likes it because we have a Wii and she can stay up late and all the cats will sleep with her. So I drove the Volvo home. This was the first time, because I couldn't fit into it before, as the electric seat mover wasn't working properly. I managed to subvert it and get it into a position where I could fit into the car. But it was kind of like sitting in an easy chair, which I guess is a bit dangerous. But anyway, there's lots of dials and stuff on the dash. There's a speedometer and a tach, they both have one of the little pointy things that, uh, points at what speed you're going etc. There was another dial, and this one had two pointy things on it and some numbers, and I was looking at it and wondering what the hell it was. Did you guess? Yep, it was a friggin' CLOCK. With hands. What an idiot.

I feel pretty good today, I think I got my CPAP in line, I put the newest headgear back on the mask last night, and I don't remember waking up at all. I thought the headgear was giving me terrible dandruff, because it was really bad where I thought the headgear was touching my head. I'm hoping it was just sunburn, because I have been mowing the lawn without a hat. So we shall see what happens. I'd rather have dandruff than be falling asleep at 2 in the afternoon.

And let me say one more time, Goodwill.

Is courtesy totally dead?

I don't think it is yet, but it's getting there. The main offender, in my opinion, is cell phones. I've been in a few doctor's offices in the past weeks, and they all had signs saying, "Please, no cell phone usage in the office," or something to that effect. But people would just ignore them and talk away, and rather loudly. Personally, I would rather go somewhere private if I'm having a conversation on the phone.

I just got a cell phone 2 years ago. My wife had one from her work, but then they took it away, but she got one on her own. She was after me to get one because I go to work early in the morning and on back roads, so there's not a lot of pay phones or friendly country people awake at that hour. My sister's wedding was 2 weeks after I got it, and it came in extremely handy that day, but I don't think I've used it much since then. It's good to have it, but we (as a country) made it at least 100 years without cell phones, didn't we? Change with the changing times, I suppose.

I try to be courteous when I use my cell phone. I always have it on vibrate, so no one else will no if it's ringing, because no one else NEEDS to know if my phone is ringing. If I am at a checkout in a store and my phone rings, I don't answer it (this has only happened twice). Even if the person doesn't leave a voicemail, you have the number, so you can always call them back. I have been one of those jerks that talks on the phone while driving, sorry if you were behind me. Like I said, I don't get a lot of calls, but if I have to make a call while I'm in the car, I try to do it when the car is not moving. I should pull over when I get a call, but I don't always do that. I should figure out how to use the speaker phone. I have seen too many bad driving examples where the person was holding a cell phone in one hand. But really, who hasn't?

This is not really about courtesy, I see. It's more of a rant on cell phones. But it's not really, it's more about cell phone users. Our contract is up next month, but we're not getting rid of them. We're looking into the pay-as-you-go phone plans; we have to figure out if it would be less than what we're paying now. We looked at some at Wal-Mart yesterday, but it was very confusing. More research is needed.

The inmates have taken over the asylum.

I am now the bakery manager at my work. I was assistant bakery manager at Sam's Club, which I took for the money. It was possibly the worst work-related mistake I ever made (even worse than working 4 jobs simultaneously, I had an alarm clock in my CAR). I knew that I was over-qualified for Sam's Club (there wasn't any scratch baking there, which is what I had done for 13 years before that), but I don't like change and didn't have any other bakery opportunities that had scratch baking. But then my current job came along, which promised all scratch baking and, I guess a sort of independence. At Sam's Club, all of the ordering was done by the home office, and we could only make what they told us. Now I can make whatever I want, and it is encouraged.

Back to the manager thing. When I applied at my current job, I told them up front that there were 2 things I didn't want: 1) to make cakes, and 2) to be in charge. For a few years we didn't really have a manager, but some of my co-workers looked to me for answers, hopefully because I had a lot more baking experience, and not because I was the only guy in the department (I still am). It came up a few times where they asked me to be the manager, and I said no. But I was sometimes treated as the manager, which made me very uncomfortable. This time, they asked me to think about it (the current manager has had enough; she did a good job, but it's too much stress on her), which they never did before. I realized that I don't hate my job like I did at Sam's; my supervisor trusts me and will back me up; and there isn't a home office 800 miles away that is in charge, but really has no idea what is going on at store level. Plus, I can hopefully push my own agenda through now that I am in charge. I do all the yeast stuff at work, but I also make the pastries and quick breads, and I also set up the frozen rolls (like kaiser and steak rolls, we need equipment to make them properly and to save time, which we don't have). It's getting to the point where I can't handle all of that in 8 hours. I would like to come in and just make the bread, and have different sorts of bread each day. I try to do that now, but I just don't have enough time. My goal is to come in around 1 am and make the yeast stuff, and that's it. Then someone could come in at 4 and set up the frozen stuff that needs to be baked off. If I have time at the end of the day, I could do benchwork (which is what I call making up danish and pastries etc. and putting them into the freezer, to be baked off as needed). 

I like working by myself a lot, but at this point, I would rather have the help, because it gets extremely busy in the fall, and I haven't really had time to enjoy a fall in years. I am hoping as the manager that I can make my supervisors understand this. 

The only problem with being in charge is telling people what to do. I hate doing this. Sarah suggested years ago, when I was at Sam's, to ask people to do something, and not tell them. That works great for me. I say please and thank you a lot, and I make sure to thank everyone when I leave (and I wasn't even in charge when I was doing this, so maybe that's a part of why people thought I was in charge). I suppose that's not the only problem; I don't deal well with conflict, and I don't feel that I'm a good mediator. So I will have to work on that. It boils down to the fact that I don't want to be the bad guy, but it may come to that at some point. I'll just have to burn that bridge when I come to it.

Happy Anniversary!

Today, Sarah and I have been married for 15 years. I think that's a major accomplishment these days. We've been through a lot together, and our relationship has lasted and gotten stronger over those 15 years.

We were supposed to go to Scranton for the weekend, but Sarah bought some furniture on Craigslist, so we're going to spend the time putting all the stuff where we want it to go, and going through the rest of our junk for stuff we don't need anymore. The Girl Scouts are going to be having a yard sale in a few months, so all that stuff will go to them. Don't get me wrong, we're still celebrating by doing our fun stuff, which means going to flea markets and thrift stores and out to eat. We both need some time away from work, it's been awhile for both of us.

Sarah, I'm so glad that we found each other when we did. You make me happy everyday and I look forward to spending many more years with you, in this life and the next. I love you!

I got your two dollars right HERE, jerkweed.

Whither the paperboy?

The paperboy (or papergirl, as the case may be) was a symbol of the innocence of suburbia. Have you ever seen a movie or TV show about the suburbs that didn't have a paperboy in it? No, you haven't. You would see them with their huge shoulder bag full of newspapers, either riding their bikes (and always hitting the bicycle bell when they were in the shot), or walking along, tossing papers perfectly to porches from the street. They even made a video game about paperboys in the mid 1980s, called, funnily enough, Paperboy. But I believe that it was around this time that paperboys became an endangered species, and now are virtually extinct.

I was a paperboy. It was my first paying job. I was going to the Corner Deli in November of 1981, most likely to pick up the Courier News for my dad. I think he only let me cross the street because he realized that he wouldn't have to go and get the paper himself anymore. When I came out with the paper, I was approached by an older woman. She said she was with the Courier News, and she was wondering if I would like a job delivering papers in my neighborhood? Being 11, and well versed in what to do with regards to talking to strangers, I immediately started asking her many questions about the job, most importantly, how much would I get paid. I think I was getting a couple of bucks a week for allowance, so whatever she said must have sounded good, because I took the job.

I had to pick up the stack of papers (24 when I started), then fold them and deliver them. I was given a little book that contained a sheet for each house. When I collected for the week, I would tear off the corresponding date from the sheet and give it to the customer, so I would know and they would know that they had paid. I had to buy my supplies from the Courier News; things like rubber bands, plastic bags, the shoulder bag. This cut into profits, but I had no choice.

I was in between bikes at the time, so I mainly walked the route, which was spread over a 8 block by 4 block area. I had 2 houses on the extreme edges of the area that weren't near any other houses on my route. Since I had yet to develop any sort of work ethic, these houses often did not get their paper. I acted flabbergasted about this, and suggested that someone was stealing it. I was a very bad paperboy. I gave it up after a year, because by then, I was working for my dad, and I lost a lot of customers.

So now you know my secret shame. But what has happened to the paperboy? Well, the paperboy was replaced by a paperADULT, because the adult can drive a car and deliver more papers in less time. Plus they can get up really early and have the papers delivered before people wake up. The paper will be waiting for them when they come out the front door in their bathrobe, a cup of coffee in their hand. Wow, progress is great, right?

NO.

I go to work at 2 am or so, and I take mostly country back roads, which means I see more rabbits than cars on my way to work. But you know who I do see sometimes? That's right, the paperadult. The paperadult apparently owns the road, because once they put their hazard lights on, they can drive wherever the hell they want. Do you know how disconcerting it is to see high beams coming at you in your lane? They drive on my side of the road so they don't have to get out of their car to deliver a paper. That's dandy! More than once, I have had to slam on my brakes because some idiot thinks his newspapers are more important than driving safety. I wish that I would see a paperadult get pulled over and ticketed for driving like a moron. I have gotten pulled over at that time of the morning for my license plate light being out, so it's only fair, right?

I have heard that the newspaper industry is in trouble (if you are reading this, then you know why). I hate to see people out of work, but if it's going to put these f***ers out of business, then I say sorry to all newspaper reporters.

Too much stuff.

For Mother's Day we went to the flea market with Sarah's parents. Sarah's mom doesn't get to go as much as she would like, so that's what she wanted to do for Mother's Day. We went to the Berlin Flea Market in Berlin NJ. It's big, and it's indoor and outdoor, and we usually find good stuff there (good stuff is relative, of course). I was very excited to go, as it was the first flea of the season, but it turned out that I was very tired, despite being in bed for 8 hours. I am thinking that my sleepiness contributed to my apathy towards the flea market, but I'm not really sure.

When we lived in NJ, we used to go to flea markets every weekend. Sarah got me into going when I first started collecting Atari games, which was back in 1995. Back then, Atari games were everywhere, and we sometimes went to 3 markets in one day. We always came back home with a good haul. I amassed quite a collection of games in a short period of time, and I played those games almost everyday. The playing (and flea marketing) came to a grinding halt when we moved to DE. We first lived in an apartment, and it was too small to set up all of my games, and DE is certainly uncontaminated by flea markets. There are some, and I found a few things, but I just had so much already that it was hard to find anything new. Classic game collecting also entered the mainstream, which forced prices up, so I was leaving a lot of stuff that I would have bought when I was in NJ.

I think I wrote about how last summer I traded in quite a few of my games and systems for a Wii. I never regretted trading in anything until yesterday. There were many cheap N64 games at the market, and that's one of the systems I don't have anymore. I don't have the trader's remorse today, but it was very strong yesterday. Despite the fact that I am on Sabbatical from buying Music and games until the Beatles remasters come out in September, I did buy a few of each yesterday. I bought a few rare games for the collector in me, and one game for the player. I also bought 2 Cd's. There were Cd's EVERYWHERE, and they were very cheap. I am thinking that many people are digitizing their collections and unloading them (something Sarah wants me to do, but I cannot bring myself to do it. Yet?). There were lots of Cd's I wanted, but I just didn't feel like buying them, and I'm not sure why. I thought that maybe I was growing up a little, saving up for something that I really want to have. I have also been thinking of getting rid of more game stuff (mostly memorabilia-type stuff) and thinning out my record collection. I feel tired of having so much stuff, even if it is interactive. I am going to be 40 this year and we have no kids. Perhaps I have been subconsciously pondering my own mortality? I know that if I go first, I don't want Sarah to have to deal with all my crap. I know that I will probably get rid of the games at some point in the future, I don't need to be playing Zelda on my deathbed. The music is a different story; I will still want to hear it, but I'm sure there will be more revolutions in digital music storage down the road, and I will most likely give in to that. Until then, I'm keeping my Cd's and games and most of the records, but I will have some stuff for the town wide yard sale next month.