|
My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
Is a photo missing on an older entry? Click here to find it at Photogra!  The Other Links Favorites and Rings are now here!
The life you save might be mine!
|
Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002 - 7:42 p.m. I�m not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, but somebody at work has sticky fingers. This has been a problem for as far back as I can remember. Little things just come up missing. Considering we make a good living at NDDOT, the lack of money to pay for the stolen object isn�t the problem. It�s a serious character flaw. What has left mysteriously in the recent past? Try a pair of nice earmuff-like AM-FM radio left in my truck (by my partner). He said they were there one morning last week, and when he returned to the truck later in that day they were gone (this was during the week everyone was in the yard working on the trucks). One other large item that grew legs and walked was our deluxe welding helmet. It was where it belonged late last week, but was gone today when an employee needed it. Bright red and the size of a football helmet, this took some guts to sneak out the door. It would cost about $70 to replace it, but that won�t happen at this time. Money�s a little tight right now, you know��. Back when I first started working for NDDOT, a company stopped by once every week or so and left us a box full of snacks (cookies, candy bars and such). It was labeled �The Honor Box�. There was a little area in the box for you to put your money, and each item was marked with it�s price. We�re talking .35 cents to maybe .75 cents for a microwave popcorn package. The first few months, the box came up pretty close to even. Since some of us were always dropping dollar bills in, never taking the full amount of our deposit out , just coming close was a sign of things to come. For several weeks in a row, the person dropping the box off mentioned that he was coming up short. How short was it? Try $7 -$10 short on a $40 box. We told him to remove it, but he said he knew it was just people being lazy and not putting their money in when they didn�t have the right change. He told us he would give us one more week to get things right. Since we wanted to keep the service, a few of us put extra money in to help them catch back up. When he stopped back a week later, all the snacks were gone. When he opened the money side, there was a total of 3 pennies inside. Sad, I know. Whoever the lowlife was not only took food without paying; he decided he would take the money too. We offered to pay the man his cost, but he said he didn�t blame all of us, just the person(s) who robbed him of his money. Believe it or not, he also told us he couldn�t leave another box with us, either. That was at least 15 years ago. Maybe the same person performed the recent thefts; maybe it�s a new and different degenerate. Doesn�t matter. It makes me sick anyway. Note to self: make sure you lock your CD player and cds up every night�. One last thing (I need to process a bunch of photos Lease took at a going-away party at work today)�. What has happened to National Geographic Magazine? Used to be, I loved getting my copy every month. I mean, since I was little boy I have always loved this glossy photo journal. I used to get the old issues from my Dad�s secretary after she read them every month (age 7-18), and since then have purchased a subscription every year. This is where I fell in love with fine photography. The colors jumped off of the pages The photography was more like art, not just snapshots of naked villagers dancing around a fire. I talked my Dad into buying my first camera for me when I was 1`1 years old because of this publication. But lately, the tone of the Geographic has changed. The photos are as sharp as ever, and the writing has remained top-notch. But the subject matter? Beyond depressing. Not one issue comes by without a truly depressing story about some atrocity being committed by man, somewhere on the planet. No, I am not naive. Human beings are a cruel lot. And not just here in America. Read the article I book marked above. It just skims over the story I read today about weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and what various countries have done to their neighbors and even their own people in the name of developing these weapons. Our government made soldiers watch the A-bomb test (yeah, I already knew that one), the Japanese government tested various plagues and chemicals in their 20+ year war with China before WW2 (plague!) killing over 250,000 in the process, and the Soviet Union? What they did to their own people was beyond barbaric. Anthrax was accidentally released in one village, killing 79 people. Find this month�s magazine, and try to look at the photos of the fetuses (of stillborn babies) from nuclear-contaminated areas: haunting. I used to look forward to opening the brown-paper wrapper every month and reading each issue from cover to cover. Not anymore. But I think I understand why they started using that brown-paper wrapper, though�..
 powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
Have You Read These?
A hot day for a wedding...9:26 p.m. - Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 So bad - but so funny, too.10:33 p.m. - Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009 Evil Black Walnut Tree from Hell!- times up!6:41 a.m. - Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009 My next door neighbor was on the Today Show?8:57 p.m. - Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 This qualifies as a "oh crap!" moment:9:55 p.m. - Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 Back to top
|
