Contributor Posts

Remembering back, in my early days of travelling, from state to state, to gauge the operational functions. Early days, where there was some travel with an expense account and a company car.
Working for a large corporation. Those days, long gone. The company no longer here.
I was the District Manager, for the Catalog Sales Division of Sears Roebuck. My area was the State of Oregon.
We lived, my wife and two children and I, in Vancouver WA. I had two stores in the immediate area. Hazel Dell and Camas. I also had stores in Oregon at St Helens, Astoria, Tillamook, Newport, North Bend, Coos Bay, Brookings, Grants Pass, Roseburg, Corvallis, Gresham, Hillsboro, The Dalles, Bend, Madras, Prineville, Hermiston, Pendleton, Ontario and Baker.
Every Monday, I would call the stores to receive sales information, sales per hour, returns and to discuss advertising or other operational issues.
Monday night or Tuesday morning. I would load my suitcase into the car and head out to one of my locations, depending on specific issues or concerns.
Our primary role in the Catalog Sales Offices, (CSO) was to sell appliances, tires batteries from our store inventory and order, soft line, aka, clothing, bedding, et al. We had commissioned sales staff who would sell cabinets, carpet, fencing and other "Big ticket" items. The function of Installed Home Improvement, or IHI that was for installation by our contractors. Our in house joke was IHI, "It's Here, Incomplete."
There were some great days with my Managers.
My goal was to make them an independent operation and to call me only if there was an issue to discuss. I would explain to them, "No Surprises." Tell me before the news hit the Regional Office. I would receive calls from my boss, on occasion, if I had approved advertising, over budget at a specific office. My mode was if I received a call from my boss was to acknowledge that I had approved and then call the offending Manager and discuss how the "No Surprises" was supposed to work.
I had great Managers, who did, for the most part, operate as Independents. I miss those days and the friendships I had made. Working at Sears was a great experience and prepared me for many jobs opportunities.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Along a narrow path crossing southern South America through Chile and Argentina, the final New Moon of 2020 moved in front of the Sun on December 14 in the year's only total solar eclipse. Within about 2 days of perigee, the closest point in its elliptical orbit, the New Moon's surface is faintly lit by earthshine in this dramatic composite view. The image is a processed composite of 55 calibrated exposures ranging from 1/640 to 3 seconds. Covering a large range in brightness during totality, it reveals the dim lunar surface and faint background stars, along with planet-sized prominences at the Sun's edge, an enormous coronal mass ejection, and sweeping coronal structures normally hidden in the Sun's glare. Look closely for an ill-fated sungrazing Kreutz family comet (C/2020 X3 SOHO) approaching from the lower left, at about the 7 o'clock position. In 2021 eclipse chasers will see an annular solar eclipse coming up on June 10. They'll have to wait until December 4 for the only total solar eclipse in 2021 though. That eclipse will be total along a narrow path crossing the southernmost continent of Antarctica.

Photo by Miloslav Druckmuller

Remember me now.
Remember me when.
Remember where youth
on which you depend.
All of the things you
could do and say,
is suddenly gone now,
gone so far away.
Getting up from the floor,
was an easy task,
now if I do it,
I really must ask.
Changing light bulbs,
was easy to do.
Now I call my Son
for my balance is gone.
Balance, quite shaky,
to say, just a few.
Life has become harder.
What sayeth you?

"Jumping on the Jim Jam",
throwing on the brakes,
we will rid this Country
of all those who hate,
for the life of our brothers
we do not control their fate,
to provide a fair environment
as it is, what we can make.

Someone said, "The eyes are the window
into the Soul.
This thought comes from a place,
like any other.
A mystery this one, plain
but not forgiven.
Why now? You ask of me
for these words are soon forgotten,
while I await the coming dawn.
If only it were certain.
These words make no sense,
for they will be gone tomorrow,
as all the yesterday's gather
into the memories of happiness
and sorrow. Go from here.
Leave me be. Don't play games,
with those I love, for I know you
better than all who will follow.

Over the fields,
through the woods;
the paths I trod,
facing a reality here,
among a nation,
wrapped in fear.
A virus has taken
so many lives,
with the gnashing
of one's teeth.
A long sudden ride,
from the happiness
when we knew,
what was happening,
now. A fear
manifesting so soon.

I hate this life, as I have
started to succumb
towards a callous behavior'
with little aplomb.
I am not kind. I am just
a big jerk,
for I'm so tired my responsibility
I may shirk.
What good reason, is there for me
being casual with thee.
You don't deserve this life
we have shared.
I need to treat you softer
and be prepared.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why are these sand dunes on Mars striped? No one is sure. The featured image shows striped dunes in Kunowsky Crater on Mars, photographed recently with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE Camera. Many Martian dunes are known to be covered unevenly with carbon dioxide (dry ice) frost, creating patterns of light and dark areas. Carbon dioxide doesn’t melt, but sublimates, turning directly into a gas. Carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse material even as a solid, so it can trap heat under the ice and sublimate from the bottom up, causing geyser-like eruptions. During Martian spring, these eruptions can cause a pattern of dark defrosting spots, where the darker sand is exposed. The featured image, though, was taken during Martian autumn, when the weather is getting colder – making these stripes particularly puzzling. One hypothesis is that they are caused by cracks in the ice that form from weaker eruptions or thermal stress as part of the day-night cycle, but research continues. Watching these dunes and others through more Martian seasons may give us more clues to solve this mystery.

Time to get up
and ready to go,
out the door,
off to the show.
What is it you said?
There isn't a game,
for they have been stopped.
The virus is to blame,
so take a long hike.
There's somewhere to go.
Starting your walk
for a crazy new blow
of subjecting your life,
during the remaining days,
when our minds are clouded
by the vacuum, the Government will say
'Not as much vaccine, is your plight".
Has politics entered this fray?
When will this administration
just leave and go away?

Where are you now, my lovely bride?
It's 6 P.M. you were by my side.
Wandering the room, asking me why
or what's this object, catching your eye.
Asking the same questions, over again.
How many times? Lost track at ten.
Telling you the answer, one more time.
Nothing I say, "sticks". It isn't fine.
No matter what I am trying to do,
this conversation is usually just you.
Asking me more questions, once again,
what is the name of our friend?

Having a hard time, as I've said.
Hearing the lyrics and music in my head.
This has been going on for several days.
"Starry, starry nights," a song of life.
The tumultuous life of Vincent Van Gogh,
written and performed by Don McLean.
So many painting failures, in his early life.
A life of challenges and of strife;
Time spent in a mental institution,
when his life had too much confusion.
Starry, starry nights, he painted when he
wrestled with trying to control his sanity.
Perhaps it is now, my future destiny.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What is the Small Magellanic Cloud? It has turned out to be a galaxy. People who have wondered about this little fuzzy patch in the southern sky included Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew, who had plenty of time to study the unfamiliar night sky of the south during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth in the early 1500s. As a result, two celestial wonders easily visible for southern hemisphere skygazers are now known in Western culture as the Clouds of Magellan. Within the past 100 years, research has shown that these cosmic clouds are dwarf irregular galaxies, satellites of our larger spiral Milky Way Galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud actually spans 15,000 light-years or so and contains several hundred million stars. About 210,000 light-years away in the constellation of the Tucan (Tucana), it is more distant than other known Milky Way satellite galaxies, including the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud. This sharp image also includes the foreground globular star cluster 47 Tucanae on the right.

Photo by José Mtanous