New Record Set!

I was at the shop tonight to do payroll and I checked on the final numbers for April. We did $14970 for the month, which is the first time we broke the $14K threshold... We only missed $15K by 30 bucks!
One milestone we have never met is breaking $4000 in sales for one week. I think we have a chance to do it if Friday's sales are strong, like the rest of the week has been. I'll keep you posted.

I don't know if any of you are wondering, but our payroll runs just under $1400 every two weeks. That puts us at just over $33,000 per year. Our worker's comp policy is based on $36k in payroll per year, so we have a little room before we have to change that policy.

More of my biggest concerns in life, but outside of the coffee shop.
1. We as a nation have been sending billions of dollars for years and years to countries and cultures that hate us. We send billions and billions to Arab countries in the Middle East for oil, and we send billions and billions to China for pretty much every single thing we buy at Wal-Mart, and just about anywhere else. We are already in a war against fanatical Islamists, and I fear our biggest threat of the future is China. They have had a massive build up of their military in recent years, and they are getting to the point where they would be very hard to defeat. There was an article today about satellite imagery that shows an underground nuclear submarine base that can support 20 ballistic missle subs, as well as a number of air craft carriers. They have also been developing and actually using high powered lasers to disable our military satellites when they fly over China. I don't know about you, but I get the feeling China is going to be a real problem at some point, and I'm not sure we will have the capability to withstand a war with them... Forget learning Spanish, you might want to brush up on your Manchurian.

2. CSAP scores came out today for Colorado and for the state as a whole only 70% of third graders are proficient or better at reading. How is it possible that 30% of all third graders in Colorado can't read at the basic third grade level? Some individual schools scored in the low 20's. Do you realize that means that three out of every four kids in those schools cannot read? Who is running those schools? Why do those people still have jobs????

3. Did you know video games were created by our government? Statistics from WW1 showed that only 20% soldiers in combat for the very first time would fire their weapons at the enemy. That means 80% of the soldiers went with their instincts to not kill other human beings, even if they were being threatened, and even if it meant not following orders. The military changed targets (for weapons training/practice) from simple bulls eyes to a human outline. The percentage of new soldiers willing to fire at the enemy the very first time went up. Targets then changed to an actual face instead of just an outline. The percentage of soldiers willing to fire at the enemy went up again. Once the technology was there, virtual reality training scenarios were developed, which were the precursors for today's video games. Some of the video games available today are incredibly violent, and are actually pretty warped. Grand Theft Auto 4 just came out and I know a family that let's their six year old kid play it. They think it is funny that he beats a prostitute with a baseball bat. Different training methods changed the number of soldiers willing to kill the enemy. When you look at society today, it would seem that video games are making more people willing to pick up a gun and kill their teachers, their peers, their co-workers. Random shootings in the workplace, schools, or large public gathering places are becoming so common that no one is surprised anymore when an event like this is in the news. It is still incredulous if there are a large number of victims, but when was the last time you were shocked if someone shot three or four people? Our society as a whole is becoming desensitized to sensational violence. I believe God put an innate sense of right and wrong in all of us. Apparently, that can be suppressed with the proper 'training'.

Well, I could probably go on for hours about the ills of our society, but I am too tired. What can I do about it? All I can think is to raise my three boys in a way that they know right from wrong, that they know how to differentiate between a good decision and a bad decision in any given circumstance, and to insure they know and understand the Gospel. They will all have to make their own decisions as to who they are going to be as an adult, but I can prepare them to have a shot at being a respectable, productive citizen of this great country! They may have to speak Chinese, but hey, I like General Tso's Chicken.

Later,
JD