This was copied from the Blog BlackFive:

A Letter And Message To The Candidates

Posted: 16 Jan 2008 08:41 AM CST

Sgt. Hook has a Letter to the Candidates that should go to every politician, not just those running. It is well worth reading, and well worth sharing. It also echoes a message that I was asked to send by multiple enlisted soldiers this last embed. Note, enlisted: not officers, not senior NCOs, but enlisted. Grunts, line animals, the guys on the sharp end. The guys who are walking among and working with Iraqis every day and helping them not just rebuild, but build new and better lives and communities. The guys who watch Iraqis pay a price for jaws flapping here that creates violence and problems there. The guys who catch the packet as well when jaws flapping here creates violence and problems there. The summation is, Iraq and the lives involved are NOT a political football for your use, and what you say is heard and acted upon there. I like the way one of them put it: "Please tell them to just shut the f**k up!" Your words do have power, and are getting people hurt and killed, and making it harder, far harder than it should be, to get the job done so they can come home and leave something good behind.

LW

I sit here washing clothes, listening to Celtic music, reading a Readers Digest article about the The Death of my Father.  I suddenly realize that I miss Daddy, tears streaming down my face.  I am a 63 year man and I miss my Daddy.  He was my hero.  I  miss seeing him in his uniform.  Where the hell are the pictures of him some where packed away in my room.  It is time to get  them out and put them on my website, wall for all to see.  What box are you in, Daddy?  Where did I pack you away?  Is it the Celtic music?  Is the tones that cause me miss Daddy and just miss being at home and want to walk down the streets of the Quarter?  And then go home to smoke a cigarette with Daddy.  Drink some V8?  I have tried drinking V8 and still no Daddy. 

I can't even connect with my own sons.  They don't even call or email me.

Yesterday I had off and Wei knew about it.  I decided to stay up late playing video games and then I could sleep in, not doing laundry.  Today I was planning to do laundry before I went to work at 6 pm.  I usually did my laundry on Tuesday.  Well I got at breakfast and Wei had already started his laundry, 2 loads worth.  When I asked if he was going to be long, his reply was wasn't I off yesterday.  I then had to go into my excuse of how I had stayed up until 4:30 am.  I was chastised about how that is not good for my health.   I know but I am 63 and having fun....

Pat and I are finally starting  walking and last night I slept better than I had in a long time.  Pat started out as one of my bosses at Radio Shack and then became a friend.  Wei has not allowed me to be a friend.  He stays to himself and every once and a while will share a dish he has cooked with me.

11/28/07

Getting tired working at Radio Shack. I am totally burned out there.    Sunny has created a nightmare of working there.   She really does not delegate, tries to do so, but it does not work. So she winds up doing everything herself, if I don't go around finding things that need to be done that are behind to be done. After working for a manager like Clyde, working for Sunny, I am burned out.  Sunny does not know when to quit or take a break.  She expects us to do the same. Ray operate the same speed. I am sure that customers have reported back to Clyde and Clyde back to Tim. Anyone coming into the store during Black Friday could see the entire mess as with the weekend. While John is a Hotshot saleman, he has a hardtime with mechanical things and does not want to do his price auditing. John does not want to do anything but sales and is good sales. He finally rewired the TV and sound. Ray learns quickly for someone who has had no computer, electronic experience. He has had to learn from scratch everything. He is bilingual Sunny hired him simply because of his personality and she was desperate. She gave him full time. Sunny will not allow anyone to train Ray but herself, but has not totally trained him, so he is dependent upon her and calls her all the time. When I am in them middle to talking to a customer he will go in the back and call her to find a product that I am looking for on the computer. I am supposed to be the Person in Charge, But I have never be trained in Proxy of anything. Should Sunny get sick again, 9863 will be screwed. I have tryed to be man you can count to be there at a moments notice while working for Clyde, jumped in the shower and my Jeep and came clocked in on my time off. Since Sunny was the only one to do most of everything during Black Friday, it was frustrating when customers asked where things were. I no longer knew where anything was. I then had to depend on Sunny. I would leave at night and come back it would have been moved. I never was given but a few planograms to do and did not know what to plan was in the beginning. I have been a manager of retail before and tried to it all by myself and burned out. I never could figure out why Clyde seemed to just sitting there, and selling quietly, putting out stock & tags quietly, every once and while asking me to ring something up. Then it dawned on me. He was being a manager. Duh. I have been in cell phone sales before, but my numbers were not the best because I had developed the reputation of customer service, which were supposed to be, and spent so much time solving customer problems, that I did not sell that much. But the company sure had happy customer. That is why I liked working at Radio Shack. I can solve customer service issues and sell something along the way to the same person when they come back to me happy. It has happened over and over again. So far the hot shot sales person, I have received lots of returned for them. I wonder how many returns in comparison. These are my many thoughts.  

This was in draft before my computer motherboard broke  back in November

It has been a real struggle working at Radio Shack for Sunny lately.   She has gotten really whacked out in trying to get the store reset for the day after Thanksgiving. The sad part about it is that so far Ray has had no training on cell phones.  Sunny has assumed that only she can do anything will not allow me to train him or designate me to do so. It has all been just open boxes and rearranging the store.  I worked today from 9:20 am to 9 PM. I took a break when I took the deposit to the bank. I got some ice cream and sat down for a little bit.  I finished another planogram. I cannot operate in the manic fashion that she does. Today was nonstop with customer and then she wanted to close early to get things done.  Not sure if she had approval from DM or not.  I don't think so. I am burned out with then whole thing. I am off tomorrow.

I had a case ordered for me and Pat build me a computer.  He just finished installing all the things I need  and  I will be happy camper now.

It has been about a month or so that I have been back on line. Now I am finding out that Wei had me blocked after midnight etc so Pat has fixed everything.