You don't see this every day

As the saying goes, think globally, drink locally. There is a fantastic microbrewery here in Grand Rapids called Founders. They make the beer that we like to drink. I prefer their Centennial IPA, while Deirdre likes Dried Hopped Pale Ale. In preparation for the 4th of July weekend, I bought a few six packs to tide us over. Well, last night at Cocktail Hour, I noticed that there was something amiss with the labels on my beloved Centennial IPA:


It would appear that the people bottling the beer that day started their happy hour a little early. I am happy to report that despite the labeling issue, the contents of the "upside down" bottle passed a taste test.

Independence Day

Every once in a while, you should take a few minutes and read the Declaration of Independence. It is an amazing document to read, even 233 years later. The thirteen colonies here in America were standing up to the Great Britain, who at the time was the greatest land and naval power on the planet. Every signatory to this document knew that they were committing treason by standing up against the Crown, and that if this "declaration of independence" failed, that they would all be put to death. As history showed, these men were able to defeat King George's army and navy and give birth to one of the most amazing countries the world has ever known.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Does anybody recognize this woman?

I zipped east to Grosse Pointe to visit with my parents this weekend and while there, a mysterious woman approached my car and started dancing. Concerned for my safety and the safety of my car, I quickly left the area.






















If any of you know the name of this person and have any idea why she was dancing in front of my car, please let me know so I can alert the proper authorities... and get her some dancing lessons.

Father's Day

Nothing says "Father's Day" like buying a headstone, in advance, for your Dad.

No good deed goes unpunished...

This is going to be a bit of a long blog post as I have quite a story to tell. It began two weeks ago...

GE pays its employees every other Friday. Like clockwork, whether I deserve it or not, my salary is deposited directly into my NFCU account. After a tax deductions, long term disability insurance, health insurance deductions, 401(k) contributions, etc., my bi-weekly salary has been the same amount for months. So, on the morning of 5 June, I did not bother to go on line and check what had been deposited into my savings account. I went to work, and in a quiet moment, I logged onto my NFCU account and noticed that in addition to my normal paycheck, there were two other payments. One of the payments was for $300, and the other was for $600. Thus, precisely $900 was deposited into my savings account, above and beyond my expected salary. I sent an e-mail to my local payroll representative and she was unable to determine why I received a $900 increase in my pay. She told me to call the GE Payroll central office, which I did as soon as she sent me the 800 number. My call with GE Payroll went something like this:

"Hello, this is Mary, with GE Payroll, can I help you?"

"I hope so. I received an extra $900 pay last night and I doubt that these funds were meant for me."

"OK, let me ask you a few questions..."

Mary asked me 5 or 6 questions, such as "Do you work overseas? Did you recently move?..." and my answers were all the same: "No." Mary said to me, "Well, I cannot see why you were paid an extra $900, so I will need to open a trouble ticket and start an investigation. That will take a few days and we will contact you."

I thanked Mary and went back to work. On 10 June, I received the following e-mail:

From: ~Corp PR Infrastructure
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:28 AM
To: Kratochwill, Paul (GE Infra, Aviation, US)
Cc: ~Corp PR Audits
Subject: FW: sso#,Paul Kratochwill
Dear Mr. Kratochwill,
As per your call last Friday regarding the checks you received on 06/05/09 for local premium, after further research I found out these were entered by HR, Robert DeVry. Please check with him, regarding whether these payments are valid or not. Thank you.
GE Payroll

Great. Payroll is telling me that somebody named Robert DeVry approved this payment and I need to contact him. Nobody from Payroll was going to investigate this issue and contact Mr. DeVry. I was directed to contact him.

I looked in the GE Global Address List and there were three Robert DeVrys listed. One worked in Massachusetts, one worked in Missouri, and the last one worked in the United Kingdom. I decided to call GE Payroll again to see if they could narrow down the field of Robert DeVry who approved these payments to me down to one. After 5 or 6 minutes of discussions with Lisa from Payroll, she confirmed that the Robert DeVry in Massachusetts was the person who entered the authorization for the payment of "local premium pay." I sent Mr. DeVry an e-mail explaining what had occurred and within 30 minutes he responded that he had indeed submitted the authorization for me to be payed the additional $900, but that these funds were supposed to go to a co-op student. He said that he entered the wrong employee ID number (mine was one digit off from the co-op student's employee ID number). He apologized and said and that he would contact Payroll and have the funds withdrawn from my account.

Now, I waited. Each morning I checked my NFCU account and each day the $900 was still there. I know that GE is a big company and it might take some time for the Payroll Department to right its wrong. Fast forward to Friday, 19 June. Today was my next scheduled payday. Once again, I checked my NFCU account and the $900 was still there. What was missing was my scheduled paycheck.

I went to work and had a couple of back to back morning meetings. After the meeting ended, I returned to my desk and now it was time to call Payroll again. My call went something like this:

"Hello, this is Deborah at GE Payroll, how can I help you?"

"Hi. I was waiting for GE Payroll to take back the $900 it mistakenly gave me two weeks ago, but not only did Payroll not take back the $900, but it did not pay me last night."

"Let me see what happened. Oh, I see. On 15 June, we tried to take back to $900 but since the funds were deposited into your savings account, federal banking rules prohibit us from making withdrawals from savings accounts. When Payroll was unable to withdraw the funds, it assumed that your account had been closed, so a paper paycheck is being mailed to you for your protection."

"What?"

"Yes, a paper check has been issued and should arrive at your business address today or early next week. Also, since Payroll was unable to withdraw the $900, you will receive a letter from us asking that you repay the $900 by check or deduction from your paycheck within 45 days of receipt of the letter."

"You are kidding me, right?"

"No."

"Let me get this straight. Payroll made a mistake two weeks ago paying me monies I should not have received. I pointed out the error, Payroll was unable to retrieve the funds, and then Payroll decided that my bank account was closed, so instead of my paycheck being directly deposited into my account, you are sending me a paper check that I might see today or sometime next week?"

"Yes."

I remained pleasant to Deborah as she did not cause this problem and she was trying to help me. I asked her if there was someone I could speak to in order to complain about what had happened and she said that all she could so is place my call into an automated survey of the service Payroll had provided to me. I told Deborah if that was the best that could be done, I would be happy to take the survey.

I took the survey and was asked at the end of it, "Is there anything Payroll can do in order to improve its service to you? Please be specific and leave your comments after the beep." After the beep, I said, "Yes, there is. I need a human being to call me in order to explain how all of this happened to me. Because of Payroll's mistakes, I am penalized for being honest." So far, nobody from Payroll has called me.

The mail came today and there was nothing in my mail slot. I suppose that on Monday or Tuesday a check will arrive in my mail slot. I will then have to drive to our local bank deposit the check, wait for it to clear and only then will I have access to the funds.

Thankfully, I was not counting on this paycheck for my mortgage or car payment. Not everyone is that fortunate. I could have kept the extra $900 and said nothing. It would have taken GE Payroll a while to figure out what went wrong with this co-op's "local premium" pay. Instead, I did the right thing and reported the overpayment immediately. For my efforts, I am eventually penalized and inconvenienced. I will keep the readers of this blog informed as this develops.

Rats...

Penguins 2 Red Wings 1.

Game 7

OK, I watched the game on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh and I was disappointed at the outcome. There were wrong calls, calls not made, and well, the Wings lost. I am over that loss, but now the Wings face Game 7 tomorrow night at the Joe. History is often made in a Game 7, and most teams prefer never to play on one. They prefer never to play in one because it means that their season is over and they lost or their season is over and they are champions. Emotions run very high, as opposed to a Game 4 when one of the teams is up 3-0.

I remain hopeful and confident of a victory on home ice tomorrow night. Just don't call me between 8PM-11PM or so. Let's go, Red Wings!