www.wefailed.dam

Two Sundays ago was my last day at work before I took my "vacation." The reason for the parenthesis is that it is not a vacation but it is not really a break in service either. My company is going through some major changes. Hell, the whole country is going through the same changes and it begins with their pockets. All during this year alone, I have watched business that have thrived in the same place for years close their doors. Some very abruptly. As I drive around, I imagine America becoming a ghost town. Yea, imagine something like that the next time you see your power company with a sign on the door saying "Closed, thanks for your business, you must now mail in your payment or go to http://www.wefailed.dam/. That sucks to see that.

I have fought tooth and nail to keep what you can call a job just so that I do not have to stand in the unemployment line and become a statistic like so many of my fellow Americans and coworkers. It makes me feel down to see my coworkers go away one at a time, some happy while others are anxoius about what their future holds. Still others are still arriving at the time clock every day until that fateful May 4, 2009. That is the day that the WARN Act will let nearly 60 or more of my co workers go. Many of whom are long time employees of a quarter of a century or more. I could not help but thinking as I left for the last Sunday that I would be working in a while, that things would be fundamentally different upon my return to work in May. In itself, the newspaper office will be a ghost town.

Just the other day, I checked my email from work so that I can stay up to date on any other major changes going on and they said goodbye to another forty sum people. Fundamentally, I will be returning to a ghost town. Everyone will be overworked and stressed. Big fun there. But on the bright side, I do have a job to go to. A lot of these people are going to be looking for months with nothing to show for it. Resume after resume sent off, application after application filled out to sit and watch the phone and pick it up every now and then to see if it is still working. Oh, it works, just nobody is calling. Very sad.

I was sitting in a circus tent tonight listening to a conversation going on behind me. This woman was talking about her ex-husband the millionaire and how she now has to work 2-3 jobs just to get by. What a pity. I am sorry she spent most of her time at home married to him worrying about what color her toenails were going to be and now she has an outdated college degree and has to work sixty hours a week at $8.50 an hour just to make ends meet! tsk. tsk. I say. She should live within her means and it would not be like that. Hurumph! The way I look at it, this economic downturn is only going to really hurt the rich people. All because they now have to live like us more simple folk and learn to make it from check to check. OOps! No more $10 lattes from starbucks or some fru fru shop!

As I sip my imported coffee from Canada: Yes dahlin!!!! Tim Hortons for me! My import only cost me what I do for a living and will happily return to in three weeks! A nicety on the telephone! Customers are great! Dont forget to read the Sun News!!!!!

And don't forget national Newspaper day 04-20!!!