I’ll Teach My Kids to Count Up!

June 30, 2009 1 Comment

Oh, boy. I just had a frustrating experience at sandwich shop next door. I experienced a pet peeve first-hand. Again. Here’s the play-by-play…

  1. The cashier rings up the total for the lunch. $15.73.
  2. I hand the cashier two $10 bills and 3 pennies.
  3. Cashier thinks I handed him a $10, a $5, and assumes the rest of the change is coming to get to $15.73.
  4. He punches in the amount he things he’s getting ($15.73) and then realizes, “Wait! This person gave me $20 + 3 pennies!”
  5. Panic sets in. He’s already rung up the total and now the cash register has no way to tell him how much money he should give back.
  6. Another employee is watching over his shoulder. I get the impression that the guy that took my money is new-ish and learning the ropes, so I’m willing to cut him lots of slack. I’m not one to dispense unwarranted anger, and I’ve been “new” before too…
  7. But…basic skills are still needed! The fact is, this young man should have been able to count the change up from $15.73 to $20.03 without the assistance of a cash register or a calculator.
  8. Thankfully, the person that was watching over him can save the day. She has a calculator! I sat down and wait for her to bring over my change. $4.10.

$4.10??? How does someone using a calculator type in $20.03 minus $15.73 and get $4.10?!?!? Now I have a primary pet peeve (“Can’t count up to make change”) that carries with it a secondary pet peeve (“Can’t use a calculator to make change”). I’m sorry, but that really bothers me.

Maybe it’s part of a rite of passage. I gracefully passed over the threshold into my forties last year. Does that give me the right to talk about “kids these days!?” Am I turning into some cranky old curmudgeon without even realizing it? Doesn’t matter. All I know is I’m going to make sure my kids have the ability to count up and make change without the aid of a cash register and/or calculator!

Filed under Living Life, Random Keystrokes

An Inconvenient Temperature

June 5, 2009 Leave a comment

So here we are on June 5, and we’re supposed to be having this overwhelming feeling that the warm days of summer are underway. What’s going wrong? We should be enjoying comfortable temperatures in the upper 70s. And according to http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/habitat/climate/temp.htm,

North Dakota’s delightful summer season is at its best in June, July and August, and is perfect for all outdoor activities. The days are warm, sometimes even hot, but nights are one-blanket cool for restful sleep.

So what’s the temperature today at 1:06 p.m.?

52 degrees.

And that’s what is in the forecastable future too.

Global warming? I’ll take one, please…

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3.5 Million Sandbags

April 4, 2009 Leave a comment

Fighting the 2009 Fargo Flood required 3.5 million sandbags. One of my coworkers found this link which provides an amazing visualization of exactly how many sandbags that is:

http://blog.concept3d.com/?p=433

No wonder my arms were sore!!!

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Another Record Falls

March 31, 2009 Leave a comment

As if the high water mark set last week wasn’t enough, we just polished off another record.

Record snowfall for the day of March 31 was 2.8 inches in 1977. Today’s snowfall? 5.8 inches.

And counting.

We’ll probably whack tomorrow’s record off the books too. April 1 record is 3.4 inches in 1962, tomorrow’s forcast calls for 7 to 14 inches.

More at http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/235909/.

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Fargo-Moorhead Flood Watch: Secondary Concerns

March 31, 2009 Leave a comment

So far so good with the flood fight. The dikes are continuing to hold, the water continues to drop. But what a wild week. Just when things look like they might be settling down (albeit not to a safe level yet) we get whacked with an all-out Winter storm. Lots of snow, probably 10+ inches, and noone to clear the roads. The city plows are giving priority to the dike areas and main traffic arteries, so it could be a while.

The main concerns are obvious. Will the dikes hold? Will the high wind degrade their integrity? But I find myself thinking a lot about secondary concerns:

  • We just haven’t been able to get the phones because the city is asking all non-essential businesses to close up and stay home (to keep traffic to a minimum should the streets need to turn into emergency routes). Will WebsitesForPrinters.com customers think we’re ignoring them when we are unable to answer the phone?
  • Our business is national (international, for that matter) so our customer base keeps on churning forward. But what about local and regional businesses? I’m concerned for them … they are losing lots of revenue right now.
  • I’m concerned for hourly employees of the local and regional businesses as well. Businesses closed = no paycheck.

But even in the middle of all of this, I know that God is still in control. I find myself thinking often of something I used to say with a laugh and a smile. Regarding the 1997 flood, I would say, “That was our practice flood.” But as I think about it, there’s probably a lot of truth in that statement. God is sovereign, I won’t try to understand His amazing ways … but I can’t help but think if He allowed 1997′s flood to happen so Fargo would be better prepared for this year’s flood.

But enough writing for now. There’s SO much work to be done … back to calling customers and prospects from home.

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Fargo-Moorhead Flood Watch: Prayer Works!

March 30, 2009 Leave a comment

One of my employees just came to me and said “I think prayer works!” I think he’s right! We’re still waiting for the flood water to recede. The last thing we need right now is more moisture. We are supposed to get snow today. But … check out the big empty spot on this map!

No snow in Fargo for now!

No snow in Fargo for now!

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Fargo-Moorhead Flood Watch: We Survived Round 1

March 29, 2009 Leave a comment

This has been quite a week. It feels like we have won Round 1 of this flood fight, but there is more to come so we can’t rest on a false sense of security. Fargo-Moorhead built the dikes to a 43-foot level, the river (so far) has topped out at just under 41 feet. The river may no longer be rising but we can’t let our guard down. The dikes need to hold until the water is down to a safe level.

This last week has really been filled with amazing events. Here are the memories that will be permanently etched into my mind:

  • Seeing police escorts for flatbed trailers carrying palletes of sandbags to where they are needed most.
  • Seeing Coast Guard helicopters land at the hospital across the street to drop off rescued flood victims. Keep in mind we’re in Fargo North Dakota, 300 miles away from the geographical center of North America … so seeing Coast Guard helicopters flying around town was a site in itself.
  • My first sandbagging experience placed me in the Oak Creek neighborhood. I was able to look across the area we were working at and see our old neighborhood.
  • In Oak Creek I saw a familiar face … my daughter’s orthodontist. I figured he was another volunteer, but it turns out I was helping protect his house.
  • Finishing up one project usually results in the volunteers breaking up into small packs of 2-3 people roaming around looking for the next place to help out. My pack found a house just starting to increase the height of their dike, and within 30 minutes our roaming pack was joined by many others. We had three lines of sandbag delivery going, probably 60+ people in all.
  • Sending my wife and kids out of town so they’d already be in a safe spot … just in case.

Those are some of the big memories, but there is so much more. It is truly amazing to see all the volunteers that came together to pull this off. Absolutely amazing. God has truly answered prayers by covering our cities with protection.

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Fargo-Moorhead Flood Watch

March 24, 2009 Leave a comment

The next few days are going to be interesting. The cities of Fargo ND and Moorhead MN … and really a part of our region that extends over a much larger area … are getting ready for a potentially record-breaking flood. We thought we saw it all in 1997, but they are expecting this year’s water level to go even beyond that record-setting year. The next few days will start to tell the story.

It really sunk in yesterday and again today when I heard the police sirens. What I saw amazed me … flatbed trucks filled with sandbags getting a police escort so they could get where they were going as expeditiously as possible.

I also heard on the news last night that our Governor ordered a National Guard jet to fly south (Nebraska, I believe) to pick up an expert in the dynamics of ice dams on rivers.

The next few days are going to get cold with high temperatures below freezing. I’ve heard that when sandbags freeze they become stiff and porous, so the next few days could be “make it or break it” days for the residents in the region.

Please remember our communities in your prayers.

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What’s your share?

February 13, 2009 Leave a comment

Did you ever take time to do the math? Take the $787 Billion government stimulus spending package, divide it by the 303 million or so residents of the United States, and you get … (insert drum roll here) …

$2600 per person!

So … take $2600 and multiply by the number of people in your family, and include that amount with your tax returns this year. Enjoy your recovery!

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In Case You Want to Read the Bible in Klingon…

December 29, 2008 Leave a comment

…here’s your chance:

The Bible Tool

I’m glad there are people dedicated to spreading the Good News to everyone, but I think it would make sense to take care of the human race first before we go intergalactic.

Thankfully, a quick search on the site provides some answers:

For some, there can be other benefits. Though this kind of translation might seem frivolous, the work of producing such a translation can have devotional value even if the translation is never used. The effort of reading the scriptures and considering their meaning for a translation cannot fail to benefit the translator by helping him or her develop a deeper understanding of the text.

Interesting, I’ll stop there.

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