Ogre

My father's employer also made syrup only he tapped hundreds of trees and mass produced. When I was about 8 or 9 he employed me to wear a backpack device that carried the car battery that power the drill for tapping and we'd walk what seemed like a million miles through the woods. I didn't get to run the drill, I was basically the little burro to carry that heavy ass battery. He had a pipeline to the sugarhouse so the labor was reduced but I was back to help again when he was boiling. That was cool because I got to pour the fresh stuff on a big old bowl of snow and eat it up the gooey results. How do you boil off? My MIL makes some every year but she gets a few bottles of vodka and just spends days boiling on the stove top.

First day of spring y'all! Let's hear what the Gandharvas have to say about it.

Don't know if you've played Odyssey or not but it's set in ancient Greece so no guns(which I would have a lot easier time with). I do so love, though, lurking outside a bandit camp whistling until they get all pissed off and come looking for me. "That whistling's really pissing me off!" Makes me laugh at the variety of insults they hurl at me, then I slit their throats.

My FIL has been a being a real asshat about the social distancing thing. I swear he sits in his living room for two weeks straight without leaving the house just fine until he's told not to. Now he's got these all errands he "has" to do. My wife and her sisters have been harping on him and he just gets more resolve to go out. He has been stressing out my wife and I with these antics. My MIL had cancer treatment not long ago and everyone is concerned for her health(except the asshat apparently). He was out to lunch with some other old dudes yesterday and started giving my wife a hard time again last night about how he had to go for this and that and how he had to go down to the historical society to archive stuff the next day. Belligerent like a two year old. I had finally had enough and jumped down his throat, threatening to take his wheels off the friggin car if wouldn't cooperate. He must have got the message because he called today to get on our list of people that we are making the ONE trip out for. Friggin jerk. He's a very smart guy and I've always looked up to until he started this nonsense.

The little landscape timber box is the new part. It’s for the Arctic kiwi my wife bought me for my birthday. I plan on building a trestle on the existing tiered bed there for it to climb but I may need a second arm for that.

I must really suck then because I'm two levels above everyone I encounter and still find combat challenging?.

I just discovered that KOTOR is backwards compatible on Xbox one and available on the store for $10.....Giggidy.

I've been furloughed since I tore my rotator. The PT people think I may have actually jammed my collarbone into it and actually sliced it with the way I fell but that's irrelevant at this point. Two weeks post op yesterday so I have daily PT 5 times a day(passive range of motion for another 4 weeks). Walking 3 miles, doing lunges and one legged toe raises. No bar on the shoulders yet. I had planned on getting back into the classroom this week but our program is suspended for now. Lot's of cooking/cleaning. I built a new raised bed garden the other day with my good arm. I enjoyed the challenge. I'm usually burning the candle on both ends but with all of this free time I'm able to research and better the Power points I use in class. I'm also making good use of the Xbox. We did have one of the elderly neighbors that we reached out to respond. The husband has had a kidney transplant so they appreciated the offer and are more than willing to let us run errands that they need done. I just hope the rest weren't offended by our offer. I am also driving my wife nuts. She is reciprocating in kind?.

OMFG! That practice might get a pass if you were using the vinyl half mask that had removable filters so long as the filters were properly removed and the mating surface was capped to prevent contamination. Everything would have to be deconned. I saw the pic @North Buffalo posted of his PPE in the doffed state, waiting to be donned. I fear you guys are not receiving proper training in N95. If the provider of the PPE doesn’t even understand the proper technique, how the hell can they provide you with the proper info? I’m sorry man. I’d love to give better advice for reusing that one time use PPE you have but I can’t. Those masks are one time use. If you could get you’re hands on one like this you could use the pink P100 filter. It’s going to filter those organic particulates and at a higher percentage than that white N95 you’re given. Sanitize the outside before removing, remove/cap the filters and store them in the bag. Sanitize the inside of the half mask and store that in a separate bag. Good luck you guys.

Unions are the last thing that any communist regime wants to deal with. Communists sell themselves as the worker's party but in reality they are a control party. The collective bargaining power of a Union counters the Communist party's need to control all facets of society. Does a communist leader offer up free elections? When my three year term is done and I am nominated again for my office I will have to sign an affidavit that I am not currently, nor have I been within the last ten years, a member of the communist party. To directly address your question now, YES! YES I DO! Every single human being alive today is exactly the same. They would all love to feel secure and have a voice. I'll use the problems that Hershey had with the chocolate workers striking in 1937 as an example. Hershey provided what he felt was a utopian existence with a comfortable living, entertainment, spiritual needs. Some people didn't mind but others became frustrated with every facet of their lives being controlled by the Board. They wanted a higher level of freedom and control over their lives. They went on strike to change the lack of choice in their town. The dairy farmers, because they had milk rotting on their farms, got involved and violence ensued. Milton turned his back on the whole scene hoping the farmers would teach the workers a lesson. It back fired on Milton though. In order for a Labor Union to succeed in China it would require a change in regime. As much as Labor Unions reject globalization, I support it. The short term pain it may bring would be balanced in the end with all workers around the world realizing a comparable standard of living, defanging the bite of corporate greed(I like your description as shareholder greed better). I don't know though. We would have to convince the entire base of American consumers to pay a few more dollars for a product that was built by justly compensated labor or convince our elected leaders to build legislation that would restrict products sold in the US from being produced without worker protections in place. I hope for the prior and doubt like hell we will ever get to the latter. I'm hoping this problem we are facing now will open the average American's eyes to the injustices that are being perpetrated on the worlds workers. I'm hoping that a good dose of hardship will changes minds and hearts and we will all demand products that are made humanely(anybody buying Nike products ever again?). Who knows, the anti-996 movement in China seems to be gaining steam. I'd like to hope that the Chinese worker could do what the American worker did but I remember that tank running that dude being run over in Tiananmen Square. The communists are extreme but that was before globalization started. China has become reliant on manufacturing so if the world's consumers demanded change, it would happen. Let's hope for their workers' fates, and the fate of the American worker, that we can get there. Let's have a true look at capitalism when it can't rely on cheap dispensable labor for profit and the merits of management are the driving force behind profit. Can you imagine a world where the livelihood of the CEO was dictated by performance? I'm willing to do my part. (Can you guess which party I sided with in The Outer Worlds??)

Labor Unions, just like anything else man made, are not perfect. I've been a member for a loooooong time. I've seen it. Nepotism was rampant and seriously hurt the public image of what a Union is and restricted the democratic process used to reach decisions. Dad(the business manger) wants this vote to go this way so let's get all of our buddies to go to the meeting tonight. I'm a first and only generation Union member. I worked my way up the ranks and stomp out nepotism like a forest fire when it tries to creep in. It's tough to respond to the exact troubles your dad had because I don't know what Union your father was a member of. The manufacturing Unions in particular failed to recognize that globalization was going to change the way their businesses operated. They refused to acknowledge that their jobs were going overseas and(most likely due to that nepotism) failed miserably. Having said that though, don't you hold an equal responsibility on management? Sure they were getting cheap labor over there, but they knew the people doing the work were being abused. In aid to save a buck they condoned the mistreatment of workers. There's enough shame for BOTH sides that they couldn't meet in the middle. As far as Labor Unions needing to be conciliatory to keep their jobs on American soil, I don't buy it. The hands on work of construction and service industries can't be outsourced and the potential for abuse of those workers is very real. An example? The Hardrock hotel collapse in NO was a non-union contractor that was cutting corners on material, safety and employing people in the country illegally(my point with this is that there is no possible way they were properly trained). When the Union contractor working down the street shut down his job and brought his cranes over to the scene, he was turned away by the non-union contractor. We still have families mourning a loved one who's body is still in the wreck of a building. Unions have their problems(like everything does) but you would see a massive increase in worker fatalities in this country without them. Having said that, you can rest well knowing the Ironworkers work WITH a contractors. We reserve the muscle for those that won't abide by the rules of engagement agreed on by both parties. The voting members fought against it. "The union" is the active membership. Sounds like your dad understood the ramifications. Adapt or die. Again, blame should be diffused. When a Union member lets nepotism exist in their ranks, then they really can't blame an outside source for their problems. People get comfortable and don't want to rock a boat they feel safe in when long-term longevity, and not sinking that boat, is the goal they should aspire to. The complacent were at fault, not the idea of freedom a Union inspires. I'm really glad you mentioned this. It is absolutely true. Again, I'd like to defer blame to the corporations that are putting profit before life and dignity. Here we have an a opportunity to revisit compassionate capitalism and its potential to improve the human condition. There is plenty of blame to hand out in the abuse of those overseas workers. I'll add consumers hungry for cheap goods and politicians failing to recognize or care that they were damning those workers by not acting with legislation to check those corporations from being able make profits on the back of human misery. I suspect globalization and the transfer of our Union philosophies would eventually have the same impact that it did on a very young United States. The money is there to share a lot more equitably with enough potential for individual wealth to inspire innovation just fine.

Mrs. iT has set up a little office at home to keep the beauty of theatre alive. She was working on canceling the show CATS when Little Bear stepped in. “I know all about CATS, I’ll handle this one...”

"Brandon will bring a combination of hockey sense and character..." Hockey character? So he refers to his team mates as "the boys"?

We've had our first death in Rochester from Covid19. A 54 year old male that worked at RGH. This concerning to me because 1)his age 2)he worked in a hospital and most of all 3)he was not in that original group that were diagnosed as late as Friday, so that means he was sick and spreading it long before anyone knew he was even sick. Officials are saying he didn't contract it from a patient at the hospital but I don't believe them. Plenty of reasons to mislead the public on that. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/03/18/coronavirus-first-upstate-ny-death-rochester-general-employee/5076041002/l Be careful man. Hopefully they provided accurate training on donning and doffing that N95. I'll be praying for you guys. Editing to add: His underlying health issues are being reported as high blood pressure and he was a smoker.

It wasn’t factually accurate enough for censorship.

This video isn't the one I use in practice but it is good none the less. It got my eyes all juicy. No one learns this stuff in school. The American worker has had a tragic history. Mother Jones=American hero. Also, I missed an E in the "the" before American People in the thread title. I'm sorry, I'm rolling with one hand so I'm surprised that is the least of my typing errors.

With regards to the prior censorship; I have been invited to share my thoughts here. I sincerely hope that I what I have to say will be left to stand, as the tone will be kept civil(as it was in the post that was deleted) and the intention will be from the heart. It's no secret that I am a long-time, high profile member of a Labor Union. I come from a very poor family that gave so much to a community that had less than they did. My mother watched 12-15 children at any one time while their parents worked to buy food/secure housing. She did it for $1/kid as a service to our community. My father was a certified mechanic yet drove truck because he could make more money that way. He always had someone's car in the yard though, fixing it for the price of parts and a few dollars for himself. He couldn't bring himself to collect the going rate because these were people that were struggling too. It didn't seem right and he wasn't going to do it no matter how far it set him behind. They both worked so hard and still managed to raise 5 sons without an ounce of public support. Pride! They both died with nothing but God's love, just how they came into this world. They were the true American hero. I dedicated my life and every spare breath to this Union when I realized the vessel that it is to lift people out of poverty and give them a voice in their lives. I became involved. I became a student of Labor history to better teach my course on the history of the Ironworkers. It was in the course of that study that I realized who the REAL heroes of our American past are, not the JP Morgans and the Andrew Carnegies, but the types like Mother Jones, who's big mouth I have modeled my professional career after, who NEVER stopped advocating for the working person. From her deathbed even! Here is her final recorded words from 100 years old. Such a history! Such a woman! Such an American hero! She got results. When she spoke, people listened. People like her and Samuel Gompers were larger than life. They took chances and refused to be deaf to the voices of the workers who were suffering the stresses of low pay and long hours. They believed the hungry should be fed and that the homeless should be housed. They believed in the American worker. They understood that the engine behind every great company was the men and women doing the labor with the unmatched productivity that the American worker had then and that we as American workers still have to this day. Our prowess is unmatched in the world. Those early leaders in Labor saw how the average citizens' lives were suppressed by corporate greed. That ugly word "Greed" is a constant of the human condition and those early leaders sought an avenue that could survive the tests of time to provide a weapon to fight the injustice that greed creates. The eight hour day, overtime pay, weekends; all brought to you by Organized Labor and the relentless efforts of Mother Jones and the like. What, I ask, did the airlines do with the bail out in 2008? They cashed that welfare check written by the American taxpayer and bought up stock in their own companies. Let them sell off that stock and weather this storm like the average worker. If an airline or cruise line goes under, isn't that just the market forces of capitalism at play? The current company goes down but the need for the service doesn't disappear so some other entrepreneur steps in and fills the vacuum(hopefully with a more successful business model). Why is giving government money to a citizen "socialism" and giving government money to industry NOT socialism? If we define socialism properly as the government controlling industry instead of the markets doing so, then why isn't the government's money going to industry the act that gets labeled as socialism? The idea of corporations paying a higher tax to provide for more social programs would be more accurately defined as "compassionate capitalism". The idea that corporations need the worker and should play a bigger role in the care of those workers. Eliminate the greed. There is plenty to go around and still have multi millionaires driving innovation. Instead of giving $850 billion to industry, why not give it to the American citizen to spend on those industries that are shuttered for now, when they reopen? The American citizen could continue paying their taxes (so the government still has an income) and their monthly bills so THOSE industries don't need to be bailed out as well. Instead of beating our collective heads against the wall trying to make the failed Reagan era idea of trickle down economics work, why don't we put our collective heads together to try a NEW economy? What say we give trickle up economics a try for a while and see what else capitalism is good for besides creating an oligarchy? Let's see what sort of compassion the American heroes, like my mother and father were, are capable of when they are able to live a long prosperous life, like the one my parents never got to see on this Earth. I mean no disrespect to opposing philosophies but we HAVE been trying it for an awful long time with very limited results at times. I hope you are all well and I thank you for listening to all that I have to say. I hope you take it as food for thought.

Amen.

To continue: here's what I had to say to Taro about his thought, I agree. My wife and I wrote a note with both of our cell numbers and dropped them in the mailboxes of our elderly neighbors offering assistance any way we can. I then went on to give my assessment of why those seniors are in the plight that they are and what MY thoughts are on how the government should handle things. Never mentioned any particular politician or party(besides Reagan and just fyi, he's dead) and I feel it fell in line with the conversation already started by @Neo and commented on by Taro. When I have my PT done for the morning, I'll head over to the politics thread to share the rest, because politics only go one way around here and I have a right to have a voice.

I will. We’ll let the masses judge whether my thoughts are appropriate for the times we find ourselves in. Also...no need to toss an insult at @LGR4GM when dealing with me. Maybe someone should delete YOUR post.

I had a short lived post up here quoting Taro that has mysteriously disappeared.

I knew Blind Melon and liked their music, then Shannon died and I lost my ear for their sound until my life had a catastrophic change. I had suspected that my live in fiancée was up to something. I had bought a car for her drive to the classes that I was paying for, trying to help her get her head out of her ass. It's one of those scenes where she was very good at BSing. Some people fallback on that(SSer X, I'm looking RIGHT at you). Once I discovered that she was driving past the school to a bar to hook with random dudes while I babysat her little girl, I has had no choice but to take my car back and kick her out. I let her stay long enough for her mom to find her a place(she was that kind of screw up), I gave her all the furniture, dishes, everything that they would need there......I was soooooooo ***** distraught to lose that little girl from my home even though I had no biological connection to her. I had something far deeper than that. I came into her life at 4 years old and quickly became her rock. She was glued to me, I was the first person to make her feel safe. I had her for 8 years and was the only father figure she had beyond the one decent grandpa. My life had fallen completely apart when I made that decision....The moral of this song is simple, when life is hard, you have to change. This song bought me a sliver of solace that I built on everyday. Maybe its a good time to have another listen and remember those days, even though they were God awful hard. I'm sure there are SSers that would see me as weak for my thoughts on this. In fact I KNOW they would because they've already shown us all how they view anyone who hasn't had their exact experience with life. "It's easy" they'd say. They're full of sh!t...and as my pop, Fred, would have said...."its clearly up to their ears, and the rest is toilet paper." RIP, Fred. Glad you aren't here to see this sh!t show we have going on down here.