employment in many industries and corporations has obviously slowed down considerably due to the much weakened economy. the international company that i 'pull' for recently instituted a four day week schedule for their warehouse/truck driver employees. even with the four day work calendar there is not enough freight to be moved to keep everyone occupied so lately even three day work weeks are becoming common. the lumberyards and home centers that this company supplys are relatively empty also. the reduced staff at these places are now all shaking their heads in bewilderment over "how things have gotten so bad/i've never seen it this slow in 30 years", etc.
these daily conversations have largely replaced the former lumberyard banter such as which football/basketball/baseball team is a cast iron lock for the championship and otherlike diversions. for the first time i can recall since september of '01 that these folks are staring at something which might actually make an iota of difference in their personal lives.
for the past eight plus years i've been in a relative state of utter disbelief coupled with this stomache churning frustration and revulsion i'd expect to feel at the sight of a trainwreck.
i can trace this unnerving downward spiral to a particular evening in october 1999 as i eagerly sat down to watch the first of the 'debates' between al gore and george bush. the progressive conventional wisdom at that point in time was that this 'event' was going to be as my lumberyard contemporaries would put it "a fucking smackdown"! along with gore's articulate manner and executive experience he also had a legacy of debating prowess in college.
versus psuedo-businessman turned texas governor george bush i figured that smackdown might have been understating it.
twenty minutes into that debate i had broken out in a surprisingly cold sweat and everything began to slowly change.
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