Times Change

I haven't posted forever. My life has made so many turns in the last few years that I can't even list them all. I surprised myself though, and bought a restaurant. What a change this has been for my life, good and bad.. though the bad isn't bad. It's simply a big change and the only downside is the time it consumes. I would never have guessed. I've managed restaurants before, and busy ones at that, but being an owner is... well, just plain busy.

I love the place, it's a diner with a fantastic menu and a great atmosphere. I bought into a franchise, and the location I bought has been in business for about 5 years so it had a good customer base and I really didn't have to worry like others do who start their own place.

I find myself working about 90 hours a week, which is too much. And my off time is usually spent running errands, doing paperwork, or other busy work for my diner. On occasion, I sleep. When I first bought the place I looked at accounting options for my payroll and taxes... I have one word for this, "robbery." Just to have someone do my payroll -for 5 employees- it was well over $300. For other accounting, taxes, etc, it just added to the cost. So I do my own payroll, taxes, accounting, daily paperwork, and whatever else comes up. It takes up so much of my time, sometimes I wonder if I'm just to damn stubborn and should have just paid the money.... But really, It's just to much! Hence, Quickbooks is now my new best friend.

I've been at this now since January and I hope things get better for my time management. It's looking up.

A Tidbit

I'm in line at the C-store today, and the guy in front of me is paying for his items... the total was $3.97. Of course, he tells the clerk to hold on, he's got the change. So the guy digs through his pocket and lays a handful of mixed change down on the counter and slowly counts through it to get the correct amount, pockets the rest, then grabs his items and leaves.

Ok, I used to work in a C-store (the best job I ever had, mind you) and I'd see this occur daily. No big deal, I don't like a pocket full of change weighing me down either. Though I'm the type that just empties it into a jar at the end of each day, saying I'll cash it in at some point and buy something just for me, something I wouldn't normally spend money on. Anyway, working in the C-store, it was always the same people who did this everyday without exception. They were anal about it. They usually had some little type of coin purse, just bulging with the stuff. So I pose this question: If they always pay with exact change, where do they get all that change?

I know, one of the many conundrums facing us that will probably go unanswered.

Hmmm

Just creating a post til life comes back to normal for me and I have time to do things that I like... Such as, rant and rave on here!

Driving Me Crazy

Let me ask you this... Why in the world do they market, advertise, develop, research, and sell cars that do 3 or 4 times the legal speed limit? I have a real problem with that. I mean really, how many people ever even get the chance to open their car all the way up and absolutely max the speed anyway? I'm sure there are a few people that have, and many more people who have gone over a 100 mph, but what purpose does that serve? Why are we building faster cars every day?

Even a better question - Why are we buying them? OK, I'm Joe Shopper looking for a new car. My criteria: I want so much speed its sick. I want horsepower and acceleration that would make Mario Andretti envious. I want all wheel cornering so I can hug turns at Mach 7 and not loose control. I want all the little bells and whistles that come with the car like satellite tracking, DVD and X-Box. A stereo that will go up so loud the cops will know where I'm at at all times when it's only on half volume. I want a fin on the back. I want low-profile racing wheels with rims that cost a paycheck each. I want tinted windows, leather seats, remote control, and everything else imaginable. I want to spend 600 bucks a month on a car payment, and another 300 on insurance. Better yet, lets lease the S.O.B. so when I'm done payin I can start all over again with something even faster, and maybe two fins on the back.

WHY, WHY, WHY? I have never understood it. What the hell does a fin do on a Honda anyway? Does anyone really know? Or do you just buy them because? Don't get me wrong... I like luxuries as much as the next guy. But it would seem to me they oughta have a point! Some of the things mentioned above have a point... a remote for instance. You can never have too many of those. But really, a car that accelerates from 0-60 in a few seconds, a top speed of 210 mph? Why? Only 1 out of every 1000 buyers will ever actually even get close to that speed in their car.

OK... in the defense of you fancy car buyers, I can see one good reason to have a car just as described above: CHICK MAGNET. Guys right now are making a thousand excuses about how it's not.. it's a thrill to have that much power, I liked the color, its good on gas, etc. Bull shit. You did it for 1 reason.. well, 2 but they go hand in hand. You wanna look cool and you wanna get laid. The sad part is, it works. Granted, the girls that get attracted to a guy simply cause he has a fin on the back of his car are probably not keepers, but if you're just lookin for a roll in the hay and a little bit of arm decoration, you're probably going about it the right way. Girls right now are all denying that they would ever think a guy was cool because of his car. After all, that would be quite shallow wouldn't it?

Let me get down to my real complaint here... the above is just a little bit of a head shaking wonderment. If I were to poll each and every one of you about whether drunk driving should be a crime, most of you would say it should be - I would assume anyway. Hell, lets take a poll and then we'll all know for sure. Leave your comments, say what you think. Personally, I think people get off way too easy. How many people do you know that have 3 or 4 DWI's, had their licenses revoked, and still have a car, buy booze and put that all together and try for 5? Anyway, back to my point. So, it's a crime to drink and drive. Why is it a crime? Because it's dangerous. People get killed that way. When you drink and drive you made a choice to put people at risk because of your stupidity. You're impaired, you have less control, less judgment, and your reaction time increases. You swear you're ok to drive, you know what you're doing, you're in control, you're a veteran at it, you know you're limits, you're just having some fun. Any arguments so far? It is an absolute tragedy when people die because some dumb ass with a few too many decided to get behind a wheel... no one will argue with that will they?

So, if its a crime because it's a huge risk to the public, and you hate people who drink and drive, why do you speed? That's what this post is all about. I think people who speed are no different than the people who drink and drive. Oh, now I've got about 90% of you hating my guts and calling me a dumb ass, but listen to my logic. Let's talk about sheer numbers first. Go ahead, look it up... but about 500 times more people die each year in auto accidents due to excessive speed than to DWI's, and about 2000 times more accidents occur. That should end the argument right there but I'll go on. If you're speeding, your reaction time increases. It's simple science, you can't argue with it. You have less control over your vehicle. Again, science.. something about momentum. You make a choice to speed in spite of this. But wait... You're a good driver! You know what you're doing. You're in control. You're a veteran. You know your limits. You're just having some fun! Hmmm, weren't some of those things on the list of why we hate drunk drivers? But drunk drivers kill people you say? Oh yeah... so do speeders.

We live in such an impatient world. We're on our way home, dodging in and out of lanes cause that stupid son of a bitch in the fast lane is only going 75. Forget the fact that the speed limit is 65, but you gotta tail gait him/her, wait for that little break and cut into the middle lane, dart around him, back to the fast lane, then really lay on the gas just so they know you were really pissed that they slowed you down. How dare they go in the fast lane while going a mere 75 anyway? So, you commute 15 miles to work... you average 80 all the way home.. If you do the math on that about the time it saved you, had you only gone the speed limit of 65, it saves you exactly 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

I work in a hospital, been an EMT on an ambulance crew. I've seen accidents and victims of accidents that will haunt my sleep forever. Do you wanna know what's even more haunting? Blood and gore is nothing anymore. Try the look of utter sorrow and despair on a mothers face when she finds out her child is dead. Or try a whole family, or kids being orphaned. Try looking at a guy who just lost his 3 kids and wife because someone wanted to save 3 damned minutes. Would I trade 3 minutes for your life? Nope. I would hope that you wouldn't want to trade 3 for mine either. But daily we do it. By the millions. 3:45 multiplied out by all the work days in the year that you commute adds up to pert near 1000 minutes! That's hours of saved time! Next time you see a couple of kids outside playing and being cute in only the way that kids can, stop and ask yourself if even 1000 minutes is worth one of their lives. Would you give up an entire day to save one kid? Do you got the balls to go knock on their mom's door and tell her that you wanna kill one of her kids to save a couple minutes? Every day, without exception, lots of people are killed because of simple impatience. Each and every one of those drivers did not wake up that morning and say "today is the day I'm gonna kill someone." Each of them were confident in their ability to drive. Each of them, the day before, would have told you that they weren't the idiot on the road that was going to kill someone. I wonder what they have to say the day after?

Slow your ass down, enjoy the ride, let someone else enjoy their life.

Oh, How I've missed you people!

Summer semester was hell. I was so busy, I just gave up on any type of personal enjoyment or relaxation. I'm back, with a vengeance, and the posts will be coming soon. Including, the long awaited "Politics of the DogMan".

Coming Soon:

The Politics of the DogMan

If You Are One Of THOSE People

If you're one of those people that go to a fast food restaurant, and make your order so complicated that even a genius couldn't figure it out, lol... I hate you.

I had a half hour last night for dinner... So I went for fast food. The lady in front of me was ordering some burgers, about 6 or 7 of them. All of them were different, one only ketchup, another without pickles or onions, another plain BUT with some other kind of cheese on it.... she went on and on and on, added some nuggets, a salad (after all, she's all kinds of healthy eating fast food, right?) and some drinks. It took her forever to order, then of course since I was behind her, it took forever to get my order taken.

So this lady stands there waiting for her food, full on thinking that her order is going to be just what she asked for. "ARE YOU STUPID?" I wanted to scream at her? Where the hell did she think she was? a $50 a plate restaurant? It was McDonald's for crying out loud! Some high school kid is going to totally screw that up.

So of course, she gets her food and immediately starts opening burgers to check her order.. to make sure he list of burgers for her spoiled rotten, overly picky, coddled, McChildren is just so. What do you know? It wasn't even close. Who would have guessed? Let me ask this.... Why did she deem it necessary to open each burger and check it in the first place? CAUSE SHE KNEW IT WOULD BE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! We all know that, they know that, and she knows that. It's written in stone. So why bother?

Then she has to go over it all again... 4 or 5 times, with the person at the counter. So, again, I can't get my food cause the person who would give it to me is otherwise occupied. 18 minutes. That's how long it took from the time I walked in the door til the time I got my food. That left me 12 minutes, right? It took 5 minutes to get there, and would take me 5 minutes to get back... that left me 2 whole minutes. I ate my dinner 2 hours later, microwaved.

Lady, I really don't like you very much. Every bite of microwaved dinner only escalated that dislike.