Call of Duty 4 = FREE

Yeah, that's right. Free. How, you may ask? Well, let me tell you.

Steph and I took our bi-weekly trip to Target to pick up the essentials. Body wash and hand soap for Steph, Call of Duty 4 for me. We also got a few other things, then proceeded to the register. The young man at the check out started scanning in our items, but he was using the hand scanner. I'm not really sure why, but he was. He got to the game, when he asked me if I was using a gift card. I said I wasn't, then he looked at the screen and realized he had to scan everything in all over again.

This is when it got odd.

When he got to a pair of gloves for Steph, the scanner wouldn't work. the clerk said, "I aint about to mess with this. Guess you get those for free." Yeah, I was pretty shocked, but what do you say to that? He continued with the other stuff, and had the same problems on three other items. You guessed it, those were 'free' too. One of those items just happened to be the game pictured above. When he told us the total, somewhere around $45, I asked, "are you sure?" He replied, "Yeah."

I paid the man and left.

In retrospect, I feel a little guilty that I walked out about $70 ahead, but if Target wants to hire people like this to work in a critical part of the store, they really need a more efficient screening process. As we walked out, I said to Steph, "I'm pretty sure that guy won't be working here much longer, but if he is, we're going to him every time."

Cleaning Day

This morning after work I had my 6 month check-up/cleaning. Going to the dentist is probably one of my least favorite things to do. There's just something about a near stranger rooting around in my mouth that just irks me a little. To top it off, my gums are quite sensitive, so it's often quite painful during the cleaning. Fortunately, in my many years of bi-annual cleanings, I've never had even one cavity. It used to drive Kathie nuts. When we were young, she had the complete oral hygiene regime nailed. Brush, floss, Listerine, twice a day. It was an odd occurrence if I brushed my teeth twice a week. Disgusting? Yes. But I was a kid. What did I know? Needless to say, my habits have improved immensely, but I still hate going to the dentist.

Office Colors: Before....

Well, it looks like we'll be painting the spare bedroom this weekend. Since this is one of the few weekends we don't have something planned, and these darker colors aren't really appropriate for a baby's room, we'll be moving one step closer to turning my office into a nursery. It's always interesting to see before and after shots of stuff like this. It's been interesting to go back and look at all the shots of our kitchen before the remodel. It should be cool to do the same here.

Too. Damn. Cold.

Okay, I know winter is nowhere near right now, but it sure feels like it. I've been wearing this flannel nearly nonstop for the last week or so. We have a really old house, so the insulation isn't all that great. We can have the heat on 68° nonstop, and there will still be areas in the house where I freeze my butt off. I do like the cooler weather, but there's a fine line between "cool" and "cold." We're getting close to crossing that line.

I still haven't heard anything from Leading Edge Hydraulics, but that's not surprising. They had a couple more interviews early this week, so hopefully I'll hear something bu the end of this week or early next.

Favorite Shots #18: Call of Duty

Seeing as how I need to leave for work in 15 minutes and I have yet to shoot a picture, looks like it's time for another favorite shot! This one was taken a couple of years ago at a World War II reenactment Dad and I attended. It was pretty awesome. There was a battle in a village and some open field stuff with artillery and camps for each army. I wanted to go again this year, but my third shift schedule pretty much put a stop to that.

I also post this today as a note to all you gamers reading this. Call of Duty 4 comes out this week, and considering my employment situation, I likely won't be buying it right away. I am, however, sorely tempted. Turns out Circuit City has a killer deal on this title. If you buy COD4 at Circuit City, they throw in Call of Duty 3 for FREE. Pretty awesome if you ask me. What do you think, should I go for it? Two $60 games for the price of one is really hard to pass on.

Here's a link to the rest of the shots I took that day.

No Time....

Today was hectic, to say the least. I literally woke up, had a cup of coffee, then went to Rockford to run errands. Unfortunately, since I'm working 11 hours tonight, I haven't had time to take any photos. I've decided instead to put up the rest of the shots from yesterday. Enjoy!

Minor League Boxing

I've decided there's nothing cooler (or cuter!) than my 4 year old niece and my 2 year old nephew playing Wii Sports: Boxing.

Tonight Steph and I went to Pecatonica to have dinner with family. Of course, after the smash hit on Labor day, I was asked to bring my Wii along. I took a few shots of the adults playing, but none of them were up to par with these two shots. Watching Juliana and Joey flail around for nearly 5 minutes nonstop was seriously funny. The whole room was cracking up. Looks like I'll be bringing the Wii on Thanksgiving too....

First Interview!

This photo is in no way related to today's post. Frankly, I couldn't think of anything relevant to shoot, and I didn't want to take a shot of my potential future employer, since I didn't want them to think I was some kind of freak. I was playing around, shooting the cats tonight, and I just thought this picture of Chloe was adorable. Just goes to show what boredom will drive you to, late at night when everyone else is asleep....

I had my first job interview today! Well, certainly not my very first, but my first in this new job hunt I've recently began. The company is called Leading Edge Hydraulics, and it's a small-ish machine shop in Rockford. They've been around for about 30 years, and they specialize in hydraulic tubes. Their two main customers are Caterpillar and John Deere, but they have about 30 different companies they supply to.

I was interviewing for a Floor Lead position. If I get the job, I will be supervising 3 people on 1st shift, and two others on 2nd shift. I think the interview went very well. I had about a 1/2 hour interview with the HR Manager, then went for a walk through the shop with the plant manager. For those of you who work or have worked at Belvedere, it really reminds me of the old Plant One Fabrication department. The main difference is the size. The entire plant is metal fabrication. They don't have a lot of employees, but there is room for a lot of advancement through the plant. There are several different areas that have floor leads, and the plant super says eventually, they may create two floor supervisor positions to manage those leads. It seems that the right person could really advance well there. Hopefully I'm the right person! As I said, the interview went very well. I should be hearing back from them either late next week or the week after.

October: In Review

This has, without a doubt, been the most stressful month I've had in a long time. To cap it all off, the official announcement came down today that Chrysler will be eliminating third shift in our plant sometime in the first quarter of next year. I admit, it's been expected, but my disappointment is pretty acute. I understand market conditions require the company to do what they must, but the failure of the Union to get us hired in, along with their willingness to allow the company to create this "Enhanced Temporary" situation to begin with, is pretty severe. It somewhat a relief to finally know for sure what's coming, but I still don't know for sure when it will happen. Fortunately, I have an opportunity tomorrow to interview for a seemingly great job, months before I have to face unemployment. When all these people get laid off from Chrysler and the surrounding plants, the job market is going to be flooded with the unemployed. It could be rough.

Here's my favorite shots for the month:

Bonus Shots!

I know the last day of the month is usually reserved for the "Best Of" that month, but I took these shots this morning, and I just had to share them. We had a really beautiful sunrise this morning, and I couldn't resist....

Crazy Cat Lady

Every night before bed, Steph will sit on the couch for about 45 minutes, watching tv and just relaxing. Typically, "Steph's cats," Bear and Chloe, will jump up and sit on her lap or lay behind her head. Punkin will sometimes sit on the edge of the couch, keeping his distance. What happened tonight never happens. The skittish little freak, Cotton, decided he also wanted to be on the couch with everyone else. Don't ask me why, but I couldn't resist snapping off some shots of this. It really hits me that we have 4 cats when you see all four in such a small space.

Blowing Up

My phone (and my mind) blew up today. Let me explain. As I said the last couple of days, I've spent some time updating, uploading, and sending my resume to three different websites. I also choose 4 different jobs that I thought sounded appealing, and sent an email along with my resume to them. I didn't think for a second I'd hear anything so soon, but I was wrong. Already this morning I received a call and an email from a company in Rockford called Leading Edge Hydraulics. This was one of the four places I applied to, and the position I was applying toward was the standard, run-of-the-mill entry level production job. When I checked my email before going to bed today, the email they sent said they wanted me to interview for a Lead Person job.

I didn't expect that at all.

Granted, I do have some lead experience from my time in the Mirage cell at Belvedere, but as I said above, I was only applying for the production job. I called their HR person back, and I have an interview for Thursday morning. What happened this afternoon blew my mind.

Rich Silvers, a friend and former co-worker from Belvedere, called me this evening. I have him listed as a reference, so I assumed someone may have called him. I was right about that, but what I didn't know was that Rich's dad works for Leading Edge. Not only is Rich a great reference to begin with, since he's related to someone there, it really puts some weight behind what he told them. From what Rich told me, he gave me a glowing reference, which explains why they want me to interview for the Lead position.

The coincidence of this whole situation is just bowing my mind. Obviously I haven't got the job yet, but I really feel like I have a shot thanks to Rich. I never thought for a second I'd have the opportunity to start anywhere at anything but entry level. Having something like this happen so soon, with the potential to make decent money on first shift, is a dream come true. Wish me luck on my interview, and Rich, you're my hero.

Job Search

This weekend, I've spent a great amount of time online, uploading my resume, browsing websites, and applying for jobs. At this point, I plan on staying at Chrysler until they tell me I'm done, but if something good comes along before then, I'm history. I suppose I've learned quite a bit in my time there. I put far too much faith in an international institution that has absolutely no accountability to its members. I've learned that although historically, unions have been highly beneficial to the working class, in the end, these are bureaucratic organizations where the leadership is far more interested in self-preservation than in the preservation of their membership. They've created a situation in that plant where the good worker isn't rewarded for being good, nor is the bad worker punished for being bad. Instead, layoffs and cutbacks are based solely on seniority, and where seniority doesn't exist, cutbacks are determined by social security number. The whole system is absurd. I'm not saying I'll never work there again, but at this point, I'm somewhat relieved that my time there is short.

Catnip Crazy

We have this little plastic tub of catnip that sits on top of a cabinet. It's very dry, and when you shake it, it has a very distinct, rattling sound. When 3 of our 4 cats hear that sound, they come running. It's about the only time I can get Punkin to stay in one area long enough to get a few good shots of him. Since today was pretty run-of-the-mill, I decided to throw down some catnip and fire off about 50 shots.

Well, the vote passed. I'm sure most of you have read this in the paper already. Our Local Union voted the contract down with 55% no votes, but it just wasn't enough. I updated my resume today and actually sent it off to a few places this afternoon. I'll likely stick it out until the end, but it doesn't hurt to get my name out there. If I get a good enough job, I'll leave right away. They didn't allow me to give Belvedere 2 weeks notice, why should I do that for them?

Night Leaves

I was taking out the trash tonight, when I looked up, and this is what I saw. Those beautiful orange leaves against that pitch black sky was just begging to be photographed. I don't really feel this shot even does it justice. I really love the way everything looks this time of year. All these reds, oranges, and browns is really beautiful.

We had our meeting about the contract today. The meeting ran about 3 hours, and nothing in that meeting was said that even came close to changing my "no" vote. I don't really think it makes a difference at this point, but at least my vote is in there. I did learn two things of importance today. First, an International rep accidentally let slip that third shift is indeed slated to be shut down. After realizing by the stunned crowd that this had not yet been officially announced, he quickly backpedaled and tried to change the subject. No one bought it. I don't know when it will happen, but I should know soon. The second thing I learned is that any job openings at the plant will be filled by ETEs first, after all seniority employees have returned to work. This may seem unimportant since they're shutting down the third shift, but they also announced there will be more severance and retirement packages available early next year. Hopefully many, many people will take them, so I can get back into the plant asap.

Favorite Shots #17: U.S. Cellular Field

I miss baseball. Working as much as I did this past season, I wasn't able to go to one Sox game at all. With the World Series on right now, I want to watch it, but I just can't bring myself to watch a Colorado vs Boston game. It was a rough season for us Sox fans, but as I've said many times, and probably will say many more, wait until next year!

Things aren't looking good at work. The contract is all but passed, with our voting to begin tomorrow morning. There was a meeting with top International brass today, and many are speculating that 3rd shift will be no more by the end of December. It's looking like that may be true. They have to give us 60 days notice, so if it is true, I should find out very soon.

The New "Office"

We finally moved that behemoth of a desk out of the house. We took it out Saturday afternoon, so now we can start getting what used to be the office ready to be a nursery. This is what is passing for an office now. Tucked into a corner in the front of the house, to say this area is bit cramped would be an understatement. I guess it's better than nothing, but it was nice to have my "own" room. We still have a lot of work to do to get the spare room ready for the baby, but this at least was a start.

Migraine

I was listening to a fascinating podcast yesterday. It was NPR's Fresh Air, and they were talking to an expert on migraine headaches. It's ironic, since today I was hit with a doosie. You know, the kind that regardless of what you take, it refuses to go away? Yeah, one of those. I'm sitting here writing this, my head throbing, wondering how I'm going to make it through the night. I guess I'll have to tough it out.

The contract ratification was hit with another serious blow tonight. A series of plants in Kokomo, Indiana, voted overwhelmingly against the tentative agreement. The Local 685 represents over 5,000 people, roughly 72% of which voted against the contract.

Fungus Among Us

Last year the tree outside our back porch developed this odd growth that we assumed to be a fungus. Well, it looks like it has re-emerged this year, and it's as odd-looking as ever. It has this spongy, somewhat solid texture, and last year it got quite large. I don't know if it's deadly to the tree or not, but I'l certainly keep an eye on it. Gross.

Looks like we'll be voting on the contract this Friday. The opposition to this deal has been pretty widespread, and it looks as if our plant is one of the keys to getting it voted down. If that is the case, there's no doubt it won't be ratified. Over 20% of our workforce is "temporary," and we all get to vote. I'll keep you all informed.

Back to Work

Well, the 2 week shut down has come to an end. I wish I had been able to relax a little more, but with all the turmoil surrounding the contract situation, it's been difficult. I have to go in early tonight, but I don't mind. On the heels of the terrible contract news, this week I've been bombarded with stories about local unions rejecting this contract. It's really amazing to me this is happening, but it doesn't surprise me too much, considering the details. It's looking more and more that Belvidere Assembly will be a very important part of the ratification vote. Three plants were singled out. One voted today and rejected it, one votes tomorrow or Tuesday, and it looks as if we're the last to vote. It should be interesting to see how the International tries to pursuade us in the direction they want. I aint buying.