Well the cell phone situation seems to be resolved.   I inserted my mom’s new SIM Card into her phone last night…and it worked just fine.  Jason received his just a few moments ago and called me to let me know that his too is working.

Corin was home sick yesterday…poor thing.  She woke up feeling very , so I kept her home from school…but she’s feeling just fine today so back to school she went.

Umm…let’s see…what else is going on that I can share.   Oh yeah, I had an audit at work yesterday…that was just loads of fun.   Actually, it went as well as it possibly could have.   The auditor was from the Colorado State Approving Agency for Veteran Affairs…he was checking on my apprentices that are Vets.  He was making sure that they had all of the required paperwork filed correctly and that they were turning in their hours monthly as they should.  I’m lucky, I only have one veteran that is a registered apprentice at the moment.   He also said that my files are maculate!!   Why thank ya!

Not long after the meeting with him was over, my boss came to me and said that he spoke with Bob (the President of the company) about my “raise/reclassification/promotion” (whatever you want to call the damn thing that they haven’t given me yet).  He said that he had a proposed amount that he wanted to show me.  He proceeded to right down this horribly low number that is only $4400 dollars more annually than what I make now.  

Needless to say, I said that the proposed amount was not acceptable considering that I’ve taken on a whole other department and have been doing the job for over 3 months without compensation and haven’t had a raise in 3 years! My boss looked at me  and said, “you know that’s 10% right?“.  Umm yeah…I’m aware of that.  That’s fine if it were just a “raise”…but not for a reclassification and raise.  Nope…too low dude!

Then I went on to tell him that first of all, I was informed that I would be compensated for this “new position” months ago and then that just never happened.  Then I was told that I would be getting my raise along with the compensation for the “new position”…and this is what you offer me?  Are you kidding?  You’ve taken away my assistant and so now I have to work weekends again and you don’t think that I deserve more than this? 

I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass, but I know that I deserve more than what is being offered.  Here’s a breakdown of my job duties:

~ OSHA Record keeping

   * obtaining & maintaining all compliancy issues

   * jobsite compliancy – office setup

   * ordering of materials

 

~ DOT Record keeping

  * obtaining & maintaining all compliancy issues (i.e. DOT Physicals, reports, Driver’s Licenses, etc)

  * updating & distributing forms

  * previous employer information (as requested by other companies)

  * annual reports

 

~ Risk Management

  * filing and following up on all workers’ compensation/automobile/general liability cases

  * reports

  * correspondence with insurance companies

  * correspondence with other parties

 

~ Drug Testing

  * setup of all drug testing facilities for all jobsites

  * updating & maintaining records

  * distribution of current forms

 

~ Apprenticeship Programs (there are 3 programs)

  * administering applications & announcements of openings

  * selection of apprentices

  * registering apprentices/setup/payroll deduction setup/ordering of training materials

  * correspondence with Dept. of Labor

  * updating & maintaining apprentice records

  * quarterly reports and appraisals

  * revisions to programs as needed

  * grading of all apprentice tests

  * requests for certifications & issuance

 

~ Safety & Training

  * updating/maintaining of forms

  * distribution of forms

  * rubber goods testing  – (I maintain a database for all testing of our rubber goods such as gloves, sleeves etc.)

  * revision of policies (as needed)

  * issuance of training certifications

  * creating & revising tests and materials

  * record keeping

  * onsite job visits

 

~ Personnel – Human Resources

  * employee setup – (setup is done in our company software and also in our parent companies software)

  * record keeping & maintenance

  * previous employer information requests

  * annual reports

  * run background checks

 

~ Miscellaneous

  * and anything else they add on to me at any given time

 

Now mind you, I currently make $33,100 annually.  It’s not bad per say…it’s just not what I should be making for what I do.  I’ve done my homework and I know that other companies across the country pay a person in my position (just OSHA/DOT Record keeping & Risk Management) start pay $24/hr = $49,920 annually.  I’m not even asking for remotely that much money and I do SO much more than that.

I tell you what though…I’m at a point that if I don’t get what I’m asking for, I will be going somewhere else to work.  I’ve been with this company for damn near 7 years and have gone above and the beyond the call of duty on numerous occasions and have yet to be compensated for it.  I’ve been extremely loyal and I’m damn good at my job.  I’ve established a wonderful relationship with the Dept. of Labor, Dept. of Veteran Affairs, Dept. of Transportation and other vital organizations.  I’ve rewritten and revised company policies and programs.  I’ve created forms and testing materials to better our processes and completely revitalized the apprenticeship programs by bringing forth a whole new training system.  I deserve damn good pay for what I do…

So…I guess the ball is in their court (so to speak).  Either they compensate me for the work I do, or I’ll be forced to look elsewhere.    I really don’t want to have to do that.

Okay…yup…that’s about it.  I know, it started out as not much and ended up as a novella eh?  Sorry about that.

Cell Phone Drama

Last Tuesday, my dear husband had his cell phone stolen out of his car while at work.  It wasn’t entirely what I would call a theft because hubby left his window down on his car…so the thief pretty much had an invitation…ya know?

Anyway, we have our cell phone service through AT&T Wireless…so I called and explained what had occured and attempted to get a replacement phone sent out to us.  This wasn’t that big of a deal, except that we don’t have insurance on the phones so we had to pay for the replacement.  However, the lady that took care of this for us talked to her supervisor and found a way to get around us having to pay full price on a replacement phone…and was able to get us an upgrade as well.  So, after a couple hours or so on the phone with these fine people, we had a new phone being shipped out to us for around $35 plus shipping costs and was to be deliverd within 48 hours.  Great!

The new phone arrived on Thursday, but wasn’t opened until Friday morning because I wasn’t paying much attention to the package the night before…otherwise destracted by the children of the household.  Anyway, I had Jason open the box while I was at work.  Only one problem, this new phone didn’t come with a SIM Card…i.e., the brain for the phone!! OOPS!

So, I called AT&T Wireless back and spoke to another helpful lady and explained the situation.  She said it was just a shipping error and that she’d order another SIM Card for that phone and overnight it to us (which means Monday delivery).  Okee dokee!! Cool…so that solves that.  Well, that’s what I thought anyway.

Saturday, we’re getting ready to leave for dinner when my mom brings me her cell phone and says that she’s getting an error message.  Hmm…okay.  So I take a look and the phone says, “SIM Card Registration Failed”.  Uh oh…that can’t be good.

I think about it for a second and then think, “OMG…they deactivated the wrong phone’s SIM Card!!”.  So I attempt to call AT&T Wireless to straighten this out…but once on the phone and through the lengthy listing of automated messages…I’m informed that the estimated wait time is over 20 minutes for my call.  Well, like I’d said…we were getting ready to go to dinner…I wasn’t about to wait that long.  So, I hung up and declared that I’d call them in the morning.

So I did just that….first thing Sunday morning I was on the phone with yet, another lovely lady from AT&T Wireless.  Her name was Mary and she was extremely helpful and found out exactly what had occured with our phones.  So…here’s the explanation:

When Jason‘s phone was stolen, they suspended activity on his number and mailed out the replacement phone…but minus the SIM Card.  So, when I called to report the missing SIM Card, the lady wasn’t able to order a new one for that phone because the activity had been suspended for that number listing the SIM Card as deactivated…they are unable to order an replacement card for a deactivated number.

You with me so far?  Okay…

So, instead…she ordered a replacement card under my mom’s cell number not thinking that it would affect it.  However, this deactivated my mom’s active SIM Card and still didn’t solve the problem for Jason‘s phone.  So Mary, after realizing all of this, was able to go in and manuver things so that a new SIM Card was issued for Jason‘s new phone. 

So now…I have two SIM Cards coming out to the house.  The one arriving today is actually for my mom’s phone…and Jason‘s should be here either tomorrow or Wednesday. 

BUT…there was one other hitch…while Mary and I were finalizing all of this on the phone, I was disconnected.  Yup…in one second…she was gone!  So I call back, but you know that I didn’t get Mary back on the phone because call centers don’t work that way.  Nope…Mary was in Oklahoma City…and when I called back I got Ralph from upstate New York!  He of course had no clue as to what had transpired or what Mary and I had uncovered and fixed.  So I had to explain all of this to him…to which his first response was to try to reactivate the SIM Card on my mom’s phone…to which I replied “NOOOOOOO!!! Don’t do that!! Mary put in an order for another card already and the replacement (the active) SIMS Card for that phone should be here tomorrow…so puhleeeeezzze don’t do that.” 

I think I may have scared him a bit…but I went on to explain things just a bit more and then asked him to just please check to make sure that the order Mary had placed was processed and was being shipped.  So…he did and it was and is…so all is well. 

I tell you what…this was just way too much drama for me!!  It was tiring just reiterating it all!

“WARNING – Graphic Intense “

 

A horrible tragedy occured at 8:46 Tuesday Morning September 11, 2001. There were 4 planes hijacked by terrorists. A senseless act of cowardness.

American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. There were 92 people aboard including 9 flight attendants and 2 pilots.

At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower, carrying 65 people including 7 flight attendants and 2 pilots.

At 9:38 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. There were 64 people aboard including 4 flight attendants and 2 pilots.

At 10:10 a.m., United Airlines Flight 93 crashed Southeast of Pittsburgh carrying 45 people including 5 flight attendants and 2 pilots. It is believed that flight 93 was on course for the White House when some of the passengers rushed the terrorists, causing them to miss their intended target and crash into a field near Pittsburgh. We thank those aboard flight 93 for such a courageous act of selflessness and bravery for saving the many lives that would have been destroyed at the White House.

May God Bless the heroes who have lost their lives in helping save the lives of others.

We all remember the horrific events that took place that day vividly in our memories.  I was going to post numerous photos from that tragic day, but I’ve changed my mind.

I do want to post something about this day, because I feel compelled to… I’d like share with you some things that I found when I was searching for photos not viewed by many like the ones that we’ve all seen a hundred times.

This was just one of out thousands of victims from that awful day, she was 23 years old…and was in one of the two towers. I found this note from her father on her memorial website and it brought me tears. I think it says it all.

From:     William J Bratton, Jr., submitted: 05/05/2004 3:22:16 AM

Michelle Renee, better known as Shelly, was my baby daughter, She was our final gift from God. The final piece that made our family complete. Her contagious smile and kindness are difficult to replace. Her energy helped motivate all of us to be better individuals. We are all better for having known her, even for so short a period. I thank God for opportunity to have been her father. I hope she is happy where she is now, and that our family will all be together again someday. I will love you always Shelly. Dad.

 

I also found the following while searching the web for reminders of this day.  Something that I felt was very appropriate for remembering this day 3 years after the attacks.

Moving Forward

The Freedom Tower being built at Ground Zero in Manhattan

A 20-ton slab of granite inscribed to
honor “the enduring spirit of freedom.”
was laid at the World Trade
Center site as the cornerstone of the
skyscraper that will replace the
destroyed towers.

 

A design that would turn the footprints of the twin towers into
reflective pools has been selected for the World Trade Center
memorial.

 

 

We will NEVER forget

For some reason I’ve decided to post about my hometown.  I haven’t been there in about two years and that was just a brief drive through.  I haven’t actually visited there in many years.  Many things have changed, of course, but it’s still a dairy town and it’s still small-town atmosphere.

 

Hopkins, MI is named after Stephen Hopkins one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  R.C. Round, an early settler of the area and the nephew of Stephen Hopkins, named the town.  However, John Hoffmaster was the first settler of the town and came to the area in 1854 as a “stationmaster” for the railroad that wasn’t there yet.  The railroad finally came to the town in 1874 some twenty years later.

Here you see the Hopkins Depot as it was back in 1874

Here is the Hopkins Depot as it looks today.

 

Hopkins is a small quaint town that has one main street through the downtown area, 128th Avenue.  It has two parks (now..it had only one when I was growing up), an elementary, middle, and high school.  When I went to school there, there was only an elementary and high school and the only park (pictured above) was located in the middle of the two.

The high school has had many renovations since I attended. However, the portion of this photo that shows the school name and entrance remains the same.  When I went there, there was only one main hallway through the school…now it has many.

Now they have this lovely middle school as well as the renovated high school!  Hey, this is a big deal to me because growing up…there were only 500 people in this town and having a middle school wasn’t even thought of.

I actually lived in Monterey Township which is NW of Hopkins Township, but is SO small that it wasn’t on the map until 1995.  My address was Hopkins though and that’s what I’ve always referred to as my hometown.  A place where the phrase “fresh country air” is used daily.  A town that consists mostly of corn fields and cow pastures.

Ah yes, that would be my hometown.  My house was down the street from three major locations however, the town dump, the gravel pit and the Allegan County Forest.  Yuppers…dump trucks traveled by my house numerous times a week and we’d ride our bikes through the trails of the forest and gravel pit all of the time.

I remember that during the summer as a kid, we’d go swimming here:

 

I grew up in what was commonly referred to as “the Monterey Mansion”…yeah.  My dad built our house and got a tad bit carried away with it all.  It started out as a one bedroom farm house about 1000 square feet…and he turned it into a four bedroom (21 rooms total) three stall garage (with workshop and storage) with four huge pillars in front 7000 square foot home.  Yup…he got carried away just a wee bit.

Life was just so much simpler back then.  Of course, I was a child so yeah…it was simpler.  Nothing to worry about except getting chores done and when the next baseball or football game was coming up.  Life in the country wasn’t like life is in the city.  It’s subdued in comparison, but I think that we worked harder growing up than our peers in the city.  We got up at wee hours of the morning to milk the cows and feed the animals and didn’t go to bed until late at night until after our chores and homework had been completed.  We had especially long nights when it was bailing season (bailing hay that is). 

Yeah…I remember it all well and miss it very much.  It seems as if it were a lifetime ago and I am now looking at pictures of things that barely exist anywhere anymore except in my memory. 

Well, there you go…my hometown.  Not much I know…but it was the whole world to me for many years.

 

 

Some things just aren’t that simple…are they.

 

 

Frances claims 14…so far

According to reports this morning, Hurricane Frances has claimed 14 lives thus far in Florida and Georgia.

The picture (left) shows what’s left of one of the bridges near Port St. Lucie, FL.  I must say that I wasn’t very impressed with the roads in Florida while I traveled through there in May…but this, this is very bad and is definitely something that can’t be controlled.

Unreal huh?

 

The picture on the right is of what once was a mobile home. Now barely any structure stands.

I don’t think anyone could pay me enough to own a mobile home in Florida…especially after seeing this.  Wow…

I watched The Weather Channel most of this past weekend to see what was happening with Frances.  I was astonished by what I was seeing on my television screen.  Not just all of the damage that was taking place, but how stupid some people are.  They showed people surfing on these massive waves while they were enduring winds up to 90mph…unreal!!  And another man was trying to swim in the ocean while this was going on!!!

What in God’s good name could these people possibly be thinking??!  When the swimmer was interviewed and asked why he would attempt to go into the ocean during a hurricane he replied, “well…it’s a once in a lifetime experience”.  Umm…can you say moran?? OMG!!

Not to mention the numerous amounts of people that were driving around on the roads during all of this.  Unbelievable!!  I’m telling you…there’s no way in hell that you’d catch me doing that…NO WAY!!  I would’ve been out of that state before Frances hit..let alone driving around while she’s there or trying to surf or swim in the ocean!!! CRAZY damn people!!

Anyway, aside from all of that…it was quite the site to behold.  I feel bad for all those people who’ve lost their homes and businesses due to this hurricane.  I suppose that’s the chance you take when you live in that state…but still, it’s sad.

Now that Frances has become a tropical depression and is attempting to flood other areas…Florida is concentrating on getting power back to the people.

Electrical power that is!  Many of my company’s crews are heading down to Florida to help out with this restoration which, without a doubt, will take some time.  Also, it will take months to rebuild some of the transmission lines that were wiped out during the storm.

I know it sounds bad, but I still couldn’t help but think while watching all of this damage unfold on television, that this will create a lot of work for my company…and we need it right now.  I feel a bit guilty admitting my thoughts on that…but it’s true none-the-less.

Work has been a bit slow for us since July which is not normal for our company.  I’ve only seen one other time where we’ve had such a lull in work…and that was over 5 years ago.  Our crews will be busy now however, and many more jobs will come out of Florida with all of the damage that has occured.

Hopefully power will be restored very soon to those people and they can begin to rebuild what they’ve lost.

Let’s just hope that Ivan doesn’t get them next!!!

Look out Florida…here comes Frances

Holy major hurricanes batman!!

Frances is HUGE and heading right for Florida!  No joke, the news said this morning that Frances is about the size of Texas if not bigger!

Now being it is that my best friend lives in Orlando, needless to say…I’m very concerned about all of this.  You remember the pics that I posted of Orlando after Charley hit right?  They haven’t even really had a chance to recover yet.

Not only that, but I searched for hours yesterday trying to find a hotel/motel/lodging of some sort for Eric somewhere out of danger and everything…and I do mean everything is booked all the way into Georgia!

 

 

It’s also been reported that this is the largest evacuation in the history of Florida.  I’m not surprised by that considering they just dealt with Charley and most remember Andrew let alone the reports of Frances’ size and power.

It’s said that some 2.5 million people are evacuating.  I’m glad to hear that people are taking this so seriously considering what they’re facing, but it also means that highways are packed, making this a long drawn out process.

If it had been me down there, I think that I would’ve been gone at the beginning of this week instead of waiting until yesterday or today to get out.  Ya know? But hey…I’m a chicken like that!

But, from what Eric was telling me…apparently some companies are not giving people any leeway from their jobs in order to evacuate.  Disney told their employees that they were expected to work up to the time the storm hits land…or normal closing hours, whichever comes first. 

Are they psycho?!  Good God people, there’s a friggin’ hurricane coming that’s the size of Texas and is going to swallow Florida whole and you won’t give your employees a fighting chance to get the hell out of dodge?  Sick bastards. 

As sad as it is, they are not alone.  Many other companies have requested the same thing from their employees.  Me, I say screw ‘em and get out but some are afraid to do that.  I say that there is no job that is worth risking your life or your families’ life over when it comes to this type of situation (not to be confused with those people who have jobs that include risking your life as part of the career…that’s an entirely different scenario).  No, I’m talking about this situation in particular.

Anyway, I hope that people are able to get out and find a safe haven away from the wrath of Frances…and if not, I hope that they find a strong place to hide.  This is going to be one hell of a hurricane.  It’s even been reported that there aren’t enough shelters to house those, who for whatever reason, are unable to evacuate.  So these people are going to have “weather the storm”, but as one official has stated ”You’re not going to be able to evacuate from wind. This storm will hit the state and cross as a hurricane” …you got that right!

They also stated that there are few places in Florida that are deemed “safe” from Frances.  I don’t see how there can be ANY place in Florida that would be considered safe from Frances considering how big it is.  I guess some good news, if you want to call it that, is that the hurricane has been downgraded to a category three…with winds at 120mph.  So it’s weakened a bit…but I’m sure it’s still going to do quite a bit of damage.

I guess we’ll just have to hope and pray that Frances doesn’t take many lives with it as it sweeps Florida this weekend.

So while you are doing whatever this weekend, take a moment and think some kind thoughts for those poor people going through this hell down there.  Thanks.

Oooo OUCH!

Okay, here’s the pics of Dora’s toe, but I warn you…it’s a bit graphic!!

Her little run in with the metal door has taken off the skin completely on the right side of her toe (the red part) and part of her toenail that was hanging by a thread, but fell off after a few soakings late in the afternoon on Tuesday.

So there you have it!  The injured toe!

She’s keeping it bandaged and is not able to participate in gym class (or put on a tennis shoe) until Sept. 13th.

Well…my eye is feeling much better today!!

AND…Dora’s toe is well…umm…I’ll post a pic of that tomorrow.  Let’s just say that it’s understandable why it would hurt.

I thought that I’d post something a little more upbeat today than yesterday.  So, here’s a pic of Eric & his new bride Kippie from their wedding last Tuesday.

Now I admit, I giggled a bit when I saw this because Eric just looks clueless in this pic and it reminded me of Jason on our wedding day last October.  Why is it that men have that look on their faces in all of the pictures?  Is it because they are just so shocked that they actually went through with it or what?

Jason looked that way because he kept getting distracted by Wil during photos…but that’s a different story.  Those two are something else I tell you what!

Anyway, Kippie wasn’t pleased, according to Eric, about her appearance on their special day.  I’m sure it’s a pregnant woman issue…been there…done that.  Hey, I was never pleased with my appearance when I got to my third trimester with the twins…probably because I felt like a whale!!

So…here you go.  This is it for me today because I have got TONS to do today!  I’ve got quarterly reports to get out today.

I’m usually pretty good at completing them rather rapidly if the printers cooperate…so hopefully I’ll get a chance to get caught up on your sites!

Happy Hump Day!!!