For the last week, my primary email account (which is connected to this website) has not been working up to par. I sent a couple of emails out last week, and i was looking for a response, but did not get any. Also, i was suppose to get an email to my primary account that was also sent to my work address. I received it at work, but did not receive it at home. So, i forwarded the email from work -> home. It did not show up. During this time, i usually receive several emails to that account during the week, but received less than half of them.

So, i do some digging around with my domain settings and try something. Things seem to be working fine now. I resent those two emails and i got responses saying i sent this last week, didn’t you get this. I replied no i did not get this.

Oh, here’s something else i find interesting: some times when i click send on a reply, my reply does not go to sent items like it should. instead it goes to the folder where the original email is. So, i don’t know if it got sent or not. I assume it did.

Me not happy with this, and can’t figure out a solution and i don’t know where to start looking for a solution. Well, i do know where to start and that would be Google, but what do i type?

…………….that i don’t agree with the minimum wage increase we have here in IL???

Well, read this journal first, then back here for more info.

OK, so hopefully you read the article (or read it a second time). Now, yesterday, here in IL the minimum wage went up again from $7.50 -> $7.75 an hour. Before that increase, it was $6.50\hr. By 2010, it will be $8.25\hr.

Pretty much, i’m against it because minimum wage was suppose to be for high school people working after school for a car or college. It could also be used for college students working to help pay for college. It was not suppose to be a job where one could make a living (or somewhat of a living). This increase does two things: 1 – it helps the poor people who work these jobs get more money; and 2 – it hurts the middle-class people.

Let’s break this down: It helps the poor people who work these jobs. Yes, it does help somewhat, but in reality and the big picture, they will either break even or in the hole becuase to make more money something has to change. That change comes from the EMPLOYER, by doing a number of different things, which include, but not limited to: laying off people and making people work longer hours; raising prices on goods sold to consumers; or a combination of options. So, really they are not making more money. However most of the people don’t see it that way, they see it as i’m taking home more money, and that’s that.

Number Two – it hurts the middle class. When you raise the wage, it makes the people who are making a little more than minimum wage ($8.00 \hr- ?) that much closer to minimum wage and\or poverty level. So, if a person whose job requires a college degree only makes $8.00, and the temp worker is making $7.75\hr, what would your reaction be if you are the one who is making $8\hr. Would you feel like you need a raise to stay above the worker who is making minimum wage and does not have a college degree to do their job, but you as a full time worker need a college degree to perform your job duties?

When the wage goes up, everything else goes up except the wage of the middle class worker. The upper-class do not have to worry, becuase it doesn’t effect them, but we in the middle class are becoming closer and closer to poverty level because when the minimum wage goes up, everything goes up and we are the ones who suffer the most. In fact, there was an article in our local paper, and our governor made the comment: ” Thousands of workers struggle each day at work to provide for their families and will get help as the minimum wage rises.”

Those jobs were not meant to be FULL TIME JOBS. they were only meant to be part time job or a short-term job to be able to move on to a better life with a better-paying job. So, where does the increase stop? Apparently, in three years in will be over $8\hr (which was the amount i was paid for my first FULL TIME job, and my second FULL-TIME job). Will minimum wage be $10\hr or higher, only time will tell. I keep telling myself, soon i won’t even be able to eat fast food because it will be just as expensive or higher as what a decent sit-down restaurant is today.

it’s the 100-year flood 15 years after our last 100-year flood. I think they should say we will have one of these every 15-20 years. The last one before 1993 was in 1973. My uncle owns a firework stand which is now under water. He build a new one a few years after the 93 flood several feet higher than his previous stand. Shown in this picture is both stands. The shot is an aerial picture, and is a little hard to tell how high the water actually is. However the one on the left is the new one and the one on the right is several feet lower than the current firework stand. Oh, once the water does go down, it’s not fun cleaning the mess up. Been there, done that a few times in 1993.

My dad’s sister and family live a few miles west, and as of yesterday, they had 8″ of water in their basement. They got most of their things moved up into their garage or totally out of the area. As well, the only way in is by boat.

My parent’s live in Canton, Mo which the levee is still holding ,but they live on the bluff and not downtown, where there is a volunteer evacuation. Click here for more info. Click here for some pictures in Canton.

Moving south to the Quincy area now. The city itself sits mostly on a bluff, but there are some parts that are under water, like the riverfront, and one of the two bridges are closed due to high water. The east-bound traffic bridge is closed and the west-bound traffic bridge is now doing both lanes. Since there are several different photo albums of the flood waters in Quincy, here’s the link to the different ones. Can’t remember which one has it, but one of them shows a closeup of the east-bound bridge and how close the water was when the pic was taken.

Finally, moving south to Hannibal, MO and Mark Twain Country and some pics from them can be found here. The river isn’t suppose to crest here in Q-Town until later this week at 32ft. Now it’s just a waiting game for most of the area.