You down with your JOB? (you know me!)

What a whirl wind these last few months have been! I know that I haven’t had time to write but wow. As most of you may know by now the business that I’ve worked for 20+ years went though an ownership change in June. But unlike most company takeovers they didn’t come in and do a complete purge, all of us managers and crew (with exception of a couple of uncovered “shady” people that were brought to the surface because they’d worked for this company prior to working for us). Anyway, the main thing was that our management team remained intact, that is until they started leaving one by one. By the time the stampede was over only 2 of us veterans remained, myself and my supervisor who was now the “acting” store manager a role that he hadn’t had for at least 10 years. (We have recently gotten a new store manger).  Needless to say this wasn’t a fun time for either of us, along with the normal daily routines of dealing with the rudeness of impatient customers, trying to train rookie managers (whom 2 of them also quit)  and hiring and training new crew members, we were also trying to adjust to the changes  and doing things the way that the new company required.  Needless to say both of us found ourselves working many more hours than we were accustomed to. Oh yeah believe me there are days when I asked myself why?  I’d dedicated plenty of good years to the previous owner and I knew that he appreciated it and I knew it. But what do I have to prove to the new owner? what does he know about me? Does he know about all of the years that I’ve dedicated? Does he know about me working 20 years without missing a sick day? (until I was forced to miss days because of “you all know why”). Does he know about me coming to work after that time while going through chemo, (some days wearing a portable chemo pack) Does he know about me walking to work because the snow wouldn’t allow me to drive my vehicle out? Does he know about the events that I’ve missed with my family throughout the years because the job required me to be there? Does he know about my three sons that have worked with me because (not because they couldn’t have went to work somewhere else) but because I’m their “pops”. And does he know about the reason that I’ve decided to stay? Does he know his customers? No he doesn’t. Then he don’t know why I’ve decided to stay, yeah I decided to stay because of the customers,  just like I was dedicated to the former owner I’m dedicated to “my” customers. I think that you deserve to come to “your” McDonald’s and to see at least 1 familiar face. I’m not stupid enough to think that this business would sic to exist without my presence but I’m smart enough to realize that I would be missed. Not only would I be missed by the faithful customers that I enjoy seeing and they enjoy seeing me, but I would be missed as an employee one that comes to work everyday, one that enjoys his job, one that cares about his job, one that cares not only for the customers but also about his co-workers and one that is dedicated to the new owner. But of course he doesn’t know that because he doesn’t know me.

Tagline :But after saying all of that I would  like to say that I sincerely thank the new owner for not coming in and completely “cleaning” house as so many business have been known to do. The new organization has blended in well here in our small community  there has been a few much needed changes made, but overall it’s been business as usual. So customers you may see a few new faces within your McDonald’s but thanks to God and to you it’s business as usual.

Tearing down the wall

Have you ever woke up and had to think about which direction  your life was headed in? It seems one day you’re right on track headed where you wanna go and cruising just biding your time until you’ve arrived where you wanna be. But suddenly out of nowhere a wall appears and you’re forced to put on the breaks and make a decision, you can either take a detour or stay the course which would require either climbing the wall or tearing it down. So before you make this decision you consult with those traveling with you. Now some will want to take the easy way and simply opt for the detour and some will want to just turn around and go back to the past that they’ve spent so many years escaping ( for most going back is not an option). Some will agree that staying the course although will not be easy is the only way to go and they agree to stand shoulder to shoulder and help you tear down that wall. But as the rigorous task gets more demanding your faithful few numbers starts to shrink faster than a wicked witch that has had water thrown on her, and you notice that your dedicated team has now been depleted to just an team of two. Okay so maybe I’m being a little over- dramatic with the interpretation of the details of these event but I’m a writer, so over-dramatic is what I do best. So in simple terms about two months ago my co-mangers and myself found ourselves faced with the fact that we were “being sold” well not us personally but the business which many of us had devoted many years of our working lives a few of us  over 20 years. We were not only a team but we were a ‘work family’ we all have been there though many events in our lives marriages, children being born, children graduating, even some of us becoming grandparents. yeah I guess you can say that we were an extended “work family”. But now that family has been torn apart first Carl Hunnticutt the head of the family then one by one members of the family for various reasons departed. (Truth is none of them seem to want to work for anyone else). But the decision for myself have been a hard decision at first my decision to stay was based on standing shoulder to shoulder with my “work family” but like I mentioned most of them have gone there separate ways. Now the  decision to stay is because of my supervisor Ron Greene this is a tuff time for him as well and I intend to stick by him as well as “my customers”. I love my job and I love my customers (some of them can try my patients sometimes) but overall I feel like God put me in this place for a reason and I feel like when he wants me to leave then it won’t be a new owner that forces me to leave but it will be because God needs me somewhere else and he has another job and other people that he needs me to touch. So for now I’m going to be the familiar face that you still see even though I’m missing members of my “work family”  (Carl Melissa Marlene, and Kashina)  You’ll always be a part of “our McDonalds” and you guys will always have a special place in my heart and I’m still working on that wall.

If it’s good e’nuff for the ‘King’

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If you’d go to the trophy case at Central Davidson high school, I’m sure that you’ll find a plaque with my name on it. Well maybe it won’t be in the sports case but I’m sure that you’ll find it somewhere in a case or maybe on the wall somewhere even.  Oh yeah I’m sure it’s there somewhere, cause you see I was voted ‘Biggest Bookworm’ in the class of ’78 along with a female counterpart whom I’ll decline to name here due to causing her any further unleashed fame (or shame). Of course this is a title that I’m proud of as a matter of fact I can almost bet that I retired as the only male at Central to ever win that covenant award. “Well Ron what must one to do to win such a prestigious award?” I’m sure that many of you are wondering, glad you asked okay I’ll tell you. During my 4 short years in high school you would never see me without a book. I’m not talking about your  many state mandatory text books that we were forced to be weighted down with back then (and today’s students want to complain about the 2 or 3 books and their “mobil devices” that they’re burdened down with nowadays). If I think hard enough I can remember my first book . My teacher said that books could take me anywhere. (yeah for you movie buffs I borrowed this line from Forrest Gump but remember it was a novel first by Winston Groom). Ever since the day that I cracked the pages of my first ‘Dick and Jane’ I was hooked. next came Dr. Suess thus my love for poetry was born. Then came the Bernstein Bears series by Stan and his wife Jan Bernstein. My childhood was filled with many spare hours reading, while the other kids were out ‘rippin’ and runnin’ I could be found sitting in the house reading and the trend continued into my teen years. I can’t remember all of the books that I’ve read but I can recall a “few” of my favorite please bear with me as I list them here. ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ by Madeleine L’Engle ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’ by a pastor named David Wilkerson, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess, ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding. Even though I had to read this one for an English Lit class the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell has to be on my favorite list also. Along the same lines as ‘1984’ I have to list ‘Animal Farm’ also by George Orwell ‘The Youngest Hero’ by Jerry B. Jenkins. Even though this is not a book (it should be) because it is listed as the longest poem in history I’ll have to add it to my favorite list ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. I can’t list my favorite books without mentioning my favorite author Steven King I’ve read more books by this author in my lifetime than by any other author, irony as I was pondering about what words of wisdom to share with my faithful few followers I was reading a book titled ‘Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ a book of short stories by (you guessed it) Steven King (what gave it away? The title). In this book there is a story titled ‘Ur’ in which the synopsis is new technology versus old, mainly the Kindle replacing the good old physical copy. but what makes this so ‘bazaar’ is that I have recently purchased a Kindle myself and have had this exact same thought, which is better the convenience of carrying this small electronic device and being able to simply download any book that you want or old school lugging an actual book and having to painstakingly having to go to the library or driving the many miles to a Barns and Nobles to purchase the latest Steven King novel ( or whomever your favorite author may be). Well even though I’ll always be a fan of the actual physical copy I’ve gotta admit that the Kindle does have it’s advantages which are, you can read while eating or drinking your morning coffee and eating chocolate without worrying about soiling the pages. Cheaper to purchase that latest novel (of course you can wait about a year then you’ll find it at your local Ollies at a low-low discount price). Which I’d recommend if you’re a collector of hard copies. Speaking of collecting hard copies my wife and I spent our 33 anniversary weekend  in Ashville so that we could tour the Biltmore estates. Of all of the grand sights in that entire vast mansion I was most impressed with the library and the book collection made me think, if I’d kept ever book that I’d read how big would my collection be now? But I’ve given many books away because I’m a firm believer that a good book should be shared. As I conclude here I know that along with me there are lots of King fans, so I can’t help but to list a few of MY top 10 by him, #1’The Stand’ #2 ‘It’ #3 ‘Under the Dome’ #4 ‘Cujo” #5 ‘Pet Sematary’ (that’s his spelling) #6 ‘Misery’ #7 ‘The Talisman’ (co-written with Peter Straub) #8 ‘The Dark Half’ #9 ’11/22/63′ (and because it was his first novel that he wrote after his rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol) #10 ‘Needful Things’. So okay with this being written, the debate still remains Kindle book or physical book well throughout the years I’ve had many mistress (with my wife’s knowledge) that has kept me up late many nights, but now there’s one that I can now take to bed, my Kindle, ( it has a light on it). And as always thanks for reading,  gonna go I’ve got a date. Goodnight.

 

Thunder Rolls

As I sit here beginning to write this, I’m looking out the door as the rain falls and listening to Garth Brooks. One of my favorite songs ‘Thunder Rolls’ is playing, but the funny thing is that ‘Papa Loved Mama’ played right after that. Well maybe I shouldn’t use the word funny here because both songs deal with extra martial affairs and the length that people will go to when love goes wrong. Both songs end up with the death of the cheating spouse. Now I never intended to be writing about affairs, murdering spouses, or Garth Brooks. But after two stories in the news about men killing people over marriages or love gone bad it has left me shaking my head. The two stories that I’m referring to are the man that went to the school where his estranged wife worked and shot her and two kids (which one died) that just happened to be collateral damage, (which means that they just happened to be in his way) after which he killed himself. The other story is the duped “The Facebook Killer” about the man that shot and killed a total stranger because of the fact that his girlfriend had left him. Murder suicide(ders) have always baffled me. I know that we’ll never truly know what these people be thinking when they commit hideous crimes like these unless like the “Facebook Killer” they leave posts or notes letters, or live confessions before they end their own lives. But yet even this don’t give us the true insight of their brains yes they wanna die but wanna get satisfaction in taking the life or lives of others. You’re going to die ‘dumbie’! How long are you going to relish in the joy of getting revenge? Are you going to be rejoicing in Hell? I’m kind of doubting that. I know that this blog won’t get me any popularity votes but I’m not writing this for any, I’m writing this because it has always been a sore spot for me and every time that I hear stories like these it reopens the wound especially when there are children involved.  Yeah the thunder rolls, ” another love grows cold, on a sleepless night. As the storm goes on, out of control. Deep in her/his heart the thunder rolls”.

(Poem) Unstoppable

So many times we’re put though the test,

and there are days when we just wanna stop and

take a rest.

So you ask God, could you please give me a break,

and while you’re at it my soul to take.

But that’s not he way that my God works,

he don’t answer prayers of the unwise or even jerks.

Now please don’t take this as an offense,

and tell this man that he’s not making much sense.

 

Please don’t tell him he knows not what he say,

as you can see he’s standing here with you today.

‘Cause this man has been up and he’s been low,

but he reached out in faith, now he’s unstoppable.

Now some men they hate and some men they curse,

guess they don’t know that bad gets worse.

When they don’t know which way to go,

Well when you don’t know, then you don’t know.

 

But when they find the true answer and they can see the

light,

and then they come out of the darkness when they’re so used

to walking in the night.

And once they can see and know which way to go,

they’ll realize to that they’ve become unstoppable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unstoppable.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve had so many things on my heart that I’ve wanted to express myself about. I’ve tried hard not to get caught up in the political fiscal, oh yeah I’ve got my options about the new ‘POTUS’ but that’s not my concern because he’s not in charge of my world anyway. Also I had my moment when my favorite team got beat in their first game of the playoffs (again) but hey, football is just a game and I don’t get paid rather they win or lose and no matter what they’ll always be my team. I know that a lot of you didn’t get a chance to read my last column that I wrote for the Dispatch. Since they’ve changed editors and online format they’ve made it impossible to repost articles. I didn’t get much feedback about that article I think maybe because it was a little ‘light hearted’ and not so serious I feel as if people have gotten used to me writing about me and my ‘life story’. But I’ve done that I’ve told all there is to tell, where I was where I’ve been and where I am what more is there to tell. Oh I guess people wanna know where I’m going. Well you know that’s a good question and that’s what I’ve been giving so much thought about these last few weeks. Hey don’t get too excited now, I’m not going to reveal my 3-5 year life plan here. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in my short time here, not wealth or material things but doing what I want do in life, reaching out to people hopefully making a difference in someones lives. Every day I thank  God for putting me in the place that I am in my life, please don’t get me wrong every day is not a bed of roses but every day I have the opportunity to let someone see Christ in me. Of course I’ve been asking myself lately is it enough? Have I done enough with what God has given me? Some days I wonder I feel as if I could have done more I could have been nicer I could have  been more considerate. But then again I realize that no matter what, I’m still human I still work with the public, I’m not going to get it right all the time I’m not perfect and you’ll never hear me claim to be. I know that I’m going to miss it sometimes, my “worldly man” is going to expose himself and then all I can do is repent and ask for forgiveness. I’ve been inspired by a few people lately  former President Obama ( do I need to give a reason?) my pastor JB Whitfield ( if you every wanna be inspired listen to this man speak sometimes, I could write a whole session on just his quotes). Also a fellow column writer Kassie Newman read her blogs sometimes (Kassie Nette’s Korner at wordpress.com) she tells it” like it tis”! My brother Don has also inspired me, he is a recovering addict that had to leave his surrounding to get the help that he desperately needed so he’s now residing in Fort Lauderdale Fl. Now believe me he’s not living the glam life there like I said he’s a recovering addict, leaving your family and friends just to get the help you need is hard, but sometimes so necessary to save your life and he’s handled it well. Since he’s went though this program I’ve seen a side of him that I’ve never witnessed before his positive messages in his daily  fb posts are very inspiration. Another person that has inspired me is my son Dallas, he recently revealed his 3-5 year with his mom and I and it’s to be a lead Pastor at a church (not here in NC either). Wow who’d ever thunk it our son leading people to Christ. There’s one more person that I’ve gotta mention before I end this, my wife she has been an inspiration throughout this whole 2 year battle with ( the “c” word). Though all of the physical and emotional roller coasters she still loves me. Ok ok, I know that this has been long and I’ve jumped off tracked several times ( but if you’re a faithful follower of mine then you know that’s the norm for me right?). Now I’m not going to reveal a 3-5 year plan here (which should include retiring from my job) but with the hospital bills that I’ve acquired in these last two years God has got to make a way for that, and I know that he will. My immediate plans tho will be to start on the book that I have put off for so long. I feel like the time is finally right for it. I’m still not sure what format that it will take at this time, I had thought that my 2 year battle would be where I wanted to go ( I even got the title when I logged onto K-Love this morning the song Unstoppable was playing). I’ve also  thought about telling other peoples story by interviewing those that I feel has something to say if only someone would listen. Well it’s a work in progress remember the Devil may have thought that he had me (again) and that I was down for the count, but thanks to Gods grace and mercy I’m UNSTOPPABLE! And once again thanks for reading. “I love you and may God bless”.

Don’t call CNN, (not yet anyway)

Now I realize that this may not be a major announcement, ground breaking news, reason to contact CNN, or the Dispatch. Heck this may not even be Facebook worthy news. But it is my blog so i’m going to call it “blog worthy” at least. When I went for chemo last week I stepped on the scale and the readout was 140. And today when I went to have my blood work done it read 141! Darn right i’m excited cause those that have known me most of my life know that i’very never weighted 141 lbs in my life. And to make this more surreal is the fact that during my chemo treatments over a year ago,  my weight had declined to 122 lbs. So now at 141 it shows me who is in control. This is a major accomplishment as far as i’my concerned, and soon I may have to give up eating ice cream in bed. But for right now I’m counting every lb. As a blessing. Thanks all for walking this walk and fighting this battle with me. 🙂

God ain’t finished with me yet

One day last month while sitting outside during my recovery from my second major surgery to remove cancer from my body for the 2nd time in least than a years time. I’m just sitting there being thankful for being able to enjoy such a beautiful day when I was suddenly hit with what can only be considered ‘survival remorse’. Knowing that there are so many people that are not going to recovery from cancer. As a matter of fact just a few months earlier I had attended the service of a friend younger than me and started out with the same type of cancer as I had (colon) which just like mine moved to his liver, but with a totally different outcome. Thinking about this led me to thinking about something else. Is it fair for me to use that quiche “God isn’t finished with me yet”. I’m going to tell you about several incidents that’s happened in my life that a little to the left or a little to the right and I wouldn’t be writing this now. The first incident that I can recall actually happened before I was old enough to attend school. It involved a straight razor that was on a dresser and for some reason I had the urge to pick up. I don’t remember anything after that but to this day I have a scar on my right hand below the thumb as proof. Thing is how does one cut themselves on the right hand from picking up a razor with their right hand? The next incident that happened didn’t affect me directly but it’s an amazing story, and like I said (a little to the left, a little to the right). One of my twin brother and I were out playing in an open field I guess we were somewhere around 6 years old, when the neighbors Bulldog got loose we heard him coming before he got there so we took off running to the house, the house was quite a ways  but we could hear someone on the porch encouraging us to run ( of course we needed no encouraging). My brother fell and that massive Bulldog was upon him, meanwhile I had made it to a piece of lawn furniture. There was snarling growling gashing of teeth from that animal and screaming  from my brother like I’d never heard. There was still someone on the porch encouraging me to run, but ever time I’d get down and start for the house the dog would leave my brother and head towards me, and every time my brother would make an attempt to get up and run the dog would reverse and renew it’s vicious attack. This went on for a few minutes before the neighbors arrived and pulled their dog off.  Now this was a sight that none of us wanted to witness, my brother chewed up from this seemly rabid dog. but to every ones amazement my brother didn’t have a scratch on him. The next incident happened when I was somewhere around 7 years old, I had only been with my new foster family in Tyro only a few weeks when I was asked to go up to the neighbors to borrow a cup of sugar. As I was crossing the lawn, a dog came running and barking from the back of the house. Now as you probably can guess a barking dog running in my direction had a traumatic effect on me but instead of being frozen in fear I burst into the front door of the house, without knocking, without ringing and without announcing who I was. No sooner had I made my unannounced entry when out of the kitchen area appeared a man with a double barrel shotgun aimed right at me. If not for the grace of God that day. The next incident occurred a year or so later, when we as a family returned from doing errands to find our house completely burned to the ground the fireman were still there and the pile was still smoldering. The fireman said that the wooden structure went up like a tinderbox, he said thankfully no one was home because likely no one would have gotten out. Normally us younger ones would have been left in charge of the older ones. There were three incidents that happened while I was in high school, but since I’m limited on space here I’ll omit two of them (sorry). Two of these incidents happened during our tradition yearly senior beach trip, this is the second one. After waking the morning after I decided that I would give in to peer pressure and drink for the first time ( ah after all they were only daiquiris). I walked outside and noticed that the apartment 2 down from us was burned out and surrounded by crime tape, I went back inside and asked one of the guys what had happened he said “oh there was a big fire last night, they evacuated the whole complex”. I said “and y’all didn’t wake me!?” he said “you  were asleep we couldn’t wake you” I said “I weight a hundred pounds! you mean y’all couldn’t have carried me out?” Friends? I wonder. Now the last incident that I’m going to tell you about happened less than 10 years ago. It was a dark and stormy night, (no seriously it was) and thanks to the storm there were no streetlights and the rain made it a lot darker than normal. While driving on a street here in town that I’d driven on many times before but thanks to these abnormal conditions plus tree limbs partially covering it over, I ran though a stop sign.  I hit a car and spun it around as it spun around it hit me and I begin to spin around, I don’t know how long we spun around but while spinning I saw a flash and what I thought was fire. All I could hear were the kids in the back screaming, all I could do was pray “God don’t let us flip over, God don’t let us flip over”. When we finally stopped spinning the first thing I heard was my wife saying “get the kids out of here!” Just like me she thought that there was a fire, ( what we actually saw was the flash and smoke from the air bags going off). When we all finally got out with no one hurt whatsoever, our van had stopped right before it broadsided a power pole.  I noticed that there was a power wire lying a few feet from where we had stopped, according to the policeman it was a good thing that the storm had knocked the power out it seems that we had hit the guide wire to the pole which in turn knocked down the power line. yes sir Mister Policeman it sure was a good thing that that storm knocked out the power that night, yes sir it sure was.

 

 

Who’re you? (Chemo head)

Well well well, I’ve made it back (well someone did anyway). This title summarizes the exact way that I felt the Wed. Night that I was wheeled from the recovery room into my hospital room which was to be my new residence for the next 3 1/2 days. Who’re you? I had to ask the person that had invaded my body somehow during that 4 1/2 hour surgery. Because the person that was there when they administered  the ‘sleepy medicine’ was pain free, able  to walk 3 miles ( at a reasonable clip even) stress free, full of faith, anger free, loved everyone, had a hardy appetite  But the person that woke up was full of pain, angry, not able to walk 3 feet ( less known 3 miles) and didn’t even wanna look at food (especially hospital food). I was planning on doing whatever it took to make my stay there as short as possible. What really baffled me was why was I angry? Because of the pain I’m sure. I kept asking myself “was this surgery really necessary”? It was just a couple of “spots” on my liver 2 1/2 centimeters to be exact ( the doctors said so). So why was it to my surprise when I found out that they had to remove 15 percent of my liver? (Did I agree to a donation before I went under?) Now trust me I’m in no way saying anything against the fine doctors that got me though this procedure, (it’s the pain meds talking). Ok so now that the pain has subsided almost to nothing and I’ll soon be pain meds free, I’m planing on going to bed one night and wakening up the next morning  the same person I was before I was injected in the hospital with the ‘sleepy medicine’.

Day 16 (Chemo head)

Well well well, the day has nearly arrived tomorrow at 9:30 am I will check in at Baptist hospital for my scheduled surgery. Today was another great day, got a chance to talk with a couple of dear friends and a chance to catch up with a couple of old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. But the best part of the day was the support of the friends that came out on such a hot evening to walk the 3 miles with me and Jean. I realize that no matter what I’m truly blessed with true friends that are walking this walk with me daily. Thank you thank you thank you. I’m really glad that I got the chance to hug and to thank each one of you personally. So they told me that I couldn’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight so I’ve gotta cut this short, (got a Reece’s Sonic blast). Don’t forget I need your prayers, starting a 9:30 am (Surgery expected to last around 4 hours). But no worries  🙂 “I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me”