This Big House

I have blogged before on my Brief Gift blog about having a house built. It is a great feeling to have a house built the way that you want it. But do not go overboard. Remember that a house is only there to hold all of your stuff. Big house means lots of stuff and more to take care of. If you happen to have the means to hire people to take care of your stuff and your house, more power to you. But regular people like me do not. We have a nice house but I wonder if it is more than what we need. We spend more time trying to find things and get rid of stuff than we need to. I would rather be out camping or going to some place to sightsee than working on the house all of the time. Small and Spartan is the way to go. Not much clutter and not much to have to maintain. We have not been camping in years, mainly because we have too many things to do to maintain the house. We bought new because we thought that it would be easier or less to maintain, we were wrong. At least we went with vinyl on everything so all we have to do is wash instead of painting all of the time. The big house is nice, lots of room but that is only room for stuff. The more stuff you own the more that it owns you. I am not so vain that I need people to drive by and go Oooo and Ahhh over how nice the house is. Soon our children will be on their own and we can downsize, maybe near the water or the beach. A small house with a postage stamp size yard where we can relax and enjoy it.

We will see.





　
　

　

Come back often and be sure to click on my ads. Thank you.

Long Live the American Work Ethic

Some people these days have no consideration for the business that they work for. I work with just such people. How many times can you remind someone to cleanup after themselves? Isn’t that a part of normal everyday survival? I work in a business that depends on the equipment that we use. It is cleaning equipment like vacuums and shampooers. Three time in as many months I have come into the equipment room and found the shampoo machine still plugged in and up to full temperature. Not only is it a waste of electricity but what happens if it shorts out and starts a fire? Two weeks ago one of the two vacuum motors in this very unit did just that. Luckily we were there to shut it down. I am sure the breaker would have tripped but that seems like too much trust placed in man made items to leave it to chance. I have told the workers twice to turn off and unplug the machinery. Even the technician that works on and sells these machines says that that is a good idea. These workers do not even pick up after themselves. I have complained about that too. The owner does not seem to care, he is out taking care of his many other enterprises and does not pay attention to this little business. Countless time I have come into work and doing my job requires twice as much time because first I have to cleanup after the other people, than I have to find things that I need because they can never put them away. When I have complained directly to the owner the worker just walks off the job with complete impunity because he knows the owner will just take him back. I have been working at this location longer that some of these guys have been in the country. They have no pride in their work or their surroundings at the job. I speak to them and try to get them to do things right but I have to wear kid gloves because they will just walk off the job and leave me dry. It is a terrible way to be treated when you are just trying to do a good job in a place that you have been for years. I don’t know what has happened to the good old American work ethic but it is sure dwindling away.

　

　

Support my work ethic and be sure to click on one of the ads on this page. Thank you for checking out my blog.

Psycho Lady

I feel so bad for people that have an ailment that does not allow them to mentally function well in society. I also do not see why these same people should not try to maintain this ailment the way they are supposed to. That may sound apathetic but it is a situation that I was very familiar with.

We used to have a neighbor that had a mental disorder. She appeared wonderfully nice and we befriended her after she moved into our neighborhood, right next to our house. Things went great for about three months, she seemed to be easily upset but we did not think anything of it. You take people with a grain of salt and accept who they are. She was easy to upset so we tried not to. This was not possible. She started ranting about neighbors doing work in their yards and kids playing in the cul-de-sac. She would even get upset if I talked to one of these kids. Soon she started calling the police. She called the police when someone used a snow blower early in the morning so he could get to work. She called the police a total of 13 times on me over a two year period. I finally went to our police department to ask them if I was getting a record due to this psycho lady. He knew immediately who I was referring to and told me not to worry. They only show up at her house because they have to. After that they just disregard the call. I found out that she has called the police on the residents of all twelve houses on our street, even our local pastor. She was also banned from the supermarket up the street and from Girl Scout meetings. This woman was known all over the town for losing it for no reason. Come to find out she was supposed to be taking medication daily for her illness but sometimes she just chose not to. She then took it out on everyone that lived on our street or anyone she came in contact with. Very sad.

She has since moved to another state and divorced her husband. Unfortunately it seems that her daughter has the same ailment. It was told to me that when her daughter was asked about her dad she said that he was dead. We saw him not too long ago.

I have met other people with this same problem and they take their medication daily. They are perfectly normal and I work with them in our local community service organization. It can be done and you don’t have to cause chaos in the lives of the people around you.

　

　

I don't need medixcation! I don't! I don't! I don't!

　

Does any of this sound familiar? My condolences. I know what you are going through. Come back to my blog see what else we might have in common. Be sure to check out some of the advertisers on this site. Thank you.

She's Baaaaack!

She is still our there! This psycho lady that ran me off of the road last year is still at it. Last year I was riding my bicycle to work and was about to pass a Dunkin Donuts. As I approached the turn a lady in a white car came up along side of me. She looked at me. I was going straight and she was turning right into the entrance of the shop. She just turned! She forced me off of the road and onto the sidewalk! I could not believe it. When I saw that she was going to the drive through, I followed and drove up along side of her. I let her know loudly that she just ran me off the road. I surprised her so much that she dropped the phone she was texting with. She said that she thought I had plenty of room. I told her that thinking was not her strong suit. A favorite line from the Lost In Space movie. She was completely nonplussed and was more intent on the coffee she was waiting for. I finally told her to put down the phone and drive like an adult.

A year later I am driving in the same area but going in the other direction. I was in my company truck, an F-350 that is quite high. It gives me a great vantage point to see what is going on. As I waited for my light to change I noticed that the light to turn left was green. The car to my left was just sitting there and not moving. I looked up and the light was still green. Turning to see what was going on I realized that I had seen this car before but I could not place it. I could not place it that is until I noticed that this person was texting that was why she did not notice that the light was green. I then realized that this is the same idiot that ran me off of the road. She was still doing it except this time there was no one to run off of the road. She sat there texting at the wheel and did not look up until the light had turned yellow, at which point she stomped on the gas and ran through the red light. I seriously believe that she is going to keep texting and driving until she kills someone. Angry Nice Guy would really like to get in her face again but I would probably be the one that gets arrested. Maybe when something terrible happens she will learn.

that's me on the bicyhcle, top right!

　

Experienced a similar situation? Just like my blog? Please come back and be sure to click on my advertisers. Thank you, be careful out there!

I Swear

Is it just me or is it annoying to be around somebody that has a constant torrent of expletives coming from their mouth? I don’t mean that occasional slip or the perfunctory swear when we are really upset. I mean the person that uses profanity for every single adjective and adverb that is in a sentence. Even some nouns personal pronouns. I have let some slip once in a while. Sometimes you can’t help it but when you encounter somebody that does it so much it is hard to understand the conversation isn’t that a little much? Are these words used because of this persons limited vocabulary and intellect? I am not a snob but it just seems annoying when every modifier a person uses starts with the letter f and rhymes with truck. Especially around children, there is no excuse for that. If you don’t have anything intelligent or constructive to say then be quiet. I believe I have said that before in another blog. I could elaborate on this but that probably would not be constructive. A Nice Guy would stop here.

　

　

If you are enjoying my blogs be sure to click on some of these ads. Thank you.

Call Me 2

On my last blog I talked about communication, or the lack thereof. It was concerning our quest to refinance our house. I wrote briefly that we started this whole thing in December of last year. After much attention to our case they had decided that a radical adjustment was not feasible because we would not be able to afford the payment. Radical adjustment only means that they change your interest rate to help you out, sometimes for a fee. I don’t understand, we have been making this payment for 13 years and they will not lower the rate because we can not afford the new lower payment. Where does this logic come from? Well, like I stated in the last post, we tried twice to submit forms for the Making Home Affordable plan but we did not have the proper documents. Instead of calling us and letting us know they just sat on it until we called them. When we questioned this they said that it was not their job to call and let us know. Nice. My wife called them again yesterday, after my blog, and again they said that the information that we submitted for the third time was inadequate. And again they did not deem it was important to call. They did, however, let us know that our name had been removed from the system because it has been over thirty days since we submitted the forms. It would not have been that long if they had called us right away and let us know what we needed. It seems that our cell phone number, our land line and our emails are only used to contact us if we are approved. I will admit that I do not know all of the ins and outs of banking but this does not seem like the way to run any kind of business. Now we have to start all over again. We started today by going to the bank that holds our mortgage and speaking to the manager. When we told them of the practices of this department she was appalled. I can assure you we are even more appalled. She gave our name to one of the district managers and he should soon be contacting us. We have the opportunity to save a great deal of money, cut our payments and shorten the length of our mortgage. This bank that we go to has an ad that states “sometimes all people need is people, a good bank understands that.” They do not seem to understand their own ad. A Nice Guy understands it.

　

　

If you enjoy my blog, or maybe you are caught in the same situation, come back again. When you come back be sure to click on one of the advertisers on this page. They have some interesting sites. Thank you.

Call Me

Communication is a lost art. I think I have touched on this before but it is worth another visit. We have great means of communication available to us but using them is another matter. In this age of electronic wizardry it should be no problem keeping in touch with those that we need to. It should be no problem.

So many people just let their phones go directly to voice mail. I make a call to a fellow worker that is urgent and get no response, only voice mail. I do not know if the message gets through so I have to work around the chance that it did not and this can create problems, especially when dealing with work matters. Some time back my company vehicle broke down and I urgently needed a ride. When I tried to reach these fellow workers, again, voice mail. So I called someone else. After ten minutes or so three people showed up and now they are upset because two of them did not have to be there. Answering the phone would probably have alleviated that problem.

If you say that you are going to call back, then call back. It is more annoying to not hear from someone that promised to call then it is to get information that you might not want to hear. Call back.

Apathy is the other communication problem. We are trying to secure a refinance for our mortgage. We have been trying for about seven months. The communication at the bank is terrible. You talk to one person and get one story than their supervisor calls a week later and tells you that the information that you received is not correct. This starts the whole ball rolling again. After two months of “negotiating” we realized that we were probably not going to get a straight answer from these people right away. We started the application for the government Making Home Affordable Plan, a good idea if you can get the ball rolling. We submitted the massive amount of information required and waited, and waited. Three weeks of waiting went by and we called them. They tell us that one of the forms is not acceptable and that we would have to resubmit this one form. They knew this for three weeks and did not call us. We submitted this form again. Two weeks this time and we called again. They still did not like the form that we sent them but did not call us. They have our cell phone numbers, land line number and our emails but they will not contact us on their own. Are these people idiots? They find out there is a problem and just sit on it until you call them yourselves. Apathy, pure apathy. Enough to make a Nice Guy Angry.

　

If you like my blogs and don’t find them too annoying, please click on the reputable and interesting ads that are run on this site. Thank You.

Give Me a Lift

The fact that I am limited now with the load that I can carry does not bother me until I attempt certain tasks. I have worked hard all of my life and this is the consequence of doing it without health insurance. It is not pleasant but that is just the way it is. What I find annoying is that when I go to the supermarket with my wife she gets stuck carrying the twenty pound bag of cat litter and I have to carry the toilet paper. I look like a jerk. I am a Nice Guy and have always helped my wife like I should and it makes me feel like a jerk. She understands and it does not bother her. I cannot even carry an eighteen pack of beer in the house, but I can carry it one at a time. When I water my compost I have to bring only half a bucket. At least at work I can use a hand truck to still do things on my own but that does not always work at home. I used to run up and lift my wife surprising her, now I am the one that is surprised. At least I can still mow my lawn because it is all flat. Canoeing is out because it weighs about eighty pounds so I had to sell that. What a bummer. I have always been a do it myself kind of guy so this is not setting well. I still have one wall left to finish in the basement but I don’t see myself lifting a piece of gypsum anytime soon. We have cats, one is seventeen pounds, I will not give up lifting my freeloaders.

All in all my life has not changed a whole lot but there are just times when it is very annoying, I guess I will get used to it. Like they say, whatever does not kill you only makes you stronger. Well, I am still alive so I guess I will just keep up the exercises and see if I can prove the doctors wrong. Maybe I will be able to lift the cat litter as well as the cat. We shall see.

If you like my blogs please click on the reputable advertisers on my page.

Key Clubs Rock!!!

A good day today. Going to a Spring Fling to help out the Key Club. They are putting on this dance event for the senior citizens in our town. They do this every year and it is a big hit. This year we are having it at our Kiwanis Hall. The kids work hard, put up decorations, bake and bring food and set up music for the evening. It is a good time for them. They are doing this in conjunction with the school’s National Honor Society, another good group. With both groups there should be enough people to set things up and get ready for the senior citizens. They usually have this in the school but there is just too much going on to do that this year. It is one of the favorite events that the club runs. It is nice to see the high school students do this for the seniors in this area. I am going to help set up and get things going, not that they need my help. I think that they have been doing this for about ten years if not more. It has been in the planning for about two months now so they should be all set to go. They do this on top of their regular schedule and all of the other activities that they have, including getting ready for graduation. This is a busy time of year for them and I have to commend them on taking this on every year. I do not know what the theme is this year but I am sure it will be eye catching.

Working within your community is an awesome way to show that you care and to develop leadership skills. I am so proud to be a part of our Key Clubs and the work that they do. It is one of the benefits of being a Nice Guy.

If you like my blogs be sure to click on the reputable ads that list on my pages, it keeps me going.

Shhh

How often have you heard someone engage their mouth before they put their brain in gear? It is not a pretty sight. Too often there are people that cannot come up with a reasonable or intelligent argument and they just resort to being hurtful or digging up something forgotten from years back in someone’s distant past. Think before you speak or, if you don’t have something constructive or helpful to say then don’t say anything. This should be advice for people in the public spotlight as well as us common folk. Maybe it is because of the fast paced society that we live in but time should be taken before some people speak. Think about what you say and who you are going to say it to.

We even do the same thing when it comes to our email. I have been guilty of that in the past. It is better to click “save as draft” until you can think about it and then maybe change the text or just delete it. A lot of pent up anger can be delivered and released when you hit that send button. It is so much easier to do because you are not face to face with the person.

I think that everybody deserves a little time before we say something that we might feel bad about later on. Once it is said it cannot be taken back. You can apologize but it has already been said and the impression has been made. While you are saying it, it might feel like a justifiable point that you are making but is it being made in the correct matter or just out of spite? Small minded people defend their actions by just using spite and hurtful feelings and then they have nothing to support their actions except for more spite and pain.

I have been accused at times for letting someone walk all over me, there are times when being quiet and taking the abuse is more prudent than elevating the situation. Being a Nice Guy I have learned that from experience. If someone is aggravated to the point of no longer making sense, what can you say to change this persons attack? Nothing. You could put forward the most logical retort only to be confronted by more vitriol. It is not worth it. Not everyone on this planet is equipped to be on a debating team and will therefore not be able to see a situation logically from both sides. Therefore, they do not engage their brains before they put their mouth in gear, and they never will.

Television Content

How come there is so many bad things on the news? I am not trivializing the bad things that happen but by producing these stories in such abundance, doesn’t that tend to trivialize it all on its own? There are almost as many death counts in the first fifteen minutes of news than there is in the first fifteen minutes on an action movie. Are they in competition?

I have never been there but I have heard that in other countries they actually run some good news stories. Mrs. Smith had her cat rescued from an old oak tree, the Smith school ran a successful bake sale today. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear more of these stories rather than the attention grabbing homicides that we hear about now? I guess attention grabbing is the key here and that is why we see so many. It is important to keep us informed, don’t get me wrong. We do need to know about dangerous situations that develop in our communities, but do they have to be repeated over and over? It is so nice to see the stories about the A+ students in our towns. Let’s see more of these.

The Amber Alerts are a fantastic way to let people know about children in dangerous situations and people that we have to look out for. I think that these should take precedent over the repetitive murder stories.

One other thing that is annoying about our news stories is the use of the word alleged. When somebody is standing there with a smoking gun, shells all around his feet, wounded and dead people surrounding him and he is saying that “I did it and I’ll do it again” why is this alleged? That is like saying the sun will allegedly set this evening. This person did it and seems quite content with the fact that he did it lets give him the credit he deserves. Leave the term alleged for the times when we do not know what has happened.

Affordability and Accountability

Making Home Affordable, this is the government plan that is available to people so that they can reduce the rate that they are paying and therefore reduce the payment amount. The only problem is the amount of hoops that you have to jump through to accomplish this. We applied for this over a month ago. Two weeks after applying we called to see what the progress was and we were told that some of the information that we sent was not enough to complete the application. They knew this and did not call us to let us know. Once we found out what we needed we made our copies and sent the requested information to them. We now sat back and relaxed, hoping that we would qualify for a new lower rate for our mortgage. My wife and I are Nice Guys, we should qualify, we have never been late and actually pay a little extra towards the principal every month. Today, my wife gave them another call and they very blandly told her that the extra information that we sent was also inadequate. Again, they did not let us know. They have both of our phone numbers, my wife’s cell phone and my email. Even with all of this they cannot bring themselves to call us and let us know what we need.

When we applied for this modification we were told by some people at the bank that it takes up to six months to hear from these people. I did not think that the delay was due to their lackadaisical attitude and ineptness. When they find a mistake or a form that is not up to their standards they just set it aside and move on. They do not have the decency to let people know. Don’t they realize that people are depending on this to help get themselves out of debt? I understand that they are performing a service that is above and beyond what they have to do but does this mean that they don’t have to care? It does not take that much to pick up a phone and call someone to tell them that form number WTF101 is needed to complete this task. Please remit to expedite you application. Instead they just sit on their hands and our application and wait until we call to ask about our progress. They then pull out our form and tell us it is incomplete. How are we to know this if they do not tell us?

Please, President Obama and his people put together a good plan to help people. Don’t screw it up by being a typical government bureaucracy.

Active Kids, Good Hearts

I was at one of our Key Clubs today. It was a great meeting, just the officers but a great meeting nonetheless. Both of our Key Clubs do good things for the community but one has really coalesced into a smooth running and productive club. At the district convention at the end of the year they brought home three awards. A nice way to end the year. This club is already working on their calendar for next year and wants to work with the other club. This would be great because maybe some of the good habits will be adopted by the other.

The club that is excelling has a little more in its favor. It is a smaller school with fewer activities to interfere with Key Club meetings. The other club comes from a huge school where the are many other clubs with mandatory meetings, so the Key Club loses out. All of the different Honor Societies have mandatory meetings.

They are both great clubs and it is an honor to work with them. It is good to see kids involved in the community and helping others. They make and send Holiday cards to the troops overseas. They hold many different fundraisers to support their causes and to donate to charity. Both clubs took a big trip to Boston to see the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute so they could see first hand where some of their money goes to, and see some of the young patients in their care. We hold bike rodeos for area children where we provide helmets at no charge and the Key Clubs always help with that.

Being at the smaller school was especially exciting seeing all that they have planned for next year. They already have most of their calendar done. They are in contact with the District Lt. Governor to see what district projects there are that they can participate in. And to start the new year they are going to have a bonding meeting at an apple orchard or the area ball field where they will stay for about two hours, do some work and then have a picnic.

I am going to bring some of their ideas to the larger club, with their blessing of course, to see if they can get some momentum going. The larger club has expressed an interest in joining forces but it has never happened, too much going on. I am looking forward to the coming year for our Key Clubs. Two remarkable groups of kids that are working for a common good. I am sure that they will work out kinks that multiple clubs cause. It is a new year and all new officers taking the reins and I know that nothing but good will come in the new school year. Nice Guys all.

Food, Food and more Food

There are so many ways that we have to be Nice Guys. We can be nice to each other, to the planet and to the other species that coexist with us. I do my best to practice all of these. As a family we compost, we have three composters going all of the time. We have five feral cats that we feed and try to take care of as well donating to the animal shelter. We volunteer around the community to help others. That is why it really frosts me when I find out that as a country we throw out 3000 pounds of food every minute of the day. Not rotten disgusting food but food that could well be saved and served.

This comes from ignorance and the fear of being sued. Can you imagine that the fear of being sued keeps us from helping people that need food? The amount of food that we throw out is staggering and there is no need of it. In 1996 President Clinton passed the Good Samaritan Act that "protects donors from civil and criminal liability should the product donated be in good faith later cause harm to the needy recipient." There is more to it than just that but this major part of his bill should be enough to make businesses stop and think before they toss.

Huge amounts of produce is thrown out because it has a spot or two. Sometimes it is thrown out just to make room for incoming stock. This could all be washed and checked and given to food pantries. Fruit that has bruises can be cooked, made into apple sauce or cobbler. Lettuce can be picked over, remove the outer leaves and you have plenty of good fibrous nutrition. When these products are thrown into our landfills it produces methane and ruins our atmosphere. Meats, fish and poultry have dates that are marked ahead so that they will not be sold close to the due date. This means that it is good for five or six days after the due date. Not only does this ruin the atmosphere as well but these are animals that have died for nothing. How can businesses in all good conscience allow this to happen. Some stores have a rack to sell due date items at a reduced cost, this is good but does not happen in many supermarkets. Citizens in some areas of the country have taken it upon themselves work with the store owners and rescue this food, bringing it to local food pantries to be given to the needy. This should be something that we should not even have to think about. Doing this is good in so many ways.

During big New England storms when we lose power, some of the stores empty all of the coolers and throw out everything. Why not open the doors and give it to people? Last year when we lost power I had to go to one of these stores. They were running on emergency lighting. They were offering coffee to people and the registers were running on a limited basis. It was nice that they did this for people but when I asked them what happened to the perishables, she looked kind of disgusted and told me that it was all thrown out. Very sad.

As a society were are smarter than this. We could help so many and our planet as well if we just became an intelligent Nice Guy society and fed our needy. Somehow, we must do this.

Put It Back

I don’t know about you but when I am through using something, I try to be a Nice Guy and put it away so someone else can find it. I’m just wired that way. It is so annoying to be on the job and co-workers finish with tools or products and just drop them down where they happen to be finished with them. Then they wonder why they can’t find something when they need it. Even more aggravating is the fact that now I can’t find it. When I can’t find something the usual thought is that we are running low and I need to order more of whatever somebody misplaced. Now we have an excess, or, I figure that it is just misplaced and I do not order it, that is when we will run out. Put things back, it is not that hard.

Same thing with in the home. When we can’t find something in the house it probably was not put away. Just like at work, finishinh the job is basically what the answer is. When the dishes are done, put them away, don’t stack them up for someone else to do it. Laundry can be just as aggravating. Take another ten steps to the closet and put things away.

As a landscaper I used to see it there too. People would try to do the job by themselves and leave 13 piles of leaves, or sticks and branches or piles of dead grass all over the lawn. It gets wet and kills the grass and makes more work for the lawn maintenance guy. Pile landscaping is what we used to call it.

Piles everywhere. Piles of towels at work or towels hanging on every conceivable object, piles of pots, pans and dishes waiting for someone to finish the job, and clusters of clean laundry hanging from doorknobs and drawer handles. It is too much. Be a Nice Guy and put things away, don’t leave them for someone else to care for when they have finished their work. And with regards to the pile landscaping, you are just killing your grass. We show up two months after your work of art and by then it is too late. Bag it, burn it or haul it away but don’t leave it there as a monument to the incomplete job. I am not perfect. I still have a panel in the garage that has not been put up since I started working on it five years ago. I keep looking at it but it is the last piece and does not want to be reasonable. I know I will have to improvise to get it up there but right now I am going to leave it rather than get frustrated and break it. That is different. Right?

Driving, a National Pastime

We should all try to be Nice Guys on the road. Wave someone through, let them go. Are we in that much of a hurry that three seconds will make a difference? I am a firm believer in letting people have the right of way and not tailgating. Tailgating! That has become such an epidemic I believe that someone put a sticker on my truck that says get closer. I can be driving at five miles over the limit and still some moron has to be right up my bumper, with their phone against their head. When I approach someone that has been waiting to enter traffic, and there are no cars close behind me, I will let them in. It just might stop a case of road rage. On the other hand, when we leave the street where we live, which empties onto a busy road, if you are not a little aggressive, you will sit there until all the traffic is gone. Not only is the line of traffic endless, but they are all tailgating so it is nothing but a solid line of steel across the street. Pay attention to what is going on. If there is a car trying to enter traffic in front of you, and there is a mile behind you, be a Nice Guy and let them go! It won’t slow you down and it might stop another case of road rage. Unless you want to be on the evening news.

And with regards to the news I do feel sorry for those in traffic for hours. I see those highways that have been turned into parking lots and I do not know how you do it. It would be hard to remain a Nice Guy in that situation. I have never commuted more that seven miles and that was too much. But if you have to, turn up the music, have a good breakfast and don’t look at the guy next to you. He might not be a Nice Guy.

Here in New England there is one other great action that can be taken by a Nice Guy. Clean the snow off of your roof. Have you ever been behind someone that has not when it has let go? Instant blindness. I believe that they might even be making it a law. There are so many things that we can do to improve our quality of driving. All we have to do is use our head. Before you cut off four lanes of traffic to get to a missed exit, just think that one of the people that you cut off could be texting, and do you want to miss up their important message? It must be very important or why would they be doing it while driving?

Okay, time for me to lighten up on the Angry but remember you can use the middle finger for changing the stations, too.

At The Top

If I were to own a business, I think that it would be important to do everything that I could to make improvements and keep it running at peak performance. Of course that’s me, a Nice Guy. I do not posses the greed gene. I do not think that the greed gene is necessary to run a successful business. When a business owner possesses the greed gene it seems feasible to them to spread themselves thin and put the original on the back burner. I have seen this trough personal observations. I have seen an owner go all out for the first year, then go onto other things while all but ignoring the previous money maker. He has gone on to build condos, buy other properties and expand the first business into cooperate locations that crank out substandard work. Meanwhile, the original location is left to its own devices and flounders on its own. It is not that the people in charge are incapable, they just feel like they are no longer important enough to warrant the attention of the owner who is out making great deals to enrich his empire.

Am I the only one that feels this way? It does not mean that everyone needs a babysitter to hold their hand through the daily rigors of work, it just would be nice to be appreciated and supported through it all. It might be just a business but there are people involved and it is nice for them to see the owner cares.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog, I owned a lawn maintenance company and always took care of my workers. Even to the point of denying myself pay for a short time. Very short! An owner should give a damn not just use the excuse that he is a businessman and not deal with the human element. If it wasn’t for the human element there would be no business.

It has been touted in these past months that by increasing the worth of the company is the only way to increase the production and help the employees. This makes sense but how often is it done. Some can trickle down to the workers but it is usually caught in the sieve that is held by the owners. Look in the rearview mirror at where you started, there are probably people there that would like to see your personal attention to what is going on in your own company.

If you enjoy this blog watch out for a new one coming soon. I am working on a special blog entitled This Brief Gift. Thank you!

Good Boss

My last boss was a Nice Guy. I enjoyed working for him. I did not even have to ask for bonuses, they just showed up in my paycheck. In fact, after receiving the first one I thought it was a mistake. As it happens when I scored a large account for the business he automatically gave me a ten percent cut of the sales. Pretty cool. He also gave me important benefits, which I lost when the business changed hands. He owned the business for three years and had planned on keeping it, and me for a while longer. Unfortunately, being a Nice Guy, he met the same fate as most of us Nice Guys do. One of the main parts of the business was a large warehouse that not only stored merchandise for sales but manufactured custom parts for other businesses. He sold parts all over the east coast. I worked at the warehouse off and on to make more cash and to give him a hand. Working on the welding robots was cool. It paid well and was something different to do. I enjoyed it.

Some of the people that worked there were family. I met some of them and they seemed like decent enough people. Some were in the warehouse but most were in the office and in charge of running things. They were quite and seemed to have a great handle on running things for my boss, who was busy at other locations. He entrusted his uncles to take care of his business. This was in the end his undoing. It seems that two of his uncles were ordering supplies and selling them on their own and keeping the profits. I guess when you control the books and the inventory you can get away with this, for a while. There were many customers going in and out of the warehouse so any activity was just taken for granted. I do not know how long this went on but after a while there were items that should have been in the warehouse but were not. This came to my bosses attention but it was too late. The damage had been done and he lost over a million dollars. He ended up having to sell the warehouse and some of his locations, including the one that I worked at. Many other Nice Guys that I knew in the warehouse also lost their job.

The last that I heard he was still engaged in a huge legal battle. Making the matters worse the items that were stolen, or sold without compensation, were transported over state lines. I guess this brings in a whole list of different charges, which could go on forever. I miss the former owner. He was not only a Nice Guy but a great guy. I hope things work out for him. I do occasionally contact him to say “hi.” Maybe some day I can work for him again. Nice Guys should stick together.