Among the Unemployed

On September 11, 2009 I was called into my bosses office at about 1:15 p.m. and was told that my job had been eliminated.  I found the fact that he chose this day to tell me to be a rather telling story.  I'm sure we all remember where we were on September 11, 2001.  I was getting ready to fly to Detroit from Jacksonville.  I had an 11:55 a.m. flight but of course by then all of the airplanes were grounded due to the horrendous attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

This is the first time in my life that I have been laid off from a job.  I was not surprised that it might happen since the company was not having a good year and I would have eliminated my position too (although I would have reorganized the rest of the staff so I could stay but that's another story).  I've been working since I was 16 years old (I'm now 52) and it's a very strange situation to be in.  I received a severance and I'm also hoping to collect unemployment, but it's just not the same to not be going to a job every day.  It's now been two weeks and I'm still job searching but I'm hopeful I will be able to get a job before year's end.  But, since I'm now among the unemployed, I was wondering how many other people are in my same situation.  So, here's the latest:

I'm now one of 6.138M people that are unemployed (seasonally adjusted - whatever that means) as of September 12.  I wonder if I was included in that count????  The unemployment rate at the end of August 2009 was 9.7%  for the U.S. but it was 10.7% for the State of Florida and in the metropolitan area I live in the rate at the end of August was a whopping 11.3%.  Not exactly the news I was hoping for.

The states with the lowest unemployment rates at the end of August were North Dakota (4.3%), South Dakota (4.9%), and Nebraska (5%).  I'm actually applying for a job at Mutual of Omaha (Senior Vice President - Retirement Services).  These are not necessarily the states that I would want to move to because I've become very accustomed to not having to wear a jacket!  But, if push comes to shove, I may need to get all my cold weather outfits out of the mothballs and I 'll be ordering a new pair of boots from L.L. Bean!  I don't think I'll be joining my sister Rose in Michigan since their unemployment rate is 15.2%. And, even though I know how to administered Puerto Rican retirement plans, I don't think I'll be moving to the island since their unemployment rate is 15.1%.  Hawaii's unemployment rate is only 7.2% so maybe there is still hope that I can find something in a warm climate!

I'll keep you apprised of my progress as I move on to this next chapter in my life.  I was watching the show "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery channel and from what I can tell, there are plenty of "dirty" jobs available that I can try.  But, I'd rather not be the person who works on the Stiped Bass and Tilapia fish farm out in the Mohave desert.  That's just a little too warm of a climate!

Tiger Wins 2009 Fed Ex Cup

Tiger Woods won the 2009 Fed Ex Cup today and he didn't win the Tour Championship.  That honor went to Phil Michelson.  I'm happy for Phil, especially since both his wife and mother were diagnosed earlier this year with breast cancer.

Tiger won 6 tournaments in 2009 and was no worse than second in nine of the seventeen tournaments in which he played.  He also won a $10M bonus!  Too bad he's married with children!  And, he didn't even play until late March due to surgery on his knee last July.  He has won 2 of the 3 Fed Ex Cups and the only reason he didn't win all 3 is because he had major surgery on his knee last year.

Without a doubt, he's the greatest golfer to ever play the game.  I'm confident he'll beat Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors before he's done playing.  It's just a matter of time.

I'll miss watching him play over the next few months but I look forward to January when he can start his run again.  I predict he will win 1 or 2 majors next year and at least 7 tournaments.  What's your prediction?

College Football - How to Stay in the Top 10

We are only 4 weeks into the College football season and already there have been a bazillion upsets.  This past week, 3 top 10 teams went by the wayside.  Although, I have no idea how Miami jumped from virtually no ranking to number 9.  I know they beat some ranked teams but come on...  Ohio State blanked Toledo and we went DOWN in the rankings!  Figure that one out!

Anyway, here's my theory on how to stay in the Top 10:

1. Pretend that your team is as good as Florida because you have a cloned quarterback like Tim Tebow.  This guy is awesome and I can't stand Florida!  He took a pretty bad hit yesterday and has a concussion. Florida doesn't play next weekend so Tebow will be able to rest for two weeks.  It sure does seem that he has a higher power on his side!
2. Paint your field BLUE (like Boise State) or any other color than green.  Perhaps the Bucks could paint their field SCARLET or GRAY!
3. Hire a coach that just follows the money and doesn't have any particular loyalty to a team....say like Nick Saban (Mich State, LSU, Miami Dolphins and now Alabama).  
4. Don't belong to a division that gets an automatic bid to the BSC bowls -- ala, Cincinnati and Boise State, or have a really freaky team mascot -- TCU Horned Frogs!  Get out!
5. Don't play any unranked teams during September.  It's guaranteed that you'll lose and the bottom will drop out!

Ohio State is now ranked #9 and we travel to Indiana for a game on October 3.  Unfortunately, I was at the game where Indiana last beat us at their house...it had been 92 years since they had beaten the BUCKS at home!  Hopefully, it will be another 92 years and I won't be around.

Go BUCKS!  OH.....IO!

President Obama's Speech to Children

Just when I thought that I'd heard everything, now we have people who are complaining that they will not be able to know the text of President Obama's speeach to children, which he plans to give next Tuesday.  Are you kidding me?  From what I've read about the speech the context evolves around encouraging children to stay in school and make sure they get a good education.  Some people are afraid that he is taking a "socialist" approach.  Where do people come up with this stuff?

President Obama has really received lots of criticism because we are a country that has no patience and wants immediate results.  He's trying to reach out to our children and encourage them to stay in school and make sure that they get a good education.  Isn't that what parent's are supposed to be doing?  I read an article that the school superintendent in the Detroit area is telling parents to not have their children come to school on Tuesday if they object to their children listening to President Obama's speech.  What a way to defeat the whole purpose of the "stay in school" motto!  I would be proud to have my children listen to our President and then I would want to have a discussion with them later that day at the dinner table just to get their impressions and use his speech as a chance for further learning. 

People, wake up!  President Obama is not the problem with this country.  The problem is that many of the parents in this country don't want to take responsibility for their childrens' education and discipline.  This is just another example of too much complacency.  I was very fortunate to have very caring parents when I was growing up.  They are still parenting me today even though I am 52 years old and they are in their upper '80's! 

I support President Obama 100% in his efforts to talk with our children.  Too bad I don't have that same support for many of the adults and parents.