Great Benefits I Can't Afford

18^th December 2017

My Dear (Ma’am),

Having received your email regarding my Indeed resume I feel it only proper to inform you of my last dealings with your company. I interviewed with you folks sometime in November 2016 after passing all your tests and such.

I politely informed the man who interviewed me that I was not interested in the position I was offered, because it paid too poorly to justify my leaving my current employer. None the less he moved forward with my application.

Now, I know enough about your company to know what kind of benefits you offer and know enough about math to know those benefits are of little interest to me if you pay to little for me to take advantage of them. Before I go and fill out another application I would think it best that you check your records regarding my past applications.

If, after this inquiry, you would still like me to move forward with your company I would require clear parameters as to which job you are offering. When I see twelve to sixteen dollars per hour I will assume you mean twelve.  I’ve been in security for nineteen years, and I’ve seen enough to know that I need clear answers. I mean no disrespect, but I have no wish to waste your time or mine.

Best,

Richard Leland Neal

When in Doubt - Mark Twain

Old Vanity

2^nd September 2013

Dear Cassi,

       

There are times in this life that I need honestly ask myself if the average person is capable of logic. After having complained for so long about the quality of the vanity the old contractor had used in his bathroom Pickles has opted to keep this article rather than replace it with a unit of better quality.

       

I can tell you time and time again that Pickles’ objection was that he had to spend money for repairs and complaints over quality were unfounded. For more than a year I have lived without a sink in my lavatory. Now it comes that all that was needed was the counter top and sink rather than a whole new unit. I could have done this myself.

       

After all the complaints and insults, after all the suffering and strife, Pickles just wanted a cheap job. Well, there is something bad about contractors being chosen by the lowest bidder. In all fairness, the contractor had a bad reputation.

       

Then, every contractor that has come to look at the job was rejected because they believed them to be dishonest. I think most contractors are dishonest and those that are honest are expensive to both conditions are prohibitive.

       

As for the fellow who put the counter in the bathroom, well, he was cheap but did a horrible job. The counter top was just a hair too large for the bathroom so in trying to get it in he scuffed the paint. In trimming the countertop he cut is in a jagged way leaving it ugly.

       

The cheap job won out over anything else but at least I can was my hands after I use the restroom. What can we do in this world of ours? Live and keep living.

Know what you want, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

Sad Little Lies

28^th December 2011

Dear Cassi,

    

Do you ever recall from your youth one of the more obvious lies you were told? After my parent’s divorce every other weekend my father would come over and sometimes he would take us to the “park.” What he meant by the park was the playground of the local grade school where we would find ourselves the only weekend visitors.

    

To this day I still think of parks as rather lonely places. I have no memory of children laughing and playing in them. Then, by the time I went to school laughter wasn’t something I was known for given my depression.

    

I do recall asking what the school building was before I turned five but I have no memory of what my father said. The old man said a lot of things designed to screw with me and that idea that messing with kid’s heads is funny never got old for him.

    

Why we insist on lying to children I have never been able to understand. I never believed in Santa or the Easter Bunny, and I never put teeth under my pillow. You could say that I had a bad childhood, I would, but would it have been made better by these lies? Can there truly be all that much wrong with being honest and clear to the young?

    

Today week keep our children as fools unaware of that the world is like, but when do they grow up to learn the truth? The truth is ugly, and the tender nature of children should be spared that grief. Still, need we lie; need we paint the world in rosy tones so that as they age they can see those tones fade into the dim of reality?

    

If we spent all the effort put into the lies of our world to making reality better we could have a world with brightness. Once more, if we banished from our lives those sad little lies we always tell ourselves maybe we would be better to one another.

Stay safe, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal

Deserve Honors - Mark Twain