Of course, it's been plenty busy around here and I trust that everybody's been well entertained.
Let's get caught up.
Mostly I've been dealing with work. The semi-annual non-job related work issues.
I spend Monday morning and all of Friday in an office but, I don't work in an office. I work here...
and here...
and on good days here...
The people I work for do work in offices...and they go through occasional bouts of paranoia about what we, the outbound salesmen, are up to...out there spending all their money, carousing in places like...what Gloster??? Mound Bayou???
Stop hatin' man. There's nothin' keepin y'all in office.
It's especially irritating when you've been sent to a place by one person and then grilled as to why you were there by another. When these moments come, we take it...swap admonishments (this one tips too much, this one over-works the same area, the other spends too much on lodging) and then go back to handling our business.
Which mainly consists of driving between places like Jena and Jonesville, Louisiana...listening to the radio.
Really though, I love my job. I try to do a good job and I think I manage it but, seriously...Martha's hotter than a two dollar pistol and there's The Boy, imBlakei...
I'm not out here in St. Fancisville 'cause I'd rather not be at the house.
Speaking of being at the house...I took a minute this weekend to watch a movie..To Kill a King.
Two things...one, Tim Roth is the boss. Two, while I'm somewhat familiar with this period in British History...it's not in my wheelhouse but, I'll say this, every time I've ever seen any representation of Cromwell I've wanted to choke him...choke 'im right out.
I think it's the Puritan stuff...that's who the Yankees are. The English ones anyway. That's where they come from. Maybe that's it. That and I just find the presumptuousness of revolutions repulsive by nature...executing Kings! Who in the...anyway, that's probably the result of our history in The South. Which has been forced through, and is constantly being threatened with*, radical change for the last 150 years.
Speaking of...I stopped in Rosemont yesterday. The family home of Jeff Davis...a simple elegant homestead. Nothing pretentious or ostentatious. A home.
That's a post for another day...right now I'm just trying to get back to my own home.
I think that gets us back on track.
*There have been some calls for a third Reconstruction...an economic reconstruction. We're attracting industry by cheating. We don't have any unions and that isn't fair. The gov. recently used labor laws to stop Boeing moving a plant from Seattle to South Carolina...and we won't talk about Airbus.
Sigh, I wish my office was in a bar. Or an ice cream place. Or some kind of combination bar/ice cream parlor. Yum.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely has its moments.
ReplyDeleteARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI left my ipad charger in the motel room!!!!!
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Was about to send the road warrior rescue team after you. You know the guys, all dressed in nice suits with open expense accounts. :). Also the road warrior quote fitted with the Zulu experience lol.
ReplyDeleteAnyway glad to see your ok, and back to enthralling us all with whats going on.
OMG leaving chargers behind. I did that all the time, usually because I had to use the Bathroom power point to plug it in to charge, because of course there are no plugs anywhere convenient and the 1 you can use has something else plugged into it. I counted up 16 lost chargers in 1 year. hmm
I'm alive thank you...don't know how well I am but I'm here :)
DeleteI can see when I come to the States late next year we are going to have to find somewhere to tell war stories about being on the road :)
DeleteYou let me know when you're headed this way.
DeleteWe'll make sure you're shown a good time.
That is the true joy of life on the road. Who would want an office when you could be in a cafe sipping shit coffee and watching the world go by (whilst toying with work tasks).
ReplyDeleteTrade unions....ooooooooooh....do I feel another lefty lecture on how they are A GOOD THING, coming on....? Mmmmm... or shall I spare you all that...
Hope you got the charger back.
Good bad indifferent we just don't have much history with them...don't want em. People have tried from time to time. I've got some Earl Broder pamphlets you'd probably get a kick out of. We aren't joiners and we like to make our own deals.
ReplyDeleteAnd we certainly aren't going to be told we must have them. We just got a Toyota plant because they closed a union shop in California. It was a joint effort with gm and the only union plant Toyota had. When gm backed out they decided to move.
We like are chances
I've worked for, belonged to, represented or supported a Trade Union all of my working life. (surprise!).
ReplyDeleteCollective action and solidarity in the pursuit of common goals - no better way to bargain and negotiate with an employer thereby guaranteeing the best terms and conditions.
But I would say that...
"You" (not you personally of course) just got a Toyota plant on the back of the destruction of fellow workers elsewhere - and ultimately to the detriment of your own terms and conditions. Employment protections and health and safety legislation(however minimal they might be in your parts) are due to the efforts of trade unionists. Capital depends upon the existence of a pool of low paid (desperate) wannabe workers. Best way to guarantee this is to do just what Toyota did.
I am genuinely curious (cos of most of what I've read about the generality of American welfare programmes and "safety net" systems). Isn't it really bad to be poor or disabled or vulnerable where you are? What protections or life chances do people really have when they are poor or born into poverty? Or face crippling disease which prevents them working and providing for their families? Are they simply left to get on with it? For one of the worlds richest countries you have breath-taking rates of poverty, deprivation, homelessness and starvation. Or am I just not reading the right articles?
What would happen to someone for instance if they were unable to work due to debilitating illness?
It would be no bed of roses here - but there are extensive welfare, housing and health safety nets in place.
Cromwell... Fairfax... was a good enough film. Enriched by the presence of Dougray Scott (sigh...) a beautiful actor...
We gotta keep in mind the context in which I brought this up...we are edging up to territory where I will not tread lightly.
DeleteJesus never existed, individuals are property of the State, I am God you are God...all those things are great fodder for conversation and there's no point or use in being caustic. I like the back and forth and I want this to be a place where y'all feel free to express yourselves. There's no fun in always talking to people who agree with you.
Also, given your personal history and work history I understand this is an issue close to your heart...those people are lucky to have you for an advocate.
I just want to put it out there...this conversation will turn very serious if it takes on a Reconstructionist tone. I'm not trying to be ugly...
The idea of fellow workers...one, the idea of being a "worker" doesn't sit well with a lot of people. The concept of identifying yourself as a faceless worker cuts against the grain for people that only work so they can fish, drink beer and pick the guitar.
If you were to pull a painter off a wall and ask him about his fellow workers..in say California...he'd probably look at you like you were a Martian. We're not really big on solidarity with our neighbors...we like 'em just fine but, we like 'em over there minding their own business...never mind people halfway cross the continent.
Just for giggles these union car workers in the mid-west...the people that work, or used to work, in the industrial playground around the Great Lakes (the one whose foundation was poured with the ashes of Atalanta, Jackson, Charleston...a church in Friars Point, etc.)...used to run ads down here telling us not to buy cars made by our neighbors because they weren't ameerican cars. Ha.
Nissan's operated a factory north of Jackson for over 10 years...there don't seem to be a lot of complaints and I don't think it's staffed with wannabes.
Though of course, when the government blocked the move by Boeing from Seattle to South Carolina...the Wall Street Journal said the real story was that Boeing was willing to risk national security by placing their plant in The South with low skilled workers.
Just so you can sleep tonight...or tomorrow night, we have social security, disability, workers comp, medicade, housing projects, etc. My Grandaddy went on disability in 1980 and stayed on it til he died in 09. They made it just fine...course he worked for cash money until the mid 90's. I know the idea of welfare cheats is supposed to be a Myth...which makes my Moma's family something of an exception. If it ever comes to the point where it's not worth working anymore I know all the angles.
In case there's any confusion...you have not ventured into unfriendly territory and I'm trying to stifle your fiestiness...which has not only led to some good stuff around here but, which I admire.
DeleteI'm just giving a warning...descriptive criticism is fine (you people are crazy) is fine...presciptive criticism (you people must stop being crazy) will bring out the hammer. :)
Should read I am NOT trying to stifle your fiestiness.
DeleteWhere is his monkey tail skirt and ear flaps... I expected better accuracy from you man! I missed you again t'other day, headphones on in middle earth and all that!
ReplyDeleteJust stop it...that things cool and you know it.
DeleteTry spending a little more time on this planet and maybe we can catch up with one another.
Oh it is cool, I have a piece of stiff cow hide in the attic just waiting for the boy shows but the merest glimmer of interest, them bam, the little sucker will wish he'd never spoke.
DeleteAh, never happen, all my best buddies and even my wife exist in cyberspace these days, so who can blame me. I have a few mates who do live near, but they ain't so much fun, and lets be fair if they were I'd be on here less than I am too! You wish!
Whoa Whoa...I didn't say I wanted you to get a real life. Let's not get carried away :).
DeleteI just want you to spend more time on this ether planet.
Maybe we can get it sussed this weekend. The Boy can ask you what you call a septic tank or whatever.
He told me last night he wants a red shirt and a British gun.
I like your offices but it is awful to be on the road all the time. Loving the song choice, and liking the blog
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding my blog the other day and leaving a lovely comment. Comments make my day.
Good to see you here Sharron...and thanks.
ReplyDeleteI got a real kick out of your blog. I'll be around there.
Though not the main point of your ramble, the word "Puritan" is a tough one. There are lots of folks that were called Puritan (I've even been called such things), some good others not so much. J.C. Ryle is called a puritan by most but really he was just a proper Anglican - striving to keep his church from forgetting the Gospel. Jeremiah Burroughs was a sure-enough puritan, but his stuff generally rocks. As for Cromwell...even the Presbyterians wanted nothing to do with him.
ReplyDeleteThere is the description of puritans having "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy". But even the early puritans to this continent were quick to brew good beer and loved to feast as much as fast. I think the bulk of them could be described as loving simple, basic, and "earthy" things. How much more Southern can you get than that?
Ronnie
Hmmph. Presumption has nothing to do with it. Kings have necks for a reason.
ReplyDeleteFlippn' Pirates.
DeleteThere's a great scene in the movie where Lady Fairfax asks her old man if he thinks it's right to change the world that his son is about to come into?
Reminding him that he is making a decision for everyone here after.
Not changing it is a decision too.
DeleteThere was somebody - can't remember who it was. Hannah Arendt? John Ralston Saul? One of those sorts of guys - the sort of guy who isn't a pinko (BTW you may have resurrected it but I don't think you've managed re-pejorativing it) but who still thinks on an ambitious social scale.
So it was one of those types of guys who felt that the British have such an unrepresentative damp squib of a parliamentary government today because their revolution happened too early, and was too absolutely dominated by the established middle class, leaving the British with a society even more petrified in its stratification than the US and certainly much more petrified than the rest of northern Europe.
Anyways. Cromwell could have cut off all the kings' heads he liked as far as I'm concerned, but the bastard killed Ireland, a place I've got no particular attachment to but which I'm sure didn't need to lose 30% of its population. The man was worse than a potato blight.
Smart people don't allow themselves to be called names.
DeleteMaybe he's right...and thankfully so as Britain went through the next 200 years immune to the nonsense on continental Europe...leaving Britain in a position to baby sit the Europe. Something it has always needed to keep from killing itself off.
:0
Ronnie Ronnie...excellent post and of course, you are correct. Puritan is a tricky one because it's a pejorative and it was tossed around at a lot of different people.
ReplyDeleteI was referring to a very specific group that left Oxford or Cambridge 30 or 40 years before the English Civil War. They were the seeds of what Clyde Wilson called referred to as The Yankee Problem in America.
It's also a problematic word because of examples like the one you mention Ryle...not a Puritan but wanting pure teachings. It's more of a descriptive term that way.
If you don't start posting regular I'm going to introduce **** to coffee this weekend.
I do enjoy these glimpses, both literary and pictorial, of your daily life. Perhaps especially as mine is so different! Also, even as a non-meat-eater (nothing morally heavy, though!), I feel compelled to ask, what's the thing with 'snout & pigtail off the grill'? Is it a delicacy?!
ReplyDeleteIt is exactly what it says.
ReplyDeletePig Tails and Snouts off the grill...fy dolluhs.
One mans trash is another man's delicacy I reckon but, if you could see the state of this fish house...the word delicacy...hahahaha.
The food's good though...no doubt about that.
I'm glad you enjoy these posts. It's different than a lot of places here :).
I think blogger may have eaten a comment.
ReplyDeletee.f. - you are a good person. And I am smiling a big wide smile cos I am feisty and argumentative and a pain in the arse - no doubt about it - and you have managed to put up with me with such good grace. Of course - none of the fore-going means I will stop being a feisty pain in the arse. But you know that. So all is cool.
ReplyDeleteMy Right wing son is currently nipping my ear about unions - so I must go... (we all have crosses to bear!).
From here on out know that you are free to get after it. I don't expect you to be silent on issues that matter to you.
ReplyDeleteThis particular issue has been an avenue of attack for people like the 'heavily accented" fella here...
"General Richard Taylor, in one of the best Confederate memoirs, Destruction and Reconstruction, related what happened as he surrendered the last Confederate troops east of the Mississippi in 1865. A German, wearing the uniform of a Yankee general and speaking in heavily accented English, lectured him that now that the war was over, Southerners would be taught "the true American principles." Taylor replied, sardonically, that he regretted that his grandfather, an officer in the Revolution, and his father, President of the United States, had not passed on to him true American principles. Yankeeism was triumphant."
Quoted from Destruction and Reconstruction by Clyde Wilson in the Yankee Problem in America.
I don't want you or anybody else to be caught unawares if...in the course of certain conversations... I turn green and start rampaging around here making declarative statements and pounding a conversation to atoms.
I don't like being that way...and I don't think anybody else would.
Tell your boy he has my best wishes and sincere sympathies.
Deletedon't wish to ruin your day, e.f., but go to google and type in "general lee" and "watson" and "nascar." espn will gladly explain to you what's going on.
ReplyDeletei just did my taxes today, so i'm not in the mood to think about this right now. i might well become violent.
love to martha & The Boy
I'm not goin there tonight....I'm not in the mood for that horse s***.
ReplyDeleteHave you learned nothing here...you should be grateful for every penny above subsistence the government allows you to keep.
Y'all should have gone into cotton...then the gov. would be paying y'all not to farm.