Originally posted 2011-08-26 06:07:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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This past weekend I took the family camping and fishing for my daughters birthday. It was her idea by the way. We drove down to the middle of Utah to a great lake and caught a ton of fish.
What I noticed is that on the way back there was lots of empty space…in the dark at least. Plenty of stuff in the day. What I really noticed is, even on the freeway, it was dark. Cars passing on both sides of us because a minivan with a tent trailer has to be slow right? 70 mph not quite enough for you jackasses is it? Anyway, there were islands of light along side of the freeway that rose out of the darkness like the moon coming over the mountain. Which was happening at the same time but irrelevant to the story.
The island of light was, you guessed it, a Wal-Mart surrounded by several smaller stores all seeming to be sycophants to the great and powerful Oz, er Wal-Mart. My wife said, “We are OK now, there is a Wal-Mart.” I chuckled and we drove on. Another 10 minutes or so (again still at 70 mph and getting passed) another Wal-Mart rose out of the stygian night. I said, “We must be back close to civilization, there is another Wal-Mart.”
That was the joke now as we passed two more before hitting Provo, the first big city on our way back to Salt Lake. After that there were more Wal-Marts and we already knew where they all are in the valley. We finally made it home and speculated that we may have to hit a couple of those Wal-Marts in the future. (Not a joke, when we didn’t have kids (and a couple times with the kids) we drove the two hours up to Evanston, Wyoming just for fun. We would have pizza at the Shakey’s and then go to Wal-Mart because there wasn’t much else to do. Now it is a joke to stop at a new Wal-Mart. And no, they are not all the same. Why just last year we stopped at the one in Price, Ut………)
Originally posted 2010-05-03 08:30:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
This is a fantastic Rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC. It may have been a year ago, but it has some truths today, plus it is just a fantastic rant. And it keeps going. enjoy it!
Well folks, in the grand tradition of sites everywhere I am participating in yet another year end post. Today I have a few awards to hand out.
We will start right here with the coots:
Justin, that’s me, gets the Laziest Coot with the most Crap to Do award. I award myself this because it seems the hours that used to be productive are now stolen by a 1 year old and cleaning up the house. I can only hope that 2012 will allow me to get more sleep and concentrate more on my business and making some dough. Both bread and money.
Here we are winding up a year that set records for making sow’s ears out of silk purses. The world is going to hell in a hand basket (yes I know this is a trite cliché but sometimes only a trite cliché can convey your meaning). What I’m trying to say here is that the only thing good about 2011 is that we are almost done with it.
I say good riddance.
But what I’m embarrassed about today is that I’ve lost the will to rant. Search as I might in my inner being, it’s just not there. It may be just the joy and happiness of the season washing away all that bitter acid. Possibly it’s that I’m just overwhelmed by peace and joy not to mention too much to eat. I’m at a loss to explain it. You see, I’ve never had this problem before. Ranting has been second nature, easy as falling off a log.
This year, it’s different.
I’m a weepy wuss. Getting that cloying Christmas update from Cousin Zach never overwhelmed me before. This year I actually thought his new grandson was cute and reading about his road trip to Cedar Rapids made me envious. Then there is the food. That extra piece of pie never overwhelmed my natural distrust of human nature. This year stuffing my face completely unnecessary high calorie treats isn’t just making me fat. Each piece of pie or glass of eggnog is turning me into more of a pussy cat. more…
Originally posted 2010-09-27 08:39:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
This is part two. If you missed part one of Down With Flying then follow the link.
It’s our own fault!
I say that the problems with flying are all our own fault. I think it comes down to two things – Americans have rejected the concept of class and we are cheap.
The airlines, just like any other business in the free world, cater to their customers and compete to provide what customers demand. Today , we insist on cheap transportation- at least when we fly. Since 1995 airfares have increased about 20% (my mental trend line analysis of the chart below) while inflation has been nearly 45%. It is not a perfect measurement because not everything increases in cost but it suggests that airlines have had to compromise to keep airfares from increasing to provide the same levels of service 1995. Something had to give and it was service.
The more complicated question is why we tolerate the degradation in service levels since we manage to pay for increased costs in other areas of our lives and take for granted that we are entitled to cost of living adjustments for wages. For most of us, travel is not a regular part of our lives. We fly infrequently and are therefor more willing to put up with occasional inconvenience.
I think the biggest problem is that Americans have lost respect for class. I don’t mean social class like living on the right side of the railroad tracks. I mean having class: dressing up rather than down and looking like you matter. People associate class with snobbery or pretense. Nobody cares how they look or wants to be seen as pretentious. Look at your plane-mates next time you fly. Try to imagine what went through their minds selecting their wardrobe for the day. You can be sure that they weren’t thinking that the wanted to make a good impression. Everybody is afraid of looking classy. Nobody minds looking like trailer park trash, shlepping all their worldly belongings on and off the plane in their ratty luggage. And if you do check your bags (at additional cost on most airlines) and dress in a civilized way you get looks from the other passengers as if to say. “You think you are too good to shlep bags?” more…
