What Ever Happened to Gray?

I remember when I was taught to look into all aspects of something before coming to a hard conclusion.  That the words “always” and “never” were rarely correct.  That we should “walk a mile in another person’s shoes” before making a judgment about them and remember “judge not, lest ye be judged from Sunday school?  In science classes we were taught to look behind actions for reasons, not just take what we were told.  I was led to believe this questioning and striving to understand things was what made our country the engine of growth and invention. 

But things have changed.  Now I am right and you are wrong (or the other way around in your mind).  And I don’t want to read or hear anything that might change my mind.  The rightees only watch FOX and the lefties only watch MSNBC.  Opposing opinions are called names and shouted down.  No one seems to want to learn something new that may be outside their current world view.  And now it is capitalism that is the engine, unbridled capitalism with no government control and limits.  Everyone crows about their freedoms but not their responsibilities.  People on both sides stand on the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers, but few do any objective research or even know what the constitution says.  And what about that pesky Bill of Rights?  It is part of the Founding Fathers intent to protect the rights of citizens and was drafted at the same general time, why don’t we talk about that.

Why is it OK for your government to do things if they are of your party, then wrong if the other party is in office, even if the behavior is the same?  It used to be that we knew that few things were black or white, but that there were variables, shades of gray and possibilities.  Now, it seems many are absolutists that see us who see “gray” as wishy washy or without principles. 

Maybe the problem is social media.  Most of my friends know I am a progressive who normally votes democratic, but until facebook and blogs, I didn’t “rub their faces in it” so they could just ignore it.  Now they seem to get angry, just like the politicians getting angry at each other for holding beliefs they always held.  We used to disagree, but respect the opinions of others.  Now we consider them unpatriotic, delusional or brainwashed by their respective media outlets.  Can’t we take a step back from the edge of total war over; guns, taxes, religion, political party, social programs, the role of government and on and on?  This is the worst I have seen our government in this regard and our social interactions with those of differing opinions is escalating as well.  It feels like our country is coming apart when there is no compromise, no real dialog and no attempt at understanding each other.  We need to look to the center and come back from the fringes. 

Riding Route 66 in 1918

1918 Road Trip

From Ethel Rowe’s Journal

1918 Road Trip by Walter E. Rowe, his wife Ethel and son, Ivan and  friend  Oz A. Pierce, his wife Minnie and child,  from near Hinton, Oklahoma.  On a pair of 1918 Harley Davidson J models with side cars.  Changes  From a journal kept by Ethel Rowe while on the trip. I have tried to transcribe it as best as possible but have made some minor changes to spelling but have tried to retain as much of the language and flow as possible from the original.  Looks like the distance was approximately 700 miles traveled by bike.

On Monday August 5^th 1918 we left Niles, Oklahoma and went through Hinton.  We stopped in El Reno and saw Nannie’s baby and then left there around 4:30 pm.  The wind and dirt was blowing a perfect gale.

We camped by the bank of the North Canadian River.  Slept  very well for the first night.  Started the next day about 8:30, August 6^th.  Came through Oklahoma City and Spencer.  Ate a very good  dinner at a restaurant in Jones City about 21 miles from Oklahoma City.  After dinner we came through Luther, Wellston and then Chandler.  About a mile out of Chandler, Walter had tire trouble.  We stopped and he worked on it until evening.  Oz went back to Chandler to get something for supper.  We had potato soup and watermelon and camped by a school house.  It was a lovely camping place.  Traveled about 60 miles that day. 

On Wednesday, Aug 7^th woke to a lovely morning.  We had fried potatoes, gravy, bread and coffee for breakfast.  They worked on Walter’s motorcycle for about 3 hours before starting.  Passed through Stroud, Depew and Bristow.  Roads were in very good shape.  Saw an oil well and in Bristow nearly all the women we saw were barefooted.  Bought our dinner in Kellyville.  Ate our dinner about 5 miles east.  We had bread, ham, pickles, gravy and cheese.  Drove through Sapulpa toward Tulsa.  On the outskirts of Tulsa had to stop and work on Walter’s motorcycle again.  Between Sapulpa and Tulsa were mainly oil fields.  Spent the night at a hotel in Tulsa.  Walter had to work on his motorcycle all day Thursday.  He had to get a new magneto and get a valve fixed.  Went outside town about five miles and spent the night in a vacant house.  Went back to Tulsa the next morning with the intent of shipping the motorcycle home and going home.  Oz and Minnie went ahead and after fixing the motorcycle we followed after them.  Caught up with them after about 2 hours.  Arrive at Miami, OK and spent the night at a campground west of Miami on Friday the 9^th.

Saturday Aug 10th morning we had breakfast and started out again.  Oz had to work on his motorcycle most of forenoon (late morning).  We camped at Spring River in Kansas for dinner.  The boys washed the motorcycles in the river.  I did some washing.  The children played in the river.  Headed on to Joplin, Mo.

Sunday Aug 11^th, we came on some awful rocky roads.  Ate our dinner in a shady place among the hills.  The boys shaved each other.  We had potatoes for breakfast.  We ate bacon, lemonade, bread and coffee for dinner.  Camped 8 miles east of Springfield, Mo. in a Beverage stand.  Slept well and dreamed of home.

Monday Aug 12^th we started on our trip before breakfast.  Stopped at a little town to get gas.  I got out to get Ivan and fell on the sidewalk.  Continued on our way.  Some of the awfulest rocky roads that ever was.  We got off the road on a side road and traveled about 5 miles but had to come back.  The roads are all rock and hills.  Had a nice camping place.  Ivan is sick.

Tuesday the 13^th was a lovely morning.  Getting ready to start again.  Saw crops of red clover, tomatoes, corn and apples.  We traveled about 10 miles when Oz had wheel trouble.  He had to work on it, so Walter changed his tires.  They worked on the motorcycles about 3 hours.  We went on over more rocks and hills.  In places, the rocks were as large as buckets.  It kept the boys busy dodging rocks, hogs and cattle.  We stayed the night at a hotel in Van Buren, Mo.

Wednesday the 14^th we ate breakfast in the hotel.  I washed my bonnet.  We started out at about 9:00 AM.  We are still traveling over some awful roads.   Ate dinner by a creek.  It looks like it is going to rain.  The roads are now better, mostly gravel.  Camped by a school house and slept on the porch.

Thursday 15^th we started early.  Crossed the St Francis river.  Came through Greenville.  The roads are better.  We reached Poplar Bluff, Mo. at about 12:00.  Got our dinner and ate it just this side of the river.  Crossed the St Francis river again after dinner.  Sitting by the roadside fixing tires.  We have traveled among the rocks and hills from Springfield to Poplar Bluff, Mo.  It has taken us 4 ½ days, winding around the hills and over the rocks.  We are now in eastern Missouri.  We passed a 64A rice farm about one mile before Dudley.  The crops are fine.  A lovely country.  We came on through Dexter and Bloomfield, Mo. It had rained and the ground was wet so we slept on the porch of a country home.  The people are so sociable.  We enjoyed the eve so well.

Friday the 16^th we came through Advance, Mo.  Ate our breakfast about 3 miles outside of town.  A lovely morning.  We are stopped by the roadside.  Walter is pumping up his tire.  A one mule log wagon passed by us.  We have seen several one horse wagons.  We are now in Cape Girardeau.  It is a large place.  We had our dinner and went out of the city to eat it.  We had beef steak, potatoes, beans and coffee.  We are now sitting by the Mississippi River watching a steamboat pass.

Saturday 17^th we left Cape Girardeau and passed across the Mississippi River.  The roads are good and the crops are very good.  We passed by the National Cemetery, it is a lovely place.  Came to Mound City.  We went across the Ohio River on the steam ferry, The Leo.  Landed in Kentucky at about 5:00 PM. Had such a lovely ride over the graveled roads.  We see so many tobacco fields.  Passed through Paducah , Ky.  It is a large place but we went about 3 miles beyond to camp.  Have a nice camping place.  It is our first night in Ky. Some men came by and gave us tomatoes.

Sunday 18^th, another lovely morning.  Oz is working on his motorcycle.  We had fried potatoes, tomatoes, bacon and coffee for breakfast.  We did not get started until late.  We crossed the Tennessee River at the Altonis ferry.  We didn’t get to travel more than 30 miles on account of the motorcycle trouble.  It looks like rain.  We couldn’t find a house to stay at so we spent the night in an old barn.  Minnie the children and myself slept in a wagon.  Oz and Walter slept on the ground.  It poured down rain about half the night.

Monday 19^th we started at daylight before breakfast and traveled about 3 miles.  We crossed the Cumberland River.   Ate our breakfast on the banks of the Cumberland.  We didn’t get to travel very far until it was time for dinner.  We bought our dinner at a little town called Salem, Ky  and came outside of town about 4 miles to have dinner by a little creek.  Oz’s motorcycle wasn’t working very good so we only came about 3 miles before it began to rain.  We sheltered at a house until eve and it quit raining so hard, so we came back a little ways to another house and stayed there the night.

Tuesday 20^th it still looks rainy.  The boys are working on the motorcycles.  We came to a small town called Mexico, Ky.  The boys have decided to crate their motorcycles to ship home and finish the trip by train.  Going to start about 10:00 AM next morning.

Wednesday 21^st we had slept in a vacant house about a mile from town.  We walked through a corn field and weeks carrying our bedding and clothes to town where the boys crated the bikes for shipment home. 

Easy Low Carb Diet

Easy Low Carb Diet Format

1 or 2 Point Carb Diet

My daughter was diagnosed with insulin resistance which puts her at high risk for type 2 diabetes. She was getting tired of counting carbs, and was not tracking her diet on a regular basis. I devised a one or two point system with a list of foods in each point range. This simple tool is not an exact measure, but is close and much easier to follow.


Easy Low Carb Diet
Breakfast: 30 carbs max = 2 C. Units
Snack:15 carbs max = 1 C. Unit
Lunch: 30 carbs max = 2 C. Units
Snack: 15 carbs max = 1 C. Unit
Dinner: 30 carbs max = 2 C. Units


Total of 120 carbs daily (8 C. Units). You can use up to 15 carbs (1 C. Unit) saved earlier in the day on later meals/snacks as long as you stay at 120 (8 C. Units) a day or less.


Free Foods (no C. Units) = Green veggies, any meats (lunchmeat, pork, bacon, turkey, ham, chicken, beef, whatever) , small portion of cheese, eggs, pickles, canned veggies, diet sodas, egg beaters, water, coffee or tea
1 C. Unit Foods = Slice of bread, piece of fruit, 1/3 cup of cooked rice, 1/3 cup of pasta, 1 cookie, 1/3 cup of beans, 7 chips, 1 cup of peanuts in the shell, 2 slices of flat bread
2 C. Units Foods = one mini candy bar, one flour tortilla, 2 small corn tortillas, 10 saltine crackers, 1 cup of cereal, 10 small pretzels, ½ cup mashed potatoes, 2/3 cup of cooked rice, 2/3 cup cooked pasta, 2/3 cup of beans, 1 ½ cup of hominy corn, 2 whole wheat eggo waffles, pack of instant oatmeal, 2 slices of bread, 2 slices of thin crust pizza, 7 triscuits, 2 graham crackers, 2/3 cup cooked rice noodles, 2/3 of a cheese burger, 3 or 4 nachos, one small order of French fries, egg mcmuffin, 1 fast food taco, 1 cup of whole almonds, ¾ cup of pistachios, 1 cup roasted sunflower seeds

Marketing your Home Business

Same simple marketing plan

Starting a home business? I have started a few and found that establishing a customer base was much harder and time consuming than I thought. It took me months to build a customer base sufficient to make the business self-sustaining. I decided to put together a marketing plan the last time before investing a lot of money in the actual business. This process not only helps you best focus resources where it will do the most good, it also alerts you to some possible pitfalls before starting and may even send you in a different direction.
The first step is to define what you are offering in the way of products/services. This may sound overly simple, but in doing so, you should form the name of your business and identify the specific product or service that you will provide that brings value to your customers and therefore, is worth their money. If you look at your product after capturing it and find it hard to see where it takes you, maybe you need to do some more thinking.
Next, identify your objective. This is not the same as your product/service. You objective is to build a client base. If for example, your product is very specialized with few willing to purchase and no repeat business, establishing a sustainable client base will be difficult.
Next, identify your customer base pool. Again, this may sound obvious or limiting, but unless you have unlimited marketing resources (and even if you do) you will want to target your efforts to where your most likely customers will be reached. Don't put ads for youth services in a retirement magazine since neither the young or their parents will view it.
Develop an outreach plan for your customer base. This is basically a "ok, here is who I want to reach, now how do I get them to see my ad?" step. Look at print, cyber and hard copy advertisements that will go to your pool of possible customers. Obviously, if the pool is broad, so should be the outreach methods. This step will also depend on your budget for advertising. As yourself where these people are, how they shop, where they go to for shopping, etc.
After this last step, you should be ready to focus your ads where these people shop (bulletin boards, ebay/craigslist, newpaper, or free community paper, handbills, door flyers, business cards and personal contacts) Never underestimate the value of word-of-mouth and personal contacts. People see lots of cards, flyers and ads, but a personal contact at a public place or door to door can have more lasting benefits in the right place. Also ask for leads from people who travel in circles of your customers and if you have very happy repeat customers, ask if you can use them as references.
Write your plan is some format that identifies all the areas above and keep it on your computer where your can update and add or subtract from it. Go back to it often and make sure your are following it, especially if your business is not taking off like you had hoped.
Provided below is a sample marketing plan for a college kid who wants to be a soccer coach/tutor:






Soccer Trainer Marketing Plan


Objective: To develop a paying clientele interested in individual soccer training/coaching


Customer Base: Parents of/or soccer players looking to improve their skills (with $ to spend!)
Outreach: Contacting potential customers
a. Develop and use a network of parents and past coaches to develop leads (Make a list of these people and their contact info)
b. Put out media ads to create new customers and leads (newsletter, club bulletin boards, school papers, flyers at the gym)
c. Contact local league reps to determine what assistance they can give and any rules on trainers (use to develop contacts)


Media: -Craigslist and local electronic media posts (include resume), flyers, business cards, articles for ads
-Provide contact info to people in (a) above
-Meet with coaches you know to discuss and get leads (provide contact info as appropriate)
-If you can, post a flier or leave info a local soccer supply stores
-Look for free bulletin boards at community center, grocery stores, libraries, etc. and post flier/info
Strategies:
- Start initial hourly rates either lower or with some incentive but higher rates later (introductory offer)
-Give discounts for referrals
-Attend soccer events and volunteer to work while networking with coaches and parents (have resume/card in car or pocket)

A Career in HR?

Careers in Human Resources -- Why, where and what do they do?

Dressed for Success?

Why a Career in Human Resources (HR)?

I have worked over 33 years in the human resources/personnel field. During that time I worked in three different states, two different federal agencies and one not-for-profit private sector organization and also two locations in Europe.
To work in HR as a professional, you normally need a degree in a related field to start as an intern. You can find positions as either interns or in the clerical area of HR. Obviously, the intern/trainee position will have faster salary escalation than a clerical position and will entail more complex tasks. However, it is very common for clerical employees with good problem solving skills to eventually work into an HR specialist or manager position with higher pay.
HR work is a customer service position within a company (sometimes an HR service provider for others) that provides all the products/services required for the workers. These include; recruitment, hiring, in-processing paperwork, providing benefits service (benefits are normally handled by other companies, but you provide local assistance), compensation administration, training and staff development, discipline and work rules advice and service and union interface. Depending on the employer and labor issues these may be expanded and you may find yourself only working in some specialized areas.
Your primary role is to provide these services on behalf of your employer for the employees. The management is the primary customer and has the right and ability to change HR rules, however, your role is to make sure rules are applied consistently in order to ensure fairness for all employees. This role is important in order to defend the employer against possible law suits from disgruntled current or former employees. If the employer did not follow their own rules consistently, they can be sued for discrimination or have to pay unwarranted unemployment claims or workers compensation. You as an HR person are a partner with management to help control HR costs in these area


Employee benefits include; retirement, life insurance, health insurance, personal, work travel, training/education paid for by the employer, workers compensation and unemployment benefits. These benefits are usually only partly provided for temporary or part time employees if provided for them at all.
Typically, an HR person works in an office environment with managers and employees coming to them for help, but it is also important to get out into the workplace and be seen by staff as much as possible to build positive relationships and be more aware of the work of the employer as this information is critical to your HR role.
You will work with a lot with people and their information. So it is critically important to protect private information and ensure others without a specific need for it do not see or overhear personal information. People skills are important as well as communication and problem solving skills. I have found that the variety of issues in HR keep the job very stimulating and keeps you on your toes. You will also have staff members and sometimes managers upset with your actions or decisions, but if you are follow rules and standard practices you will have the high ground and should be supported by your boss.
HR/personnel jobs can be found in virtually every job sector there is. Large companies and governments normally have their own HR offices. Some smaller companies will use an HR service provider for recruitment, paperwork, benefits and compensation administration and only does their own interviewing of candidates and employee direct interactions with all other tasks done by the HR service provider.
So, how does a person get hired in HR? First, make sure you really want to do this type of work. Take some HR courses if possible and find a local HR office (hospital, government or other employer) who will allow you to interview them about the field and give you a tour and overview. HR people are normally extroverts who enjoy talking about their career fields so this may be easier than you think. If you still feel you would like to purse a career in HR, either find an entry level position with a company in the clerical HR area where you will be most involved with paperwork and get paid less. If you want to work in higher levels of HR you can either work your way up or look for intern/trainee vacancies. As said before, these often require degrees in HR or other related area like Public Administration or Personnel Administration but many employers will also accept degrees in psychology, sociology, business management, english, history and may other degrees.
Know how to look up jobs on-line including:
http://www.careerbuilder.com/
http://jobsearch.monster.cohttps:/
/www.usajobs.gov/m/jobs/http://us.jobs/
http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites#US
Also look on your state's employment site and bookmark it! Then be ready for an interview. To do this you should always have a resume handy (electronic version) to use or update for particular jobs. Tailor to the job you are applying for and don’t sell yourself short. Remember to include your interests, hobbies and volunteer experience if it is relavent. Work on your interviewing skills which include: speaking clearly, being self-confident without being cocky (don’t be smug or say you are an expert at anything), dress as those who you see working there would (no, don’t come in a uniform), sit up straight, listen to the questions, ask questions at the end or if you need clarification and show an interest in the type of business they are engaged in.

Finding a Career

Find Your Career Yourself

For as many years as I can tell that our education system has been in existence, students have found their guideposts to higher education leading to their chosen career laid out for them based on test scores, family input, friends, false equivalency of school to work and other external factors ending in a career they often come to hate.
I worked in the human resources field for over thirty years and engaged in career counseling discussions with engineers, painters, nurses and many other professional and non-professionals. A very large percentage have found themselves in career fields in which their dislike bordered on hatred. They were looking to move into other areas and often had developed an interest in career fields radically different from the one they had been educated and trained in. This usually happened after five to ten years or more of work in these "hated" jobs. But changing careers at this late point when their education and experience is not closely related is very difficult and when it does happen, normally a cut in pay and return to entry level positions is required
When I asked these employees why they had gone into the fields in the first place, they shared many stories of prep-school success with high test scores and grades in these areas. Our young are being pressured to excell and start focusing on a career field at earlier ages when the only idea they have of a career is what they either were told or what they learn in a classroom setting. Often this was added to by parents who looked at successful people in the various fields these scores represented and pushed the student into a specific area.
My old-school answer to these lost workers could be, "shut up and get back to work, at least you have a job that pays well!" But the counselor in me wants people to be as happy in their jobs for their careers as I was in mine. Unfortunately, I did not follow a well examined path to human resources that I am advocating, but through dumb luck I found myself in the right job for me and generally enjoyed the work for most of my professional life. I actually started down the path I mentioned above. I got good grades and SAT scores in math and sciences and found it "interesting" and had family role models that were high paid engineers so my parents said, "that's what you should do" and my school guidance counselor looked at my scores and transcripts and heartily agreed.
However, when I entered college I found the college courses boring, the material hard to follow and uninspiring and the idea of an engineering job increasingly unpleasant and not suited to my real interests and temperment. I also took courses in psychology and sociology as well as philosophy and found these courses fascinating in their lack of black and white answers. I changed my major to psychology and sociology and graduated with a double major. But when I talked to my guidance counselor she said, "now get a masters." Well that was not going to work and I was not very interested in working with the mentally or emotionally disabled. So I worked in a succession of blue collar jobs until I found a federal merit test to take and that got me an interview in a personnnel office. I didn't even know with personnel was, but quickly found it stimulating and worked in the field until my retirement.
So, what do I suggest for our young today to prevent them from ending up in the wrong career they hate that can lead to burnout or worse? A bit more exploration starting early is in order and here is how we should approach it:
1. When your children are young try to expose them to lots of different things in educaitonal and non-educational settings. Almost none of them are going to become famous professional athletes or artists, but expose them to sports, the arts as well as the other skill areas. This can be done to some extent in elementary school and should be done at that age, but also can be done in organized activities outside school, clubs, church and civic activities. But here comes the hard part, don't push them, observe them. Look at the homework, art work and listen to the stories about the various events and outtings. Ask them what they liked and didn't like. See where they excelled, certainly, but also where they may not excell at first, but where they have strong interest as their hard work may make them successful, even if the early results don't look promising.
2.When you do see areas they seem to be interested in, find local places of business or communities of interest that engage in that field and take them on a field trip to where these adults do their thing. And do it more than once looking for variety within the field. To do this right, find places that are open to visits and observations by children and don't just go to one place or one type of place. For example; if the student seems interested in engineering, don't just take them to an office with a bunch of people hunched over drawing or desks. You also need to find an place actually in a plant, out in the field or some other hands on options before you mark it off the list. And, again, talk to them after the visit. Ask them what they liked and what they didn't like. Ask if they could see themselves doing that job. Also check out books with photos in the areas and have them around for them to look at to help them see what is available in the various fields.
3. When they get in middle school and high school, see if they can spend a few hours with individuals in the fields of interest. If they can follow them around, observe, ask questions and otherwise do more exploration (without you present) it with further allow them to see themselves in the career, or not as the case may be. As they focus in, find part-time employment either working with or near those in the field, even of unpaid for a few hours a week. This last step will further expose them to the details of the field and will be invaluable as references, work experience and possibly even job prospects after graduation.
4. Find a college that has a good department in their chosen fields and maybe even interview the guidance counselors as part of the tour to see what the classwork will be like. It may only be 4 years or so that they have in college, but if they find the course work boring and not relevant, you may find their grades and interest falling early on. Also try to get them to not be too focused too soon. They may enter thinking they want to be a research chemist but find they want to teach chemistry in high school as they move on. Sure, a research chemist makes much more money, but if they hate it, problems are sure to ensue.
5. Be prepared for them to change their minds during college and even after they graduate and don't freak out when they do. They may find their chosen field in a down-cycle when they graduate and jobs are hard to come by. This can be temporary and can also lead them to another more enjoyable career.
I write this to help students and parents navigate and help the child find their passion by the time they graduate. I have seen too many experienced and skilled employees lose interest, which lead to lower quaity of work. This then can lead to limited advancement or even discharge by the employer. The new graduate that finds a career field they love, will be more successful, find their income growing faster, their opportunities greater and their life more fullfilling all the way to retirement. And with any luck, that in turn will pay dividends to us when we visit our happy and well off children.

Baby Boomers - I smell something burning

What a self-absorbed bunch we are. I am talking about us late baby boomers in our 50’s and 60’s.  We think we are so important in the world, or at least the nation and that whatever we have or want is the best.  And we seem to be driving the nation down into our own self-absorbed funk.  We buy and take more drugs, attend more self help sessions, go to more lectures and work on self-improvement programs and insist that everyone else should do so as well. We are the center of the universe and as soon as everyone else gets on board, they will all be fine.  At the same time, we are incredibly insecure about what we believe, maybe that is why we are so loud about it all.  We rarely take time to relax and think about things in a bigger sense without ourselves and our small circle being the hub of all things.  We don’t see that others are very like us now matter how different they seem.  We also spend too much time letting others tell us what to think, drink, drive, see and feel.  We are a mess.  So we buy a self-help book or go to a seminar to feel better, but it never lasts long.  And if we truly believe, then we are so obnoxious, our friends can’t stand us.  We have become obsessed with more, bigger and better.  Our things own us and our credit cards are maxed (unless you are one of the rich few).   But we are still not happy and keep trying to buy ourselves to a better place.  And as we buy more, move to more remote or larger places and surround ourselves with stuff, we lose touch with our neighbors and our friends.  Even if we still see them and talk to them, we spend too much time checking our Blackberries or iphones, texting or looking for the next big/new thing to really get in touch with ourselves or our friends and family anymore.  We use stuff and technology as barriers between us not as bridges. We no longer listen well when others talk, too busy thinking of what to say next.  No wonder we are so unhappy.