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I received this comment to my previous post this morning. What I find interesting is that this post came on Memorial Day, from someone who is old probably enough to remember World War II. My reply:

Tom,

I think you may have missed my point: 1) I was not making a union/anti-union point here; and 2) I’m not saying that Wal*Mart or Home Depot or Lowe’s are the Devil or Darth Vader (whomever).

You point out, quite correctly, that lower prices — especially those prices paid by seniors on fixed incomes — are welcome. In fact, I *do* shop at all three of those stores — for certain items only. My last purchase from Wal*Mart? A $4.96 chicken beer can tripod. For that price, seeing as long as it will last, it’s not a bad deal.

My last Home Depot purchase was last week: five 60-watt GE Reveal light bulbs (clear, round) for my kitchen chandelier at $2.84 each. Not the best price, but it wasn’t worth driving an extra 5 miles each way to save a buck — not at the current price of gas.

My last purchase at Lowe’s was this morning, when I bought a new heating duct termination for my bathroom. In fact, I have a charge account at Lowe’s — I happen to like the store — but I wouldn’t buy everything I need for my home there. In fact, I can’t.

“You get what you pay for,” in this context, however, is correct — especially with Wal*Mart. Look no farther than this article in the Akron Beacon-Journal from December 2003. Consider Rubbermaid, an Ohio company born-’n-bred: what they were, where they were going, and what they are now.

Rubbermaid is gone, my friend, gone. 850 high-paying jobs with a future in each one of them. Gone. Nothing but dust in the wind, courtesy of your friends at Wal*Mart. They are running manufacturing out of the States, Tom, and that is the single most dangerous thing that could happen to this country.

This being Memorial Day, the day we pause to remember those who gave their lives to protect and defend this country, I think this point is more than apt: we need to remember that the single major factor in our favor during WWII was our ability to design, produce and manufacture the highest-quality materiel on such a scale that the rest of the world — even Hitler — underestimated.

And if we lose the ability to do this — and we’re losing it by the day — we’re in a heap of trouble.

Rubbermaid is not alone, either: the media has filled tomes on the ravages of Wal*Mart in community after community around the country. If we allow this to continue, then what are we saying to our children? “Hey, you’re on your own — I don’t give a crap about your troubles”?

Somehow, I find that level of selfishness quite distasteful.

“Think Global — Act Local” is not only a sound environmental practice, it also happens to be the single most patriotic thing we can do to support our country, our children, and our forefathers.

Well, this weekend officially marks the beginning of summer, my favorite season of the year.

It’s my favorite because I enjoy all of the festivals, the parties, the zillion things to do and see, and the weather (of which we haven’t had much summer-like weather so far). My top reason for liking summer best, however, is the fact that I can go outside and grill just about every day.

Today was no exception. The weather held, a nice, sunny 70-72 degrees for most of the day. At about 3:30 this afternoon, I fired up the grill, set it up for indirect cooking, and headed inside to prepare dinner.

What was on the menu, you ask?

How about a nice, plump frying chicken from the West Side Market, propped butt-down on a drained Coke can filled with Newcastle Brown Ale, and rubbed down with a mix of Emeril’s Essence, Montreal Steak Seasoning and Goya Adobo (I dashed what remained of the rub inside the can for good measure). For a nice touch, I soaked some apple wood chips, placed them in a smoker box which I laid inside the grill.

For the next two hours, I went about my other chores for the day, always keeping an eye on the grill in case something went wrong; I don’t need the fire department paying a visit, don’t ya know. My neighbor asked what I was cooking, and I told him.

“Cool. I love chicken like that. Ever done it before?”

“Nope.”

“You’ll love it.”

My neighborhood was filled with the enchanting aroma of what turned out to be one of the finest chickens I have ever eaten in my life — and I kid you not. Simply outstanding! The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, the skin crunchy and tasty, and the meat juicy and flavorful.

It was so tasty that I might never cook a chicken any other way again. I’m even beginning to eye this year’s Thanksgiving turkey already…

…and I’ll bet my father is rolling in his grave — like a lathe!

My neighbor (a contractor) and I were talking tonight. I was busy fixing my burned fence; when I was done, I cracked open a beer and we got to talking. Since we’re both into home renovation, the topic was obvious.

“Where’d you buy the wood?”

“Lowe’s.”

“Uh-huh. It’ll probably rot out in a year, you know.”

“Lumber?”

“Well, maybe not lumber, but just about everything else there and at Home Depot will…”

Well, you get the drift. Actually, I’m skeptical by nature, and I do avoid purchasing certain items from the big-box retailers like faucets and other plumbing, electrical parts — anything that counts in the long run.

Why? Simple, Weedhopper: why pay $50 for an item that will last 3 or 4 years, saving $30 in initial cost only to purchase the same item — and throw away the original — again for the same (or slightly higher) cost, when the more expensive unit will never have to be replaced (or require a 30-cent part to replace) — in a lifetime?

Think about this: buy a faucet from a big-box retailer for $50 which you can buy from a smaller retailer that sells the (seemingly) identical item for $80. Compare the items, including weight. Look at the parts, the construction.

Now think: you’ll never have to replace the more expensive item, while the cheaper item will have to be thrown out when it breaks; the more expensive item will require a minor price (less than $5 to a do-it-yourselfer) — and significantly less time — to repair.

Over 20 years, that cheaper faucet could cost you over $250 (figuring a 5-year lifespan), rather than the original $80 you spent on the more expensive item, which may have required the replacement of a 10-cent washer during the same lifetime. This is not to mention the extra cost hiring someone to replace the unit for you if you can’t do it yourself!

So I ask: why spend less — in this type of instance? Because you’re getting a lower price? Because you’re getting a “discount”? Are you really getting a lower price? Are you really getting a deal? You’re paying far more in the long run…

So it is with big-box retail. You say it keeps the economy moving?

Sure. In Mexico, or Malaysia, maybe, but not here.

So it is with Wal*Mart, except, (as my bride points out) with clothing. (Even then it doesn’t last as long as it should.) You want it cheap? Shop at Wal*Mart. And buy it again in a couple of years (except for music CD’s — but, their music CD selection isn’t that great, anyway — it’s their own censorship, ya know).

Go ahead: fuel Wal*Mart. And keep paying money that you needn’t over the span of time.

Want wealth? Spend more in the short run, less in the long run, and save your money.

It’s simple, Weedhopper: you get what you pay for.

America is in denial, big-time. We want it cheap, discounted. No discount — no purchase. “I wanna discount!” is all I ever heard when I worked as an optician. “Discount” this and “discount” that. What did I do to prevent me from losing my shirt — and my sanity — from all of the requests for discounts?

You got it — I cheapened my product. I spent less time making sure it met my standards. Less time spent ensuring quality meant more profits. The problem is (and one reason why I no longer work in the optical business) that people never knew they were getting robbed. They had no idea.

Not a clue.

Worst yet: I wasn’t the only one, folks. Everyone else in the industry did it, too, save for the independents (and one that I used to work for). The optical industry in this country is a mess today, a symbol of all that is wrong in America (I think).

And now they want to build yet another big-box right in the middle of a seriously impoverished area. Big-time denial, folks.

You want lower prices? Go ahead — shop at a big-box. Want to save money? Perhaps the person with the higher price has a better product for you — in the long run.

“But — ” you say, “the big boxes have lower prices!”

~Sigh.~

From Brewed Fresh Daily:

NEO blogger Paul Woodhouse (remote blogging from the UK) has painstakingly created the NEO Blog Map.

By chance, do you notice anyone missing? (Hint? Hint?)

I have links to and from most of the sites included on this page, and to and from many NEO sites that are not listed. I have RSS — and it works. Comment syndication, too.

I write often; I go to all the meetups; I have friends; I use deodorant.

Shee-it.

I have been passed the Musical Baton by Eric Meyer. I have been buried with work of late, and I haven’t had a chance to read Eric’s post to know that I was summoned. My sincerest apologies…

OK, so I’ll get on with it:

Total volume of music files on my computer: 185 songs, 13.2 hours if played consecutively, totaling 737.9MB. Yep, that’s Mega-bytes.

Why so little? Well, since we moved into the house, I have misplaced half of my CD’s, for one. I’m missing stuff like Chant, most of my Frank Zappa (save for “Joe’s Garage” and “Sheik Yerbouti”), all of my Pink Floyd.

Second, I am building up my files at work, where we have iTunes shared across a network. If you count all of the music I can listen to, it would total something near 10,915 songs, which would play for approximately 49 days, and total about 50GB. As there were three people missing from work today, these numbers are estimates; also figure in about 15% duplication (which is far less than I suspected there would actually be).

The last CD I bought was: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.

Song playing right now: “The Flavor” by Oscar Lopez (Seduction).

Five Ten songs albums I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

• Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd (1973)
• Friday Night in San Francisco — Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin & Paco DeLucia (1981)
• Peter Gabriel Plays Live — Peter Gabriel (1983)
• The Telluride Sessions — Strength in Numbers (1989)
• The White Album — The Beatles (1968)
• Offramp — Pat Metheny (1983)
• Holst Suite No. 1 in E-flat; Holst Suite No. 2 in F; Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks; Bach’s Fantasia in G — Frederick Fennell directing the Cleveland Symphonic Winds, which, by the way, was the first digital recording ever, by the local company Telarc. This bad boy’s been on my favorites list since 1978.
• Mozart Symphony No. 40/Beethoven Symphony No. 1 — Frans Brüggen & The Orchestra of the 18th Century (1985)
• The Gold Collection — Glenn Miller (released 1997)
• Moontan — Golden Earring (1973)

I have been toying with the idea of creating my all-time 100 favorite rock songs for a post, and haven’t gotten around to it yet. Perhaps soon, before summer (if it ever gets here).

I hereby pass this baton to (in no particular order, but with a particular order):

• Lori Kozey (I just gotta know!)
• Grayden MacLennon
• George Nemeth
• Big John

Now to get that iPod Mini, and an FM transmitter for the car…

Some things I’ve run across lately that I haven’t had the chance to post:

Funny Firefox ads from Europe (Flash site!).

I really want one of these. In silver. With a wireless radio transmitter for the car.

This house is scarier than mine, and it’s yours for the mere price of $169,000. Aspirin, Acetominaphen or Ibuprofen extra (you’ll need lots of it).

Other than this, I got nuthin’.

So today is (well, er, was) Saturday. Lots of things to do, and not enough time to do them all.

For the first time since I started the new job, I woke without the benefit of the alarm clock — before 9:30, which is a feat for me lately. I ate breakfast, read a part of the newspaper, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out for a couple errands.

My first stop was at M-Boss on Grant Avenue to look at pressed tin ceiling tile for my half-bathroom off the kitchen. I dismantled the entire room for the reflooring project, and now I need to finish it before July 4th weekend. Certainly doable. I’m thinking about the pressed tin ceiling for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the lack of serious maintenance.

Then it was off to the West Side Market for groceries. I have proof of this, as well: I ran into George Nemeth from Brewed Fresh Daily and got to chat with him for a while and introduce him to a couple of my friends that work there. George bought some pork tenderloins and some ground turkey from D.J. Whitaker’s (I’m not sure if he’s aware that they have the best pork in town, but I am sure he’ll find out soon enough!).

As I headed out of the market, I spotted a nice arrangement of 6 red roses with lavender baby’s breath — for $7 (beat that, big box retailers!). Each rose was perfect. I haven’t bought my wife roses in a while, so you know I coughed up the $7 — in less than a heartbeat — and took them home to my bride.

Then it was time to tend to the lawn. I mowed and edged (when will someone design a weedwhacker with an easy-to-replace nylon wire? Can’t be that hard!), then continued with my ongoing insulation and weatherstripping project. So far, I’ve shaved over 45% off our winter gas bills — which sounds like a lot, but Euclid uses Vectren Source on an aggregate plan, which reduces our gas cost somewhat.

Not much, mind you, but somewhat — not nearly as much as the Euclid City Council advertised it would, which is typical for the connected Euclid politicians who say one thing and produce something entirely different. Last summer, the city sent us a letter telling us that the city will curtail curbside recycling in an effort to save $440,000 per year; the letter was printed with the standard Euclid letterhead which reads: “Euclid — the City of Superior Services.”

Nice touch.

I followed my work with a nice, hot shower and followed that by grilling up some nice pork chops for dinner. I just rubbed them with Adobo and dropped them on the grill, and I painted them with a hint of barbecue sauce just at the end. My bride made the salad and the red beans and rice, and we dined together.

I apologize for the banality of this post, but I just had to do it. I’ll post something more spiritual tomorrow… hehe…

My wife will brain me for writing this — but I don’t really care, since I realized that the resurrected Wal*Mart at Steelyard Commons is going to go through because of private, backroom politics.

Not that Wal*Mart is all bad. My wife shops there; it’s a pretty good place to go to buy cheap stuff.

And go back and buy more cheap stuff because the cheap stuff you bought a few months ago broke because it’s cheap stuff…

Shots aside, I’m struck by the comments: Democracy Guy is afire. Tina has more biting words. Chas Rich doesn’t like it, either. Adam waxed poetic (OK, even if he *did* sound a little like Frank Zappa!). George Nemeth is putting on his Organizational Clothes.

Them’s fightin’ words, for sure, and we’re heatin’ up the hall…

Chas Rich talks about backroom deals and how they stink — then and now. They’re trying to recall the mayor in Euclid for doing just that (the Hillandale thing). I’m not saying that Cleveland should recall Jane Campbell — there’ll be no need, for her political capital lost its capital a long while ago.

But Bitter-Girl’s comments have me thinking:

Dave’s Supermarket will probably suffer the most, which seems unfair in light of everything they’ve given back to this city. Who built a brand new market in Ohio City when no one else would? Heinen’s (also locally owned) didn’t step up to the plate. Dave’s did. And now, Wal-Mart’s going to undercut the hell out of Dave’s prices in an attempt to annihilate the competition, probably wounding the historic West Side Market, too. Are you going to be able to buy Ohio City Pasta or Hungarian garlic sausage at Wal-Mart?

I’ve been shopping at the West Side Market for decades. I know scores of folks who work there. By first name. Known ‘em for years. They’ve known me for years. They know what I eat, what I cook, how I cook. We’ve celebrated tears of joy with new jobs and tears of sorrow with unemployment. We trade recipes. I help with their computer problems. We talk sports. We talk food. We talk politics. We talk life.

The recipe for surviving Wal*Mart is to provide something they don’t: in the Market’s situation, that would be exactly what I just wrote, just add in a little dynamite Dormunder Gold bratwurst, or a little Slovenian Sausage (or Hungarian — either works for me — well, any kind of sausage works for me, actually), a fresh strudel or a batch of Ohio City Pasta, with this type of custom service, and they should survive…

… maybe…

No doubt, some of the folks down there will get hurt — and badly — with a Wal*Mart just two miles away. I fear for them — and for one of my old traditions. I fear for the residents of Tremont and Ohio City who gladly walk to the West Side Market to shop. A time-honored tradition might come to a close.

Time-honored? You bet. Almost a century now.

But that’s Cleveland: a city that has no idea where it’s going because it has no idea where it’s been — it’s too busy burying its past rather than embracing it. You must know where you’ve been in order to know where you’re going.

But — what do you expect from a city whose mayor lit his hair on fire with an acetylene torch?

From a city whose first lady declined a White House dinner invitation because it was her bowling night?

From a city who made national headlines for a river that burned (after having burned at least 11 times in the preceding century)?

From the most impoverished, uneducated city in the nation?

From the only city in the country that has actively courted Wal*Mart?

When my bride and I purchased our home, we inherited this:

Those cabinets, if you took a good look at them, were… well… let’s just say that you wouldn’t want to put anything in them that would even *think* of touching food. The refrigerator was filthy, smelled as if someone had stored a corpse inside, and had been painted to make it look newer. The range smelled so bad that the delivery guys from B&B Appliance offered to take it to the hazardous waste dump.

Not to mention the color: there were about 11 shades of beige going on in there — and all of them looked as if… well… as if someone had ralphed all over the place.

It has taken me almost two whole years, cost close to $10,000 — not to mention hundreds of hours of my free time — to do it right. I’ve shed more than time and money: my blood, sweat and tears have all donated their resources to create the result.

This photo is for Steve FitzGerald: may it inspire you to keep on plugging away, because eventually it will look great!

If you look, you’ll notice that the only thing we kept was the light fixture. Actually, we also kept the dishwasher, the faucet and the light over the sink — you know, the kind from Hell that burns out lightbulbs every three weeks? I fixed that, too: flourescent bulbs do wonders in those fixtures…

Here’s another piece of eye candy, as you would see entering the side door of our home:

I should also add that the pineapple sitting on the peninsula didn’t last too much longer than it took to put the camera away: I cut it up and grilled it next to the steaks we had for dinner!

So I’m sitting back, having a beer tonight. I think I’ve earned it.

Up next: creating a house to-do list at 43Things.com. The list will end up being at least 86 things…

I spent too much time unemployed. Far too much. I know many people that have endured, or are still enduring the same fate. Let’s face it: the employment market in this city fairly sucks.

If you become fortunate enough to find a job in your field, as I have, the work doesn’t end there. The job search work ends and the work of the job begins, to be sure, but there is more to contemplate here. Much more.

OK… you start off wanting to make the impact, the impression that you are a hard worker, dependable, accurate and congenial. Just about everyone starts a new job with that goal.

With this in mind, I started thinking about what qualities I would expect to show, and what qualities I would expect to see in the perfect new job. As I read my thoughts over, I realize that they also apply to school, marriage, parenting and social life. By the way, this post has been cogitating for some time now; it bears no reflection on the past two months at the new job, where I’m happily gruntled…

The Rule of ‘C’:

Be Cognizant of your surroundings. Inattention is one of the greatest mistakes you can ever make.

Care.

Be Capable of the job you’re about to do. If you cannot do the job requested, or if you’re not qualified to do the job requested, Communicate this to your supervisor. Either ask for a replacement — or the training to do the job correctly.

Be Consistent. Always do the same tasks in the same manner, unless you learn a better, more productive way to get the job done. If this involves other people, or affects other people, Communicate your intentions: nothing is worse than to establish a routine and get your whole crew used to that routine and then change direction with the expectation that everyone will follow. It never works that way; we are not clairvoyant.

Be Concise. State what you intend to do — or what you want done — as clearly as humanly possible. Uncommunicated expectations will only make you — and the entire crew — look bad.

Be Clear with your fellow employees what your (or management’s, or shareholders, etc.) expectations are. See Concise, above.

Be Calm. No one likes to work with (or for) a rage-a-holic. Come to think of it, no one likes a rage-a-holic.

Be Careful: don’t make decisions on a whim. A lot of management types seem to think that “whim” stands for “When History Is Made,” and it usually is — to deleterious effect. More frequently, it stands for “When He Is Mistaken.” Or she (sorry).

Be Cheerful. No one likes working with a grump. Come to think of it, no one likes a grump.

Complete what you start, and let others Complete what they start: nothing gives your fellow employees a greater sense of confidence than to show trust in them. A happy crew accomplishes more than an irritable, on-edge group.

Do things the Correct way. Short-cuts and half-assed work only irritate people and cost even more in time and money to rework correctly.

Commit. Wishy-washiness never works; you’d be surprised what happens when you commit to an idea, a concept, or a plan. The higher the level of your commitment, the more likely you are to succeed.

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

~~~~~~~

That having been said, I intend to upgrade WordPress within the next month (or so). Along with the upgrade to 1.5, I will be making a few minor changes to the design.

Most of these changes will not be visible to the untrained eye; a web designer would probably have a better idea of what will be happening under the hood, where the changes will be significant.

So if you tune in a couple of weeks from now, and things don’t look quite the same as when you left, you may not be seeing things.

I might, but that’s a different story.