Shoddy Customer Service

My daughter is the Maid of Honor in an upcoming wedding. Saturday night she hosted a combination Bridal Shower/Bachelorette Party at a local restaurant. The place was an fairly nice fondue-type place in the Castleton area of Indianapolis. The bill was over $500 (all the girls paid their own way).

As they were finishing, a waiter or busboy dropped a pot of hot cheese behind my daughter. She was splattered on her bare back by the burning cheese. The waiter scurried to pick up the dropped pot/utensils and disappeared. My daughter's friends applied ice and cold wet napkins to her back. A doctor was seated nearby and came over to offer assistance. The party asked for the manager on duty. Their own waiter dropped off the bill and made a hasty exit. After waiting for 15 minutes or more, the party went to the hostess station and again asked for a manager. The hostess returned to say he was not available. The waiter did not apologize, no one from the restaurant asked her if she was OK, nothing.

In today's litigious society what kind of moron who owns or manages a business would not rush to her side and do all in their power to make sure she was not seriously injured? Any decent manager would have offered desert, drinks or at least an "I am sorry, is there anything we can do to make up for this accident?".

I am livid. My daughter only received first degree burns, but it could have been much worse. Only my daughter's plaintive "Please don't Daddy" keeps me from calling (or going in person) to discuss this incident with the General Manager today. Accidents happen, but an apology is on order. I am not the suing kind, and no serious harm was done, but next time we/she/the restaurant may not be so lucky. I bet the owner/General Manager would like to know about this incident.

Eat Me, Shell Oil

I have long been an advocate for the oil companies. If you look at the profit margins, not the raw profit numbers, the companies are on the low end of profitability. The Government makes more money from a gallon of gas than Big Oil.

I am fed up with the pricing policies. Can anyone explain how gas can be $3.93/gal at 11:00 pm on a Thursday and $4.19/gal on Friday morning? Did the price per barrel go up that much overnight? I guess the local gas station has a direct pipeline to Arabia. Worse, every gas station in town, regardless of brand, charges the exact same price! This happens every week. I expect this week gas will take a huge leap on Wednesday, so they can take advantage of anyone traveling over the Holiday.

I am all for business. Profitability is good. But I have to admit the Standard Oil monopoly was broken up for a good reason. Is there collusion? I don't know, but something smells like day-old trout around here.

A viable third party candidate

If you are like me, this Presidential election again represents a choice of bad and really bad candidates. I had resigned myself to voting for McCain and then going home and washing my voting hand in peroxide and tomato juice, just to remove the stink. Now, we have a real candidate. A third party nominee has appeared. I think you will agree this is the right man for the job.

Picture of a big lily in front of my house

We payed the last regular league baseball game yesterday and won 13-3. We finished the season 7-4. I had hope to win one half of the games, so not too bad. Considering at one point we were 2-4, the boys really rallied. We finished in third place. The league tourney starts tomorrow. We got a bad draw, but we will see. They are capable of beating anyone if they play smart and hard.

Next up is All-star tryouts for the boy. He has played all-stars since he was 8. Last year was the first year since he was 8 that he was not a starter. This year it is going to be tough, only 5 kids per school district will be allowed on the team per IHSAA Rules. The boy is a very good fielder, but the coach likes the big strong power hitting type. The boy is a slap hitter in the Ty Cobb mold. He always hits the ball, but rarely does he get more than a single. We shall see what happens. If he does not make it, he will be devastated. He is better than some of the other players, but they are strong hitters. The decision comes down to do you want a player who is a good defensive player and hits .400 or better (but does sometimes hit into double plays), or a player that either strikes out or hits a boomer (with a BA of about .200)? I know what I would choose. I know what this coach has done in the past. The coach is a big guy and looks down on the skinny small kids. This is the first year the IHSAA thing has been a factor.

I am not sure what is going on with my sleep patterns. I keep waking up early, and that makes me tired early...I fell asleep in the chair at 10:00 last night and as in bed by 10:30. I have not been to bed before eleven PM in years.

If the rain holds off I will likely have to mow the yard and work in the flower beds today. Come on rain...

F-ing Cubs.

Weekend Funny

This week's cartoon is dedicated, in the nicest way, to Dragon. Go and wish her well.

Friday Five

The Friday Five feature was missing last week. The howls of complaint would have drowned out a herd of wolves in heat. I bet I got 20-25 comments of complaint. What? You in the back, your arm waving frantically in the air, what are you saying? The comments? Oh, I must have, uh, deleted them or something. That's it, I lost them when I remodeled the place...

OK look, putting together the Friday Five takes a long time and a bit of effort. The least you can do is play along and pretend you enjoy it. Think of it like that Birthday Party your Mom put together for you when you were 10. It was lame, but you loved her for trying.

This is post 1714. Number one was March 22, 2005. That is an average of three posts every two days. Your average columnists posts two or three times a week. Coming up with that much content is difficult, so enough of your whining. You are going to sit down and play along and pretend this is the most wonderful, cool, and exciting thing you have encountered on the 'net in a long time. Is...that...clear?

Now play:

1. See the curtains hanging in the window
In the evening on a Friday night
A little light a-shining through the window
Lets me know every thing's all right
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind

2.Hot summer streets
And the pavements are burning
I sit around
Trying to smile
But the air is so heavy and dry
Strange voices are saying
What did they say
Things I can't understand
It's too close for comfort
This heat has got right out of hand
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Now you've gone

3.Cool town, evening in the city
Dressing so fine and looking so pretty
Cool cat, looking for a kitty
Gonna look in every corner of the city
Till I'm wheezing like a bus stop
Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop
But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright
And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

4. I'm a gonna raise a fuss
I'm a gonna raise a holler
about a workin' all summer
just to try to earn a dollar
ev'ry time I call my Baby
try to get a date
my Boss says
No dice, Son,you gotta work late
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
but there ain't no cure for the Summertime Blues.

5.It happened one summer
It happened one time
It happened forever
For a short time
A place for a moment
An end to dream
Forever I loved you
Forever it seemed
One summer never ends
One summer never began
It keeps me standing still
It takes all my will
And then suddenly
Last summer

bonus: The summer wind, came blowin in - from across the sea
It lingered there, so warm and fair - to walk with me
All summer long, we sang a song - and strolled on golden sand
Two sweethearts, and the summer wind

Sigh...I have made it easier this week. There is a theme. The title of the song can be found in the lyrics. All I need is the title and artist. Can you name anymore "summer" songs?

I think I will leave you with this gem to float in your brain all weekend:

Some people are jerks

My daughter works as a waitress at a country club. She is paid reasonably well. All of her customers are well to do. Most are wonderful people, some are rich assholes. She was telling us about a jerk she dealt with the other day. He is a drunk and a asswipe to boot. After the table of nine or ten ordered their drinks the drunk went to the bathroom. As my daughter was delivering the tray of drinks, this Bozo slipped behind her and scared her, making her drop the entire tray of drinks. She was pissed because the drinks got all over her, she was embarrassed and it made her look bad. Luckily, her supervisor saw the whole thing. Beyond being an alcoholic drunk jerk, what would make a person act this way, or to think it was funny?

In part two of "why would people do this?" we saw a female at WalMart last night covered in tattoos. If someone wants to do that, good for them. I am an open minded person. It was the subject matter I found strange. Why would a woman want a full frontal naked woman tattooed the length of her upper arm? It was very good work, but boobs and pubes on your bicep, and you are a woman? All of her 'art' was of the black line variety -- no color-- and from a distance she looked like she was covered in bruises or maybe dirt. Really strange.

We hit the mall for a brief period last night. I was sitting, watching the people go by. This guy was fiddling with his phone and started broadcasting classic rock from an Internet stream. His phone was turned up pretty loud and everyone was giving him dirty looks. The phone guy finally discovered how to turn it down. Oh wait, the phone guy was me. Never mind, there is no issue here.

Another example of the need to be armed

A man calls the Animal Control in his town, because there is a crazed gorilla on
his roof, and he can't figure out how to get it down safely.

Soon, a van pulls up, and an old man gets out, carrying a small dog, a baseball
bat, and a gun.

He hands the man the gun. "Okay, here's what we do. I'm going to go up onto
your roof, and threaten the gorilla with this baseball bat until he falls down.
When he falls down, this little dog is specially trained to bite him on the
balls until he's incapacitated." "Great plan," says the man. "But what's the
gun for?" "If I fall down instead of the gorilla -- shoot the dog."

Guns Guns Guns

The Supremes got one right. And I do not mean Diana Ross' backups. Tell me now how this decision would be different if Gore or Kerry or Hildabeast Or Obama makes the nominations for Supreme Court vacancies. I am not a fan of McCain, but we need to elect him to make sure the Court rules on Constitution, not fashion.

Questions

If you had seen the Flying Nun hovering overhead, her big floppy hat (cornette?) providing the necessary lift, would you have looked up her skirt?

Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?

Goldbloom is working on her own "Bucket List". You know, things she wants to do before she kicks the bucket. I have said it before, I have been fortunate to visit a lot of places in the Western World. So I will turn idea a little sideways and list some of the cool things I have already done that might be on other people's "Bucket List". In no particular order:

1. I have seen and put my foot in all of the Great Lakes.
2. I have visited Washington DC and the associated sites.
3. I have climbed the stairs of the Eiffel Tower and seen Cathedral Notre Dame in Paris(not impressive compared to other Cathedrals in Europe).
4. I have ridden the Bullet Trains in France and Germany.
5. I have visited almost every major Battlefield in the US, especially Civil War sites. I saw Bufford Pusser's Stick.
6. I have travelled the Columbia River Gorge (one of the most beautiful places on Earth)and seen the devastating beauty of Mt St. Helens.
7. I have seen one of the bats used by Ruth and I have seen the Cubs play in Wrigley. I have seen a triple play.
8. I saw the birth of each of my children.
9. I have gazed upon the pieces of the Parthenon and real Egyptian Mummies and touched the Rosetta Stone while in the British Museum.
10. I have swam in the Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean Seas as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
11. I have visited the Austrian Alps and the resort towns around the lakes -- especially the Wolfgangsee. While drinking along the lake in St. Gilgen, I swore I would never leave.
12. I have visited (just visited) the red light districts of Amsterdam and Hamburg. I have been to a Playboy Club.
13. I have jumped from a perfectly functional airplane.
14. I have been to Disneyland and Disneyworld.
15. I have been to the Indy 500, when it really was the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
16. I have smoked a Cuban cigar and I have gone streaking and skinny dipping. I have been in a fistfight.
17. I have driven at very high speeds on the Autobahn in Germany.
18. I have visited the Alamo, The Golden Gate Bridge and the Arch in St. Louis.
19. I became an Eagle Scout, I graduated both High School and College
20. I have experienced the perfect kiss and known the love of a good woman.

I do not really need a "bucket List". I have lived a pretty good life.

Stuff you do not care about

We had baseball games on Friday, Sunday and last night. We won all three. Two of the teams we beat had beaten us badly (10 run rule) last week. Last night's game was a thriller. We started off badly, going three up and three down in the top of the inning. Then we gave up four runs in the bottom of the first. We fought back to within one run and had bases loaded in the 5th when the kid on third got caught stealing home on a passed ball after I told him not to run. This was unfortunate as my best hitters were up. We gave them a few more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Things looked grim as we entered the seventh and final inning. My number 7,8, and 9 hitters were up and we were down two. We started the inning with an out, a strikeout and a walk. The top of the order came up with two outs. Hit batter, walk, and a new pitcher entered the game. Another hit was followed by another and some walks and we go into the bottom of the 7th ahead 8-6. My pitcher is out of innings and my remaining pitcher said his arm was sore, but he would try. He struck out the number 3,4,5 batters with just 11 pitches and the game was won. We are now 6-4 with two games left before the tourney. One of these games is against a winless team. The other is against an undefeated team. But because of rain etc., they have 5 games yet to play, so if all goes wrong for them we could end up in first or second in the league (not likely, but who knows?).

Messin around

I am working on a new template. Somehow I am unable to get comments to appear -- not holoscan nor blogger. Anyone who can help me please send me an email (hoosierboy62-at-hotmail.com) and I will send you the keys to the mysterious and scary template.

Uncivilizing Society

I am a casual guy. Most days I sport jeans or shorts and a T-shirt. The T-shirt usually offers free advertising to a shoe company. I never wear shoes or socks when in the house (and sometimes outside).

For most of my professional career I have worn business clothing. Until a year or so ago I wore a shirt and tie and usually a coat to visit customers. Most often I wore a suit. Until two years ago I almost always wore a white shirt. In recent months I have taken to wearing polo shirts or dress shirts emblazoned with the company logo instead of a suit or tie. I fit in better with customers and other sales types. For big meetings etc., I still wear at least a tie.

I tell you this as an admission that I am a contributor to the decline of western civilization. As our lives become more comfortable, as air conditioners sooth our hot summers with Arctic breeze in our cars, homes and offices, we have shed our coats and hats to casual Friday.

There was a time in our society when a decent man would not leave home without a coat or at least a vest. Men of all stripes wore coats, even laborers, while professional men wore ties. Take a look at pictures from the Civil War through the mid 1900's and you will see men always with coats. Professionals wore ties and coats into the 1990s. As I said, being an old dinosaur, I wore a suit until the last year or two for work.

Not so long ago a man would not dream of taking a date to dinner or the movies with out donning his best suit. Today. you see men in even the nicest restaurants open-collared. When last did you see a man with a hat, besides a baseball cap? Sometimes when I watch the old movies on TV, I look at the men and see class. Even the thugs of the Prohibition era sported nice clothes. The men gunned down and those gunning on February 14, 1929 all wore suits and ties. As did noted anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Charles Lindbergh wore a shirt and tie as he fell from the door of the Spirit of St. Louis upon landing in France. I think you can agree that Astaire, Sinatra and Stewart had an air of dignity and class in their fine clothes. There is no doubt that the great coaches of professional sports like Connie Mack, Lombardi, and Wooden all displayed a great deal more of professional class than the cut off sweatshirt worn by Belichick. I think this guy is right in his battle for civilized sartorial wear. He has ordered fedoras and custom fitted suits.

A part of me wants to blame JFK for his refusal to wear a hat on Inauguration Day, or the filthy hippies of the 1960s for the baseness of modern civilization. I know we are creatures of comfort. That indeed is the mark of a civilized man. Is not the march of civilization the effort to make life more comfortable? Is echewing ties just a continuation of moving from the damp fields to a cave to a house? Is it really different from the advancements made in clothing from loin cloths to itchy woollens to modern cottons? Do you really want the feel of rough-tanned leather on your nether regions? Is it rationalization, or is my barefoot stride across the carpet a step backward to the days man emerged from the jungles and forests to build cities and towns?

As I type away I am barefoot and wearing a Nike T-shirt. On the morrow I will don a polo shirt and Dockers for a visit with a customer. As I dress I will glance at my suit, I will skip my wingtips for more casual footwear and head for the door. Comfort will reign supreme over class. It will be one more day we are little less civilized.

Conversations with a teenager

The boy is having a Stouffer's Mac and Cheese TV Dinner and I am enjoying Banquet's finest Mexican meal. I tell him that when I was his age I had to cook my mac and cheese frozen dinner in the oven and that it took about 45 minutes.

Boy: Whaaaat?
Me: Yep, you had to plan lunch in advance.
Boy: Why didn't you use the microwave.
Me: We did not have one. It was not invented.
Boy: Dude, that is lame. walks away in disgust

Just for Freddie

This is what I would write, if I had talent

Bane always entertains me, some days I think we are kindred souls. This post? Well I can only say "what he said". Only he said it better than I could. But boy, those are my thoughts about this piece o' crap blog.

Bearded Clam

RIP George Carlin. You made me laugh, you made me think.

Weekend Funny

Weekend update

I woke up early this morning, six am again. I am not sure what is up with that. I must be getting old. The next thing you know I will be eating supper at 4:30 and hitting the cafeteria circuit. Oh no, I hate bingo.

The baseball team won last night 9-1. We are now 4-4. I was glad to see the boys recover from our humiliating loss in the last game (16-2?). The boy played fine, he struggled at the plate, but put the ball in play every time. Speaking of baseball, I want to tell you a funny story. I am not making fun of this kid, I just think it is funny. This is the stuff you have to deal with when you coach kids.

I have a boy on my team who is not very good. In fact he is by far the worse player on the team (probably in the whole league). He has not played baseball for several years. To put it in perspective it was quite possible a Clinton was President the last time he played. I admire his courage to play now, but with 13-15 year olds, on a regular diamond, it is kind of dangerous to have someone with no clue playing. But he tries hard. Since day one this kid has bugged me to pitch. At this point most of the good pitchers have been playing for 8-9 years and pitching for at least five or six years at least. We have lead-offs and steals and you have to know what you are doing. Anyway I gave in to his pestering and let him throw a few balls to me from the mound the other day before the game. In more than 30 pitches from both the wind up and the stretch, he threw ONE strike. Most pitches were so wild I could not reach them or stop them. I should point out I am a former catcher. So we go back to the dugout. He asks if he is going to get to pitch later in the game. I tell him I have some really good pitchers and that he should really concentrate on hitting and fielding. I tell him 14 is pretty late to learn how to pitch. He says he understands, but do I think he will get to pitch later on in the season. I am brutal honest and tell him there is no chance he will pitch this year. He asks if he should keep practicing pitching at home. I just sigh and tell him absolutely. I am sure I have not done the story justice, but if you could see how truly lacking in even the most basic fundamentals this guy is...Last night he did not run with bases loaded. A ground ball was hit. He ran a few steps to second but came back to first because, and I quote, "If I ran I would have been out." I still have to tell him which is right and left fields. Life is an adventure.

I have a copy of Full Metal Jacket gifted me for Father's Day waiting to be put into the DVD player this morning. Go forth and and enjoy your weekend.