Update on McDonald's Characters

Some time ago I described a person known as "Rock", a disgusting fellow. Last Saturday, as I entered McDonald's, Rock immediately came up to me to ask if I was going to see Cliff Stearns at City Hall. (Cliff was making the rounds in his congressional district with Town hall Meetings.) I told him I was planning on attending. He said he would be there too in order to complain about the Economic Stimulus Refund. It appears Rock will not be getting a refund and thinks it stinks for all poor people to not get any money, he personally wanted some. He ranted about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Surprisingly, some others within earshot agreed. Rock was dressed in his motorcycle togs, leather jacket, Levi's and bandanna on his head. I observed him as he rode away on his bike. It was not the bike he had once described to me but instead a small, measly, crummy looking bike. He did not wear a helmet. Frank is in the hospital with pneumonia, had spent four days in intensive care, and had been moved to a regular room when I went to see him. He looked very small in the bed, probably now weighs about 110 pounds. He recognized me when I walked in and got a small smile on his face. He has difficulty speaking and is on oxygen. I had planned to ask him about making a death bed conversion but he was too weak to really carry on a conversation. His grandson, Joe, was there and he told me that Frank has dementia. Shortly after he told me that, Frank said that his wife was coming to see him. Joe said: "No grandpa your daughter is coming to see you." Frank insisted his wife was coming and Joe whispered to me "dementia." (Frank's wife died about four years ago.) Finally, Frank said: "Oh yeah my daughter is coming to see me." A nurse came in to say that a little later she would be in to give him a back rub. Frank's immediate reply was "OK, then you can take your clothes off and I will give you a rub down." She just smiled and left the room. Frank closed his eyes and laid there for a long time, he appeared to be sleeping. I took this opportunity and left. I had been there about ten minutes.

"Chaos" Missed

It was close, Florida nearly did a do-over for the Democrat Party. In the end it was decided it would not work. Michigan did the same thing. All this came about because the democrats placed barriers to states deciding for themselves when to hold their primaries. Florida and Michigan decided that they were free people and could chose for themselves. Now their delegates will not be seated at the Convention. But, for awhile it appeared that I was going to get to vote in the Democrat primary. All I had to do is declare that I was a democrat and I would get a Democrat ballot. The Republicans primary had no restrictions so their primary went smoothly. I had planned to vote for Hilary because she is behind and I want the delegate count to be close for the Democrat Convention. This will ensure that the democrats will continue to fight one another until after August, causing chaos in that party. The switching is happening in Pennsylvania now and has worked in other states already. More of this is going to happen in the states that have yet to hold their primaries. I expect the political "March Madness" to last for some time.

Performance Review

For many years I gave performance reviews for middle managers. My technique was to give the person a blank form and tell them them to be honest and rate themselves. Also, I would be filling out a form on them and we would be comparing and justifying in a few days. Invariably, the two forms were nearly identical. This takes honesty on both sides. Of course, people who worked for me received many verbal, mini-reviews over the course of the year which makes the reducing to writing very easy. My review from the YMCA was given this last week. It was a pleasing and appreciative review. I received six "Excellent" and six "Good Solid Performer" of the twelve items that were graded. There were no comments in the space "Needs To Improve." All-in-all a most satisfying review. As a manager at Interlock and at FCI I never got a performance review. Working for a president and a vice-president that were basically ignorant of good managerial practices caused them to be fearful of giving reviews. Mostly, they did not know what I did to keep the company healthy. I hope all who read this will be working for a company that gives reviews from a person who is skilled in giving them.

Veteran

He shuffles when he walks, his beard is scruffy, mustache is long enough to get wet when licking his lips causing him to wipe with an open hand to get both sides dry, the eyes are bright when he desires to make them so, his clothes are also scruffy and a bit dirty, most likely from his two pit bull dogs. He always buys the special breakfast (two - sausage, eggs and cheese biscuits for one dollar) eats one and saves the other for his dogs. Sometimes he cannot eat all of his and stuffs the remainder in his pocket with the other sandwich. His speech is nearly always vile with alternations between blasphemy, vulgarities, cursing, swearing and assorted obscenities. He, however, does not curse like a "salt" for they are able to break up a curse into syllables and swear between the syllables. Somehow he has not mastered that art form. He particularly enjoys goading the religious and telling them that Jesus Christ was a whore monger. During times such as these he becomes very loud prompting those around him to shussh him. Recently, he awoke up from a sleep and found his son-in-law going through his drawer. He said he was looking for some pictures of his wife. Frank accused him of trying to steal money, called the police and had him put in jail. The house was locked but that was not a barrier because this son-in-law can get into anything. Frank says all his relatives want him to die so that they can get his money. He curses all of them. At the age of eight Frank was put into a Catholic Orphanage because his Mother could not afford to feed him. His younger brother stayed with his Mother. His Father had taken off and did not come back. While in the Orphanage, some of the nuns beat frank with a whip. When asked what he did to deserve such a beating he answers: "Nuthin, they did it because they enjoyed it. Those sadistic whores kept beating me up. I will never forgive the Catholic Church for having people like that, abusing kids and all the while appearing so holy. The Catholics are all corupt and are all sinners as are all who say that Jesus Christ is God." If you put about ten obsenities in that statement you will get the flavor of his discourse. He went into the Army but does not have much to say about it. Later he joined the Merchant Marine, having obtained his entry from a mob boss. He and another guy (aledgedly very dumb) were supposed to rough up a union boss. Frank was very cautious and, with his cohort, stayed a distance. They lost track of their target and then went home. He was very surprised the next day to find that their target had been shot and killed after they lost him. The mob boss asked him what happened. Frank answered: "Nutthin happened." He was further questioned by higher ups he kept saying: "Nutthin happened." The bosses believed that Frank would never tell anybody and had him shipped out as crew on a merchant ship. His introductory letter had said to take good care of him. His first job on the ship was as head of the cooks. He rose to Chief Steward, a cushy job. He says he was very good with inventory and he always found people who could cook delicious meals. He claims he was mean but fair, forcing people to do the jobs they were hired for. He made a lot of money, bought property around Green Cove Springs, lost a lot of money but now has enough to live well. His relatives all envy him for his money and he is hard hearted enough to deny all of them. His hobby is "garage sailing" which he does every Saturday morning. He likes to uncover his arm and show two or three wrist watches he got "cheap." He has rings on many of his fingers and offers to sell them. I have never seen anybody purchase anything from him. He has many items in his car, particularly childrens toys, which he says are for his grandchildren. His health is deteriorating. He never sees a doctor or dentist, takes no pills nor vitamins. His lower teeth are gone and he pushes some food with his fingers for a cutting action. His bowels play tricks on him and sometimes in trying to pass gas it comes out liquid. Most of the regulars at McDonalds tolerate him but some others have progressed to downright hatred.