Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Got back around 5pm today. Back hurting too much bending and twisting.

---

Oh, that sucks.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Found another rejection email in my box and this one came with an apology.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Found another rejection email in my box and this one came with an apology.

---

. Oh, I'm sorry...

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
I tell you the workmen the building managers send to my building to do work are just awful. Yesterday which was Monday, they sent a pest control guy into my apartment because someone else in the building said there was something wrong. Anyways without warning he should up at 1:30 in the afternoon. I was allowed to put my ice cream in the freezer then had to be out for 6 HOURS. I heard him finish up after 3pm since I was sitting in the laundry room and could hear him rattling at the elevator. I couldn't get back into my place until after 9pm.

This morning I am waiting on the guys to come and check the smoke detector and the fire alarm. They supposedly started at 8AM and it is now almost 10:25AM and still no one has showed up.

If I am lucky I may just get a walk in and not much else.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
I tell you the workmen the building managers send to my building to do work are just awful. Yesterday which was Monday, they sent a pest control guy into my apartment because someone else in the building said there was something wrong. Anyways without warning he should up at 1:30 in the afternoon. I was allowed to put my ice cream in the freezer then had to be out for 6 HOURS. I heard him finish up after 3pm since I was sitting in the laundry room and could hear him rattling at the elevator. I couldn't get back into my place until after 9pm.

This morning I am waiting on the guys to come and check the smoke detector and the fire alarm. They supposedly started at 8AM and it is now almost 10:25AM and still no one has showed up.

If I am lucky I may just get a walk in and not much else.

---

That's ridiculous!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Did need my umbrella yesterday. Rained most of the day.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Did need my umbrella yesterday. Rained most of the day.

---

Over at this end of the west coast, we're finally having normal weather.

It's not that July and August were so terribly hot... nothing above 100F [38C] but the thermometer was RELENTLESSLY STUCK between 88-94F [30-34C] almost every day for over a month.



-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Fire guys were suppose to come today according to their notice in the lobby and no one showed up. Managed to get a little garbage out.

I will admit that episode yesterday has me a little jumpy. I'll settle down in a couple of days.

Had to get rid of favourite bowl. I just noticed how many chips it has in it.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Fire guys were suppose to come today according to their notice in the lobby and no one showed up. Managed to get a little garbage out.

I will admit that episode yesterday has me a little jumpy. I'll settle down in a couple of days.

Had to get rid of favourite bowl. I just noticed how many chips it has in it.

---

Jumpy?
How so?
Worried that someone is complaining about your apt?

He might have finished but there's a lockout period until the pesticide dissipates. Before the days of Advantage and other flea products I had to wash the dog with flea soap almost every week (She was a flea magnet!) and bomb our townhome once or twice a summer. Had to set them off and leave for a day.


-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh yeah, your heat wave made the news.

Looks like sis caught the edge of it with a high near 100F today. Fortunately tomorrow and for the next 10 days weather is predicted to be more seasonable with highs ranging from 67 to 85 (and 85 is kind of an outlier).

What about you? Better weather ahead, I hope?

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh yeah, your heat wave made the news.

Looks like sis caught the edge of it with a high near 100F today. Fortunately tomorrow and for the next 10 days weather is predicted to be more seasonable with highs ranging from 67 to 85 (and 85 is kind of an outlier).

What about you? Better weather ahead, I hope?

---

Yeah. It's already better. Can't get much worse than that around these parts. I remember around 10 or 11 years ago that 1 day heatwave we just had was a stretch of 10 full days where the heat index was well over 100. If we got this in late July that might have been the case here, but this late into August I don't think the chances of that were very high.

85 today and hot through the weekend but then we get 70's for the high most of next week.



--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Back and in for today. Mah jong game this morning and I got first place. That was a shocker. I don't remember the last time I did that. Weather is nice and dry and also for over the Labour Day weekend.

---

Quote:

---

Out soon and things to do. Need some groceries on a bright sunny day.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Back and in for today. Mah jong game this morning and I got first place. That was a shocker. I don't remember the last time I did that. Weather is nice and dry and also for over the Labour Day weekend.

---

Cool!

Quote:

---

Out soon and things to do. Need some groceries on a bright sunny day.

---

Sounds like a perfect late summer day.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Hot here too SIG. But just a Sunday. I will get some book work done and an email sent.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Hot here too SIG. But just a Sunday. I will get some book work done and an email sent.

---

Sounds like a plan


-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This is the America that SECOND sneers at, and that THUGR has forgotten about

Quote:

---

From tradesmen to a physician, people from around the country share what keeps them on the job.

By John Haughey, Nanette Holt, Michael Clements, Darlene McCormick Sanchez, Stacy Robinson

September 02, 2024

Work defines us. It shapes our days, fills our hours, gives meaning to what we do and who we are.

For some, it’s a profession, a career, a calling. Others see a job as a necessity that allows them to do their most important work: raising a family, building a community, pitching in to help others.

This is the work that has built America. This Labor Day weekend, we pause to praise the American worker.



‘There Ain’t No Quit in Me’
Farrier Robb Hoffman thinks a lot about the state of America as he drives between commercial horse operations and backyard hobby farms throughout North Florida.

His “office” is a small, white pickup with a mobile workshop in the bed, filled with tools for trimming horses’ hooves and shaping horseshoes.

For job security and because he has five grandchildren, he hopes the next president will bring about “a good, strong economy and a strong border,” he told The Epoch Times. “That’s more conducive to business.”

Without those things, “the people start to suffer and they start to cut the fat. They start to do away with things they don’t need, like horses.”

Hoffman, 59, hopes the upcoming election will put someone in the White House who is “for the people, and for our country. They’re Americans first, and they’re politicians second.”

“I can tell you straight up, there’s been many a day that my wife and I have ate less, so our kids can eat more. And I think all families go through that.”

Horses’ hooves continuously grow and need to be trimmed and balanced about every 4-6 weeks. Some need shoes that must be customized for each hoof. Some need corrective or therapeutic shoeing in order to move freely and without pain.



Hoffman went to farrier school out West to become certified in his craft. Then he apprenticed with pros near Ocala, Florida, said to be the horse capital of the world.

To make ends meet, he often works 12- to 16-hour days, sometimes six days a week. It’s the kind of bent-over work that makes a guy’s back, legs, and arms ache.

Between each horse, he rests a bit and takes a few sips of water he keeps in his truck.

“If you don’t like hard work, and working when it’s 105 degrees, or working when it’s pouring down rain and all your tools are getting wet, it’s just not a career somebody would want to pursue.”

So why do it?

It’s simple, he told The Epoch Times.

“I love horses, and I love people.

“Plus, my dad instilled in me a work ethic that, no matter what, you don’t give up.

“He used to tell me all the time, that there’s nothing more important in your life than your job … you always provide for your family. You feed your kids, you clothe your kids, and you take care of your kids and your wife.”

Hoffman has had “a lot of health issues and a lot of debilitating things”… “but I just don’t quit. There ain’t no quit in me.”

He works wearing therapeutic shoes and leg braces.

“I just don’t look at it like a disability. I just look at it like, this is the cross that I bear, and I’m gonna do everything I can to do everything that I do well.

And he doesn’t see his work as just providing foot care for horses.

“I’ve tried to use this as a ministry. Sometimes that has to deal with Christianity, and sometimes people just need to talk, to get things off their chest, like therapy.”
One client calls him a “farr-apist.” It’s a moniker he’d like to put on a hat some day.



Darryl Burkett doesn’t fit the stereotype of a CEO. With his ball cap cocked back on his head, he contemplates the grease under his nails, takes a break from restocking his truck with plumbing supplies, and opines about why he’s proud of his work in Durant, Oklahoma.

Since 2009, he’s owned and operated KD Plumbing & Construction, LLC., a business that has grown to employ 14 people in a warehouse near the airport. He figures the keys to his entrepreneurial success are his dedication to his family and his community and an education that extends beyond classrooms and lectures. His most skilled instructor, he says, was his father.

“My dad told me that if you learn how to do everything and you’re willing to do anything, you’ll always make a living. You make yourself valuable,” he told The Epoch Times.

Like most ranchers, tradesmen, and blue collar workers in this Southeast Oklahoma town, Burkett has amassed a variety of skills. He welds, fixes equipment, repairs plumbing, builds things, and operates all kinds of vehicles.

“There’s nothing that I’m scared to do.”

He played some baseball in college, then went to work at the Choctaw Casino & Resort-Durant. But realizing he “was not an inside guy,” he moved on to work with his father, who taught him valuable technical skills.

But more importantly, he said, his father taught him the value of work.

Eventually, he bought a truck, gathered his tools, and opened his own business. But it’s the work ethic, taught by his father, that has kept his company open and his family fed, he said.

“I like to work with my hands. I’ll get down in the hole like anyone else. If I have to keep my crew late, I’m right there with them.”

He likes knowing that others, far beyond his immediate family, depend on the jobs he provides. Few think about the workers who tend a city’s infrastructure ... until the water stops.

“If [tradesmen] quit for a week, the country would fall apart,” he said.

Burkett wants his children to feel the same pride and satisfaction in their work, regardless of the career they choose. He’s less concerned about the kind of work they do and more focused on the type of workers they become.
“I want to teach them well enough to be my competitors someday.”



Nine years ago, Kevin Dougherty was a cybersecurity specialist with a company in Houston, Texas. Today, he prefers to wield a chainsaw from an elevated bucket mounted to a truck as part of a three-man tree-trimming crew in Bryan County, Oklahoma.

“I’m tired of working in an office,” said Dougherty, 39, foreman of Texoma Dirty Work Tree Service. “As much as I can, I like to get in the bucket.”

Along with co-workers DJ Henson and Billy Derryberry, he trims limbs away from roofs and electrical lines and removes trees that could fall on buildings or other property.

His coworker, Henson, left the loan department of a local bank about a year ago to trim trees. All three men in the crew agree: They find fulfillment and enjoyment in providing an essential service that protects their customers’ property.

“[Without us] trees would fall on houses,” Henson said.

Plus, running chainsaws and wood chippers pays better than shuffling papers and typing on computer keyboards, they said.

Henson spends about 55 hours a week raking tree debris and hauling away the limbs Dougherty drops to the ground from more than 20 feet above. Then he feeds them into a chipper.

“It’s harder work“ than at the bank, Henson said, ”but I make a lot more money.”

Dougherty said most of his coworkers were raised in politically and socially conservative homes. Most still lean that way, he said, and they base political preferences largely on policies affecting their work.

When it comes to who will inhabit the White House next, he said, issues such as the Keystone pipeline make the best barometers of blue collar sympathies.

“When they shut that down, a lot of blue collar guys started reaching [out to be] Republican. They’re deciding on [voting for] whoever will keep them at work.”

He believes salaries for blue collar vocations are rising because fewer people are willing to do physically demanding work. And despite what some may think, education matters, even in blue collar work. The more skills you master, the more you can earn, he said.

“You can make six figures easy.”

But, some things matter more than money.
“I get out here and do it because I love it,” he said. “People don’t realize that blue collar jobs are honorable.”


Every Shift Brings an Opportunity
Gina Rivera, 27, is filling shifts this Labor Day weekend as a server at a restaurant where patrons will be celebrating the holiday that honors workers.

She’s fine with that.

In fact, it’s an opportunity. Not only will the single mother earn some side-hustle cash, but she'll also be able to market herself.

“I like networking. I like meeting new people, talking with people,” she told The Epoch Times.

Every diner, salon client, and prospective home buyer is a potential customer at one of her other businesses.

Those are Rivera’s jobs.

Her “work” is caring for her three children. At 7, her oldest, Malachi, is just starting second grade. Her middle child, Luca, is 4, and the youngest, Rosemar, is just 3 three months old.

It’s constant motion, a work in progress.

“It’s hard,” the Massachusetts native said. “I had to push myself. There were times I wanted to give up.”

If not for her mother—a fellow cosmetologist, who encouraged her to pursue that licensing—and a friend who watches her children, Rivera couldn’t support her family.

“It takes a village,” she said. “A lot of women don’t have a village.”

Still, it’s “nerve-wracking,” she said. She frets about earning at least $1,000 a week to afford her apartment, car, and food.

Child care? Forget it. That would cost $380 per child each week.

Government “help?” No, thanks.

The child tax credit “is nice,” she said. But it would be more helpful if she didn’t have to pay the taxes up front.

The costs to earn money in real estate pose another challenge. There are fees and training courses required to maintain her license, and “advertising is expensive,” she said.

Summer is slow, making her income “constricted,” she said. That’s just Florida. But fall is near.

Rivera’s ready to soar during snowbird season, the time when northerners—potential customers—escape the cold by fleeing to Florida. Rather than commuting 90 minutes to a high-end salon, she’s now styling hair closer to home. And the opportunities in real estate are building, with many showings lined up.

She’s “always on call,” and there are no closings yet. But it’ll pan out, she believes.
Until then, she'll do what works: Get another job.


Not ‘Work,’ But ‘My Way of Life’
It’s Saturday at Lake Gibson United Methodist Church near Lakeland and Errol Archibald is ensuring the property is ready for Sunday services.

He’s pastor of another congregation, of New Testament Christian Church, which uses the facility throughout the week. The arrangement means he and his congregants maintain the building and grounds they share.

When the church work is done, he'll head off to Georgia to get chickens for his family’s farming operation.

During the drive, he'll review the 105 questions he must answer correctly in three days when he takes his licensing exam to become an electrical contractor. He’s already done nearly $30,000 in work to rewire the shared church.

“This is God’s building—a place of healing,” he said. “It needed new lighting.” And the aging Methodist congregation “needed help.”

Help is what you do, said Archibald, 42, who’s always on the move.

“I don’t think this is ‘work.’ It’s my way of life.”

Working hard and pitching in is part of his family heritage.

Archibald is a Marine veteran and father of three. He and his two sisters were raised by immigrants from the British Virgin Islands. His father’s “hard-calloused hands” are the products of cutting sugar cane and picking oranges sold for $5 a crate.

“He never had a ‘job,’ but he never worked for anyone but himself,” Archibald said.

He went a different way. At first.

After playing football as a defensive back at Lakeland High School, he was in Marine boot camp six days after graduating.

While stationed in Washington state, he joined New Testament Christian Church. He met his wife, Meron, in seminary. They posted to Lakeland, leading fellowships, Bible studies, VA hospital outreach, and Sunday services.

With his electrical contractor license, he plans to open his own shop and call it Always Faithful. That’s a translation of and nod to “Semper Fi,” the shortened Latin phrase that serves as the motto for the U.S. Marine Corps.

“I want a bigger outreach,” Archibald said. But the required permits and stringent regulations make it difficult to legally sell what they grow and raise on the family farm.

So they give away a lot of the eggs, goat meat, chickens, passion fruit, and okra.

“Food has tripled in cost. [People] work extra jobs just to provide.”
But “the way government could help is [to] not restrict us, because we can’t afford to give everything away.”

Helping People Brings Satisfaction
Keane Grant, manager of the Judiciary Square Metro station in Washington, also finds great satisfaction in helping people every day.
Keane Grant, manager of the Judiciary Square Metro station in Washington. (Stacy Robinson/The Epoch Times)
Keane Grant, manager of the Judiciary Square Metro station in Washington. Stacy Robinson/The Epoch Times

When he spoke to The Epoch Times, it was a little after 9 a.m., and he'd already put in half a day’s work. He was ticking down the last few minutes till his lunch break.

“I like interacting with customers,“ said Grant, 51. ”You get all the different types. People from all over come through the nation’s capital.”

His work week often stretches into 60–65 hours. But there’s overtime, and not a lot of stress, he said.

“You might get a lot of people with disabilities [coming through, and] they might need assistance.”

And sometimes people fall ill on the trains and need his help. But coworkers pitch in as problems arise, he said.

When Grant’s family emigrated from Jamaica in the 1980s, he hadn’t envisioned a career in public service. But then he operated trains for 15 years and a bus for seven. Now, he runs stations.

“Pretty much this has been my main career,” he said.

After 27 years of long work weeks, he’s less than a year from retirement.

What then?

“Nothing,” he chuckled.
Then again, he mused, maybe he'll get a barber’s license. That way, he could be his own boss.

Making ‘People Healthier and Live Better’
Dr. Eduardo “Ed” Balbona runs his own practice, Art of Medicine, in Jacksonville, Fla.

But staying independent in an era of Big Medicine is getting increasingly more difficult, he told The Epoch Times. And in an age of ever-swelling corporatization, putting patients first is one of the most significant challenges doctors face today, he said.

After more than 30 years as a doctor, he’s watched patient care across the industry become less personalized. Alarmed by that, he wrote “Open Your Eyes: A Prescription for Change in American Healthcare.”

He laments that giant corporations are buying up primary care practices. Managers often pressure doctors to spend less time with each patient. Instead of maintaining the traditional role of giving quality care and establishing a relationship with each patient, he believes the new medical model “is all about profit.”

“That’s not really why most physicians went into health care,” said Balbona, 61.

He once worked for a big hospital group, which freed him from many administrative tasks. But then, he was told to see twice as many patients each day. That wasn’t acceptable, he said. So he left.

Politics and profit-chasing corrupt the practice of medicine, he said. Insurance companies keen on cutting costs can keep doctors from making decisions based on their knowledge of their patients.

He fumes about how government policymakers interfered with how doctors treated their patients during the COVID-19 epidemic. That, he said, was an assault on medical freedom. That’s a freedom he’s not willing to relinquish.

As a doctor, he staunchly defends one mission: “I just try to make people healthier and live better.”

---

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/a-labor-day-salute-to-the-americ
an-worker-5714288?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Didn't do much myself except for project work.

Did you have a good holiday Brenda?

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

---