'Alone in Enola'

Spring is here... FINALLY!!!

Hello again, it's been a while, again, since I've posted, but it's been a bit hectic around here with the job search and other stuff. However, I'm still here, much to the chagrine of some people, and still kicking. I've got the USS LoPresto (my Star Trek club) up and somewhat running again, and got some nice logo wear for the members to show off their club pride at outings and "away missions". Also been mucking around with some online gaming as well. Still playing Star Trek Online, although I took a short break from the game until the Romulan faction becomes open in May. My latest inursion is into the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic, where I have multiple characters of each faction on the Jedi Covenant server, so if you're a player, or wish to play and game with me, you can find me there.
Now for the big news... SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!!! We've had a few really nice days this week, with temperatures in the 70s and above. This is a nice change from the cold and snow of the winter months, which seemed to be endless. Admittedly, I grew up in the colder reaches of Northwestern PA, and lived there most of my life, but the endless cold from this past winter was even too much for me. Maybe I'm just getting old. We had some thunderstorms last night, where it got rather windy and nasty for a while, but we got nothing like they had down south with tornados and wind damage. We may get more later today and into tonight and tomorrow, and I look forward to it. I always love a nice thunderstorm. :)

Blogging Again- The Long Road from August

Hello again, It's been a while (what? 6 months?) since my last post here, but life has been hectic. Let's see if I can remember everything that has happened since then.

The last day of August, I was at work with my then manager, Kim, when someone came into the store and robbed us at knife-point. What was weird was that it happened in broad daylight (4:30pm) and after the guy robbed us, while the police were at the store taking statements and checking for evidence, he robbed another store, a tanning salon, in another part of town. Needless to say, it got more and more undesireable to work at the Turkey Barn. In October, Kim left the store (who could blame her) for another job, and we got some military dictator punk as a replacement. He didn't last long, as he wasn't doing his job as he was supposed to, and was more interested in doing my friend Jess (who had no interest whatsoever in him) and eliminating any "threat" (aka me) to his conquest. Things finally came to a head there, and Kim stepped in for Jess and the rest of us there, and Sargeant Stupid was out the door quicker than he could sneeze. He was replaced by Nancy's (the supervisory (?) manager's) brother/friend (nobody was exactly sure what his relation to her was) Richie, who refused to adhere to people's availability, and, after my Heart Cath- details shortly- I was fired because I could not adhere to THEIR schedule when they would schedule me outside of my availability. So, my time with Turkey Hell (as it was then dubbed) ended in mid-December, and I've been waiting for unemployment to make a decision on my eligibility since. Oh yea, almost forgot the best part (that's sarcasm there) when Nancy accused me of sending in all the customer compliments that I got. I mean, really? I had much better things to do with my time than to make false claims to make myself look good. I told a couple of the customers, and Kim about that, and they all said basically that Nancy was full of it.

OK, enough of the Hellpit. I mentioned that I had a heart catheterization done in early December, after the doctor did a stress test on me as part of my routine physical, and found some questionable spikes on the EKG. Well, the proceedure required my absence from work for a couple of days (Nancy insisted I scheduled it on purpose to purposely inconvenience the store, and told me she wouldn;t let me take the 3 days off - that was over-ruled quickly by the doctor). Anyway, proceedure done, they found nothing out of the ordinary, and in fact told me my heart was as healthy as if I was 10 years old.

Game-wise, I have been doing a variety of things. Played World of Warcraft briefly after the expansion was released, but got bored with it quickly, and turned back to Star Trek Online. Recently, I've been playing Diablo 3, since it doesn't have a monthly fee to play, and recently discovered a new game online called "The Rockstar Game" (link here: http://www.therockstargame.com ).

Also, I have resurrected my original Star Trek club, the USS LoPresto in this area, and have a few people interested. The registry has changed slightly, from the original, due to restrictions in the Star Trek Online game, and also due to it being the sixth incarnation of the ship- the new registry is NCC-94100-E. Hopefully, we will get a regular meeting schedule set up, and new members down the road. (Pictured to the left is the NCC-94100-E, Vesta Class Science vessel from Star Trek Online).

Also, I've gotten rather hooked on the SyFy hit show, "Haven" since December. I was watching the Episode entitled "Sarah" around the holidays, and got instantly hooked. The show just finished its 3rd season, and will be back in the fall with a 4th season, but of course it left us with a cliffhanger until then. The show takes place in the town of Haven, Maine, and there are a lot of strange happenings every episode that the main characters, Audrey, Nathan, and Duke, have to solve each week. If you liked X-files, you will like this show. As I said, I was hooked, and ended up buying the first two seasons on DVD just to get caught up.

Last, but not least, I have made some great friends since August. I've become good friends with both Jess and Kim from the "Hell".  I don't see Kim or Jess as often as I'd like to, but we keep in touch on Facebook, which is OK.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to update this more often since I have time now.

Appreciation

It's been a pretty busy week or two, but I figured I'd post something short and sweet before going to bed. I've been living in Enola for three months now, and working at the new job for just over two.  In that short period of time, I've received more Customer Appreciation comments at my current job than I have since I worked for Verizon 7-8 years ago.  When I was working for my last job, which I will now refer to as "the big red barn", I had begun to think that politeness and kindness, and putting customers first was all for naught, since the only ones that got any kind of recognition for their work were the slackers and brown-nosers. I remember one in particular that really set mine and my friend Lena's hackles on end. This person, that I had sarcastically come to refer to as 'Miss Congeniality' because of her extremely poor customer service skills and reluctance to do her job, had received TWO awards in one week, and she really did nothing to deserve it, while we busted butt and even worked overtime when she would call off or just leave early for no reason.  Fast forward to new job. I have, as I have said, been there slightly over two months, have gotten to know quite a few of the customers, if not by name, by their regular orders, and have received praise from customers at least five times, and been mentioned on the monthly Customer Service Update a couple of times. What am I doing differently? Nothing, and I just don't get it. It just feels good to be appreciated for doing my job. Anyway, I just thought I'd get that off my chest. Have a good week everybody.

Life, Work, Weather, and Star Trek Online

It's been a couple of weeks since I last updated, but things have been rather hectic at work (losing an assistant manager, losing a coworker to a new [better for her] job, store reorganizations and schedules changes, etc), that I just haven't felt much up to posting once I've gotten home. But, I'm back with yet another post. (Yay!)

So, what with working 6 day (36 hour) weeks at the Turkey Barn, and everything else, I finally get another day off (the second in three days) so I feel a bit more relaxed. The weather here has been nothing short of crazy for the past couple of weeks. It's been in the upper 80s to early 90s, temperature-wise, and we've had some pretty stormy days as well. Three days out of the week, I got drenched while leaving work. By drenched, I mean I was literally soaked clean through to the bone just getting to the car upon walking out the door. One night, I believe it was last Friday night, I had to drive to my parents' to move the car back into their newly repaved parking lot so that they could go get my aunt's medicine early the next morning. Well, it was 9:30 in the evening, and the sky was so dark, it looked more like midnight. It was raining so hard that I could barely see fifty feet in front of the car, and made three wrong turns because I couldn't tell where I was going. Thankfully, the rain had stopped or let up by the time I arrived. Saturday and Monday were more of the same. The past couple of days have been fairly decent, although it's still HOT! We may get a storm or two later in the day today or tomorrow, but the best chance is Sunday with a risk of severe storms.

In my spare time, I've been playing Star Trek Online, and helping my Trek friend, Sam Cummings (Fleet Admiral Emeritus of Maquis Forces International) and the fleet of Deep Space 7 in game build a starbase. It's pretty tough going for such a small fleet with few active players, but we're making progress. I just fear that we will run out of resources before too long. It does keep me occupied and out of trouble, though. If you or anyone you know would like to play the game (it's free to play now) and join our humble fleet, send me comment here, message me on Facebook, or simply download the game at the following link: https://register.perfectworld.com/sto_splash  and send me a friend invite ingame once you've downloaded (my name there is @shikyrie) and I'll toss you out a fleet invite.

Well, that is all for this time. Until next time, be well, and be wary of strange people and their even stranger blogs. ;)

Reflections on Life

Last month marked the 25th anniversary of my exodus from high school (more commonly known as graduation). Next week is the quintennial high school reunion (the 25 year one, of course) and it is one that I won't be able to attend due to the recent move, and lack of fundage and transportation (hopefully, I will be able to make the next one in five years, since the past two that I attended were rather enjoyable.) Anyway, this anniversary prompted me to look back upon the past 25 years and all the changes that have taken place since high school. My life has had its ups and downs, and it's been rough quite a bit of the time, but I've been lucky. In the 25 years since graduation, we've lost too many young promising classmates too soon (OK, we've only lost seven that I'm aware of, but in my honest opinion, seven is still too many.)
One girl, Vicky Comstock did not even live to enjoy her senior year. She lost her life in a house fire the day before school started that year. I still remember the shock and sadness of the first day of school that year. The usual excitement of catching up after a summer of not seeing friends and classmates was replaced by a somberness and the realization that one of us was missing.
The second loss was probably the most shocking. Amy Rusnak, a bright young girl with an infectious smile and laugh and a promising life ahead of her had her life cut short about a month after graduation. She was on her way home from work when her car was struck by a drunk driver. That news was probably the saddest I had received that summer. I remember sitting in my brother's dorm room in Rose Hall on EUP's campus talking with him and some of his friends when I heard the news (I believe it was our mom that called and relayed the news). I just sat there for what seemed like an eternity in shock (it was in reality probably only a few minutes) before I choked up and broke down and cried. At that time, I was a fairly peaceable and docile young person, but I remember wanting to go out and kill the guy for ending this young girl's life. Someone so sweet and kind didn't deserve to have her young life taken away like that.
The third came shortly afterward. John Klimek had been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer sometime earlier on, and despite the chemo, and other treatments, he succumbed to the disease. I never knew John that well, but his death hit be hard none-the-less.
The fourth came three years later, when Bruce Sokolowski lost his life in a frat house fire. I remember that night vividly, as I had just returned to my dorm room on campus from a party at a friend's house. I could see the flames from my room on the 8th floor of Lawrence Towers and watched it from my window most of the night. The next day, I learned of Bruce's fate. His death really hit me hard as Bruce was my self-proclaimed "protector" all through high school. If anyone would pick on this short quiet kid, they would have to deal with Bruce. That night, the world lost another good soul.
The other three I didn't find out about until a year or two after they passed from this earth. Cindy Trask, and Nicole Wittenburg both lost their lives some years later to illness, and Lisa Petulla, if I'm not mistaken lost her life in a motorcycle accident.
It's been 25 years, and we're all getting older. I guess the real reason I'm disappointed that I won't be able to attend this class reunion is because this might have been one of the last chances that I would have to see some of my classmates. We're not getting any younger, and each passing year brings us closer to our own passing. I just keep praying that the rest of us have a few decades left to us. And to those that have gone before, I look forward to the final reunion when we can all be together agaim.

Rude People and Inconsiderate Drivers

It occurred to me today that people and drivers in general around this area are a rude bunch. I've noticed this in certain customers that come into the store where I work, other shoppers when I'm doing my grocery shopping at either WalMart or Giant, and especially in the other drivers on the road. First, let's start with customers. There is one woman that comes into the store that causes EVERYONE (including other customers) to cringe every time she comes into the store. For all intents and purposes, I will refer to her as "Jane". Every time we see the blue PT Cruiser pull into the parking lot, we pray that it's Jane's husband, "Shane" (of course, not his real name) that is coming into the store and not her. Whenever Jane walks into the store everyone knows it, because instantly, you hear a caterwauling worse than Fran Drescher's "Nanny" butting into somebody's business. She'll not only say rude things to the employees, but make rude comments to and about other customers. To say her infamy precedes her would be a gross understatement. Another customer, although not nearly as rude, but still rude enough is "Corrie". Corrie is one that will come in while there is only one person working, see that employee waiting on a line of customers at the open register, and proceed to remove the "register closed" sign from the other side of the counter and expect to be served right away. Most of the time, I have no problems with Corrie, but when she does that, I just want to tell her to leave the store and come back when she has the common courtesy to wait in line like everybody else. There are a few others, some regulars and others that just come in off the interstate, that come in talking on their cell phones, and don't have the common courtesy to put the person they are talking to on hold while they are checking out. They'll keep talking on their phones and expect not only the person waiting on them to wait for them to finish their phone call, but they'll expect the line of customers behind them to wait as well. Again, if you can't be considerate and get off your phone, get out of the store until you're finished. Next, let's look at the fellow shoppers in the grocery store. We'll start with Betty Jo Redneck and her gaggle of screaming, kicking, punching, yelling, crying, etc brats. While Betty Jo is blocking the aisle talking to her girlfriend, Hilda Hicks, her gaggle is running rampant, chasing each other down the aisles, knocking displays over and running into other shoppers, sometimes hitting the unexpecting person and oftentimes uttering profanities that I never heard when I was their age. When approached about her childrens' behavior, good ol' Betty Jo looks at you, shows you the finger that doesn't mean "you're #1", and tells you to mind your own business. You turn around and finish getting the small list of 10 items or less and proceed to the express checkout, where you bump into your old friend Betty Jo once again, and she's unloading two cartloads of groceries (either she can't read English -or read at all- or she's holding up the express lane to support her smoking habit of a carton per day, since she just bought 7 cartons of cigarettes.) You patiently wait, hoping that she'll hurry up and get checked out, fearful of a repeat performance of your last encounter. Last, there are the drivers. I thought people up in Erie were bad (hey, at least they could drive in adverse weather conditions and not cause any major catastrophies), but down here, it's every man for himself, and heaven forbid if you try to do the speed limit like a law abiding citizen, because you'll get blown off the road. I've seen more people make left turns before waiting for opposing traffic to pass, more people driving 20+ miles/hour over the speed limit, and more major traffic accidents here in 2 months than I saw in 2 years in Erie. I tried to merge onto Interstate 81 while going to get groceries last week, and had to stop at the end of the exit ramp until I got an opening to merge into the right lane of traffic (on what was a 4 lane stretch of road going in that direction). No sooner had I pulled out onto what was a clear opening 5 seconds prior, than I was almost rear-ended by some maniac in a Prius blasting his horn and doing 80mph (I had to floor it to get enough speed to get going.) It's gotten to the point that I try to avoid the major interstates, and the Harrisburg Expressway (the I-81, PA 581, I-83, US 322 loop around the city) as much as possible, and try to avoid rush hour altogether if possible. While I like this area in general, I REALLY miss the friendlier customers, somewhat more considerate shoppers, and relatively tame drivers of Erie.