Pro tips for a good shopping experience........

Most folks walking this earth have never worked behind a retail counter or waited on tables or been at the beck and call of the general pubic.

Here are a few pro tips on how to get superior customer service.



-Don't use your cell phone.....if you are standing in front of my retail counter and your playing with your phone or having a conversation while trying to get my attention- I will ask you one time if I can help you. If you decline my invitation for service or ignore me- you have become for all intents and purposes...invisible.

If you at some point would like me to wait on you....put your damn phone away and make solid eye contact with me. At that time, I will ask you again if I can help you and hopefully, I will be able to help you with your purchases.

Don't be a dick.

Seriously.

Don't.

Be.

A.

Dick.

If you think you are being an asshole....you are an asshole.

If you run into one asshole in traffic on your way to work...you ran into an asshole.

If everyone is an asshole on your commute to work....you're the asshole.

If you wanna be an asshole ....sure, I'll wait on you and make sure you get whatever you asked for, but that's about it. If you are a genuinely nice person, or hell-even just be halfway human.....I will bend over backward to make sure you get exactly what you want and more.....I guarantee you that you'll walk out of my place of business with a smile on your face if you're at least a little bit nice to me.

If I screw something up and you come back and nicely explain why you aren't happy or tell me what I screwed up.....I will do everything in my power to not lose you as a customer. If I screw something up and you're a dick and loud and obnoxious, sure, you'll get your money refunded and I'll apologize for not meeting your expectations....but that's about it.  

Not a lot of rules, huh?

Be nice, don't be a dick and stay off your cellphone if you want decent service.

Pretty simple, yes?

You'd be surprised how many people can't figure that shit out.

_______________________________________________________

Stick sunscreen....not such a good idea.

This was pretty much my day at work today.....

I like fancy cars and everything,  but this is straight up dumbass....and this is windowlicker material.

Holy shit. I'm glad this shit didn't go down when I was 7 years old. I walked close to a 1/2 mile to elementary school unsupervised for 6 years and lived to tell about it. I had free rein with a 5 or 6 block radius (probably a good half square mile) when I was that age...but back then....everyone knew everyone and if I did something stupid....my mom knew about it before I got home.

I got home today and this image pretty much sums up how I felt about having a beer or three while I was cutting the grass. By the time I was done the lawn....I was in a pretty good frame of mind considering the day I had.

United Airlines really gives a shit.

Shitty people at the doctor. Not everyone gets hurt and has to see the doctor.....but everyone has to eat-so we get to see all that society has to offer where I work at.....one of the advantages of working in a grocery store.

Not really.

till later.

11th day out of 12.......

Today was my 11th day of a 12 day stretch of work with out a day off.

Grrr.

Thank God I get paid hourly.

I came home Thursday afternoon, got a shower, had dinner and then had a beer. That one beer pretty much  put me out of commission.....I was in bed and sleeping by 8 PM.

Before I nodded off......I was watching a BBC show about how bad smoking is for you. I smoked for almost 25 years....I quit 15 years ago.

Smoking will kill 1/2 of the people that do it.

I'm not sure why the fuck I ever started smoking, but I'm glad I stopped.....but I also know that the urge to smoke never goes away entirely.

I don't know if it's a similar addiction like alcohol, but I do know that if I chose to light up- I'd be hooked all over again....that ain't never gonna happen because I can't stand the smell of cigarettes....it makes me gag when I smell it.

I don't put myself into situations where I am around cigarette smoke because I am one of those asshole former smokers that will tell you to put that shit out if you are smoking someplace where you aren't supposed to.
__________________________________________________

Looks like there are a few assholes in Congress. I'm shocked. Not really.

We damn near had a situation. Today's forecast.... 800 degrees with magnetic storms.

Best headline ever.......I just hope the damn thing doesn't land on my house. 

I don't get into politics a lot on this blog.......but this shit is just insane. I'm not taking one side or the other, but there are way too many innocent people getting killed.....and that ain't right.

Sunday should be a fun workday......gonna chip out about 8 inches of frozen ice from our rear storage freezer.

till later.

This has been one long week....

I don't think it's a big secret......I am a bakery manager at one of the local supermarket chains. We have close to 200 stores, I started working here in October of 1976 and 95% of the time-I enjoy it quite a bit.

I have some great staff with years of experience, most of the time while it can be a little stressful because it's retail....it's almost fun to come to work.

This week.....not so much. I have 3 people on vacation and one part-timer decided to quit at the end of last week giving me no time to replace the shifts.

Adding to this stress, we had a major case reset this week. We got completely new frozen and refrigerated cake display cases and all new display tables. My boss spent the day with us on Wednesday helping us get everything switched over.

It gets better..........

I came into work Thursday morning and every single new refrigerated case was empty. Some brain surgeon HVAC tech purged all the Freon out of the wrong system Wednesday and all our product had to be pulled and put into shopping carts and placed in one of the rear storage freezers. It took our head decorator 3 hours to re-do what she did already 2 days ago.


I'm not a big drinker, but this beer tasted really good. My only problem........it's 5 PM and I'm ready for bed.

till later.

Nerd.

Our family owns........

-3 iPads

-4 iPods

-A i7 chipped laptop with 8 gigs of RAM and a 1 gig video card

-3 older PC's...one is media server, one is an old XP my wife plays Solitaire one and one runs Ubuntu.

-A netbook I am in the process of wiping and installing Ubuntu to use as a take-anywhere laptop that make me cry if it gets dropped or something.

-Our son has an Alienware water cooled PC.... a unlocked i7 ,16 gigs of RAM, 2 video cards 2 gigs each with two 24 inch monitors.

-I have a new custom built PC with a 6 core processor, 16 gigs of RAM, a 2 terabyte hard drive and I also run 24 inch monitors.....complete overkill for web browsing and blogging, but I can have 50 tabs open and it doesn't slow down at all.

-3 Kindles....one second gen, and two 3rd gen.

-A 2010 13 inch MacBook Pro.

-Assorted speakers, extra monitors, keyboards, cables, power supplies, fans, extra RAM.....just about anything and everything.

My point?

I can't get my mom's Verizon DSL to work.....and it's pissing me off. I'm not a computer genius or anything, but I can work through 99% of the problems I come up against.

Network a Windows PC, a Mac and two different printers together along with a media server? Piece of cake. Hardly anything gets me over a barrel......I tried 2 PC's and my Mac, reset the modem, did a cold restart on everything.....no bueno.

Solution?

A few years ago, I paid 150 bucks for a Sprint aircard.......all I had to do is make a phone call and rent me some bandwidth for a month....gives me a little time to mentally prepare myself for dialing in Verizon's voice activated tech support.

I dislike dealing with Verizon DSL so much, I don't take on any new clients that use it. It's only redeeming value is that it's cheap. My mom pays something like 20 bucks a month for 768k service. For checking email and browsing websites....that's all you really need.

/rant over.....

Been super busy at work this week....3 people on vacation and one person quit and we had a complete case and table reset in my dept.......I have an awesome boss, it took her 3 hours to do what it would have taken me all day to do. 

till later.

The Next Great Baker......

Anybody else watching "The Next Great Baker" ?

The top prize is you get to manage Buddy's new bakery in Las Vegas. I don't think many of the "bake at home" contestants have ever stepped into a commercial bakery with the exception of one or two of the teams.

I know that if I worked in his bakery and some TV contestant winner came in as the HMFIC....I'd have a problem with that.

Earn your turn.

I started at my company when I was 16 and made it to bakery manager by the time I was 19.

Would that happen now, 38 years later?

Probably not, back in the late 70's our company had less than 30 stores (we have close to 200 now) and it was kinda being in the right place at the right time and busting my ass. Sure, I had to drive 35 miles to my store everyday, but it was a foot in the door to prove myself.

Things are so different nowadays.

Back in the 70's, we didn't have computers.....no bar scanning- the cashiers had to input the price of each item by hand.......

Now?

Somebody can sit at a computer terminal 35 miles away in our corporate office and see how many fruit tarts I sell in a 24 hour period ...or even a 1 hour period of they wanted to get that granular.

One thing is still the same, you still gotta show up everyday, work your ass off and be a team player.

Some links.......



I could have fun with a roll of these.

I bet that left a mark.

This kinda sucks if you work for this company. Could something like this happen to me? Probably not, but if it does, I could probably find some sort of job in food service pretty much the day after I was laid off. On of the few advantages of learning a blue collar trade.....not many folks know how to make pastry, breads, pies and donuts.

I don't wanna rag on the Chinese....but they seem kinda shady if you ask me. Yeah, I know you didn't ask me....but that's what I think. Don't believe me? Check out some Chinese cars as they do crash testing. Talk about folding up like an accordion...holy shit.

I own a 2014 Hyundai Elantra.....sure, it isn't the raciest car in the world, but it has a shitload of airbags, nice features for the price and it's build quality is miles ahead of anything the American automakers offer at the 18K pricepoint.I think my favorite feature is the Bluetooth integration....whenever I get a phone call- it goes right to the stereo and I can have a conversation hands free.....on second thought-it's my second favorite feature.....heated seats for the win in the wintertime. I'll never own a car without heated seats again.

I'd say this guy wins "Corporate Asshole of the Year". What a dick.

This article reminds me of my dad.....I used to tease him about him parting his hair about an inch above his ear and combing it over......he finally embraced his lack of hair and went with a crew cut.....good times.

Give yourself a headache.......


till later.

Migraine............

Another one of my hidden talents is that I get great migraines.

Of course, I'm being somewhat facetious....but I consider myself lucky as Imetrex usually makes them go away or at least turn them into regular headaches.

It's kinda hard to describe what I migraine actually feels like except when I get a really bad one....any light hurts like a MF'er it's like being in a pain cave.

A really bad one?

I rarely get serious migraines (from what I've read...they get much worse then what I usually get) but when I get a really bad one makes it hurt to see if that makes sense.

Anyways......feeling much better.

Back when I writing this blog a few years ago I used to discuss a lot of political stuff and world events.......gonna try to keep it lighter this time...beside that shit over in the Ukraine and Gaza scares the crap out of me.

You know how to open up a web browser if you wanna depress yourself.



If you want to read dumb shit.....stick around here.

It doesn't get any dumber than this. Seriously? A caffeine inhaler?

Megatoad? Are you fucking kidding me? Competitive eating? They even have their own freaking league.....I had no idea.

The Situation has a TV show......I made it through the first 10 minutes before deciding that having less Situation in my life would be a good thing.

I smoked until I was 40.....been smoke free for almost 15 years. This kinda seems like a dumb idea if you really want to quit smoking. I tried probably a dozen times to quit until I woke up one day and decided it was a dumbass habit and quit cold turkey. The first 72 hours were difficult and even now 15 years later....I still get the urge to light one up every once and awhile, but I don't because I'm a non-smoker.

In case you were wondering, I'm one of those asshole former smokers.....blow smoke in my face and I'll probably embarrass the shit out of you in public.

When asked by the 911 dispatcher if any weapons were involved, the father said “my foot and my fist.” I'd say the dad used some pretty good judgement and restraint.....that dude is lucky that all he got was a beating.

Any many books as I want for 10 bucks a month? Sign me up. Between my wife, our son and me.....we read a shitload of books. There are a few limitations (you can only "borrow" ten books at a time) but for 10 bucks a month-it seems like it's a good deal if you're a reader.

If this isn't in your personal top 5 of movies.......you need to seriously re-evaluate your life.

My top five movies?...Yeah, I know you didn't ask but here they are in no particular order.

-Animal House
-American Graffiti
-Smokey and the Bandit
-Dirty Harry
-Bullit

Yeah, I can hear you know.....Smokey and the Bandit? That movie was a piece of shit with no social redeeming value whatsoever.......and that's exactly why I like it and why me and my buddies went to see it like 4 times when it was in the theater back in 1977.

I had 4 or 5 friends that had Trans-Ams back then......
 
......Me?

I drove a little VW Bug.

till later.

Went for a little ride this morning.........

I was planning on riding my mountain bike this morning......by the time I was ready this morning at 7 AM-the humidity was already oppressive, so I went for a road ride on my trusty road bike.

I figured that riding road, I'd be able at least be able to go 10 or 12 mph so I'd have a breeze going the whole time I was riding versus riding mountain bike in the woods going 3 mph with no breeze.


I love taking pictures while I am out on rides, I like old derelict buildings best of all.

I took this panoramic picture of corn east of Hellam......there is a shitload of corn growing in York County.....if you get off the main roads-you'll see it.

I ended up riding about 1 1/2 hours and did about 22 miles....sure, I didn't set a world record for time or distance, the way I look at it- any bike ride where you don't end up in the hospital is a good bike ride.

I took a few hours after my ride to detail my car........I usally wash it once every week or so in the summer and I do a more detailed cleaning maybe once a month.


Here's most of the cleaners, polishes, etc I use to clean our cars.

When I do a complete detail, it takes 4 or 5 hours....starting with the inside.

-Vacuum carpet and floormats, then scrub carpet with carpet cleaner

-Clean all interior plastics

-Clean dashboard vents and cubbyholes with Q-tips

-Vacuum head liner and seats and clean if needed

-Apply low gloss protectent to all interior plastics and vinyl

-Do a final vacuum

-Clean glass

Sounds like this would take a long time....I can get the interior done in about 1/2 hour or so because it never really gets that dirty.

The outside takes a little longer if I am doing a wash and wax....the first thing I do is rinse the underside, then....

-Apply Simple Green to the wheel wells, wheels and tires. I let this sit for a minute and then scrub the wheels, tires and wheelwells. I empty the water bucket I am using and put in fresh soap for the rest of the vehicle.

-Rinse all loose dirt off the car, then starting from the top, wash the entire vehicle with car soap.

-Use a clay bar to remove any surface contaminants.

-Dry car including hood,trunk and door jambs.

-Apply car wax with my DA polisher.....I also hand wax all the door jambs. I've tried lots of waxes....this one seems to last for at least 4 months (any wax that says it last for a year is bullshit) and looks awesome especially with darker colors.

Once a year, I will polish the car with my DA buffer and a mild polishing compound. Polishing is different than waxing, when you are done polishing your car- it has absolutely nothing protecting the paint/clearcoat....that's when you apply wax to protect the paint.

-While the wax is drying, I apply this stuff to all my exterior vinyl trim. Yeah, it's expensive as hell, but this tiny bottle will do the trim on an average car at least 4 times and it lasts 6 months if you follow the directions and let it cure properly.

-After the wax has set for an hour or so, I'll put a microfiber pad on my DA polisher and take off all the wax residue and do a final wipedown with a microfiber towel and this paint detailer.

-Last thing I do is the glass and I always use wadded up newspaper (no lint) and Invisible Glass.



Yeah, I'm just a tad anal about how my car looks, since I'm gonna have it for at least 10 to 12 years- I want it to look brand new as long as possible.

Some links.............

What an awesome daughter. I'm sure he was an awesome father as well....

Service dog....or not a service dog?

Charlie Sheen...drunk at Taco Bell. Who woulda thunk it?

California is running out of water.

I'm not gonna explain how to Bit Torrent foreign TV shows on this blog...(this is a good site to get foreign TV torrents ....wink,wink, nudge,nudge)...you'll have to figure out how to unrar them and what software to use to watch them) but Masterchef Australia is 10 times better then Masterchef US.

I'd like to see this shit go down.....

Anti-Virus.........I've had to explain this concept to more than one person.....

till later.

Day off..............

When you work retail.....your days off our usually in the middle of the week. Most weeks I work 5 1/2 days a week (half day Sundays) and I usually take either Tuesdays or Wednesdays off.

Advantages of having a day off in the middle of the week? When you have to run errands, it's nice to not have to fight weekend traffic.

I plan on taking an early mountain bike ride at Lake Redman Wednesday morning, I'll probably ride 6 or 7 miles of trails and if it's like it normally is....I won't see a soul my entire ride. Seems kind of simple minded, but riding singletrack is a great way to clear your mind. When your riding trails....nothing else matters except being able to clear the next hill, keep your bike on a narrow foot wide trail or clearing the next tricky part of the trail without crashing.

I'm just glad I am able to ride once again without crushing knee pain.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my knee....last October I got a knee replacement on my left knee. My left knee had deteriorated to the point where I had to take a massive amount of pain medication to make it through an 8 hour work day......I got to the point where I didn't want to take that much medication on a daily basis (120 mg of morphine every day) and decided to have my knee replaced. Getting off that much morphine on a daily basis, that's a story for another day......it wasn't a whole bunch of fun.

Now that I have two functioning knees......life is a whole lot better.

I talked to a very good friend of mine tonight, he was rear-ended 6 months ago and has been laid up since with a host of injuries. I thank my lucky stars everyday for the life I have, even though my friend Mark is fighting the good fight to get back to where he was pre-injury...I'm pretty sure he would still think he's lucky as there are folks out there with way worse issues they are struggling with.

What point am I trying to make?

I pretty much hate complainers....Mark and I talked for 45 minutes tonight and he didn't complain once about his situation. He's a good guy with a wonderful wife and daughter....he's got a lot to live for and he knows things will get better.

........so, unless your arm just got cut off and you might bleed out in the next ten minutes-STFU and get on with life.

Stuff I saw in the news today..........

Evidently, having a higher then room temperature IQ isn't a job requirement to work for the TSA....how the hell can someone not know that Washington DC isn't part of the country?

Since I am an only child....it is safe to say I am probably more on the introverted side.....I like people, but only on my terms.

Never argue on the internet......I pretty never argue on the internet because, basically-I don't give a damn what anonymous people think about anything I am currently pontificating about.

Folks on welware shouldn't be able to buy cigarettes with my tax money. I understand that shit happens and folks need a helping hand, but they don't need to smoke with taxpayer money.

Assholes like this make me want to pass a law forcing everyone to work behind a retail counter one week a year.

My son-in-law works for Comcast....so, sorry Bob- but in this instance....Comcast sucks hind teat. Back in the day when I had AOL and it got to the point where I had to cancel it......I just told them I was moving out of the country.

Think it's a good idea if the Israelis bomb the Gaza Strip back to the Stone Age or that Hamas is justified in doing the same thing?

Guess what?

I really don't give a shit what you think.

Do I have an opinion? Sure, I have an opinion, but what's the use discussing such a highly charged situation with people I have never met in person?



See?

I just won the Internets.

11 hours later..............

Holy crap, I intensely dislike inventory Mondays....it starts bright and early in the morning (2AM) every 4 weeks.

 Once a month, we count every last ingredient pretty much down to the ounce. We compare beginning inventories, ending inventories and sales and figure out how much money we made and how much shrink we had.

Obviously, I can't disclose how much money we make or what our profit margin is, but all you have to do is make too much product (shrink) 2 or 3 times in a month and you're gonna have a bad time when you go to figure out all your facts and figures. Screw up too many months in a row and you'll find yourself below the Mendoza Line.

Enough of the work shit for awhile.

In my spare time, I fix computers, I'm not really looking for any more clients, the folks I have now as clients are super nice folks. The thing about having you're own little business on the side is that you can "fire" customers that piss you off.

I've only had two or three folks that I don't return phone calls to and they all have one thing in common.......they're all cheap bastards.

I let new clients know what my price structure is and the best way to not get me to help you is to ask for a discount. Ask for a discount and my calendar instantly fills up for a month or three.

Since Windows XP went out of support earlier this year, I've had quite a few people call me and ask what to do.........most of the time, XP computers are at least 7 or 8 years old and it's gonna be too obsolete to upgrade it to Windows 7 or 8.

This has pissed off a few of my clients because I refuse to upgrade an old PC to 7 or 8 because an old PC simply runs too slow with 7 or 8. The solution to Windows XP becoming obsolete.....buy a new computer or I can put Linux on your old PC and you can learn a new operating system.

When my father-in-law bought a new laptop several years ago, I put Ubuntu on it because all his grandkids used it and it has probably saved me hours of virus repair time. You can get a virus on Ubuntu/Linux, but it's very rare.

If you've been reading the news....this story is just tragic.........go here to kick in a few bucks for a trust fund for this amazing young lady. Go ahead- you ain't gonna miss a few bucks. I'm a 54 year old guy and I know I wouldn't handle this nearly as well as she has.....sometimes strength comes in little packages.



I don't wanna be a dick, but if you think you have problems.....put them up against what this young lady has been through in the past week......and unless the rest of your family just died in a plane crash or something- you ain't having that bad of a day.

till later.

People are shitting *on* trains?

Seriously?

Why would someone want to shit on a train? Civilization is over as we know it.

I work retail and as a result, I get to see all kinds of behavior and unfortunately....a lot of it is bad. Today for example, I saw a kid that was probably 6 or 7 years old, standing up in a shopping cart screaming their head off because he wasn't getting his way.

What does mom do?

Absolutely nothing.

Mom of the Year for sure because she probably doesn't realize how top heavy her shopping cart is with her precious little monster standing up in it. He could easily die.

What do I do?

Nothing.

Why? Because I used my Spidy sense and pretty much realized that super mom woulda just chewed my face off because I suggested to her how to be a better parent. I'm too old for that shit, maybe she should just strap a helmet on Junior when she takes him shopping next time....he'll probably grow up and be like this guy.

I've only flown twice in my lifetime, I bet the pilots in the plane trying to land had a little excitement for a moment or two......

My crazy next door neighbor (more on him at a later date) is a captain for a major airline.....this probably isn't that big a deal, they train for stuff like this all the time.

This blog is gonna jump around a lot.....I have varied interests. Maybe some posts might have themes like when my crazy next door neighbor uses a shop vac to clean leaves out of his shrubbery...but most of the time- I'm gonna do a lot of jumping around.

I like old school NASCAR......kind of lost interest after Alan Kulwicki and Tim Richmond died. Not that the NASCAR of today isn't good, it's just different. The chances of Jimmie Johnson pulling someone out of a car to beat the shit out of them?...pretty much zero. 25 years ago, there were at least a half dozen drivers that could (and did) use their fists to "discuss" racing techniques.

I also like photography.....I don't have a fancy camera, but like they say...the best camera you have is the one you happen to have with you. I like taking pictures while I am out on bike rides....so I'll share them as I take them. I took this one last winter. I like old barns.

I was reading this news story about the Grand Canyon when I was looking for a new wallpaper for my computers dual screen setup, seems like such a shame. My wife and her sister took mules down to the bottom a few years ago, the closest I will get is this.

I manage a bakery and I sorta know how to decorate cakes (emphasis on "sorta"-I don't do it much)..... this is an amazing cake. There is something out there I like to call the "Buddy Valastro" effect when people come to our bakery to order a cake. Ever since this show has been on, I dread it when someone comes up to our counter clutching a bunch of pictures, multi-colored ribbons and 20 different colored fabric swatches. They go on to describe some sort of engineering marvel we are supposed to create for $22.95.....those folks don't realize that Buddies cheapest 1/4 sheet "shop"cakes (the most basic of decorated cakes) start right around 50 dollars and go up sharply from there if you need any customization. Some of the cakes our awesome decorators do would sell for well over a hundred bucks if they were in a high end bakery.

We have a Five Guys less then 2 miles from our house.....they make good burgers, now it's official. When I win the lottery......this is the car I'm gonna use to pick my burgers up. 707 horsepower and 10.8 in the 1/4? Holy shit.

One of my hobbies is detailing our cars. I love to make our cars look new as long as possible. I saw this video on Reddit........wow, this isn't the best way to detail a car. I honestly thought it was a spoof video, but this dealership in Seattle Washington sure loves to use a pressure washer inappropriately. Pro tip, never use Armour All on the interior of your car-it will eventually pull all the oils out of the interior plastics and cause them to crack if you stop using it.

This coming Monday is inventory at where I work.....least favorite day of the month-I get to count all our ingredients and manually enter them into a computer. Shoot me.

Till later.

If you do this......you're an asshole.

First time I've ever seen this......rolling coal. So help me God, if some redneck mouth-breather does this to me while I'm on my bicycle and I somehow manage to catch up to them at a light or something......I've got 16 ounces of bear spray fogger Velcroed to my handlebars and I'd be more then happy to return the favor.

Some people think they can do anything when they are behind the wheel of a vehicle......I'm not the most sedate driver, if the speed limit on the highway is 65 and traffic is light and the weather is good.....I'll hammer along at 80 mph or so.

On the other hand, if the weather is crappy and road conditions are poor, I'll be over in the right lane keeping plenty of space in front of me and my eyes focused down the road and in my mirrors. Too many distracted drivers on the highway follow each other way too close....that's how most accidents happen. Remove all the distance between cars and you've removed most of your reaction time.

Since I work in a shopping center, my favorite distracted driving is the soccer mom driving a 2 1/2 ton SUV she can barely see over the steering wheel of and shes talking on her cellphone, turned around  talking to her kids in the back seat and trying to drink her 6 dollar cup of coffee while backing out of a parking space.

A few years ago, I actually watched someone talking on a cell drive right into a light pole in our parking lot when I was going to work one night.....she was only going 10 or 15 mph, but she hit it dead center with her vehicle and set all the airbags off. Fortunately she was fine, but her van was totaled.....she wanted us to pay for the damages to her vehicle...not sure how her reasoning worked that one out.

I recently bought myself a new watch..........

It's one of those new Android Wear watches that does all kinds of shit. I've only had it for a day, but so far I like it.......more to follow.

I'm a nerd.

Till later.

Sometimes I'm a dick.

When I am at home, you're not going to find a more laid back easy going individual......when I'm at work-I'm very focused.

Having said that, I have some pretty awesome folks that I work with that make my job easy. Between all 3 of my cake decorators- there is almost 75 years of experience. Between myself and my asst manager, we have almost 75 years of experience combined. I have a retired dept manager as my head clerk.....I have some talented folks working with me.

.....and I have one or two people that .....how shall we say.....they are works in progress. Our company doesn't have "problems"- we have "opportunities", so I have a couple of walking talking "opportunities" that I deal with on a day to day basis.

I've read that how you handle problems (or "opportunities" if you work for my company)  define what kind of manager you are- I've got some room for improvement, because looking someone in the eye and telling them to pull their head out of their ass probably isn't the most positive thing I can say to someone who shows up to work 3 1/2 hours late, but it gets my point across.

Sometimes I just can't help it.......I'm a dick.

Till later.

So it's been a few years........

Where do I start? I think the last time I did an entry to this blog I was an overnight baker at the same supermarket chain I've been at since 1976.

After our son graduated from high school 3 years ago....I decided I wanted to get off of night-work and back into management. I was a bakery manager before our kids (now ages 20 and 26) started grade school.

I applied for an asst. bakery mgr position at another store- I aced out 6 or 7 other candidates and got the job.

Unfortunately, I got the opportunity to work for the companies worst bakery manager.

Let's just say I learned how to work with a manic-depressive woman going through menopause for about 18 months until a manager position opened up and I've been a bakery manager for the past year or so.

Retail management ain't for everyone........sometimes you have to be nice to someone when you really would like to be not be nice to them-and there is always the ever present stress to turn a certain percentage of profit.

Anyways......lots of stuff I plan to write about.

 If you were a past reader of this blog, some of the stuff I write about could possibly piss you off.......too bad-it's my blog :-)

Later.