Adjectives

In the recent Crothersville Times the editor has made up questions to ask the four candidates running for election in the Crothersville Community Schools District 1 and Disrict 4 races. Todd Baker and Trina McLain are running against each other and Dale Schmelzle and Brad Erwin are in competition for a seat on the School Board. The election is Tuesday, May 6. With all of Vernon Township voting at the high school, the results should be in fairly quickly. But the results could change quickly as we have seen during the election in November. You cannot forgot all the absentee ballots that seem to add up in large numbers at the courthouse in Brownstown.

That's another story for another time. I have been reading the questions and responses from three of the candidates. One candidate, Todd Baker, declined to respond, (according to the editor) I find it funny at the beginning of the story we are told Mr. Baker declined, but then after all five of the questions, we see again Mr. Baker: Did not respond (stab, stab, stab, stab, stab)

The other three candidates used lots of adjectives like: positive, experience, fresh, informative, improve, educational, dedication, frustration, concern, proud, upset, struggling, disappointed, sad, successful, safe, love, decreasing, and important. (wide range, huh?)There are other adjectives in the story, but these are a few I picked up on.

I have already made my mind up on who I am voting for, by attending most all of the school board meetings and seeing Mr. Baker and Mr. Schmelzle (the two currently on the school board) in action and knowing where they stand on issues that are raised during the meetings and seeing how they react (or don't react) to public concerns and comments. Seeing the responses from Mrs. McLain and Mr. Erwin were what I expected them to be.

I don't understand how these questions and answers are helpful to the voters. Some don't know who the candidates are, but it's sad to think five questions will be what influences some voters decisions.

Do I quit? Do I stay?

I am sure all of us at some point in our lives have asked these two questions of ourselves,

"Do I quit?"

"Do I stay?"

I have asked myself those two questions a million times over the past 30 days. Each time I ask myself the questions, I come up with the same answer.

I've done lots of reading recently to help me answer those two little questions. This morning there was something that caught my eye that helped make the decision a little easier.

Isn't it funny how life works sometimes?

(That is just a saying. Using the word funny when actually, it isn't funny at all)

A second day of sunshine

After an evening of thunderstorms followed by a day of sunshine, look what happened:

My onion flowers popped open:



I had several people stop into the Town Hall today to tell me how beautiful my tree is:



After another day of 80 degree weather, I knew my favorite tree would be bloomed out even more than yesterday. I couldn't wait to get home to snap another picture of the fragrant blooms:

A beautiful day...

It was a blessing to come home this evening after a strenuous day in the Town Hall office (but what day isn't strenuous there?) and look at the beauty around my home. After a couple days of 80 degree weather it is truly amazing what God can do.

I call these my onion plants. If you try to pull them up it is impossible. The tops of the flower breaks off and then your hands smell like wild onions. I'm not sure what the proper name is for these, but they are all around my flower beds as border plant:



This is my one lone tulip left. I love the colors of purple:



My lilies in my flower bed are popping up. They probably need thinned out, but I don't have time to do that. Shouldn't be much longer they will be having their yellow and white blooms:



My fern I borrowed from my neighbor last year is returning this year:



Another purple flower I have is this azalea bush. It is loaded with buds and should be in full bloom in a few days:



Out of all my fowers and trees I have in my yard, this by far is my most favorite. It is a wisteria tree. This time of year you see tons of red bud trees in bloom. They are pretty too, but this is simply breath taking:



I love to just stand under the tree and take in a deep breath and enjoy the aroma of the wisteria scent:



There are thousands of grape like blooms on this tree:



April has by far not been my favorite month, but after seeing the beauty of nature it can sure take your breath away.

Old? Not yet.

I remember six years ago looking at my dad and thinking,(to myself of course) man, he is beginning to look old! If you have seen my parents, they don't look 70years old. Six years ago my dad had just turned 70 and we had planned a surprise birthday party for him. As he was greeting his friends and family I was standing across the room watching him. I guess with him going into a new decade was what had my brain thinking he was old. I mean the day before when he was 69, he didn't look old. That day he did.

I realized by the time I got used to the 70's age, he didn't seem to look old any longer. Yesterday we celebrated Dad's 76th birthday. He seems to be in good health and don't have any problems. I guess he is like all the other older people. He has doctor appointments and takes a few pills, but for the most part he's healthy.

Today he came into the office and was telling me his sugar level was up a little bit and at his eye doctor appointment the doctor was telling him that might be effecting his eye a bit. Dad is one that watches what he eats pretty well and knows he cannot over do some things as it does effect him. So I asked the question, "What have you been eating?"

"I've had some fried foods," he says. Ok, well that could have been the problem! "What did you have?" I asked. "French fries and oysters," was his reply. Well hello dad! That might have a little to do with it. Of course, I didn't need to tell him that!

His response is he is going to starting eating better . . .starting tomorrow. He will, I know it.

Happy 76th birthday Dad! I love you!

Is it real? Probably not!

I find it utterly repulsive how people will come and ask for handouts, expecting something for nothing. How they build you up, pretend to let you know how valuable you are, and fill your head with what you want to hear, only to find out later it was just a bunch of words. Not even worth listening too.

The good thing about listening to and figuring out the lies is it sure does harden you and it makes you grow and learn for the future. The sad thing about it all is, as you harden, you lose some things that truly aren't fake.

Oh well, guess that is just life. Live and learn!

Am I what it says I am?

Click the link below to find out if I am what I say I am...

My personalDNA Report

Let me know what you think. I thought it was quite interesting. I didn't believe all I read, but who am I to question the results? ha, ha!

It isn't easy to get the shot you want, but sometimes you still smile.

Spring is in the air and with today being in the low 70's and tomorrow being in the mid 70's, the trees will be popping with their beauty. Look what happened today:




Have you ever been in a car wreck and totaled your automobile? Wonder where it went too? Recently Patrick and I returned from Spring Break in Florida. As we were preparing to land in Louisville, we happened to fly across a parking lot of wrecked vehicles. Do you see yours?




On our way to Hollywood, Florida, we had a stop in Tampa. This is the first time we have been to the Tampa airport. We weren't there that long so we didn't get to do any shopping, but if the terminal was a nice as the view in this photo, we probably missed some really good deals!




Today was a beautiful day to be outside and take the dogs for a walk. This is what Patrick was attempting to do. Problem was, Cooter and Daisy wanted to walk in different directions . . . at the SAME time! Needless to say, Patrick wasn't walking the dogs today! But it was still a very nice day!

"Well done My good and faithful servant"

Those are the words all of us would love to hear at the end of our days here on earth. As we stand in judgement and wait for God to see if we have our name written in the Great Book of Life, then hear Him say those words to us, "Well done!" What comfort that will bring to our ears.

Recently a great friend of mine, Don Nay, passed away. I was probably more of a friend to his wife, Nancy than I was of Don. Both had been in Crothersville as long as I can remember and Nancy was the one who hired me at my current job with the Town.

Nancy was a joy to work with and taught me numerous things not only about the business of the Town but numerous things about Life. When Nancy came to work each morning, as she opened the door to the Town Hall she would speak in her loud and clear voice, "Good morning!" It did not matter what was on your mind, if something had you pre-occupied you quickly forgot all about it by just hearing the joy of her 'good mornings'. I sure miss those days.

Don would come in from time to time to check on us girls and make sure we didn't need anything. If we did need something, you never heard a complaint from Don, he would go get whatever you needed or do whatever needed to be done. Don never got in a hurry, but he did get several things accomplished.

I remember several stories Nancy would tell me about Don and his family. One that comes to mind quite often is Don's mother never told Don she loved him. This made Don more determined than ever to not let his kids grow up without knowing he loved them. At Don's funeral, the minister spoke of this and of Don's love for his children and how he often expressed it to his kids. From what I learned from Don, not only did he love his kids, he loved everyone and he loved life!

Funerals are suppose to be celebrations of the life of the individual. We should be celebrating the eternity the individual is spendng with their Savior Jesus Christ. Don's funeral was just that, a celebration of his life.

Don's nephew Gary, his sister-in-law Becky and his brother-in-law Dean spoke, sang and played music at Don's funeral. Don had written a letter prior to his death and the letter was printed in the program. Don wrote, "If I could talk with you today, I'd want you to know that I valued your friendship. . . but I want you to know about my most precious friend. You may remember me as a 'good person', but I want you to know that all my goodness is a result of my relationship with Jesus Christ. . . now in death I am more alive than ever. . . I am at home in heaven with my greatest friend. . .I love you and look forward to spending eternity with you. Meet me just inside the pearly gates. I'll take you for a drive on those glorious streets of gold." The note was signed, Love, Don.

Knowing Don, he is there waiting at those pearly gates for his next friend to enter. I hope he has to wait on me for a long time, but I do pray I make it there someday. At my funeral, I hope my family and friends can celebrate my life and know, without a doubt, I am waiting on them at the pearly gates. Don will be missed by all those that knew him. If you were one of the lucky ones who got to meet him, you know you will never forget him, his smile, his love for his family and his love for his Savior.

I take comfort in knowing, without a doubt, Don IS in heaven with our Greatest Friend. I am sure Don's name is in the Book of Life and he heard the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

What does the customer want?

I feel as this whole month of April has been April Fools Day and it is only the 11th of the month! It all started two months ago with the water and sewer utility bills having to be averaged due to inclement weather. Of course an average is just a guess of what you ‘think’ the water consumption will be. The program we run, Keystone, does the averaging for the customer, but again it is only an estimate.

Before I get into the situation too deeply, I would like to say for the last few days I have thought of (Shelley’s much older brother) Scott McKain’s words more than once. I love to read his blog, watch his videos and watch little bits and pieces of his speeches. If you have ever heard Scott speak, you know what I mean, if you have not heard him you need to get with the real world and find out what you have been missing. Scott asks several times to think about what the customer wants . . . then deliver. Well, I try to do that each day I am collecting the utility payments. I am thinking I want to be cheerful, accurate and quick. In and out quickly and make the customer glad they came in and were lucky enough to have me wait on them. I thought most of the time I had succeeded with doing that the past eleven years. Then the utility bills go out on March 31 and the customers begin to come in and call starting on April 1.

IF I could have gotten a break from it, maybe that would have been helpful, but with every call that came in, they would be directed toward me to help sooth the irrate customer got old really quickly. By April 4, I was glad it was the weekend. I was dumb enough to think that everyone who had a question about their bill had already called and talked to me or had come into the office and raked my butt over the coals. I was thinking come Monday, April 7, everything would be back too ‘normal’, especially, after I had figured and calculated and figured some more on what seemed to be about 8,000 bills! Hmmm . . . was I ever wrong!

This week was not even comparable to the first. I think this is the first time in the eleven years a customer has belittled me to the point of tears. Thanks Mr. Jackson!

With as often I had to calculate the consumption of the customer’s bills this week, I know I could do it in my sleep. In fact that is all I thought of Thursday evening while trying to sleep, so I KNOW it can be done! With Mr. Jackson’s bill along with the 8,000 others, I took the reading from March and subtracted the reading from January. This gave me a two-month water consumption. I ignored the February reading as it was the estimated one. Mr. Jackson’s consumption was 9,420 gallons, divided by 2, gave him an average consumption for a month at 4,710 gallons. I multiplied the consumption with the water rate and got $37.07, $2.22 for tax, and $36.75 for sewer, making his total bill $85.04. The tax on his April bill would be 1% more, for the tax increase, raising it to $2.60, for a total bill of $85.42. Adding these two amounts, you get $170.46. This is the amount Mr. Jackson SHOULD have paid for utilities for the two months. Instead he was charged $63.39 for the month of March (instead of $85.04) and for the month of April his bill was $107.19.

Now to the ‘average’ person, this seems like a BIG difference.
$63-$107, it sure does. Well, let us take this one step further. Adding what he paid in March, $63.39 and his April payment of $107.19, that equals $170.58. The difference from what should have been ($107.46) and what is due ($107.58) is 12 cents! Four times I tried to explain this to Mr. Jackson and five times the customer told me I did not know how to figure or subtract, nor did he know where I got the number from. He had no idea where I was coming up with these numbers. I have each step wrote down on a piece of paper and in order, I explained the black and white figures to this blind man only to have him point his finger in my face repeatedly, claiming I was taking advantage of him and having him pay more than he should. Finally, exhausted, I gave up, and had him talk to the office manager while I went to the restroom.

For what seemed like hours of the same story being repeated over, and over, and over again, he finally gave up and said he was taking my figures, going home and giving it to his wife for her to call and speak with me on the matter. He paid his bill, the total $107.19. I could not tell you if the wife called or not because after Mr. Jackson left, the next customer also wanted their bill checked. I figured her bill by what it should have been and what it was, the difference was .23 cents!

I took her money, gave her change back and with a smile said, "Have a nice day."

I turned around, picked up my keys and left for the day.

Referring to the title of this blog, 'What Does the Customer Want?", the customer expects the best, but in the end, do they really appreciate it or are they willing to pay for it?

I know my outlook toward the customer is now different. It sure makes you think twice when you have a little, sweet, 70 year old woman rip your ass over .58 cents, and then have another request an adjustment to their bill for $3.14 for something they figure is MY mistake! Is the customer always right . . . ?

Thank you and have a nice weekend . . .

Good to the last drop...??

When I make a pot of tea I boil some water, put the tea bags in the hot boiling water and let them set on the counter for a few minutes before I pour it into a cup or a pitcher. I always rinse the tea bags a few times and pour the water into the pitcher then I squeeze the tea bags to make sure I get the last drop of tea from them...ever feel like a tea bag, like you have been squeezed so much that the last little bit of tea is drained out of you?

Isn't it amazing how you can have such a high at one moment only to have it all sucked out of you in an instant?

I have a great friend who calls me on occasions to pick his kids up from school because him and his wife are out of town and not able to make it back in time. When I had to pick their kids up on Tuesday, their daughter couldn't wait to share a song with me. She said all the girls were singing it at lunch and at recess that day:

Girls go to college to get more knowledge,
boys go to Jupiter to get more stupidier.

Ahhh, the words from the mouths of babies. I'm not sure who had the best time with the song, the little girl singing it to me for the first time, or the hundreds of times I've sung it since I've heard it!