Stories - FD Thornton

Railroad Street Alamo, Georgia I think the title sorta gives it away because it’s Saturday here at my house. For most people Saturday is the beginning of the weekend. But for individuals like myself our days tend to run non-stop mainly because we have businesses to run and products to sell. So in order to survive ( in other words eat ), we tend to run on all cylinders most all the time. But you know what that’s okay, most of us came into entrepreneurship with our eyes wide open. So thinking and planning about our livelihoods every day is a given.  It would be so easy for me to give up this pipe dream and rejoin the rat race of working to fill someone else’s pockets. Over my lifetime this is something I have done on a number of occasions. It’s pretty simple to dream and “jump into the fire” as it were, when it’s just you against the world. But it’s another thing altogether to do it when four other mouths are asking you what’s for dinner? I suppose this little p...

A few months ago my trusty old laptop bit the dust, losing all the data I had on it. While I did save some things to the cloud, a lot of personal notes and pictures simply got lost. I replaced the laptop with a refurbished desktop ( in part because I’m cheap, but mostly because I’m broke ). And the keyboard that came with it was an old school “clackers” with the keys so high I was constantly hitting the wrong keys. So you oldest kid getting tired of hearing me complain about that damn keyboard went ahead and ordered me a new one. After a week of waiting the little booger finally came in this morning. It’s smaller than the one that came with the PC, but it has a similar feel to my laptop. The keys are low and spaced few enough apart to keep my fat fingers from striking two keys at once. It’s not perfect, but it sure as hell bets the old one. A lot of times we put up with stuff that simply makes our lives miserable. Annoyances that in our perfect little worlds that ar...

The family I grew up in was not rich but we were comfortable. We lived the middle class dream. Dad had a stable factory job, mom worked at home, they had a reasonable mortgage, two cars, two sons, a daughter, a cat, and a dog; we couldn’t get more average American.   But today while more Americans are working than ever before, they depend on Snap, WIC, SSI, and subsidized healthcare just to get by; while the CEO’s and businesses Americans work for make record salaries and ever higher corporate profits. What’s wrong with this picture? I have nothing against businesses and corporations making a profit; hell, if they don’t then we’d all be up shit creek. The question I ask is what is fair? Several years back I worked out a business plan for a technology business. Within that plan I had worked out how the business wouldn’t be just a trickle down compensation for hourly paid the employees. Instead the vested employees or partners would share in the profit making a...

Remember Me? That damn blinking cursor, flashing at me, mocking me, as if to say, " So what you gonna come up with this time, Einstein? " Ugh! I hate that thing, but at least it beats that damn paperclip. Thanks, Microsoft. (Here's a link in case you've forgotten Clippy .) Anyway, I've been busy editing my upcoming book, so taking time to create new stuff has not exactly at the forefront of my mind. It's not that I don't want to, it's that at times you just don't have anything to say.  Like I said, when I started typing there was nothing in front of me but a blank screen and a blinking cursor. Great! Now I'm repeating myself. Anywho, being stuck is nothing new, especially for me. For many years I struggled with the fact that I was smarter and better than where I was in life. In fact when someone would ask what I did for a living, I would say, "I'm a monkey with a flashlight" . Now I know we all got to make a living and somet...

Good morning. Before I get "Knee Deep in the Hoopla", I thought I'd clear my head and let you know how things are going. Before I've spoken about my family and how they have been the glue that has held my sanity together. The perceived fact that my wife and kids were so dependent on me to "keep it together" was the anchor that kept me going all these years.   But time has passed and the kids are grown and creating their own lives. All that's left are my wife and special needs son. But in reality, other than keeping the lights on, they do pretty well on their own. So you may ask, what is your point?   Maybe it's to say, it okay to do things for you. Believe it or not I sometimes feel guilty talking about myself all the time. To be honest, the way the world is I find that I have fewer and fewer true friends. You know the kind, the ones you can pour your heart out too. It's not that my friends don't care, it's simply because...

This is a departure from my usual postings, So please allow me to deliver a special message to my birthday girl.   Granny and our Granddaughter I’m sure that many of you that know me personally know the story of me and my wife Lisa. We met way before we were married; in fact my parents attended her father’s church when I was about 16 years old. If you do the Math that makes Lisa around 12 years old around that time. What I remember of her back then was she was just a skinny, friendly kid no self-respecting 16 year old would give the time of day too or at least should. Well time passes and her family moved on and my family moved on, so over the years Lisa and her family became just a pleasant memory. Over the years I grew up, moved out, and got married. The next few years were interesting to say the least, my then bride and I like most lost individuals grew to hate each other, so we divorced. For a little while I moved back in with my grandmother (the div...