The Joys of Being In Charge

"Bye, Mom, I'm going in." #1 Son breezed past me in his uniform to grab a banana, a glass of milk, and some bags of cheese from the refrigerator marked, "Do not use, these are for my store."

Don't you usually have Mondays off?

"Yes, but we ran out of one kind of cheese last night, so i had to go get more from the other store, and they just called me yelling that the computers have reverted back to what they were a year ago and they can't clear it up, so I have to go in."

Doggone tech problems, i grumbled.

"You're telling me!" and out the door he went, heavy laden.

A few hours later he trudged back in to have dinner, and i asked if the problem was fixed.

"Sort of," he answered. "We called the tech guys, and they said it was fixed, but it wasn't, so they worked on it two more times, and then we still had to reprogram in all the prices by hand. But it's good enough until I go back in tomorrow."

He's working a good 60 hours a week, sometimes with no days off for up to 3 weeks at a time.

Ah, the joys of being in charge.

Good thing he loves it, he smiles on the way in and out. Youth can do this kind of work.

Go get 'em, Son.


Today is:

Chichibu Yomatsuri -- Chichibu shrine, Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, through tomorrow

Farmers' Day -- Ghana

Festival of the Finger Stalls -- Fairy Calendar

Gospel Day -- Marshall Islands

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

National Day -- Laos; United Arab Emirates (trad.)

National Fritters Day

Oshiroi Matsuri -- Fukuoka, Japan (festival to ask for good harvest next year)

Saba Flag Day -- Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba

Special Education Day -- US (anniversary of the first US special education law in 1975)

St. Bibiana's Day (Patron of epileptics, mentally ill people, single laywomen, torture victims; against epilepsy, hangovers, headaches, insanity, mental illness; and, appropriately considering the aforementioned list, Los Angeles, CA, US)

Walter Plinge Day -- UK


Birthdays Today:

Monica Seles, 1973
Lucy Liu, 1968
Cathy Lee Crosby, 1948
Gianni Versace, 1946
Maria Callas, 1923
Randolph Hearst, 1915
Charles Ringling, 1863
Georges Seurat, 1859


Today in History:

The University of Leipzig opens, 1409
Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what became the United States, 1763
Napoleon defeats the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz, 1805
The first Savings bank in the US opens, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, 1816
US President James Monroe declares his "Monroe Doctrine", 1823
US President James K. Polk declares it is the "Manifest Destiny" of the US to expand into the West, 1845
Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the US, in NYC, 1867
King Camp Gillette patents the safety razor, 1901
Pu Yi (Hsuan-T'ung) became China's Last Emperor at age 2, 1908
Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A, 1927
A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, 1942
Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, 1947
The Granma yacht reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution, 1956
Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates, 1971
Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state, 1988
A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932, 1990
The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive, 1999