Come on America

We have all read of the L.A. train wreck, well, I have a few comments. To the families of the victims you have my sympathy on such a senseless act. To the driver of the vehicle, you have succeeded. Though you have no guts to do it, you have gotten the State of California to do what you were to spineless to do. But, the State is just as spineless. Though they convict you to death, you will never see it happen for they are just as spineless, so in the end you will sit in some padded cell in a mental hospital thinking of what you did. But, You best pray that none of your cell mates lost family in that wreck or you may find out they have the balls to do what you originally wanted. RIP.

So a foriegn group has won the president's helicopter contract and now all the unions cry foul and whine as their in-pocket politicians try too stop it. Yes jobs may be lost, so what. The foreign workers can do a great job too and at a far less price compared to the unionized aviation workers. I am sorry, but it is your own fault. You have jacked your hourly wage to the point that now you pay for it because no one can afford you. Why do I feel this way? Well!

• Just this week I ordered furniture with inside delivery. The driver showed up and struggled to load the first box on his cart. When he came in to the building his first statement was, "there are 4 steps there and my union rules won't allow me so, I can't take this box up them. Get someone else to take them up the elevator and I will deliver them to the room on the 3rd floor." So after some exasperation, I went down to the local chinese resturant, hired a couple of teenagers to come and carry the boxes up those silly 4 steps. The driver struggled to get his cart up the steps .. more from his grossly overweight body ... and then the kids loaded the box back on the cart. Then as he huffed and puffed, he proceeded to sloppily hit every wall on the way to the 3rd floor. Any obvious reason why the unions have screwed the American worker? They are lazy and demand high dollars for little effort. Need another example?
• I needed some day workers, I hire 3 hispanics, 2 asian, and one white teenager. I show them the work and once they started, I went to do something else. Upon returning, I found the so called foreign workers hard at it. The teenager was sitting there smoking. Asking him what he was doing I was given this reason. "Someone needs to be supervisor, so I am making sure they get the work done as you said." Needless to point out that person was thrown out quickly. Lazy and ideas of being better and the only thinker in the group? Still not convinced?
• Why are all cruise ships manned by foreign workers? Where are the American workers. What I was told both by crewmember and officer, "The American worker wants too much money, can't work as a team, and doesn't have the same work ethic as the foreign workers." I was embarrassed when I heard this over and over. I was told but can't confirm it that a certain cruise line tried an all-american crew. It was such a disaster they replaced them with an International crew.

This is why we lose contracts, businesses go out of the country to get the products built. Yes, the unions were crucial in the early years of the industrial revolution to protect workers rights. But the workers took it too far by getting exorbitant wages and benefits and many stupid rules that prevent them from doing the expected job.

• Delivery men who can't climb steps with a delivery but get $30+ an hour to use the elevator.
• Delivery men who can't move a 50 pound box with their cart but contract to deliver a 90# box. Then decline to remove it from the truck because the union truck loader put an overweight box in the truck.
• Delvery men who can't deliver unless there is a loading dock. Well, I work in an office building downtown, who has space for a dock?.
• The delivery man shows up late in the day, starts to unload, it gets to end of his work day before he finishes. He can't continue because of union rules unless he is authorized overtime. No one, especially me, is authorized to do that, only someone back at his loading dock. So he closes the door and tells me I have to reschedule delivery another day during regular hours.

Am I picking only on delivery men, no ... deal with a telephone man and see how screwed his rules are. I listen for year to my father-in-law about his work rules in an General Motors plant. Even he hated them but he had to follow them because it was Union.

So America, get a grip. Learn to work at a reasonable wage, give that old adage a try, "A days wage for a days work." Quit feeling you are some special breed that is a natural supervisor or that you are some how better than the foreign workers. Get rid of the overpaid Unions if that is what it takes to be competitive. Not competitive because your in-the-pocket politicians create some cock-in-bull rules to protect your job.

Ted Kennedy -- I hear you hate to be misled by elected officials (Rice and Iraq WMDs). Well sure, I hate to be misled too, so what really happened on the bridge? If you have the guts, not what sticks over your belt, tell us what really happen and then you can complain about someone else misleading us.

Peter Angelos -- Quit trying to get Major League baseball to conceded all those guarantees in case the Washington Nationals take away some of your fans or decrease your teams value. It is business man, make your product ( a baseball team) worth more. Start by fielding a tem that can win at least 50% of its games. It has been so long since the Orioles have had a winning team that that alone has become the unreacheable goal. So grow up and do something with the Orioles, at least go talk with that owner that bought the players that won the World Series ... you know the team ... Forida Marlins.

Well, enough grousing for one night. Will it help, no, because they don't care as long as they get rich and others give in to them, but I feel better.

Settling In

Well, life during the post-cruise phase is returning to the pre-cruise rush. It seems everytime I take some time off they open a bunch of projects and set a completion date. Of course, it goes without saying that the start date was the first day of my vacation so naturally I start out 10 days behind. So here I go trying to make it all work out. I sure wish some of the money would come back to me. :)

Dark Towers is slowly taking form. We are in no big rush to grow this. Quality is the desire and not quantity of players. Selective? Yes, but we are open to anyone who wishes to play in the tower.

Too bad the Pats won the game. The Steelers were the only team that can beat Philly. Yes, the Pats do good the second time against you, But Philly will be too much for them.

Goodbye Johnny. Though I didn't care for everything you did, you were good.

59 more days to National Bowling Tournament in Baton Rouge, La. I wish the local alleys would take as good of care of their lanes as ABC does. The youth league just started back up after the holidays and it was a riot as usual. Watching the small ones bowl causes a constant chuckle. epecially fun is to watch them improve season after season. My son never lets me forget his average is now higher, well, at least I know who taught him what to do to get there. Just because the old bones won't let me doesn't mean I don't know how too.

I hate stopped up kitchen sinks. This one was harder than the rest and I still don't know what caused it. The blockage was well inside the wall and not in the plumbing under the sink. But what the hay, I saved a plumbers call and $150.00.

When will people learn to drive in snow and ice? This time without exception, every car in an accident or spun out in the ditches was a 4-wheel drive truck or all-wheel drive car. Maybe if they took some of that money they spend on that truck, bought a cheaper car and spent the rest on some brains our insurance rates wouldn't get jacked up. But God made some people to be an idiot and then allowed them to drive 4-wheel drive or all-wheel drive vehicles.

First Time of the Year

Well, I am back and raring to go.

The cruise was great and something I am glad I did not miss. Took some 165 pictures and hopefully I can get a few posted here to give you a taste of what I saw. Yes, I did get some sun and look a little toasted. We really wanted to see whales on that excursion at Cabo San Lucas and weren't disappointed. I lost count at 15 whales. Those little boogers are hard to capture on camera. Even as big as they are they still move fast. The Cliff divers put on a great show and I did get them on camera. Anyways, more to come and I did have a great time.

National Bowling Tournament is the next event on my horizon. Baton Rouge, La. in late March.

Work is the same. Things broke and everyone wanted theirs fixed now. Oh well, this should help start the cruise fund for December 2005. :) [yes you read it right]

Inauguration and State of the Union will keep things hoping along with the 5 new projects they opened for me.

Dark Towers remains in its infancy but already shows sighs of growing up nicely.

So many stories to wrap up. Blackhawke's last battle, Stephen's return home and new mission, not to mention the stories to go along with Dark Towers.

Time to run and get started, stay tuned for many new things.