More January junk

It may be just me, but 2011 isn't holding out much promise of being a good year. Added to our problems with the old car and lack of work (which is to continue at least Monday for Laurie), My son KC got fired because A) Steak and Shake is too cheap to have a manager on third shift; B) as a result, one of the third shifters decided to cull from the till; C) without enough help on their busy nights, even the honest workers had a lot of 'deletes' on their registers; D) management, instead of EVER counselling the workers about their 'deletes', waited instead for the engineer-less train to go off the tracks- which of course it did; and E) given that all of the above made it impossible for management to tell who were white hats and who were black hats, fired the lot of them- saying that if you had 'deletes' on your register, you MUST be stealing.

(Note to my readers: I've already informed S&S what I thought of their practices. I'm not an organizer of boycotts, but I told them I'd not be back. If you think about it the next time you consider stopping at S&S, do me a favor- blow yer horn, wave a finger of your choice at them, and drive away for another day.)

So now KC is looking for work despite the fact that often he was the only one working FOR them. Oh, well, with management like that, it won't be the last time. During the week, a former neighbor of mine had a streak that included A) finding out the hat from his favorite football team that he ordered 3 weeks ago was sold out; B) his microwave blew up; C) his trip to this week's Komet game was an OT loss; and D) the aforementioned favorite team got clocked by Da Bears this afternoon. Sports was also bad news for KC; each and every playoff game he picked has went the other way, including the embarrassing losses by his pre-season Super Bowl picks, Atlanta and Baltimore.

Now an old friend gives me her latest: As last year wound down, much of her husband's family ended up in the hospital (actually in the same hospital for a period; inconvenient since they were two sets of steps, or exes, however you want to look at it). One passed away; another, who had gone home, passed out in church this morning and is right back in. In the meantime, her father got a pretty severe back injury; was put into a home for OT to get back in shape- but now his insurance says that's good enough, send him home- as of tonight- and she'll have to come up from her home north of Indy to the Summit City to stay with him a while. Nice job on the health care, Obama!!!

(Note to readers: I know you can't blame it on him yet, but I haven't picked on him in a while; yes, Charlotte, I was kidding.)

In the meantime, KC posted a quote from his significant other on facebook last night: to the effect of I could talk the Pope into doing something bad with my way with words. I'd much rather be able to talk people (are you listening, Joshua?) into doing right; I seem to have a hard enough time listening to my own good conscience. In the last few weeks, just looking at FB, I've seen someone I don't know feel like giving up because some dude left his key and split; a young girl I know constantly dealing with heartache of people she cares for crapping on her; and an old friend who is dealing with some manner of emotional abuse. I wish I had words for any of them; but what do you say? When you're in those situations, even "I care" sounds phony- especially if you're not close. I only wish I was as good with words as Ashley thinks... or better yet, with actions. I feel like all I can really do is pray, and hope that Jesus has a "hug" for them.

And on top of that, now the JETS are taking the wood to New England. Far from me to root for the Pats, but EVERYBODY hates the Jets.

I guess though, if you can still look at sports when things are going bad, it can't be THAT bad.

Nice thing about that game was a very satisfying (for me) stretch early on. Play #1, Brady gets picked off, then gets juked out of his jockstrap. And still, the Jet defender got caught before he scored. Play #2, rb Shaun Greene trips over Sanchez's foot and loses yards. Play #3, the Jet blocking Vince Wilfork loses him, and in trying to catch him, runs into the other RB, L.T., and Wilfork tags him for a loss. Play #4, an anomalous good play for the Jets, a three yard gain. Play#5, kicker Nick Folk misses an easy FG. Play#6, Brady gets sacked. Play #7, a good gain turns into a first down when the Jets get called on a face mask penalty. Good times. Go Steelers!!!