Days of Our Work Lives: An unvarnished look at work today: Part I: David's Saga: Episode 6: Brainstorm

Days of Our Work Lives

Part I: David's Saga

Episode 6

Brainstorm

In the previous episode, David's idea of selling meatball sandwiches met an early demise upon seeing the thousands of regulations in the California Retail Food Code.

So David and Susan were back in brainstorming mode:

"Maybe I should think big, like start a school?" David offered.

"If starting a meatball cart meant thousands of regulations, what do you think start a school would require?"

 "If I can't beat em, maybe I should join 'em: become a government restaurant inspector. I'm sure there'd be plenty inspecting that was needed or at least required."

 "How about a less dramatic change, a small pivot from marketing research on t-shirts to something a little more meaningful like market research on drugs?"

"Legal ones?  Don't have the background. I'd have to go back for years of calculus, physics, biology. I don't think so."

"What about pot?" There's a big nationwide legalization push. The media's totally pushing it."

"I've turned around on that: Legalization increases use, big-time, including kids. And the dangers are far worse than the advocates would have us believe. Plus, the black market wouldn't go away: Because legal pot is heavily taxed and only to adults, the black market would grow because it sells pot cheaper and will focus on marketing to kids. So legalization merely increases the number of ways for kids to get pot."

"Let's get high," Susan chuckled.

"Maybe I should take a month off, do some new things around some new people, let planned serendipity happen: take a short course in something, like photography or voiceover maybe."

She said sarcastically, "Oh that will help you make a living. Ten million people pay 10 grand to learn voiceover and 9,999,990 never make enough to even pay for the training let alone make a middle-class living. And nine of the ten that do were already successful actors."

"I could get go to MeetUps, join some committee at church..."

"You could join Sierra Club, go on birdwatching hikes and stuff."

"The only people I'd meet would be retired tree sitters. Not exactly the best source of career leads."

"Hey, we could go on a cruise. You meet lots of rich, well-connected people on a cruise"

"And gain 10 pounds. Just what I need after my heart attack. By the way, those monsters at Blue Cross still are asking for more documentation before they pay the bills. I think they're trying to give me another heart attack. Seriously, I do hear insurance companies try to keep stalling and asking for more documentation hoping the patient will just give up or die. Monsters."

"Your father suggested you join Rotary."

"What, and wear a fez?"

That's the Shriners. Rotary is just a bunch of middle-class people, mainly small business owners, who get together to raise money for charity and to network...Actually, the thought of taking a few months to sort things out is sounding pretty good. I've been working non-stop ever since I was a teenager."

How about one month? Objects at rest tend to...

Okay, a month. A lot can happen in a month.

HERE is the next episode.