The price of your soul

Most my childhood years and some of my young adult years(until I joined the military) I lived in this rural, backwoods, 1 light town that I would wager you never heard of before.

Once I joined the military I then moved everywhere yet stayed no where long enough to really amount to anything.  However, I picked up tidbits of life a long the way.  All of those experiences however jaded through the eyes of a sailor, has brought me to where I am today.  Living in the heart of the United States.  With the military as well as thousands upon thousands of other people packed like sardines into their belief of city and urban living.

So here we are at the heart of the problem or as the media portrays it, the solution.  The social ladder.

Everyone out there enjoys activities that the consider fun. Everyone has activities they must complete in order to have fun. If time travel was even remotely possible, I'd say travel to before there was electricity, before cars, before you needed to work 3 jobs to pay rent in down town Huston, Santa Monica, or Boston.  What is your soul worth? 2am pizza delivery?  How about your 600sq/ft apartment overlooking yet another apartment complex?  We just don't stop to think about the fact that those people who work that overnight delivery job is to afford their own studio apartment.

Honestly why do we sell ourselves so cheap?  Is the addiction to the convinces enough to convince ourselves the negatives aren't that bad?  

When growing up in small town in Maine the only thing your doing at 2am is sleeping.  With a housing density of only about 65 houses per square mile you can take a breath with out smelling the neighbors trash or hearing that Yorkie-poo barking in the unit above you all hours of the night. Compare that to Boston at about 5560 houses per sq/mi, or New York City with about 11,740 houses per sq/mi, talk about crowded.

In Manhattan NY, the average rent is about $4,000 yet the annual income is a mere $66,700.  With an approximate monthly income after taxs and such of $3600.  Last time I did math that leaves them in the red around $400.  People have to eat too.  The average American adult eats around $150 a month or more depending on if they enjoy eating out.  Transportation costs, the list goes on.
In Sanford ME, the average rent is just under $1000 and the average income is right around $33,000. With an approximate months income after taxes and such of $1775.  That leaves them in the green about $800 bucks a month. 

You guys are probably scratching your head and wondering what any of this has to do with anything.  I think that this has everything to do with everything.  Your only worth as much as you think you are.  Spending every last dime to stay "keeping up with the Jones's" does nothing but fill your life with anxiety.  When is the last time someone said nature doesn't make me relaxed because there is too much stress outside?  I can't say I have ever heard anything close to it before.  My question is simple. Why sell your soul to stay miserable?

"Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy." - Hamlin Garland

Traveling across Maine

VS

Driving through Massachusetts
                                                                              

Don't forget to take some time and smell the roses.  I hope you enjoyed the read.

~Daved1058







Sources:
www.bankrate.com
www.lendingtree.com

Facility Maintenance

Here is something everyone can relate to, but rarely does it ever become a topic of conversation, unless the situation was dire, to quote Kimberly from Rat Race "I'm prairie dogging it!" or unsanitary, lack of soap, paper towels, and/or toilet paper.

So, back to the topic at hand, facility maintence.   My work has since hired new contractor cleaning crews to clean all the restrooms, sounds great since at a prior meeting the bathrooms were substandard and needed more frequent maintence due to workforce and projected hiring.  All this was sounding pretty good.  I think most people can agree that public/work restrooms are rarely a pleasant experience and are utilized when issues of pressing urgency arise.

Every day sometime around 9:00am Monday through Friday they start doing the sweep through of the buildings presumably to clean them.  They wheel their little carts around with cleaning supplies, restocking supplies, and that trash can bungied to the front of the cart.  I assume they are cleaning in there.  Yet how in the course of maybe the next 1-3 hours every bathroom is in such disarray.  I am talking about paper towels over flowing out the cans, all the paper towels are gone, no toilet paper, or soap.  I work in a very low traffic area and I just don't get it.  In my building we have 2 gender specific bathrooms;  one "Men" and one "Ladies"; and we might have the foot traffic of +/- 100 people in my building per day, men out numbering the women 4:1.

Here is the math.  The contractors supply the bathrooms with EcoSoft® brand toilet paper(pro:100% recycled from...?, cons: sandpaper across rear, and single ply).  EcoSoft® has 1755 sheets per roll, 3 rolls per stall, and 2 stalls.  Gives us 5,265 sheets per stall and 10530 sheets in this 1 bathroom.  If my guesstimate(actualy a real word... speechless) is remotely close each of the 75 men who use this bathroom per day would need to use 140.4 sheets per day.  Depending on the brand you use at your house, that is about 1 roll per day of household toilet paper.  That is almost unfathomable.

Once we get closer to lunch time or later, about noon or so, people start getting creative from the lack of restroom supplies.  Kimwipes® for lack paper towels and toilet paper, general purpose cleaner(409, simple green, etc...) for lack of soap.

My point of view slightly changed while writing this article.  At first I was seriously leaning towards the thought of fire the contractors and hire new ones.  What if people really are using upwards of 150 sheets per person per day.  Either way I feel the bottom line is we need new contractors or more of them.  You just cant have bathrooms already out of stock with-in one hour of cleaning.  If there is no way around it, at-least maybe put extra supplies in the restrooms to be grabbed.  Sure people are going to steal a few rolls for them selves, but I feel that's better then flushing Kimwipes® or Techwipes® down the drain.

Plumbers cost a lot more then a roll of toilet paper, I have heard of up to $100/hour.  One source prices Ecosoft® 17990 at $2.16 per roll but you must buy a case of 36 rolls for $77.73.  For a price comparison Scott® 1000 is $0.73 per roll in a case of 27 rolls for $19.97 at your local Walmart.  Ecosoft® costs $0.0012 per sheet, single ply and feels like sandpaper, Scott® costs $0.0007 per sheet, also single ply, and in my opinion a tad softer with comparable "gripping power".  As a business man I'd rather have a few rolls of bathroom tissue or paper towels stolen then hire a plumber because of creative bathroom goers. 

Well now thats out of me.  Hope you enjoyed the read.

Daved1058