tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post4032916775321515262..comments2023-10-19T05:40:59.162-04:00Comments on Sippican Cottage: Hostile WorkplaceSippicanCottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-78728537279865036592011-11-19T09:02:33.658-05:002011-11-19T09:02:33.658-05:00I've told you before that you are a delicious ...I've told you before that you are a delicious writer -- I admire your diction, phrasing, and intuitive sense of just the right amount of effective description. You write as if it flows from you with little effort -- is that true?<br /><br />I taught in public schools for thirty-three years and never felt the least bit frightened -- even though the news media [after Columbine] tried to convinced me that I needed to feel that way. Friends of mine worried that I didn't seem cautious enough.<br /><br />*sigh*<br /><br />My mother worked in a city hospital for years where the goings and comings of a hard element unnerved me a little bit as she seemed oblivious. She told me after she retired -- "people just want to be noticed and listened to. I am not convinced that everyone I encounter is armed with the intent to hurt."<br /><br />ETA: That photo you included, haunting in its black and white sharpness, reminds me of the gas stations that were built sixty years ago [maybe longer -- how long ago anything really is eludes me these days]. Near our mountains house, an establishment has turned one of those old brick gas stations into a restaurant, complete with exposed brick and concrete floor. The restroom opens to the outside as well as the inside, the turquoise and white tile still reminiscent of those old places -- the only thing missing was the key on a chain with a huge sign that said "WOMEN." I love old filling station -- and I know that you, as a craftsman, are thinking -- "Ugh." :)H. Gillhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16866823621648796335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-3609722089186148502011-11-17T09:44:58.563-05:002011-11-17T09:44:58.563-05:00Been there, done that...when the world was roughly...Been there, done that...when the world was roughly three to four decades younger (and I along with it), I did sub-contract building renovation work in Detroit for a guy who operated several private clubs near the edges of the inner city for some investors out of Chicago. Originally, I simply did carpentry work - but I soon branched out into installing various security features, retrofitting one old bank building in particular with similar features to what you described. Scary neighborhoods to work in - most places, I made certain to <i>always</i> be in my truck, doors locked and rolling away well before sundown.<br /><br />Maybe fifteen years after that, my wife had a job with Department of Social Services in inner-city Pontiac, MI. One day, her car being in the shop, I gave her a ride to work and picked her up after - and her building was <i>deja vu</i> all over again: Steel-faced, no-window doors front and rear, pipe-and-cement bollards in front of them, gun-slit window openings triple-glazed with three-inch armor glass, bare parking lot surrounding the whole building.<br /><br />"Hostile workplace" only <i>begins</i> to describe that sort of thing.<br /><br />The one I was married to for just under 30 years (until she died from cancer, dammit!) was a lot like that girl you described, BTW - how I got that lucky, I'm <i>still</i> not sure...<br /><br />Be well - and be glad that even if there are such places as that building, you don't have to visit them anymore, much less work there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-71759034319700643562011-11-12T05:05:26.702-05:002011-11-12T05:05:26.702-05:00I went to the Domestic Relations building to inter...I went to the Domestic Relations building to interpret for some guy behind on his child support payments. It was exactly as you described, but two stories. And you had to go through a metal detector before you even got inside. I don't think I could have worked in such a place. After an hour of haggling in something like Russian...he was from Minsk and speaking Belorussian. It's like Russian, but spoken very very fast, and nearly unintelligible. Definitely a hostile work environment.Jewelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10766356570958377494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-325206760007628802011-11-12T00:50:25.966-05:002011-11-12T00:50:25.966-05:00*sigh*
1989 up there. Not 99.
Old age is beating...*sigh*<br /><br />1989 up there. Not 99.<br /><br />Old age is beating me to a paste.TmjUtahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07479506083401061662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-44362457513935322852011-11-11T11:03:58.778-05:002011-11-11T11:03:58.778-05:00The mister is running a tug for a bridge repair cr...The mister is running a tug for a bridge repair crew in Harlem. <br /><br />Now there's a hostile workplace for you.teresanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-49757866736736510702011-11-11T10:28:22.523-05:002011-11-11T10:28:22.523-05:00It's true. You're an artist.
Two things:...It's true. You're an artist.<br /><br />Two things: I supervised a capital improvement project in an Oakland office building one summer. One of the code changes was the installation of ADA approved door handles instead of knobs. The same week they were installed, someone came through and broke the mechanism of every single one of them. Fortunately, the code inspector had signed off the day before, and all of the spaces were completely empty. I ran down to Home Depot, and replaced every single one of those expensive bastards with a $12 kwikset.<br /><br />I've seen the most beautiful woman in the world. She was in a sea of beautiful women in the Longhorn Bar in the Driskill hotel in Austin. She looked like Reese Witherspoon's prettier large breasted sister. They were celebrating her engagement to a rather stupid looking lad, and I had gallantly given up my seat for grandma who told me their story. I stay out of Texas. The women are too beautiful, and I am too weak.<br /><br />CascaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-33606521413999233532011-11-11T01:11:19.518-05:002011-11-11T01:11:19.518-05:00Dang, Sipp. Every time I read your stuff, I get t...Dang, Sipp. Every time I read your stuff, I get this feeling - like a hair-thin wood shaving curling up from a plane. You can see the grain and smell the resin, and right at that moment, you know the world.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing.SteveSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-77448438310119514962011-11-11T00:39:06.398-05:002011-11-11T00:39:06.398-05:00I worked in the Los Angeles area for seven months ...I worked in the Los Angeles area for seven months beginning in December of 1999.<br /><br />The first construction site I ever set a stake on burned during the Rodney King riots. If you watch the original helicopter - shot video of Reginald Denny being dragged from his truck and beaten, my little strip mall is the where all that smoke is coming from.<br /><br />Anyway, we used cheap Radio Shack handhelds for awhile, and the batteries would go dead before the work was done. Our boss bought cases of nine volts but we never had enough. <br /><br />One day we ran dry and there was too much distance and too much noise for hand signals so we asked for the nearest store and were directed to a cinder block cube just off the job. There were no bollards but they didn't need them with the K rails surrounding the building. One window about one foot tall by six feet long let you look in. Through the hurricane chain link welded over the glass. You looked for what you wanted (smokes, 40 ouncers, porn, junk food, marital supplies... and batteries. Then walked past the featureless, knob free blast rated door set inside the wall and over to the "military" window to order and pay the Koreans inside for what you wanted.<br /><br />I think we paid eight dollars apiece for the batteries. <br /><br />Those folks were hated. I watched customers spit on the window, throw fits, and spew the worst racist harangues I have ever heard anywhere. <br /><br />But they paid their money and got their stuff. I was told that the building was never empty. Deliveries came at odd times, and there were never less than three people outside the building when they brought in their stock. One would stand in the door and just watch. I'm sure he had a weapon within reach.<br /><br />They had a cellphone in there, and a generator. They were the only Cstore within a mile, if I remember right.<br /><br />I bet their kids have graduated college by now and have moved to another state. Smart hardworking Americans have no business in California these days.TmjUtahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07479506083401061662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-80555518395380442332011-11-10T18:56:25.775-05:002011-11-10T18:56:25.775-05:00Yeah, being a manager is difficult. As a self empl...Yeah, being a manager is difficult. As a self employed person I can't figure out whether I have bad management or whether my employee needs to be replaced. I was thinking about bringing in a union, but what's the point? And sexual harassment? Forget about it!The Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05354536924604187137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-51509031805826517642011-11-10T17:55:05.486-05:002011-11-10T17:55:05.486-05:00I'm told recently that if someone looks at you...<i>I'm told recently that if someone looks at you funny twice, or maybe if a guy with bad breath instead of Fabio pectorals asks you out on a date at your cubicle farm, you're working in a "hostile workplace." </i><br /><br />And I'd bet that most of the thin-skinned broads that have that kind of complaint couldn't hold a candle to the girl behind the glass, by any measure.<br /><br />Re. management, I worked a job once where I was asked if I wanted to take on a management position. I thanked them for their confidence, and politely declined. If I had to work, I'd rather just be doing the <i>work</i> part than the overseer's part every time. In my experience, there are few things as maddening as trying to get a group people to just do their jobs.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-25648573140591895602011-11-10T16:17:53.010-05:002011-11-10T16:17:53.010-05:00I've lived in some pretty rough places but tha...I've lived in some pretty rough places but that mini fortress takes some beating. That much expenditure,it surely wasn't worth the outlay?Thudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18320037763190473684noreply@blogger.com