Sky gettin dark above me
Baby I need your lovin
Got to have all of your lovin
Baby I want your lovin~~~My Pledge of Love; Joe Jeffery Group, 1969
After my RailBarons.org experience on Tuesday AM, I found myself
doing some bops-and-weaves, and some musical-chairs with some
errands. These include Mang Rd/Park, Mickey-D's and the location with all the
crazy renovation now going on, at Sheridan Dr. & Delaware Ave.,
and Niagara Hobby~~~where, in taking my valued 2-8-8-2 articulated-mallet
locomotive to be serviced, as I'm scootering in, I am greeted by former
ABX/DHL casual employee, Anthony Aquisto. What does he do!?!? In front of
a number of customers and co-workers, he drops to his knees, and does
one-of-those, chanting---I'm-not-worthy; I'm-not-worthy!! We laughed; under my breath though, I'm pleading and gesturing to stop it already, and get up!!
I have never mentioned much of Anthony before because he was just a "casual"; would only get spotty work consideration. But when he would be on board, he always wanted to work in my area. We worked well together, and he always respected me because he saw
first-hand, the insanity of what I was up against, what I had to do to effect
my energies to complete my responsibilities, and some of the punks that would
conspire to make things more difficult for me than what already had existed.
That again, is Niagara Hobby & Crafts, Union Rd. Cheektowaga, NY.
Wednesday, there was nothing of real significance~~~in NORTHTOWNS!!!
But a cylinder-shaped 'band' of cloud-cover was creating a lake-effect
snow fall across South Buffalo, South-towns, Cheektowaga, Depew, and
the Western portion of THE NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY that created such
depth~~~and resulting chaos, that Buffalo/West Seneca ended up on
Thursday evening's, NBC & CBS NATIONAL NEWS!!! For all I know, we were probably
on ABC, too; I just couldn't get to that channel in time.
Thursday; since this is a journal I'm just going to post the attached this way,
and we'll see where this goes:
Thank you for your response to our WNYJOBS ad for a Part-Time Transportation Coordinator. We have been collecting and reviewing the candidate responses and are now reaching out to a group of individuals whose background seems suited for the position. As usual, we heard from a very diverse group and had a lot of work to do in narrowing the field. I would like to touch on a couple issues and make a couple requests before we move on to set up interviews.
1.The position is a Part-Time administrative position for the foreseeable future. And because of the part-time nature of the position, only statutory benefits are currently available. Although we are getting busier and I would love to see this change, I am asking each candidate to confirm that they understand this. As you can imagine, we are concerned about filling the position only to have someone leave us when they find full-time work.
2.Please provide us with your salary requirements and a list of references.
3.Finally, I’d like to try a little different approach to the initial interviews by asking each candidate to respond to a couple questions.
a.Please pick a specific job duty that you’ve had to perform in the past that you weren’t particularly fond of and explain why you feel that way about it.
b.Describe to us a work-related event that you were involved in where you had a great deal of fun, and explain why.
c.If you had the opportunity to work a flexible schedule, what would your preferred work schedule be, and why?
Thank you for your interest in our transportation position. We are interested in beginning interviews in the very near future so we look forward to your response and we wish you luck in the process.
Sincerely,
"Marcus" Regoord
Vice President - Finance & Administration
Marcus;
1. Yes I fully understand this to be a PART-TIME position. At this juncture in my life, this is the most suitable type of employment I am seeking. Your offer is consistent with my expectations. Salary expectations would be consistent with payroll structures already in place with your Payroll; Human Resources Departments.
2a. When Airborne/D H L Express chose, in 2007, to get away from loading the very transportable and movable COCHRANE CONTAINERS, and started loading the industry-norm; "A" CONTAINERS. That decision left me to completely fend for myself. I received absolutely no support from local management to make sure that the work that, in effect, was still available for me to undertake, was done so in a humane manner. In being left to my own resources, I was reduced to the resident freak-show. With the COCHRANE(C) Containers, I could 'cheat' mother nature and take advantage of structures and apparatus around me, to get the work done. With the larger "A" Containers, where it was like going in to, and out, of a house, there were no structures or apparatus to 'lean' against, or hold onto. So I was reduced to crawling on my hands-and-knees, and doing the 'letter-sort'.
2b. The AM sort!!!!! I was in my 'element'!!!!!! I ruled!!! I was so good, the industrial-engineers that came in and 'clocked' me~~~to everybody's chagrin~~~ended up basing the Northeast Region productivity standards, on my performances. 18 parcels a minute; one every three seconds, had to be pulled from a pallet, or "C" Container, and placed on conveyor belt for driver review and extraction. Whether the parcel was 5#, 15#, 35#, or 75#~~~that was the standard that was set.
2c. My preferred flex-time schedule would be full-time days; a few days a week. That would be, as if to say, 8AM-5PM kind of thing; possibly Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Or Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Marcus~~~you have asked some 'loaded' questions. I assume I would be given a face-to-face opportunity to amplify any points and concerns you may still have.
Lou Marconi 716.578.8568 cell phone
Friday; always interesting, often good, but this Friday would end up having
me, possess a heavy heart.
There are those of you in this viewing audience who know me well enough to know that a part of my persona; a part of my very essence, includes a metaphysical attachment with The Chicago Cubs. To begin with, one must understand that this attraction was incubated in an era when Major League Baseball(MLB), was still THE NATIONAL PAST-TIME. As kids, we longed for the lazy-crazy-hazy days of summer~~~to play sand-lot baseball!! In playing at our level, we, as well, wanted to know about mythical athletes playing in these mystical, Parthenon-type-shrines called, Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, The Polo Grounds, Municipal Stadium, and Forbes Field, etc. So in 1961, because of this topical irregularity with Crosley Field, my initial draw was to the Cincinnati Reds. You see, the left-field-warning-track rested against an inclined area because a part of Cincinnati's drainage system, ran along that area of the stadium outfield. So when the left-fielder was retrieving a fly hit deep-to-left, he would have to run up an incline as he was about to encounter the field-field Fence!! Those kinds of nuances just left a lasting impression on me. But then something happened in 1963, that would have a profound effect on me. Kenneth Douglass Hubbs (December 23, 1941 - February 13, 1964) was an American second-baseman who played from 1961 to 1963 for the Chicago Cubs in the National League. He was killed in a plane crash near Provo, Utah prior to the 1964 season.
In his short big-league career, Hubbs was considered to be an excellent fielder but a poor hitter. In 1962, he became the first rookie to win a Gold Glove Award, and set several fielding records. Those achievements helped him win the MLB Rookie of the Year Award that season. At the time of his death, Hubbs was considered to be one of the best second basemen in the game.
When I learned of this plane crash, I became an instant Chicago Cubs, fan. In Hubbs, Chicago had a new-found sense of enthusiasm. There was this sense of a rebirth, a rejuvenation; an aspiration of attaining the National League Pennant for the first time since 1945. I got sucked into this same kind of excitement and enthusiasm. And why not?!?! In Ken's passing, his legacy, combined with one hell of a line-up, at least on paper, still suggested success was imminent.
Hell, the Cubs outfield already had hall-of-Famer, Billy Williams. As well, in the outfield, was this promising rookie, named Lou Brock~~~yeah, that Lou Brock.
The Lou Brock saga would be the start of the "crying of a million tears" that Ronald Edward Santo would often philosophically impart, when trying to come to terms with a set-back in Ron's professional and personal life.
In 1964, a promising young outfielder named Lou Brock was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio. The trade became known as one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history, although few people could have predicted that outcome. At the time of the trade, Brock's best season at the plate had been an ordinary .263 and he was having trouble defensively, while Broglio had won 18 games twice in his career. Following the trade, Broglio would go on to win only seven more games and retire from baseball after three years, while Brock would lead the Cardinals to two world championships, become baseball's all-time stolen base leader, and be elected to the Hall of Fame.
The infield consisted of the now-famous double-play-combination of Kessinger-to-Beckert-to-Banks(...it is a great day to play baseball, let's play two!!!). The infield of The Chicago Cubs was anchored at third base by Ron Santo. Feisty, competitive, and yet down-to-earth, A rookie in 1960, Ron Santo was maturing as an athlete, a professional, and as a human being to where, by the late 1960's, he had become the iconic image of Wrigley Field, and the Chicago Cubs.
Then came 1969!! In Ron Santo's life-experiences, many of those million tears had to have occurred during the late summer of 1969. Throughout Spring and continuing well into the lazy-hazy-crazy days of Summer, by all accounts, The Chicago Cubs, behind the offensive and defensive play of Ron Santo, were destined for an appearance in the world Series!! But a Leo Durocher ill-timed vacation, a black-cat appearing in front of their visitors dugout during a NY Mets game, and Fate, would decide otherwise. And what should have been an uplifting baseball story focusing on the Cubs first pennant appearance since 1945 with Detroit, ended up becoming the Epic Saga of The Miracle Mets. 1969 would be the meteoric apex of Ron Santo's career.
A nine-time National League All-Star and five-time Gold Glove Award winner, Santo hit .277 with 365 doubles, 67 triples, 342 home runs, 1,331 RBI and 1,138 runs in 2,243 games covering 15 major league seasons with the Cubs (1960-73) and White Sox (1974).
In his 15-year career, Santo finished in the league top-10 in batting average three times, slugging percentage five times, on-base percentage seven times, base on balls nine times, games played eight times, home runs seven times, RBI eight times, runs scored three times and total bases five times.
He holds or shares many defensive records for third basemen, including most consecutive National League games at third base (364), most years leading the N.L. in putouts (seven), most years leading the N.L. in assists (seven straight), most years leading either league in total chances (nine) and most years leading either league in double plays (six).
Santo was a member of the Chicago Cubs radio team as an analyst since 1990 and was a pioneer in raising funds for juvenile diabetes research. For 32 years he hosted the Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes, which raised more than $40 million to support diabetes research, progress and continued hope for a cure.
Beloved Cubs iconic 3rd Baseman, Ron Santo died early Friday morning, at age 70. Ron Santo, a Nine-time All-Star, and longtime broadcaster, was truly a Chicago legend. The iconic third-baseman was referred to, by ESPN, and many other sports commentators, as the greatest player NEVER elected into the Hall of Fame. He wasn't Mr. Cub; that was Ernie Banks -- but Ron Santo was the next best thing. So it was with great sorrow that Cubs fans around the world reacted Friday when they learned Ronald Edward Santo had died from complications of bladder cancer.
That sadness is, as well, shared by myself. This essay is dedicated to you,
Ronald Edward Santo; February 25, 1940 – December 2, 2010.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
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