Today during one of the long bus lay-overs, I met a new driver. She had just moved down here with her hubby, he had just retired from his job in New York. They listed their townhouse in New York for rent with a Long Island real estate company Prudential Douglas Elliman and are renting a house down here. They told their realtor that they would be willing to sell the house if they can find a buyer, but they are just as happy renting it for now. They have decided against trying to buy or sell a house at this time, they think they want the market to settle down a little bit. Everyone I know is so worried about the economy and the housing market! It is very scary!
Archive for May, 2008
Met a new driver today
Thursday, May 29th, 2008A disgruntled parent got all up in my face
Thursday, May 29th, 2008Yesterday afternoon when I was driving the elementary school kids home a conflict arose between a couple of boys. I didn’t see what happened, I didn’t hear what happened, I just heard two of the kids calling out to me that one of the other kids was “bothering” them. So I told the “accused” kid to come sit up closer to the front of the bus in an empty seat, figuring that the best thing to do was to simply separate the kids. I didn’t scold anyone, I didn’t ask any questions, I simply told the one kid to move. I figured moving one kid was easier than moving two kids, so that is what I did.
Imagine my surprise when I finished my run and got back to the school to see an angry parent waiting for me, confronting me about how I had “abused” her kid by “yelling” and “scolding” him and “not even listening to his side of the story.” I told her all I did was tell the kid to move to an empty seat, and didn’t yell at anyone. She got really pushy and insisted that I must have been abusive because her son came home crying and he said that I was always mean and always yelling at him. Now to be honest, I don’t even remember ever seeing that kid before, and I’m sure I’ve never yelled at him! I suggested that she have the school principal pull the bus’s video tape and watch it so she could see for herself what happened. She got all huffy and said “I will.”
Well…. long story short, that was yesterday, and I never heard back from anyone that I’m in any kind of trouble, so I guess the parent saw that I simply told the kid to move and that her kid is over-sensitive and has an over-active imagination!
I guess I’m just an old fart
Thursday, May 29th, 2008Today my son was telling me that he wanted to find some Hip Hop Lyrics to a hip hop song he had heard lately. To be honest, I mostly listen to “the oldies” station, which nowadays does not mean the Glenn Miller Orchestra, it means the Beatles. Most of the newer music I can’t even understand the lyrics at all! Hmmmm…. maybe my son can’t understand them either, which is why he wants to find the lyrics! Anyway, my son was looking on the internet at www.rapartists.com because he said that was the best site to find out information of any kind about rap or hip hop music and the artists.
Had pork chops for supper tonight
Thursday, May 29th, 2008Last weekend my hubby went grocery shopping with me and asked me to buy some pork chops. He promised he’d cook them on the grill. I haven’t had much good luck myself cooking porch chops, so I agreed. I figured that way if they came out lousy it wouldn’t be my fault! Well, he cooked them on the grill tonight, and he also fixed some rice and green beans. It was delicious! He’s a good cook. I’m starting to think maybe I’ll hang up my apron for good!
Service industry information
Thursday, May 29th, 2008ServiceIntelligence.com is a company that specializes in gathering information about how a company is seen in the customer service area. They gather that information though several different techniques, they might hold a customer service survey, they might send out a mystery shopper, and they might hold audit and compliance evaluations. The company also provides training services for employees such as employee awareness campaigns and interactive training.
A few years ago I tried doing mystery shopping as an additional source of income. I found it to be interesting, but the area that I lived in at the time was so remote that the opportunities to make money doing that were severely limited. Now that I’ve moved into an area with more businesses and retail stores, I think I might look into doing it again in this area.