I was reading on msnbc.nbc.com this morning that last week, the first day on the job for police officer Tim Pochron in Hobart Indiana did not start well. Twenty nine minutes into his first day, his new squad car was parked outside his house (I don’t know why it was outside his house when he was on the job, that is interesting….) and an intoxicated driver smashed into the squad car, and then a tree. The rear axle of the squad car was bent from the impact.
Not a good way to start a job, is it?
I love to buy things at outlets where I pay wholesale prices without having to register as a retailer and can just buy things and use them at home! One such example of that is the Takemi Select Wholesale Outlet where you can buy massage therapy chairs or massage beds for up to 75% off of the retail price. They are located in Florida, but offer free shipping. They accept credit cards, and also offer 12 months no interest financing.
Last week was the mid-term exam for the Pharmacy Technician Course that I’m taking. I was really worried about how well I was going to do. It was largely a test where we had to memorize a bunch of measurement conversions, like how many milliliters in an ounce, and a lot of math. I was worried that I was going to have a brain cramp and forget my conversions. So I spent several hours the day before the test writing my own conversion chart over and over and over again.
When the test was passed out I asked the teacher if it was ok if we used a blank scrap piece of paper to write on, to do the math, etc, and he said yes. So I took out a blank piece of paper and as the test started I wrote down the chart that I had been memorizing. What a HUGE HELP that was! I got an “A” on the test, but I KNOW that if I had NOT written down that chart I would not have done as well! The panic factor/brain cramp would have hit and I would have forgotten many of the conversions!
One of the many reasons that I moved to Maine back in the 1970s was because I just did not feel safe living in Northern Virginia anymore. Within a short period of time I was exposed to two different rape attempts (on me) and it scared me pretty badly. I was lucky to have been able to bluff my way out of the first attempt by threatening to hit the would-be rapist with a large bottle that I was carrying at the time. Then I responded after that to the first rape attempt by taking karate classes for self protection. I responded to the second rape attempt threatening to beat up the attacker using my karate skills, and that frightened him off. Then I went out and bought a dog.
But I still didn’t feel safe, and I did not want to buy a gun. I had heard so many horror stories about how young children have been killed by guns left carelessly around the house, and more stories about how sometimes an intruder could find the gun and then use it against the inhabitants, and then even more stories about how a burglar might overtake the victim before the victim can shoot and then use the gun against the victim. All in all, I didn’t feel that guns were the best choice for me. As the neighborhood I lived in became less desirable I felt less safe and moved to Maine to get away from the feelings of vulnerability that I was having living in Northern Virginia.
But that was many years ago, before great things were developed to help people defend themselves without being lethal. If I were going to buy myself a self-defense product right now, I think that I’d buy some mace or a M18L taser gun, or maybe both!
When I decided to sign up for the Pharmacy Technician Course, it was because I needed a job close to home. Doing a little bit of research, I found that there is a shortage of Pharmacy Technicians. There are pharmacies everywhere! And many of them need technicians! I have been running errands a little bit lately and talked with some pharmacists, many of them say that they expect to be hiring more pharmacy technicians within the next few months. And they all say that there is a serious shortage of them. So, I think that maybe I made the right choice in taking the class! Now I just hope I pass it, and the certification exam!