Many of you have sent me emails and called me to ask how you can leave a comment on my site. I guess I haven’t explained it right because I haven’t seen a comment for some time. I’d love to hear what you have to say, good or bad. I don’t want to continue to write if no one is interested in what I’m saying. If you leave a comment I’ll know where I stand and others will be able to read your comments and voice their opinion as well. I only ask that you keep any discussions at an adult level with no name calling , cussing or any of those other high school antics. Everyone, including you, is entitled to their opinion and like it  or not this is America and you should respect an individuals right to free speech.

I have the option of disapproving comments and keeping them off of my site. However, if I deem a comment unsuitable for my blog, I will clean it up and let you all know what has been said.

So, to leave a comment you simply look to the right of the title of my post. There you will see what looks like a small piece of paper with a stick pin holding it. On the piece of paper there will be a number indicating how many comments have been left for that post. It will start at “0″ and go up as comments are added.

If you are getting notifications of new posts via email, you cannot leave a comment until you go to my site at www.TellMeAboutThat.com.  If you’d like to be notified of new posts by email, you have to sign up for notifications on the right side of my blog page under “Subscribe to my Blog”. You may have to scroll down to see it.

You can also go back and comment of previous postings by looking under “Post Categories”, also on the right. If you click on a category you will see all of the previous posts pertaining to that subject. You can then select the one(s) you want to read and then post a comment if you desire.

So, I’m waiting to hear from you. Tell me what you like or don’t like or give me ideas about what you would like to see. Just remember there is only one of me and I can’t keep everybody happy.

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of working with a family who didn’t even see the disabilities, but were more interested in the skills our clients possessed. I met Tyrone Wilson shortly after he and his family opened a garage out on Peach Orchard Drive in Sumter. It’s right behind the base and you can’t miss the bright yellow building. I was out on one of my drives knocking on the doors of local businesses when I noticed that a formerly closed garage was up and running.

I made an appointment for the following week and presented our programs to Tyrone. After I was finished he told me he needed a mechanic as soon as I could get him one. That was in early January. So far, we have provided two mechanics and two car detailers for his operation at Wilson’s Auto Repair and Car-Wash.

Between providing the first and second mechanic I had the opportunity to meet Dionne (Dee) Wilson, Tyrone’s wife. Together they are opening a high end coffee shop out on US 378, called Moca Soul Café. Dee told me that they were interested in our agency helping them to find a Barista to help out in the café. We provided three candidates and the Wilson’s selected one ,who will start on March 1, 2010. Oh!! I almost forgot, Dee also does hair. You can get information on her skills and contact information  at www.hairstylist4hire.webs.com or click the link to the right.

So altogether, they have given employment opportunities to five (5) clients and not once did they ask about the clients particular disability.  Additionally, by using our clients they have the opportunity to get tax credits for hiring the disabled and we help them to pay the wages for a specified trial period. This gives them the chance to get to know our clients and their abilities before committing to hiring them permanently.

We need more people like this. They chose not to judge our clients but instead decided to give them a chance, where others wouldn’t.  With 14% of South Carolinians being disabled and more than 1,000 of them on our caseloads in Sumter and Camden, we need a lot more employers to look beyond the disability and see the person beneath. Are you judging people with disabilities because of what you have heard or how they look? If you are, then knock it off and give them a chance!!

We watched the news to see the all those poor folks shoveling their walks, only to get a fresh layer the next night. I felt for the people who would no sooner finish shoveling and the snowplow would come by and cover the sidewalk yet again. 

I’ve had my share of shoveling snow, both as a kid growing up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and again while stationed in Minot, North Dakota. So I know the frustration of clearing the sidewalk only to have it covered again by the plows or new snow. 

Unlike most of my family I don’t have to put up with that anymore. I’m in Sumter, South Carolina and we normally get snow about once every three years or so. However, due to Global Warming we had snow two years in a row. Wait!! That’s the opposite of Global Warming isn’t it. Anyway, I don’t even own a snow shovel. When it snows here we only get an inch or two and it generally melts the same day or at the next day, at the latest.

When it snows here it’s a lot different than in places like Philly and New York.  Southerners have no idea how to handle snow and they tend to go into panic mode. Earlier this year the weather people said we might get some snow one night and, without a flake falling, twenty schools announced they would be closed the following day. Well, it didn’t snow.

We got our share of the latest storm on Friday, the 12th of February. When the first flakes started falling almost the entire population of Sumter headed to Walmart to stock up in case we were snowed in for a week. I was working my second job at Sears. When I arrived, a group of employees were standing at the door. They told me they were waiting for a call from the district manager telling them to close the store and go home. The snow hadn’t even started to stick yet. Later the manager came around and started telling people, who lived more than five miles away, to go home. He asked me how far I lived and I told him not to worry about me because I’m a Yankee and snow doesn’t scare me. Thirty minutes later they closed the mall and the store (2 hours early) and I headed home. By the next morning we had a grand total of three inches of snow and nothing was moving.

I was supposed to take my truck in for new tires but they called and rescheduled me for another day. I couldn’t get my hair cut until later that afternoon because Cost Cutters opened late. They didn’t even deliver the mail that day.

Every time it snows or threatens to snow down here I laugh at the antics that take place. I’m sure Walmart and other grocers love it. They get to sell all the stuff they hadn’t been able to get rid of for the last couple of months. The state saves money because they shut down all the schools and state government buildings. The kids get a day off from school and everyone gets a day off work.

This time there was snow on the ground for about three days, but I didn’t see anyone shoveling snow at all. The sidewalks and streets were clear by about noon time on Saturday and people went about their business knowing that the pantry was full.

If you get tired of the snow just move south. You’ll be able to relax nd enjoy the weather and have the opportunity for a good laugh every two or three years, when it does snow.

If all goes well, they will actually give you a couple of leads and you can begin your search for that new career.  What usually happens, is you will apply to the selected companies along with multitude of other clients they sent there before you.  You will then go home and begin your own job search using the local paper and the internet. 

When and if you find a job, it will be due to your own efforts and not those of the Employment Security Commission or as I prefer to call it ” The Unemployment Office”.  The reason I prefer unemployment office is that as long as you are depending on them to help you find work, you will remain unemployed.

After the initial visit you will be told how to call in each week to get your weekly check. Beyond that you will receive a monthly notice to report to the unemployment office and update your file. This generally takes about 45 minutes to an hour. It takes two minutes for the counselor to verify that your information is current. The rest of the time is spent waiting to be called.

This is how the system works. They do not help you find work, they simply issue your weekly benefit check and verify your contact information once a month. This is their job and they get paid pretty well, not to mention all the state benefits and holidays they get.

I know all this from my own experience and unfortunately, both of my sons are now going through it. They are supposed to help you with retraining as well as finding work but the system is so screwed up, I’m not sure anyone really understands what  to do. After months of being out of work Tommy and Joey, both asked about retraining opportunities. It seems that what they do is provide additional training in the career you currently CAN’T find work in. Let me clarify, Tommy was laid off from a customer service position in the insurance industry. He had been looking for months for a similar or better opportunity. When he couldn’t find one he asked the unemployment office about retraining. They said they would help him with classes in customer service. WHAT?

Anyway, that’s the way it works. You have to follow the rules and make the monthly appointments of they cut off your check. But, if you really want to find a job you have to work at it on your own. Although the local paper and the Internet will be key to your search, letting everyone know you are looking can come in handy as well.

So good luck and hang in there. Remember, finding work can be a full time job in itself.

That puts Jaden’s mother in control. Now, Jaden’s mother and Joey were never married, so this is strictly a custody dispute rather than part of a divorce. The reasonable thing to do, would be to come up with an agreement they both could live with and get it blessed by the courts. In fact, Joey has written just such an agreement but can’t get Jaden’s mother to sign it. The agreement he came up with is based entirely on the almost complete agreement they had before they were both forced to release their lawyers, due to an inability to pay.

Recently, Jaden’s mother attempted to file a case to enforce child support with the Department of Social Services. When the hearing came up she chose not to appear. Since Joey had documented proof that he had been paying child support, even before Jaden was born,  and that he was paying the proper amount, the case was dismissed. Joey was also able to prove that he had paid for Jaden’s mother to take classes to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in order for her to better provide for Jaden and herself. Unfortunately, she is extremely lazy and only worked for a couple of months. She also didn’t like the fact that she had to touch sick people. That’s not surprising though, since we’ve know her, she has had several jobs, none of which lasted more than a couple of weeks.

The biggest problem I have with all this is the obvious lack of interest she takes in her son’s feelings. Jaden loves his daddy very much and loves to spend time with him. However, since his mother is in control here, she allows Jaden to visit his father only when it’s convenient for her. Long periods of time go by when Joey can’t speak to his son because her phone is shut off or she just won’t return the calls. Often, she will send text messages back and forth cussing at Joey and calling him names instead of just letting Jaden talk to his Dad. When Joey does see Jaden, he often comes down dirty and not properly dressed for the current weather.  

Joey has tried to work out custody through DSS, but they say that they don’t get involved with that. He has also contacted child advocacy groups who tell him that unless the child is in danger, there is nothing they can do. We don’t really know the situation, since we don’t even know where they are living. I do know that Jaden is left with other relatives and friends a lot. I know that she doesn’t give him vitamins. I know that she gives him Mountain Dew rather than orange juice. We have also heard that she has taken Jaden with her to buy pot and we know she loves pain killers.  She’ just not right in the head. Need proof? Consider this: about four months ago she took Jaden out of pre-school, supposedly because they were moving to a different district. She never informed the school, who thought Jaden simply stopped coming. Two weeks ago, Joey gets a call from the school saying that Jaden’s mother had dropped him outside and left him and wanted to know if Joey knew anything about it. Jaden’s mother left Jaden outside the school by himself after not attending for four months. What kind of idiot leaves their child on the street at a school he hasn’t been to in four months? At the very least she should have taken him inside and explained what was going on. Fortunately, Jaden’s former teacher noticed him and took him inside while they contacted his mother to come and get him.

As you can probably tell, I’m pretty angry about what my son and grandson are going through. I get really upset when I try to image the thoughts going through Jadens’s head as he stood on the sidewalk in front of the school. I remember a couple of weeks ago, after Joey had been trying for more than a week to speak to Jaden, he was finally able to get the mothers boyfriend to let him talk to Jaden. Jaden’s first words to his daddy were, “Where have you been Daddy?”. This really hurt Joey and again I can only imagine what was going through Jaden’s mind.

Well, Joey keeps trying and the drama continues. Maybe soon he’ll be able to get back to work and then get the lawyer back on track. In the meantime, if you know of any resources that might help, please let me know.

Something is better than nothing and at least I feel like I’m getting a little gift around this time each year. Fortunately we will be able to take care of a couple of things that we have been putting off for awhile. If you are like me, the economy has taken a bite out of your resources. Pay cuts and lack of cost of living raises have hit hard. The price of everything we need continues to go up and services become more expensive with less and less benefit.  Maybe I’ll look for a third job so I can go out to eat once in awhile or go to a movie.

I’m sure you are in the same boat and I feel for you. However, if you do manage to get a small (or large) refund, make sure you take care of your needs before your wants. One thing you NEED to do is start preparing for continued economic struggles. So part paying yourself a little each week in the form of savings and then take care of the necessities.

Once you have all that taken care of go to the links on the right of this post and check out some of my shopping sites. There are all kinds of electronics, furniture, carpets, health items and others that you may find useful.  If you don’t see what you want immediately, use the Google search bar at the top right of the page to look for other sources.

OK!! Since I have some time before the refund is in the bank, I’m going to start organizing my folders and files for next years income taxes. Good luck with your taxes this year, for most of us there aren’t many changes. I checked the top ten software products including Turbo Tax, H&R Block, TaxSlayer and narrowed it down to TaxCut just like last year. It was based on ease of use, information provided, import of last years information and of course price. There the research is done for you. Good Luck!!

I think it’s important that we understand, the best way to get people back to work, is to ensure that jobs stop leaving the U.S.  In my profession as a Business Development Specialist, I travel around the state talking to various companies. Many of these organizations have sent work overseas to China or Indonesia. Some of it is for initial manufacturing and some for further processing of goods. One thing that I hear often, is that the quality sucks and improvements must be made once the goods return here. Some companies have set up entire processing areas just to fix the problems coming back.

What I don’t understand is, why they continue to send the work out, knowing what to expect on the return. I think that the low cost of manufacturing overseas is just part of the problem. When we export goods to other countries, we pay taxes and tariffs that drive up the price of the finished product to be sold overseas. That makes our goods much less competitive. When other countries import goods to the U.S.,we make it easy for them by not charging those same taxes and tariffs and therefore Chinese goods have a better price point then American made products.

Having trade relations with numerous countries may be good when considering a diversity of products available to our consumers, but do we really need to have junk flooding the market, which, in many cases is unsafe or unhealthy for the consumer.

What we need to do is make laws that encourage American products to be designed and produced right here in the U.S. Give businesses reasonable tax breaks and incentives to keep jobs at home. Stop overtaxing companies that do well and bring jobs home to the U.S. Make it as attractive as possible to do business here and maybe other countries will start producing here in the U.S., in order to ease distribution and get true quality products.

All I’ve heard lately is that we need to put more money into infrastructure like bridges, buildings and now rail systems. Well from what I’ve seen, the people who get theses contracts, at least here in South Carolina, are using the same people they already had on the employment roles and if they don’t have enough they sub-contract. In reality, there are no new jobs, just some folks getting more hours on the jobs they already had.

We need American to get back to making things, before we become a strictly service nation, where we do nothing but repair products from overseas.

I hear on TV that we are currently in recovery and the recession is almost over. I hear that the reason the price of gas has gone up recently (again) is in anticipation of improvements in the economy. Shouldn’t we wait until things actually improve before raising the price of stuff. I also hear, just about everyday, discussion of one new tax or another and it’s driving me nuts.

What happened to “for the people, by the people”? I haven’t been able to find a single American who actually wants to have their taxes raised. The reason the government has to raise taxes is to pay for all the outlandish spending they are doing.

If they raise taxes again then they need to raise our pay so we can pay the taxes. Or better yet, go after all the people and/or companies who are using tax loopholes to get out of paying, like members of the current administration. They also need to, and I know you are tired of hearing this, cut excess government spending. We elect congressmen and senators to represent us and get things done. Why are we also paying for them to have huge staffs, multiple offices and retirement plans that even the most successful Americans don’t enjoy.

I understand the need to pay taxes in order to run the government, but there has to be limits on what they spend. If they are going to make us pay then our input should be important. With the technology we have today, every voting American should be able to see the bills coming before congress and the senate and have an opportunity to make their feelings known prior to a vote. There should not be any back door deals or votes in the middle of the night behind closed doors.

So let you voice be heard. What happens now will affect you and your family for years to come. If you don’t speak up or you don’t vote, then you also give up the right to complain.

So go to www.senate.gov and/or www.house.gov and let you representatives know how you feel, whether you agree with me or not.

Let’s start with parking in a handicap space when no one in the vehicle is handicapped. This is generally the result of borrowing a vehicles from someone who is handicapped and taking advantage of the special license plate or placard. Not only do they force the truly disabled to walk long distances, but they have also been parking in the stripped area meant for wheelchair lifts. This really bugs me when I’m out with my 84 year old mother, who is handicapped, and I can’t get a space within easy walking distance for her.

I also can’t believe how lazy people are. The other day at Walmart, my wife and I were looking for a parking spot. We noticed an elderly lady putting packages in the car and decided to wait for her to move. Immediately to the right of her vehicle was one of those cart corrals were you put your cart when you have finished with it. Well, when she finished unloading the cart, she simply pushed it up against the side of the cart corral, not inside it, but against the outside. I guess it was way to hard for her to push the cart the extra two feet.

On that same day as we walked through the parking lot on our way to the store, we saw a man, probably in his 40’s, finish with his cart. He was also parked next to a cart corral. The difference is that there was one of those islands between his space and the corral. So what did he do? He actually lifted the cart onto the island and then spent an extra 10 seconds trying to balance it so it wouldn’t roll off. The time he spent lifting and balancing could have been used to push it the 10 feet around the island and into the corral.

Maybe I could understand if it had been pouring rain and extremely cold, but it was about 70 degrees and sunny. They were just lazy and inconsiderate of the poor guy who has to round up all those carts and take them back to the store.

Then there are the people who gather in the aisles for family reunions, those who drive around with their high beams on and the ones who bump into you and don’t even say excuse me. What happened to “Do unto others”. Is that the way they want to be treated? I don’t think so.  Obviously, I could go on and on but I’m sure you have your own stories to tell. Let me hear about your experience. Go to the little piece of paper with the number in it, at the top of this posting. Click there and you can leave a comment. I’d really like to hear from you, not necessarily about this posting but anything you’d like to get off your chest.

Be safe and be courteous and have a happy and prosperous New Year!!

Most of the men, who come to buy for their significant others, seem to be heading for the fitness equipment. They are buying ellipticals and treadmills as well as workout mats and lightweight dumbbells. I wonder if it’s what their wives and girlfriends asked for or is it really a hint from the purchaser?  Men buying for men is fascinating too. They seem to know what their dad, father-in-law, brother or buddy wants or needs but they don’t want the receiver to have more than the purchaser. In a lot of cases they buy two so they can have one as well, and that way they are always ahead in the ” I have that” department.

Major purchases for male relatives, such as compressors, blowers and 206 piece tool sets, seem to be carefully planned in case they need to borrow them in the future.

The ladies depend a lot on the salesman for advice especially in the tool department.  However, I think the majority ask for something they recently saw on TV or heard their mates mention while browsing the sales fliers in the newspaper. A lot of women come in and get advice and options and then leave with the information, only to return later with a definite purchase in mind.

I like helping the members of both sexes who seem totally confused about what to get. Usually, I’ll ask what the person they are buying for does in their spare time. If they are really handy and seem to have every tool in existence, I will lead them to the newest tool on the market which at this time is the automatic, wireless nailer, the new Craftsmen muti-tool or the Ready Wrench, which is really 16 sockets on one tool.

One thing I’ve noticed, as it gets closer to Christmas, is that we are selling more and more gifts cards, but only women seem to buy them. Some seem to be afraid of buying a tool  that the giftee already has or doesn’t want, while others think you can’t go wrong with a gift card. In some cases they simply waited too long and the item they really wanted is no longer available, so they get a gift card instead.

Although I think gift cards are a great idea, I don’t like the ones that limit you to a certain store. If you are going to give a gift card make sure it’s of the Visa or Mastercard variety that lets you use it anywhere. On the other hand, you can always give cash.

If you want to buy me something, just get a tool. I don’t care what kind of tool, even if there is only a small chance I’ll ever use it. At least if I do need it, I’ll have it. It doesn’t matter that I already have a particular tool, you can always use a second one.

Well time to go. I have to finish my Christmas shopping for my wife. It’s easy for me to shop for my wife. I just listen to all the hints she drops throughout the year and then wait until a couple of days before the event, such as birthday, anniversary or Christmas, and then go and get it. I wait until a couple of days before just in case she changes her mind and suddenly wants something she just saw on TV or the Internet.

Please don’t forget, the real reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus and not just to give and receive gifts. Well, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year