Saturday, May 25, 2019

Holland, MI

I'm enjoying part of this holiday weekend in Holland and Saugatuck, Michigan. Thankfully, the weather hasn't been a total washout so I've been able to get out and see some of the sights around both cities. Even though I'm from Michigan, I hate to say I haven't seen much of my home state. I really need to get out more!


Tuesday, May 21, 2019

How Did This Happen?

I was talking with a friend today who I used to work with in Michigan many years ago and we discussed our former supervisor. This woman was a nice lady, but she was clearly over her head in terms of the job and her ability to do the job. She wasn't college educated despite having several college graduates working under her, her writing and speaking skills were challenged, and she just wasn't very bright. Yet, despite all of this, she was a manager. Eventually, she was let go from the company under mysterious circumstances. Maybe someone finally realized she couldn't hack it. In any case, I've often wondered why she and so many others even managed to get into management positions they clearly were not/are not qualified for. Yes, some people are smooth talkers who can talk themselves into jobs they aren't qualified for. They're able to fake it till they make it. But my former supervisor wasn't a smooth-talker or some hot young thing who could bullshit or flirt her way into a management position. So how did this happen? How was she able to get a management job she so clearly wasn't qualified for? I think she just had a friend in higher management who helped her out. But in helping her, her friend did my supervisor, our department, and the company as a whole a huge disservice. Because this woman lacked even the basic skills that should have been required for a manager, she constantly underperformed in the role and frequently embarrassed herself with her poor writing and awful communication skills. Her staff often had to correct her spelling and that's just embarrassing. I wonder what happened to her. Did she go back to school, get a degree, and find a management position she could handle? I certainly hope so. She wasn't a terrible person, just an unqualified manager.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Alabama? Not Surprised.

With Alabama's latest move to restrict most abortions, I have to say I wasn't surprised by the move. As someone who has a parent from Alabama and someone who has been going there for as long as I've been born (and I'll be there later this month), I am quite familiar with the ways of this state. Alabama does a good job of voting against its own self-interests in the name of some phony moral grounds. This is a state that loses tons of money because they refuse to allow the state to have a lottery system because, I guess, they're against gambling. And what do Alabamians do when they can't play the Lotto in their home state? They drive over to neighboring states, like Georgia, and play their numbers, thus giving Georgia's economy a huge boost while their own state gets nothing. I have such a love/hate relationship with Alabama. It's complicated. When I consider packing up and moving there if I have to in order to care for my father if his health goes into decline, I just can't see myself actually making that move, at least not anytime soon given the attitudes of the people and the laws of the land. Still, I've always enjoyed visiting the state and I've never had a bad experience there. (Perhaps I've just been lucky!) But being a visitor and a resident are two very different things.

Monday, May 13, 2019

Post-Mother's Day Blues

It's always difficult for me to deal with Mother's Day because my own mother died more than twenty years ago. (I can't believe it's been that long, but it has!) I recall one year a guy wished me a happy Mother's Day and I told him thanks but (A) I don't have any kids and (B) my mother's dead. He looked horrified and scurried away. In hindsight, I should have just left it at "thanks." If you're one of the motherless on Mother's Day, I feel your pain. I have a stepmother and she's great, but it's not the same as having your real mother around. My father remarried when I was an adult, so I didn't grow up with my stepmother as a parent. I don't even really view my step-siblings as siblings. They're acquaintances. I've expressed this view before, but I'll do it again. My feeling is that my father married into my stepmother's family...I didn't. And, in doing so, he's responsible for maintaining relationships with her kids, etc. I have no obligation towards these folks. And after taking one vacation with them a few years ago, I decided I wouldn't go down that road again and I haven't.

I do hope those of you out there who still have your mom in your life and/or if you're a mom yourself had a great Mother's Day. Even if my own day wasn't great, I certainly hope yours was!

Monday, May 6, 2019

Dad Rock and Other Things

As someone who enjoys the music of Pearl Jam, I was surprised to read someone refer to their music as "Dad Rock." I never would have thought of Pearl Jam as "Dad Rock" but I guess it is now. Eddie Vedder is a dad and I'm sure other members of Pearl Jam are dads also. And many of the male fans of Pearl Jam from the 90s are probably dads also now. If Pearl Jam is considered Dad Rock, then what's the music of Steely Dan? Grandpa Rock? Can't we all just get along?

In other music-related news, I've been listening to and thinking about Carly Simon's song "Nobody Does It Better." I recently wrote a short story that's scheduled to come out sometime this year (I think) in a JMS Books series that focuses on the number nine to celebrate the publisher's nine years in business and in that story, I explain nine songs on a character's playlist and what those songs mean to the character and his partner. One of the songs featured in the story is "Nobody Does It Better." I'm not a Carly Simon fan, but I do love that song. I love the lyrics, the way she sings it, and pretty much everything about it. I think it's a great karaoke song for people like myself who can't sing that well. There aren't a lot of high notes to hit, the lyrics aren't complicated, and most people (I assume) are familiar with the song. I don't even think about the song in the context of the James Bond movie it's famous for. I'm sure I saw "The Spy Who Loved Me" but when I hear "Nobody Does It Better" I don't think of Roger Moore. I think about...other things. For me, the song is very sensual and if you see it pop up in anything I write, just assume some sexy time is soon to follow.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Freedom Isn't Free (of Problems)

With all of the news lately about measles outbreaks and people who refuse to vaccinate their kids, I can't help thinking that freedom isn't free. When you live in a free society and people are given the choice to vaccinate their kids or legally smoke weed, then you have to live with the consequences of those decisions. If the government isn't forcing people to get shots for their kids (or is giving them loopholes to opt out of vaccinating their kids), then you get what you get: measles outbreaks.

The same goes for marijuana legalization. If the certain states allow people to smoke weed legally, then they will have to deal with an increase in the amount of drug users in those states. Marijuana is a gateway drug. First you start smoking weed and then you move on to heavier drugs. Not all people, I know, but enough to create a problem. I've seen it happen and the results are tragic. So if weed is legalized in a state, then what happens to jobs that require a drug test as an employment contingency? Do drug tests just go the way of the dinosaur? I assume some jobs will always require drug testing. No one wants their bus or subway driver coming to work high on weed, so I'm assuming those jobs would require that you are drug-free. But maybe not. What if someone decides to sue because marijuana is legal in their state and, if it's legal and the bus driver wants to smoke, can't he challenge his employer who fired him for testing positive for drugs? Can the rules of the employer trump the rules of the state? Can the employer be exempt from prosecution? I don't know.

Such are the perils of living in a free society rather than in a dictatorship where the government controls pretty much every aspect of your life. Not that I'm advocating for that, but people really need to understand that freedom isn't free. There are consequences and repercussions. If you want freedom to make your own choices about what drugs you put into your body, then you have to live with the consequences and repercussions of that decision.