Republicans and Tea Party Holds America Hostage
I believe that the U.S. Congress should pass a law that mandates that all salaries of U.S. Congressmen and their staffs be withheld if there is any sort of government shut downs or sequestrations are brought on by Congress's inability to pass a budget! I'm ashamed of their inappropriate behavior in causing the current crisis! May be if they were the first to suffer from their inability to follow their constituents best interests were brought to bear on them, they could be persuaded to act like adults!

Cooperation and Collaboration
In a world that finds mankind more closely confined to one another and where his own personal space gradually becomes smaller and less well defined, shouldn't we make the extra effort it takes to cooperate with one another?
Case in point: I live in an apartment building that was built in the 1900s. In fact, it was a livery stable before it was subdivided into apartments. This means that when one of the six units has a bedbug problem, they all do, because these sort of household pests simply move next door or upstairs, when faced with elimination from one of the units. The walls are so porous between them that they can easily migrate from unit to unit, so when trying to eliminate them, it requires the combined and concentrated efforts of all the tenants. It requires the tenants to collaborate between themselves an effective strategy, a concentrated plan of attack in order to insure that these pests are eradicated. If one of the tenants fails to follow the plan, to the letter, the problem will return! It may take a year, it may take a month, but they will return!
Last summer, I thought that fleas had invaded my unit, as I would be awoken between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. by a terrible itching from their bites. However, upon closely inspecting my bedding and carpeting, I was horrified to find the cause of my scratching, bedbugs.
After googling them and learning about their life cycles and various ways to eliminate them (chemically or high heat), I asked each of my neighbors if they had also been invaded by bedbugs. The family above my unit were experiencing similar nightly invasions during likewise hours, which is their preferred time to go on feeding soirees.
Knowing that eliminating them would require all of the tenants cooperation and concentrated efforts, I felt it best to inform the property manager of our dilemma and I was pleased with his handling of the matter. First, he mailed each tenant a document identifying the problem, followed by his personal assurance that he would spend the time, the money, and provide the necessary personnel to insure their eradication.
To begin, he assigned a particular day for all the tenants to remove any furniture that showed signs of being infested with bedbugs. He also provided each tenant with heavy duty .4 mil plastic bags to which he could put his clothes, linens and towels inside, until they could be laundered with hot water or dried with high heat. After his men had gathered the infested furniture and deposited it at the city dump, they returned and began spraying our units with a chemical solution.
At the end of the day, one of the tenants was returning from work and when we asked him why he hadn't had any infected furniture set outside as the mailed notice had requested, he smugly said that he didn't have any bedbugs.
Fortunately, I've known this man for a few years and I knew it would be best to humor him with a few beers, rather than disagreeing with him.
Within half an hour he invited me to inspect his unit myself. With flashlight and spray bottle in hand, I overturned a Lazy Boy and pointed out to him that he too, had been infested. Although, he hadn't been bitten, I was able to point out to him why it was so important for him to follow the plan that the property manager had asked us to follow.
BTW: there was some small print in the document that cited various municipal codes that could lead to his being evicted if he chose to ignore them.

Billie Jean King

http://www.pbs.org/wnto have et/americanmasters/episodes/billie-jean-king/film-billie-jean-king/2637/
We Americans are so blessed to have people like Billie Jean King in our lives!  She is so many thing to millions of Americans and she is one person that has earned and deserves every Americans respect for always standing up for her beliefs!

Anyone remember the burger joint called Granger's

Does anyone living in San Diego in the 50s through the 70s remember the burger joint called Granger's on the north side of El Cajon Blvd, just east of Texas Street?  They had huge burger's and a wide variety of milk shake flavors to choose from.  The shakes were made by first hand packing ice cream into the metal container that the Hamilton Beach mixer used, once mixed they'd serve your shake in a class and let you use the metal container to refill, at will.  Granger's reminded me of one of Hodad's earliest locations on Voltaire in Ocean Beach.  I'd love to find a restaurant that serves up incredible shakes like Granger's used to!  Anyone have a suggestion?  Please post it, if you do!

http://stream.nbcsports.com/snf/?pid=90&referrer=http://www.nbc.com/When I first saw the music video for this year's edition of Sunday Night Football I was somewhat taken aback by the blond singer's appearance. At first I thought, "What happened to the sexy looking, Faith Hill's hot looks, especially her very tasty, inner thighs?"  I'm glad I took the time to find out!  It wasn't Faith Hill singing in the first place.  For reasons, presently unknown to myself, Faith has been replaced by Carrie Underwood.  I'd like to know what reasons NBC had for the replacement.  Anyone know?  Give some Faith, don't bury me Underwood.

At 3:30 p.m. today, Friday, September 6, 2013, I left my house at 20th and Market and drove downtown to get a photo I.D. from the San Diego Transit Store so I could qualify for a discount for being over 60 years old. I found a parking spot four block away and fed the parking meter six quarters. Thus I had 72 minutes to complete my task. Once I arrived at the store there were three windows open with only one that had signage describing what task it was for. The other two had no signage whatsoever, however one had some information posted on the wall behind the window about senior and disabled photo I.D.s. This window had a line of about six or seven people waiting to be served. The time when I got into this line was 4:10 p.m. That would give me 20 minutes to reach the head of the line, fill out a one page form, pay the $7.00 fee and have my picture snapped. Plenty of time, I thought. WRONG! I reached the head of the line at 4:31 and was told I'd have to return on another weekday before 4:30 p.m. in order to get a photo I.D.

Having to return will be an inconvenience that I think could have been avoided if The Transit Store showed a small amount of concern for its customers.  The first thing that I suggest they do is have one of their staff at the entrance when customers first enter the store to direct them to the correct line they should wait in, at the minimum, they should have electric signage giving this information for everyone to read.  If I had stood in the short line when I first arrived, chances are I would have gotten through the entire process within 15 minutes.  The next suggestion that I have is that they have each customer take a number when they first enter the store. That way one wouldn't have to wait so long in a line and it would also balance the work load amongst their staff.  I saw one clerk do twice to three times the amount of processing work that the other two clerks handled.  If they took customers in the order that they arrived at the Store, I'm sure I would have been able to complete my task. Another thing that would benefit their customers is to flash a warning message when the time nears 4:30 p.m.



I'm going to make these suggestions known to San Diego Transit management once I find a way to send my comments in on their web site. I think that every business that has a web site should provide a way for their customers to contact them with their ideas or complaints that can be easily found.  I hate it when you have to keep going to link after link, in order to find a place where you can communicate with someone who will act on customer feedback.  I've been on some company web sites where I never did find a link to send them my ideas or my concerns.  When that has happened, it makes you question how interested that company is in providing their customers with the best possible service they can.

A case in point: most wireless telephone companies either have no link to contact them through, or they make it nearly impossible to find.

http://www.sdmts.com/fares_discounted.asp

Take the completed short form to The Transit Store on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to have your photograph taken and to receive your Reduced Fare Photo ID. The Transit Store is located at 102 Broadway, San Diego, 92101.



I made the mistake of  taking a short taxi ride to the Social Security office upon leaving the Transit Store.  I left the store at 4:35 p.m. quickly hailed a cab and arrived at the Social Security office by 4:45, only to learn that their office hours were from 8 a.m to 3 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, 8 a.m to 12 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m to 3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays.  I was unable to find this information online and wonder if these shortened hours were caused by Congress's sequestration mandate. One would think that the Social Security web site would provide some information about their office hours, but I couldn't find anything.

Another complaint I have about the Social Security web site site is that you must have a credit card in order to use their "My Social Security" pages.  A debit card won't work!  If you ask me this is nothing but discrimination against people who are unable to secure a credit card or others, like myself, who refuse to buy into the paying by credit card that the big banks are so eager to issue you in the hopes of charging you huge interest fees should you miss a payment. The same banks that caused the housing bubble to burst and who have continually found ways to legally rip off their customers thanks to a spineless Congress that will not stand up to them!

Tomorrow I will be attending the San Diego Blues Festival http://sdbluesfest.com/ and I'm positive I'll have a great time!

Question: is there a noun in the English language for a person who treats my personal property that she has asked me to lend her, worse than she treats her own personal property?

Case in point: this afternoon I saw my neck badge strap that my roommate asked me to loan her so she could attach the hook end of it to a small purse of her's and loop it around her neck, on the floor in the kitchen. This wouldn't have caused me any great concern, normally, but the fact that the kitchen floor had been flooded the day before by raw sewage that originated from our upstairs neighbor because the sewage drains had become clogged. Thus my neck strap has become contaminated by the effluent. Her purse was still attached to the strap so I assume that she'll no longer use it and I imagine it will wind up in the trash. However, will she return the strap to me as I asked her to do at the time I loaned it to her, or will it also wind up in the trash along with her purse. Chances are it will be thrown out, without her ever mentioning anything about it.

She could have avoided this situation by simply unhooking the purse from my strap, but she has such little respect for myself and my belongings, she has decided to flaunt her disrespect by making sure that I would see it on the floor, before she eventually throws it out. I know that these sorts of straps are inexpensive and can be purchased for one or two dollars, but that's not the point. The point ought to be that she treat my strap with care and return it to me in the same condition, if not better condition, than what it was in when she borrowed it.

The only consolation for this abuse of property that I have loaned her is that it provides me the opportunity to refuse any future requests that she is bound to ask me when she wants me to lend her something of mine. I don't care if she thinks I'm being trivial, the point is, she could have returned my property, but she didn't. Therefore, why should I trust her to return anything else of mine that I may have loaned her.

October 1, 2012

The New Cell Phone Etiquette, or

How You Can Find Your Status Level With Someone Using a Cell Phone

What happened to the days when you were speaking to someone, person to person, when you were interrupted by a telephone call to the person you were speaking with, which they politely asked the caller to, “please hold”, so they could continue the conversation they were having with you? This is very unlikely to happen at a place of business where you are held a captive customer, such as an auto parts store, where the likely scenario is you are made to wait while they continue talking to their caller. Taken a notch further up the communication ladder, what if this person receives a call on their cell phone? Are you made to wait, or do they ask their caller to wait? If you're made to wait, you can figure you status level with that person is at a very low level, and if they ask their caller to wait, your have a high status level. Most people do not like to be made to wait when interrupted by something that arises from the outside world, no matter what the importance of the interruption might be.

I, personally, do not own a cell phone, so I'm never interrupted by a call while I'm speaking with someone. However, what about you cell phone owners who may read this, how do you handle calls that interrupt face to face conversations? Who do you ask to wait, or who do you ask to hold?