4.27.2005
Don't Make Me Pull This Car Over
If one more person complains to me about the price of gas here in WA or
anywhere else, I'm going to throw up on them! Is it really productive
to bitch about a self imposed situation? Hello...! Ride your bike. Take
the bus, walk. Do something and stop complaining to me about how it
costs 50 bucks to fill up your gas guzzling, 6 miles to gallon, piece
of crap-SUV, that only carries your fat ass to and from work. I don't
care if you go broke, because it's your decision. And really, I don't
care what your excuse is. Everyone has one. I have to drive to work,
or I live too far from where I go to work, or I have to pick my kids up
from school. You know what? When I was a kid, there was no one to pick
me up from school. My parents both worked full time jobs and I managed
to get myself home just fine. Thank you very much.
anywhere else, I'm going to throw up on them! Is it really productive
to bitch about a self imposed situation? Hello...! Ride your bike. Take
the bus, walk. Do something and stop complaining to me about how it
costs 50 bucks to fill up your gas guzzling, 6 miles to gallon, piece
of crap-SUV, that only carries your fat ass to and from work. I don't
care if you go broke, because it's your decision. And really, I don't
care what your excuse is. Everyone has one. I have to drive to work,
or I live too far from where I go to work, or I have to pick my kids up
from school. You know what? When I was a kid, there was no one to pick
me up from school. My parents both worked full time jobs and I managed
to get myself home just fine. Thank you very much.
All I'm saying is, it's just not that hard. If you don't like paying a lot of money for gas, then don't drive your car so much. And be thankful you don't live in Communist France or some other Western European country, 'cause then you'd really be sorry if you were paying for gas.
4.26.2005
Lesson Learned
This last weekend I raced at Seatac. Great course and always a lot of fun. This race was different though. I somehow convinced myself that I was the last one on the course and so, really what was the hurry? It's amazing how much time you have to think in a 25 mile race. Since I had convinced myself that I had completly lost the race, I figured that I should enjoy the ride. I mean it is Spring and there are lots of nice flowers blooming. Silly me. I ended up coming in 4th. Now I know for next time.
I'm baaack....
I am the accidental blogger. I go through phases with my posts. Either life gets too busy or I'm so bored out of my mind that I'm uninspired to write. No inspiration= no post. Today inspiration took hold, so here it is...
Every spring we have a flock of Swallows that hang out at our place for a few weeks. At sunset, they fly around like maniacs chasing bugs in the air. I love going out and watching them. I'm sure it's some sort of highly organized procedure, but it sure seems chaotic and crazy. Hundreds of tiny birds flying to and fro in waves over the creek behind our apartment. It's always cool on that first day when you notice they've arrived. Spring is here!
Now, I don't know which direction they are migrating, but I like to imagine they are headed to my Aunt's house in Alaska. She and my Uncle live in Homer on a beautiful ridge overlooking Kechemak Bay and the Cook Inlet. You can see glaciers and volcanos from their living room and kitchen windows. We had the pleasure of being there one summer during the time that the Swallows hatched. My Aunt built little bird houses for them under the eaves right outside the living room window. We spent hours watching the Mom Swallow bring food to them through out the day. We marveled as they grew and we could hear their little chirps all day long as the Mom flew in and out of the nest. We even got to witness the first flight of these little creatures. I think one pushed the other out of the nest. Ooops! It all happened so fast. We were only there for a few weeks and in that time they went from being tiny little babies, unable to feed themselves, to tiny little flying, bug eating machines.
So, it is always in the Spring when the Swallows come that I am once again reminded of how amazing nature is. Not that I really need reminding, but it sure is cool.
Every spring we have a flock of Swallows that hang out at our place for a few weeks. At sunset, they fly around like maniacs chasing bugs in the air. I love going out and watching them. I'm sure it's some sort of highly organized procedure, but it sure seems chaotic and crazy. Hundreds of tiny birds flying to and fro in waves over the creek behind our apartment. It's always cool on that first day when you notice they've arrived. Spring is here!
Now, I don't know which direction they are migrating, but I like to imagine they are headed to my Aunt's house in Alaska. She and my Uncle live in Homer on a beautiful ridge overlooking Kechemak Bay and the Cook Inlet. You can see glaciers and volcanos from their living room and kitchen windows. We had the pleasure of being there one summer during the time that the Swallows hatched. My Aunt built little bird houses for them under the eaves right outside the living room window. We spent hours watching the Mom Swallow bring food to them through out the day. We marveled as they grew and we could hear their little chirps all day long as the Mom flew in and out of the nest. We even got to witness the first flight of these little creatures. I think one pushed the other out of the nest. Ooops! It all happened so fast. We were only there for a few weeks and in that time they went from being tiny little babies, unable to feed themselves, to tiny little flying, bug eating machines.
So, it is always in the Spring when the Swallows come that I am once again reminded of how amazing nature is. Not that I really need reminding, but it sure is cool.
4.12.2005
Where Have I Been?
I've been living uner a rock or in a cave or something... I just found out about this thing called Weather Modification. Say what????? Scottie mentioned to me last night that Texas has been using a cloud seeding procedure to battle their on-going drought. What the fuck? Cloud seeding? With in five minutes of doing some fact finding online, it is clear to me that this is the most whacked thing I've heard about in a long ass time. Apparently, some dude predicted that weather patterns all over the west would be all screwed up from the cloud seeding in Texas. Ah, duh... I read one report that the military, some decaedes ago, did some cloud seeding on a hurricane out in the Atlantic. It immediately changed it's course and ended hitting land and causing massive damage. Ooops. Also, it seems that some 39 countries use some kind of weather modification and this is big cause for concern amongst the whacko conspiracy folks out there.
How is it that I've managed to make it 33 years without ever knowing about this? I swear I havent been living under a rock.
How is it that I've managed to make it 33 years without ever knowing about this? I swear I havent been living under a rock.
4.08.2005
Wash, Rinse, and Hang Out to Dry
CAUTION: Long rant to follow...
We were at Fred Meyer last night picking up rice milk and Newman O's, (the minty one are truly addicting). If you've ever been to Freddy's, you know that more common than not, there are like 52 check stands and a "U-SCAN". Usually of those 52 stands, only 2 or 3 are ever open and if you are there when it's busy, the lines are ridiculous. The U-SCAN is where you check your own groceries through. It goes something like this: scan item, wait for computer to beep, place item in bag, oops, item didn't scan, try again, then try again, oh that's beer, wait for guy to come over and check your ID, then place in bag, scan next item. Oh, wait, it's produce... place on scale, input proper code, oh, that code doesn't work. Call Dude over again and wait for him to find code for your apples and so it goes. On and on. You get the idea. Meanwhile, all of the people in the other lanes are out in their cars getting on with their lives. I don't know about you, but when I go to the market I figure part of the price I pay is for the service I get there and checking and bagging my own groceries doesn't really feel like sevice. Call me crazy.
So, we are wondering around looking for the check stand with the little light on telling us the lane is open, and Scotty walks right by and starts to head for the U-SCAN. I'm thinking this is really weird because I know he hates the U-SCAN. I grab him and turn back to the open lane and find a very young man with a bewildered look on his face sort of ready to help us. He makes a comment about us not using the U-SCAN. He says that it really get easier once you learn how to use it, (as if we were to stupid to figure it out.) He wasn't being mean though. He was just doing his job. Spewing the company line. I asked if he was worried that he would have nothing to do if we had decided not to come through his line. In my mind I'm thinking that paying people to do customer service when there are no customers really isn't in the spirit of how large corporations do business. He assured us that that they still need people to man the U-SCAN station, but here's the rub - it was his boss at the U-SCAN.
The brain washing of America has become so complete that even grocery store clerks are willing to encourage customers to take advantage of a situation that makes their very job obsolete. Corporate America is winning! At some point we, the consumer, will never have to make contact with a single soul, whether we are going the movies, the grocery store, the gas station, or any number of fully automated establishments. These jobs are becoming irrevelant and human contact is on it's way to extinction. We are on our way to having a country filled with unemployed freaks. I mean really, human contact is what makes us care about other people and make the right decisions where others are concerned.
This is going to sound corny but Howard Shultz of Starbucks says, "We are NOT in the coffee business serving people, we are in the people business serving coffee." And he still manages to rake in crap loads of money. Hmm... I hope that technology in the future will make my job easier and free up more of my time so I can spend it with my employees and my customers. Hopefully, it won't make what I do worthless to the people who pay me to do it.
We were at Fred Meyer last night picking up rice milk and Newman O's, (the minty one are truly addicting). If you've ever been to Freddy's, you know that more common than not, there are like 52 check stands and a "U-SCAN". Usually of those 52 stands, only 2 or 3 are ever open and if you are there when it's busy, the lines are ridiculous. The U-SCAN is where you check your own groceries through. It goes something like this: scan item, wait for computer to beep, place item in bag, oops, item didn't scan, try again, then try again, oh that's beer, wait for guy to come over and check your ID, then place in bag, scan next item. Oh, wait, it's produce... place on scale, input proper code, oh, that code doesn't work. Call Dude over again and wait for him to find code for your apples and so it goes. On and on. You get the idea. Meanwhile, all of the people in the other lanes are out in their cars getting on with their lives. I don't know about you, but when I go to the market I figure part of the price I pay is for the service I get there and checking and bagging my own groceries doesn't really feel like sevice. Call me crazy.
So, we are wondering around looking for the check stand with the little light on telling us the lane is open, and Scotty walks right by and starts to head for the U-SCAN. I'm thinking this is really weird because I know he hates the U-SCAN. I grab him and turn back to the open lane and find a very young man with a bewildered look on his face sort of ready to help us. He makes a comment about us not using the U-SCAN. He says that it really get easier once you learn how to use it, (as if we were to stupid to figure it out.) He wasn't being mean though. He was just doing his job. Spewing the company line. I asked if he was worried that he would have nothing to do if we had decided not to come through his line. In my mind I'm thinking that paying people to do customer service when there are no customers really isn't in the spirit of how large corporations do business. He assured us that that they still need people to man the U-SCAN station, but here's the rub - it was his boss at the U-SCAN.
The brain washing of America has become so complete that even grocery store clerks are willing to encourage customers to take advantage of a situation that makes their very job obsolete. Corporate America is winning! At some point we, the consumer, will never have to make contact with a single soul, whether we are going the movies, the grocery store, the gas station, or any number of fully automated establishments. These jobs are becoming irrevelant and human contact is on it's way to extinction. We are on our way to having a country filled with unemployed freaks. I mean really, human contact is what makes us care about other people and make the right decisions where others are concerned.
This is going to sound corny but Howard Shultz of Starbucks says, "We are NOT in the coffee business serving people, we are in the people business serving coffee." And he still manages to rake in crap loads of money. Hmm... I hope that technology in the future will make my job easier and free up more of my time so I can spend it with my employees and my customers. Hopefully, it won't make what I do worthless to the people who pay me to do it.
