What in the hole is going on?

Anyone else notice that Verizon didn't work on their big hole in Florida Ave all weekend? I went past there at least 4 times this weekend and no sign of anyone. How is it that a corporation can dig up a public street for days on end, and do it at their own convenience? They should be forced to minimize the time they have the road closed by maximizing man-hours of working overtime and weekends to complete it, not do it at their leisure and save a few bucks of OT pay. This is ridiculous.

Sure signs someone can't drive

After much scientific research, I have developed a working theory that one's ability to operate a motor vehicle is directly correlated with the presence or absence of two forms of auto decoration. If you ever get behind a car with a Jesus fish, watch out, that person is going to vary their speed dramatically, hit the brakes at inopportune times, and cut you off as though you don't exist. It's a fact. Similarly if a person has the little flag banner hanging from the rear-view mirror. Be prepared, that person is going to come from behind you, pass you, cut you off only to turn at the next intersection, they most likely will be playing excessively loud music that drowns out your own stereo, and they will either be driving very aggressively, or very very conservatively(to avoid raising suspicion?) Supporting evidence will follow as I perform more observations. Grumpmeter is at level 4 today.

Who the hell can read this?

I got my sample ballot recently. After all the voting fiascos of 2000 and since, they still have a major problem. The bilingual crap is a royal pain to read. Is it meant to be intentionally confusing? Am I the only one who has to make sure I'm reading the right line with all the extra lines for the spanish text? When is this BS going to end? Folks are here in this country, registered to vote and they still can't read the common language? I know English isnt the official language, but it sure as hell is the overwhelmingly most used. Get with the program. Grumpmeter is pegged right now.

Right Lane Retards

OK, the fit has hit the shan. What is it with people on 275 that clot the right hand lane creating loads and loads of traffic when the road is nowhere near capacity. My drive to work takes me on the interstate from Hillsborough to the Dale Mabry area. Traffic while heavy flows relatively well on good days if you can get to the two inside lanes, but inevitably the right hand lane is a veritable parking lot. This makes it a nightmare to get on and off the highway. Why to people persist in travelling long distances in the right hand lane. I know on rural interstates, particularly ones with only two lanes the right lane is the preferred lane of travel so people can pass on the left, but in urban areas traffic interacts in the right lane with merging and exiting cars creating a snafu that snarls the other two lanes. Sure if youre planning on exiting at the next or following exit, plan ahead and get over, but people travel for miles in the right lane jamming it up. And before I get some PC flak, look up retard-it means: to slow up especially by preventing or hindering advance. After this morning's commute Grumpmeter level is nearing 7.

That's right I'm an Addict

I just can't function without several cups of coffee throughout the day. I need about two in the morning just to feel normal and at least another one around midday to keep going. A cup or two in the evening isn't out of the ordinary either. I've not been sleeping so well lately and with running late to work, I haven't been able to get my normal fixes. Want to talk about Grumpy being grumpy. Whoa, I'm quite the bear without my cup of joe or three. Not to mention if I go long enough for the headache to kick in. Can't think straight, can't see straight, and in constant pain. Watch out. Recently I have sworn off my daily favorite. Mochas when made how I like them are a meal in and of itself. Not so good for my pants fitting. So I have made them a weekly treat instead of a daily necessity. Well now, the caffeine content is much lower so replacing the mocha with a regular coffee just ain't cuttin it. I hope my wife can bear with the bear during the adjustment period. Grumpmeter level 6 today.

Love Ain't Blind, Just Nearsighted

Luckytop mentioned in a previous comment about a pet peeve of his. It will come as no suprise that I have a whole petting zoo of the little critters. Today I will explore one of those.
My wife comes up to me from time to time and poses some variation of the age-old question that makes most men cringe. "Do these pants make my butt look big?" All kidding aside (No, your butt makes your butt look big), and barring the rules of Clinton and Stacy, clothes don't really determine if youre attractive or not, particularly when your in a long term relationship. Nor does make up, or hairstyle or any of those things. Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I have had quite a number of conversations on the topic to the point I feel I can make at least some generalizations. It ain't about the clothes, it aint about your weight, or your hair, or your wrinkles. It's about you and how you feel about yourself. Obvious right. It's what they all say I know. But by God it's true. Some of the most attractive women I have ever met over the years were by outward appearance what some would call plain, or frumpy, or chubby, but they liked themselves, and after even a moment of talking to them you couldn't see anything but a beautiful, funny, warm lady. On the other hand, I've known a few gals that if you saw them across a room, you'd think, playboy material, then you talk to them and whoa, where did this troll come from. Pretty on the outside, but a hideous little beasty hiding within. The sad thing about this is, my first wife was a prime example of how a pretty woman can overcome the most enamored of rose-colored glasses if she tries hard enough. I fell in love with a girl. We were both too young, but life being what it is, no one could tell us differently. She was the most beautiful thing for the first couple of years. She was never a thin girl, and she never wore much make up, but she was a beauty queen in my eyes. Then as life would have it, she started becoming more and more obsessed with being overweight. And the more she focused on it, the more I focused on it. The more self-concious she became, the more flaws I could see. It aint what caused the divorce at all, but it sure didn't help the other problems we had. Most men I've talked to want nothing more than a gal who takes pride in her appearance, who thinks she's pretty no matter what Cosmo says, laughs at our stupid jokes(sincerely, not just faking it), and who accepts our flaws. Like a couple of old sayings my old grandpappy used to tell us whippersnappers, Beauty's only skin deep, ugly goes all the way to the bone, Amen. and regarding makeup,well he wasn't referring to makeup, but the sentiment still works, You can paint a turd any color you want and all you still have is a painted turd. As always, it's just one old man's opinion. Grumpmeter is level 3 today.

Death and Taxes

Well now, its trim notice time and I saw on the Seminole Heights blog quite the uproar over this years taxes. This is a case of a system that is totally broken. Some of my neighbors are paying a few hundred dollars a year while new arrivals are paying near 4000 dollars, for comparable houses just because they came here recently. Something has to give, the fella paying a couple hundred bucks is getting the same level of service from the city that the new arrival is. The only exception might be that the old timer doesn't have any kids going into the school system but educatin the youth is an obligation for all of us so I don't mind that too much. The other problem I see is that the city has to be rakin it in, and yet none of the money seems to be going to anything other than pork. I haven't seen better police or fire responses, the roads certainly are getting worse not better around my area. The bus system still sucks, no train in sight, Riverwalk, well it's a nice idea, but it's not really going anywhere so far. I think the recent rash of folks getting dinged for 50 year old fireplaces and such is just a lazy way of trying to milk a few more bucks., instead of coming up with a fair and legal way to normalize the tax base. Save our homes is a bit outmoded, but we still need some protections for those of us who have been here awhile. As for the death part of the headline, anyone else here think that JonBenet Ramsey killer reminds you of Kevin Spacey in Seven?
New feature, Grumpmeter is level 4 now.

Dadburn It

I just realized that this dadgum blog thing was only allowing comments from registered users. Now I don't really care much about what someone who don't have enough cajones to at least make up some sort of nom de plume has to say, but this here's America, and by God they have a right to say whatever the hell they want. I don't know if it was the blog thing or my own ineptitude, but I thought I had set it to allow anonymous comments, but keep that advertising bullshit to a minimum. It should now be rectified. Comment away if you feel so moved.

You don't deserve a brake today

I heard about a woman in Georgia who decided to exact a little vengeance on two others who cut in line in front of her at a McDonald's. It seems that there was a long line and when another register was opened the two victims came from further back in the line enraging the person who had been in line longer. Now I'm not saying that physical violence is justifed by this sort of behavior, but there is probably a little part of us that had to think that it's a little, albeit extreme, poetic justice. The two victims were not seriously injured. Why is it that when there is an obvious crowded line that people who are nowhere near next in line think it's ok to just insinuate themselves to the front? Is their time more important than the rest of ours? Of course this sort of thing could be easily remedied with a system similar to the one many banks use, with a single queue that distributes the next person in line to the next available register. I'm sure all parties involved however will sue McDonald's for one thing or another.

Someone mentioned the movies

Nothing new about this, people have been saying it for the past few years, but I just have to wonder about the future of the cinema. Down below someone mentioned my comment about the families trying to sit together on a Southwest flight. I agree with you in that, I shouldn't be expected to give up my seat, and people should show up early enough, but these days it's not about getting to the airport, it's about getting on the computer. When's the last time you've seen an A boarding pass that was printed at the airport? Now it's not quite fair to penalize those who don't have a computer, some of us haven't even used these things until recently. In any event, I was adressing the herd mentality, that people will tolerate this treatment. And even with an A if youre travelling with more than maybe one or two people, you have to line up nearly an hour or more before boarding, not that cool if youre travelling with kids who are too old for pre-boarding, but not old enough to entertain themselves in line for that long. Anyway, it's the system that's broken. I heard that Southwest is actually testing assigned seating in some of their markets. When I fly alone, I don't even line up if I get an A, I'm usually the last one of that group to board. But with an assigned seat, there's a piece of mind of knowing where your seat is and if you're with someone, that they can sit next to you.
Back to the movies, the last movie I went to see was Pirates of the Carribean part 2. I made the mistake of going to the cinema over in the Westchase area, Veteran's I think it was. Now there's a couple of places where it seems babies are popping out like mushrooms after a good rain. Westchase, Brandon, Riverview. Anyway, lesson learned, I won't be attending films in those areas again. Who in their right mind think it's ok to bring a newborn into a theater? Or a toddler or even a kid who can't sit still? Sorry that having a kid cuts into your social life, but that's not my problem. If you can't get a babysitter, stay home. I mean, the one's that are at least polite, relatively speaking, enough to leave the theater when baby starts crying can't follow the story anyway, so what the devil is the point? Add that to the loud people who talk through the film, or laugh uproariously at not so funny parts(why do some people find someone bumping their head so hilarious?) in movies that are not comedys. It's not just me, I mean, in a theater full of people and two people laugh, and make such a commotion, there's gotta be some mental illness there or something I think. I won't mention cellphones, as everyone knows about those a-holes. It's not like there's not enough encouragement these days during the pre-movie crap. Speaking of pre-movie crap, I read somewhere that some theaters are starting to publish the actual movie start time instead of the start of the 30 minutes of advertising. What a refreshing change that would be. We drop 10 bucks a head on a ticket and then have to get innundated with a bunch of ads. For the film I mentioned above, we arrived quite early to the theatre, and didn't think too much about the time and just said two tickets to Pirates please. Well we intended on going to the 1:20 showing, but they gave us tickets to the 12:35 showing, at about 12:55. We went in, thinking we'd have to go back and get the right tickets, nope, we found seats and still had time for me to go get refreshments before the film started. Thanks advertisers.
Oh, and the crap they are pushing at us these days. When I read Big Momma's House 2 was the number one film earlier this year, my old heart almost stopped. The end is nigh, apocalypse is on us my friends.

New Found Fame

I guess I'm getting my 15 minutes after mention by a local blog. Not sure I like it or not. First things first, I don't need no psychoanalysis by someone who's read Psychiatry for Dummies and think theyre an expert. I also am going to limit responses to people only wishing to stir up trouble. Funny, telling me to get a life and they got nothing better to do than throw stones at me. I started this blog for a couple of reasons, partly its a form of therapy in a way. It's a way to vent, sort of like writing a letter that you never send. Amazingly enough it works. I've talked to enough people in my day that I know many of the things that I mentioned here or feel irritated about bother quite a number of folks. So you holier-than-thou's can just bite me. Another minor hope for this is that maybe just one person who reads some of these entries might think a moment the next time they do something thoughtless or inconsiderate. That is probably way too much to hope, but hey, hope makes the world go round. A final reason for this blog is a bit of an experiment. I know a couple of folks that blog, and I got to wondering, it seems that people who read these blogs thrive on controversy, they almost need it like a drug. It's like Fox news, not a lot of readers participate in those blogs about Sally and her puppy, or the scratch Mom got on her SUV at the soccer game. But throw around entries on gentrification or around here Ronda Storms, and look at the folks line up to comment. I have to say on that note, it certainly has proved my hypothesis. For those of you who are speculating on the Seminole Heights blog about me, thank you for the laughs, it appears that I am not the only grumpy old man around here. As for being called self-centered. For the record, who I am is somethinng like this. I am the guy that holds the door when you don't say thank you, the one who lets you out in traffic when you don't even wave or nod or in any way acknowledge the favor I just did you. I am the man who lets you into line if you have fewer items even when you act like you are entitled to it instead of it being a nice gesture. The funny thing is, I do feel that it should be the norm, but it's not. Manners and a show of appreciation for these little things in life make the world a better place. I will admit I am a bit antisocial, but I and everyone else here live in a community, and we should all do our part to make it better. Just a bit of what used to be common decency and courtesy makes all of us a bit less grumpy.
As for the comment about the airline thingy, I've tried the whooping cough thing on Southwest, and it doesnt work anymore. Damn airlines are almost always oversold these days.
Thank you for your support.