My First Sign Job Completed

These are pictures of my first official job as a sign maker!. These were done for the Swamp Machine Shop in Townsend, DE. This gentleman and his wife have a very impressive shop set up. I did the door logos for his truck, mini chopper and the little red wagon, talk about a cool toy, I think I may want one of these someday. I made up a bunch of small logos so he can add them to all of his existing toys, equipment & etc.

When he was telling me about his small machine shop operation I just figured a small end mill, surfacing machine, you know the basics. I was totally blown away that this shop is set up better than most machine shops you will ever visit. It is definitely a class act.

My day was great! The end of a three day weekend and I was able to get ahead on some of the work I have coming in. I was also contacted by a friend of mine and his partner.

Dave & Phil asked me if I would be a partner in the new sign business they are starting up and I thought what the hell! The niche they are going after is different from what I am targeting on and I have a little more experience with the equipment, I have owned mine for just under a year now, and understand what we need to do to get the ball rolling. Besides the entire goal I have is not to have to go back to Detroit! This is just another avenue to make that goal a reality.

I bought my machine and the related graphics for doing custom painting, well if I can make money with it doing the sign thing I might as well take advantage of it.

Debs mom is still hanging in there. Her brothers are starting to act a bit strange though. They threatened to kick the youngest brother out of mom's house because, I guess, the police have been there on numerous occasions. Her older brother decided that Bob needs to go, my wife stepped up, with her red hair blazing, and let them all know that she calls the shots!

I was proud of her for finally asserting herself. She has been able to climb out of the major funk she was in and start to take control of the situation. It still takes a lot out of her and for that I get concerned. She did not get home from the hospital until after 11:00 PM last night and she has been crashed on the couch since I woke up at 8:00AM this morning, it is 8:00Pm at the time of this post.

I went to BJ's and picked up a bunch of junk food along with a bunch of those ready made meals so we at least won't starve to death as we pass each other during our days. She is trying to spend as much time with her mom as possible, mom is still on the ventilater and every time they try to wean her from it she goes into a breathing failure. Not a good thing at all.

Well I have got to get up early and hit my real job in the morning. God has blessed my in finding something I truly enjoy doing and has also expanded it so I can travel in another direction with a couple of friends. For this I am truly grateful.

God Bless Everyone,
Mike

In Memory of Decals(My new Sign Business)

The "In Memory Of" decals are what I would like to Focus on. Looks pretty good don't you think? I have thousands of fonts and over 1 million clips, vectors & other images so what ever you can think of I most likely have it! Yes I did do this, it is a picture of my wife's car window. I guess she had a very young friend named Beloved Name Here. What ever happened to Jack or Frank? Just kidding, I did remove it after I took the picture!

I put this on the back of my truck today.






I have been very busy lately with everything going on around here. I made a new logo for my sign business. Please, let me know what you think of it!

I have also received my first job! I was commissioned by this customer to do his business's truck doors along with a bunch of various decals for him. Hopefully I can get my name out there so I can drum up additional business. Not as easy as it sounds because my customer supplied his business card with his logo and I had to scan it, adjust it, rastorize and vector it before I could plot it. It took a little while but it is done. I will show you the finished product when I get the door logos installed.

I am also 100% legal with this business in Delaware, 10 minutes on the computer and $75.00 later, I had a business license in my hand. Sometimes you have got to love the State of Delaware. I had to change the name to Signs by MFC as Signs by Mike was already registered.

I also made up a couple hundred business cards to pass out to anyone and everyone. Tried my hand at putting my logo on a couple of coffee cups and am fairly impressed with the outcome. I still have to set up the company bank account and get the accounting system up and running.

As you can see I have a couple of irons in the fire, I worked on my first job yesterday and have everything ready to go with the exception for the door logos. I am waiting for the green material to arrive.

I am thinking about a website to display the items I offer and allow for an interactive customer experience. Customers will be able to order the decal of their choice and personalize it so they get what they want and not a stock item that we may have on hand. I have a lot of ideas for this.
Like I said in the past I am not going back to Detroit without a fight!

Deb's mom is still stable with no significant changes since earlier in the week. Deb on the other hand is driving herself into the ground. She has been sleeping for the past 17 hours, only waking up to use the bathroom.

I feel for her and I know first hand what she is going though, I had exhausted myself when she was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and I still had to work and at that time take care of our daughter along with going to the hospital as many times each day that I possibly could. It takes quite a bit out of you after the first couple of days!

Last Friday she was really pissed off at me when she had to take her car in for service at 7:30 am. I have been telling her about this for the past three months and all she ever said was that she would take care of it. Well I got a call from corporate on Thursday telling me that this vehicle needed to be done by the end of the week. So I set up the appointment for Friday morning at the dealer.

I woke her up on Friday morning before I left for work. She started to complain immediately and kept asking why I could not just drop it off? Well I explained to her that I had a mandatory meeting I needed to attend that morning and that I don't drive the car so why should I have to take it in.

At 7:25am my cell phone rings and when I answered it my wife began, almost screaming, that she talked to some guy outside the dealer and they didn't open until 8:00. I calmed her down and let her know that this gut was incorrect and that the service department will be open at 7:30. While she was talking to me on the phone the big service door magically opened nad another gentleman waived my wife into the service area.

Well I thought this was all over when my phone rang again and this time my wife was bitching that they will not be done with the car until later that afternoon, and she was not going to sit there all day long! I guess she had a list of little issues that needed to be addressed.

I had to miss my mandatory meeting and take her home, she was apologizing all the way to the house for getting so upset about things. I guess it was my fault she kept putting this off in the first place!

Well that is all I've got for today. If you are interested in any decals for you car, boat, trailer, & ect. just send an e-mail to signsbymfc@comcast.net.

God Bless us all,

Mike

Wednesday 1/9/08

I received the repair parts for the RC Helicopter I crashed on Christmas morning. I like this ones performance as it acts just like 6 channel heli but is great for beginners to learn on before moving up to the big boys. A single crash can cost a whole lot of money.

I know what you all thinking! "This guy must be nuts to be playing with this thing in his living room!" Well just to ease all of your minds I am not nuts I'm just plain crazy! Pretty cool though, at least I think so.

Sorry for not posting recently. We have been sort of busy here.

Deb's mom took a major turn for the worse on Monday. They believe she suffered a couple of strokes and she was put back on the ventilator to reduce her O2 content. She was not able to properly expel this gas in her system and was basically poisoning herself to the point of knocking herself out.

Deb was very shaken up to say the least. When we arrived at the hospital mom was not in very good shape at all. Deb finally decided to sign the papers that will not have the hospital staff to revive her mom if she should take another bad turn.

I was very happy when Debbie told her mom that is was finally all right to stop fighting. Debbie has decided that this is really no way too live! She has been in a pretty deep depression lately and she takes anti-depressants every day because of her own medical issues.

I know how she feels, even though she thinks I'm a cold hearted son of bitch. My whole outlook on life stems from a simple fact that life goes on! You can't change it for anything and it is what it is. However, you do have the option of facing life with your head held high and dealing with it as it comes. You may not be able to change it, but at least you can change how you look at and deal with life.

I no longer attempt to drown my sorrows or my accomplishments for that matter. I have finally come to understand, albeit the hard way, that there is no problem so bad that drinking will not make worse. On that same token, there is no accomplishment so good that drinking can make better!

With that I have to get up at 4:00AM so good night!

God Bless,

Mike

Thursday 1/3/08

Well I hope everyone is getting back into the work routine? My last couple of days have had some major ups and downs.

I have a couple of employees that work at the far end of our line, they are supposed inspect and take care the issues of the rear portion of the units as they moved down the line.

Every time you speak to them about stepping up some more you get flam bayed about "they don't have the time or there is just too much to get and so on and so on".

We work for a large automotive company and we face cut back challenges every day to keep competitive. We have been told about these two, from people outside of our department, who just happen to be passing through on their way to another area.

Well, we have been working with these employees for a couple of weeks now and we still do not get anywhere! They know the Union has their backs and they just don't care. They will keep their job even though someone who most likely deserves to, and wants to work, will lose theirs!

Yesterday our Plant manager was in our area and he just happened to watch these employees for about an hour, well the feed back I got was that I will be most likely be cutting 2 jobs from my area as these two employees only happened to work on about 5 of the 70 units that passed them during this time.

I do not like to discipline people but these two leave me little choice, now I have to document everything they don't do, so that when I do start this multiple step process I have everything in order. This takes weeks and months to complete and when the labor relations people finally put them out of the facility the union has them back in just a couple of days. It makes this whole process kind of a joke don't you think?

My philosophy at work is: "It is my job to keep upper management off my employees back and their job is to keep upper management off of my back! My employees can accomplish this simple task by just doing their job!" No more no less! A pretty simple concept when you look at it, don't you think? It makes me wonder to think about all of the times that I have stood up to my management for my employees! I keep my end of my philosophy all of the time. Now I just had this slapped into my face by the very top of the management food chain in the plant! Man do I look like an asshole right now! And we are only into day 2 of the new year!

Please do not get me wrong I am not anti-union at all!!! The unions of this world did their job and they did it well! The representatives at our facility do wish to work together, but it is their job also to defend the work force. We all have benefited from their work in the past with just the wage base we have in this country! We all share some type of job security and benefits, but at what costs?

Unfortunately the world has changed and we need to change with it! The big companies are moving out of the US and setting back up in another country so they can produce the same products at a much lower cost, due to the wages and benefits.

The republicans have not done the middle class any good at all, in this country, when President Reagan began this down slide with the open trade initiative with Mexico, now Bush too, has opened the door for quite a few other countries and now all their republican buddies are moving out, making bigger profits because they sell it for the same prices and it costs them much, much less to produce it now. The government does not care that this is putting people out on the street!

Now we have competition here in the USA with all of the foreign auto manufacturers. They are able to hire workers at a very good wage and benefits. They seem to be able to keep the employees happy. These employees have a great incentive to do their job! They get to share in the companies profits, when the company does good they all get compensated. They must perform at a certain level all of the time or they will be terminated, period. No two week vacation, no benefits, no nothing, nada, zip! No union working in the background getting them their job back!

I am a management employee. I have no representation. I have a yearly review and if I do not perform to certain standards then my job, my lively hood, is on the line!

One of the main reasons I left a union job, back in the 80's, was the simple fact that the only time I ever saw a union representative was when they were around to take care of the guy who did not do a damn thing to begin with! The rest of us were picking up the slack for this guy because most of us have a good work ethic that was instilled in us while we were growing up! And it just seems to make the day go by a little quicker when you stay occupied.

Unfortunately the we no longer have the luxury that our parents once had with a guaranteed income and job. We need to protect our jobs, not think that they are going to be there until we decide to retire!

Our facility has already gone through the major reduction pains that the rest of the corporation is facing and will be experiencing in the very near future. We have gone from an hourly work force in excess of 3,000 employees down to just over 700, in just over 2 to 3 years, and we still seem to produce the same vehicle. Yes there are issues with it but it is still being done! Not at the same production rate, but it is getting done! We as a plant have made great strides in both management and union to reduce the man hours it takes to produce a unit and the overall quality we deliver to our customers, but the reality is, we need to do more!

The plant I work at is slated to close in the next couple of years. The thinking of some of these people that work here is that by that time they will be ready to retire or they will get absorbed into another facility. There are only so many jobs and there are more cuts to be done at the other facilities. So where do they think they are going to go? And when the overall work force has been cut by more than 50% who is going to pay them the retirement? Just take a look at the business news section and you can see that retirement and health care expenses are the biggest issues facing corporations as a whole!

It is just a select few employees that can bring the entire organization down, that meager 20% of the work force! That does not sound that bad until you do the math and you see that approximately 140 out of 700 people don't really give a shit! This equates to at least 140 operations that are not being done properly, at 320 units a day off the shipping line there are at least half that have some sort of issue that could potentially affect the customer in some way. The best thing we have in place is the quality control at the end of the assembly process, they randomly pull units out of the system and these are gone over with a fine tooth comb. The results are then discussed with all the pertinent people so that the issues found can be brought under control.

Our plant still has the best numbers in the corporation and if everyone just did what they get paid for, all of the time, there is a chance we can keep our plant open!

In my department we need to get our through-put back up. Yes we have equipment issues and yes the areas that feed us have their own issues, but if we all just did our job, on every unit, our numbers would increase. If this select few would spend as much time just doing the job as they spend on figuring out how not to do it, we would be the best in the world. Then the chances of keeping our facility open will greatly increase.

The equipment issues most of the employees constantly bitch about only account for 10% of the through-put issue. If we are currently running at 70% correcting the equipment issues will only get us to 80%. We need to be at 85 to 90% efficient just to maintain!

So where then are we lacking in the big picture here? Where can we get this additional 10% we need to stay alive? We need to stop losing a unit because someone didn't wipe off the sealer they dropped on it. I didn't see that spot because I was too busy talking to someone outside of my area. Oh shit, I really don't feel like bending over to spray that lower section of the truck, the guy up the line will get it! I didn't sand that spot because I was too busy doing my home work! I was talking to my friend on my cell phone! Do you get the idea? If we did our jobs and made sure the unit was ready for the next operation we would be at the 85% we need to be at and even better. Then we would be able to absorb the equipment issues when they arise.

The money needed to fix the equipment issues would be there because we are not wasting it by working overtime to make up for losses, having to reprocess units that could have been saved the first time around, if only pride and the desire of: I need to do whatever I can, on my portion of this vehicle, to make it right. Just this one unit that is directly in front of me at this moment! This is what I get paid to do, and my job depends on just this one unit! I really don't care about anyone else I only care that my job is done right and I take great pride in what I do. I know it is a direct reflection on me as a person, it enhances my character along with my dignity! If only this kind of mind set could be instilled in everyone our whole world would be a much better place to live.

However, we don't live in this fairy tale world. Life sucks! But when you deal with it the right way, it really isn't that bad after all! It can make you feel good about yourself and your accomplishments, no matter how insignificant they may seem to other people! To you, they are greatest accomplishment there is!

A human being can only control what is happening at this moment in time! We cannot, as much as we would like too, change the future, nor the past for this fact. We are only able to influence life and the world around us one moment at a time. The only moment in time when life really matters and that moment is right NOW! The real fact of the matter is your job does depend on this! Life basically sucks and it is going to start sucking a lot harder! So you better figure out how you will be dealing with it!

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

God Bless,

Mike

This is the market I want to start going for and will hopefully develop an online market place so I can ship anywhere. This is a template I made up yesterday for a car window memorial. I have thousands of Fonts and tons of graphics to start with. I can also take and convert bitmap images to SVG so I can create just about any size you need.

This is my new logo! It is small and sweet and I can put it on all the signs I make so I can be advertising all the time. The e-mail address is signsbymfc@comcast.net. Drop me line about what you may be interested in and we can work together to come up with something that you will satisfy your needs. I will be setting up catalogs of all the graphic designs I have and it is pretty good sized now and I still have a couple thousand more on my big system in the office, I am not moving to Detroit when the plant closes next year without a fight.

Well, we had to go back to work today. It was definitely Ground Hog Day! Started with the same issues we had when the plant shutdown. We struggled through the first 3 hours of the day and finally got some good units out with the help of my good friend Niel Skibicki. It was a long day, 12 hours total, but that is to be expected when you idle all this automation for 12 days. And 3:00am came around way to early today, I only got about an hours sleep last night.

Debbie's mom is being moved to the rehabilitation center tomorrow morning. The good news is she has been weened from the respirator and she can now talk softly when the traich tube is capped. She said her first words on New Years Eve. So that let us start the new year off on a good note!

With my wife constantly going up to the hospital and no kids around I have been able to catch up on a lot of things with my online stuff and this new business start up. She thinks I'm addicted to the computer now and I think she might be a little jealous.

I do everything right in front of her and it is mostly artistic in nature and absolutely no porn. Not really that much fun but it keeps me busy.

Hope all enjoyed their New Years celebrations and everyone is safe and sound.

God Bless,

Mike

New Years Eve

A friend of mine, Dave, came over yesterday so I could help him make a sign for his brothers Kitchen & Bath Remodeling business. It only took about an hour from design to completion. Dave asked me why I was not doing this for real and I stated that I am learning how this business works and I was not ready to start just yet.

Well guess what Dave? You have inspired me to give it go. Last night and today I designed the Logo and window lettering for my truck. What do you think.

And as far as Dave's project, he wanted to pay me for it but having an addictive personality like mine, I gave it to him for free. Just like a dope dealer gives you your first sample because he is hoping you get addicted and just keep coming back.

I also set up an e-mail account for this business it is signsbymfc@comcast.net. I can cut almost any design out of vinyl so if you have an idea just drop me a line and we can see what we can do.

I see quite a few of those In Memory of signs on the back windows of peoples cars so why not give it a shot?

Not a lot has happened lately. My wife went to see the little princess in jail yesterday. And from what she told me I don't think this girl deserves anything for quite a while. She told my wife off in no uncertain terms and then later last night she called her like nothing happened. Well my wife will not be visiting her anytime soon. I guess we won't see her until her violation of probation hearing on January 15th. They have not charged her with the felonies as of yet but even this violation could slap the original felony right back on her. Ahh to be young and know it all!

Deb's mom is doing okay. No word yet as to when they will be moving her to the rehab center. The wife has come down with a major cold today so she is keeping her distance from mom for the time being, a wise move.

It is going to be a very quiet New Year for the both of us. It has always been our policy to stay home on Amateur Drinking Night any way. Now that I don't drink I really don't miss it.

Well here's a toast to everyone on New Years Eve: May the new year bring you joy and sucess in everything that you do. Don't be afraid to try something new, you just may find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

God Bless Everyone and have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Love,

Mike

Friday 12/28/07

This Derby cover is what I purchased with the gift card my team gave me. Looks pretty cool don't you think? This was the difficult item to install as you can see it happens to at the bottom of the crank case.

I want to thank my team at work for the great present they gave me for Christmas. I was able to get a few bobbles for my Harley today.

I used some of my own money to match up the opposite side to keep the theme going. I really like the paint job, my wife actually picked it out. She wanted blue and if that's what it takes to get her to let me buy this, well who am I to judge? It has that nice retro look that I was used to when I owned bikes back in the 70's.

Here is a close up of the air cleaner and timing covers I added, I thought the way the chrome looks in this picture is pretty cool almost looks like it has a bronze finish to it.

Well my day was pretty uneventful except for the fact that my wife let me take us to the Big Boys Toy store after we finished with the Motor Vehicle Department.

The Motor Vehicle run was pretty cool for a change, this is the first time I actually had to a vehicle inspected and because it is a 2003 diesel pick up all the had to check was the safety equipment. It took about 5 minutes from start to finish. Not bad in this day and age! After the inspection was completed the woman suggested that we go inside and not try out the drive through windows as they have a tendency to not like clattering pick ups there.

So we parked and ventured inside, went directly to the information desk where they made sure we had all th proper documents. They then gave us a ticket and asked us to have a seat until the number was called. After a tense 5 minute wait were walked up to the counter and finalized the registration and we were issued a new tag good for 2 more years, all of this for a measly $188.00.

So much for the DMV experience, at least I don't have to go back until spring when I need to register our 5th wheel.

We then went to the Harley dealer where your imagination can run wild, unfortunately we don't have an extra couple grand handy so I had to limit myself to the cool gift cards I had to spend. We went with the "Live to Ride" theme as it matches the cool denim jacket my wife bought for me while we were down in Virginia Beach.

We then wandered up to the hospital to see mom, ran into a couple of my wifes brothers there also. Mom looked good and acted happy to see us, but she then gets that look of "Will you please just leave me alone!" on her face. It has to be very frustrating for her not to be able to communicate at all, and we still don't know the extent of the brain damage that has occurred with her, only time will tell that tale.

My wife, her brother and I were able to speak with the health care social worker assigned to mom's case, and we were told that they are thinking of moving mom into a rehabilitation facility that focuses on the issues confronting her. This, we all hope, will be good in the long run as she really needs to start moving. She has been bed ridden for 23 days now and without any type of exercise her muscles will be turning to jelly. Maybe this has something to do with her not being able to lift her arms? My wife was really taken a back when I mentioned this because up until now she really has had no concept of time for the past few weeks. Well today Reality has finally set in!

They may possibly move her this weekend so my wife dropped me off at home and went back to the hospital to start gathering her things together so they don't get lost.

When I got home I had to install just one of the medallions, I had bought at the toy store, and low and behold I ended up putting all of them on. The timing and air cleaner covers were pretty straight forward and easy, but that Derby cover was another thing.

So how does a guy with a bad back lay a 780lb Harley on its side so he doesn't spill all of the oil on the ground? Well with a little fore site and planning you can do just about anything!

Getting it over far enough to replace the cover was very simple and straight forward, gravity has a way of helping out in this matter, standing it back up was just a little more difficult! I had to use my imagination and a little know how. I could not just grab a hold of it and get it standing back upright so I used a couple of nylon banding straps. One end was tied off to the bike and the other to the bumper of my pick up truck every click of the ratchet for the straps move her up and slowly but surely I got her back up on the kick stand. Just wish I could have taken her out for a spin today but it was a little nippy out. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to improve so we'll see!

Well my wife keeps harping at me in the background because I am trying to concentrate on this and not paying any attention to her.

I almost forgot that today is my oldest sisters Birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Charlene. It would not be polite to tell you her age but she is about 6 years older than myself!

God Bless everyone and as always Thank you for letting me vent a little.

Best Regards,

Mike

Thursday 12/27

My Wife and her mom on Christmas Day








Thats Mom on the left








My little Princess, I can't stand to look at her right now. All of a sudden the money she stole from us has ran out so she wants to do the right thing! Just some more typical teenage bullshit! It took all my will power not to have her arrested on Christmas Day! Oh well, no matter what I do I will always be an asshole in her mind. The benefits are that I won't have to, willingly, cough up cash for this one! See there is always a silver lining in every dark cloud.

They did turn in the little princess yesterday and for some reason the New Castle County Police could not find the warrants that were issued on this child. They were at our house on numerous occasions looking for the princess, I guess they lost the paper work they had only last week! So much for the Delaware Justice System!

My wife and her brother took the princess into the police station, they waited almost 8 hours to get her put away. It was cold, I guess that is how they are saving the tax payers money, by freezing out anyone who comes to see them.

They at first said that they will most likely wave the $12,000.00 bail because she was a juvenile. Well I was not paying to get her out in the 1st place. But they soon found that she had quite a few warrants on her and they decided to incarcerate her. The jail called here last night and she wanted to talk to her mommy, mom was not home so the princess declined to talk to me! This little girl has already shattered my heart so if she thinks that not speaking to me has got to me see is way off base! I hope she gets to suffer for what she has done and finally gets her act together, I've heard this bullshit so many times in the past that it will take a very long time for her to prove herself to me.

My wife fell asleep at her mom's house last night night, no phone calls, no way of knowing if she was safe or not. I guess that me and my feelings are ranking pretty low on her list of things to do. This is not the 1st time I've been forgotten about and I am sure it won't be the last!

I finally got a call from her brother, at 10:30PM, to let me know she was all right. She finally called me this morning to tell me what happened, it must be very painful to get all your fingers broken at the same time?

They had to go to court this afternoon for Jen's bail hearing. I doubt if they will let her out.

God Bless everyone, and let me know your reading this sometime!

Regards,
Mike

Merry Christmas

My REAL Present!











The Helicopter I haven't Crashed yet!











My Lovely Wife Debbie
playing with her new camera.
I just love the antlers! Don't you?











Me holding the Helicopter I crashed
and burned in less than 2 minutes.
New parts have been ordered!!!

Today is Christmas Day. Hope that Santa was good to all. I got some new toys and as you can see even at 49 years old I'm still a kid at heart! This morning was really great for me, it was quiet, no yelling, no miserable kids complaining that they did not get what they really wanted. The wife was a little depressed though. This was our first Christmas without kids. I, on the other hand, did not really miss them. I mean it would have been great to have them all around and to see our grandson, Donavan, opening his gifts but lets face the facts. The kids are older now and they have to live their own lives.

The oldest lives in the Detroit area and we got to spend about 20 minutes listening to Donavan tell us about the Spider Man and Transformer stuff that Santa brought.

The 2nd oldest is a Sargent in the Marine Corps. and he had to pull duty all day today on his home base in Yuma, AZ.

The 3rd son I have not yet heard from but I'm sure he has called mom.

Last but never least, lets not forget about my little princess Jen, she did not want to turn herself in and be stuck in jail on Christmas day so she conned her uncle into letting her stay with him today. She is supposed to turn herself in tomorrow, we'll see!

My wife was in a pretty good mood and I got her a new camera for Christmas. I think she likes it because she ran the batteries out twice so far today. I also got her some Harley boots that she liked a lot and a few other little things, had to remind her that we ordered her a new car last week (wish I could have had that one in the drive this morning). Would have liked to see if she would react like the woman in that commercial where the husband gives her tissues and a brown paper bag, and when he shows her the 2 new cars she faints. Great commercial!

Anyway, we got our act together and went to the hospital to see mom. We both were extremely happy to learn that they moved her into the step down unit from ICU. They plan on weening her off the ventilator in the next couple of days. She was alert and seemed to be happy to see us. She still can't talk and you could see the frustration on her face when she was trying to tell us something (We took some pictures together and I will post these tomorrow). It will still take some time for her to get back into the swing of things. The new section in this hospital is pretty cool, they have an interactive TV system that would allow mom to communicate if only she could move her arms.

The weather here in Delaware was great today! I was even able to get my Harley (the REAL Present) off the stand in the garage and ride it this afternoon, I still can't believe I was on my bike on Christmas day. This was great for me, I haven't owned a motor cycle in 27 years and when I lived in Detroit you put it away in September and it did not come back out until June, so I was happier than a priest at a Boy Scout convention!

Well that's all I've got for now, and again Merry Christmas to all and may God be with you during the Holidays! The helicopter I didn't crash yet is charged and waiting for me to chase the dogs around the house.

God Bless you all, I know he has blessed me!

Regards,
Mike

Sunday

I'm sorry for not posting the past couple of days but I just needed some time to work on some other projects. I have a new site up that has a wealth of information for starting or maintaining a home based business. You can check it out here. Let me know what you think as I have new software that will allow me to search the net to find article that cover anything you can dream of. I even downloaded a new web page template that I thought was cool for the home page. Any how just check it out and if you can give it a Digg, a Stumble Upon Thumbs Up, and a Technorati hit so I can get it established.

My wife's mother is doing better but she is still unable to speak, you can see the angst in her face as she is so frustrated with not being able to tell people what she wants. They say it will be a long time for her to get better. I just thank God she is still with us. We will be celebrating Christmas again when she gets better.

I got so frustrated at work the other day that they would not let me come in on Friday. No big deal I still get paid for it so what the Hell? I tried to go to a couple of store to pick up some small things for my wife. I went to the local K-mart, I walked around the store for a while and put a couple thing in the cart. When I saw how many people were waiting for the 2 open registers I just walked out of the store and came home. This should be a reminder to all to get their shopping done early.

It's not like I really needed anything, just a couple of stocking stuffers, I had already completed the main stuff online. Hurray for the internet! Everything arrived in time and it is all wrapped and put under our MASSIVE 32" fiber optic tree. We really did not feel like going through all the regular crap after what had gone on around here.

Just wanted to get a post up so you all know I'm still alive. Thought about taking the Harley out yesterday but never really got around to it. Oh well spring will soon be here.

I want to wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas and I hope the big guy brings you everything you need.

God Bless us all!

Mike

Powered by ScribeFire.

Thursday

Another bad day at work today! For some reason we could not get a decent painted unit out of the spray booths to save our as. We had to work 10 hours and reviewed over 600 units in order to send 300 to bed assembled, and yes I lost the trim bank. But it was m teams last day until January 2nd so it was bad but not that bad, I guess my attitude showed through as my boss and his boss both told me to take tomorrow off. That will work for me!

My team gave me a gift card for the local Harley dealer and I know just what I am going to get with it for my Low Rider. That in itself made a bad day pretty good.

They removed the ventilator from my mother in-law and put a trachea tube in. This was, at least, mom's decision. They are saying it will take months for her to recover and if she catches pneumonia again it will most likely kill her. But if she is willing to give it a shot then so are we.

Don't really have a lot to say tonight, so I'll just end it here. At least mom has come around and will be here for Christmas. I know my wife and I will both be with her mom on Christmas Day.

God Bless, and check out the cool links!

Mike

Wednesday

Today at work really sucked, I was almost ready to quit my job at around 2:00PM today. I was so fed up with the bullshit that gets thrown at me and my team!

The stupidity in our upper management regime just never ceases to baffle me! They want the manpower on the line to compensate for their lack of funding to repair the automation they chose to paint the trucks we build.

For some reason this is my teams fault that some defects happen to get into the Audit area. This is placed where they review the units before they are shipped and they really knit pick them. This is to gage the quality of the units we provide to our customers and that is a good thing. Thanks Martha for the quote.

However, to blatantly state that my team needs to work harder to improve the quality just got my blood boiling! They feel, in their total lack of understanding of what we do, that my team needs to do more to improve the quality of the truck. We tell them, on a daily basis and until we are blue in the face, what the real issues are with the system and everyday they make those general promises to take care of them. But alas days, weeks, and months pass and the same shit keeps coming out of the system.

You see there are 2 very separate schools of thought in this auto industry. The first is supposed to be "Quality Period!" This is very self explanatory. The second is don't let the plant come to a screeching halt! Just keep the numbers up going into assembly and everything else will be okay.

Unfortunately my team does the best that they can given the numerous issue we see coming from the "Money Saving Automation" system that actually paint 85% of each units and we do perform the impossible on a daily basis, but to ask for miracles, well that is going to take just a little more advanced notice!

To me, this is ridiculous! This multi million dollar company would rather work all the personnel in the paint shop overtime for 2 hours each day than to spend the money to replace the $3oo parts needed to SOLVE the real problems. All of this at the same time telling you that your areas needs to cut back manpower because the costs are too high.

I am not a Business Major by any stretch of the imagination! But come on! Where is the rational in this thinking???? If the company I work for happens to read this I will most likely be in quite a heap of trouble. But you know what? I really don't care because the worst possible thing they could do to me is fire me! And we have all heard that old adage of "Well I was looking for a job when I found this one!"

Well it is getting late for this old man and 4:00Am seems to come around really fast anymore. Thanks for letting me vent!

God Bless everyone and may you all have a Safe and Merry Christmas.

Mike

P.S. Please check out the cool links and help me get closer to retirement while you make a little money on the side yourself.

Tuesday

This is a good picture we took while in Virginia Beach. I thought it was cool that you could actually drive down the Boardwalk. It was quite a site! And it was pretty darn cold that night with the winds coming right off the ocean. That is why it is a little shaky.

Now lets back to my reality!

I have to get up at 4:00Am everyday for work, and I have to tell you this plain sucks. But if I am to continue to finance my step daughters escapes from reality I'll just have to keep on doing it until I can retire. With all the different things I have going on I hope that will be soon. And Lord knows that the money she steals from us doesn't just grow on trees!

Any way I am presently employed by a major automotive manufacturer, I am a supervisor in the paint department. The job is okay and I do get a couple of perks, like a company lease vehicle, and I found out just this afternoon that I had to order a new vehicle today to replace the aging 6 month old one my wife currently drives. Well I can't really reveal who I work for but I can tell you we just ordered her a 2008 Dodge Avenger. This should be delivered next February. Well if you have a little bit of a detective in you, you should be able to figure out the companies name.

Well my mother in-law was alert again today, like I stated yesterday that she is far from out of the woods yet, and she was able to answer some simple yes or no questions. This was good as she was able to let her family know that she really does not wish to have a tracheotomy done so they can put her on yet a different type breathing machine. The hospital has also reset the big meeting date for this Thursday, maybe mom can have some say so this time around! They will be talking about her quality of life!

One of my wifes brothers has been living with mom for awhile now and my wife found out today that he and her eldest brother have been using mom's house as a perpetual party haven. Now we are not talking about a couple of teenagers carrying on while the parents are away we are talking about two grown men in their 40's and 50's. I, myself, was floored when I was told this today, this is to me just a flagrant disrespect for their mother and their mothers home. My wife is very upset over this and is very annoyed with both of their behavior.

My wifes other brother, the Gorilla, and she have set a plan in motion to escort the over aged delinquents out of her mothers house tomorrow. I am calling this brother the Gorilla because he makes the rest of the boys look small compared to him. The Gorilla and my wife plan on removing all the trash before the maid service arrives, to give the place a good cleaning from top to bottom, even if it takes calling in the police. I have also been informed that doors and windows are replaceable items, if they may happen to get disturbed during this little house cleaning party. Man I really wish I had another vacation day to see this! They also plan on going through mom's bills and get her affairs in order.

My money is going to be on the Gorilla. He should be able to handle this on his own unless the other two decide to make it a WWF Caged Tag Team Event! Then those guys that carry the guns will need to be brought in. And we all know that if this happens nobody will be the winner!

It's good to know that a couple of them still have their wits about them.

That is all I have for tonight so God Bless everyone, and I will have more to add tomorrow.

This what actually goes on in my life! I really do not make any of this up!

Mike

P.S. Don't be afraid to check out the cool links, they cost nothing to try and you may be able to make some extra money if you put in the effort.

Monday

This picture was e-mailed to me by a friend. It was part of an e-mail regarding that fact that 86% of the population of the United States believe in God and how come our Government is bending over for the 14% that don't. However, it was to me, a kind of a divine sign to get this just last night!

You see my wife and her brothers went to the hospital today for the meeting with their mothers doctors to face the grim reality that their mother may not pull through. When they got there all were surprised that mom was awake from the coma and was responding to commands from the nurses! If this is not a miracle I don't know what is! The fact that just yesterday the doctors were talking to my wife about pulling the plug on her and today she comes around?


This is the best Christmas present we will receive this year. My wife is kinda bopping around for the first time in a couple of weeks, although she is a little under the weather due to running herself into the ground during this ordeal. But I can see the peace within her, because she now has the opportunity to tell her mother the things she needs to say to her. My wife was given a great big redo in life and I only pray that she uses this.

This does not mean her mom is jumping up and down in her hospital room, this just means that there is now hope when all hope was lost! It will most likely be a long road ahead but just the fact that she is responding and knows who is talking to her is just wonderful news!

I know there a quite a few people who do not believe in God. Maybe they feel that God is responsible for their miserable lives, or he is the reason that they can't seem to get ahead in life. To them all I can say is that maybe they are getting their inner will confused with God's will.

I also had to learn this the hard way and I found that when I inflict my will into the world around me things do not evolve very well. But when I just pray in the morning and ask God to show me I have a lot less stress. Yes I am still making the decisions and yes I do too make mistakes, the difference is that I don't feel like I am making all these decisions myself. I know this sounds confusing but it works for me. I can now take a step back from the situation and asses the proper way to handle it. Some times it doesn't work out but about 90% of the time it does.

I don't want anyone to believe I am a religious fanatic, I don't even go to church that often. I just believe that a power greater than us all exists and I happen to call him God. If you don't believe me just watch the birds flying, listen to the leaves rustling through the trees, or just take in a beautiful sunset sometime and let me know where you believe these come from.

But for now I will ask my God to watch over you just as he watches over me and my family.

May God Bless Everyone,

Mike

P.S. The little princess has made contact with a couple of her uncles. They advised her to come into the hospital to see her grandmother and then turn herself into the authorities, I agree that this would be the right thing to do. I knows she is scared about what the consequences will be for her actions but she needs to face them and move on with her life unfortunately for her she will no doubt be visited from this wreckage of her past for some time to come. We are both glad that she is all right and if you happen to read this Jen "We really do love you! We just can't stand you right now!" Someday you will appreciate where your mother and I are coming from.

Sunday

This a picture I took from our balcony overlooking the Boardwalk in Virginia beach. It's really more of a Cement walk if you ask me. This is only a part of the 4 mile long Christmas light show there and for only $10.00 a vehicle you can drive down the "Boardwalk" and view this very interesting display, they even give you a CD to install in your stereo that is synchronized to the display, baring in mind you maintain a set pace, which of course we didn't. It is still pretty cool though.

Well so much for the balmy 60 degree temps we had in Virginia Beach, back to reality! It's getting extremely cold here in Delaware, we were able to dodge the big storm last night and all we got is rain, creating a very dismal day to say the least.

My wifes mom had the MRI done this morning and her mom's condition has improved slightly. Tomorrow is the BIG meeting with my wife and her brothers at the hospital, I believe now that they are all on the same page, but they need to listen to what the doctors have to say regarding the outlook they have for their mother. The care that will need to be provided and what her overall life will be like. I am glad that she is starting to come around but the prognosis is still fairly grim. I just hope to God that this emotional roller coaster is finally coming to an end! It definitely is not an E ticket type of ride!

My wife wanted me to take tomorrow off but unfortunately I have to go to work, someone has to finance our daughters runaways you know. I took 3 days off last week at her request and now the vacation time has run out. If see really needs me I know that I will able to leave and be with her. But until then there are no selling trucks that need to built! Only have to work the rest of this week coming and we will be down until Jan. 2.

There is really nothing new except the fact that my wife has been attempting to track Jen down, even though this child already knows that her grandmother is in a bad way. I told you yesterday that the strong front my wife had up was just a bunch of bullshit! We both care about Jen, it's only that she needs to face her own reality and she is obviously not willing to do that. Jen is something of character in the fact that she is DEEPLY in love with a guy doing time for felonies, not just one but a few. This guy won't be released until October of next year, so given the fact that he's a convicted felon and she soon will be, their chances of that great storybook life together will be based on Welfare and the amount of Food Stamps they receive. Oh man I almost forgot the government cheese!

All I can say is that Love may be blind, but this is down right stupid! If Jen continues on the current track she will be the Skibicki of the year winner hands down! At least she can have the nicely framed certificate to hang on the inside of the cardboard box that these two will eventually call home!

God Bless Everyone,

Mike

P.S. Don't be afraid to check out the Cool Links on the right hand side, these programs are working for me and if I can do it I know you can.

Saturday

This is us at the Imax theater! (man I'm Good Looking)

My wife and I woke up early and went to breakfast before we set off to the hospital. Our young neighbor needed some extra money for Christmas so we had her clean the house while we were out. This is one way to get maid service while maintaining a tight budget!

We discussed her mothers condition over breakfast and we also talked about the fantastic time we all had had in Virginia Beach at the beginning of the month. We had a great day at the Virginia State Aquarium, laughed at each others jerks while we were watching the 3D Imax movie.

We went to the Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas light show, my wife and her mother were shopping for gifts in the gift shop area. During this time there were absolutely no signs that her mothers health was failing. I guess that just proves the old adage that life is short so live each day as it may be your last!

We arrived at the hospital and when we entered her mothers room I noticed how peaceful she looked compared to the other day. When I spoke to her she appeared to react to my voice, this kind of set me aback as I was starting to have my own reservations, however after a period of time and watching her these were only involuntary movements.

My wife became very concerned while holding her hand that all of her mothers rings were gone. My wife had wanted to remove these last week but was not able to due to the swelling that has occurred. The nurses, we came to find out, had removed her wedding rings in preparation for her MRI. My wife was very relieved when they produced these from a nearby safe and handed them to her.

We stayed and talked to her for awhile then came back home, my wife collapsed on the couch in the den totally exhausted.

There been no word regarding Jen and I know that this is wearing heavily in my wifes heart also.

Monday now is the day of re conning, the hospital staff has asked my wifes family to gather for a meeting there at 10:00AM on Monday. All of her brothers have come to same conclusion, I can only hope and pray that my wife can see what is really best for her mom.

God Bless,

Mike

Friday

My Wife & Her Mom just a week ago.


My wife came home from the hospital tonight looking more drawn than I have seen in some time. She was able to make amends from her estranged brother only to find out that he has been diagnosed with cancer. Man if luck does not abound in this family I just don't know what does!

I think that my wife is finally convinced that it is time to let her mother go. She is definitely not herself at all and is moving around very irritated and snippy about everything and everybody.

The hospital contacted her to find out if and when her mother has had an MRI. Neither my wife nor myself had any clue as to when this could have been done in the past. They are going to perform yet another test to determine the amount of brain damage that has occurred.

The agonizing waiting starts once again! The recent events regarding my wifes mother coupled with the fact that our daughter is on the run from authorities only tends to elevate the stress level that my wifes health cannot handle. She can tell me that Jen's recent activities don't bother her but come on, she is her mother! I know I still care that she is safe, it would benefit both of us if she were in custody, at least we would know where she was.

The saga just seems to escalate, I hope and pray that everything will work out in one way or another. At least for now.

God Bless,

Mike

Is PlugIn Profit a Scam? - Work From Home Business Success

I saw this post while I myself was looking up the Plug-In Profit site to see if it was a scam. This was at the top of the Google index and was very enlightening.


Is PlugIn Profit a Scam? - Work From Home Business Success

Thursday

As you can see from my earlier post, my sweet and lovely step daughter has made it, once again, into the Delaware State's Hall of Shame. I am so proud I could just burst (Into tears maybe)!

Any way. My wifes mother is not doing any better, she was taken down for another series of brain tests to try to determine the amount of damage she has suffered. The results from the tests today will not be know until sometime tomorrow.

This only has a tendency to prolong my wifes hope that a miracle will happen! When I spoke with her this evening I believe she has finally came to the grim conclusion that it would be better to let her mom go. But my wife will not do it with out a fight. Sne wanted to stay at the hospital with her mom and she is doing everything in her power to get her mom to respond to her.

I don't have any clue as to what to do now! I can't think of anything to say to her to comfort the hurt she is felling inside.

She is spending tonight with her family, I just hope they can find the peace that they all desperately need right now.

God Bless,

Mike

The Mug Shot

My step daughter has shown up on the Delaware's Wanted Website. I just love this picture of her it was taken in August. Doesn't she look fabulous???? It is children like this that make us parents proud!