Christmas was over, all that was left was crumpled boxes and paper, a dead tree, and bills. Time to stock up for New Year's Eve.
From Halloween through New Year's Day, it was be thankful, and spend, spend, spend!
When I worked as a security guard, I worked at the corporate office of one company which used a lot of computers. Memory and processor chips started coming up missing from the computers, and an investigation was made at all levels, including a couple where I had to participate.
I found out that the computer manufacturing company swore that the computers were intact and operating when they left the factory. The computers were operationally checked, sealed and placed in boxes which were then sealed. They were then shipped to the company warehouse which accepted them as intact.
The technicians at the company warehouse received the computers, and configured them for general usage by the company. The technicians swore that the computers were operational when they left that facility.
The computers were shipped to the loading dock in the building where I worked at which is where I got into the act, because the loading dock had a camera, and every time chips came up missing, I had to go through three or four days of video tapes, trying to find out if someone had stolen the chips out of them while the computers were setting on the dock.
Company maintenance technicians then took the computers and installed the necessary electronic cards for operating the computers within our general area. they never checked the computers to see if they were operational at that time, but swore the computers were intact.
The computers were then shipped to the proper building, and position, where another technician from our computer maintenance staff would configure the computers for the precise job the computers were required to do. The technicians swore the computers were operational.
When the user turned on the computers, they didn't operate, and when the computers were disassembled, the chips were found to be missing.
It sounded awfully complicated to me, and sounded like something only a professional could do. It didn't sound like these chips could be removed in just a few seconds, so I talked with some of the maintenance technicians concerning the design of the computers.
The technicians told me that it wasn't difficult to get the chips out of the computers, because the computers had a side panel, to allow easy access to the components. The memory chips were just held in by clips.
The processor chips were a little more difficult, but the tools required to remove them could be purchased at any electronics store, and with these tools, the processor chips could be removed within thirty seconds.
They also told me that the computers, and missing chips were advanced models and not generally available to the public, so the missing chips were very expensive.
This went on for several months with the computer chips coming up missing out of computers in other facilities besides the one that I was in.
Finally some chips came up missing during the final configuration process. The maintenance technician took the side panel off, and had the memory chips out while he was working. He went off for an hour and left the computer disassembled and unattended. He said the janitor was working in the area, and he took them. Of course the janitor had been working in that area, as well as the rest of the building for ten years. But the janitor did not have access to the other buildings, which the maintenance technician did.
I did not work the day the theft occurred, but I read the report the day I returned, and pointed out that even I could see there was no reason for the maintenance technician to remove the memory chips to perform the work that he was doing.
They did fire that maintenance technician based upon the fact that he left that computer unattended when there had been so many thefts.
Three days after the firing, the technician walked in the door of the office, and past my desk without saying a word. I caught him and told him I could not allow him to enter without an escort.
He handed me a ball point pen, and told me he had come to return it, and then turned and walked back out the door.
There were no more thefts!
Dan, from down at the bar, has been raising his parents for as long as he can remember. The youngest of three children, when his two older sisters got married, someone had to stay home and raise the parents, and the job fell on Dan's shoulders.
He tried some different types of jobs, but they never seemed to allow him enough time to take care of his parents properly. He finally set up a small shop out in the garage, and did some welding, metalwork, and odd jobs, earning a little bit of extra money for beer and cigarettes.
He had to get up every morning, and get his father off to work. Since he just lived up the road from the bar, after his father left, he would go to the bar for coffee and listen to the patrons for advice on how to raise the parents.
He would then go home and make sure that his mother got dressed, fed, and got her daily chores started.
He then went to the garage, and completed any work that he might have taken in. He normally did find time to drop over to the bar, and have a couple of beers, and see if he could pick up any new advice.
He was always at home when his father got there to make sure that his father was fed properly, and then would go to the bar for happy hour to see all of his friends.
After happy hour, he would go home and make sure the televison was operating properly for his parents. In the evenings, he normally did find time to check on the bar once in a while to see if any of his friends were there buying beer.
His job got particularly difficult after his father retired from work and stayed home. Then Dan had to make sure that both parents were properly clothed and fed, and did their chores for the day.
About a year ago, his mother began to develop Alzheimer's Disease, which was difficult to handle even with his father's help. Recently his father passed away, so Dan has to really watch his mother close.
Dan knows that he now needs to get a job and has been looking, but has not found anything yet that will pay him the money he needs, and still allow him the time necessary to take care of his mother.
As the Alzheimer's Disease progresses, sooner or later, his mother will have to be put in a nursing home. At that time the state will probably take the house in payment for the nursing care, and Dan will probably have to move.
He will then have to raise one of his sisters, or more than likely, he'll raise us taxpayers!
The owner of the theater was fined a thousand dollars and ordered not to show any more x-rated films.
The owner protested to the judge, pointing that you could see worse x-rated films on the playboy channel.
The judge agreed with the owner and then pointed out that there were a lot of things which were done in the privacy of a home which were not legal in public
And then he repeated his order "One thousand dollar fine, and do not show any more x-rated films or you go to jail!"
Oh well, back to Bambi!
My parents came from a small town out in the country, where everybody was related, and knew everybody else. My mother's uncle married my father's sister, thereby making me a second-cousin to myself!
I got behind in the bills and decided to see if I could find a better paying job up in the big city. I got the Sunday newspaper and found six advertisements for jobs that said, "Machine operators wanted, good benefits, top wages paid". I started calling and going to interviews. Two of the advertisements were for vacuum cleaner salesmen, one for encyclopedia salesmen, one for knife salesmen, and one for multli-level-marketing salesmen. There was only one honest advertisement for machine operators and it paid a dollar an hour less than what I made.
What ever happened to truth in advertisement!
New Year's Eve is over. Parties are over. All the college football games are over. All the celebration is over. All that is left is clean up the mess. Any more holidays and I won't have time to work!
Stomach is;
Selling water softeners and air purifiers to the elderly and disabled who barely survive on their income.
Selling meat and food packages to young families at a discount and then charging them so much interest on the package and the freezer that they can never get out of debt.
I did each of these.
Finally getting that sale was exhilerating, and I was proud of myself! By the time I got to the office though, I had lost my stomach, and it's contents. I tore up the paperwork, and went home.
Useless is being a motivational speaker at a pessimist's convention.
Dedication is:
Adding antifreeze to water and then washing office building windows when the temperature is ten degrees below zero!
One day - I quit.
Pouring boiling hot tar on a building roof on a hundred degree day.
One day - I quit.
Laying shingles on a church roof, sixty foot in the air on a roof with a sixty degree pitch.
One look - I quit.
There are many other jobs available such as washing windows on sky scrapers, or iron workers building sky scrapers, that I do not know whether the people are dedicated, brave, or just plain dumb.
And I do not want to find out!
I was working as a security guard at a bank in a mall, and two rescue squads went to the department store with lights flashing. I never did hear why. Must have been a multi-cart collision!
