|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 2, 2017 23:12:26 GMT
The Mighty Mac! (Mackinac Bridge). Five miles long.  The British army at Fort Michilimackinac  The American army at Fort Mackinac.  Mackinac Island. One of my favorite places.  |
|
|
|
Post by skyhappysal on Jul 3, 2017 0:15:42 GMT
Great pictures, Joyce! Two of my favourite things. History and water. The last picture is fantastic.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 3, 2017 1:27:15 GMT
Great pictures, Joyce! Two of my favourite things. History and water. The last picture is fantastic. Thanks! If you've never been there, Mackinac Island has a lot to offer. It has history, downtown shopping, nature trails for hiking, bikes and horseback riding. It also has the Grand Hotel (for expensive tastes) and is just a beautiful place to be! |
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jul 3, 2017 4:36:16 GMT
I'm so glad you had such a good time, Joyce! You deserve it, tenfold!  The only thing I've ever known about Mackinac Island is that they [the book characters] went there at the end of Girl of the Limberlost. And even after reading that, I never was quite sure what it was! Thanks for telling something about it! |
|
|
|
Post by skyhappysal on Jul 3, 2017 13:49:31 GMT
Great pictures, Joyce! Two of my favourite things. History and water. The last picture is fantastic. Thanks! If you've never been there, Mackinac Island has a lot to offer. It has history, downtown shopping, nature trails for hiking, bikes and horseback riding. It also has the Grand Hotel (for expensive tastes) and is just a beautiful place to be! I was up that way last summer visiting Salt Ste Marie (Canadian side) with my sister and a friend from Texas. We talked about going again but meeting on Mackinac. After reading your post, I would really like to go. ☺ |
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 3, 2017 16:24:26 GMT
I'm so glad you had such a good time, Joyce! You deserve it, tenfold! The only thing I've ever known about Mackinac Island is that they [the book characters] went there at the end of Girl of the Limberlost. And even after reading that, I never was quite sure what it was! Thanks for telling something about it! Thanks! I've never read the Girl of the Limberlost. I'll have to read it now. It was always on my list of "should reads". |
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 3, 2017 16:26:00 GMT
Thanks! If you've never been there, Mackinac Island has a lot to offer. It has history, downtown shopping, nature trails for hiking, bikes and horseback riding. It also has the Grand Hotel (for expensive tastes) and is just a beautiful place to be! I was up that way last summer visiting Salt Ste Marie (Canadian side) with my sister and a friend from Texas. We talked about going again but meeting on Mackinac. After reading your post, I would really like to go. ☺ You should! It's been one of my family's favorites for decades. My daughter had her honeymoon there and would have had her wedding there if she could have! |
|
|
|
Post by Stormwatcher on Jul 4, 2017 6:04:54 GMT
Ah, the days when we would drive- yes, drive- all the way from Virginia to Wisconsin for our two-week family get together. Initially we went through Chicago to collect my grandparents, but after they retired and moved to Florida, we decided to stop going through the Windy City and take the Michigan route instead. (More miles, but less traffic, so the travel time was actually about the same. And avoiding Chicago during rush hour is always an excellent thing.) We got real familiar with the Upper and Lower peninsulas, and it became kind of a tradition to tune into the Bridge channel on the radio while we were crossing. We always said we'd stop on the island and look around some day, but somehow we never quite did. We DID stop and get pasties and othersuch from many of the road stands, though!
|
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 4, 2017 12:19:27 GMT
Ah, the days when we would drive- yes, drive- all the way from Virginia to Wisconsin for our two-week family get together. Initially we went through Chicago to collect my grandparents, but after they retired and moved to Florida, we decided to stop going through the Windy City and take the Michigan route instead. (More miles, but less traffic, so the travel time was actually about the same. And avoiding Chicago during rush hour is always an excellent thing.) We got real familiar with the Upper and Lower peninsulas, and it became kind of a tradition to tune into the Bridge channel on the radio while we were crossing. We always said we'd stop on the island and look around some day, but somehow we never quite did. We DID stop and get pasties and othersuch from many of the road stands, though! We live in southeast Michigan and my ex's brother lives in Minneapolis. We drove both the Chicago and the Michigan route. I HATED the drive through Chicago!! I've never seen anything like it! The drive through Michigan is so much prettier! Not to mention that the only toll road we have in the state is the Mackinac Bridge! (I'm not aware of any other toll roads, that is.) Mary was so astonished that we had to PAY to drive on the bridge! I told her that was how the bridge was paid for in the first place and how the maintenance is paid for now. Of course, considering the state of many of our roads, having some toll roads might not be a bad idea. Michigan is known for its crumbling roads. |
|
|
|
Post by alaina on Jul 4, 2017 22:38:55 GMT
Beautiful pictures, Joyce! I've heard of Makinac Island but never been there. I had no idea you could - or should! - eat pasties!! "Pasties" are something entirely different around here!  Congrats, on the vacation Joyce! A REAL vacation! LOL! And you're right, kids do not understand the concept of "RELAX"! So, work... the powers that be decided about 4 years ago they needed to do a major reorganization to be more competitive with other companies. As usual, when you try to fix something that isn't broken, it goes sideways. So their reorganization is almost complete and it has turned out to be a disaster. What a shocker.  Last year we lost a HUGE amount of policies (i.e. CUSTOMERS!) in auto. Um, hello, the reason we were #1 in the business is because we WEREN'T like every other company out there. Now, thanks to the grand plan of those in corporate, we ARE like every other company and there is no reason for customers to stay with us. And employees who have spent their entire lives with the company because they WEREN'T like every other company out there (do we see a pattern developing here??), are retiring in droves. Others who were new, are being recruited by other companies and leaving for more money because we have a reputation of training employees out the wazoo. So other companies LOVE to get our employees because we are so well trained. They haven't replaced the people that have left, but instead told us we're so good at what we do that we can handle the extra work. We've lost about 15 people in our dept. over the last year and a half and none have been replaced. Instead corporate, in its infinite wisdom, merged us with another dept. and for the first time since I have been there gave us NO training at all. They said we were the best of the best in the company (that part is actually true - we have the most complex policies to interpret, apply and explain) and would pick it up very easily. Well, yes, we did but the dept. they merged us with gets literally 100 times more phone calls than our dept. did. I spend most of my day taking "hunt" calls - customers are calling other adjusters who are not answering their phones for whatever reason, so the calls get transferred to the next available adjuster. So I end up working a lot of claims that aren't mine because you are not allowed to just take a message, you have to 'work the claim' however long it takes. And they let too many people take off at one time. On a normal day we get 2-3 new claims each (that's in addition to the 60-70 claims that you are already working on). 4 new claims is a hectic day. 5 is "uh-oh, what's going on?". 6 is WTF??? Yesterday I got SEVEN new claims! SEVEN!!! You supposedly have 24 hours to "work" your new claim (i.e. do the policy review, make initial phone calls, begin your investigation, etc.) but we are expected to work them ALL the same day we get them, regardless of the 24 hour grace period. I leave at 5:30 and don't you know I got a new claim at 5:25 last night. ARGH!!! I see lots of overtime in my future. The worst part is I actually really LIKE my job; I like doing the investigation, talking to the people involved, getting witness statements, reviewing laws and statutes to figure out of our insured was negligent. And I LOVE doing evaluations and negotiating settlements with attorneys. I just feel like I don't have time to do MY work because I'm busy doing everyone else's overflow. Now aren't you glad you asked about work?  |
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 5, 2017 16:19:38 GMT
Beautiful pictures, Joyce! I've heard of Makinac Island but never been there. I had no idea you could - or should! - eat pasties!! "Pasties" are something entirely different around here! Congrats, on the vacation Joyce! A REAL vacation! LOL! And you're right, kids do not understand the concept of "RELAX"! Pasties are WONDERFUL! They're a kind of meat turnover. Here's some info about them: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PastyIf you go down to where it lists "in other regions", you'll see info about Michigan's Upper Peninsula's love of pasties. As for your work situation, I never understand why people want to take something that works quite well and change things around! I hope you survive the transformation with your sanity intact!! |
|
|
|
Post by skyhappysal on Jul 5, 2017 21:13:05 GMT
Beautiful pictures, Joyce! I've heard of Makinac Island but never been there. I had no idea you could - or should! - eat pasties!! "Pasties" are something entirely different around here! Congrats, on the vacation Joyce! A REAL vacation! LOL! And you're right, kids do not understand the concept of "RELAX"! LOL! Vegas showgirls vs Cornish hand held meat pies. 😉 The Cornish kind rhyme with nasty. I agree, Joyce, they're delicious! |
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jul 5, 2017 23:18:10 GMT
Yes, the word conjures up Las Vegas showgirls for me, as well -- not pies, handheld meat or otherwise!  |
|
|
|
Post by Rokia on Jul 7, 2017 15:42:22 GMT
That sounds marvelous Joyce! I'm glad you had such a good time - and got to relax to boot! |
|
|
|
Post by Rokia on Jul 7, 2017 15:48:11 GMT
Ah, the days when we would drive- yes, drive- all the way from Virginia to Wisconsin for our two-week family get together. Initially we went through Chicago to collect my grandparents, but after they retired and moved to Florida, we decided to stop going through the Windy City and take the Michigan route instead. (More miles, but less traffic, so the travel time was actually about the same. And avoiding Chicago during rush hour is always an excellent thing.) We got real familiar with the Upper and Lower peninsulas, and it became kind of a tradition to tune into the Bridge channel on the radio while we were crossing. We always said we'd stop on the island and look around some day, but somehow we never quite did. We DID stop and get pasties and othersuch from many of the road stands, though! Yeah, rush hour in Chicago is the total opposite of Fun! If I'd had the choice, I would've taken the long way around too. (I've never even been to Michigan and I've been to over 30 states! One must rectify that one day...) Beautiful pictures, Joyce! I've heard of Makinac Island but never been there. I had no idea you could - or should! - eat pasties!! "Pasties" are something entirely different around here! Congrats, on the vacation Joyce! A REAL vacation! LOL! And you're right, kids do not understand the concept of "RELAX"! So, work... the powers that be decided about 4 years ago they needed to do a major reorganization to be more competitive with other companies. As usual, when you try to fix something that isn't broken, it goes sideways. So their reorganization is almost complete and it has turned out to be a disaster. What a shocker. Last year we lost a HUGE amount of policies (i.e. CUSTOMERS!) in auto. Um, hello, the reason we were #1 in the business is because we WEREN'T like every other company out there. Now, thanks to the grand plan of those in corporate, we ARE like every other company and there is no reason for customers to stay with us. And employees who have spent their entire lives with the company because they WEREN'T like every other company out there (do we see a pattern developing here??), are retiring in droves. Others who were new, are being recruited by other companies and leaving for more money because we have a reputation of training employees out the wazoo. So other companies LOVE to get our employees because we are so well trained. They haven't replaced the people that have left, but instead told us we're so good at what we do that we can handle the extra work. We've lost about 15 people in our dept. over the last year and a half and none have been replaced. Instead corporate, in its infinite wisdom, merged us with another dept. and for the first time since I have been there gave us NO training at all. They said we were the best of the best in the company (that part is actually true - we have the most complex policies to interpret, apply and explain) and would pick it up very easily. Well, yes, we did but the dept. they merged us with gets literally 100 times more phone calls than our dept. did. I spend most of my day taking "hunt" calls - customers are calling other adjusters who are not answering their phones for whatever reason, so the calls get transferred to the next available adjuster. So I end up working a lot of claims that aren't mine because you are not allowed to just take a message, you have to 'work the claim' however long it takes. And they let too many people take off at one time. On a normal day we get 2-3 new claims each (that's in addition to the 60-70 claims that you are already working on). 4 new claims is a hectic day. 5 is "uh-oh, what's going on?". 6 is WTF??? Yesterday I got SEVEN new claims! SEVEN!!! You supposedly have 24 hours to "work" your new claim (i.e. do the policy review, make initial phone calls, begin your investigation, etc.) but we are expected to work them ALL the same day we get them, regardless of the 24 hour grace period. I leave at 5:30 and don't you know I got a new claim at 5:25 last night. ARGH!!! I see lots of overtime in my future. The worst part is I actually really LIKE my job; I like doing the investigation, talking to the people involved, getting witness statements, reviewing laws and statutes to figure out of our insured was negligent. And I LOVE doing evaluations and negotiating settlements with attorneys. I just feel like I don't have time to do MY work because I'm busy doing everyone else's overflow. Now aren't you glad you asked about work? ARGH Alaina - that totally sucks! Geepers, destroying the reason people love your business is NOT a good idea... Did the company's leadership change? --Rokia, grumbles off about people 'fixing' things that aren't broken! |
|
|
|
Post by Rokia on Jul 7, 2017 15:48:51 GMT
And one other thing - a 5 mile long bridge sounds like a total nightmare to me... but then I'm bridge-phobic... I go over them but I hate EVERY SECOND...
|
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 7, 2017 16:28:33 GMT
And one other thing - a 5 mile long bridge sounds like a total nightmare to me... but then I'm bridge-phobic... I go over them but I hate EVERY SECOND... The Mackinac Bridge Authority (they maintain the bridge) will drive people over if you discover that you really can't do it. |
|
|
|
Post by Shane on Jul 7, 2017 19:57:31 GMT
And one other thing - a 5 mile long bridge sounds like a total nightmare to me... but then I'm bridge-phobic... I go over them but I hate EVERY SECOND... Sounds like there's a documentary to be made there. It can be titled Bridge on the River. Why? |
|
|
|
Post by Joyce on Jul 7, 2017 22:38:50 GMT
And one other thing - a 5 mile long bridge sounds like a total nightmare to me... but then I'm bridge-phobic... I go over them but I hate EVERY SECOND... Sounds like there's a documentary to be made there. It can be titled Bridge on the River. Why? Groan!! |
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jul 8, 2017 3:57:55 GMT
And one other thing - a 5 mile long bridge sounds like a total nightmare to me... but then I'm bridge-phobic... I go over them but I hate EVERY SECOND... Sounds like there's a documentary to be made there. It can be titled Bridge on the River. Why? *Chokes* |
|
|
|
Post by Rokia on Jul 9, 2017 2:18:23 GMT
And one other thing - a 5 mile long bridge sounds like a total nightmare to me... but then I'm bridge-phobic... I go over them but I hate EVERY SECOND... Sounds like there's a documentary to be made there. It can be titled Bridge on the River. Why? Shane? You are a BAD BOY! BAD I SAY! I dunno if someone else driving me would help at all -- I just don't like bridges... (which is sorta funny because I love boats!) |
|
|
|
Post by Purple on Jul 9, 2017 3:00:07 GMT
I resigned from the job I've had the last year and a half. My supervisor kept setting me up to fail, and I finally had enough. Going back to working for myself, but it's taking some time to get going.
|
|
|
|
Post by cheryl on Jul 9, 2017 12:34:15 GMT
Good luck, Purple. That's a big endeavor for you. Wishing you the best!
|
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jul 9, 2017 16:50:24 GMT
Best of luck, Purple! |
|
|
|
Post by laurie on Jul 9, 2017 17:44:19 GMT
Good luck Purple! I'm especially sympathetic to work craziness and at least wanting the throw the towel in and change gears this week. Haven't forgotten you all are here (or that my stories are languishing away, sadly) but work is nuts! I'm officially on vacation for the next 15 days - BUT I have about 50 hours worth of paperwork that has to be done asap before I can enjoy it. So... full court press the next 2-3 days and then it's toes in the sand, fingers on the keyboard, can't wait! Oh, and no I don't have to cross a long bridge to get there, lol, so it's all good, but I'm still eager for that documentary, you made me laugh......
|
|
Congrats, on the vacation Joyce! A REAL vacation! LOL! And you're right, kids do not understand the concept of "RELAX"!
Last year we lost a HUGE amount of policies (i.e. CUSTOMERS!) in auto. Um, hello, the reason we were #1 in the business is because we WEREN'T like every other company out there. Now, thanks to the grand plan of those in corporate, we ARE like every other company and there is no reason for customers to stay with us. And employees who have spent their entire lives with the company because they WEREN'T like every other company out there (do we see a pattern developing here??), are retiring in droves. Others who were new, are being recruited by other companies and leaving for more money because we have a reputation of training employees out the wazoo. So other companies LOVE to get our employees because we are so well trained. They haven't replaced the people that have left, but instead told us we're so good at what we do that we can handle the extra work. We've lost about 15 people in our dept. over the last year and a half and none have been replaced. Instead corporate, in its infinite wisdom, merged us with another dept. and for the first time since I have been there gave us NO training at all. They said we were the best of the best in the company (that part is actually true - we have the most complex policies to interpret, apply and explain) and would pick it up very easily. Well, yes, we did but the dept. they merged us with gets literally 100 times more phone calls than our dept. did. I spend most of my day taking "hunt" calls - customers are calling other adjusters who are not answering their phones for whatever reason, so the calls get transferred to the next available adjuster. So I end up working a lot of claims that aren't mine because you are not allowed to just take a message, you have to 'work the claim' however long it takes. 
