Please Hire Me

I see a lot of people complaining about being unemployed for months and years. One lady said recently they would not hire her because she had not worked within the last six months. Although she had eight years of solid experience she had not worked within the last six months. I guess I am lucky in some ways; I have no college diploma and have always been employed. I have never made over fifty thousand dollars a year. The combination of a military pension and two jobs brought me close to fifty thousand dollars for a couple of years. I have never had anyone to pay my way and no savings to live on. I could never wait around for the job I used to have that paid me the wage I was used to making.

I have applied for dozens of jobs that I have not obtained. Employers can use any excuse within the law not to hire you. We all know life is not fair; not in the employment arena, not in the work place, in school, or our daily lives. Why should we expect anything more? But we can be fair to ourselves by getting out and going to work. At least we are out in the world exposing ourselves to people and opportunities around us. I never had one good opportunity knock on my front door and say follow me. If I am out in the world I can tell peopleI meet what my skills are and what I am looking for in the line of employment.
You know the folks down at the unemployment office know what you are looking for. How has that helped you? Are you working? No one is going to work harder to help you than you. So what if you have to work for a wage less than what you desire. At least you are making a living while looking for the job of your dreams. Until next time.
Norm

War Not Worth It

            “Many U.S. veterans say Iraq, Afghan wars not worth it”~ Yahoo News. The problem with war is the road is not clear. There is always a cloud of suspicion about why a country wages war. Politicians throw out a lot of misinformation to confuse their citizens. After participating in the Persian Gulf War, I can say also it was not worth it. Not one service member I served with looked forward to going, but not one of us refused to serve. The problem I have with war is the cost in lives. The innocent men, women and children that are killed for a cause that is not clear. You might say the people of a country are not innocent. Ask yourself, if war was waged here without you wanting it are you guilty or innocent? The price we pay for war; in mental, emotional, and physical pain as well as tax dollars spent and lives lost makes no sense to me. Until next time.

            Norm

I Just Did Not Get It

I don’t understand what happened, I guess, I just did not get it. After graduating from high school I had a hard time finding a good job. The jobs I worked at were dead end jobs that paid little and supplied lots of grief. The boss normally was impatient and demanded more than he really deserved for the money he paid me. There was no pleasing the boss no matter what you did. He was not going to fire me because he would have to hire another person just like me. So I went from dead end job to dead end job with the same type of boss. I eventually joined the United States Air Force, but that is another story.

I did not want to go to college, I already had enough schooling to last me a long time. Unbeknown to me there were opportunities all around me; Vocational schools I could have attended to teach me a trade, Gas companies, Electrical companies, and Factories, to name a few. If I would have joined a local church or some of the other organizations in our community their members would have helped me sort things out. When my friends were given help by their families to gain employment, I was told not to even think about it. If we all had a job at the same place I would mess it up somehow for all of us. Out of desperation I joined the military.
I guess what I am trying to say is help your children sort things out and get on the right track. Get involved in your community for your children’s sake; there are people that can help them. Find out what opportunities are available in your surrounding area to help your children. Forget about yourself for a while and support not only your children but neighborhood children as well. You know who needs help.
Don’t make excuses about the economy or the government. We do not live in a perfect world; the problems we face today are not much different than what our parents or grandparents faced years ago. We are the only ones that are going to make life better for our families, community, and world. Until next time.
Norm

Respectable

There was a man who thought to himself, I am a good man. How can this be? He polled his friends to see if they agreed with his observation. They not only agreed but also realized they were respectable also. They asked each other how this could be. Together they decided they were not born this way. If a man is not born virtuous then how does he become what he is not?

There was a Sage that lived down in the valley. He was known far and wide for his wisdom. The man and his friends traveled down the valley to ask the wise man about goodness in mankind. The sage told them that not all mankind are upright in their ways. If this is so they asked, then why are some men good and some unjust. The wise man answered their question with a question. What are your daily practices? Immediately they understood why they were good. Their parents taught them by example and instilled in them righteous habits. They realized men do not wake up one morning and become upright or respectable. Being respectable is an ongoing lifetime process. Take the hill, become respectable! Until next time.

Norm

Self Improvement

A person should ask him or herself what it is they want to improve. Is it wealth, health, employment, or something else? After giving these things considerable thought, I felt I should improve myself first. I need to know me, who I really am and how I feel about important things in my life; How do I want to appear to others around me, What are my thoughts on government, the church, and my family. What values do I really want to adopt as my own? We as humans have the ability to make decisions on how we want to think, speak, and act. We have the ability to change our character at any time. If I’m not happy with what I see in myself I can re-create me. Maybe if I change me, all the other things will fall into place.  Sometimes the question “What is wrong with me” could be a fair question to ask yourself. To examine one-self might be to improve one’s self.     “I am not who I think I am, I am not what you think I am, But I am what I think, you think I am”~ Robert Harold Schuller. The quote above by Reverend Schuller really had an impact on me years ago.  I never thought about why I acted this or that way at any given time. I am like a leaf in the wind; I can be anything the world wants me to be. “If you want me to be Satan I can, if you want me to be Jesus Christ I can”~ Charles Manson. Call Charles Manson what you want, but don’t call him stupid. There is a lot of truth to his words. You have the power to be anything you want to be. How will you use it? Until next time.

Norm

Comments please

On the Yahoo News pages, there is a place to send in your comments on the subject matter. I love to read what my fellow readers write and send in. A certain percentage cannot spell which really cracks me up. These people are calling other people stupid and much worse, but cannot spell the words they are using to describe what they are trying to say.  Another percentage believes it is all one- sided and refuses to place equal responsibility on both sides. When it comes to other countries most of us never take the time to really explore why they act and think the way they do. Of course you always have the prejudice card thrown in along the way. If you want to see how uneducated, uninformed, and narrow minded America really is, please read the comment section under the Yahoo news pages. I hope this is not an accurate sample of the American mentality. If it is, America is failing its children miserably. Until next time.

Norm

There is a Spider

This morning my wife said “there is a spider, I wonder if it bites”? I said I do not know, but maybe you should kill it just in case it might. Now I do not like killing, as a rule I do not kill anything. This morning after my wife killed the spider I thought to myself, how would I feel if someone said “there is a Norm, I wonder if he bites”? We should probably kill him just because he might. If you do not believe we live in a violent world, pay attention to your thoughts next time you see a spider, fly or any type of bug. Until next time.
Norm

Let's Cut Some Hair

I got up this morning and when I looked in the bathroom mirror, I decided I needed a haircut. I got my mustache trimmer out and went to work. I trimmed the hair on the right side of my head and my trimmer went dead. Yep it is battery operated. My wife said, “Why don’t you just go spend ten bucks and get a hair cut?” I told her I could do it myself. I went and got the scissors out of the drawer in the china cabinet and went back to work. This time I trimmed the hair on the left side of my head. Well I took off too much and thought I had better quit. It does not look too bad if you do not look too close.
This is not the first time I thought I could cut hair. When our son Jeff was four years old, I cut his hair. No matter how you looked at his hair, it looked awful. I broke down and took him too the barbershop. I was wondering what I was going to tell the barber when we got there. I had thoughts of telling Jeff to tell the barber his mother did it. I knew if I told him that he would tell the barber I cut his hair. We all know little kids are painfully honest and I did not want him to tell I cut his hair. Anyway, we went into the barbershop and set down. We sit there a little while and they called Jeff to get his haircut. The first thing the barber asked was who cut this kids hair. Jeff must not have been paying attention because I said his mother cut his hair and Jeff never said a word. As we left the barbershop, the barber told me to keep his mother away from his hair. So I am pretty much thinking I might be able to point the finger at you know who when I go to get my next haircut. Until next time.
Norm

Raisins

Marie told me she had to stay out of the candy. Marie is my wife if you do not know it. I told her she would not eat anything good for her like raisins. She asked, “Have you ever read the nutrition facts on raisins? “ There were two boxes of raisins setting on our coffee table so I picked up a box and took a look at it. Right away, I lied to her about the nutritional facts on the side of the box. I told her total fat, sodium, total carb, fiber, sugars, and protein was all zero. I asked, “Do you believe that?” She said “no.” I then told her total fat was 0 gram, sodium 10 mg, total carb 33g, fiber 2g, sugars 30g, and protein 1g. Marie asked me “do you like raisins?” I said “not especially.” Then a thought come to me. I told her when I was a kid mom kept a box of raisins in the cupboard. When there was no candy in the house, I would get into the raisins and eat them. My next thought was my father would have had a fit if he knew I had my grubby little hands in the raisins.
Until next time
Norm

Beebe Gun

Our Grandson got a Beebe Gun for Christmas. I asked his mother if he was using it. His mother said he could hardly lift it. I remember getting a Beebe gun when I was four years old. The first thing my father told me was not to shoot the hubcaps on our car.
I had to turn the rifle up side down to cock the lever in order to ready it for firing. Once it was ready to shoot, I could barely lift and aim it at a target. However, I could certainly hit them hubcaps my father told me not to shoot. The rifle was taken from me for a month.
Whenever I got to town, I always bought more Beebe’s for my rifle. They cost a dime when I was a boy. They come in a round tube. Sometimes, you would have to pinch the sides of the tube to release the Beebe’s, other times the tubes had a cap you took off.
All stationary objects were fair game and most moving objects also; Birds, fence posts, electric transformers, the barn, and did I mention hub caps?
My brother once shot an up stairs window out trying to knock an Icicle off the house. He also shot a friend in the hand because he asked him to do it. The friend put the palm of his hand on the end of the barrel and told my brother to pull the trigger on the rifle.
This friend was a couple of years older than and us. He went to the house wining like a little girl. My brother was in trouble until our friend went home and then we all had a good laugh about it.
Our father taught us fire gun safety with our Beebe guns. We would all go hunting and he would show us the proper way to handle our weapons while in a group. There was no way Dad was going to have an accident with a firearm in the years to come.
I killed many a bad person with my Beebe gun and spent many years enjoying it. I do not know what happened to it. As real weapons took its place, I lost track of it. It will always be in my heart.
I took a friend of mine to where I grew up. The first thing I told him was the area was safe. I killed all the bad people in the area while I was growing up. If you ever get up Michigan way, the northern Lower Peninsula, enjoy yourself it is safe. Until next time.

Norm

Meetings

I hate meetings and for a good reason, they are a waste of time. Someone runs the meeting, talking about a subject no one cares about, that everyone has to attend. Everyone means you and I. Usually at the end of the meeting the speaker asks if there are any questions. Of course, the same people ask questions every time. I wonder why the same people always ask the questions.
I have attended hundreds of meeting in my life. I have studied various management techniques. I have probably worked for people that have used most of the techniques that I have studied. I can honestly say that most of the meetings I have been involved in have been counter-productive.
I feel that if a meeting is more than fifteen minutes long it is a waste of time. If the objective is to drain the swamp then lets talk about ways to drain the swamp. If at the end of the allotted time, we have not found a solution then lets adjourn and meet again. We can always brainstorm on our own and send our ideas forward to the boss. Eventually we will figure out how to drain the swamp.
I do not relish the idea of spending an hour or two with people I do not really like. We have very little in common and I do not agree with what they are saying in the first place. Most of them would not be invited to the meeting, if it were my choice. Do not even think you are hurting my feelings by not inviting me. Make my day PLEASE.
The best meetings I ever attended were while I was in the Military. I worked for a Major in a combat unit. When he called a meeting, we met in a room with one long table and one chair. The Major sat in the chair and we stood around the table. The Major started on his left and went around the table. We all had our say and everything was resolved in a five-minute timetable. If you told the Major you would take care of something, you had better follow through. If you needed further assistance, you just let the Major know. He did not waste his time or ours on petty details that meant nothing.
Are there any questions? Until next time.

Norm

Lets Eat

Some of the best food I have ever eaten is simple dishes. I cannot tell you that I have eaten the best foods the world has to offer. I have never eaten Escargot or any other fancy food like Alligator, or Crocodile. You get the picture.
I can tell you I have whipped up some macaroni and milk. Throw in a little butter, salt and pepper and you have a meal fit for a King. Sometimes we fix beef stew with noodles or rice as a side dish.
My mother used to fry bread dough and butter it. Oh what a treat, us children thought it was a holiday or something. Sometimes I make my own soup. I get in the cupboard and throw everything I can find in the pan. My wife calls it something she will never taste. She also tells me to keep it away from her.
Some of the best meals we have eaten consisted of left over meat and boiled potatoes. It does not really matter what the meat is any kind will work. Fry it all up, salt and pepper it, throw on the Ketchup or Catsup what ever you prefer. Set down and feast.
Sometimes we have breakfast for dinner. I know people do this. I know my family members young and old have done it their whole lives. I bet you know someone that does it too.
We have some left over hotdogs in the refrigerator. I am thinking about hotdogs, Chili, and eggs for dinner tonight.
Until next time.

Norm

Baby Formula

One of our local News networks ran a special on Baby Formula. It seems through investigating they discovered formula that had expired on some store shelves. Seven out of eleven stores had expired formula on their shelves. Some of the stores were major chains that have been around for years. According to the network, Federal Drug Association regulations are more stringent concerning Baby formula. Due to this investigation, the stores said they would retrain personal and take other steps to safe guard Baby Formula.
I doubt very much if these stores meant for food to be expired on their shelves. Let us face it; it does not make for good business. The Public has a trust in these enterprises that they are not deliberately harming us. It would not hurt you and me to check the expiration date on the goods we buy now and again. I still have faith in our local Merchants to do the right thing.
Now that being said, let me tell you about my experience as a stock boy at a grocery store. I decided when I was around fifty years old that I just might want to work in a grocery store. I was hired to stock the shelves.
My job was to move the entire product from the back of the shelf and put the new product behind. This is a simple task says you. Not really.
We would go into the storeroom and load our dollies with boxes of product. After we loaded, we went to the aisles and began to stock product on the shelves. The product on our dollies would be spread throughout the store. There was no rhyme or reason in the storeroom. This caused us to run all over the store-stocking product. In-addition we were constantly called up front to bag groceries, carryout for our customers, or gather grocery carts. Most days we were moved from one department to another because of absenteeism.
Management thought we were a band of thieves. We received calls anytime during the day or night while at home wanting us to come to work. I once was called to work at eight P.M. to mop the floor because the manager did not want to do the mopping. The girls on the registers were supposed to be off the floor in time to count their money and be out the door at the end of eight hours. This rarely happened because hourly employees were not important. If we wanted a day off, we had to beg and bribe one of our co-workers to fill in for us. Management would not find someone to fill in for us. The whole environment led to bad attitudes by employees.
Now lets recap; Storeroom unorganized, Stockers run all over the store stocking shelves, Stockers constantly pulled away for other tasks, stockers switched from one department to another, hourly employee’s not trusted, Employee’s personal time not important, and management would not work with employee’s on scheduling days off. I wonder why product is out dated on the shelves.
I hope my experience was an extreme case. The store I worked for shut the doors with no notice and left it employee is hanging. In my opinion, the owners should have been Tarred and Feathered and run out of town. Their closing did not hurt me, but it hurt others.
There are plenty of reasons why product expires on the shelf. The above are just some. We could do ourselves and local business’s a favor by checking the expiration date every occasionally. If we find something wrong, we could point it out. Not to cause problems but to help protect ourselves as well as our neighbors. Until next time.

Norm

J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger passed away this week and there is a lot of speculation about what is in his closet. I found the following in the Yahoo News on the Internet and I quote "There is a marvelous peace in not publishing," J.D. Salinger told The New York Times in 1974. "Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure." Let us check not only his closet but his Trouser pockets and his Wallet also. Let us discover what he never wanted us to see and steal it in the process.
I do not really know what his reasons were for moving to Cornish, N.H. and refusing to be published. It could be the people he was dealing with could not write a single line themselves but insisted on telling him how to write. Maybe they wanted too much information on his personal life. I guess we will never know.
I have never read Catcher in the Rye and doubt I ever will. Oh yes I have it in my collection of books here in the house. The problem is I was once sixteen and had my own problems. I had parents that were too busy and had too many problems of there own to worry much about me. We were poor, but I was clothed and fed and not abused, at least in the physical sense. If my English teacher would have assigned me a book report using Catcher in the Rye I would not have had the money to buy the book.
She would not have understood and failed me. My teacher was caught up in her importance as a teacher and her role in our community. I doubt very much if she could call me by name in the Hall as we walked by each other. I refused to get up in front of the class and do a report on The Call of the Wild. I am sure the teacher had an f on my record before calling on the next student. She never asked for an explanation as to why I would not do the report.
I did not like to talk in front of people because my teeth were rotten and I had a low self-esteem. I had no interest in The Call of the Wild and could not even relate the story to you then or now. Mind you I love to read and always have, I just wanted to read what interest me not others.
I also like to write, and I do not share all my thoughts with the world. I hope after I am gone people are not rummaging through my closets. Until next time.

Norm

Oatmeal

When making Oatmeal, you need to pay attention to detail. I learned this the hard way. My wife makes it using the clock; it has to cook just so long and no longer. Sometimes I put too little Oatmeal in the pan and sometimes too much water. I never use the clock to time its cooking.
Never the less it normally turns out so that it is eatable. I make it a little bit dryer than my wife does. She likes the Oatmeal to run out of the pan in to the bowl and I like to help it with a spoon. Not any spoon mind you, it has to be the spoon in which I am going to eat.
I do not like the way she cooks it, but am smart enough to keep my mouth shut. I know she knows I do not know what I am doing but she is patient and leaves me to my chore.
Special mornings are when Miss Emily spends the night and in the morning, we eat Oatmeal together. Her Brother Nathan is a Pancake type of person. On these special mornings, Grandma (Meema) cooks breakfast. She makes Pancakes for Nathan, one-half helping of Oatmeal for Emily, and Papa gets a full helping.
Lately the conversation goes something like this; Emily” My Mom always puts the milk in before the Brown sugar. I tell her to put the sugar on first but she does not listen.” Papa” Oh is that right”. Emily” Mom says it does not matter”.
I normally put the Sugar on first and mix it in real good. Evidently, Emily’s mother has not time for this step. On special mornings I hear; “is that mixed good enough Papa“? Of course it always is. Then we add the milk and mix it all together. Most of the time I hear; I am full Papa can I be excused? I normally end up eating all of my Oatmeal and at least three spoonfuls of Emily’s. Of course, Emily is sitting on Papa’s knee.
Until next time.

Norm

Kids

Kids just are not as smart as they used to be. I heard this while still in the Military back in 1992. Of course, I worked with young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty two years of age. In fact, I trained them on Communications systems.
You know how kids are; they listen to that music that makes them nuts, stay up to all hours of the night, drink too much, talk back, and not responsible at all. They are all going to Hades in a hand basket.
It never proved to be true. The young adults I worked with were responsible, smart, and ambitious. They were always to work on time and ready to learn when they got to work. We trained on complicated communications systems, lifted six hundred pound walls and spent weeks out in the sticks with sub-standard shelter and food. I never heard any complaints and they never let me down.
A friend says kids just do not get it, they are lazy, do not want to work, dress funny and their hair is weird. Not like us at their age, we had it together. Sure we did!
Until next time

Norm

Community Involvement

My wife and I went to Church today. We try and go every Sunday while we are down in South Carolina for the winter. The theme of this Blog is not Religion. I think getting involved in your Community is a good thing. Church is only one avenue to do so. Some of the positive aspects of community involvement are the new people you meet, the insight you gain, and the feeling you get by helping others.
People are about the same wherever you go. Our Cultures may differ, but we are all basically the same. I think mingling with others rounds a person out. You get a chance to hear different points of view which gives you new insights.
Meeting others, exchanging ideas, and helping each other make you a better person. Prejudices disappear, wisdom and experience increase. No matter how I look at it, it is a win, win situation. Until next time.

Norm

Past Philosophers

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
--Plato (428/427 BC– 348/347 BC)

Why is it that the citizens of this Great Nation are so full of Apathy today. Plato as quoted above was well aware of this over two thousand years ago. Do we not learn anything from past events?

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office--Aesop (~550 BC)

How many crooked politicians can you think of. The more things change the more they stay the same. Are all politicians crooks or are all crooks politicians?

Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.--Aesop (620-560 BC
How many politicians in difficulties are running our great nation today? When the fox is in the hen house….

If we really knew the answers to all these questions we could not sleep at night.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the Kings Horses and all the kings men could not put humpty together again.

Greed overpowers righteousness.

Until next time.
Norm

Hedge Trimming

A friend of mine asked me to trim his hedges. His wife really does not think it is necessary. He finally talked her into it and I am part of the equation. Wanting to do a good job and please her (this is important) I looked to the internet for guidance.
I looked at two different sites for information regarding the trimming of hedges. It looked easy; a couple of stakes, string, lopper (pruning shears with long handles) and an electric trimmer and were in business.
I get on site, drive the stakes, run the string, and grab the trimmer; hey wait a minute this hedge is different. Now what do I do? Improvise. I start trimming the top, leaving the sides until last. My friend’s wife comes outside and says “oh you run stakes and string, that’s how you do it?” With an aura of confidence I say “uh huh”. With that she left me to my work.
Three and a half hours later I have a third of the hedge trimmed. Tomorrow my friend (this means his wife) and I will discuss how the job is progressing. I may add ex-hedge trimmer to my resume. Until next time.
Norm

My Southern Gal

Around nine o’clock this morning my Southern Gal came over for a visit. She is beautiful, black, and has the most adorable brown eyes I have ever seen. I have to admit, it was love at first sight. I think she loves me too. I guess the past few months I have grown on her.
Really she belongs to the neighbor lady but my home is her second home, just ask the neighbor lady. My Southern Gal is a Cocker Spaniel. When she leaves her owners home she heads to mine. I feed her, make over her, and play with her. In fact her mom has a hard time getting her to come home.
Today she broke her collar, so her visit has been all day. I talked to the neighbor earlier and she said she would replace her collar and come get her. We have had a nice day but Molly is ready to go home. Too much of a good thing I guess. Until next time.
Norm