Tuesday, January 03, 2006
New Years
Well, it's 2006. If last year seemed long, it was - there was a leap second added. Anyway, I'll not waste any more time and get to bitching right away. As you know, driving gets my goat. It started about three blocks from my home. In the handicapped parking space at the library was a van - no handicapped plate of course. And it was filled to the seat backs with garbage! Old boxes, bags and fast food wrappers. And the inside rearview mirror was missing. You get in an accident with that vehicle and you'd have a hard deciding whether to call Waste Management or the police first.
About five blocks further I going north and some guy heading south decides to turn left across two lanes of traffic to get into a gas station. Not only does this nitwit turn in front of two cars, he doesn't even make the entry to the gas station so he has to back up and try again. Back northbound I get behind two vehicles driving about 30 in a 40 mph zone. Naturally they're driving side-by-side so that no one can pass them.
I make it to the Post Office and some car is parked in front of two - not one - "No Parking" signs in the parking lot. They're there because parking there can block the parking lot exit. I manage to squeak by with a couple of inches to spare. I'm at the Post Office to drop off a letter in the drive-through mail box. Naturally yet another idiot is parked in front of the boxes - sitting there. I toot my horn a couple of times, but it's about 5-10 minutes before she pulls away. How about getting your mail ready before you get to the mailbox. That's as bad as people who decide to do their bookkeeping at a driveup ATM instead of pulling ahead and letting the next one in.
Welcome 2006
P.S. I just read this "Were chain stores able to protect profitability in the face of fierce competition from Wal-Mart, and how quickly will shoppers spend an estimated $18.5 billion worth of gift cards?" in an article about Wal-Mart not making its predictions for sales. The question I have is how much of that $18.5 billion in cards won't be used? That unused credit in extra money in the retailers pockets. Not only do people forget about them, most cards also have built-in administration fees, read penalties, when not used quick enough...
