How the credit crisis has effected me

Throughout my employment I have seen rough & smooth times in both company sales & personal finances. As opposed to what I see in the media I'm doing quite well with little fear of losing my job.

Through the last 6 months of the credit crisis I've seen the effects ripple though my employers business with little impact on the bottom dollar. The most noticeable of which was a drop in housing materials orders, which was offset by higher than normal agricultural production orders. imo, mainly due to higher steel & grain prices, our company has flourished with record breaking sales & profit in the first 3/4 of our fiscal year.

My personal finances seem to follow the same trend. Although basic expenses have increased while my salary stayed basically the same, I've managed to pay off my car early & eliminate my credit card debit within the last two months.... making me debit free for the first time in 7 years. I'm now considering turning my now extra income into a house (down) payment or a cushy savings account. Apart from a small fear of the entire economy taking a massive down turn that would ultimately take my employment, I feel like I'm going in the opposite direction of what I see & hear through the media.

aLrigHty....

Just a few things to update this damn thing. I'm at work, tired & bored.... so here's this.

A couple of days ago we did a $100.00 job for a customer. As I was loading the steel into his trunk, my foot slipped on the ice & I allegedly let the steel drop onto the piece of plastic that runs along the bottom rim of the trunk & around the trunk latch. Well, about a half hour later he comes back with a estimate from a repair shop to have that piece of plastic replaced because he said I damaged it.... the bill, $103.00. First things first, I went out & looked at the piece, the "damage" was a 1/4" wide & 1-1/2" long scuff, just a fucking scuff.... but he insisted that we replace the piece. After a quick conversation with my boss I politely declined his claim. He was not pleased with us & proceeded to argue his case, to no avail. His last words were "see you in court". lol, we'll see about that.... 1) He let me load it, 2) he's hauling freight in his car, 3) it could of been there before or he could of done it taking it out, 4) it was an accident, 5) good Samaritan law. Did I mention that to steady me when I slipped, his hand ended up on my butt.... from that I was so distracted I didn't even think to look for damage, & I'm going to require compensation for the stress I felt from that; as a single man who rarely has physical contact with any other human, any contact I do have is noticed 10fold then normal & felt the same... having another man touch my butt was not pleasant, lol.

Last Friday evening I was watching my fish & some small movement near the bottom of the tank caught my eye. Low & behold it was a baby fish! Turns out amongst my guppies I have a female who had given birth! Unfortunately that one fish was the only survivor, I figure the rest were subject to cannibalism by the larger fish in the tank. So, in hopes of saving this one, I quickly grabbed a net & scooped the little guy up. Using the net I created a little nursery at the top of the tank that he can stay safe in until he is big enough to join the rest of the fish. I check up on him often & each time he brings a smile to my face... it was quite a unexpected surprise. I had notice a few weeks ago one of my fish being unusually large in the belly, but thought that that fish just might of been getting more then it's fair share of food. So I have a good idea of which fish is the female & I know what to look for.... I've also noticed the other fish being quite frisky around her, so I'm betting I can look forward to more little fishies... & this time I'm going to be ready. I've got an idea for a birthing area that will be sectioned off from the rest of the fish, & it'll be made in a way that will quickly separate the new fish from it's mother.

Christmas List

Here is my official Christmas list for this year:

-Head covering/face mask for riding on my bike in winter – needs to have nose & mouth breathing holes to prevent my glasses from fogging over, needs to be quick on/off, full head protection would be ideal but a combo face mask & hat would be fine. Black.

-Games (for pc): Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes, World in Conflict

-G15 Gaming Keyboard

-500gig (or larger) internal hard drive, a “EDI” type drive.

-36gig (or larger) 10,000rpm internal hard drive, typically called a “Raptor” hard drive, a “SATA” type drive.

-Innova Golf Discs: Wraith, Roadrunner, Viper

-The Disc golf holder/divider that’s inside of a typical disc golf bag, on-line only.... otherwise just a normal disc golf bag would be fine.

-Athletic winter undergarments, upper & lower body – needs to wick moisture away from the skin. Lower body: 36x32, upper: 42-45 (m).

-Boxers – waist is size 36, typically a medium

-Winter socks (no wool)

-Dvds: Band of Brothers, Planet Earth, Heroes: Season 1,

-Feather Body Pillow, with high thread count cover; navy blue or dark red

-Catnip balls (like the type Cheryl has for her cat)

-Couch slip-on cover; navy blue, forest green, or dark red

-Long leather coat, black or brown… with matching gloves

-Netflix gift membership

Thanksgiving weekend

I went up to my Parents for the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Now I'm back here, at work. It was a good weekend with the family & friends that were there.

Just Cheryl came up besides myself, although she did bring her cat. The Lucas' were there, but they came & left at different times.
Daryl & Jake came up earlier in the week to do some hunting.... they hunted for 5 days & didn't have a single opportunity to shoot one. Hell, I saw more deer then they did, lol. Ruthy, Brice & Kelson all came up on Wednesday night & they arrived before I did.

I left Ames around 9:15pm on Wednesday. Since it was still snowing in Northeast Iowa, all along the road I was going to take across, I waited until it moved a little farther East so I wouldn't catch up to it on my way.... so after work I took a hour nap, then proceeded to gather all the things I was going to take with me, load up the car & prepair the place for my absence. The last thing I did before I left was put on my new bike rack... it took me an hour to put it on! The metal clips, the excess nylon straps, & getting the position of the bike just right caused me many problems. The trip itself went smoothly. I stopped once at the half way mark to fill up as I didn't leave with a full tank & with the wind catcher of a bike hanging on the rear I wasn't sure I was going to make it all the way on what I had in the tank. The clouds did break up enough on the trip to let the moonlight through... & that's produced my favorite driving conditions. After a decent snow fall & while the moon is high in the sky, a bluish gray light envelopes the world... it was bright enough even to drive without my headlights on, which I did for just a moment. It was very peaceful & tranquil.

Thanksgiving day was as expected... I slept in for awhile, showered, & greeted everyone. We ate around 1:30 & it was Delicious as always.... lots of turkey, potato's, & pie. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the house, taking naps & chatting with each other.
Friday was more of the same, good food & friends.... with frequent naps. As well as Saturday.... although the Lucas left on Saturday.

I did get out to ride my bike for awhile, but it wasn't great. The first time I just accompanied the girls on their walk, although I did take a few detours to keep my heart rate up & get some distance in.... it was really cold & the gravel made everything complicated. I tried doing some off roading on Friday, but it was a complete failure. In areas where there was snow I spun out, & where there wasn't snow it was pretty much just mud... so more spinning out. So I fooled around a bit on & around the driveway, but not for long.... as I almost wiped out several times from the gravel or dirt letting my bike slip out from underneath me. I don't think the extra time it's going to take to load up my bike & the extra gas it's going to cost me will be worth taking it up again for Christmas.

Snow

It's been snowing most of today, the first snow of the year that looks like it's going to stick around longer then a hour. Although I like snow, it made it a bitch to ride home on my bike for lunch... it was the first time that my face got really cold from riding. I will definitely have to ask for a face mask for Christmas. I like having snow on the ground, imo if it's going to cold we might as well have snow.... it's better then looking at fields of black dirt. It looks like it's stopped here, but I can't say that for South East Iowa, which looks to get everything we got & more.... hopefully now that it's stopped here the roads to Wisconsin won't be bad. I haven't decided if I'm leaving tonight or tomorrow, as I'm going to wait to see what the weather does.

I did get my hair cut yesterday, but I'm not 100% satisfied with how they cut it. I'm still in search of a place that will look past how I tell them to cut it & actually use some common sense to make it look good.... it looked well enough while I was in the chair, but now that it's been washed & had some time to settle I realize it's not cut quite right. arg