Tag Archives: My Life

My Life and My Sons

Posted on by

Growing up I didn’t think that far ahead about my life. I was more into what was happening right there, right then. Or maybe I thought as far ahead as the weekend and what I was going to do. Sometimes we think farther ahead about our careers and where we want to be in five or ten years in regard to a position we may want to obtain or how much money we want to make. But beyond that I don’t think many of us think of many more details than that.

One of the things that I think alot about is wether I am close to my sons or not. Now the Adams men have always been pretty serious guys. My father was taken away from me when I was 11 years old. Their wasn’t a lot of hugging that I remember. He seemed to be a strong and confident man though. I wanted to be that for my sons also. Its hard to learn how to be a good parent but you want to do your best. Having split from my wife, my role with my oldest son changed alot. I was relagated by my ex to become the dislipinarian. She would call me during the week and have me yell at my son to get his homework done or his chores, what ever. I knew I was becoming the bad guy! I could easily understand why later on, he would rebel and why he would hesitate today to having his own kids and develop a family. I always told my sons that when they left high school that many of their friends would turn out not to be friends at all. If their lucky maybe one or two at the most you might keep up with. I’ve told them that family is the only thing that will always be there in what ever capacity they can be in their lives. Family is all we have in most cases. Families always forgive and families will always support. So my sons as I get older in my life I have learned that I should have more hugs to give and more support to show than I did before. I hope you learn from my lesson and start hugging now. It feels pretty good.

My Life At the Emergeny Room

Posted on by

Well it happened again in my life. In fact I think I’m becoming a regular going to the emergency room at our local hospital. First off you must know one thing, if you decide your going to visit the emergency room. You can count on at a minimum 4 hours if your lucky. On average, I’ve got to bet its more like 6.5 hours of your life.

Grandma (my mother-in-law) was sick so you know who “The Chosen One” (me) got to accompany her on this exciting experience. One new tip for those of you thinking of going down this path. Go on a weekday not a weekend! Everyone is off from work and doing stupid things on the weekend and their doctors aren’t available so they come in mass to compete with you for the privilage of who gets to go in first. I kept telling Grandma (who actually had Bronchitis but wasn’t coughing at all now that we were there) to pretend like she was having problems breathing but no, she sat there very quiet and eventually dozing off to sleep a little. Two hours later we both wake up to someone calling her name. So we get to leave the germ infested waiting area and get to go to room number 4. Of course now its time to punish me more… The last time I was here with Grandma we were in the same room number 4 and they had installed tv’s for your enjoyment! It greatly helped to pass the time away when we were here last time. Of course this time the tv didn’t work and I was having to face my mother-in-law for more endless hours of fun. In the middle of the “pit” (nurses station) they have a 42″ screen tv displaying all the patients like a spread sheet. I found my mother-in-law on line four and at some point the column for “length of stay” turns red. Two other people had red backgrounds also but they were at 6 hours or more. We had at some point passed 4 hours and it went red. At least you knew they were noticing you because as your hours increased they seem to pay more attention to you as if they were on some sort of time limit. I was afraid to see what happened once you got to 7 hours. So the hospital is trying to make an effort to improve your experience when you visit. Everyone seemed overly friendly compared to previous visits. Then I noticed they had signs all over about customer service and to please fill out their survey. The nurses kept repeating their names so we would remember them. Then when checking out, the papers had their names typed out so we could spell them correctly. You know I’m in the hotel business and when ever the guests have a bad experience like the tv not working they complain they want a free room for the night. I wonder how far I could carry this?

My Life With Walter Cronkite

Posted on by

In my life there was no other man more trusted than Walter Cronkite. I grew up with him. To me he was a “grandfather type” that wouldn’t lie to you! You liked him and he would tell you what you needed to know. We would watch old film clips in school about history and Walter was in them I believed they were called “And You Are There” or something close to that.

Not many news anchors even come close to him since he retired. Maybe Peter Jennings was liked a lot but I don’t think it was half as much as Walter. He retired quite a few years ago and he has been missed. Will some one please replace Katie Couric with an older friendly grandfather type!

Customer Service Where Has it Gone?

Posted on by

Where I live small independent hardware stores are disappearing. When I was in high school I worked in a store called Tovi’s “True Value Hardware” The store was just a few blocks from my parents house and I would work after school and on weekends. You could walk in and ask the toughest questions and we would help you. We would go out of our way to make sure you knew how to handle your problem. If we didn’t know we would find out for you or we knew where to send you. I use to remember shopping with my parents at other stores and I remember the good service they got and they knew their product.

Things are becoming to automated. I ran accross a website recently that told you how to get to a live person at some of the more well known companies that have “800 numbers” automated and put you through phone loop hell. Many times, you can’t even understand the people because of their accents. Your talking to “Bob Smith” and he has a Philippine accent.

I find it fun sometimes to go to Home Depot and walk down my favorite isle. (I use to be a plumber in another life) I love to hear how the clerk who doesn’t know a p trap from a mouse trap try and tell someone how to fix their problem. Usually, they tell a guy “to take this putty and pack it around the leak and that should do it.” I wait a while after the clerk leaves to take care of another poor soul and tell the guy what to do. The problem with that is everyone is listening and then they come like kids to ice cream. Why don’t these retailers wise up and get the big picture. A few years back a bunch of executives from Sears were meeting in my hotel and I guess they were trying to figure out how to improve their hardware sales. I happened to walk by when they were at the bar and heard them discussing their tales of woes. I volunteered the same information that I just mentioned above about un-knowledgeable staff and they end up coming out with their separate “Mini Hardware Stores” I think they still missed the boat and those stores are struggling just as much as before. The Baby Boomers again I think… We wanted things fast, convenient, and we wanted mass quantities. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it! Damn we have broken a lot a good stuff.

My Life My Opinion My Anti – Social Behavior

Posted on by

My friend Hillary has inspired me with her blog http://baddatesandgooddogs.blogspot.com/

A hot summer event with a crowd is just not my cup of tea either. In fact anywhere people gather you probably won’t find me. Lately I’ve noticed that crowds do bring out the worst in people. The hot sun doesn’t help either. This has been one of the best summers of my life because its been so cool. Someone must have turned off the global warming switch! They might want to check it.

I’m not a drinker either. So get a bunch of guys together with all the beer they can drink is an accident waiting to happen. I think people in general have lost their social skills. Kids growing up today are so into their “video games” they grew up in their little world on their computers so they didn’t socialize much, hence the lack of social skills. We as adults, to some degree, let this happen as our careers became more important than our families. Our tv’s, computers, playstation, and other games became our babysitters.

Could you or your family go without being “connected” for a day? How about being dis-connected for two days or even a week? When we grew up we were told “go out and play.” That meant we left the house and had to figure a way to entertain ourselves. That also meant we had to learn how to interact with other kids and people.

Maybe its happening to adults too. I’ve grown attached to my computer and I’m on it most of the day and a good part of the night. I don’t want to be around people as much so maybe I am becoming anti social. Its easier to become a hermit or a Ted Kaczynski. Maybe we do need tighter controls on society. If a kid thinks its ok to sit facing a computer all day shooting people then how easy is it to corelate that in your mind to real life after days of mindless killing onscreen.

Ok I’ve gone to the extreme here but we have to ask what kind of society is developing here? In Japan I hear its common place for women to be groped on commuter trains and no one does anything. What is our world shaping into? Maybe we don’t have to worry about it, since the Myan’s say things are ending in 2012 anyway.