Like this:

The laughter of trick-or-treaters on the evening breeze enters through the open door. I miss being a kid. I miss being young. I miss having friends. Youth is fleeting and wasted on the young. It’s only when we find ourselves older and more alone that we realise what we had. You really never know what you had until it’s gone.

Running up and down the streets with your friends; you’re all dressed in silly or spooky outfits. You’re waving your Glo-sticks and torches around. You’re screaming and laughing and only caring about being with your friends. How much fun you’re having. How much candy you’re getting. Which will be the next house you visit. Why that one house never gives anything out. Always eager to get to the one that gives the best.

These are the things I miss. It’s lonely getting old. One day you realise you can count your friends on one hand…if any. When you’re young, sometimes it has to be both hands…and sometimes a foot or two. I miss my youth. I didn’t have many friends, bit I certainly had more than I do now. But then even one is more than zero. I’ve never been to a Halloween party, and only a few times went trick-or-treating with friends. It was usually with my parents and sister, but it didn’t last long. We grew up. We got too old. We moved to a house on a main street.

I miss my youth. I miss my friends. I miss the fun.

Happy Halloween

~Farren

Like this:

The fsking woman whose computer I’m repairing needs the power adapter to the other lappy she has; the one I sold her last year. Her idiot son seems to have made the part that plugs into the comp disappear, and she thinks I can pull one out of my ass. She has errands to run to-day because she has people coming over at Noon!!! That is what she told Jenn via FB this morning. So I spent close to an hour looking online at RadioShack, BestBuy, Target, Walmart, and Staples trying to find a universal power adapter for her. Of course no one has one, but RadioShack has two in stock. Jenn sent her a message letting her know and that we could call and have one held for her. We haven’t heard back from her and that was over a half hour ago.

We’re leaving on vacation tomorrow morning and she knows this. Yet she has errands to run and is too busy to ask her son what he did with the power cord. We’re ready to throw up our hands and give up on her completely, but she’s currently my only customer and she is willing to refer me to her friends. she already talks about me to them, but won’t refer me until I have business cards to give her. I have no idea why, either.

She’s probably pissed because we’re charging her what she most likely thinks is “too much money” and we’re trying to rip her off. It’s not our fault that she has spilled three drinks on her brand new laptop. After the first two weeks of ownership, she spilled an iced tea (probably one from Long Island) and a glass of wine, then this week, she spilled a chocolate martini. All of this is on the keyboard. I had to replace it after the first two spills, because it was fried. Now I have to replace it again and I’m sure she’s none too happy about it.

What she fails to realize, or is in denial about, is the fact that if she were to have a professional do this, she would be spending a lot more than what I’m charging her. $20 to come by and connect her printer to her wireless at home is pocket change to what people normally get charged. We don’t even charge her for mileage!

Okay, I think I’m done for now.

Like this:

Jenn and I were listening to the radio on our way in this morning.  The daughter of one of the hosts just got her first job.  I don’t think he said where she was working, but she will be at the register.  He said she was nervous about making sure she gives customers back the correct amount of change.

I suppose this is understandable if you have never worked a cash register before and aren’t used to exchanging money.  Still Jenn and I were surprised that the girl would be feeling like this.  As we talked about it, we listened to the voice on the radio telling us how he quizzed his daughter about giving the correct change to people.  They sat at the kitchen table, he put out bills, and coins, then gave her an amount to count out for him.  He even recorded it so he could play it back on the air.  (Incidentally, I find it a little odd and creepy how much he records things his daughter says to him, but that’s beside the point.)

The recording was painful to listen to.  One of the amounts he gave her was $8.79.  In my head, I was thinking it should be one $5 bill, 3 $1 bills, 3 quarters and 1 nickel.  She gave him one $5 bill, 3 $1 bills, 3 quarters, and 4 pennies.  I don’t know about Jenn, but I was speechless.  Her father asked what other denominations she could give him.  We changed the station.

This was at least five minutes of playback and discussion.  The whole time Jenn and I were talking about how easy kids have it these days.  The registers at Demoulas Market Basket actually display the exact change that the cashiers need to give back.  I’m not talking about just the amount in dollars and cents; I mean they literally show the exact number of which bills and which coins the cashiers need to take from their drawers.  If the cashier needs to give back $8.79, the LCD display that is directly in front of the customer (but facing the cashier) will show the cashier 1 $5 bill, 3 $1 bills, 3 quarters and 4 pennies.

Playing with money as children is probably as old as money itself.  Toy stores and learning stores still sell toy cash registers and play money, but are parents actually buying them nowadays?  Are they instead just buying the little banks and ATM machines for their children to teach them how to save their money and how to take it out whenever they need it?  Are parents and teachers not showing children how to count change anymore?  I’m sure that when I was in kindergarten, and I know when I was in grades up to third, we played with money.  We learned how to count coins and bills, and how to make change.  We didn’t have computers to do it for us.  There were no digital or graphic displays to tell us how to give money to people.

What has happened to our society?  What kind of a generation are we raising that they can’t even count out money properly?  If you tell me a dollar amount, I can tell you which bills and coins to go with it.  When I’m at the register, and I see what the total is, I can calculate the change before the cashier even punches in how much I’ve given them.  Apparently, cashiers can’t be trusted to think for themselves.  Or does management know they aren’t smart enough anymore and need computers to think for their employees?

I for one welcome our new computer overlords.  But people should still be able to think for themselves.

~Farren