11/21/09 - Why is it so bad to be different?
I have mentioned finances multiple times on this blog. I've mentioned the envelope budgeting method my wife and I use, how buying in bulk isn't all that great sometimes, and how some products/services are ripoffs. This last week has really upset me a bit about the whole frugal mindset.My wife has a wonderful job, I just feel bad for her in regards to the people she has to work with (another post is upcoming on this). Multiple times, my wife during conversation has mentioned how some of her coworkers think she is weird for being so "cheap" and "tight". I'm not going to say they attempt to insult her, but she is almost frowned upon for the way she and I manage our money.
Likewise, my sister-in-law has ridiculed me on multiple occassions for simply price checking items at the grocery store. If I can save $.50 by looking at two price labels and using a little bit of elementary math, why not? Even on this very website, I had a self-proclaimed "super cheap" person say they would not do the things I do to save a little bit of money. Just like my wife, I know that these people (I think both of the people I mentioned read this blog) mean no harm in their comments, and honestly, I am not offended by them. These are just two examples, and I could provide more.
Here's my point, espeically for those people my wife works with. Many of her coworkers are in their 50s and 60s. They are still working with no sign of retirement in their future and still paying on debts that they still manage to accumulate. When my wife and I reach our 60s, we will be retired with absolutely no debt whatsoever (unless we decide to take a loan to purchase our Class A RV), and will have been retired hopefully for quite some time.
Yes, we save where we can. My wife doesn't feel like spending an extra $200 to get a new phone just because she "wants" one. We haven't bought a new car even though our current Accord has over 230,000 miles on it and needs a paint job. We don't eat at Sonny William's Steak House twice a week. For that matter, we don't even eat at Casa Mexicana but every other month or so. Our only major downfall is taking vacations where we tend to spend a lot more for nicer accommodations.
But, neither my wife or daughter have ever gone to bed hungry. We have a comfortable place to sleep at night and we can get to and from wherever we need to go because our cars run. We are always clothed, and typically with very nice clothing.
However, within the next year, more than likely we will be completely debt free with the exception of our house which we will then be able to pay off in about 10 years (on a 30 year mortgage which was a mistake and is a lesson for another time). That's assuming that neither of us ever receive another raise or bonus from our jobs. I should also mention that if we change nothing about about the way our retirement is setup, we'll retire with somewhere between 1 and 2 million dollars in sound investments. We'll be able to live off the interest of our retirement, and pass on the balance of our accounts to our children. As far as I'm concerned, that is some kind of a legacy to leave to your kids.
With that knowledge, someone explain to me why being so different is such a bad thing. We are sacrificing nothing of importance today, to gain everything later so we can continue to enjoy ourselves with no worries. Dave Ramsey has a motto that recently I have really begun to understand better: "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else."
Labels: rant
6 Comments - Leave one yourself10/16/09 - A quick driving lesson.
Q: When is it appropriate to use the brake pedal?A: (Simple version) NEVER!
A: (More extended version with an explanation):
Let me be more specific, during every day driving, there is never, and I repeat, NEVER an appropriate time to use the brake when driving on the interstate. (Debris or animal in the road can not be considered a typical driving experience, as this does not happen often).
Let me throw out a few scenarios. First, the way I see it, assuming a three lane interstate, the right lane will typical travel between 5 and 10 miles an hour below the speed limit, the middle lane will be right around the speed limit, and the far left lane will be for those traveling 5-10 above the speed limit. Although this is not always the case, in my world, this is the way it should work.
This means, that if you happen to be merging on to the interstate (speed limit of 65 assumed), you should get up to around 60 miles an hour in an attempt to merge with that lane of traffic. If you brake to get in between cars either traffic was going to slow, or you were moving to fast. Likewise, if the person behind you has to brake, odds are, you were moving too slow.
Now, let's say you are in a hurry and need to get to the far left lane. It is fairly simple to remove your foot from the gas to give you a small gap between you and the car in front of you that you can use to accelerate to a comparable speed as the center lane. There is no need to use the brake to slow down because your car will not maintain that high of speed without the use of the accelerator. Once you get into the middle lane, coast until you are maintaining a good speed and repeat the process to get to the left lane.
If you have to brake in any lane, including the far left lane, something has gone wrong. If you are going more than 10 miles an hour in the fast lane, you are the problem, Since this will not impact cars behind you as you are going to fast for them to be close to you, this can be considered a minor offense. The catch is that you should still give yourself plenty of time to be able to slow down your vehicle by simply not accelerating anymore, resulting in no brake usage. However, if you are going under the recommended speed above in any lane, you need to merge back to the right side until you are moving steadily with traffic. This also comes into play with exiting the interstate. Just remove your foot from the gas and merge at the same time. You should have plenty of room to decelerate and not impact any other drivers.
Exiting the interstate. There is a reason that the stretch of road connecting an interstate and the access road is called and exit ramp. It is used for exiting. This is where you should apply the brake to decelerate to the recommended safe speed for that exit. You should not begin applying your brakes on the interstate as this will impact all drivers behind you that are attempting to maintain proper speeds.
What happens when one driver applies their brakes? Bad things...bad things. The common response to seeing brake lights is to apply your own brakes. This begins a chain reaction that eventually will result in what most commuters know as a traffic jam.
Speed traps. I have written about this before and have on numerous occassions been guilty of this, but as long as you are going a reasonable speed, and are helping to maintain a constant flow of traffic, that speed trap is not going to have any impact on you whatsoever. What gets under my skin the most is when the constant flow of traffic is 5-10 under the speed limit (for reasons unknown to me) and every car in front me starts applying their brakes as they pass the police officer. News Flash people, they had the radar on you long before you got close to them, braking as you pass is not preventing a ticket.
The same is true for rubber neckers. I swear, people act like they've never seen a wreck. Why do people want to stare at a wreck anyways? Do they think they are going to see a dead body or a dismembered figure, how creepy is that? Do they just want to see crushed vehicles, then go to a salvage yard, you get better views and you aren't causing a traffic issue? Or my favorite, "I wanted to make sure it wasn't someone I knew". What were you going to do if you did know them? Stop and assist the EMTs? Try to fix the engine block sitting on the side of the road? Or were you going to fix the body damage right then and there? No, you wanted to know if you knew someone in a wreck so you could tell all your other friends that you saw it. Listen people, just drive...seriously, the people who need to look at the wreck are going to be there, you just need to make sure you don't cause another one. (this might have made a good post all on it's own, oh well).
I think that ends today's driving lesson. For those wondering, yes this impacted me just this morning as there were several times that with no other traffic but myself and another car or two, brakes would be applied. Cruising at or around the speed limit, no cops, no wrecks, no traffic, not even an attempt to exit and in front of me, I see brake lights.
Labels: rant
0 Comments - Leave one yourself8/31/09 - Drivnig is not a difficult task.
I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before, but how in the world do some people drive on a daily basis without killing themselves and/or someone else with them.Just this morning, I had two run ins that just ticked me off. The first was a fairly large truck (Chevy 2500) pulling what I believe to be a toe behind cement mixer. We were crusing down a three lane interstate where the right lane is a designated exit to Memphis, the other two head to downtown little rock. Apparently, although this truck was in the far right lane, and passed multiple signs stating the purpose of the lane, he decided after the fact that he wanted to go to little rock. Instead of turning on his blinker and attempting to merge...this moron decided to continue to cruise down the shoulder until he could get over. This of cours forced the minivan in the lane next to him to slam on the brakes and I can only imagine force a chain reaction in traffic.
That would be bad enough in itself, but once we got on I-40 in front of the big church, there are four lanes. Our traffic takes up the right two lanes which continue on to Conway, and the left two lanes continue to little rock. There is about a stretch of 1 mile where you can switch lanes and get in the correct position. This truck decided to whip over into the right middle lane and stop....that's right STOP on the interstate until he could move over to the left lane headed to little rock. After I whipped past him, I was able to merge into the left lane with no problems and I had no impact on the flow of traffic. Seriously, this guy by himself started what I can only imagine was a traffic jam that could have been felt for at least a mile behind him.
Later in the same drive, maybe 5 minutes later, we got to a section of interstate that always speeds up after crawling for quite some distance. At this point, the right lane typically exits the interstate, the middle lane moves at roughly 40-50 miles an hour, and the left lane jumps to 60-65. This morning, the lady in front of me felt that it was necessary to move from the fast moving left lane to the middle lane. There were no vehicles present in front of her or beside her. However, she felt it necessary to reduce her speed by roughly ten miles an hour before switching lanes...sans turning signal as well. Why she thought it necessary to use her brakes to change lanes, I have no idea, but this isn't the first time I've seen this happen. In fact, it happens far too often. If she had used her turn signal, I might have cut her some slack as I would have assumed she was driving very cautiously. The fact that she did not properly change lanes leads me to believe she is just a bad driver.
Last on this rant, I was driving to church sunday morning, going down a two lane stretch of interstate. I was in the fast lane, going fast and a car was in front of me, not going as fast. They began moving over to the right lane which I was very pleased to see. The problem is they stopped halfway and came back into the left lane. Not long after, a lane opened up to the left so I honked, sped up and past on the left. I quickly noticed it was an old lady (I can't wait for the comments I get on this) and I said to my wife, "I don't care if it's an old lady, that is inexcusable". And I stand by that statement. If you can't maintain a steady speed, you should at least be able to drive straight. Later on that same drive, I was attempting to check something on my phone and I crossed one of the lane markings. My wife looked at me and said "That's inexcusable...what are you going to do?". I responded that I recognized that I was driving poorly and that I deserved to be honked at if anyone had been around.
See, I recognize these things, I take things that I deserve. If I'm driving slow in the fast lane for some reason and someone honks at me, I'll move and acknowledge in a graceful way. I make mistakes while driving, I know this. But, I also don't mind being reminded that I screwed up. This is the same reason that I let others know when they are driving like morons. If no one tells them, how are they going to learn?
I think this post got a little confusing, but that's ok. People have been asking for posts, so I have provided. Since most of my "posting material" has been going through twitter, I think I'll start tweeting, and then expounding here on my website. We'll see how that works out. And if you don't understand most of the above post, just know that I'm a better driver than 99% of the people out there, and I like to let people know that.
Labels: rant
1 Comments - Leave one yourself6/2/09 - Why I probably won't ever use TruGreen again.
As most people know, I enjoy working outside. The problem is that I prefer mowing the grass as opposed to doing things to help it grow. At our first house, the yard had been sodded just before we moved in so it was very simply to maintain. In fact, the guy across the street worked for a lawncare company so I got a great deal on chemical applications to control weeds and promote good lawn growth. After the first year, the thing was set so I just applied 13-13-13 fertilizer every month or so to keep it nice and thick and green.Since we moved into our current house, the previous owners did not care for the lawn so there are dead spots, areas full of weeds and overall the quality of the bermuda is just poor. I was starting to get tired of seeing all the junk in our yard, so I made the decision to hire a professional to treat our lawn to help get it under control.
TruGreen came out one day and gave me a quote of $55. That seemed WAY too high considering that for my lawn, I would charge maybe $50 to mow it, and that requires much less work than chemical applications. After he gave me the quote though, we talked for a while and I started to come around to the idea of having them service my lawn.
A couple days later, when I realized I was too lazy to call around and get any other quotes (plus I got a coupon for a discount on the first application by TruGreen in the mail) I decided to call them up. First of all, they asked if I had received a quote and I explained that yes, I had been told it would be $45, but was wondering if they would be able to do it for $40. (See next paragraph why this does not bother me morally). They quickly agreed and said this would be no problem, that they would be giving me a call later that day to finalize the paperwork and get me in the system.
(Disclaimer: Yes, I lied. However, I spoke with one of my customers the day after I received my quote and she explained she had also gotten a quote and it was $45. Having worked extensively on both of these properties, I knew that my customers lawn was quite a bit bigger. She is a fairly attractive female, and I'm pretty sure that she was giving a better deal simply because of that. I also have experience in quoting these types of things and although I typically don't intentionally over estimate lawns to give me a some bargaining room if needed, I know that other companies do this on purpose. Therefore, I felt like I was playing the game, and in this case, won....although it only costs them about $20 to do my lawn).
Back to getting setup, they did in fact call me back that day to get more information and stuff and although there were some fishy parts during the conversation, everything was pretty smooth. I was to receive service in the next couple of days.
About a week after I set everything up, no one had come by yet, but I assumed it was because we had gotten quite a bit of rain and they were waiting for things to dry off or stay dry. About a week after that, still no service, and what made it worse was...no rain either. They had forgotten about me.
I gave them a call only to find out that their automated system had been calling me every day to setup an appointment. The problem is, they had my cell phone number in their system correctly and I had never received a call, no voice mail or missed call on my phone. They decided to manually setup a time for the next Monday (I called on a Friday) and I assumed everything was good to go. I just looked over the fact that they would have never done anything about my service had I not called them.
Monday - no one showed up.
Tuesday - no one showed up.
Wednesday - I called to find out what happened. They said the address was wrong. They decided just to not call to correct it though. We got it fixed, they said they would be out the next day and if his employers didn't get it done, he would be out personally to do it. He also said the first application would be free for my troubles, this pleased me and I was willing to give them another chance.
Thursday - no one showed up.
Friday - I call again, the manager guy says there was some confusion and he thought someone else had done it. He would be out that evening to do it. Sure enough, he shows up at 6:00 that night and does the application. He was very nice and I was pleased with the service he provided at that time.
So, after three weeks, I finally got service, the weeds started dying and I was happy. Since the guy volunteered a free application, I was going to give them another chance to make up for it. That is...until I received an invoice in the mail.
They decided to go ahead and charge me for the first service which told me that this company was completely unable to provide any level of reasonable, consistent service. I called the next day to cancel service. What amazed me about that phone call is the lady on the other end of the line was very polite and gave me the impression that a majority of her day was spent taking complaints from customers who want to cancel service, there was no hesitiation in her response that she would take care of it immediately.
I will end this post on a slightly positive note though. About a week after I cancelled service, I got a call from someone else at the company whose title I have forgotten, but I believe it was a PR type person mainly responsible for damage control. The first thing he said to me was basically this, "Sir, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, I can not blame you for cancelling our service because it looks like you got jerked around. I'm not going to make any excuses, we did you wrong."
That right there made me happy, honestly, almost to the point of maybe considering to use TruGreen again in the future. I have come to expect calls like that to be full of excuses and finger pointing and counter offers to get you to come back. This guy actually called simply to apologize. He said that in the future if I ever changed my mind to call back and ask for him so that he could do everything he could to make my return as painless as possible. I wish I remembered his name because in all my dealings with customer service over the last 5 years or so, he is the ONLY person I have dealt with who I felt not only met my expectation of what customer service is, but went above and beyond anything I could have imagined.
To summarize: I will not go back to TruGreen, they proved and time and time again over the course of a month that they were not able to provide the service that I was willing to pay for. If they don't want my money, I don't want their service.
Labels: rant
0 Comments - Leave one yourself5/27/09 - The McDonald's parker
I had planned on making a fancy map for this post to explain my frustrations, but I'm too lazy, and you guys deserve a new post.Every once in a while I like to eat at McDonald's. 2 McDouble's, a small fry and a small glass for some water, that is my order. Anyways, the closest McDonald's to my office is always busy and when they built it, they either didn't think to purchase more land or they just have bad designers. Whatever the case, the drive through at lunch time backs up to 15 and 20 cars deep. This normally isn't a problem since I almost always go inside to eat. However, at this location, the drive through lane and the "lane you drive in to park your car" lane are the exact same thing. So when the drive through gets backed up far enough, you have to wait for the drive through queue to get smaller before you can get out of the parking lot.
This particular day I had been in a bad mood the whole time. In one of my next posts which details our trip back home from Florida, you will see why I was not in the best of spirits. As I was pulling into the lot, I noticed an empty spot I could access before the drive-thru line got in my way. This of course, was before one of the people in the drive-thru decided to throw it in reverse to get in that spot. Now, I would have been okay with that if that is where it ended.
While doing this, another vehicle is backing out of the spot right next to the currently open spot. This forces the drive-thru car, we will call her "broke-down minivan" to back up even further, which in turn prevents me from getting into the parking lot, causing backups in the street which in turn causes backups on Markham. Now, I'm a little upset because there was no need for it to be this complicated.
Then things get worse. Now that there were two open spots, she pulled in to the one furthest away from us against a curb. When she does this, she does not quite get all of her wheels into the spot and has the right side of her vehicle hanging out in the other open spot. If I were in the car, I would not have had as much of an argument, but I was in the Tahoe and therefore it was a VERY tight squeeze to get in there. Before pulling into the spot though, I waited for a moment thinking this "broke-down minivan" would correct her parking...she did not.
I had to pull in and back up a couple times to get in my spot the best I could and then I was able to squeeze out the driver side door to go in and get my meal. During this whole deal, I still haven't seen the other driver get out of their car and go inside. As I walk around the end of the "broke-down minivan" I see her just standing outside the vehicle. I decided she should know how bad of a driver she was so the following conversation took place:
Me: "Are you really going to leave your van like that?"
Bad Driver: "Naww...i was gunna fix it."
Me: "No you weren't, you aren't even in your car, you were just going to leave it."
Bad Driver: "I was talkin' to my grandmother."
Me: "Whatever, it doesn't even matter."....PUNCH TO THE FACE!!!!
Okay, so I didn't punch her in the face, but she at least needed a quick jab to the kidney. After that I just walked in because I knew I was dealing with someone with whom no intelligent conversation could be held. As I walked away, I did hear her say that she was now just going to leave it, which didn't matter to me because I was about to go eat some wonderful McD's food.
When I got done eating my tasty hamburgers, I was hoping to still see the van there to find out if she did actually move it or not, but they had already left. I made sure to check the side of my truck for dents, dings and other problems (slashed tires, broken glass) but there was nothing. This means that either her grandmother never got out of the van or when she got out of the van, she was much slimmer than the 250 pounds she appeared to be while sitting in the van.
This is the first time I have actually approached a bad driver, and I'm sure it won't be my last. I typically like to leave notes on people's windows if they don't have the mental capacity to properly park a vehicle, so actually talking to someone about it is a step in the right direction.
Although, some of my notes are quite enjoyable to write, I just wish I could see the people's reactions when they read them.
Labels: rant
0 Comments - Leave one yourself2/13/09 - Dish...again...almost there.
Yesterday I made the dreaded call to Dish to hopefully get things straightened out. I was very pleased to speak with a gentleman by the name of Pat. I can honestly say that after getting off the phone, my blood pressure was lower than when I started, which is the complete opposite of my last handful of calls.I told him why I was calling, which was to discuss my bill. I explained that the $300 would be addressed the next day if I did not get the resolution I was expecting. He voluntarily explained to me that it did appear on my account that it was being processed as expected. This pleased me although he did explain it would probably be three to 5 days before my credit card company recognized the credit. (Side rant at the bottom of this post). More on this in a moment. When I started explaining my problems, he was more than patient with me and offered to explain one by one.
The service fee was removed with no hassle whatsoever. I truly believe I could have just said that I didn't want to pay it and he would have removed it. The part that was the most confusing to me was the multiple line items for multiple premium packages pro-rated on different dates. He too was completely confused by them, but tried to explain the best he could. The point is, he genuinly tried and didn't try to make something up. When I mentioned that I was not receiving my $10 credit as promised, he asked to put me on hold, came back and explained that it had been applied to my account, but wasn't showing up on my bill. I said that his comment made no sense, but we would move on for the time being. The next question was in regards to the taxes. He explained that when the credit was truly applied, the taxes would also be removed and my account would display this.
So, after he made a few modifications to my account and bill, I asked him what I could expect to be applied to my credit card (automatic bill pay) on the 28th of this month. He said that he couldn't give me an accurate figure because the taxes might be different but that the best he could tell it would be around $47. I was very satisfied to hear him through out a number that I had basically calculated before making this phone call.
Back to the $300 charge, today, I got a phone call from Dish, an automated system. They informed me that my refund had been processed. That's great, I'm glad that happened, but the bad part is, it is 24 hours too late. I was told 2 days, and after this much trouble, I'm holding them to that. Because of this, and more thoughts I had, I will be making a call to a different department, probably on Monday to request more monetary compensation for the my trouble. On top of that, it just so happened that my credit card billing cycle starts and ends on the 15th. If I did not have the money to cover this charge, that $300 would sit on my account, and accumulate interest to the tune of 13% (we pay our credit card bill off every month, so this percentage rate does not bother me). Because of this, I feel that I am entitled to at least $40, plus compensation for the more recent calls I've had to make, as well as to make up for the poor attempt at appeasment by offering a programming package that was offered to all customers (I believe I've mentioned my frustrations in previous posts with offering new customers one deal, and not providing the same, or comparable deal to current customers).
*Footnote from above - why do companies say things take 3-5 business days, or 5-7 busienss days. That's a bunch of crap. We live in a world where technology rules. Computers and networks are advanced enough to do millions and millions of calculations and transfers in seconds. I also know for a fact that this mega corporations spend millions a year on technology infrastructure and software. It is more cost effective to have stable software as opposed to the possiblity of manual calculation errors when it comes to bills and financial transactions. At the end of the day, I could understand 1 business day. The first day, the customer rep would have to process a form (probably electronic) which was sent to the accounting department or some other similar department for approval. Upon approval, that would be immediately queued up for that evenings processing. Upon processing, the bank or credit card system was be alerted of the debit/credit immediately thanks to the use of ACH. This is a technology that I have worked with personally and it is awesome. So...don't give me this crap about how a credit/debit will take 3-5 days, much less the 61-90 as promised by the first lady I spoke with. Oh, and don't get me started on rebates...
Labels: blog, Dish Network, rant
1 Comments - Leave one yourself10/27/08 - Come on Subway...Really?
So after churchon Sunday, I was craving Subway really bad. What I was really looking forward to was a Pizza Sub, but going in, I knew I was going to have problems because it is not on the $5 sub list, and I don't want to spend more than I have to.A 6" Pizza Sub costs $3.69. To make it a foot long, you add $2.50 for a total cost of $6.19. This of course is $1.19 more than the list of $5 subs which includes Meatball Marinara and the new Chicken Pizziola. I had come up with several thoughts on how to get my Pizza Sub, so here is what happened.
1) I asked if the Pizza Sub was on the $5 menu in hopes that it had made it on since the last time I made it to Subway....no deal.
2) I asked if I could order a Meatball Marinara and just replace the meatballs with pepperoni (the meatballs vs. pepperoni being the ONLY difference between the two subs). They said that that would constitute some sort of replacement fee....no deal.
3) She said I could get a Chicken Pizziola, so I asked if I could get the Chicken Pizziola and just leave off the chicken, since the only difference between the two is that the new sub is a Pizza Sub plus chicken. She said that she could not do that....no deal.
Now, let me get this straight, I can almost understand the replacement thing, but you can't tell me that one of those meats they offer is so much more expensive than another that they have to charge to cover costs. But the last scenario is RIDICULOUS. I was going to have to pay an EXTRA $1.19 to get less food. I was willing to pay the price for the Chicken Pizziola and only get a half of the total meat, which if you double your meat is an additional couple dollars.
I am positive that at least one of the guys that works for Subway corporate offices took a math class in college. At the very least, they took Intro to Algebra or something. And yet, they have rules in place that prevented me from saving them money. It might be one of the stupidest things I've ever encountered.
I will say this, the Chicken Pizziola is one of the best sandwiches I've ever had, and unfortunately, it is only on the $5 menu for a limited time which means that this was probably the one and only time I'll ever order it. But come on Subway...let's put the 2nd cheapest sub you can order (2nd only to the veggie sub) on the $5 menu...it just makes sense.
Labels: rant
2 Comments - Leave one yourself10/14/08 - Airlines and airports
Cristi and Makenna flew out of Little Rock Airport yesterday morning to spend the week with Cristi's mom in Florida. I was reminded why I hate the entire airline industry during the entire process.First, ticket purchases. Granted, her mom was wonderful enough to buy the plane ticket for us, but in general, I have a problem with the business model. Why are they non-refundable, transferrable all that jazz? When you buy a ticket to watch the Razorbacks, they don't care who eventually sits in that seat, if anyone sits there at all. Airlines, though, insist that if you buy the ticket, you are the only person that can sit there. They get there money no matter what, what should they care? Don't tell me it is for security, because the security checkpoint verifies that the person going through is not a terrorist (more on this later) regardless of the name on the plane ticket. Here is where it gets worse. It is my understanding that EVERY plane is intentionally overbooked with the assumption that a couple people will either forget their flight, or just miss it for one reason or another. This happened to Cristi on her second flight yesterday (where she was actually bumped to first class, a nice little perk, but still doesn't make up for everything else). So, the airlines overbook on purpose, and then force people to either pay another fee to cancel/transfer, and then it's possible you might get bumped from a flight because they sold too many tickets (this happened on three of the four flights I was on during the New York trip.)
Second issue. The airlines have a 50 pound limit on luggage. That's fine, I can kind of understand that for safety reasons for people loading the luggage and as my wife mentioned, possibly due to flight weight and fuel usage (but don't tell me a bag 5 pounds over is going to cost the $50 fee for an oversized bag). So before we left, I weighed each of her bags and made sure they were underweight. To reach this weight however, I had to remove some of her toiletries and without thinking about it, put it in her carry on because she had some extra room in there. When we checked in, the attendant walked over and picked up each bag seperately and then told us to take them to the scan place. You are going to tell me that this lady who might have weighted 120 pounds can tell the difference between a 45 pound bag (which is about what her's weighed) and a 55 pound overweight bag? That upset me that I went to so much trouble to fit into the airlines policy, and then they don't enforce it.
Third issue. She checked two bags, that cost us forty friggin dollars. For smaller bags, it would be cheaper to ship the things overnight then check them with the airline. Not to mention, you have a better chance of not having your luggage lost, broken, scuffed or broken by shipping it. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to add the luggage fee, but regardless of the fact the airlines are making money hand over fist, it upsets me greatly because there are no other options. Overnight or weekend trips for a guy can fit in a carry on (with one exception, more on this later) but most females require more than will fit in a carry on and therefore it is almost required they check one bag.
Fourth issue. Clear is a new "feature" airports offer to bypass the security lines. You can pay a yearly fee (I think it's like $50 a year or something), and this allows you to scan your little credit card looking thing, a fingerprint or something and you can go straight to the metal detectors and skip the whole checkpoint line. This means that because of the terrorist fear (again, more on this later), this company, regardless of who they are owned by (airline, airport...whatever) are making money on the sensationalized fear that main stream media has plugged into the average American.
Fifth issue. After Cristi got through the first checkpoint, I went ahead and left since there was nothing more that I could do. When I got to the truck, I checked my parking ticket and realized that I was at 59 mintues so instead of sitting in my car and waiting for cristi to call and let me know she got to the gate, I went to the parking attendant and paid. It cost $2 for one hour of parking. I understand why they do it, obviously to make money, but I feel that that is a bit excessive and somewhat taking advantage of people. Most people who are flying are businessmen and they have to park their cars overnight and stuff like that, but there is also a percentage of people who are dropping off or picking up a loved one. If you want to escort them to the gate, or pick them up at the gate (or at least to the security checkpoint since no one is allowed near the gates because that could cause the country to be blown up) you have to park and pay. I feel the airport is taking advantage of this. I don't like it.
Sixth issue. As I mentioned, I went ahead and left once Cristi got past the first (of several) security checkpoints. I had just gotten on the interstate when she calls and asks if I am still there. I say no and she says, oh...then nevermind. I asked what was going on and she reminded me that I had put...GASP...liquids in her carryon when I moved over the toiletry items. They were, among others, baby bug spray, baby sunscreen, baby lotion and baby shampoo. The bug spray and sun screen were in a 8oz container, no way can this be allowed on an airplane. The other two were in 4oz. bottles...HEAVENS NO...not 4oz. Anything larger than 3.5oz is considered suspect and must be confiscated. I do not blame the people making the decisions that local airports, I do blame the rules in general and the people making these rules. What is frustrating is simply the fact that it will cost us probably $15-$20 to repurchase the items that they took...a small price to pay for the knowledge of knowing the plane won't blow up, but I don't see it that way.
Here's why. The reason, from my understanding, that liquids aren't allowed is because a while back there was a suspected terrorist that had a gatorade bottle filled with a liquid that might have been explosive. I don't think anything was every proven that it was in fact going to be used as a bomb. Right after that, you were not allowed to have ANY liquids in carry-on. They then changed that to be only liquids that fit in a 3.5oz container or smaller and they all must fit in a quart size bag. Give me a break. I don't have any desire to carry explosive materials on a plane, but even I can figure out that those rules means that I can basically carry a quart of any liquid on a plane, as long as they are in seperate small bottles. I can also figure out that if I have 10 friends fly with me, I can get 10 quarts of any liquid on the plane. The rule sucks, there are too many ways around it, and besides that, your bags are "randomly" tested for explosives and if you looked suspect or your luggage looked suspect, you would "randomly" be tested. They need to remove the liquid ban now.
It is because of this rule, it is virtually impossible to travel for more than a day or two without having to check baggage. I don't think you can find shave gel in containers smaller than 3.5oz. If you are on a business trip, how are you supposed to shave? Besides that, you have to have a razor...oh yeah, that's not allowed on a plane either. Were you considering that you might need to file back a nail or cut your nails...forget that, you can't take a file or nail clippers either. That has to be checked in with the airlines, which means you are going to have to pay their checked baggage fee. (except Southwest....they don't have these fees....yet).
Here's another thing, when we went to New York, Chris and Geoffrey both had containers of toothpaste larger than 3.5oz....they never said a word to them. If the rules are going to be there....for crying out loud, actually stick with them.
Another reason. After the 9/11 attack, security got locked down on airlines and airports. Why would a terrorist group even consider going this route again? They knew we would start watching closer. By adding all the security, I truly feel like they have taken away some of my freedoms. That makes me sick because basically (it's a cliche, I know)...the terrorist have won.
Seventh Issue. I got sidetracked, but there is one more reason. Again, related to the above security checkpoint, you can't take in food or drinks (with the exception of baby food and medicine...which seriously, if you are a terrorist, you know these rules, they are TOO EASY to get around). So if you have a long layover, running late and need to eat before or between a flight...you have to buy the food in the airport. Guess what, those places jack up their prices through the roof. Cristi got a sub from Quizno's yesterday and since she was in a hurry, she didn't realize until after she had paid that she dropped $10 for a sub. A sub that would normally cost about $5 and some change in a normal Quizno's. I know that Burger King is the same way. You pay an extra 3 or 4 dollars in an airport BK than what you would at the BK around the corner from your house. I understand companies need to make a profit, but I believe the term for that is price gouging.
Summary: Wow, I didn't realize this post was going to be so long, but apparently I have serious issues with the whole system. Outside of not flying (which I don't do enough to make a difference to the airlines or the system), there is nothing I can really do. It just makes me sick that if you are traveling a long distance, this is basically the only way to go. Because of this, you don't have choices in the grand scheme of things. I guess you could just buy your own plane and build an airfield in your backyard (see: John Travolta) but that doesn't fit in most people's budget. I wish I could say I feel better after typing all this, but I don't, it still make me sick. And it's going to cost another $40 to check the same luggage coming back home, so I'm already upset about that. Not to mention the parking for when I go pick them up at the airport.
Labels: rant
4 Comments - Leave one yourself4/7/08 - Bottled water is not good. Period.
Here's the thing. I don't have any scientific proof for what I'm about to talk about. I don't have any fancy charts or pretty graphs. My research is limited to only what I've read in passing over the last however long I've cared about this topic. I am not an expert on the environment. I have not won a Nobel Peace Prize or studied the effects of "Global Warming". I have never studied directly under Dave Ramsey. I am not a CPA and have never invested in Mutual Funds.What I do know is that bottled water is NOT good for the environment and is financially "not smart".
I'll hit on the environmental aspect first. Plastic is not biodegradable. Water comes packaged in plastic bottles which are single use entities. Every time you finish off a bottle of water, it gets thrown into the trash, which is then taken to a landfill (or in some cases, dumped somewhere you wouldn't expect). Once in the landfill, that bottle will be there for years to come. I have no data, so I'm not going to throw out any specific time, but I would guess that it will be there for your grandkids grandkids, if not longer.
Financially, it just doesn't make sense to me. I recognize that bottled water is not incredibly expensive and is much cheaper than soft drinks. This does not change the fact that there are other MUCH cheaper options than bottled water. Your kitchen sink is the first that comes to mind. Recently, I decided that I would start drinking a glass of water every night. I have no idea why I decided that, but it seemed like a good idea. Instead of going through a bottle of water, I chose to actually drink tap water, out of a glass and I was amazed that I actually enjoyed the taste better than the bottled stuff. What's even better is that I can add ice cubes in a glass of water, but I have to refrigerate the bottles for several hours to get them chilled.
You might say immediately that to you the quality of the bottled water is much better. I find it hard to believe that that is truly the case. Their are two different bodies that govern and regulate the quality of water both in the bottled water industry and the municipal water sources. From my understanding, tap water is held to a higher standard and is much more readily monitored. I wish I had better facts, but as I said at the beginning of this post, I'm just regurgitating what I've heard in the past.
Evian spelled backwards is Naive. The entire bottled water industry has been increase in popularity primarily from marketing which emphasises both the convenience and the "higher quality" of the companies product. Marketing is an amazing thing, it works, but I believe that this country should be more educated regarding bottled water.
I recognize that bottled water is very convenient. It comes prepackaged, you don't have to fill up anything or worry about spills. But at the end of the day, how long does it really take to fill up a reused bottle. This is what I would recommend, go ahead and buy a pack of bottled water. Put three or four in the fridge and when you empty one of them, fill it back up with tap water (or filtered water, more in a second) and put it right back in the fridge. It takes all of about 20 seconds and in that time, you saved a little bit of money AND helped out Mother Earth. Now, I have read research that states after about 5 or 6 uses, the plastic can start to degrade. I don't even reuse a bottle but maybe four times tops. After that, I throw it away and put a new bottle in the fridge. This is still slightly wasteful, but four times better than not doing it.
Several years ago, Cristi and I realized how silly it was that we were going through so much bottled water. What we did is went and got a Brita filter. It had an easy dispense spout on the front and held a gallon and a half or something like that. We would use that to fill up our bottles and that way, we had the convenience and had the "clean" taste that some people prefer. (I still can't tell the difference between cold filtered water and cold tap water).
Last but not least. Something that I've found works really well to increase the flavor of water that doesn't require any bottles, filters or anything like that is ice. By getting the water as cold as possible (obviously without freezing it) the flavors almost completely go away. Here's my favorite recipe. Take a regular glass, fill half way with ice cubes or crushed ice, top off glass with regular cold tap water and enjoy. Give it a try, see what you think.
Labels: rant
0 Comments - Leave one yourself3/24/08 - You don't own the road
This is going to be one of my personal rants. If you don't really care how I feel about things, you can skip this post altogether and visit Rainbow Land. This particular situation has not come up in quite some time, simply because I haven't been shopping or in an area where many people are gathered.Here's the basic problem: There are some people in this world that thing they are owed something. People who think they have been wronged somehow and therefore think they own the place. Of course, there is a smaller subset of these people who just don't care, and they have other issues I don't care to deal with.
I believe that about every other time I visit Wal-Mart, Target, or pretty much any other large parking lot area, there is at least one person who things that those wide lanes were designed and created so that they could walk right down the middle of it. News flash people, those lanes are wide enough for two cars to drive down it, and they were not designed primarily for use by pedestrians. There have been times that I have come into this situation, and the person turns around to see that a car is coming and they get out of the way. This post is not about them. I'm talking about the person (typically with their five children) who does not even bother to look around to see if there is a car around. Not to mention the fact that unless you are driving an electric car, vehicles are not made to be stealthy. You can hear when a car is approaching. Now let's say that said person (with multiple children, none of which they are paying attention to) can not hear the vehicle and therefore is not moving. I'll give them a little bit of a break on this, but at the same time, why in the world are they allowing their children (assuming they are related somehow) to walk down a road (that's what it is, it's a road, a slow road, but a road with moving vehicles) virtually unattended, that's a different rant altogether.
But then there are those people who hear the vehicle, turn around and look, and continue to walk right down the middle...that really gets me, that gets me good. In fact, when this situation comes up, (and Cristi hates this) I will get basically as close to the person as possible (still with plenty of space to stop, of course we are only going about 5 miles an hour) and rev the engine. Basically, I'm tailgating the person/people, and they aren't in a car. I've been tempted to honk, but if I were to do that, Cristi would probably beat me to death with her backhand.
Here's another situation. Wal-mart has the largest pedestrian crossing area in the world. I think the entire area in front of the store is marked as pedestrian crossing. Now, I understand that they have the right of way, but out of consideration, there is no reason to take 5 minutes to cross a 20 foot space. When I come out of Wal-mart, I immediately look both ways to determine if there is anyone coming. If there is, I will simply travel down the sidewalk towards my car instead of impeding the flow of traffic. Once there is a break, I cross and head to my vehicle. Now, if it's busy, I will slowly creep towards the road and wait for someone to pause before entering the crossing zone. Once I'm allowed into the street, I will move at a brisk jog, or at a minimum a fast walk. I recognize that even though I'm not in a hurry, someone else probably is. I'm sure I've been guilty of the things I've mentioned, but I really do make an honest effort to prevent myself from doing these same things.
Last but not least, it's a similar situation in the parking lot, but then when you get into the store, and I'm using Wal-mart again as an example. I will be the first to admit that my wife is guilty of this just as much if not more than anyone else. When you are shopping, and the aisles are just wide enough for two carts to pass each other, DON'T STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF AN AISLE! If I had to guess, I'd say this happens anywhere from 5-10 times every single time I go into the store. What makes it even worse is when you are walking down a major aisle, such as the one in front of the check out counters, someone is in front of you, you've got heavy traffic going in both directions (everyone following the rules of the road, drive on the right), and suddenly the person in front of you, with there entourage of people stops. Comes to a complete stop and you've got to either swerve to avoid hitting them or come to a complete stop yourself and hope the person behind you doesn't hit you. The way I see it, treat the aisles just like you were driving. You don't own the road and you don't own the road, so why do you think you should own the aisle.
Let's say you need to get Tomato soup (a common item on our grocery list). If you have been to wal-mart recently, you know that there are roughly 725 different kinds of soup made by Campbell. And every time you go, they rearrange them. Chicken noodle is on the top row on the left one day, and the next day it's in the middle row on the far right. I understand you have to look for it. But I simply ask this of you, don't park your cart in the middle of aisle next to the macaroni and cheese 20 feet away and walk to the soups. Take the cart with you. Park directly across the aisle from the soup and search while still monitoring your cart. This way, you should be out of the way as people can still pass on one side of you. And if you are in the way of someone (say someone is looking for the tomato paste which you are now parked in front of), you can easily slide your cart a few feet in one direction and everyone is happy.
Some might think that I life a miserable life because there are some many things that get under my skin. I really don't, I just always expect the best out of people and do everything I can to treat others the way I expect to be treated. The above items seem like simple common courtesy and I don't understand why other's can't feel the same way. I do let these things get under my skin more than I should, and I'm sure my blood pressure rises. I would love to get feedback from anyone on why my feelings are wrong, what I should do, or basically whatever you think about what I've said.
Labels: rant
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