November 14, 2017
On this Tuesday I started my day opposite of most people. I got off work at 3:55am and drove the less than 15 minute drive home. After I walk in its the same routine of letting the dog outside(who stays in my daughters room when its bed time). I get a change of clothes ready, let the dog back in, and Millie(our dog) stays in the bathroom while I shower. Then I went downstairs and watched TV until 6:30am. I know a lot of people are waking up at that time but that’s less than 3 hours after I get off work, so that part is not out of the normal routine for most. As far as shows I record a few and normally catch up on “Jalen and Jacoby”, “Around the Horn”, “UFC Tonight”, and a few other car related TV series. At around 6:30 I lay down for bed where my wife has been asleep for hours, so I don’t have the normal interactions with my wife outside of our lunch break phone conversations and the weekends that are very important for my family time. Around 7am I fall asleep and then I have alarms set for noon so I can wake up and take care of any issues before I leave for work by 3pm. Typically that 3 hour window is filled with a mobile game that I play MCOC(Marvel Contest of Champions) as well as check email and do some basic news searches. In the background I have the TV on. It is usually on a sports talk show or on a bible related show while I do other multitasking on my cell phone. Depending on my energy level I sometimes take a “cat nap/power nap” from a little after 2pm until 2:50pm when I have alarms set so I can get up and get ready to leave for work at around 3pm because my shift starts at 3:25pm and I try to go a few minutes early to find out if there are any CNC Machining issues on the machine I will be using that day. There was no issues today so I got to just work normally. The only abnormal issue is my employer said we were behind on orders and if we did not meet certain numbers that we would not be off for Thanksgiving to be with our families. For 3 years I have worked 10s m-f so that meant I stepped up and will work 12s m-f so I can have my family time. A lot of people see work as a break from their family but I am on the other extreme. I ONLY work to provide for my family and I truly treasure my time with them. My current shift means I only truly have two days with them so Saturday and Sunday are my favorite days of the week as I get to be with the ones I truly love.
As for today there are two news stories that caught my attention. The first is that three UCLA basketball players were on a trip overseas and thought they could go to at least three stores and shoplift. If someone stole food for necessity or diapers for a child I could possibly justify it but when you steal Louis Vuitton Sun Glasses….you will receive no sympathy from me. When one of the players is the brother of a Laker rookie who was the #2 overall pick and has money to support the family and one whos father has a mansion in Chino Hills in California…..I can not find any reason to justify his crimes. He clearly is a spoiled child who has not been forced to face consequences in his life choices. That is a trait that so many youth seem to have. I can only pray for the future of our country not being engulfed in that trait.
The other story was in Northern California. Kevin Janson Neal gunned down 4 and wounded 10. He was an ex felon and shot 100s of rounds in a total of 7 locations. He stole a car that he later crashed and one of the major reasons his rampage was stopped was an armed citizen wounded and possibly fatally shot him. It was a total of 45 minutes and he even tried to get into a school but they went into lockdown and he was unable to get inside the school and harm anyone inside. In 2013 he was convicted of a Hit and Run and back in January he was arrested for stabbing a woman and robbing another. The stabbing victim is also one of the murdered victims today. So, the attacks do no appear to be random as one of the other locations he went to was the church of his inlaws. Some will say that’s proof why should ban firearms but he was committing a felony by possessing the one he murdered people with and murder is also a felony…..I look at the part of the story where an armed citizen prevented the rampage from continuing as the silver lining. A good person with a gun is the first responder on site to stop an isolated incident from becoming a massacre.
Anyways back to my work day I go to lunch at 7:30pm-8pm so I call my wife and talk to her while I eat my lunch just so I have a small connection with her during the week. Afterwards I finish my work shift until 3:55am and start the cycle over again.