You Gotta Eat

Being  in traffic full time now means not having to read every story in the paper to see what's going on. I don't feel obliged to watch every newscast or dig deeper into a local story. If a story interests me, I'll read it. If not, I'll pass. I'm somewhere between being blissfully ignorant and overly well-informed.

One of the stories of interest to me is the new president's economic stimulus package, and how this stimulus package is going to "create" jobs. I don't understand how a government package is going to turn millions into wage earners. I don't see how it can be done. If it's so easy to do, why isn't it done on a regular basis? Jobs aren't created through government action. If anything these days, it's harder for the so-called "small" businessman to make it because of the goverment's policies. Look for taxes on these "small" businesses to go up, even though these are the last people who should be carrying more of a burden.

The problem with the economy is this. We continue to hear how dire things are. The news is bad every day. Things are bleak, times are tough. We need to save now more than ever. People heed these warnings and save. Except in bad times the word "save" is turned into "not spending". People aren't going to spend if they continue to think that times will be bad. Spending is needed to stimulate the economy, not another government package. Yet, why would people spend if they keep think they're going to be the next one's looking down the barrel of a gun? Just five days ago, I believed that I was going to be a victim of layoffs. That didn't happen, and I even got a job more to my liking. All last weekend, my thoughts were how I could make my existing savings go farther, not when we were going to paint the house or get a new dishwasher. The last thing I thought about was spending. Reading radio websites and hearing what's going on with the company that my friends work for has me in the mindset that I've only dodged the bullet temporarily. I'm circling the wagons a little more than usual, not looking to spend.

If ten people say "you look awful today" and one person says "you look great", you're going to believe you look awful- even if the truth really is you pretty much look like you do all the time. A non-stop flow of negative news can only lead to more negative results.

I drive home around 6:15 every night. My travels take me along a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that includes a Buffalo Wild Wings, Chilis, iHOP, and an Outback Steakhouse. Every night this week, all those parking lots have been filled. I've seen people waiting outside for a table. Every night this week! After a full day of hearing about bad economic news, that's the good news I take (figuratively) home. 

The Great Escape

One of my favorite movies is "Traffic". One of the scenes shows Benecio Del Toro's character, Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez, and his undercover partner digging their own graves after being taken by some drug thugs, When they're done digging their graves, they stand up, and the two thugs in turn stand behind them. The killers draw their weapons and put them at the back of cops' heads. A shot fires. Del Toro's partner falls dead, into a grave of his own making. Del Toro's character is still alive. He has won the drug runners' trust. He survives.

Today, I felt like Javier. While others around me were terminated, I was retained, even given a job more to my liking. Half of the staff was either let go, or had their hours reduced. I was officially given full time status. It was (if there is such a thing) a minor miracle. I went to work today thinking that this was my last day. My last day in radio. The beginning of the end of my stay in Las Vegas. Instead, it may be the beginning of something that I'd like to do for quite some time. Or at least until the next round of budget cuts.

The pipes also thawed, and are working fine. I stood in the shower for 15 minutes, just thinking about the events of the day. Hot water feels amazing after you've been on ice

Frozen

You would think that if you live in a place that gets to 115 degrees in the summer, that your pipes couldn't freeze in the winter. Not in Vegas, baby. I'm dealing with some frozen pipes this morning. I'm getting a little dribble of water out from time to time, so I don't think it's going to be disastrous, but it's still an added burden that I just don't need. 

I'm pretty sure I'm getting laid off today. I'll be a budget cut victim. Several members of the station, including me, have individual meeting with the boss this morning. This is followed by a general staff meeting at noon. My meeting is scheduled for 11:30, yet I'm supposed to start work today at 10. If I'm right, this means I will be waiting for my meeting time while employee after employee goes in to get their walking papers. I'm the lamb being led to the slaughter, the cow that stands in line to be butchered.

Sure, there's a chance that something else could happened. My hours could simply be reduced. I could be offered someone else's job, albeit in a lesser capacity. Still, I think today's the day my radio career in Las Vegas comes to an end. My pipes aren't the only thing that's frozen. Right now everything is on hold and nothing is out of the question

A Quick Hit

Update: My friend has not been fired yet. Rumor has it that his company will come down hard with the axe tomorrow. Coincidentally enough, by this time tomorrow, the person out of a job could once again be me. I had written as much a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't expect to be so right, so soon. Funny (in a not so funny way) how the things we're most right about are more often the things we don't want to be right about.

Of Firing and Fueling Up

One of my best friends in radio thinks he's going to get fired today.

He laid his case out there for me to see, and if I were him I'd feel the same way. If it happens it will continue my former employer's streak of making remarkably bad programming decisions. Good people who were instrumental in the station's success are being dismissed by people who have been instrumental in that same station's failure. Yet, those in management continue to keep their jobs. I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Hearing of someone's dismissal still brings back memories of mine, and you never get over it.

Just hearing that more people are expected to ring in the New Year here this year than last year, which puzzles me, considering our economy is "on the brink of total collapse". Rooms on the Strip go anywhere from $199-$799 a night. Not cheap. Everything's more expensive. Flights to Vegas this week cost more, too. Funny. I don't recall a huge rush to Las Vegas to celebrate New Year's during the actual Great Depression of the 1930's. Yet, 300,000 people will be on the Strip tonight. How can we actually have more people coming during the time of a huge economic downturn? Anyone?

They're coming to escape the realities of that same disastrous economy! At least, that's what we're led to believe. Again, it's all about turning a positive into a negative. That seems to be what the news media- of which I am a member- seems to do best these days.

Gotta go buy a tank of gas before work. Heck, it's so cheap now, I may even buy a tank for the guy next to me. He may just be one of the vast minority who doesn't have a job- though the odds are against it.

43

It's my birthday today, and from all indications, it will be a day like any other. My work hours are a little different (12p-8p), so there won't be any going out and celebrating- not that there would be if I worked 4a-noon. I'll hang out with the dog, grab some lunch, read about the Packers' game, and head into work. I'll get home at 8:30, watch a little TV with Pumpkin, and turn in. Day over. That's fine.

All things considered, I'd rather be 43 than 23. I remember what 23 was like. No money, uncertain future, crappy apartment (unless I was living with my parents, which was possible). 23 wasn't a lot of fun. I hadn't learned anything yet. Sure, I'd gone away to college, but anyone who equates college to a "real life" experience is a first-class moron.

As you get older, you're supposed to acquire a certain amount of wisdom, wisdom gained from one crushing defeat or heartbreak after another. I'd rather have wisdom than youth right now. The only thing that doesn't improve with age is potential. You have a ton of potential in your teens and 20's, but by the time you get into your 40's, you're supposed to have tapped into it. Get laid off when you're 45? Time to start over. You don't hear things like, "..now he has the potential to do.....". Nope. That's the only thing that scares me but, frankly, it scares me a little bit less than it did when I was jobless 12 months ago.

Should I become jobless again in 2009 (and earlier I predicted that would happen), there aren't a lot of 'potential' options for a 43 year old guy. Still, I'd rather be closer to retirement. Maybe I'm closer than I'd like to be. Here's to me.

Snow Day

I just came in from shaking a ton of snow off of my trees in the back yard. I don't know if they can be saved. You don't landscape a Vegas back yard thinking that six inches of snow is going to fall. Maybe I should do that next time. Who knew? Certainly not the weather people, who are great at telling me it's going to be sunny 7 days in a row, but totally miss the biggest snow event in 29 years (although they did say that areas above 3,000 feet would get at least five inches. Way to go, guys!).

It's still snowing as I write. It began roughly 5 hours ago. I now realize that my nostalgic feeling for snow was badly misguided. I don't mind it when I'm sitting inside the house, but otherwise there's nothing good about it. It took me an hour to get home from the dentist, a trip that usually takes 20 minutes. Pumpkin's car isn't designed for snowy travel, and I'm nervous about her drive home. My aforementioned trees are at risk of dying, meaning more money wasted on the backyard. The early drive tomorrow will no doubt be slick and dangerous. I don't know if what I've driven on today has damaged the under body of my car, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
In the tradition of disgruntled Iraqis, I almost threw a shoe at the TV a few minutes ago. They featured a five year old kid enjoying the "joy and wonder" of the snowfall. Here's what that kid needs to do: Grab a shovel and get to work. Nothing takes the "joy and wonder" away from snowfall like having to clean it off, shake it off, dry it off, and pay it off. Look at the snowball he made!!! Give him a broom, for Kringle's sake!

I'm just cranky, and using the blog to get it out, instead of getting on Pumpkin for a dumb reason like her loving snow.

Breaking News: Southwest Airlines just canceled all their remaining flights out of McCarran for the night. I wonder how that kid would feel about the "joy and wonder" of snow if it caused him to sleep at the gate for the night.