A Bit More.

Okay, the boat ride around The Point in Pittsburgh was with my daughter's fifth grade class. I went along as a class parent on their field trip. It was very cool indeed. I saw that boat, the "Bada-Bing" in a marina that we cruised past on the river. It was not too far from the Hard Rock Cafe where we had dinner. That was an experience, dinner at the Hard Rock with a bunch of fifth graders. We toured Heinz Field, stood in the locker room and the press box. We rode the Duqesne Incline to the top of Mount Washington, what they used to refer to as Coal Mountain. The view of the city is amazing from up there, four hundred feet above the river. The streets up there remind me of my old neighborhood in West Orange, near the Edison Building where I lived when I first joined the cops, all those years ago.

I am a member of the Teamsters, proudly so. I was raised that way, had a great-uncle who was a union organizer back in the thirties. He was a tough guy. The unions these days, I don't know. At least my local anyway. The company I work for can no longer afford the pension fund payments. The company asked the local if they could provide "an aggressive 401K" to new full time hires instead of them paying into the pension. The local said no. That just hurts everyone, especially those of us who are "part-time". The union takes our dues and does not represent us fairly, in my opinion anyway. So, rock and a hard place, again. These guys better be willing to look at things from a different angle or we will all be out of a job. The rank and file I think are okay with making some changes, it's the union itself that has the problem. It has become big business, staffed with people who never actually worked for a living. They just want to protect their own jobs, often at our expense. It just ain't what it used to be.

Emergency Surgery: So a couple weeks back I noticed this lump in a very inconvenient place. Okay, it was on my ass. I figured it would go away. I hate going to the doctor. It got real big and before you know, when I finally did go to the doctor it was almost too late. A giant abscess, what began as a sebaceous cyst became infected. I told the doctor that I had to be at work at four. The doctor said I would be in the O.R. at five. You know, I can't get something cool, rare or exotic. No, I get an ass abscess. Far more difficult to recover from than you might imagine, or maybe you can, depending on your imagination I guess. I will not torture you with details. Suffice it to say it sucked. Three friggin' days in the hospital for a lump on my ass. Down on The Dock I still ain't heard the end of it. Get it? The end, of it? I crack myself up sometimes.

Hey Tommy, lots more to tell you bro.. I will write more soon.........I promise I won't forget this time.....Yeah, thanks for the sentiment buddy, you too........Okay you can stop laughing now......Hey bro., I gotta go to work........Yeah, I was talking to that guy.......No, not that guy, the other guy.......Yeah, they might consider some changes, allow some of us part timers to achieve some parity on the hourly rate at least.......Well he's the highest ranking union rep. in our shop, and he's no dummy so you never know, you know?.......Yeah I am still working on that book but I can't count on that pie in the sky bullshit bro., I got a family to support.........Roger that troop....Yeah, same here.