Grocery store midnight shift ~

When I was in college I worked the midnight shift at a grocery store for a summer. It was a tough schedule because I kept my job at Sears and would work there during the day.



Then the summer brought seven straight midnight shifts at the grocery store and then seven nights off from the grocery store. During the week that I was on during the midnight shift, I was a zombie. I would sleep whenever I could.



I would fall asleep in the car at school even more easily than I did before I started that job. And I was just soooo tired.



I also saw a lot of things in the middle of the night that a lot of people don't hardly ever see.



They may hear about them and nowadays they would joke that that's what they do at Walmart, but this was a grocery store.



I remember this guy came in with two women and they were all pretty far up there on the imbibing of alcohol range. It was after midnight or after two if I remember right. So I wasn't legally allowed to sell them wine or beer, but they convinced me to do it anyways and I got in trouble the next day. Another time police officers came in and they just made a little pass through the store walking around looking for people and seen what was going on.



I remember there was a Miss Pac -Man game in the front of the store, and I would play Miss Pac-Man a couple of times, a shift just trying to keep myself awake.



The cleaning crew would come in in the middle of the night and they would polish the floors and sweep and do all the things that they had to do.



One of them was this short, really muscular guy that really was ripped, but he couldn't make sense when you talked to him. The other worker was a metalhead that loved to talk about Sledge and who the original rock artist was that did all the songs that Quiet Riot did, and he would argue with me about music that I really didn't care about. But it was fun. And then the boss would get them started and then he'd disappear for two hours and then he'd show back up and They'd clean up and put everything away.



That was a tough summer, but I did learn to dislike midnight shifts so that when I was in my career, I really hated working midnight shifts the way I had to.



But then it was only one midnight shift a week and only every two or three weeks and so it wasn't too bad.



Now I don't do shift work at all and I am very pleased with that.



What an adventure!



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No scaffolding ~

I worked in a facility with a gate and fence and security guards. One morning, when I was going in for an overtime shift at 5:55 in the morning, I was hit by a car.



One of the janitorial ladies was speeding through the parking lot and she wore really thick coke bottle glasses and swore that I was hiding behind a tree that was about 3 inches wide at the widest part of its trunk.



That was a really bad experience for me because I got to share my displeasure very loudly with her to the point that a friend of mine at work told me later that he didn't know that I had been in the Navy. I told him that I had never been in the military, especially not the Navy. He laughed and said, you sure sounded like you had been in the Navy that morning when you got hit by the car.



Later that year when I was walking in the room where our operation did its thing I was walking on the raised floor portion of the room and I was observing some new equipment that had been put in for the other line of business in the building and admiring their handiwork.



As I walked along on the raised floor I didn't realize that part of the raised floor had been opened and there was a guy down inside the floor working. I stepped on his hand and fell down on top of him because I was busy looking over a short wall to admire the new equipment. He cushioned my fall and had to wear an arm brace for a little while but otherwise it was no big deal. But it was embarrassing because now instead of just people revving their engines at me in the parking lot I had to have people warning me about falling into holes in the floor the rest of that year.



So I started telling my people if they ever put up scaffolding in or around this building I'm probably not going to come in because I know it's going to collapse on me. Everybody would shake their head and laugh because they knew it was probably true.



I had a good time where I worked but those were some challenging moments.



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Your best life ~

I love how marketers twist things so they can get you to buy their products that they're chilling. One of the latest phrases being used by more and more people marketing their wares is "your best life".





If you do this you'll be living your best life. If you take this supplement or if you drive this car or if you wear this style of clothing or this brand of clothing you're going to live your best life.





The implication that fires off in my brain is that if I don't then I'm living less than my best life or more of a mediocre life compared to people who wear those things and do those things and take those things.



I'm sensitive to this because my inner voice beats me up all the time. I've had to work hard to quiet it down to where it is but it's still there and it still chews me out every day. It still tries to convince me that I'm worthless and useless and can't do very much right at all.



So when the marketers come by with their "you can be better with this" and "you can be the best you can ever be with this" it's very compelling.



I've learned to use that phrase "your best life" as a trigger for me to turn whatever it is that I'm listening to or watching off or reorient my attention to something else. I also remind myself that I'm living my life and that's the best thing that I could ever do.



So many people are tied to their screens and they don't really live, they just watch and see what everybody else's best life is and then they hope and go buy lottery tickets in an effort to maybe get a chance to live their best life. It's almost a twist on the Bible. But I buy what Jesus says a lot more than other stuff.





Jesus said that he brings life and more abundantly. I don't recall anywhere in the Bible Jesus saying, "you'll be the best" or "you'll be living your best life". That seems to evoke a comparison to others that Jesus just didn't teach.



He did compare, but it was more of an us versus them thing rather than you being able to brag about how great you are because you take that supplement or because you went to that prayer meeting. you I'm going through something where I'm learning about cognitive biases.



It's very fascinating and I'm familiar with some of it but to go a little bit deeper is interesting to me. "Your best life" seems to evoke a certain bias in the human brain where we automatically doubt and question where we are and ask "do I fit into that picture that they're painting and portraying and if I don't what do I need to do to get there?"



And that's the ultimate trigger that marketers can bring. What do I need to do to get there?



Marketers ruin everything. Just live your life.

Not a skip-scanner ~

As time goes by I read more and more articles about people gaming the self-service scanning lanes and stores. Recently I read an article about a school principal that used foam plates to hide more expensive items as he ran them through the scanner.



He would hold the plates up and then push bacon and fish and other things across as if he was scanning them but the foam plates were the ones blocking the scanner. Then he put everything in the bag and he got arrested for shoplifting for $37 worth of stuff.



This is a grown man stealing very basic items from a store but the attitude that seems more and more pervasive is if nobody's watching me I can do this.



I remember watching a video on YouTube a few years ago in that video they had a guy go and pretend to be taking a nap on a park bench in a major city. The guy had his mobile phone poking up out of a pocket on his backpack in front of him. The backpack was near his head and the gag was to see if anybody was so tempted that they would grab the mobile phone and try to just walk off with it. It was equipped with a shocker so that if the person got a certain distance away it would zap them and the people making the video had multiple people around to stop the person from walking off.



In the video they showed many people stopping and pausing and grabbing the phone and getting zapped. It's as if all they could think was "nobody's watching me so I should be able to get away with this". And they were going to steal a five hundred dollar device from a man that's not homeless and not dressed as a bum just napping.



I've read other articles about values in other countries. The Danish are Very trusting of each other to the point that they supposedly leave their children Sleeping in strollers parked outside of a restaurant while they are inside not in view eating. In America that would be a crime!

The whole skip scanning thing is sad though. It's one of the reasons that I shy away from using those self-service lanes. Especially when I have a lot of stuff to scan. If I have a very small order in the grocery store, I'll go ahead and go through that lane sometimes. But I've read about and heard about so many people just taking advantage of a moment where nobody's watching (or at least they think nobody's watching). And they get zapped with a criminal charge on their record with possible jail time and fines and a limit on what they can apply for job-wise in the future because now they're a branded criminal.



The thing people have to remember is we're so untrustworthy that they have cameras everywhere and now artificial intelligence is watching the video and pointing out what looks to the large language model things as a crime.



Just be honest and don't steal. And don't skip-scan.



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Thanks ~

"Thanks a lot." It's one of the phrases that modern society has corrupted and used as a negative when it's an extremely positive phrase. You hear it used on situation comedies where they're sarcastically handling something that somebody else set up for them that they don't like or that did to them that they don't like.



Using that sarcastic tone of voice turns it into such a negative. But I've learned that it can actually be a very positive and beneficial phrase to use. The New Agers are teaching that if you don't have a good gratitude practice then you're probably feeling depressed and anxious.



Health people say that practicing gratitude and forgiveness can help you lose weight, help you feel better and see better and do better and accomplish more and be rich. But it's so funny that on one hand they use it against you by saying thanks a lot, thanks for nothing and then they turn around and use it to sell you something.



I've taken it and changed my prayers to God. Before last year my prayers tended to be like what I've heard so many times. God help me, God do this, God change this, God fix that. Now I've changed so that I pray, God thank you, and then I list the things that I'm thanking him for.



I don't sit there and a "count your blessings" thing, although you could probably call it that. But I just thank God for the different things happening in my life. I thank God for my freedom, because he's freed me from so much.



So when I say thanks, or thanks a lot, understand that it means that I'm probably truly grateful and not trying to stab somebody with a sarcastic comment.



Thanks!



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Growing sprouts ~

I have been growing and eating sprouts for several months. I saw a video last winter about how easy it was to grow sprouts in a jar. No dirt needed, just a mason jar with a screen lid turned upside down so it can drain after you rinse the seeds/sprouts with water. The video and the articles that I read about sprouts said that they were very nutritious.



I even went through an online course on how to do it. It was short and easy and the guy touted all the health benefits to be gained by eating plants before they get very big. It was kind of goofy but made me want to give it a try.



I had grown sprouts before but it was in a tray of dirt. It worked but it was messy and smelled bad by the time the sprouts had leaves big enough for me to cut off and throw in the eggs I had for breakfast.



I had another couple of packets of broccoli seeds so I ordered a screen lid and gave it a try. The attempt failed. I think it was because of a coating the seeds had on them, so I did some more research and found "sprouting seeds" on Amazon that didn't have any coating. The claim was that they would grown and be ready to eat in 5 to 10 days.



I ordered alfalfa sprouting seeds and gave them a try when they came in. The screen kept the seeds in the jar and I ran water into and out of the jar twice a day. The seeds sprouted and grew and after 10 days I tried them in my eggs. They were delicious!



After a few batches of alfalfa sprouts I ordered some broccoli sprouting seeds and they worked the same way. Different color sprouts and a little different taste but same thing.



Next I ordered mung bean sprouting seeds. I did this because we were watching the sitcom "Mr. Kim's Convenience" on Netflix and they talked about mung bean pancakes being a popular Korean breakfast. The mung bean seeds sprouted faster and after 10 days they were too leafy for my taste. After a couple of iterations I settled on mung bean sprouts at 5-6 days being ideal for me. They had a sweeter taste and crunchier feel because they were bigger plants than the alfalfa and broccoli.



After a couple of months of mung bean sprouts I wanted to try different lids and seeds. I ordered some radish sprouting seeds and enjoyed the purple color of the sprouts. They were also faster and were ready to use in my eggs after 5 days. The radish sprouts were too spicy to eat alone by added delicious flavor to my eggs the mornings I had them.



I continue to enjoy mung bean and radish sprouts. When we went to my daughter's house for a few weeks I took my sprouting jars and seeds and grew a couple of batches while we were there. It was fun to have the routine of rinshing and draining the jars each morning and evening and awesome to add the crunchy nutrition of the sprouts to my eggs while we were there.



Growing sprouts has been a fun and easy way to add some home-grown nutrition to my diet. Not sure how long I'll continue to do this but it sure is fun!





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#plants #nutrition #garden #hobby

Ordained as a deacon ~

I was ordained as a Deacon with the Southern Baptist church denomination in my late 20s.

We were involved with Heatherwood Baptist Church in Riverdale, Georgia. We had a great time there, enjoying the people and the activities. They were looking to bring new people into their "leadership" ranks and I was chosen.



The ordination service was very moving. The pastor led a prayer service on a Sunday night and all the deacons of the church came up and prayed for me and the other men being ordained.



I was given some limited instructions on how to care for the families that were assigned to me and sent out to do the work. I remember visiting a couple of the families and they thought I was a little young and inexperienced to be checking on them. I made notes and reported back the best I could. This was all during a time when I was off Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week and had oddball shifts throughout the week. It was challenging.



I learned that the other deacons were regular guys that were older than me. The joking, the bragging about sports and bargains, and everything else was what guys did, just cleaner than what I was used to. A far cry from what I experienced at work.



I spent a year or so serving then rotated off of the active list. My wife and I moved and then started going to another church.



But I'll always be able to say that I am a deacon...



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#church

Buying technology ~

I remember when I was growing up thinking how cool the electronics at Eckerd's the drug store were. We lived out in the country and it was 30 minutes to drive into town to go shopping at the mall or at the bigger stores.





There was a grocery store about a 10-minute drive from the house. Across from the grocery store there was a forest hardware store. And of course a liquor store. And then an Eckerd's drugstore. When my parents took me to Eckerd's I always wanted to look at the toys but when we were standing in line waiting to pay for the items that they were buying I would always look on the back wall behind the cash registers.



I would see the cool transistor radios and the cameras and little gadgets that were way too expensive for me. I do remember when I needed a radio I wanted to go buy it at Eckerd's. My reach grew once I started driving so I left that behind.



For a long time Best Buy and Circuit City were the top-notch places for me to go. Then online shopping came and a New Egg was the bomb. Now Amazon is the place that I go for almost all my technology buys.



I wade through all the Chinese knock-offs and cheapo sets that lure me in often but not every time. But I enjoy shopping for technology and I enjoy using technology. It's a lot of fun!