MY LIFE - OCTOBER

Saturday, October 14, 2000

I forgot to ask Lenny about splitting time before he left today. I swear, sometimes I'm just a blockhead who's head is actually round. I left him a note on the schedule instead, so Monday will probably see me getting a lecture from him on something. It might not even have to do with splitting time either. But I don't really know since I don't think Lenny always knows what's going on with himself.

I do know that today was fun. Angela is making good progress, but I had to have her just count early on today. Since the store was closed last night, we had a few more in rapid refill than normal. I just put the refills through and let her count them out. Bob, who was filling in today, was good enough to let us handle the refills on our own. He knows I'm trying to train her, and counting is just as important as inputting, since she had to try and find the medications before counting them.

When we got caught up, I let her do most of the inputting, watching her and correcting her when she made a mistake. I didn't tell her what to do unless she appeared completely clueless, at which point I would tell her what needed to be done. I still had to repeat myself at times, but it was with less frequency that normal. She's going to need time to get a lot of the smaller things down, but she's making good progress.

The one thing that Lenny and Tom both need to realize is that she's not going to learn everything within a few weeks, nor is she going to be very fast early on. They need to realize that I'm not going to spend a month training either. I started learning when the night tech was still around, but learned most of what I know after she left. Tom is going to have to understand it's going to be the same way with Angela. He's going to have to be patient and make sure she's doing okay.

I'm hoping that he'll understand that enough to let this transfer go through. I can train, but I can only do so much. It's up to him to make sure that she goes in the right direction with this.

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The pharmacist today, Bob, is one of my favorite fill-ins. He's funny and his sense of humor is similar to mine. We get along very well and it can get very interesting when we're both on a roll, and that happens a lot. He's just a strange guy who isn't easily embarrassed by the things he does. He really has no shame and that allows me to say things to him that I probably wouldn't say around Tom. He also catches my references, something that not everyone can do.

He also knows Shakespeare, something that only makes it more interesting. Nothing makes a day more interesting than listening to a pharmacist quote "Hamlet" time and time again. Then he'll start doing this strange little dance, which prompts me to tell him to stop dancing, which he usually does, only to go and do something else that's strange and offbeat.

Another thing that makes him an intriguing guy is he gets along with the customers very well. I don't think I've ever seen him get mad a customer or lose his cool with someone. If anything, he makes them feel at ease, a welcome change compared to when Tom works, who's often confrontational. Bob will make the customer feel comfortable and engage them in a conversation. It makes it easier on the customer and saves us from hearing some grief.

He also has an appreciation to lines from customers like this: "It's always a good day when you wake up. And if you don't wake up, you don't give a damn." That's probably the best line I've ever heard in my life from a customer and Bob agreed.

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I don't want to talk about this next topic, but I'm going to anyway since I've thought about it so much. In case you've been living under a rock for the last two days, you've heard about the terrorist attack on the U.S.S Cole by a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Aden. This is a terrible tragedy for the families who lost someone serving on the ship and it raises some serious questions for us as a nation.

The intitial response by the general public was to exterminate those responsible for the attack. While it's great to see national pride, I don't think that retaliation with violence will solve anything. Terrorists are fickle groups who take pride in what they do and seem to enjoy it even more when their victims strike back. I think the last thing we need to do is attack them for that reason.

Another reason is if we strike and end up hitting the wrong group. That just makes the situation even stickier and sets up a real dangerous situation. Violence won't solve this problem. We've seen this with the constant violence between Israelis and Palestinians and I don't see anything working that involves violence.

This whole mess in the Middle East is just awful. Nobody can get along and it's all over land. Israel feels one way while Palestinians feel another way and neither side can come to any kind of agreement. Now the U.S. has been drawn in indirectly and I think that both the Israelis and Palestinians have to be a little nervous over this.

They should be. The U.S. is the most powerful nation in the county, not the country you want to piss off. However, I think a more reasonable solution would be to cut off all economic ties to either side and get all U.S.-related personnel out of the area. Let the two sides fight each other and only intervene again if the United States is attacked again. If it happens again, then you bring in force.

But for now, just refuse to help either side. This would be particularly devasting to Israel, which the U.S. has been in support of for several years now and who can't afford to have the U.S. turn on them. But I think that's what has to happen. The U.S. has no real reason to be over there with the escalations in violence. It will only lead to more deaths of U.S. soldiers, something that no one wants to see.

However, that goes against the popular consensus now though. Here are just a few quotes from some people who were asked how the U.S. should respond:

"Quietly. Cautiously. And with deadly effectiveness."

"...just kill them all and let God sort them out."

"They should turn that part of the Middle East into a parking lot. Make a K-mart out of it."

"...We should hunt them down, wipe them out without mercy and with enough force and a little extra."

I just don't know. This situation has left me wondering what's next. The world just isn't a safe place for everyone to live in. I wish it wasn't that way, but it's not the case. This is so silly, yet so serious.