I have suffered a setback in my never ending quest for a quiet relaxed place to dine around town.

Thanks to a recent vote the prohibition on Sunday alcohol sales in restaurants has been lifted. The ends of these so called “Booze Laws” mean the end of pleasant peaceful lunches on Sunday after church.

I am sure the retail industry believes this as a plus seeing the $ dollar signs as they are eyeing the Sunday afternoon football crowd. But it is a tragic loss for me. No longer will we have a chance for a quiet meal without the unpleasant din from the bar crowd and the TV’s.

Here is Rant that I am sure will cause controversy.

First let me start by saying I think all people deserve equal access to public places. Those with disabilities should be able to come and go, work, shop, travel and visit every place others can. I am NOT opposed to the mandated solutions imposed to aid that freedom.

But can't we use common sense?

This morning I visited a small business here in my town. A store. Outside the building there were fourteen parking places. Six were reserved for handicapped persons. That's 43% of the parking spots. None were in use and the remaining eight were filled. I had no where on the site to park. I could use the exercise but honestly, 43% of the places were reserved and unused. I doubt that 43 out of every hundred drivers has a handicapped parking permit.

Where is the common sense?

Later I stopped at the Post Office. Gone was the table everyone used for years to sort their mail and to fill out forms. It had been replaced by a unit more friendly to wheel chairs. That's fine except that the writing surface is now between my knees and my waist. I had to stoop to use it at all. Is it too much to ask for a split level surface?

Where is the common sense?

Finally I drove to the bank. At the remote drive-in teller station the instructions on the left side of the car were in English, Spanish and Braille. How can blind ( sorry ..sight impaired ) persons drive in the first place? Am I crazy ? Seems to me you should be able to see in order to drive.

Where is the common sense?

I am in favor of using all the tools to aid, two members of my family have mobility issues and these type things are a true blessing, but have we gone overboard?

On August 22nd I was talking about the rushing of Halloween by modern retailers. It’s much worse than I thought. I was in another store yesterday afternoon and they were putting out Christmas items.

Christmas Items !!!

Give me a break. It’s the first half of September. Remember when they at least waited until after Thanksgiving?

Hey why wait, why not start getting ready for the 4th of July cookouts right now...

I’ll start my shopping on December 23rd as always thanks.

Thirty -five minutes I'll never get back


A quick rant. I know you all feel the same pain.

We shop for some things at WalMart. Not because we like it there. We detest it. But we buy some things there because of price and the fact that it is all located in the same store. But trust me, we hate going.


Late last week while spending our entire paycheck on trivial things like canned goods, light bulbs, aspirin, paper towels, Kleenex and so on I picked up an air filter for my little truck. Shopping for auto parts requires looking up the correct item in a large book depending on the make and model of your automobile. So I searched and found the item I needed and tossed it into the buggy.

When I arrived home and tried to install the filter it was the wrong part. So I went back to the store to recheck my reference and to exchange the item. Nope I did not make a mistake looking up the part number. The book is wrong. I guess that happens sometimes.

But when I tried to return the filter I had to wait in line. And wait, and wait and wait some more. It took thirty-five minutes waiting in the line to return and get credit for a $10.95 unused part. And I was only the forth person in line.

WALLY WORLD.... you need to do something here. And while you are at it. How about asking the clerks to at least smile and say hello, may we help you. All I got was a snarl to my hi, I need to return this.

I just Thirty-five wasted minutes of my life because of the books error.

I was getting a tank full of gas and noticed this sign at the station

Bud Family Suitcase on sale here.

Nothing says family values better than a suitcase full of beer for the wife and kiddies.

While I am on the subject of stores selling beer and drinking.

How can we claim to be serious about drunk driving enforcement but let gas stations sell COLD beer?

I’m just saying !!!

Three strikes and you are out. Really? What about one strike and you go under the jail?

Total drunk driving deaths
in the U.S. this year (so far):

7210

I read where a Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) is requesting $250 BILLION dollars to rebuild New Orleans. Two Hundred Fifty Billion Dollars

How much is a Billion? Think about this:

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was walking with his disciples on Earth
C. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes; at the rate our government is spending it.

If the $250 billion were placed end to end they would stretch from coast to coast more than 1,029 times.

Does that put into perspective?

Think about this:

A. Every one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), will get $516,528.

B. Every one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans gets $1,329,787 for repairs.

C. Or assuming they are a family of four, they actually get $2,066,112.

Two MILLION in house repairs

That’ll buy a lot of fixing up. Remember it’s your tax money I agree some families need help but $2,000,000.00 worth? Remember it’s your tax money

Nickel and Dime us to death

On my recent trips via the Airlines I have noticed a sad trend. A-La Carte services, at a price.

Almost no one serves meals anymore, even on trans continental flight of several hours. These days you are lucky if your flight serves water and crackers. And forget taking food past security.

I understand how the price of fuel has doubled in the past year and how it is up an additional 40% this summer. Apparently raising the ticket prices doesn't work too well. Because I see where several times an airline tries, but has to come back down when no others follow.

Something has to be done to off set the fuel costs I know, but this is maddening.

We are becoming victims of price gouging at 32,000 feet.

"Attention Travelers today our 'Blue Light Specials' are peanuts and Sprite for only $7.95"

In the past few weeks airlines including American and US Air announced various surcharges to cover the new high cost of fuel. Expect more fees and surcharges to be coming your way.

Every major carrier is now charging for the second piece of checked luggage. American goes it one better ( WORSE ) and charges for all your bags. Some are charging a BOOKING FEE. Excuse me !! I have to pay extra just to pay you? Window seats and aisle seating are an extra on some.

Here are some fees you might expect to be paying if fuel costs for air carriers keep rising:

Thanks to Holly for the graph

Update to the previous blog rant :

It's now 12:25 and they just drove away. Four hours sitting idle wasting fuel. Oh and BTW they didn't actually do any work on the road.

Guess they were awaiting their lunch break

Now I understand why it costs nearly a million bucks to pave a 1/2 mile of road.

Next time they tell me not to pre-rinse my dishes......

Just a short rant:

I am sitting here in my home office going over some work and just outside parked across my farm driveway is a state owned asphalt truck. The D.O.T. is about to repair a small bad spot on the edge of the road just beyond my home.

I don't mind the truck being parked ( blocking ) my farm driveway. After all I am not using it. But the thing has been sitting there running since 8:07 this morning. It's 11:24 now. I own a greyhound type bus so I am not uninformed about the cost of shutting down a diesel engine and restarting it. But really. THREE HOURS sitting there burning fuel and doing nothing.

My tax dollar$ at work. And the Government has the nerve to tell me I am wasteful of resources.

Worse still another truck and a pick-up are sitting just down the road. Wanna bet they have been running all this time too?