sheftali52

Robin, I enjoyed your Burger King story. You are correct about acts of kindness being loved by most of us. What I discovered in my travels is that there are lots of decent people all over. Once in Turkey, I was in a hurry to get somewhere and had trouble finding a taxi. I finally hailed a taxi and asked him (in my best bonehead Turkish) to take me to my destination as fast as possible. All was good, until he indicated he needed to go to a gas station and get gas and some other stuff. I was not pleased, but I was courteous as he drove to his favorite gas station. Well, he bought me a cup of tea (great tea in Turkey!) to drink while he fueled up, and he didn't start up the meter again until we were well under way again. When he delivered me to my destination, not all that much later, he got out and opened the door for me to get out (not usual for taxi drivers). I was pleased to be treated so kindly! Mind you, a lot of Americans have a bad reputation overseas, as they are arrogant and treat locals with disdain. I made a point of learning local customs and trying to fit in. I don't think I ever messed up too badly!

sheftali52

Oops, on #4544, that should be Thx Dragon vs Thx marg. Sheftali was obviously a tad sleepy at that point.

Dragon

Here in Canada we have a coffee/donut restaraunt type place called Tim Horton's (I know there are quite a few of these down in the northern states as well so a lot of you might know what I'm talking about) Anyway, Timmy's is pretty much a Canadian obsession, the drive through is always busy pretty much all times of the day. That random act of kindness Robin mentioned of the person paying for the one behind them sometimes happens in Timmy's drive through's and often the next person will continue by buying for the one behind them and so on. I've never been in that situation but I've heard it can go on for quite a few cars.
I've also had a few times where a neighbour will sweep the snow off my car in the morning for me. Just a little thing but it means so much when someone does something nice for no reason, it really does make your day better and makes you want to pay it forward.

Robindcr8l

Dragon, when I lived in Buffalo, where the snow can be never-ending for months, I had bought a little house in an old neighborhood right after I got my first nursing job. This street was a dead-end, and had 16 houses on it, 8 on either side. All but 3 of them had the original owners and the houses had been built in the fifties, so you can imagine that most of my neighbors were quite elderly. Anyway, for the 3 years I lived there, I never had to shovel my sidewalk or my driveway. Santa always snuck over when I was sleeping or gone, and snow-blowed the whole driveway for me! It was a long driveway and would have probably teken me close to 2 hours to shovel by hand. There were 3 old men who kind of took turns doing the sidewalk all the way up and down the street for everyone, but mine was the only extra driveway they did besides their own. I don't know if it was one of them in particular, or if they took turns doing my drive, but all I could do was make sure all 3 of them got a nice tray of Christmas cookies every year to thank them. I still miss that neighborhood and that house, but not that snow!

Dragon

That's funny, when I was a kid there were only a couple of elderly couples on our street but everyone in the neighbourhood made sure they always had clear sidewalks. Not to difficult as there were a lot of young families with kids just the right age to shovel snow. We have a lady who comes into our clinic regularly, she's in her 80's and is the sweetest thing you've ever met. She told me she'd asked her neighbours teens if she could pay them to shovel her walk and mow her lawn. They told her they won't even do that for their own grandma. I wanted to track them down and smack some sense into them. If we'd said something like that and our parents found out we'd have found ourselves doing all the neighbours yard work for free AND doing our Grandma's too.

Robindcr8l

Another crazy Christmas light display, for those who enjoy them...

http://www.flixxy.com/best-christmas-lights-display.htm

This one says it is so popular they have a crew of 3 people to manage the traffic!

maddyjean08

I just LOVE Christmas......

polenta

WOW!!! Robin, this decoration is incredibly gorgeous!!!!!!!!!! Although I wouldn't like to sleep inside that house.... only to watch it from the outside. I would feel as if electrified. LOL!!

Dragon

That was cool. I can't imagine having the initiative to put all those lights up let alone programing them for music!

marius

That was very cool, and um, er, over the top! : ) Thanks for sharing.

marius

Sheftali - a belated thanks for all the questions answered. Thank you very much. I thought all bases had housing! As you can see, your answers have given more to ponder ... you are forewarned ... more questions might be coming. (tee hee)

marius

And now a Missouri Moment:
Spouse just looked out to check on the snow situation. It is 9 p.m. and what did spouse see when hoping to view the feared storm? He saw our new neighbor walking in a drunken manner around his work-truck, then saw neighbor thinking truck is a fire hydrant and using it that way. This happened exactly when another neighbor drove into the cul-de-sac to "light up" the whole affair as it were. Sigh! Spouse is glad our vehicles are in the garage.

(Sorry - I'm laughing too hard and just realized this isn't the sweetest story but can't help myself, posting it anyway!)

marius

And because of the big storm (which is actually kind of missing us) things got cancelled which gave more time to the evening and time to ponder a previous topic, Dragon's story about her co-worker who takes smoke breaks! It brought up a plethora (20 points) of working-world memories.

Long ago, would have said my main problem at work was most always the co-workers. (tee hee) Now I'd say the main problem was me and boundaries. I didn't know what boundaries to set, much less how to set or enforce them.

This means many years were spent doing way too much work, so much so that a co-worker once said, "You make the rest of us look bad.!" That was not a thought that had ever entered the old bean and I found it an odd thing to say. When she said it I thought, "So you want me to spend two hours a day reading the newspaper like you?" She did! The reason I know she did is because one day I was so fed up with lazy co-workers that I told them, "Today I'm reading the paper for two hours. I will not accept phone calls and don't anyone bother me." They thought this was wonderful! Seriously!

And, for me, reading the paper at work that day was about the longest two hours I have ever survived! I still do not understand people who spend more energy trying NOT to work than they would spend if they actually did their work!

At the beginning of working life, I was always happy to accept a bigger workload when people needed to take time off to have babies, attend sick children, take care of aging parents, attend funerals and all the other things people must do. I was happy to step in because that is what one does, and because it feels good to help other folks. But, after many years of this helping, a crabby marius began to emerge. Why? Because there is a certain point where helping others becomes a detriment to ones self. My bosses should have hired extra help when people missed too much work, but why would they do that when silly marius stepped up to the plate with a smile on her face?

I once worked with a receptionist who missed a ton of work due to health issues with a supposed special needs child. It was a major pain when she was absent as I had to fill in for her, get volunteers to cover when I couldn't, and then do my work later at night. But, I should thank this woman as she is the one who taught me that I could set boundaries! The enlightenment came when I ran into the receptionist's husband and said I hoped they were finding solutions to their daughter's health problems. The man had NO clue what I was talking about!

THAT was when I learned that if *I* needed time off work, I should take it. I didn't feel entitled to abuse time off, but sure felt entitled to use it when needed. I also learned our receptionist needed to work somewhere else, relayed that to the boss and his response was, "We save money when she's absent!" My response was that I could no longer do her job and mine. Since the boss would not clamp down on the receptionist missing work, I did. Told the receptionist that it was now her spouse's turn to step in for the "sick" kid and that I expected her to not miss a single day of work for the next three months. (Hands clapping - marius was learning!) I couldn't believe it when she actually made it to work every day for two weeks. And I couldn't believe how fast that made her turn in her resignation! Yippee! : )

So Dragon, hope you get your non-smokers breaks and, Robin hope you enjoyed your mental health day, whether you took it last week or take it later! : )

Arw65

Marius- your story reminds me of something similar, a few months ago my aunt came to visit at the same time that one of my cousins came to visit. My cousin stayed in a camper- one that goes one the back of the truck- with his dog. about 8 in the morning all us ladies were in the kitchen with a cup of tea/ or coffee- My aunt was standing at the sink "Tyler is awake, he's letting the dog out to pee....' -Gasp, giggle ' guess Tyler let himself out to pee"- note that the camper has a bathroom, and the house- about 5 feet from where he relived himself has 3 bathrooms...... needless to say that was an interesting morning.

Dragon

I have worked with those people who have constant "sick days". I once worked at a store in the mall, one of the other girls (not really the brightest star in the sky) took sick days all the time, shockingly these sick days always came after a night of hard drinking. One time she decided she'd go shopping at the mall on her sick day. The same mall our store was in, and she walked right by the store. I don't believe she worked there much longer.
Now I work with a great group of people, if anyone at our office calls in sick we all know they are actually sick.

sheftali52

Goodness, Robin, that crazy Christmas light display set to music was quite impressive. Some people are so talented. Marius, your neighborhood has a bit of drama, with the barking dogs and the fellow who used his truck as a dog would use a hydrant. Hmmm...neighbors can be challenging. Sheftali's neighborhood is changing more than she'd like. The house to the left of us was moved into just yesterday--waved at the new neighbor as he was monitoring the moving guys. So far so good. The neighbor to the right of us also told me yesterday that he and his wife are moving the end of this month to another neighborhood in this area. Sigh. Sheftali is used to change, having moved around a lot in the military. However, now that I'm retired, constancy seems preferable.

Had to chuckle a bit about people taking "sick" days or otherwise shirking their work. Most dedicated military folks would not think of taking a sick day, though it was allowed if a supervisor approved. Not doing one's work would invoke severe penalties--administrative actions if minor, and dismissal from the military if continued. And don't even think about not showing up for work if in the military--we would go look for the person to find out what the problem was. Mind you, in the military, Uncle Sam owns you 24 hours a day. If you're sick and allowed to stay home, you get paid nonetheless. However, if you have to work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, you don't get extra pay either. Sheftali did one stretch of 18-hour days, 7 days a week, for 4 months straight. Most work days were 10-12 hours, which seemed fair to me. There were crazy times when it seemed I was always at work, and slept at work when I could steal a few moments. But, it was all for accomplishing the mission, no matter what. Failure was not an option. Is it no wonder Sheftali chose not to be a mother? Couldn't imagine taking care of children adequately and still devoting myself 100 percent to the military, as was expected. I'd do it all again if I could, as the disciplined culture of the Air Force was a good fit for me. Okay, I'll stop now!!!

Login

Nooo, don't stop ... any of you! It makes interesting reading.

Dragon

I suspect marius' slacker co-workers would not have lasted 5 minutes in the military.

Baldur

Baldur is back!
I was Christmasizing and had a Santa emergency that needed fixing.

Last night I played Santa again at a function about a half hour drive from here. However as I was preparing an unforeseen problem arose involving my beard.
Baldur's beard is far from being pure white, there are many white hairs but the overall effect is a brownish grey color.
The product I have used to whiten it was actually made to whiten eyebrows on people wearing fake Santa beards. It is basically a flat wooden stick, much like a popsicle stick, coated in something resembling dried white icing. You plunge the substance in water and use the stick to paint the goop on your eyebrows. It has always worked well and Baldur has had good luck using it over my entire beard. Until last night.
I used the last of my whitener by brand Y with more work needed on my beard, but that was no problem I thought since Baldur has purchased 30 Brand X whitener sticks.
Except that Brand X does not work. It is completely useless.
These came off of eBay last year but as it turns out there was still enough of Brand Y to get me through Christmas 2008 so they remained open.
Baldur managed to get enough whitener off the last depleted Y stick to go out as Santa, but immediately upon returning home started a frantic search for more Brand Y.
It does not exist.
Even the website for Brand Y Co. is showing Brand X in it's online catalog in place of Brand Y.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Local radio is already playing commercials for my appearance this weekend.
What to do, what to do?

Baldur is bleaching his beard, either this evening or possibly in the morning.
My last attempt at this did not go well. Santa George uses a different whitener than I have previously tried and he is quite successful with it so Baldur is going the Santa George route this time.
Wish me luck

Baldur

-open +unopened