Leelanau Whippersnapper

If there is one thing that I can tell you first hand it’s that in retail when it comes to employees, you tend to get what you pay for.  Generally speaking, if you have made it into management (either through schooling, or through several years of climbing the ladder and kissing ass), you are typically paid pretty well for the job that you perform.  98% of my co-workers either have degrees, or they have 2-4 years of a collage education, all are high school graduates.

In some areas of the country, well I won’t even continue.  Just read the article.

I’d rather make myself rich working for myself but for now at least I’m content making a living working for someone else.  It happens to be a big box, but in all, I am currently making more money than I would be had I actually finished school and received that education degree.  I have a LOT less stress and do a LOT less work too (that is of course a matter of opinion to some).  I’m happy having made a decision to work for a company that has provided me with advancement opportunities that do not depend on education but rather on performance.  Many people won’t ever be as lucky as me and sadly, because of the job market that exists, many people are having to lower their expectations of what they can accomplish at least in the short term.  It saddens me that Walmart is trying to capitalize on a huge problem however if those without work are able to put their ego aside and accept a job with an income (any income), Walmart (and many other Big Box stores) can offer a steady income and the potential for growth.  Never in my life did I ever think I would be a person to promote a career in sales, especially retail sales, but just as an example, when I moved up to TC  with Jirar 5 years ago, I had quit my job, I had no savings, and no prospect of a job.   Jirar had a job but it was no way, no how, going to support both of us for any length of time.  My economy sucked in much the same way everyone else’s did with a poor job market and slim opportunities.  It’s a matter of motivation and perspective.  Within a month of moving up here I had a part time job for minimum wage, within another 3 weeks I found a second job.  Within 2 months I was part time at Menards, within 6 months I was full time.  Within 1 year I was an assistant manager, within 1 1/2 years I was the department manager.  I went from an income of less than $100 a week  to a $45K+ a year carer because I was willing to put my ego aside and take a job I didn’t think I would like because I needed an income, ANY income.  I’d do it again too if I had to, and yes, I would work at McDonald’s flipping burgers if that was the difference between having a job and sitting around doing nothing but feeling sorry for myself all day.  Yes, the job market is bad right now but it would not be so bad if people would give up the “i’ll never do that” attitude and actually took a step to better themselves.  ANY income is better than none at all.

On a sad related note, we currently have a “begger’ loitering in our parking lot.  He sits out by the curb all day, every day with a sign asking for money to help pay for a surgery for his daughter.  A sad story indeed but worse, he’s been asked why he’s not yet come into the store and asked for a job application (he’s been out there nearly 2 months now).  We are in fact hiring people.  He needs the money and clearly he can commit himself to something since he’s been sitting on a bucket with a sign now for 2 months.  His response?  He won’t work retail because he’s got an education (spoken with a snotty condescending tone of voice).  Clearly that education is doing him a world of good sitting out there on the corner, in the snow, in the cold.  His problem?  He has too much of an ego, he’s too good to work for a company that takes in billions of dollars a year in profits and is the #1 Home Improvement center choice by consumers in the Midwest.  He won’t “lower” himself by doing work he think’s is beneath him.  Sadly, he’d be making more money with a job than he’ll ever get begging in our parking lot.  A good entrepreneur knows 1 thing.  Location, Location, Location.  Sorry buddy, our parking lot is never going to do it do you.  He ought to know better than to beg from the locals.  It’s the fudgies who have the money up here and they are all vacationing in sunny warm places right now.

So now, after that rather depressing post, I’ve got the weekend off from work and I think I may take a drive up to Northport this weekend with the dog and take some pictures.  I’ll have to see how the weather is.  Hope you are all doing well, sorry I’ve not written much.  I’ve been just too busy and too tired and it’s only going to get more crazy as we head towards spring.

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Finally, I’ve had a reasonably relaxing weekend.  Of course tomorrow I head back in to hell for what will likely turn into a 6 day work week.  We begin a major re-set in my department tomorrow morning, there is a ton of work to be done and only 1 week to do it.  I’m going to have to be a cheerleader most of the week and that is indeed exhausting work.

Today I packed up the dog and headed out to the lake.  The sun has been out for the past few days, something exceedingly rare this time of year and I figured I would take advantage of it today by bringing my camera along.  I ended up going down to a beach I had not been to in quite some time.  It was further south than I usually go but still on Good Harbor Bay, just down the road further.  It was quite nice.  There were a few people out today but because of the Super Bowl and my complete lack of interest in sports, it was pretty quiet overall.  Gavin was able to run around off the leash for a while and I spent some time trying to capture a few good pictures.  I’ve uploaded a new gallery at leelanauphotography.com, just click the picture below to check it out.

The folks are off to Iowa for about 6 weeks tomorrow morning.  They’ve decided to spend some time away from here this winter since it’s easy to get really stir crazy this time of year.  We still have a good 3 months of shitty weather before spring starts to hit, I really hate this time of year up here.  Luckily, my job keeps me quite busy so it’s hard for me to care much.  Mom and Dad will be staying with Sarah, Brian and Christopher and I’ll be interested to hear how that all works out.  I love my folks to death but given the choice, I would not choose to have them live with me for any extended amount of time.  I’m pretty sure my folks would say the same about me. Our family dynamics are a bit much to tolerate day in and day out.  And, at my age, and their age, that’s the way it should be.  Christopher will be spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa for 6 weeks, and, that’s the way THAT should be too!  He’s a lucky kid, even if the only words he can say are “doggie” and “LOOK”.  We’ll see if Grandpa can teach him a few words during his stay.

I have made a new purchase since my last entry in this blog.  Last week, I broke down and bought a Wii so that I too could join the ranks of 30 something’s who are sick of being out of shape but who don’t want to join a gym.  I have always enjoyed video games even though I suck at them and I like the concept of being more involved in them rather than just sitting on a couch with a controller.  The Wii promises to at least get me off my ass for a little bit each day.  Eventually I’ll buy the Wii balance board and Wii Fit Plus game so that I can actually start getting in shape.  Sadly, they are sold out nearly all over the country and it’s going to be several weeks before they get back in stock.  Oh well, I’ll be busy enough at work.

Bonus time at work is fast approaching.  Profit Sharing checks are handed out Feb. 16th and my Managers bonus is due in mid March.  Crazy thing about my job is that I make more in the first 3 months of the year than I do the next 8 months of regular work just because of bonuses.  It’s nice to get big fat checks but it’s also dangerous because it’s easy to just go out and spend it.  If I had this job at any other time in my life, I’d be broke all the time but fortunately I’ve learned how to manage my money in much healthier ways so I’ll be able to save what is necessary but I’ll also be able to go out and get a few toys to play with.  This year I am buying a keyboard and I’ll write more about that when the time comes.  So for now, enjoy the new gallery.

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Every year the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) publishes an index of the best and worst companies to work for in the United States based on their level of of equity towards the GLBT population.  Factors included in the ranking include whether or not the company has any anti-discrimination policies protecting GLBT employees, whether or not said companies offer health benefits to partners of GLBT employees, Corporate structure and political activism by said companies (what they support politically through monetary donations etc.) and the overall perception of GLBT employees of their employers.  There are many other items that go into the rank, you can find them all here.  I thought you might be interested in seeing how my company ranks as well as a visual of the worst employers in the country for GLBT people.

Keep in mind the rank is on a scale of 1 -100.  1 being the worst, 100 being the best.

In 2008 (the most recent year published) Menards Ranked 43 – From my perspective this is pretty accurate.  Menards is a pretty quiet company when it comes to politics.  Their primary objective is to make money, end of discussion.  That said, they do have anti-discrimination policies and anti-harassment policies that well exceed other companies I’ve worked for in my lifetime.  It is nearly impossible to have a successful retail business and not be somewhat tolerant and supportive of diversity.  Menards does not go out of it’s way but they do not actively contribute to a hostile climate for it’s GLBT employees.

Below is a list of the bottom of the barrel.  You’ll notice that Meijer (a company that I worked for several years ago and the company that Jirar worked for) received only a score of 20.  2 of the worst 10 companies in the country are Michigan based.  Michigan isn’t all bad, in the top 20 where companies such as the big automakers (GM, Ford), and Dow Chemical ranked with in impressive 100 score.  You can say what you like about HRC (they are a politically movtied and very active group) however their rankings do have significant importance, particularly to those companies that value the contributions of their GLBT employees.  Most of the Fortune 500 companies in this country far exceed private companies when it comes to fairness, all Fortune 500 companies exceed our Federal government when it comes to fairness and equality.

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I have a problem. I like to think that most of the time I have the mindset of someone in their mid to late 20’s. You know what I’m talking about….I’m an invincible jackass, I can do anything sort of thing. Trouble is, when you are in your mid 30’s your body has unique ways of sharing with you the fact that you are most defiantly not younger than you really are. I had one of those days today.

Start with the fact that I got about 4 hours of sleep last night for no apparent reason, about 7:30 this morning, while putting up a new price sign at work, I managed to put all my weight back down on one foot and my body said FUCK YOU and fell out from under me! One big problem that I have at work is that I am on my feet all day long (10-12 hours at a time) and on hard concrete floors. Over the past week or so I’ve been having some mild discomfort in my lower legs which is something that is not terribly unusual for me considering what I do and that I tend to work about 50 hours a week. Well, today my leg just decided to give up on me and I pulled the hell out of my lower calf muscle. The timing could not have been worse.

Right about that time and after limping around the store trying to get my job done whilst being the laughing stock of my peers for being gimpy, it was announced that the head office was on the way to the store and we were going to get a surprise inventory audit. My day just got a LOT longer. Because I’m the manager, I have to be there, but because of my leg, I’m in a LOT of pain. Well, be a man dumbass….so I was (like a dumbass) and stuck it out for the next 4 hours waiting for my turn to be audited. Luckily I passed and the bonus I get from this audit will pay for the bullshit that happened next in my day.

As soon as my audit was over, I left work. I was given multiple recommendations for what to do about my leg (heat it, ice it, use Epsom salts…), I decided that a doctor might be better equipped to diagnose the problem and recommend appropriate treatment. So, it was off to Urgent Care. After waiting only 45 minutes (must have been a record for an Urgent Care facility), I was able to see a doctor. She was friendly, took my history, felt me up (my leg that is) and recommended that I go get an ultra-sound to make sure it was not a blood clot. Because this injury did not happen all at once in one fell swoop but sort of crept up and then exploded, she was worried that perhaps there was a bigger issue at play here. So off I went then over to the hospital to see the Radiologists. I’m not a big fan of radiologists, not because they are not nice people but because my experience with them in the past has resulted in having to drink nasty fluids. Not so much for an ultra-sound. I was in and out in 20 minutes and (because of my obvious limp and pain) I got to ride around the hospital in wheelchair so I didn’t have to walk. Well, no blood clots. My veins are just fine. I just have a really badly pulled muscle. So after that it was back to Urgent Care and the doctor went over some exercises that I could do. She offered me drugs, I declined and informed her that I could get by on Ibuprofen (also acceptable in her book). I’ve got this thing about taking pain drugs. Certainly there are times when they are needed but there are many undesirable things that can come out of taking them, one of them being dependence and I really don’t want to even go there.  I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and the less medication I have to take the better. So all this consumed about 4 hours of my afternoon.

I was going to write a bit about the Prop 8 trial but at this point I’m tired, still in a bit of pain, and really just looking forward to going to bed and sleeping. I don’t have to do anything tomorrow and I really don’t think I’m going to.

SO, those of you reading this who like to think you are younger than you actually are, DON’T BELIEVE WHAT YOUR HEAD TELLS YOU. Your body is quite a bit meaner than your head and will have no problems seeking revenge on your ass.

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Well, I made it through the crazy Black Friday madness at work and things are settling down now for the Christmas Holiday.  I spent my day off today out at the lake decorating the parents Christmas Tree and enjoying some meatloaf.  Really Mom, you ought to make that more often.  It was good and it doesn’t appear to have taken any more effort than a frozen Lasagna.  I’m preparing now to head off for the annual trip to Eau Clair Wisconsin for my company’s yearly training seminars.  I’ve always got mixed feelings about these things.  On the one hand, I am thankful that for a huge company they still take the time to make sure their managers know about the products they are selling.  On the other hand, it’s all crammed into a 2 day period consisting of 16 hour days each day.  By the end of it I am whipped and as the years go on, I don’t come out knowing anything that new or exciting.  Oh well, it’s 2 days away from the rednecks up here I guess.

Lots of interesting things going on in politics although I don’t have the energy to report on much of it.  Eventually I’ll get around to writing another prophetic post blasting the religious right and the drag your heals left.  It’s exhausting.  I’ll leave you with a couple pictures below.  Hopefully I’ll find more time to write soon.

Santa Times 2

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Boy this blog has just not been a priority lately for me and I’m feeling a little guilty about it.  My creative enthusiasm has been rather blocked lately.  Work has been crazy this past month or so and it’s been consuming most of my free time.  I’ve been struggling daily with a sick bunch of employees (from sniffles to flu) and I’m apparently the only one who doesn’t get sick.  They keep telling me my time will come but I just don’t have time to get sick.  In the course of my life, I have called in to work for being sick only once that I can remember and that was because I was in fact too sick to even get out of bed.  My immune system must be fairly strong…or I simply understand better that if I don’t show up to work, I don’t get paid.  I suspect that latter is my motivation for staying healthy.

I finally have a day off today, the sun is actually out (although not for long) and I’m trying hard to come up with a plan for the day.  My house is a mess, Gavin the wonder dog is drooling to get outside and play, but my little home is in desperate need of some TLC and a deep clean.  I don’t know if it’s the change in weather or not but I’ve got a fly problem at the moment.  Something hatched somewhere and I’ve had to kill off a whole swarm of these creatures.  I need to find out where they are coming from today because they are driving me NUTS!  So, I think today I might try and go for a hike and take some pictures of the fall colors (which I’ve largely missed this year due to my work schedule) and then spend the rest of the day cleaning.

Good news is on the horizon though for me in regards to my finances.  I’ve decided to go CABLE FREE and I’m in the process of getting myself set up to return my cable box and cancel my over priced subscription services to cable TV.  I have successfully hooked up a computer to my big screen TV and I am now able to watch all of the shows that I would normally watch on TV for free via multiple web sites that stream television shows for free.  One such site is Hulu.com and it is fast becoming a worthy alternative to paid TV service.  Granted, nothing there can be seen live (all the shows I watch are available one day later than the day they air on TV networks) but I’m OK with that since 99% of the time, I am not around to watch live TV anyhow.  The only aspect of going Cable Free that I am going to miss is the High-Def aspect.  Everything on the Internet is in good quality but it’s not truly a High-Definition experience.  That’s OK though, I’ll just save that for my movies where it actually matters.  The most exciting thing about doing this is that it will save me over $100 a month which is a tremendous savings considering that at best, the value I got out of my cable subscription was worth at best about $20.

I’ve been pretty impressed with myself in regards to my finances.  I’ve been able to find ways to cut costs this year by being creative and as a result, I’ve been able to spend my extra money on things that actually have meaning to me, like electronics and other fun toys.  I’ll be the first to admit that my expenses have not gone down at all but I have managed to re-prioritize my spending habits to better suit my lifestyle.  The next goal for me is to re-evaluate my credit reports and finally start to repair the damage I did to it years ago when I was young and stupid with my money.  Fortunately, I’ve had several years now of positive impact on my credit score, nearly every dumb thing I did in my early 20’s has dropped off my report, and I’ve been able to stay on track with debts and bills for several years now.  All of this is in an effort to eventually purchase a home at a good rate.  I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve not had a credit card now in several years and I have no intentions of trying to get one in the near future.  Credit cards are simply bad for me.  They work for some people but they don’t for me and I’m OK with that.  If I don’t have cash, I don’t spend money and right now, that is an appropriate rule for me.

Hopefully I’ll write a bit more in the coming days and weeks.  Just about a month now until Black Friday and things are going to be crazy at work leading up to that.  I have 2 more vacation days that I have to take before December 5 (or I lose them) and I’m thinking I might take a couple of day trips around the area to take pictures in places I’ve not been before.  We’ll see, most of that will depend on the weather which has not been very good lately.  Well, off now to motivate myself to take a hike.

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Just when you think you’ve seen it all, today I got my first glimpse of “Car Surfing”.  I was driving down the road about 55mph going home from work and approaching me in the other direction was a car load of kids, although as they passed these were not young kids, they well into their late teens or 20’s.  2 of them were fully outside of the car (also traveling at a high speed) hanging on to the car door screaming and yelling (my windows were down and they could be heard as they whizzed by me).  A couple cars later, the same thing!  2 more kids, a little younger this time, hanging out of the car clearly enjoying themselves but oblivious to their own safety (and everyone else’s). Now, I did a LOT of dumb ass things as a kid, hell, I did stupid things well into my 20’s that looking back now that would have clearly marked me as an idiot but I’m proud to say that “car surfing” was not one of them.  I’ve always taken the responsibility of driving (and riding) rather seriously.  No seat belt, no ride kind of thing.  I just can’t imagine what was going through their minds, oblivious to the fact that a passing semi truck alone could have easily sucked them right off the side of their car and on to a certain and rather nasty death.  Wow.

It’s been a BUSY week for me.  Work has been a zoo but not exactly in the same way it has been most of the summer.  By zoo I mean that someone literally left the gate open at the zoo and untamed wild beasts have been shopping at the store this week!  One customer brought my assistant to tears this week, yelling at her for a problem he created, and yelling because when he discovered it he could not deal with that revelation.  I had another customer holler at me for having to come back and get more driveway sealer because what he got was too good and too thick and not like what he bought before even though what he got before was purchased at some other store in some other part of the state.  I had several other people in this week complaining that we are out of stock on SEASONAL items (stains, sealers etc.) and that I should have anticipated a shitty summer for doing outside projects and that 75% of the state has waited until the absolute last minute to do anything around their homes.  FUCK YOU, buy shit IN SEASON, you snooze you lose.  On top of the general jerks, it’s been beautiful outside now for the past 10 days and I’ve been stuck inside working my ass off.  Oh well, at least I can pay my bills…with the Michigan jobless rate above 12%, I can at least say I’m lucky to have an income.

Not too much else going on lately.  I am planning a trip to the Upper Peninsula with the folks in early October which will hopefully result in some good photography opportunities.  Right now, I don’t live any further from Lake Superior than I do from Grand Rapids (for the most part) and I’m sad that I’ve not bothered to just do a day trip up there.  If you like being out in the middle of fucking nowhere, the UP is certainly the place to do it.  I’ve been a little lax this year taking pictures.  Plenty of family pictures were taken and tons more pictures of Gavin, but I’ve not spent very much time in the woods this year like I’ve done in the past.  Most of that has to do with the fact that I live much further from nature now than I have in the past.  There are places to hike here in town but there are also lots of people, I can’t let Gavin off his lead, and I just don’t like being able to hear car horns and screaming children when I’m out hiking in the woods!  Oh well, at least I’m not sitting on my ass in front of the TV.  Anyhow, toodle for now.  Time to make dinner.

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I’m in a slightly better mood from my previous post here.  For two reasons.  First, we had our third and final inventory audit at work today and I scored a 90% which not only gets me my bonus for having passed (I have to score at least an 80% or better to get the bonus) but it is the best we have done on an audit since they began doing them 2 years ago!  I went into this audit, having only found out about it yesterday, pretty scared and I spent most of the day yesterday at work counting, organizing, filling shelves, and generally being an ass to my employees who, after that show, might now finally get where I am coming from and what I expect from them.  As a general rule, I’m not a mean person, I don’t talk down to my employees, and I don’t really even tell them what to do because for most of them, they should just know what to do on a daily basis.  I have found however that when demands are placed on me to perform, I have every right as a manager to turn around and expect the same from them and they came through for me on this one.  I accomplished more in my department yesterday than I had been able to accomplish in the past 3 months.  So, that is why I am in a better mood part one.

Part two goes like this.  I work at a store that is remarkably similar to big box Walmart.  I see the same clientele that you expect to see in a rural big box.  The diversity at my store is tremendous compared to the other home improvement stores because (and only because) of our massive product mix.  We sell stuff for everyone, not just nails and screws.  As I mentioned before, I read all kinds of blogs on the Internet.  Today I was sent a link to one that just cracked me up.  Not only is it funny because it pokes fun at some of the random people who shop at Walmart, it’s funny because they are the same people I see at my store EVERY day of the week.  So, I’d like you to visit this blog and look at the pictures.  THESE are the folks I am taking about when I go off on rants about idiot people, smelly people, funny people, drugged out people etc that I encounter during the course of my day.  When you work in retail, especially in big box retail with high volumes of traffic, you can see and experience the entire scope of humanity all within the course of about an hour.  This is par for the course in my life and it’s actually, despite my rants, one of the reasons I’ve grown to love retail and sales so much.  It cracks me up, makes me feel just a little bit better about myself and helps me to realize that we are all just a bunch of freaks trying to get through life…some of us doing a much better job than others.  Take a look.  The People Of Walmart.

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For most of my life I’ve always lived by the mantra that there are no stupid questions.  When someone has a question about something or questions a practice, definition, or some other aspect of life, I’ve always maintained that there truly must be a legitimate reason for asking those questions.  Then I started working in retail.  I’m not going to go into a long spiel here about some of the things I’ve been asked at work but I will say that I am sick and tired of being asked where the bathroom is and why we don’t have one in the back of the store.  I DON’T FUCKING KNOW DIP-SHIT, I didn’t build the store, I just work here.  Now, turn your lazy ass around and walk up to the front of the store and do what you should have taken care of before you left home.

Alright, that’s the most annoying question I get asked 500 times a day.  My rant tonight really has to do with the level of intelligence I see on a daily basis up here in the northwoods. Granted, I’m not highly educated but I do consider the 3rd grade lessons of speaking in complete sentences something that is important in every day life.  I do consider my adolescent years training of knowing how to read, understand, and communicate effectively through appropriate body language something that EVERY person should be able to do.

Alright, thats about all I want to say on that for tonight.  I don’t like to rant too much about work because I do like my job.  It’s just the people I can’t stand.

Most of you know I read a LOT of blogs on line that pretty much span the spectrum of intelligent political discussion to crude humour.  I ran across a quote that I thought was interesting on one of the more obscure blogs that I read.

“The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive…but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born.”
- Mark Twain

Someone said on NPR the other day that Religion today is more important in the lives of people than at any other point in recent history.  I always have a lot to say about religion, especially science and religion.  It’s nice to know that one of the greatest writers in our history also knew of the asshattery of organized religion.

So now it’s off to bed.  Off on Tuesday, hopefully the weather will get better up here.  This pic cracks me up.

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Once again, I have higher ambitions than my body will allow me.  I’ve not had the time or the energy lately to write in my blog here but the winds are changing.  It’s now mid-August and traffic at the store is starting to slow down a bit.  The past few weeks have been pretty crazy with the last big rush of tourists heading north for the end of their summer vacations, the camp grounds are full, the beaches are packed and the traffic is horrible.  This has been a different summer for me.  It’s not been a bad one, it just feels like we never really had a summer up here.  It’s been cold, wet,  and people’s attitudes reflect an attitude of having missed something this year.  Maybe it’s the economy or maybe it’s just the weather but people have been awfully moody this summer, myself included.

Jirar was up here for a couple days this week and despite our continuing friendship, it’s somewhat difficult to see him leave each time he comes to visit.  I’m reminded that I’ve not done much to improve my social life in any substantial way, sure I’ve got friends I can hang out with but it’s not the same as having a spouse there to push you in the right directions.  I have to remind myself that I don’t have to be in a hurry to find someone else, that I can indeed be perfectly content by myself for a while.  I’ve got plenty of good things going for me not the least of which is a hugely supportive family both immediate and extended who have my back when I need it.

I did find out this past week that I am not going to be in a position to buy my condo that I am renting.  I’d need to come up with about 40K as a down payment to make it possible and I just don’t see that happening.  On a brighter note, my landlord did agree to extend my lease for another 12 months but after that I will have to find another place to live next summer.  This condo has been a great place for me.  The size is great, the location is perfect, and the cost of living here is right within a good range.  There are really very few good places to rent up here.  The houses for rent in town are really nothing but trash, obviously rentals that have been worn down by negligent landlords who don’t give a shit about the property.  The apartment complexes are nice but most don’t allow pets and to buy a home up here I have to either cut back on the toys that I enjoy and that keep me entertained, or I have to settle for a property that would end up needing a lot of work.  I’m really just over the money pit stage.  I don’t have time for it.  I have a list of criteria that I require for housing and I’ve found that it’s hard to find things that fit up here in the northwoods, even though the things I want should be common….around here they just aren’t.

Anyhow, now it’s time for bed.  Tomorrow I work in the morning and then hopefully, as long as the store is slow, I can get out of there by noon and get out to the cottage with Gavin to spend some time on the lake.

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