A Brief Report

My entire wife has gotten excited about the idea of a quick trip to St. Louis. She spent some time there during a conference of the American Psychological Association (or the American Psychological Society...not sure which, she belongs to both) a few years ago and found some things interesting and worth going back to see. So, it now appears very likely that we will drive to St. Louis.

Driving will give us the opportunity to visit several other places enroute and to meander a bit on our return. I want to try to get to Little Rock to see the Clinton Library. I've never seen the Bush library, either, so one of these days we'll drive down to College Station...but the Clinton Library is far higher on my list.

We've decided to make another trek to Mexico over the Christmas holidays and I heard from a brother today that his two children and their spouses might make the trip about the same time. Now, if we can convince my brother who is hosting this crowd to be there during the time we are there (along with a sister from California), it would be quite the reunion. All we'd need to do to make it the real deal would be to convince my other sister and brother to drive down...they aren't into flying. But Mexico did not adopt the Americans with Disabilities Act, so it's not easy for people in wheelchairs, motorized or not, to get around or even in and out of buildings...so, maybe not.

A meeting of Drinking Liberally will be held this Thursday near us, so I'm thinking about making a visit. There are so few people in these environs with whom I share political views that the occasional opportunity to actually meet them is exciting to me.

My most recent hire quit today. I expected it. I had to intervene in an interaction she had with a client last week; she felt she was being "talked down to." I explained that she needed to get over it; that's the nature of the world of work in the service sector. She had, during our initial interview, told me she could handle any customer service situation and did not have a thin skin and could tolerate people being "short" with her. I reminded her of this last Thursday, after she has spoken to a guy who may be a little excitable, but not one to "yell" as she claimed. Anyway, I told her she needed to decide if she could deal with this situation, which I said she would find in any job and, if not, to get out. She came in this morning at 9:00 am to say she had an interview at noon because she did not want to be in this environment...and she asked if I wanted her to come back. I told her she could leave then. No use wasting my time and hers. She was paid through the day, as we'd already done payroll...it's not worth making a stink about it.

And that's my entire rant for the moment.