Don’t take any crap (but don’t be a brat).

I was counselling a coworker 10 years my junior about how to deal with the fact that young adults often get no respect.  You need to remember that you’ve reached the age of majority and although you’re new at it, you’re completely responsible for yourself and your actions.  Welcome to the club.

Don’t take crap about your age from older adults.   We might give you the impression that you don’t know nearly as much as your elders do and the truth is that YOU DON’T but it’s no reason to take crap.  You might not have done a lot but you’ve done something; maybe even something the geezer giving you grief hasn’t.  You’re adults too and, in spite of your inexperience, need to insist that you be treated as peers; just remember to do it in a grown up manner because if you huff and stamp your feet you will just be proving them right.  Just remember that your trouble is inexperience and that will be fixed quickly enough.

I remember being 24 and getting a job in a warehouse with a top-heavy seniority list where some of the old boys insisted on calling me kid.  My last job involved sexy stuff like jumping out of helicopters so when some schlub who spent his life stacking boxes called me kid, a fear of unemployment or going to prison saved him from a knuckle-induced epiphany.  This fear tempers my actions to this day.

It’s only now that I’m approaching my 40’s that I’m taken seriously….for no other reason than I’m approaching my 40’s.  It’s plain wrong and I was wrong to put up with that crap; you shouldn’t.

Brand dropping.

The other evening I was woken up by a call from a fellow who needed help with his garage door.  I wasn’t to enthusiastic because I had turned in for an early start in the morning; for a work day that turned out to be over 17 hours.

 

The man was having trouble installing parts my employer sold him; he had opted to install them himself and had run into trouble.  He must have sensed my reluctance to run out to help him so he mentioned that he couldn’t park his car inside until the door was working.  When I said that at least his car wasn’t trapped inside the garage he said, “it’s a PORSCHE!”

 

Was that supposed to impress me?  I don’t know what you think when you hear Porsche but I picture a rusty 911 with blue exhaust.  It’s the type of Porsche I see the most and especially think that’s the kind that would belong to a fellow who begrudges the labour charge to install garage door springs….or lives on a street where he can’t leave his car in the driveway.

 

By the way:  Do you remember when limousines were for wealthy people?  For years now, when I see one I think: There goes someone with $80.  

A different approach.

I’m just watching Swamp Loggers and they posted a little note that cypress is a choice wood for items like telephone poles because its resin is a very effective preservative with insect repellent properties.  Good for you, cypress

I remember reading a US Forest Service paper which cited southern pine as the best wood to use for posts.  Your first impulse might be to ask in what dreamland is southern pine the most rot and pest resistant wood around; the fact is it isn’t by a long shot.  What makes southern pine the best choice for posts is that it absorbs any applied preservatives better than other species of wood.  

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.