I needed my yard cleaned today. I drove down and picked up 2 day laborers. I'm not saying they were or were not undocumented workers or illegal aliens. This was a Yardwork issue not a moral or ethical issue!

Before you go off on me and say "Why didn't you hire an American?", tell me where I might get 2 "Americans" to work thier asses off for 6 hours @ $10.00 an hour. Pulling weeds, shoveling rock, cleaning up dog shit and generally "shit work". Maybe you'd volunteer?

Maybe they should have come here legally? Maybe they did, I've had guys show me paperwork (green cards) before. Worldwide legal immegration to the U.S. was 800,000 in a recent year. 480,000 were related to american citizens already, 140,000 had skills and an American employer. The other 180,000 green card holders may have waited up to 10 years! Of these, 91,000 immigrants came from Mexico legally.

Now you could try for the green card lottory.....there are 55,000 available. unfortunately only 3,850 can come from any one country, and Mexican citizens were not eligible.

So maybe these guys were legal...regardless, it's not an easy job they have.

They stood in a crowd of 30 to 50 guys with no distinguishing characteristics to insure they get a job. If picked, they jump in your car and are taken off to who knows where. They have no clue if you will pay them when they are done or just tell them to walk back to where they were. They don't know if you are an axe murderer or a joker who will kick them out of the car miles from where they were. Yet, they are hard workers and respond well to being treated like fellow human beings instead of beasts of burden. We gave them water all day and made turkey sandwichs for them. I let them know if they needed anything, bathroom facilities or whatever, to just ask. I try my best to speak spanish if thier english isn't perfect. I usually offer $8.00 an hour and tell them I'll pay $10.00 if they do the job good and as I asked. I ended up paying about $12.00 today as they did a great job and cleaned up afterwards.

So, am I a criminal? It's NOT a moral issue!

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I wish I got even half that performance and work from our politicians!

I seem to be going to my ex-employment more now than when I was working there! I had 3 doctors appointments last week. While I was there, I stopped by the IS dept. They hired 2 young guys to replace me; virtual clones of each other, they seemed like tweedledum and tweedledee to me! One of my friends went to the hospital to help do the work of someone who left. Another guy moved over to help him. 2 guys to do the work of one who left!? So maybe there's other factors, but they seem to be hurting somewhat. Well, give it 6 months and the whole cycle will start over!

I have 5 potential jobs, one for sure if desired, an interview Monday and perhaps a second Tuesday. Please wish me luck and good judgement in picking the right one. Each time I get a new contract, I want it to be better than the last one. Mayo will be hard to beat, but a company who lets a crazy woman have someone fired, does not back up it's people, so perhaps it's for the best.

Till tomorrow brings good news, Curiouoso*