Some Random Musings on a Friday Night

Keith's ladyfriend, Tracee, lost her job two days ago. She'd been managing The Afternoon stores in the metro area for the past 15 years. She came into work and they gave her 10 minutes to clean out her desk. No notice and I'm guessing no thank you either. It's a family thing where somebody from within will take over Tracee's job. I'm sad for her because she really loved her job; you could tell whenever she'd mention the store and how it's doing. It was a part of her and they took it away. Keith is quite certain that the person who will attempt to do what Tracee's been doing won't be nearly as successful.

Tracee has also been trying to sell her home for the past year but is caught up in the dismal real estate market. I've got a "for sale" flyer of her home up on the bulletin board at work. Keith called yesterday to ask me if I could slash the price on it by 40k. They're quite determined to get it sold now that Tracee has no income and that's a rather large expense to cover each month. It's such a beautiful home. I hate to see her drop the price any more than she already has but such is the market.

There's a woman in D.C., Raelyn Campbell, who is suing BestBuy for $54,000,000 for the loss of her laptop after she took it in for servicing by the Geek Squad and it turned up missing. She knows the amount is excessive but it was her intent to make it a large number so as to draw publicity to her plight. It appears to be working. Here's one of many articles about the suit I found online and here's her blog she dedicated to the lawsuit. I made a comment there and linked to my own problems with the evil company. Some other news source quoted a few posts from her blog and used mine as one of them. I'm subsequently getting a ton of hits on my own blog from people reading about my problems with the company. Boycotting them has been much easier than I anticipated it would be. You should try it.

Maybe, in the end, this will only amount to a case of 'any publicity is good publicity' for BestBuy rather than leaving people with a negative connotation of the company which the woman in D.C. would hope for as I would too.

I was perusing some blogs last night looking for writings of fellow air traffic controllers in particular. I came across one from an 18.5-year veteran controller out east who was recently let go because of a medical condition for which they'd previously had a waiver. Rather than try and see this person through to retirement in the form of some non-ATC position the FAA instead chose to cut them loose. It would be an expensive legal battle to wage to try and recover some sort of medical retirement so this controller is reluctant to do that as it's not a sure thing. See ya. They spoke of another controller in a similar position who's had a waiver his entire career but now with 20 years in, they're giving him the heave-ho as well. At least he'll qualify for his retirement but he wanted to work several more years.

The part about this which is most disturbing to me is that it's going to force people with medical issues underground rather than being upfront with management for fear of losing their job. That's not a good scenario. If they're going to be terminated for coming forward what incentive is there for them to be honest? A controller with over 18 years of experience and dedication being put out with that much time invested in a career doesn't encourage people to want to do the right thing.

Hmmm, seems my blog tonight is a bit of a rant. Sorry. Let me change direction.

Tammy's mother and sister came into town a few days ago. Cindy flew to Texas yesterday to visit a friend while her mother will remain behind and visit with us as well as some other relatives in the area. You won't find a sweeter woman than Elaine.

Tammy and I took our moms out to dinner tonight at a Valentine's dinner being held at Hosanna. We were sitting with some people we'd never met before exchanging small talk. Steve, the guy next to me mentioned that he grew up in Bloomington and I told him I did too. He asked me what year I graduated high school and I told him 1975. The look on his face was priceless as he asked me twice more to repeat the year I graduated. He said he would've guessed 1995 but no way '75. I looked over at Tammy and she was rolling her eyes talking about how she's never going to hear the end of this.

Steve is my new friend.

Sara Renner and The Elements put on a concert after dinner which we stayed for. Although both our parents are hard of hearing I think they enjoyed the show. Here's a clip from it.