Daylight Savings Crime

After 23 years if not having to deal with daylight savings time, I have dealt with it for the past 16 years.  This does not mean I have gotten used to it.

It is bad enough having to remember to reset alarm clocks when you go to bed the night before.  Not only am I awake at 2 AM when time us adjusted, I am at work.  Because most of our crew take lunch at 2 AM, we have to be sure the time has changed before we clock out.  We had to stay until 8 AM to get our eight hours in.  If gets worse in early November when we lose an hour. If we clock out too early, the system thinks we clocked out at 1:59 AM and clocked in at 1:58 AM.

Being a former Zonie, I ask “Why are we bothering with DST?” Non Zonies ask ” Why don’t you start lunch at 2:15 or later?” We have to be off the floor at 2 so the automatic scrubber, AKA Junior, can scrub the grocery section. This would normally take about 40 minutes if a Junior didn’t manage to get stuck. He is smart enough to avoid hitting things by coming to a complete stop. He can even call maintenance when he is stuck. Junior is too stupid to actually figure out to get unstuck, so he is finishing up about the time we come back from lunch.

More inflation

I went to the laundromat this morning and found that prices went up a lot. Standard washers went from $2.75 to $3.75 per load, dryers went from $1.25 to $1.50 per load. Worst of all the oversize washer I need to wash my comforters went from $4.50 to $7.00. The city of Indy raised water prices dramatically, just like they did in 2018, the last time the laundromat has a price increase.

Silicon Valley Bank goes under

Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the FDIC this week. This is no small town bank. A Silicon Valley was a top 20 bank by any measurement. Worse, a lot of startup companies were required to use this bank for all of their business as a condition of getting venture capital funding. With a FDIC guarantee cap of $250,000 per account, this means many of these small businesses will not be able to make payroll in the next 30 days.

Pot not that OK in OK.

There was an election in Oklahoma Tuesday to allow recreational use of marijuana.  It went down in flames 62 percent to 38.  Oklahoma allows medicinal marijuana for almost any medical condition.  Oklahoma residents don’t even have to see a doctor,they can get a prescription online.  As a result medical marijuana shops are as common in Oklahoma as Circle K convenience stores are in Arizona.

Meanwhile Kansas is one of four states where all marijuana is outlawed. I am not sure how long that can last since Missouri allows recreational marijuana use and three quarters of the population in Kansas lives within an hour’s drive of Missouri. This includes the area I live in.

Weeding out the help

Some people get fired because the company’s needs change. Most people tend to fire themselves by doing things so stupid or inappropriate you wonder if they really want to be there anyway.

Late in my career, we got a new plant manager. He managed to set a record for quickest firing for any employee at our company. His 30 day severance package was more than his salary. How do you get fired so quickly? Among the lowlights of this dude’s short career was telling his female subordinate to give him a hug because he needed someone to hold besides his wife. To make matters worse,he did this in front of witnesses including the new supervisor. The supervisor called the company HR hotline and an investigation was launched immediately.

When the dust had settled, the regional manager along with the head of HR stayed long enough to meet with all of the employees. The meeting nearly devolved into a riot as employees inquired as to the hiring managers’ hiring process, competence and amount of human ancestry. It was found out that the supervisor who reported it thought it was so blatant that he was being tested on the company way of doing things. It also was not the first report, nor was it the first female victim. With fewer than 75 people and 90% male this dude was an overachiever.

Ten days to bounce down

Just over a week until the AFL starts its home and away season. With a sixteen team league, the preseason would have been a knockdown tournament. Winners got to play in better stadiums, while losers had to play in the bush. With the expansion to eighteen teams, the league tried various formats, finally devolving to the single practice match held this year. I admit I have not been following the preseason as much as in years past. Hopefully, the home and away season will not be as disappointing.