Ford Plant Legacy

random
Yesterday morning on MPR, Cathy Wurzer interviewed three generations of a family that worked at the Ford plant in St. Paul. The plant is closing as early as 2008. When I first heard the news of the closing I was disappointed, thinking about St. Paul loosing such a good employer. I really don’t know anything about working at the Ford plant, but I assumed Ford was a good employer because of the number of well paying jobs. A lot of jobs will be lost when the plant closes, but Cathy’s interview made me rethink how good it was to work there. The three men did talk about the strong community at the Ford plant, however, what surprised me is when one man said “The pay was good, and the benefits were great… it’s the only reason I stayed there otherwise I would have been gone.” The men talked about pressure with the amount of work, time standards, and physical stress. It sounds like these men had both positive and negative experiences at the Ford plant but they didn’t seem too upset about the plant closing. When asked about the legacy the three had created at the Ford plant, the youngest man stated “Well I’m just going to have to do like my grandfather did way way back in the day. Just try to start a new legacy.”

runnings
I got up this morning around 7:30am to run and it was already 78° F outside. I still went for the run, but it wasn't very comfortable. I would have liked to have done a long run, but I decided it would be best not to try. So I did the 4.5 mile Greenway loop I did earlier in the week. I haven't been the best about running this week because my parents are in town and because I don't like the weather. While running this morning I did figure out there was one solution to both these problems. Get up earlier.