It's Tough All Over

Tuesday October 14th, 2008 - Milwaukee, WI/Lake Villa, IL

Times are getting tough for a lot of people. I was out running a few errands and decided to get some lunch at the Ponderosa Steak House in Waukegan near the car auction. I have been going there for years and for whatever reason that location has a particularly friendly staff. They really stand out. I’ve never seen one restaurant with so many quality people.

I think I’m turning into my grandpa but I have always liked Ponderosa. It’s cheap steaks and a salad bar but for what it is it’s a good deal. Well it WAS a good deal. I pulled up to find the place closed for good and it really took me by surprise. There wasn’t a warning.

I couldn’t help but think of all those people now without jobs. Granted, Ponderosa isn’t a career maker for most of those people but I’m sure it was part time income and they had all been there for a long time and got along well. Now they’re all scrambling to find a gig.

I’d gone to that place countless times because it was so close to the car auction. It was a combination deal to hit the auction and then the Ponderosa afterward either with whoever I went to the auction with or by myself. It didn’t matter. A good lunch is a good lunch. To see this scenario today was in an odd way the end of an era for me and I was sad to see it.

I know it’s weird but I’ve always loved their salad dressings. Both the French and Bleu Cheese are the best I’ve ever had and I crave it from time to time. How goofy is that? Do they put heroin in it? The way I love it so much I think they must. I wanted a fix today.

Since it was my errand day I decided to wait and go to Milwaukee to hit the Ponderosa by the airport. I needed to go to the Wells Fargo bank right across the street. I opened my account there when I lived in Utah and never closed it when I left and there aren’t any in the Chicago area. I use it as my emergency car repair fund and I needed to make a deposit.

Wouldn’t you know it when I pulled up to the Ponderosa this one was closed too. I sure wasn’t expecting this either. They were probably both owned by the same entities - either the company or a franchisee. I’m not sure how that works but now their employees don’t.

I drove up Layton Avenue and saw the building where a comedy club used to be located next to a Chinese restaurant years ago. The club closed and then it was a disco for a while but today the entire building was vacant. No restaurant. No disco. No jobs. No kidding.

This is all starting to hit close to home. Whatever boom years there were are going to be over for a while and everybody is going to feel this pinch. Personally I am not too worried about it because I have been a human cockroach my whole life but everyone else isn’t the underground warrior I’ve had to learn to be and I think there will be a mass panic. Soon.

I got the message today and am going to be even tighter than I’ve been in the past. I can see it getting even tougher than this and I need to plug up any money holes and find some new ways to make some more. I don’t want to be living in a park hunting for my dinner.

It did feel good to get my errands done today though. I’d let a few things get away from me like my car insurance and registration and it was coming down to the end of my grace periods. I paid my phone bill and also got supplies for my upcoming comedy classes too.

These are all things I don’t really enjoy so getting to them in a day felt good to clear out the stack. I also got an oil change and my transmission fluid was looking grungy so I took a few more minutes and a few more bucks and got all that taken care of as well. My car is running great and it’s now paid for too so little by little I’m getting myself back on track.

I don’t know of anyone else who is without credit card debt and has a paid off car but I do have that going for me right now and I’m thrilled about it. I don’t have much else but I have a clean financial slate at least in my immediate future and I’ve got some work for the next few months that won’t make me rich but will get me through. I won‘t be a vagrant.

Driving back home from Milwaukee I got a call from my friend Max in Springfield, IL. He told me he’s about to get fired from his radio job and that rocked my world even more than seeing two Ponderosas and a former comedy club closed down. I thought Max had a solid gig there and in fact we had talked about maybe me moving there to work with him.

He fell victim to the same scenario I’ve had happen all too often in radio. Some pinhead cowboy drifts into town and starts firing people to show who is the new sheriff in town. It never works out in the long run but for the short term it saves a few bucks for the station.

Max is as low as I’ve ever seen him and my heart goes out to him and then some. Max’s can is dented in the same places mine is and we have talked each other off the ledge many times. When I’m at my worst and want to suck a bullet only Max and my cousin Brett are able to get through to me. They get it where very few others do. I get Max’s pain as well.

He was very quiet and sounded like a beaten man. He’s tried to do the right thing all of his life just like I have and time and time again mud gets kicked in our faces and he’s now there again. He is clashing with his new G.M. and in that situation management will win. Max may be right but that doesn’t matter. The new idiot has the power and he’s in charge.

The sad part is the truth will come out later but it will be too late then. The imbeciles in my past who blew me out for no good reason all saw the stations go south until they lost control and they all got blown out later but that didn’t change my scenario. I lost my job.

Max has a wife and kids and has busted his ass to be a good father and husband and was always thinking of others as long as he’s been there. He put his family first and after all of our pain of getting fired at the Loop he dusted himself off and sucked it up and moved on.

Now it’s blowing up in his face and I can’t say I blame him for feeling low. If I had any clout or pull at all Max Bumgardner would be in charge of a big radio station because he would be great at it. He’s smart and trustworthy and one of the few people on earth I feel I can truly trust. My heart goes out to him and hearing his news really sank my spirits too.