I can’t help but see this scenario as a trust issue. If I send you an email, and in your reply, you CC my supervisor, your supervisor, and multiple other people, I actually find that offensive. If I wanted my original message to be sent to those people, I would have done it myself. I see the original contacts as being the only people the message is intended to be for. It’s not that I send anything that shouldn’t be seen by someone else, it’s just that when I’ve been doing my job efficiently for nearly 10 years, I don’t need someone above me to keep tabs on me and hold my hand to make sure that I will continue to do the job I’m paid for.
We’ve managed to talk Dad into letting us build a cedar fence on the side of the garage where it’s been needed for years. It turned out so well, that we’re going to build an 80ft long fence up the end of our lot (also the end of the subdivision) to block the view of the carpet plan at the south end, as well as replace the 5ft chain-link fence around the back yard with a new 6ft cedar. It’s going to take a while, but if it turns out as well as this first section has, it’s going to be a huge improvement.
New section of cedar fence
After wrestling with trying to get Google Chrome to reinstall for me after a spontaneous MSE notification caused it to close out and be removed from my system, I happen to run across the following:
On September 30th, 2011, an incorrect detection for PWS:Win32/Zbot was identified and as a result, Google Chrome was inadvertently blocked and in some cases removed from customers’ PCs. We have already fixed the issue — we released an updated signature (1.113.672.0) at 9:57 a.m. PDT — but approximately 3,000 customers were impacted. Affected customers should manually update Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) with the latest signatures. To do this, simply launch MSE, go to the update tab and click the Update button, and then reinstall Google Chrome. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused our customers.Microsoft
The gate going into the backyard has been in need of some work for a while. My parents originally used treated wood for the bracing part, which worked great for probably the last 10 years, but time and weather has caused it to warp up and drag across the concrete when opening it. So this afternoon we’ve rebuilt the gate using all cedar wood and screws instead of nails. This baby shuts so easily now, and with a little time to let the weather color it, will blend in and look awesome. Next up is replacing the rails that are between the posts along the rest of the fence that is also treated.
Old gate made with treated wood
Back before my work merged with another, we were on a bi-weekly pay schedule that gave the employees their checks every other Thursday. Pay checks were based on a 75 hour work week. Then the merge came and the headache of a pay schedule came with it. We changed to semi-monthly, with paychecks going on on the 15th and 30th of each month, each being based of 86.6667 hours. A semi-monthly pay schedule makes no sense to me. One week you’ll get paid on a Monday, and another it could be a Thursday, all depending on the month. Some people liked it, just because certain bills were due on the same day each month, and they knew then the date they would get paid and could schedule accordingly.
I’d much rather be paid on the same day each week or every other week. Which is kind of funny, considering now we are swapping back to bi-weekly. You would think that would be a decently easy change back, but it’s not proving to be. First comes the confusion. Confusion of going from 24 pay periods a year, to 26, but doing half the year each way. Going from 1 time-sheet a month to two, being in an entirely different format as well as different submission instructions as before. The first check we got after swapping back to bi-weekly was for 88 hours, and the next one will go back to 80 hours. All because they were originally going to start the week on a Friday, which made a whole lot of sense when we were first told that (sarcasm).
Working around the house has been the project of the past few weeks. From throwing stuff away, to re-mulching with some nice red mulch and weed barrier, it’s making a huge difference. Not to mention that it’s nice to stay busy. Here’s a quick before and after pic of the area that’s been the most deserving of attention over the past few years. We still have quite a bit to go, but I’m hoping that once this is done we can move on to building a new cedar fence around the backyard and then on to other things that’s been needing done.
The title is about as sarcastic as you can get, obviously. I just now got a chance to opt-in to having health insurance again at work for the new enrollment period, and even given the things that I’ve seen that can go wrong, I just can’t see it worth getting, again. The increase over last year’s premiums are 19.00%! Umm, I thought the Obama Administration praised the Obamacare plan so much as to say that we could see relief in healthcare costs, ha!
It’s obvious that the healthcare system was (still is) broken in our country, but the solution is not more government. Healthcare is setup in a way that nearly everyone that goes in for treatment has insurance, and the doctors exploit this by charging the maximum allowed under the law. I’ve seen this, and know it’s true by some of the doctor visits that Mom went to. She had no insurance, and always saw a decent price reduction by having to pay cash. I have some family that go to the doctor every other week it seems, and if you take a scenario like that, apply it to most of America, no wonder costs are exploding like they are. Insurance wasn’t made for that. It’s meant to be used for something catastrophic. But the solution isn’t to force everyone to have insurance, it’s to get the government out of it, and get back to the way it used to work, where doctors would charge the least they could instead of the most.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
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© Copyright 2007-2012 Shane Holden
All Rights Reserved.
