The holiday

The holiday weekend
Well, I ended up going to Ptown for my holiday weekend. A few people in my family wanted to make sure it was a good time, so they organized three TV’s, 2 Xboxes, and a Wii for the 17 or so kids to play. I will add that there were several adults taking time to make sure the kids were playing nice with each other by sampling the video game goodness.

That night we played a game of Planet earth Trivia and I will say that I won 2 times, one from forfeit, and the other through pure genius, with the help of one sister. We were pitted as two people agents’ teams of 4, and we still won. I will also add that the other teams will probably deny this claim that I won, but it doesn’t matter, they know who won.

Diner was pretty good. Other then the fact that I had to cut up the bird, it was pretty good. I ate Devin’s fruit salad, my mom’s potato salad, some stuffing (do not know who made it), some turkey from both birds, and then I grazed all day. Ate about 17 little smokes, a bunch of chips and dip. Two large cauliflowers, a few carrots, about 10 crackers and cheese, a large diet rock star, 1 peace of chocolate, 4 cups of cider, and 1 cup of milk.

I purchased a freezer and generator for my parents, and drove them down there for them. Because of that we ended up taking two cars down. Cody and I went late, after I got home from work. We listened to a book on tape, and then talked for a bit. I found out that he wants to learn how to play tennis. News to me, never told me that before.

Got to my parents house, and stayed up tell well past anyone’s bedtime talking to Cricket and Aaron. For the record, her current husband is incomparably better than her first one. After about an hour’s sleep, I got up and started hanging with family. We managed to get through the entire day without pissing each other off with political or religious discussions. However, Joe and I failed to keep the peace that shouldn’t be our responsibility to keep, by telling our Niece to dye her hair blue. My mom took it as us telling her to disobey her mother, and just do it. Apparently free thinking is not allowed tell you are 18. As soon as my mom stormed off yelling at us, Joe leaned over to me and said “should have stuck to politics”. I had to agree. So, from that point on it went downhill. Politics, religion, schools, and all the topics… Even sex at one point, were discussed. People left and I have a feeling that it will be a long time before we get together again. Not the arguing that will keep us apart, just life.

My oldest nephew brought his girlfriend. He is 18, and I have a feeling will be entering life on his own soon. The kids getting older, and peoples life’s get in the way, and one by one the large group will get smaller. If it is good or bad, I still am happy to be a member of my family.

I decided for whatever reason, to leave for home at 1:00 in the morning. I had slept about 3 hours in 2 days, and wanted some sleep. So I drove 4 hours in the middle of the night home. I finished the book that Cody and I started, and there is very little else that happened.

I must say, drunk people can be funny. I stopped at some small gas station to use the toilet and get some gas. There was a man and women talking at the counter, and I thought they were both working there. I got out of the can, and realized that my first impression was wrong. The women I think worked there, but was just visiting the guy at the counter. And she had been drinking. I walked up to the counter and got the look of apology from the guy at the counter has soon as she started talking.

This lady is about 40, and the guy at the counter is about 30. She says to me, in a drunken slur, “this is sex 101”. All I wanted was to pay for the soda that I was trying to get, and my gas, but talking to drunken women at a gas station at 3:00 in the morning of black Friday, who could pass it up. She then said “I am experienced in the world of sex, and I know how it works”

I said “if you are so experienced why are you still talking sex 101.”
I then, while trying to get out of the place, tried to set Marty up with the cougar co-worker, and made my leave. That in its own was a funny story.
I made it home and here I Sit the next night. My wife and kids will be home tomorrow, and I sit here board, lonely. But so far it was a good holiday.

And, a good pic of the lot of us...

IS there a perfect Job?

IS there a perfect Job?

When I was 16 I decided I wanted to do property management. I remember for the first time learning about the profession, seeing its usefulness, and deciding to enter it.

The problem was, I was 16. So I needed to wait. Shortly after that decision, a friend got a job as an apartment manager, and the two of us starting painting for different apartment complexes. I think it actually went to other way around, but that isn’t important. He got the job, and I was jealous. Actually, I was too young to have been eligible, but I was interested in his job. Free rent, decent salary, and his boss never came around. That was at least at first. When he started to mess up and get lazy he was harassed, and ultimately fired.

I started my first “legal” full time job at home depot, and later on to Wacker Siltornic. I loved the job at Home Depot, and to this day I am glad they fired me. I could have seen myself becoming a lifer there. Wacker was different. It was a job, and was suppose to be temporary. When the job became unbearable, I decided to quit. My supervisor at the time was a person I had a great deal of respect for. After I turned in almost 50 resumes for apartment manager jobs, I found someone to give me a shot. When I told that person that I was quitting he gave me some advice. He talked about how I was too nice, and had trouble telling people no.
Fast forward 8 years. I left a Vancouver company to move north to Seattle. My supervisor at that job, a person I used to like, but over the time I worked for him subsequently lost all respect for, and actually grew to despise…. Anyhow, that is another story.

When I quit he told me I would never be able to do the job I was taking, and that I was setting myself up to fail. It was one of the best pep talks a person can give. Nothing like someone you cannot stand telling you that you cannot do something that you want to do. First class motivation if you ask me.

He told me I would never be able to fire people, amongst other things.
I have a hard time telling people no. It is not a big secret. I like to do everything I can for someone, regardless of who they are or what they are doing. I have bent over backwards for people whom I know were lying to me. I help people that I have evicted all the time. I one time spent almost a whole 8 hour day calling charitable organizations to get help for a women who would love to have seen me dead. She actually spit at me one time. They helped her, and she never knew I found it. Funny thing is I was playing agents myself. I was evicting her, and trying to find a way for her to stop me from doing it. I succeeded at stopping myself. But I am off subject.

I have gotten to the point where I can be cold. I still do not like to do it. But the second boss, the one that said I would fail. Well, I am still here. I probably make as much if not more than he did. But, I still hate to fire people.
I love what I do. I planned my career up to this point step by step. And I have future plans also. But in the last 4 years I have had to fire more people then I want to remember. I hate to hire and fire people. I hate it more than anything I do for the mighty paycheck. I have had to fire people whom I have become friends with. I have had to fire people that were the only working member of their household. I cannot stress how much I hate it.

But, with this major negative, I know I could never not be the boss again. I am addicted to not being the little guy, or low man on the totem pole. There is no way I can go backwards. I just do not look forward to the years of hiring and firing people. I want to have my own company. I have a long time left in the workforce. I just do not look forward to all those lost employees.

To answer my own question, there isn’t a perfect job. But I do love my career choice enough to live with a few negative aspects of the job. I just wish everyone would just be better employees, and do everything perfectly. Well, maybe not perfect, but good enough that I wouldn’t have to fire them.