So sorry, been away for a while.

A toast: To me.

I just decided i had the time to come back to blogging stupid shit for a minute. I checked the stats, and readership and links are waaaay up. Thanks everyone. My $20 (maybe) check from google will be awesome.

Let me take a few paragraphs and give you a little update on my drear existance.

I quit my job at the liquor company I spent 11 years working for. I was their Senior Store Manager, IT person, website administrator, and keeper of the peace for all of the three stores they owned. When i say they, i mean the owners, who are all related, and think they are the best at what they do. The reality is, only the original founder, had any sense at all; he felt bad because his family were not able to make it on thier own, so invited them to come suck up payroll and hang out for 5-7 hours a day, maybe 4 days a week doing nothing but getting on the computer and printing tags and eating.

 Last summer we fell on to hard times, could not pay some invoices down, and found ourselves on the no-sale list. Micro-management by the owners and family as well as piss-poor ordering put us too far behind to catch up. We made it through last summer by the skin of our teeth but never really made it back on top. When the summer was looming in the distance, again the super micro-management started, as well as the horrible ordering. In the middle of April i saw the same trends happening earlier than i expected, so i went looking for another job.

I let the owners know that they were going to lose me, that i needed new insurance, as they dropped theirs alltogether to save money. They assured me that would help me find something. Later that week, they announced all insurance was cancelled, and to find it else where. As these disfuntional people are like family to me, my feelings were hurt. I have looked out for their best interests and hid or filtered their illegal activies for a number of years. I watched (and sometimes helped) these people deny willfully employable people employment, stop ex-employees from getting unemployment by lying outright, and even stopping disabled people from putting a mat behind the register for comfort by bullying, lying, and outright just unjust termination of employment. I'm serious, and list goes on for miles. When they told me that they could do nothing for me after everything that i have done for them, i decided enough was enough.

Fifty to sixty hours a week, 6 day schedule, no holidays off, and four days of paid vacation a year. They tried to tell me i got a week a year, but i never got more than four days in a row off, ever. My leave that i scheduled for my sons birth was even cut a day short by the owners daughter. ( i never found out what she did for the company really) Hourly employees had a five day work week, and could request any day off they wanted, so with overtime, they possibly made more than i did on salary. Oh, and i was on call 24 hours a day. If one of the stores was broken into, i had to go there and clean it up and stay with the police, or whatever was needed.

I applied for a job with a local Miller/Coors distributing company in my area. They are one of the largest beer distributors in the United States actually. I got the job, as i knew people, and interview pretty well. I know the job and the product, i had been ordering and selling it for years. I told my old employers at the liquor company that i would be leaving the following week, as i found a better job with benefits. They talked bad behind my back until the day i left, made fun of me on the phone when it was on hold (you could hear them talking when they put you on hold for some reason), gave me a hard time about my new job and publicly humiliated me in front of staff and customers. After that last bout of humiliation by the hands of the owner in the form of, "They arent going to pay us as much as we do." and, "Your going to have to work hard for them." i changed the schedule to give myself the weekend off, my last weekend ever. I practically danced out of there on friday night, i said my goodbyes to the people who i like, and took my pictures down in my office and left. I left all my computer supplies, programs and hardware there. I wanted no ties with the place.

So here iam, and just in case the owners of my previous employment read this, i lied, i'm making more money and i had this planned for some time before i told you. Having watched your compnay fire every single employee who had ever put in a notice, i would never give you the oppurtunity to do that to me.