The Saturday Morning Post - Balance

 I am back earning a living in my bedroom again.  I can go into the office, but it feels less safe than it did, and when I get there, there is no one around. A lot of people are in this position, or should be.  The challenge for me with work from home (WFH - it has become such a part of our culture that we even have an acronym for it) is balancing.  For me this is harder at this time of the year when it is cold, and often wet, and getting out for a walk seems less attractive. If I am not careful I find myself working 10+ hours a day.  I recently went five days without leaving the apartment.  Far too long to be healthy. 

I am pretty good about turning off my office computer on the weekends and leaving it off.  But Monday through Friday it is my constant companion, and there are more things that need doing, than will ever be done.  Just reading the tone of this message, I can tell that this is weighing on my psyche.  

The more out of balance I am, the harder it is for me to focus and be at my most productive.  I need to work on this.  Sometimes the first step, is acknowledging the need for a second step.  

Fabulous Friday - Coming in Hot

When I think of Fabulous I think of Prada, Gucci, Chanel, and others, but nature also has fabulousness.  There is an old ditty about favorite things, that includes birds on the wing, and a flight of geese can be spectacular.  Come visit one winter, we can go down to Huntley Meadows early in the day and see hundreds of them. The sound is amazing when 50 or 100 geese take flight, zoom by, then with everything extended, land in the water with a splash.  

 

Thursday Ramble - Working

A couple of weeks ago it was cold and I needed to get out of the house. I wanted / needed to take a nice walk.  I drove across The River, to the MGM Casino in Maryland, it has a lot of walkable indoor space and is smoke free as all casinos should be. This sign was in front of a closed Starbucks.  The casino was surprisingly busy, it was a cold day, people looking for something to do indoors, had stopped in for a walk and to spend a little money on the video games, or a lot of money thinking they can outsmart the table games.  (I left $6 behind, about what I would have paid to park someplace else to park so I could walk indoors, the casino has free parking in a land of $5 an hour parking garages.) 

It was a day when Starbucks, or any coffee shop, should have been open, should have been doing a brisk business. Starbucks has a decent reputation as an employer.  Few people are going to earn a generous living working there, but they have a reputation of paying higher wages and making better benefits available - health insurance - college tuition reimbursement than other "fast food" outlets.  

My rambling thoughts, there are several factors at work. 

COVID and working being exposed to the public, really face to face with the public on a daily basis, who wants to be face to face with an anti vaxer with their nose hanging over the top of their mask, for any money, let alone $10-15 and hour? 

A lot of employers consider people, human resources, to be the flexible, fungible part of their business, and when things shut down, they simply cut hours to zero. Many of the staff found other things to do, or realized they hated what they were doing.  It is hard to get them back on the farm, after they have discovered life. 

When I studied business management, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the goal of a business was for an employee to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of employing the person, plus a 10-20% margin for the employer (the margin in my office is lower than that.) Today the system seems to be to pay as little as possible on the supply side, while charging as much as possible on the demand side, to create the greatest possible margin in the middle.  Few businesses show the real numbers, but the margins are phenomenal, we have a lot of companies paying $10 an hour for front line staff, while the owners and executives earn millions.  Business has gotten greedy, and the events of the last couple of years have created an environment where employees can object by walking away - and they are.

A lot of food service jobs have been staffed, either on the front lines, or in the back rooms by recent immigrants.  If you read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and you know this is nothing new, the best French chefs in New York, are Mexican and Central Americans.  The past few years have not been friendly in this country for immigrants, legal or otherwise.  We cut off temporary work visas, then brought them back but the process time is interminable, and the underground economy of people without paperwork, has ground to a halt.  

Sadly our immigration system has been a mess for so long, parts of our economy had become dependent on illegally employing people who lacked paperwork, or how shall I say this, had paperwork that was not entirely legal. 

This is an old problem, several years ago I was reviewing my Social Security Earning and Benefits statement, and it showed more in wages one year than I knew I had earned, like $20,000 more. I called an insider who looked at the record and simply said, someone used that Social Security number to report earnings, paid the tax on it, probably someone without a legal number. The name didn't match, but the number did and that is what we use. It happens all the time.  

The system is still a mess. A guy I know, who is a US citizen, whose two children are US citizens, born here, is 5,000 miles away from his wife and kids.  His wife is waiting approval of a visa, she is not a US citizen.  They were married and living here when the kids were born, but because she went home to visit family and her visa expired, she has been waiting almost two years for permission to rejoin her family. This is not a green card marriage, the system is broken if it is keeping families like his apart. (He spends about 4 months a year with his wife and kids in Africa, and telecommutes to his job in DC.) He is incredibly talented, we need him, if this drags on, he can get permanent residence where his wife and kids are in one day, one visit, they want and need people with his skills (and so do we.) 

If we want to solve the labor shortage, we need to fix our immigration system.  I have my grandmother's naturalization certificate, I think I am going to frame it and hang it in my office as a reminder that we are all immigrants.  

    

 

The Way We Were Wednesday - The Tour of Kentucky

 The last year I was in Kentucky I did two grand tours.  The Bar Association did a road show - a series of two day continuing education programs at various locations across the state.  The promise was that no member would have to drive more than 100 miles to attend the program.  I wrote a section of the program, and normally I would recruit volunteers around the state to present at a location near them.  In 2008, I booked myself for the far flung corners of the state, I think I did 6 of the 8 locations, skipping the one in my own backyard, and in Louisville.  Later that fall the state health insurance information assistance program (SHIP) did a road show, three locations, one near home, one way out in the western part of the state, and one down in south central closer to Tennessee than civilization.  I was doing a couple of hours on the agenda and I was assigned to drive one of the most experienced volunteers around the state.  

This image was taken down south.  For that location I stayed in a log cabin with a wood burning fireplace, a part of the hotel complex.  While I was at this location I had a voice mail, about a possible interview for a job in Washington DC.  I went and parked the car between two tall trees, on top of a hill to return the call, the best cell reception in the county, and made arrangements for the interview that led me to being here.  Little did I know when I started that tour, that it would be my last tour of Kentucky.   

Travel Tuesday - Always looking for wisdom

 Travel changes me. The more I experience, the more I seem to understand the human condition.  I have a student intern coming in for the spring semester and one of the things that set him apart from others, was he has been around the world, lived in a variety of very diverse places, his insight into life is shaped by the experience.  His wisdom is beyond his years.  

I am always looking for seeds of wisdom, insight into understanding the adventure.  

Fresh Bread 

A second part to today's entry.  I have made bread a couple of times recently.  I had gotten into the habit of buying from a local baker at the Saturday farmers market. The last couple of Saturdays it has been cold, like 10 degrees colder than freezing (23F about -6C) and I didn't go to the market.  As it has been for the past 250 years, the market is outside.  

Bread is not hard to make.  It is nothing to be afraid of.  When I first made it I kneaded it by hand, I was younger and fitter then.  I use a Kitchen Aid Stand mixer with a dough hook. 

Here is how. 

About 3/4 of a cup of warm water, 110 F, or maybe a degree or so less.  Mix into that a tablespoon of sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of rapid rise dry active yeast.  I buy yeast in 1 pound bags, and store it in the freezer in a tightly lidded mason jar.  You can order it on Amazon, I have 2 or 3 pounds in the freezer (if you are close by, I have more than I will use, I'd be glad to give away a couple of pounds, long story my order ended up being duplicated the last time around.) 

Put 3 cups of bread flour into the mixing bowl. I use King Arthur or Bobs Red Mill.  They are a little better quality. Bread flour has a higher protein or glutton content. Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.  Melt 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter (I use Kerrygold salted.) Mix the salt and butter in with the flour with a spoon.

By now the yeast mixture should be bubbly and frothy.  If not the either the water was too hot (I use always temp it) or the yeast is dead.  If the yeast is dead, you need fresh.  It stores well in the freezer, but not so well at room temp.  

Pour the yeast mix into the flour mix, and stir until it starts to come together as a stiff clumpy mix.  Put the bowl on the mixer, with the dough hook, lock the head down or the bowl up (depending on the model) and start on slightly above slow speed.  In a minute or so, the dough should start to form a ball around the hook. If it does not, add a little more warm water, a tablespoon or two will usually do the trick.  Start a timer for five minutes to time the kneading. 

Optional step:

Grate, 4 or 5 ounces of cheese.  Sharp cheddar, odds and ends of what you have on hand.  About half way through the kneading stop the mixer and add the cheese, and resume kneading.  The cheese will all but disappear into the bread dough.     

When the five minutes are up, turn off the mixer, knead by hand for a few moments to form an elastic ball.  Drizzle the mixer bowl lightly with olive oil, turn the dough in the oil, cover with a towel and let set to rise in a warm place for about 90 minutes. (I put mine six inches under a halogen under counter light.) 

Spray a loaf pan with non-stick baking spray (I use Pam.) 

When about doubled (or more) in bulk,  punch down and knead into a ball and form a loaf shape.  The dough will change in texture very quickly.  Place in the loaf pan, cover with the towel, return to a warm place and let rise for about an hour. 

About 20 minutes before the second rise is finished preheat the oven to about 375 degrees.  

Bake 60 minutes at about 375 degrees.  The loaf should turn out of pan easily, thump the bottom, it should sound hollow when done.  Baking time will vary from oven to oven, and by altitude, and by weather. 

Allow to cool for 2-hours or more on a cooling rack before slicing.  A lot of great bread is ruined by trying to slice to soon.  

Enjoy! 

You Tube Monday - Martin Luther King Jr. 'I have a dream' speech

If you post anything on social media today, make it a simple statement, 

Congress Must Pass Legislation to Expand and Protect Voting Rights Now!

Today the United States pauses to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. Almost 60 years after this speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we are still struggling to fulfill the dream.  Racists don't realize that the issue is caused by them, not by the people they hate.  The racists are the ones who must change.  A racist is not a Patriot.  

We need to work to develop understanding that difference is strength. No one should live in fear because of who they are. That all people are created equal, all should be welcome the table of Democracy.  

All people who are different in anyway, age, gender, disability, origin, need to band together.  Our struggles are different, but connect.  

None of us are truly free, until all of us are free. 

The Sunday Five: Tell Me About Yourself

 1: Do you prefer your given name, or something else? 

2: Have you ever lied about your age?

3: Can you read your own handwriting? 

4: If you went back to school, what would you study? 

5: What family member had the greatest influence on you? 

My answers:

1: Do you prefer your given name, or something else?  Given name, 

2: Have you ever lied about your age? No 

3: Can you read your own handwriting? Sometimes 

4: If you went back to school, what would you study? For years I would have answered medicine, I should have gone to medical school, at this age, Art. 

5: What family member had the greatest influence on you? My paternal grandmother. 

Please share your answers in the comments.