On the road again???
Things are moving slower than molasses on a crisp December morning with the maintenance position at Caterpillar. I've passed all their "jump through hoops" tests with flying colors and have been waiting a week now for a scheduled interview. The ad indicated some degree of urgency for filling the position. Apparently urgency now comes as a sliding scale thing.
It's beginning to look like being out on the road for a week at a time is going to be the best way to make any serious buckage. I managed to locate a position that is based out of Arlington Texas and drives mainly between Texas and Tennessee with occasional stops in neighboring states. The difference here was these guys are offering a flat rate per week rather than a per mile based pay system. (which usually ends up being a sliding scale thing to where the farther you drive the less you get paid per mile) They are offering $950 a week with a $1000 sign on bonus. That's not bad money, folks! Works out to about $23 and hour. '05 and '06 Freightliners with condo sleepers and either a 48' or 53' trailer behind that... all "no touch" freight too. Love snuggling with Honey every night but we've got bills that have to be paid. Need to get those eliminated so we can start paying US instead of them... yanno?
My "IDEAL" job is still a pipe dream but I'm certain that there is a valid need if I could just figure out how to market myself. I call the operation "Run it by Joe" and it works like this: Companies are all the time putting new stuff on the market. This stuff is usually well tested by the time it goes into final production but stuff still gets out there that should not have gotten that final okay. Probably half of all the stuff I put my hands on has some sort of little thing wrong with it that has just plain been overlooked. Could be in issue with functionality, placement of operational controls, missing feature or other flaw.
For example.... I spent $50 for a 12 million candle power spotlight for my truck. This thing is BIG! Has a shoulder strap to make carrying it easier.... although it can be carried in one hand easily enough. Problem? Yeah.... all the controls are placed in such an awkward location that it takes both hands just to turn the darn thing on and off. That's just plain DUMB on the part of a manufacturer to have let it go to production like that. The main spotlight needs a trigger type switch located under the carrying handle so it can be operated with one hand. No brainer for me but something simple that slipped past a heck of a lot of other folks.
Often my advice to companies would be "leave it alone" folks. Take something simple like a bottle of Tums. Their product has stayed the same for many years because it works just fine. So to add excitement to things they start messing with the packaging. Several years ago they hit perfection! Nice bottle shape and a lid that could be removed and reinstalled with one hand in the dark. Doesn't get any better than that. Then they "improved" it. Now you had to use both hands and do some sort of twisting action to attempt to pry the damn lid off.... and it was even tougher to get back on! How that made it to the shelves is a mystery. Then they sort of went back to the first design.... but decided to make the lid a two part thing with the upper part attached and hinged. Okay.... idea wise not too bad.... IF it works okay.... which it doesn't. The hinge is wimpy and the upper part of the cap often becomes detached. Then you have to reassemble the cap and each time you do this the fit becomes a little bit more sloppy... so the entire system just degrades over time. Fortunately all these little problems cause heartburn... which makes you use the product more quickly... so you can toss the defective bottle sooner!
And while I'm on the subject of packaging.... AAARRRRRGGGGGGGGG!!!! Is anyone else out there pissed off at the fact that it's damn near impossible to open ANYTHING anymore without some sort of sharp instrument? How about all those things you thought you had opened only to find something else blocking your access to the product? While that nice polycarbonate material makes it very easy to see what you're about to purchase.... if you don't have a really sharp knife you are NOT going to ever get your hands on the merchandise. So... for example... do NOT purchase anything before your plane takes off... or after it lands at an airport. Why? WELL! The almighty all knowing Federal Government says you can't have even a gentleman's knife inside the security zone at an airport. Thus you can't open a damn thing until you've left the facility... gone to a hardware store and purchased a replacement for the sweet little blade taken from you before you could board the flight. By the way.... remember to box up and mail your new knife to your home before you attempt to fly to your home because the jerks are going to take the new one away from you too.
Sort of derailed there.... over reaching government just sort of pissed me off. But back to packaging.... I hate things like pulling the little red tab on a gallon of milk..... getting rid of that... opening the lid.... only to find that there is some other little seal glued to the top of the bottle.... usually with no tab on it so you have nothing to grab hold of to remove the damn thing. (got that knife handy?) Or you take down that new box of snack crackers.... figure out the secret handshake necessary to separate all the little cardboard tabs without ripping the entire top off.... only to find a neat little plastic bag inside that's full of tasty crackers and heat sealed to make SURE that they don't get out..... EVER! Pull and tug this way and that.... nothing... damn thing will NOT give up the treats! One either ends up increasing force until the entire bag finally rips apart.... scattering crackers all over hell and back..... OR.... you're digging for that knife again.... and a zip lock bag so you can reseal to keep the treats fresh.
How about peanut butter! Now I love peanut butter! I'm one of the few guys that thinks putting peanut butter ON peanut butter is normal. However.... unscrew the lid and there's that damn secondary seal super glued to the top of the jar. Usually there is a little bitty tab somewhere you can barely get your thumb and forefinger on. Pry that up and start giving it a pull.... what happens? Most of the seal thing comes off the jar.... BUT all that's happened is that you have successfully torn the damn thing in half.... and the lower part is still glued tight as hell to the top of the jar... only no tab to pull on this time! Got that knife handy?
Is it too much to ask that when we buy something we can actually OPEN the damn package? Is it too much to ask that we only have to open the package ONCE? And if it's a dry food item... like those snack crackers... how about y'all put those in a nice zip lock bag so we can reseal them? Thanks.
It's beginning to look like being out on the road for a week at a time is going to be the best way to make any serious buckage. I managed to locate a position that is based out of Arlington Texas and drives mainly between Texas and Tennessee with occasional stops in neighboring states. The difference here was these guys are offering a flat rate per week rather than a per mile based pay system. (which usually ends up being a sliding scale thing to where the farther you drive the less you get paid per mile) They are offering $950 a week with a $1000 sign on bonus. That's not bad money, folks! Works out to about $23 and hour. '05 and '06 Freightliners with condo sleepers and either a 48' or 53' trailer behind that... all "no touch" freight too. Love snuggling with Honey every night but we've got bills that have to be paid. Need to get those eliminated so we can start paying US instead of them... yanno?
My "IDEAL" job is still a pipe dream but I'm certain that there is a valid need if I could just figure out how to market myself. I call the operation "Run it by Joe" and it works like this: Companies are all the time putting new stuff on the market. This stuff is usually well tested by the time it goes into final production but stuff still gets out there that should not have gotten that final okay. Probably half of all the stuff I put my hands on has some sort of little thing wrong with it that has just plain been overlooked. Could be in issue with functionality, placement of operational controls, missing feature or other flaw.
For example.... I spent $50 for a 12 million candle power spotlight for my truck. This thing is BIG! Has a shoulder strap to make carrying it easier.... although it can be carried in one hand easily enough. Problem? Yeah.... all the controls are placed in such an awkward location that it takes both hands just to turn the darn thing on and off. That's just plain DUMB on the part of a manufacturer to have let it go to production like that. The main spotlight needs a trigger type switch located under the carrying handle so it can be operated with one hand. No brainer for me but something simple that slipped past a heck of a lot of other folks.
Often my advice to companies would be "leave it alone" folks. Take something simple like a bottle of Tums. Their product has stayed the same for many years because it works just fine. So to add excitement to things they start messing with the packaging. Several years ago they hit perfection! Nice bottle shape and a lid that could be removed and reinstalled with one hand in the dark. Doesn't get any better than that. Then they "improved" it. Now you had to use both hands and do some sort of twisting action to attempt to pry the damn lid off.... and it was even tougher to get back on! How that made it to the shelves is a mystery. Then they sort of went back to the first design.... but decided to make the lid a two part thing with the upper part attached and hinged. Okay.... idea wise not too bad.... IF it works okay.... which it doesn't. The hinge is wimpy and the upper part of the cap often becomes detached. Then you have to reassemble the cap and each time you do this the fit becomes a little bit more sloppy... so the entire system just degrades over time. Fortunately all these little problems cause heartburn... which makes you use the product more quickly... so you can toss the defective bottle sooner!
And while I'm on the subject of packaging.... AAARRRRRGGGGGGGGG!!!! Is anyone else out there pissed off at the fact that it's damn near impossible to open ANYTHING anymore without some sort of sharp instrument? How about all those things you thought you had opened only to find something else blocking your access to the product? While that nice polycarbonate material makes it very easy to see what you're about to purchase.... if you don't have a really sharp knife you are NOT going to ever get your hands on the merchandise. So... for example... do NOT purchase anything before your plane takes off... or after it lands at an airport. Why? WELL! The almighty all knowing Federal Government says you can't have even a gentleman's knife inside the security zone at an airport. Thus you can't open a damn thing until you've left the facility... gone to a hardware store and purchased a replacement for the sweet little blade taken from you before you could board the flight. By the way.... remember to box up and mail your new knife to your home before you attempt to fly to your home because the jerks are going to take the new one away from you too.
Sort of derailed there.... over reaching government just sort of pissed me off. But back to packaging.... I hate things like pulling the little red tab on a gallon of milk..... getting rid of that... opening the lid.... only to find that there is some other little seal glued to the top of the bottle.... usually with no tab on it so you have nothing to grab hold of to remove the damn thing. (got that knife handy?) Or you take down that new box of snack crackers.... figure out the secret handshake necessary to separate all the little cardboard tabs without ripping the entire top off.... only to find a neat little plastic bag inside that's full of tasty crackers and heat sealed to make SURE that they don't get out..... EVER! Pull and tug this way and that.... nothing... damn thing will NOT give up the treats! One either ends up increasing force until the entire bag finally rips apart.... scattering crackers all over hell and back..... OR.... you're digging for that knife again.... and a zip lock bag so you can reseal to keep the treats fresh.
How about peanut butter! Now I love peanut butter! I'm one of the few guys that thinks putting peanut butter ON peanut butter is normal. However.... unscrew the lid and there's that damn secondary seal super glued to the top of the jar. Usually there is a little bitty tab somewhere you can barely get your thumb and forefinger on. Pry that up and start giving it a pull.... what happens? Most of the seal thing comes off the jar.... BUT all that's happened is that you have successfully torn the damn thing in half.... and the lower part is still glued tight as hell to the top of the jar... only no tab to pull on this time! Got that knife handy?
Is it too much to ask that when we buy something we can actually OPEN the damn package? Is it too much to ask that we only have to open the package ONCE? And if it's a dry food item... like those snack crackers... how about y'all put those in a nice zip lock bag so we can reseal them? Thanks.
posted by Rev. Joe Ruyle | 9:32 PM
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