Quite often I am asked that question while filling up at a gas station, or sitting at a redlight. Most assume that one of the headlights is out, but the real reason is all in the beams. One is a low beam, and the other is the high beam.
Friday after work, we drove out to Zebulon, North Carolina so we could do a job there on Saturday. It was about an 8 hour drive, so that gave us plenty of time to shuffle through album after album on the iPod to stay entertained. I don’t think we really got to see much at all of what the town actually was, but from what we did see, it was a clean little town with some nice buildings & houses and really just just had that nice small southern community feel to it. With such a unique name, one would have to wonder where it came from, but the town was named after the Governor of North Carolina during the Civil War.
Monday came and wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be. The new Executive Director came in and talked with each of us telling us to relax that we all still have jobs. I think nearly everyone was nervous coming into the week because with merging the two places, there are duplications in positions. A team of consultants from UGA is supposed to be coming up in a few weeks to take a look at everything from benefits and pensions to job positions, and pretty much everything in between, to determine how to combine everything into the one new entity. I think that will be more likely to be the time when people either get cut or cut back, but I guess only time will tell.
He has asked that everyone provide him with a resume so that he can see what everyone’s skills are and where they could be utilized. I’ve never made one before, and have actually been wanting to toss one together for some time now. So this at least gives me that push to make it happen. It’ll definitely be handy if things end up going south here, or I decide at some point to make a career change.
If you’ve ever watched Survivor, you’ll recognize the merge of the two tribes, and how that can be the turning point in the reality show for any certain single player. Someone you thought would make it to the end, could then have their easy shot taken from them by being on the tribe with lesser players.
This week, and especially next week at work feels very similar to being on Survivor. We’re going through a “merge” that quite honestly feels like a take over. We’ve already lost two of the most knowledgeable staff that you could ever have, assets to the organization, and will be going in on Monday without knowing at all what to expect. Am I nervous? I am. I know I stand a pretty good chance of being let go, yet I’m not worried about myself. I’m worried for the others, and if there was any way that I could trade myself being safe (if that’s the case) for them to keep someone else instead of me, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
My cat doesn’t seem to mind music blaring from the speakers, a bright screen, or the keyboard clicking as I type, in the place that she has most recently made her new hangout. There’s a cubbyhole type area next to the screen that is supposed to be like storage for CDs or something that she usually will sleep in. But lately she has got to where she likes to stand in front of the screen, and eventually getting sleepy and looking like she does in the pic. Ignore the dust please.
On Saturday, I went and helped put some shingles on my parents new place. This was the first time I’ve seen it in person since the roof was put on the porch and the dormers were set into place. They were a little bit hesitant at first on putting dormers on it, but I think my dad made them the right size and put them in the right place for them to look perfect on it.
Over the weekend my dad was watching some Jeff Dunham show clips on the internet, which I had seen before but watched again because they are so funny. He does quite a few characters, but I think my favorite is Walter the grumpy old man. Right away after watching him again I noticed that he and our Vice President Joe Biden have an uncanny resemblance with one another, especially when Biden frowns. Apparently I’m not the only one that’s noticed it either, because while trying to find images to make the comparison I found the following:
It’s hard not to be concerned with seeing the unemployment rate rise month after month. Just today the numbers were released bringing the national percentage up to 9.5%, a 26 year high. You hear all of these predictions like, “expecting to only see another 1 million jobs lost for the rest of the year” and you really can’t put any faith at all in the economists’ predictions. They naturally change their predictions often, and when the single month of June alone was -467k, it’s hard to imagine only another 1 million jobs will be lost over the next 6 months.
Georgia is sitting at a 9.7% unemployment rate as of May 2009, and my county, Whitfield County, had a rate of 12.4% for May. Not as bad as some of course, but that’s nothing at all to be happy or proud of. My county’s major industry was carpet, so when the housing bubble popped, so did things here. I won’t even bring up budget deficits.
The greatest weakness of most human beings is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re alive.
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