Sunday, August 28, 2005

You have got to be kidding me

Saw this on CNN.com via the AP:

Anti-gay church protests at soldiers’ funerals

SMYRNA, Tenn. - Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.

The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church members cars’ down a highway, waving flags and screaming “God bless America.”

“My husband is over there, so I’m here to show my support,” 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. “To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are.”

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps’ children, grandchildren and in-laws.

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as “God hates fags” and “God hates you.”

About 10 church members protested near Smyrna United Methodist Church and nearly 20 stood outside the National Guard Armory in Ashland City. Members have demonstrated at other soldier funerals across the nation.

The funerals were for Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn II, 35, in Smyrna and Spc. Gary Reese Jr., 22, in Ashland City. Both were members of the Tennessee National Guard.

I dont even know what to say after reading this.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Democracy

What Secular Democracy? From the new Iraqi constitution, Article 2, paragraph. 1: “Islam is the official religion of state, and is a fundamental source for legislation.”

So, we ousted Hussein so the Iraqis could get together and form the same government as their neighbor Iran? Um what?

Cause, Iran's government has worked so well in our favor over there.....

Geesh.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Here I am again

Headache: Day 11 or 12

My head has been hurting solidly for a long time now. When I say its hurting, I mean about a 6 on a scale of 1-10. My head hasnt gotten below a 5 since I developed this nagging pain, and several times, including last night, it has hit 10. This is what I mean by a 10 on my scale.

-feel lightheaded
-massive pain in my cranial region, including face
-sick to my stomach
-other negligible issues

When I am at a 10, I basically go in the bedroom, with all the lights out, closed door, put pillows on my head to block out any residual light or noise, and lay there till it lowers a bit for me to function. I am useless at a 10. Some people would say I have been useless SINCE I was 10, but thats another story....lol.

I still havent made a decision about work yet, which is probably contributing to my headache. Its a big decision with serious ramifications all around, so it is taking me a bit of time to think about. More on that at a later time.

I forgot to post this the other day when I saw it, so I am going to post it now. I saw this over at Kos, and it furthers illustrates why the whole Bush clan sickens me and makes me seriously wonder how people actually support these people:

Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? -- Barbara Bush

But hey, like our President says, "Life goes on". Yea it does, just not for the 1800+ Americans that have died in your war. But hey, its not relevant....

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

I found a bump...

Ok, I'm back.

After making my post leading up to the decision I have to make, I went to work like normal. After I clock in, my boss says she has to talk to me about some things, which she does usually when I come off of vacation. No biggie.

First, I was missing a refund slip from last week. Wow, first one in four years. Then she asks when I wanted to drop down to part-time status cause she needs to know soon.

Um, What?

We had chatted about me possibly scaling back and working my schedule around some when the house started, since I will be needing some time here and there to oversee things. We had even mentioned about me demoting myself from Assistant Manager down to Senior Bookseller or even Part-Time Bookseller. The biggest drawback is the pay, with me taking a huge cut from what I currently make to go down to either level. The conversations never went any further than that though.

But now I HAVE to make a decision, and fairly soon, as my decision affects several other people in my store. If I decide one thing, then certain things happen, but if I go another way, other things happen. I guess I am sort of the keystone in the whole ordeal.

My decision boils down to basically being between a rock and a hard place. You see, I need a lot more time than I have now to be able to build the house that we are going to build. However, to get that time, I need to scale back at work some way to free up the time. By scaling back at my job, I'll have to step down from my current position, since I have to work 40 hours to keep it and the pay. By stepping down to a different position, I'll take a noticeable hit in the wallet so to speak, which in turn will affect our chances of qualifying for financing for the new house, since so far everything has been based on my current pay.

See my problem? Puts my headache in perspective now doesnt it? :)

My wife makes really good money at her new job, and she is getting a promotion soon, which will absorb some of the loss we will feel if I step down. But as we learned at Petsmart, nothing in retail is guaranteed, and I wouldnt want to take the leap I need to and then fall into a hole that I didnt see.

I just dont know what to do. Having more time would be a huge help for the family, especially with my wife working as much as she is currently and with the kiddies heading off to school soon. And with the house of course. But the loss of authority and pay at work is a huge drawback.

I dunno......

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I'm back...again.

Yea, I'm back...again. A friend of mine just started a new blog the other day, and after reading it, I decided to start posting again on mine. I guess after reading the new blog, it took me back to the beginning when I started mine and made me remember why I started writing in it to begin with. So, here I am again.

It has become quite a busy time in my life and the life of my family recently. My wife started a new job at the end of May, and she was/is very excited about. She needed a change and this job came along at just the right time and her outlook was good. There have been some bumps along the way though. My wife currently works in Annapolis, which is about 1 1/2 hours, on average, away from where we live. When she was first hired, she was told that her new store was slated to open mid August at the latest, which would mean that she would only have to commute about two months before she was in her new store setting up. Difficult to deal with, but an acceptable drawback given the future prospects for my wife.

Then, the store's opening got pushed back to the first week of September due to some sort of issues at the construction site. Right around the same time, the other stores in the same complex opened. Then the opening got pushed back again, this time to October 6th. That would mean my wife would have to commute to Annapolis almost 4 months, including the first month our kids are in school. Keeping our eyes on the prize, we pushed along hoping that the opening would get moved ahead, which is always a possibility.

Now, there are rumblings that the opening is getting moved to as late as November 12th, which is the latest the company opens stores. If it doesnt open then, it wont open till February. Obviously, something will have to be done before then, as the bending point of the family will have been passed long before.

In other news, the house is moving along through the first stages of the program we are following. I think we are on step 4 or so out of 9. We have to get bids for everything and submit them with our budget, so that everything can be looked over by underwriting to see if we go forward. So far, all is looking good and, fingers crossed, we might be able to break ground by the mid to end of September. We are all excited about the journey we are on with the house, and cant wait for it to move along a little further. However, it is not without its bumps as well.

You see, the program we are doing allows us to build a much bigger house than we would normally be able to by giving us guidance along the way, not requiring a large down payment, and eliminating the General Contractor. That last item alone can save as much as 10-20% of the total cost of the house. In this program, the General Contractor on the house is therefore filled by the buyer, which in this case would be ME.

Being the GC on a house can be a time consuming task, and although it saves a ton of money in the long run and I look forward to doing it wholeheartedly, it eats up an equal amount of time. My wife and I will also be doing things on the house ourselves to save even more money, which is also going to take time. Time which I dont currently have with the way my life is arranged. Which is why I have had a splitting, nail-biting headache for the past 5 days. I have to make a decision that I hate, but have to if things are to continue.

Well, it's getting late and I have to go to work in 8 hours after being off on vacation for a few days. I'll write more after work.....