Observations on life

[lexon]

Some observations on life:

In San Antonio, the best parking spot is not the closest, it is the one with the most shade. For those who live in south central Texas you know what I mean.

Yes, I have been there twice. Oldest daughter lives in Copperas Cove, Tx. I live in Western Mass.
Enjoyed touring Ft Hood. US Navy Vet.
Cheers.

L

[MurphCID]

When your daughter starts the conversation with: "Daddy, I Love you!", usually ends with: "Do you have any money?"

[MurphCID]

Whenever you do a good to great job, the higher ups start to take it for granted that you will always be able to pull off miracles.

[BenTrabetere]

Whenever you do a good to great job, the higher ups start to take it for granted that you will always be able to pull off miracles.

If you are lucky that is as far as it goes. It is my experience it is just the top of a long slide....

Eventually you will not qualify for the same bonus/raise as lesser co-workers because you only "met expectations." That the boss's expectations for you are higher is irrelevant.

[mediclaser]

Whenever you do a good to great job, the higher ups start to take it for granted that you will always be able to pull off miracles.

"Accomplishing the impossible only makes the boss add it to your job description"

[DAMIEN1307]

Amen to that one...been there done that...DAMIEN

[Portreve]

Whenever you do a good to great job, the higher ups start to take it for granted that you will always be able to pull off miracles.

I've experienced this many times myself.

Eventually you will not qualify for the same bonus/raise as lesser co-workers because you only "met expectations." That the boss's expectations for you are higher is irrelevant.

I've watched this very thing happen in nearly every job I've ever had.

"Accomplishing the impossible only makes the boss add it to your job description"

So true.

We really need to rethink wage labor in the U.S. because the situation is frequently out of hand. Labor unions have been villified for so long in this country that much of the population (maybe half? maybe more?) takes it as almost an article of faith that "unions are bad".

[MurphCID]

Whenever you do a good to great job, the higher ups start to take it for granted that you will always be able to pull off miracles.

I've experienced this many times myself.

Eventually you will not qualify for the same bonus/raise as lesser co-workers because you only "met expectations." That the boss's expectations for you are higher is irrelevant.

I've watched this very thing happen in nearly every job I've ever had.

"Accomplishing the impossible only makes the boss add it to your job description"

So true.

We really need to rethink wage labor in the U.S. because the situation is frequently out of hand. Labor unions have been villified for so long in this country that much of the population (maybe half? maybe more?) takes it as almost an article of faith that "unions are bad".

I can both agree and disagree. I think Labor Unions have strayed from their path to becoming cash cows for certain groups. I would love to see Unions set up a system where guys can go to what I think as Vocational Colleges to learn welding, plumbing, construction planning, etc, and the Unions offer to get them certified from Apprentice to Journeyman level, complete with certificate showing that they are officially Journeymen. I'd love to see that, so that guys like my nephew who has no interest in college, but who is already a very good welder, could get training on all sorts of welding, and a Journeyman ticket as well.

[Derek_S]

If you ever see me standing on line at the supermarket, do yourself a favor and get on another line. I always seem to choose the line where someone doesn't have enough money and has to begin putting things back, or forget the PIN number on their bank debit card, or discover they have a zero balance on their EBT card,or argue with the clerk for 15 minutes as to the reason why a 25 cent discount coupon for toothpaste wasn't accepted by the scanner.

[BenTrabetere]

Do not be a diagonal walker.

The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line; however, in a parking lot you should always walk in right angles. It is safer, and it is the quickest way for you to get out of my way, Speed Bump.

[Az4x4]

I have lived in Houston and LA. I have driven in Chicago, but the absolute nightmare commute--without a doubt was here:

During the middle 70's I lived in Phoenix and the Salt River had not had a trickle of water in decades, and even most Salt River highway and street crossings were just built across the bottom of the dried up riverbed.
The rains turned loose up north and all riverbed crossings closed almost immediately leaving but a handful of bridges in the entire area. The historic flood quickly undermined the newly built bridges, leaving but ONE bridge for the entire city--and that bridge was the oldest of the bunch.

The Tempe bridge was left to handle the entire traffic for the city of Phoenix. Traffic was a snarled mess, a 15 minute commute became three hours.
It gets even worse---the I-10 bridge over Salt River was eventually closed due to undermining concerns.

This meant all I-10 corridor east and westbound traffic was detoured through already jammed city streets to cross the only available crossing, the Tempe Bridge, 18 wheelers and all.
If you look at a map of the Phoenix area you can see how the Salt River divides it, and the location of that Tempe Bridge--imagine the traffic jams..

Just saw this and have to agree. I was born in Phoenix WAY back in the day. Spent my teen age years growing up there in the 50s. When the afore mentioned massive flood rolled down the normally dry Salt River bed taking out most every bridge across the Valley from east to west and creating problems it took weeks to untangle, I was a police officer working with the City of Tempe. Some of the stupid stuff we had to contend with had to do with frustrated motorists trying to find a way across the flooded Salt River that avoided using the Tempe bridge. Of course by that time there were no other safe ways to cross the river. It was up to a half mile wide and better in spots, and much too deep and swift running to cross in any vehicle, much less a passenger car or pickup truck.

Tempe straddles the Salt River, the north part of the city lying north of the river and the south part stretching off to the south. One night on duty I worked the north part of the city. Early A.M. I rolled down to the river on McClintock drive to see how things were with our barricades keeping people from driving into the water at that river crossing.

Couple of cars parked with passengers watching the river, better than a half mile wide at that point, roll by. After I stopped they turned around and left, not wanting to be there any longer. On the far side of the river, where McClintock drive disappeared north bound into that rolling torrent flowing westbound through the city, I saw the headlights of a vehicle approach the barricades and warning signs then drive past them to the water's edge. Figured the driver would see the danger, realize it was impossible to cross, and turn back - but no such luck.

After a brief pause the car surged forward heading into the raging flood waters. Hoping the vehicle would flood out and quit running before it was in too deep, I called dispatch informing them that a driver was heading into the river northbound at the McClintock crossing in case an officer was close enough to turn them back. No such luck. The nearest officer on the south side of the river was miles away, and besides the vehicle was already in too deep,

Watching it through my binoculars I saw the river begin to sweep it sideways. It went off the edge of the pavement and its headlights started doing a slow roll as the car tumbled sideways down the river before disappearing into the depths of the flood.

All I could do was inform dispatch that a vehicle with people in it had been swept away in the flood - while wondering what would cause someone to do something so incredibly stupid. My guess, given the early morning hour, was the driver and any passengers in that car were drunk, and in their impaired state unable to process the fact that their tiny car was absolutely no match for the massive force of the flood waters flowing down the Salt River, rendering impassible any crossing other than the main Tempe bridge.

Never heard a thing after that as to what might have happened with that car and the people in it. It was days later when the flood finally abated, and they were not the only people and vehicle that discovered they were out of their depth trying to cross that flooded river without using the Tempe bridge.

[all41]

Hi and foremost I would like to thank you for your service as a law enforcement officer.
Yes I remember those days well and your mention of McLintock Drive restirred some memories.
Wow--it's amazing that we both remember those days. Since I lived in east Tempe and worked for
Motorola Gov't Electronics division I had to commute every day. What was normally a twenty minute ordeal became 4 hours. You know--you were there. People were renting motor homes to avoid the commute.
So after work there was usually a HUGE tailgate party at Motorola everyday and we would be there till
7 or 8 oclock to avoid the traffic. I used to drive thru the Maricopa reservation from Scottsdale.
Hey--please PM me--we can roll over those times. Glad that you remember them.

[MurphCID]

When Apple releases their newest "iWhatever" the media and iDrones go nuts. The new Mac Pro which has an 8 core Xeon, 32gb of ram, an AMD RX 580X, and 256gb of storage will fly off the shelves at a mere $5,999.99. For that amount of money, I can get a monster of a system using products on the shelf now, with a vast amount of higher performance and single, dual or even triple booting operating systems. The fully loaded one is expected to cost $35,000+!!!!!!! I can get my wife a new Toyota Camry. full loaded which will arguably last far longer for that amount of money. Can it be said that the specs and pricing is a bit ridiculous?

[BenTrabetere]

When Apple releases their newest "iWhatever" the media and iDrones go nuts.

I know one iNut who has already decided to replace his 'Trashcan' Mac with the new 'Cheese Grater' Mac. His 'Trashcan' is too slow. He uses it for social media, email, browsing the interwebs, and syncing other iThings. And it is too slow.

I have told him repeatedly the reason his computer is slow is because the wireless network for his entire household is run from single, outdated and under-powered router. A new router and a few extenders, and problem solved.

What irks me the most is he always does the Apple Trade In when he replaces an iThing. He once did a double-Trade In - replacing his Mac Pro and his oldest daughter's iMac at the same time. When I told him he should have given his old Mac Pro to his 11-year old daughter he told me, "She really wanted a new iMac."

Can it be said that the specs and pricing is a bit ridiculous?

Yep. I think it is evil, reprehensible, and ethically bankrupt; on the other hand, sometimes it is a moral obligation to take money from people who refuse to consider their purchases. That is what drives the Cupertino Stupidity Tax....

[MurphCID]

While I understand it is not a machine for the masses, even pros will have a hard time eating the cost of a fully spec'ed out machine when they can spend 1/5th of that and get so much more computing power. Like a 32 core Threadripper or 28 core Intel. A guy I work with is already trying to figure out how to buy one, and what he can do to upgrade it.

[MurphCID]

No matter what you do, your daughters will tell you: "Daddy, I don't see why I have to pay for my new tires, I like spending your money, so I can save mine for a new.....".

[lsemmens]

No matter what you do, your daughters will tell you: "Daddy, I don't see why I have to pay for my new tires, I like spending your money, so I can save mine for a new.....".

You've got the wrong kids!

My daughter took two weeks off work and flew down to babysit SWMBO whilst I was away at my eldest son's wedding in China. (SWMBO is too ill for the trip). My second son travelled with me, and whilst away I was not allowed to spend much of my own money. I went with $90 and came home with some change! Youngest son also helped daughter with the baby sitting.

Bragging! Hell Yeah! I am proud to say that my kids have grown up to be my friends, and their friends are also our friends. As a result we also have other "adopted" (not literally) offspring.

[Moem]

Yeah, as a daughter, I've never told either of my parents any such thing.

[MurphCID]

So lucky. So lucky.

[MurphCID]

Yeah, as a daughter, I've never told either of my parents any such thing.

Yes, but your mother probably never spoiled you too much either. My wife loves to take the kids shopping. I would almost rather chew my leg off than go shopping with them.