When catching up there is so much to catch up, plus some continuation of the current story

The local podcast I put on my Youtube channel discussed the homeless in last week’s episode. Got me to thinkin’. Why is it so hard to come up with better public policy for the homeless. I was a bit caught off guard by the numbers mentioned. 4,000 in Dallas County, which is a large number but is unmanageable. How much more does it cost society to have the homeless spread out all over the city versus trying to create a simple stable place for them to live. The cost difference may be hard to determine since right now you just do not have one cost center addressing the problem where if  you do create a one all encompassing program it is one large cost versus the police time, the clean up time, health problems, the danger to people crossing streets, the various shelters and what they contribute. If you built a non profit/public partnership then the same charities are involved that run different programs and the city or county pitches in and you can mitigate the cost some. Maybe? And you have a broad all encompassing program that can address many of the needs maybe not all physically under one roof, but pretty close to it. Plus you can offer job training, health care, address the people that do have mental health issues in a better environment instead of just letting them ride the trains all day to stay out of the heat or cold.  There is much more to this than this one paragraph, but trying to sort out some ideas to hopefully one day offer a real solution instead of the hodge podge of stuff we have now.

And speaking of better public policy, I guess you if jet all the immigrants around the country you do a good job of wasting jet fuel and adding to the fossil fuel emissions. No one wants to talk about the complete abuse of human dignity that entails since the people jetting around immigrants care so much about human dignity. Do we have a good immigration policy right now? I do not think so, but political showmanship is not the answer. Wall Street gives money to all the Republicans running for office under the guise of a business friendly environment, yet quietly wants immigration so they can take advantage of cheap labor. Shssh, just do not tell anyone though. So how do they reconcile being able to get the labor they want and still get the tax breaks they want if people like Abbott and DeSantis are parading around immigrants like a traveling zoo. Sooner or later people may get tired of these shenanigans. 

And speaking of homeless and immigrants, I wonder how “Christian” nationalists feel about: “whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 It might matter if you call yourself a Christian, but hey whose to say being a Christian means actually following what Christ taught. Or at least trying.

Now back to the story:

Right about the time the customer told the salesperson what he was looking for, the owner of the store walked in. He surveyed what was going on. He saw his two lady saleswomen talking to one of his better customers and looking over some earrings. And he saw his favorite parttime employee past the time he should have clocked out helping an older gentleman. 

He goes up to the salesman and says I can continue to help if you need to go. The owner knew the salesman would stay, but he also knew as a courtesy he had to ask. The customer was a bit worried. He says I didn’t realize you were done for the day. The salesman says not to worry.

The customer is a bit curious now and asks wouldn’t your wife worry. The salesman lets him know he is a widower. And then he asks the customer since this is a anniversary ring how long have you been married. The customer says almost forty years. 

The owner and the salesman then start bringing out rings with ruby themes. They had a few that combined rubies and diamonds. The customer looked at them intently for awhile. The salesman and the owner talked a bit and then the owner went over to check on the saleswomen and their customer.

She adored the owner and gave him the same bit of feigned insult that the salesman hadn’t been paying enough attention to her without the slightest thought that she might be dismissing the time and efforts of the two saleswomen. She was here to buy something and to be fawned over.

The owner took over and began to flatter her. He knew her well. She loved it and graciously accepted his apology that the man was very busy. He let her know the customer was looking for an anniversary ring and could she wait a bit longer since this customer was shopping for such a momentous gift. She laughed and said she had found the earrings that would match her dress for her upcoming event and the owner could ring her up now. And she would deal with the salesman later.

Even after the sale she window shopped a bit more around the store just to keep an eye on the other customer. She wanted to see what he eventually bought since this was such an “important” gift. 

After awhile the customer began to feel guilty. He wanted to buy a ring and this salesman had been so helpful, but he still didn’t know what to do. His wife had always made the big shopping decisions. It was her house, her cars, her furniture, heck she even picked out the engagement and wedding rings. He wanted to make sure he found the right ring, yet it was hard. They all looked very special. And even though he had always been frugal, this time he wasn’t worried about the money. He was a successful businessman owning multiple small businesses, rent homes, and even a small amount of investments with a broker.  All of them were doing well. And this one purchase was something he had always promised his wife. 

His wife took care of the home and family and he took care of the business. It was the quintessential picture of the American dream.

Again if he asked the salesman if he needed to go. The salesman smiled and said he had all the time in the world. And out of the blue the customer asked the salesman how did he get by once his wife passed. The salesman was very comfortable with his current life. He could be sad at times because he missed her, but he had come to accept his wife had passed away. So he asked the customer if he had time for some coffee.

He told the owner the customer and he were going to go get some coffee and would be back. The lady customer chimed in that he had not shown her something to go with her earrings in a very bad effort to find out what the customer was buying.

The owner took the man to the coffee shop down the street to chat while the salesman spent some time with the lady. She didn’t stay long since the real purpose was to pry her little nose into the other customer’s business. Since he had left for coffee she knew it was a lost cause. She was flamboyant, snobbish and inconsiderate, but she was also smart.

The salesman went  to join the others for coffee. The other two saleswomen knew they were in charge and both hoped for a change a large customer would come in now and they would have a chance at a significant sale.

To be continued.........

Trying to get back into the groove

 Greetings everyone,

Seems like I just cannot get around to posting recently. I have had some good thoughts, but by the time I get home or think about posting the thoughts have disappeared into the neuron sphere.

Time to rededicate as they say, get back in the race, or other trite phrases that produce some much productivity. yep, nothing like dime store philosophy to encourage you to be creative.

So here I am stuck with the truth, get disciplined, yet it never hurts to have a plan also.

And with the elections coming up and all that is going on, you might think the motivation to be engaged would be there. 

So with all that is going on, let’s first say I do not like Charles III. The Queen was an inspiration and something that represented the Monarchy well. God rest her soul and I will let the true historians address her life in detail because that will happen. The books will be flying into the bookstores shortly.

The first Monday in October is less than a month away. Will the DOJ’s appeal be that far along then? It is absolutely crazy a Judge in our country would decide a criminal investigation has a hierarchy of how individuals are treated. The DOJ is appealing from what I saw in a headline and that should shoot through the Courts until it is resolved. I would love to see our Supreme Court try to justify writing an opinion that backs the Judge. If you thought the Democrats were crazy about talking about packing the Court, you can expect that to be grown exponentially. A person charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty true, but letting a person be treated different from everyone else is completely against our Constitution.

Many years ago I use to create stories in this blog. I would come up with an idea start the story and then over the next few posts continue it based on how I felt that day. Sometimes I had a rough idea of where I wanted it to head and sometimes I just let the wind take me where it wanted to go. To help me get back into regular writing again (hopefully) I am going to start a new story, nothing fancy just something to get myself going again. I wonder what will happen this time. Here goes:

The man walked into the jewelry store and was looking around at the various counters. He was an older gentleman, maybe in his early sixties. He appeared out of place in this store. This was one of the more fine jewelry stores in town that was locally owned. Working in the store that day were two woman and another gentleman who only worked part time. 

The women were snobbish to say the least and since the customer had on old brown slacks and a shirt that appeared a bit frayed they did not want to bother with helping the man. Of course they observed his shoes and well a little polish might have helped, but nothing that said to the women this man had any money. 

The man working part time you could call semi-retired. He too was in his early sixties and widowed. He had retired, but since his wife had passed he took on this part time work to help out his friend the owner. He used the extra money he made in commissions to travel to all the places he and his wife had put on their bucket list. Some called it sad, and he was sad, he missed her, but on every trip she was in his heart and he was glad to go. He spoke with her in his mind the whole trip.

The man approached the customer. He was sizing the customer up, but not about how much money he had, he was trying to determine how to approach him. The customer seemed very lost and the salesman sensed it wasn’t because he walked into a store he didn’t want to be in, yet rather he wanted something but didn’t know how to shop. The customer had that look of desperately wanting someone to recognize the help he needed.

The customer was also very shy. He worked hard his whole life and in his business he was very comfortable, but running around in the world was something he rarely did.

The salesman walked up to the man and tried starting some casual conversation. He asked him about his day, had he been shopping long, and instead of saying if you need any help, I will be right over there, he asked him if had been in this store before or had he been to other stores shopping.

The customer had been to other fine jewelry stores and had been treated indifferently in all of them. Since the customer never shopped for new clothes, his wife always bought clothes for him, he never thought when you go out people will judge you by what you wear especially in stores where there might be a few money judgmental people. He was on a mission and he knew he was going to spend a good amount of money so he honestly did not understand why it was so hard to be helped.

So by the time he had walked into this store, he was very skeptical of all sales people and so did not warm up to the salesman at all even though this salesperson was what had expected from people in a nice store.

The salesman did not push or stand by him while he walked around, yet the salesman was close and kept up a bit of light conversation. The salesman was trying to find what interested the customer by this conversation. He was a great salesman. The owner knew he would be. It was hard to get people who would work passionately and since he had known his friend for a long time he slowly convinced him to come on board. The owner’s expectations were exceeded and had become very reliant on the sales capabilities of his friend. During slow times the salesman would go on his travels, but during the holidays he worked with a inspired passion and increased sales dramatically. 

Today was a slow day, but the salesman was on the schedule so he was making the most of every opportunity. While the salesman was trying to size up the customer another lady walked into the store. The two ladies immediately came to her aid, however, they also knew her and were not shocked when she said she would wait on the salesman. She was a very gregarious woman, yet waited patiently for the salesman to recognize her. He had the first minute she had walked into the store, but he wanted to build up some rapport with the customer before letting him wonder around the store or worse wonder out.

After a few minutes the salesman asked the gentleman if he could be excused to help the lady. He promised he would be right back. The customer said he would look around and maybe come back. Well.... this did not sit well with our salesman so he told the customer, no he was there for him and not to leave without saying good bye.

The salesman gathered himself, and went to interact with the lady. Oh the conversation was animated and lively. They had their back and forth to get started. She loved the way this man paid attention to her and she came into the store half the time just to be entertained. 

The salesman asked her if he could check on his other customer from time to time while they talked and she expressed some feign trepidation that she would not get his 100 percent attention. She truly understood though. The salesperson did peak her interest when he said I cannot remember how long it has been since you bought new earrings. I have a new shipment.

Shockingly she was actually looking for earrings for a new dress she had bought for an evening out planned the upcoming weekend. She said to the man, you see right through me, how did you know?

He brought out a tray of new earrings for her to browse while he went back to the man. Now normally items that are brought out for presentation are not just left with the customer, however most of the regulars were well known and the owner found great success by a little leniency in this regard. The other two sales ladies came over and the three of them enjoyed comparing the wears.

The salesman went back to the customer and his next question was more to open up the man about what he was looking to buy. He asked him are you looking for something traditional or something unique. The customer replied hesitantly he didn’t know. He was also thinking to himself, how would I know if I am looking for something traditional or unique. He wouldn’t know if anything was unique so his guard went up. Was the salesperson going to try and trick him into spending too much money on something? Yet this was the first time anyone had asked him this type of question. Everyone that did ask, always wanted to know if this was for a special occasion and that was it. It was for a special occasion but he wasn’t saying that to anyone yet.

So the salesman sensing he wasn’t going to get an answer right away, tried asking if this was for him or someone else, and even joked are you having to find something for your wife so she won’t get mad when you buy something for yourself?  A new truck maybe, some golf clubs? The customer attempted a small laugh. The customer said he was looking for an anniversary ring.

To be continued.....