Land of Oz

Thanksgiving

Because of some unfortunate circumstances we had to spend Thanksgiving on the road in South Bend. One problem with Thanksgiving day is that almost everything is closed. Resteraunts, stores, and others are all closed. We had a tough time finding someplace that was open to eat. Our hotel said nothing was open, but I knew that wasn't true. I called a couple of other hotels and finally found one who told us that Notre Dame had a big buffet and that anyone could eat there. It was a bit expensive, $15 per adult, but they had a massive spread of food. Fresh roasted turkey, ham, and trout, along with mashed potatoes, pies, ice cream, veggies, bread and other stuff. And it was all you could eat. You could tell a lot of international students were stuck there for the holiday since about 75% of the people there were Asian. All in all, it was pretty good.

Then we had to pick up my brother flying in from New York around 7p.m. And since he was hungry we had to find a place. I did find out earlier in the day, but too late to take advantage of it, that a Country Buffet was open. We got there around 8 p.m. but I think they closed around 7 or 7:30. The doors were locked and the cash register closed, but the manager still let us in and treated us to a dinner on the house!! She was so nice about it, and after all day of crowds, you know she had to be tired. What a cool person. The food was still very good, even at that late hour. We pigged out and really enjoyed her hospitality. Kudus to Country Buffet in South Bend - and thanks a lot.

Labels: food

Drivers and Gas Stations

Here's an intersection that causes me no end of problems. I's pretty simple actually. There's a three lane, one-way street (Davenport) that runs east to west and it crosses a two lane, two-way street (Bay Road) that runs north and south. By Saginaw standards, it's pretty busy. The biggest problem is a gas station (whose brand slips my mind right now) that sits in the southeast corner.

First, the gas station itself. It has sold bad gas at least twice in the last couple of years. I mean bad enough that it made cars quit running and require pretty expensive repairs. Again, not just once, but at least twice that has been publicized. Yet people still stop there. And the price isn't that low. And since it's just a stop and shop, there isn't any service quality advantage that I can see. But people keep stopping. And to stop there, they have to cross lines of traffic. And herein lies the problem.

These idiot drivers can't be bothered by the fact that letting part of their car hang out into a busy lane of traffic while they wait to enter the station is bad. The south part of the intersection has a left-turn center lane and that's where most problems happen. People try to leave the station and cut across two busy lanes to the get to the center lane and then don't leave themselves enough room to clear the busy lanes. Or they see some other idiot in half-way in the turn lane and then swerve around them (and into you) in their lame attempt to merge.

I wish drivers would realize that there is no way to conveniently leave the station of bad gas and go east or south. Just go with the logical flow of west and north and quit driving across all lanes of traffic. Or better yet, just buy gas at a station with higher quality and easier access and let this one die a slow death. I don't normally wish ill will on a business, but in this case I'll make an exception.

Labels: driving, michigan

Michigan Tops

All right. Michigan hits another top ten list, in fact, we've made the top three list -- of most dangerous cities. Seems Detroit is number one and Flint, just 30 miles south of where I'm typing this, is number three. You can tell the state is really concerned too. The number one and two headlines for Sunday's online Detroit paper was about a football couch retiring.

The state ranks among the top in unemployment, foreclosures, dropping house prices, jobs leaving the state and now crime, and the paper is concerned about some guy retiring from coaching football. And we all know how much football contributes to Michigan's quality of life.

Now, I'll admit to enjoying a good game of football, but how about taking some of the time, effort and money that people spend on football and try to fix this trainwreck of a state. And not just the state, since the cities aren't going to do much good in a state that is getting so bad. Our grand old town celebrated the fact that using almost 1000 volunteers and extra state and local law enforcement and fire fighters we only had 9 arsons on Halloween.

Think about that. It took almost 1 out of every 50 people in this city to limit ourselves to only 9 arsons. One of which was just about six houses away from mine. This summer there's already been at least four house set afire on my street. Two of those have been razed, and the other two sit abandoned with broken windows and doors - and I'm in the good section of town.

Michigan - what happened to you?

Labels: crime, gripes, michigan

My Missed Claim to Fame

I almost had my 15 minutes of fame. I often read BBC News online and last week they had an article about homeless veterans in the US. I added an online comment about my experiences as a vet. Basically, I mentioned that I'd worried a bit about that when retirement loomed near. I'd seen very many old vets just vegging out in coffee shops or sitting in the mall near the last base I was stationed at. I should add that it was Castle AFB in California, at one time a popular place to retire from, and now closed.

To make a long story short, I didn't end up like that and instead got my Bachelors (with Honors) and Masters degree, both with a 4.0 GPA four years after retiring. Over the twenty-two years of my career, the government did stick it to me a few times and did take some of what they said they'd give me away, but I figure that's par for the course.

Anyway, BBC called my home that day and sent an email asking if I'd be interested in participating in a discussion group on BBC World News. I told them I did and even mentioned it to several people about what and when I was doing. Naturally, the assigned time came and went with no contact from the BBC. So all my excitement was for naught. They did call back after the show and said I wasn't going to be on it - duh. I kinda figured that after the show was in progress sans yours truly.

From the slant of the show it seemed they wanted to emphasize the minority of vets who had problems rather the majority of vets who didn't and especially the minority who had mostly good stuff to say. If you went into the military expecting to be taken care of ever after, I really think you joined for the wrong reason. There are a lot of avenues out there for American vets to get help. I'm not saying the system is perfect - far from it - but I haven't run into a lot of problems with it. The system fed, clothed and housed me while I was in, helped me in the transition from GI to civilian, and continues to offer me help. My situation was probably better than some, but when life hands you some broken eggs, just scramble them with some cheese and make an omelet.

Labels: government, military

The US and Torture

I'd say we officially lost the war on terror. We've become what we are fighting. We do it a bit more scientifically - don't want a bunch of blood and guts around to embarass people like those nasty terrorists do with electric drills and knives, but it's still torture.

While I don't always agree with Senator McCain, I do here. He says, and he should know, "All I [McCain] can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today (in Myanmar)," he told The New York Times.

"It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture," he added.

Yes, I know, I've heard the scenario. If a terrorist is going to bomb a school full of kids and won't talk, why should we worry about torturing him (most are hims not hers) to get the info to save the kids. Where do you draw the line? Most people would say 100 kids is worth torturing for - Is one kid worth it? If one kid, how about a multi-million dollar building or aircraft?

If a terrorist is going to kill 100 kids, do you really think he's going to tell us the truth about what is going to happen? If I'm tortured I'm going to say as much as I can about everything I can think of. I'm sure you'll get the truth, but it's going to come with a lot of crap you're also going to have to check out.

Bottom line, is I think it's just wrong. Like negotiating with terrorists. A line has to be drawn and when we sink below that line we become what we are fighting.

Labels: freedom, government