Come and see Flo at Coffee Shop 18

[RexHea]

Morning all!
A trucker came into a truck stop cafe and placed his order.
He said, 'I want three flat tires, a pair of headlights and a pair of running boards.'
The brand new blond waitress, not wanting to appear stupid, went to the
kitchen and said to the cook, 'This guy out there just ordered three flat tires, a pair of headlights and a pair of running Boards. What does he think this place is, an auto parts store?'
'No,' the cook said. 'Three flat tires mean three pancakes, a pair of headlights is two eggs sunny side up, and running boards are 2 slices of crisp bacon.
'Oh, OK!' said the blond.
She thought about it for a moment and then spooned up a bowl of beans and gave it to the customer.
The trucker asked, 'What are the beans for Blonde?'
I LOVE THIS ONE..........
'She replied, 'I thought while you were waiting for the flat tires, headlights and running boards, you might as well gas up!
ROTHFLMAO

Got my blood work done this a.m. for my yearly checkup next week. I wish all appointments went as fast and smooth; in and out less than twenty minutes.

Finally, I got all my belts replaced on my lawn mower (Troybilt). The main drive belt, from the engine to the rear, was a bear to replace. I had to remove two pulleys, two idlers, and four guide posts to get it on. Needless to say, I left some of my bark and blood on the parts.

Think I will go out to the Depot and open the box I got yesterday. I ordered one of those "grab bags (box)" from BLI. Suppose to be a bunch of miscellaneous parts, shells, frames, etc., for $30.

BOC: Thanks for the rain we have been getting the last few days. My yard is finally back to GREEN.

Everyone make a special effort to have a GOOD DAY!

Back to ya'later

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

jeffrey, that inet provider problem is actually easy. call them up and say "hey guys, whatever the problem is my net is unusable 30% of the time, so please adjust my bill to reflect this please. i don't intend to pay for something i couldn't use". after that call comcast was here QUICK to find that somewhere in street level leaky distribution box a filter that used to remove unpaid channels on my line went south. i also lease the modem rather then own one, so if it is never my equipment that can give way.

I'm hip! Except with me it's 70% of the time. There are no filters on my line as it's internet only. It's a whole area out here that's effected. That's from Highway 8 west to Vernon Lake Rd to Vernon Park Rd and Huckleberry Lane and all the little roads that intersect them. That's over 12 miles of roads that the main cable goes down. I get my TV channels on Dish Network.

 

[leghome]

"Everyone make a special effort to have a GOOD DAY!" I always have a good day but some are better than others.

 

[vato loco]

Well today some more crap filtered down from upper management. 20 people in Park maint. are going to be hitting the streets October 9th and there's 90% chance I'm one of them as of now. more than 6 parks will loose their crews and be replace with a limited staff roving crew.

We just got the new revised employee hand book, and if they follow the hand book. for example, My boss Mario and I's park is to be closed and our positions there at that site is closed regardless of your tenyear or not. at the same time 5 other positions are being closed at other parks too. Now at the same time they open up 3 new positions in the same area. We Seven layed off sots must fill out applications for these 3 new positions! and hope we get rehired and the starting wag of that position! so I make now at my position $13.65hr. I must re apply for the same position and if I get hired I must start back at 10.54hr. and if my boss who make's $18hr gets the position starts at $10.54 too. there's to my under standing that 20 people of verious positions and years being layed off and we all must reapply for 5 or 6 new positions opening up. Funny thing is a person who was there less time than me in the same position that didn't get layed off will be making more money than me!

In the old hand book they got rid of the new hires first then started layoff's from the bottom and worked there way to the top. then re assigned from there. you kept your pay the same. But in stead they now just knock out the positions of that site and layed off who evers happen to be there regardless if you have been there 1 year or 20! It's nut's and make completely no sence at alll Now this must still pass the commisioners and elected ones first.....But these bums will breifly look at the bill and pass it regardless if it makes sence or not....hell they pass the new revised hand book with out reading it!

any who how, I'm going to reapply any ways for one of these jobs cause the job market here in my two countys is getting close to 11% now at least when I go to the unemployment line I can say I tried to save my job. Only ray of sunshine here is the reapplying is going to be before the actual layoffs October 9th so we will get payed for it Big woop right!

If they would just get rid of the new hires of less than 3 year's everyone above that would be safe.


GOD I love working for the Government!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I bet none of the uppermost positions (those held by those who think up this crap) are up for grabs. How much of a PAY RAISE do they get for coming up with these great ideas to save money?

 

[leghome]

Chris I'd be asking the elected ones if they had read the new handbook an if not start right then and there working to get the elected ones that are in unelected the next time around. If fact we might be better off if we unelected all of the elected officials from the local city all the way through Washington DC, specially DC they have no idea of what is going on in their home districts. Who ever pads their palms with the most cash to get reelected get the vote. Now off my soap box and put away my political rant afore I gits barred.

 

[tankist]

Chris, first of all i'll start by saying i feel for you as i remember that being laid off was very stressful experience. i remember being laid of from my first job, i was climbing the ladder and all, and then suddenly it all ended. i was stressed but now i realize it was the best thing ever to happen to me.

it is always not a welcome change to move from place you got comfortable with, but if you think about it it is essential, since once you comfortable you start relaxing and stop being aggressive and competitive. i truly believe that no one should stay at one place for more then several years and those holding same position for more then 5 years should be helped out. you might not like it, kicking and screaming and all, but this change is for your own good.

continuing ON,
i understand i might spread salt on your wound with this, but i hope you realize that the intent is not upset or offend you in any way but rather give a different angle of view so you can see bigger picture.
lets say i am a tax payer and a direct user in your district. I WOULD EXPECT the management to work around the clock to figure out how my tax money can do more. please understand, you are have no entitlement for the position, the purpose of you position is not for you to make living. the primary purpose is to provide service, and you able to provide your family is a side effect.
Why should a customer be required to purchase something he doesn't need? Why a business owner should keep more stuff then he need? in this case you facing possibility of being unneeded. it is a very sad feeling that you unneeded despite being dedicated worker, trust me i know that feeling. i was upset for couple days nad then it occured to me: "so you letting me go?! you know what? you do not DESERVE to have someone hardworking like to work for you! its your loss!" and it all became very easy.

Will continue shortly
...
ON

now i know that looking for job can be not the easiest thing. however this is a skill that IMO everyone needs to posses just like being able to read and write. yes perhaps some leave without, but (again IMO) you owe it to yourself and your family to posses that skill.
yes, you will not be comfortable, yes you will have to learn to deal with the situation and learn new skills, wether you want it or not. and if all fails we don't live in Zimbabwe, unemployment will keep you afloat and even help you find a job or teach you how to find a job if you chose to resort for their crumbs.


so i wish you strength to not cling on to that chewed, hopeless straw. find a strength and don't put in that application in - it is a plee for something less then you deserve (pay cut) and significantly more work as there will be less people doing it! you know where that road leads. And the very first thing you'll feel is sence of self pride for not succumbing to unreasonable demands. depending on persoality you even might feel very good about you letting someone weaker then you, keep that dead end, unappreciated position.

i can imagine "but look at the economy!!!" and "oh we have X% unemployed already" hcryes. i will adress that bit latter. for now i'll just say this again - we don't leave in Zimbabwe.

 

[RexHea]

In the old hand book they got rid of the new hires first then started layoff's from the bottom and worked there way to the top. then re assigned from there. you kept your pay the same.....

And as it should be!!! Dang Chris, don't you employees have some kind of representation: employees council or something. I would fight this change in the employee handbook. It is too damn convenient for them to do that just when they want to cut back on payroll. The employee book is like a contract with the employees on the policies an rules of operation. I realize that being a city government that there are many exclusions, but keep in mind that many city workers are unionized or have employee representatives to negotiate changes in these policies with the city council or county commisioners before they can take effect. THINK LAWYER if it happens!

Chris, Birmingham is in worse condition than your area with them closing up court house extensions, laying off workers from all departments, even the police roster is to be affected. My understanding is they can only meet the August payroll and that only after 200 have been laid off. (course that town and county is ran by a bunch of self-serving dumb butts that think hand-out organizations are more important than public safety and other vital infrastructure)

Note: I was laid off several times during my 40+ working years and it is bull to think it was always for the better, although I did end up that way several times. If I had been able to stay in some of those positions, I also would have been better off and not looking for a dollar to pay a bill, sometimes for months.

 

[vato loco]

I bet none of the uppermost positions (those held by those who think up this crap) are up for grabs. How much of a PAY RAISE do they get for coming up with these great ideas to save money?

Try $192,000 per year fer the brain dead rocket engineer

 

[vato loco]

I haven't said there wasn't any law suits and such. Trust me when the employees stop fighting among them selves long enough their attention will be directed on those who need it. I just wish the economy was better so my lawn service would take off! I got plans for and if and when the layoff come.

It's the sign of the time's (Trying not to get political here) but, all local government officals are more concerned with their pet projects and making a name for themselves rather than Maintaining the more need services.

I'm keeping a positive attude and just ride out the clock until October 9th. Who knows they might go back to the old ways and start with the new hires rather that PO a gun carrying employee, some of these guys we have employeed are a little off!!!

 

[tankist]

And as it should be!!!

i appologize in advance, i'm not going to say anything you would like to hear - absolutley wrong. it is Competency level that shoulfd be considered over seniority.


the only reason seniority is considered as valid metric is since it is absolute and non-arguable while performance can be subjective (althogh everybody knows who is performing and who is a bum). by employing seniority as criteria employer alleviates himself from a lot possible arguments from those to be axed.
i noticed a lot of words like "representatives", "lawyer" and such. what?! why?! we have amazing example where that leads us - GM. the ship was thinking for loong time yet the union goons instead of agreeing to loosing some redundancy deiced "well, we going to squize it till last drop". and where are we now? all in a turbulence caused by the sunk ship, hoping not to much of us going to go under. would you really prefer diverting money from as it is dwindling coffers of your village/city/county/state to feed the already fat lawyer? because it is him who is the only benefiting entity here. the only thing that ticked my is salarys for top management. while i'm pro capitalizm all the way , government should not be for profit organization.


and its not like those axed left in the cold - we are not in north korea, former employer continues to pay you for 9 more month. ample time to find (or create) employment.

again, sorry for not displaying sensitivity, i personally prefer to hear it like it is, even when it hurts.

good luck to all
and Chris, IMO it is for the better. always

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Hello

My workplace had some XP Pro issues that turned out to be caused by a network failure that also ended up involving a company we contracted to look after our IT issues. Now that we found out that this firm has gone belly up this morning I had to--- quick like bunny--- throw together a team of outsiders to go and find solution for issuing issues...

And I come on here and find this----yikes!

I'll just say this---any kind of criteria had better be practiced across the board--not as it is practiced in any bureaucracy one sees---those at the top protect each others --you know what-----I'm not going any further-

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

it is Competency level that shoulfd be considered over seniority.

Amen to that! I know people who have been at their job for many years and have seniority in the position. It doesn't mean however that they're the best for the job.

 

[kbkchooch]

Evening guys!
WOW, lots has happend in 24 hours!

Chris Don't let the idiots get you down. YOU more than anyone know your self worth. If you do get laid off, it's thier loss! Besides, this may open other doors to you that you currently may not have considered. I know, having spent 7 months trying to get back into the auto industry. (insane?) Then I was offered a management position with a tractor dealership, and by gosh, I couldn't be happier. I thought what I was doing before was good enough, running the day to day operations, maintaining the status quo. Now I'm with an expanding company, preparing to move to a new building, and the potential for growth is better than its ever been. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. You just might surprise yourself!

Rex So whats in the box dude???

Had a little excitement tonight. I got home from work to find 2 of Marylands finest parked in my driveway. Seems that my griping about the cars whizzing by has finally borne fruit. These two must have gotten writers cramp, pulling cars over right and left on what used to be our quiet little 35 mph street. Some of the tickets they wrote were for speed in excess of 60 mph!!!!
It was kind of like shooting fish in a barrel! After 2 hours of watching them, they promised that they will return from time to time to monitor the situation, and thanked me for the use of my driveway.
I guess I'll be seeing them at the end of next month too!

TTYL!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

We had a big storm blow through earlier today that dumped nearly an inch of rain in less than an hour. I was coming back from Alexandria when it hit. The rain was so heavy my speed was limited 30 or less with the wipers on high. Even with that I was barely able to see the road. I've been working at the fire station tonight helping to get it cleaned up. We got our brush truck fixed too. Both batteries were shorted out, both alternators were burned out and the starter was jammed. To top things off we have another big storm heading in.

 

[bnsf971]

ouch, i'm afraid to ask about your injuries. we had our motorcycling season opened with a death of female rider who was run over by SUV at stop light. not only driver did not see her, she also blew that red light as well at about 45-50mph AFAIK.

don't get me wrong, i'm no gear nazi and i will never try to preach anything to t-shirt riders, i however i will never ride without EVERYTHING. the only way i see helmet flying of like that is being to big for you. but i guess stuff can happen. while better then sneakers, steel toed boots still not proper riding boots. that steel toe could do a lot of mess, and most importantly ankle support is not sufficient. also in case of a get-off i found that proper footwear can also act like a scoop which probably heleped in braking while i was doing my loveley "get-knocked-off-bike-and-slide-in-grass" thing somewhere in south indiana last year. cleaned a lot of things out of those boots.

It's all water under the bridge at this point, it happened in January of '07 (time flies). There was a large dent in the front of the guy's Tahoe that matched my helmet (or I wouldn't be here to complain). I was on my way to work, hence the work boots. The bouncing and rolling down the road removed my leather jacket, and shredded my pants. My back was broken in two places, I had a concussion, my pelvis was crushed, my hip was broken, most of the bones in my hands were broken, and I had road rash from hell. Then I got a hospital infection (known as MRSA), which I nearly died from. I was in traction for weeks, and a wheelchair for months.
The guy that hit me had pretty much zero insurance ($2,000 PIP), barely enough to get a car registered. After about a month, my $150,000 uninsured motorist policy was used up, along with my own PIP ($150,000 also). I still owe almost $250K in hospital and doctor and lab etc bills.
Now you know why I get a little testy about the "running over motorcycle" jokes, even though I know they aren't meant personally. I've known Chris for decades, and know he wouldn't be malicious about it.

Someday I'll tell you about the guy that offered to "help" us, and conned me into moving to California to work for him (until the good publicity wore off), then forced me out, and is now suing me for the money he gave us to move out here...

 

[vato loco]

Karl, so..............Where's my JD ZTR? You remember the one at a super discounted price!

 

[vato loco]

It's all water under the bridge at this point, it happened in January of '07 (time flies). There was a large dent in the front of the guy's Tahoe that matched my helmet (or I wouldn't be here to complain). I was on my way to work, hence the work boots. The bouncing and rolling down the road removed my leather jacket, and shredded my pants. My back was broken in two places, I had a concussion, my pelvis was crushed, my hip was broken, most of the bones in my hands were broken, and I had road rash from hell. Then I got a hospital infection (known as MRSA), which I nearly died from. I was in traction for weeks, and a wheelchair for months.
The guy that hit me had pretty much zero insurance ($2,000 PIP), barely enough to get a car registered. After about a month, my $150,000 uninsured motorist policy was used up, along with my own PIP ($150,000 also). I still owe almost $250K in hospital and doctor and lab etc bills.
Now you know why I get a little testy about the "running over motorcycle" jokes, even though I know they aren't meant personally. I've known Chris for decades, and know he wouldn't be malicious about it.

Someday I'll tell you about the guy that offered to "help" us, and conned me into moving to California to work for him (until the good publicity wore off), then forced me out, and is now suing me for the money he gave us to move out here...

See terry you should have bought my old LTD! Sure You might have gone blind driving it, but your medical bills would be less! "I Can't seeeeeeee!

 

[vato loco]

Amen to that! I know people who have been at their job for many years and have seniority in the position. It doesn't mean however that they're the best for the job.

Yes, but you don't punish eveyone for a couple of bad apples! Just get rid of the bad apples first then start at the bottom! Seniority still means a lot! I've done my job for over 13 years and before that 2 years working in a golf course, then before that ran a lawn and Garden center for 7 years and in between those jobs Ran my own lawn care service since I was 12 years old! I Know more than most of my counter parts both new and well seasoned! But yet here I am 90% chance of Layoff! So over 20 years in land management doesn't put me in a better position than a guy in his 20's who doesn't have a tenth of my experience.................Only chance I got if and when they(PMS') make their final cuts My seniority and experiance wins out!...................................................

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 73 and cloudy. The high will be around 90 and there's a chance of rain.

We got about an inch of rain yesterday followed by a still to be measured amount last night. I'll check the rain gauge when I go down to my parents place later. I started work on Schultz's garage yesterday by painting the tan brick (yuck) walls a nice dull red, the doors a dirty white and the window frames green. On the sheriff's car I picked up yesterday I used a white paint pen to mask out the 'County Sheriff' on the hood, trunk and doors.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 7/31/2009

Heat Index: 77°F
Humidity: 100%
Dew Point: 72°F

So Far Today
High: 73°F
Low: 72°F
Rain: 0.18"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 7mph WSW

Today High: 90 Showers and thunderstorms likely. Some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds...heavy rainfall and frequent lightning. Highs around 90. Southwest winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent.

Tonight Low: 75 Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 70s. South winds around 5 mph.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/proudIndian/P1010147.jpg