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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Starting a new Christmas tradition..this on my blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGwludVZ4jo

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The World At large

I rarely watch tv. There are a few shows I tivo but thats about it. I also don't read papers like I used to. I get my news from conversations at work and online at MSNBC on my breaks or between placing orders. I knew my 403 took a hit, prob a big one but did not actually check it, there was nothing I could do about it.
I had an unexpected day off so I spent it catching up and discovered something odd.
I live in a small town in a sparsely settled state. Its predominately Catholic by religion and french by race and culture. Democratic and religious, odd bedfellows them two. However it is one of the few states that has statewide gay rights, low teenage pregnancy rates and is about average for obesity and smoking. Highest rate of people that own homes versus rent. We have a large KKK population and low hate crine rates. The Christian Coalition has a strong foothold here, but people here are fiercely opinionated and most insist on your/their right to live and let live. I found out that both places I work have small "minority work forces" yet compared to the local population they are have more that their "quota". We have more laws protecting seniors than most states, yet most seniors live with their families than in facilities. A full one third of people here go to bingo/beano but hate the idea of a casino opening here, go figure. The northern part of my state want to separate and form their own state..not sure how that will work our,,I am kinda in the middle.
We are an incedible poor state financially....a recent Monster.com comparison for my job was 3 to 4 dollars less an hour for a sous-chef position in most of the rest of the country. Since we have not had a lot of money I am not sure how the recession is going to hit us. I am sure liking being able to buy gas for 1.69 and fuel oil for 2.20 though. As far as I can tell my job is somewhat insulated from change but that can be disrupted over night,
What I am getting to is, life around here is pretty much business as usual. I have talked to people in NYC and Denver...both seem to be taking big hits financially, but because we never had those kinds of jobs here. All seems to be ok so far.
WELCOME TO VACATIONLAND AND THE HOME OF LOBSTERS
DGC

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ole Yellow Eyes

tis the season

Sorry folks, things have been very hectic here and I have been neglecting this blog. My only and VERY early NEW YEARS RESOLUTION is to take better care of myself and to carve time out for myself both physically, mentally and emotionally. I will be of no help to anyone else if I am a mess, so, it starts tonight. Mick, Rick, Toto, Angela...thanks for the support and staying in contact even when I did not.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Throwing a fit

For those of you who are not familiar with that expression, its pretty much having a tantrum. For the last few months I have been fighting with my pc monitor, so, figured it was time to buy a new one. I decided, after much online research to go with an Acer 22 inch flat panel. 3 year parts and labor warranty included, 2500 to 1ratio gives a great pic for both email/pics and watching movies. Now in this area the best place to but it was a big box store. It was going to be about 279 dollars and since I already had 210 in gift cards and birthday cash it was actually going to cost me very little. I get tio the store and there are only 4 cars in the parking lot figured it would be a quick transaction whick was good cause I wanted to see the new Hulk movie in about 40 minutes time. In the store I see there are 4 or 5 people visible but no employees around..bright red shirts are the uniform so very visible. I go to the pc department and find they now have all the monitors locked up. Again no red shirts visible so I go to the service desk and no one there. Okay, I have been known to lose my temper about stupid shit before, I will admit that, but cmon..Friday night..7 pm, where the hell are the people that work here? Digging out my handy little cell phone I call the store and ask the woman where all the employees are she says, "well I suppose they are busy doing thier jobs" to which I reply, "Well if you were standing in front of the service desk and trying to find one you certainly would not think that". Well, this woman pops out from behind a wall followed by 6 people in red shirts. I ask for someone to get a key to unlock a case because I know what I want..okay about 10 minutes later no one shows up so I go back to the service desk and ask why not. "We cant find a key to unlock the case so you will have to come back tomorrow". Now I am getting a little hot under the collar so I suggest she call a manager and get him down here witha key or I wanta name of all the employees in the store because I am going to email the parent company/district manager and tell them whats going on. She says hold on and goes back behind her wall. "I just called a manager who is on duty but out having supper at Red Robin and he will be here in about 20 minutes", nope not good enough. I start to raise my voice about store quality and customer service and pull out my camera phone and tell her I just recorded the conversation and tell her if no one is there in 5 minutes I am going to download the clip and send it to her DM. Back behind her little wall and low and behold this mystery manager appears and has a key.
This little saga is not over yet. I get my monitor and go back to this waoman to pay for it, and now it rings up at 199 bucks..well thats not right my red shirt says so she calls the manager back out from behind that wall. He goes and gets another one and it rings up at the 279 price.
He says that the first one must be mispriced from an old sale and sets the first one behind the counter. Now my shirt collar is getting realll tight and my face is getting red. "Look you make me wait here for an hour, have your epmloyee lie to me about you location and now your not giving me an item that your scanner is reading at a sale price? If youy don't want this crap to go to your boss perhaps you had better rethink your position".
WEll, to end this on a happy note, I got the monitor for 199 bucks, a voucher for 25 bucks my next purchase and he threw in a 20 dollar gift card to "cover your gas money and time".
Those of you that know mw know that I am usually pretty laid back and not one to make scenes but hey..I missed the first showing of the movie and I hate being lied to. Tell me, the boss is out getting laid or smoking a joint in the back lot or off playing a video game or you just don't have clue where he actually is and you will page him but just be honest.
Anyways, the monitor works great, I used my perks to but the Indiana Jones trilogy for my collection and The Incredible Hulk was worth waiting for the second show. I guess that qualifies as a rant and a ramble.
Later
Dale

Monday, May 12, 2008

Its been a long time

Sorry I have not kept this up but its been kinda hectic around here. Those of you that know me, know whats going on, those of you that don't, well, know this, above anything else I respect peoples privacy and expect mine to ne regarded the same.
Mick and Rick..thanks for the email support..its been invaluable.
Know for the new story part of this. When I was younger I went through a kinda wild stage..alochol and drugs fuelled a lot of it. A lot more was loneliness. I spent a lot of time in NYC with a few friends doing what would be called now a circuit. I went to all the right parties on Fire island and the Hamptons and in the City..flew to San Francisco every few weeks. It was a life that I fell into, that I took for granted. I mean hey, does not every high school kid skip school and get the train to Manhattan and cruise The Mine Shaft, The Spike, The Anvil, and hey lets not forget the piers after the bars closed at around 6 am after a couple cups of coffee at The Silver Dollar of Tiffanies. That was in high school mind you. After a 7year break I moved to Chelsea, back then it was SoHo. I did my share of screwing around and thankfully I only got the crabs a couple times and the clap once. Now most, actually all of my friends from those days are gone..some from natural causes, one from a gun shot from a jealous boyfriend but saddly most from Aids. Now, although, I was certainly wild sexually, a lot more, probably 80 percent of my time was spent dancing. 12 West was my palace of choice but the Cockring certainly had my share of sweat on that dancefloor. The Tea Dance at the Boatslip was the same and the Monster on Fire Island had my dna dripped onto that floor many a night or afternoon as I got lost in the music. I almost always danced alone with my eyes closed..don't know why just did.
Thanks to YouTube I have found some of the music I lost then. The only one I posted this time out was an absolute favorite from that part of my life. It haunted me then and it still does now. I hope you get 1/10 of the pleasure from this song as I do.
As Mick would say.....I'm out.
DGC

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

PEOPLE >>>>>YOU GOTTA LOVE EM

I have been listening to 2 women I work with, and I am not picking on women, this just happenens to be the situation. They were formerly married to 2 brothers, got divorced and then remarried the other brother, which will lead to a really funky son/nephew and daughter/niece thing but that is not my point. They have been arguing for the past 3 years about their engagement and wedding rings..which one is bigger and better quality. It has gotten so bitter they have stopped talking to each other right before Thanksgiving, which made the kitchen crew very happy I might add. Both of them have teenage children working in the building,not in my kitchen, I put that idea right out the door with the rest of the trash. The building is slowly taking sides which is going to leave the adminstration in a pickle soon.
Now my point, why do people that should be taking care of each other get caught up in things like this? I am sure everyone reading this knows of a similar situation. I have had this saying/quote on my office wall for years, not sure where it came from or who said it. Both these ladies follow this blog on an occasional basis and it might help them, as well as give everyone a reason to think about it.

RESPECT THE ELDERLY
TEACH THE YOUNG
CO-OPERATE WITH THE PACK
WORK WHEN YOU MUST
PLAY WHEN YOU CAN
REST IN BETWEEN


THIS HAS A SAYING ON THE BOTTOM CALLING IT THE CODE OF THE WOLF

Not sure if this was rant, rave or a ramble but its on the screen so its all good.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

January Thaw





It came, it went and winter is back with a major attitude.