Good To The Last Drop

Today I want to share with you a story of optimism; despite of all this gloomy arctic coldness we’ve been experiencing this winter.  

I witnessed this display yesterday.  It was also a bit bizarre, but you’ve got to give the guy credit.  Well kind of, but you will admire his optimism – ah, again, kind of, if you aren’t first grossed out.

I was just getting on the entrance ramp going to I-75 North off Eight Mile, when this guy juts out in front of me on the top of the ramp.  Not a car, but a person.  A very brave person, who must have known I was not going to hit him – something I was not so sure of myself at the time.

He runs across the ramp, I slow down – a lot (I mean I am entering a highway) and I look quick behind me to make sure no one was behind me, not paying attention to this unnatural braking, and was about to hit me.  All was good, there was no one behind me.

So I watch the man, what else am I going to do – this is odd.   He runs to the other side of the ramp, bends down in the slushy dirty snow (picture above recreated in my pretty snow at home) and picks something up.  Ok, I think – something flew off his car and he is parked above and has run down to retrieve it.  

Nope, that’s not what was happening – at all. 

He reached down and picked up an empty Gin bottle, one that someone had pitched out of their car before they entered the highway.  Ah, ok – buddy, we don’t give deposits on liquor bottles – just pop (soda), so it’s not the dime he’s after.   

Might I point out that “empty” is the key word here.  

Then, right in front of my eyes, while still standing like a daredevil on the ramp – he unscrews the cap and tilts the thing up to his mouth in obvious effort to get whatever dregs are left at the bottom of the bottle.  Hmmm.

This makes him either a very optimistic man – thinking the bottle would not actually be empty – or a very desperate one, because really – that is kinda gross.  Someone was obviously tipping it themselves before chucking it out the car window, no cups involved here.

Therefore we say, Cheers to you buddy, hope you find a full one soon!  You certainly seem to go to any length “just in case”, probably because you have successfully found a partially full one before?  I’m guessing also chucked out a car window on a highway, thus removing any incriminating “evidence” from the vehicle.  

Your resourcefulness and creativity is commendable, a little dangerous and truly gross, but commendable.

Down To My Last Buck

I’m curious of the spectacular hold that Starbucks has on many of us.  Our family included.

I enjoy a good cup of coffee (Decaf) or a green tea latte (Macha) from them probably once a week and hubby, well he brews a cup out of his personal brewer every day before work.

Take today for example, after I finished rowing I went to the local Starbucks for a reward cup of Macha.  

While I am in line, the lady behind me received personal service from the barista who came out from behind the counter, walked over to her and took her order.  She took no one else's order mind you, just the last lady in line – who apologized and said, she comes in twice a day.  TWICE A DAY????

Might I suggest you also buy yourself a personal brewer like my husband’s?  It grinds the beans before it brews the cup – so it’s super fresh…. You probably are able to afford a good brewer if you are there TWICE A DAY – so money should not be an option.  

Just some quick math, but let’s say it’s $2.50 a cup, $5.00 a day, five days a week  - that’s $1300 a year – being conservative – thinking she is just getting a coffee and going M-F.  If it’s a latte and seven days a week  – all bets are off and money is just flying out the window, woooosh.

But what really brings me to this story is the man in front of me in line.  He was on his phone and had apparently no need for personal privacy, although what he was talking about was very personal and very private. 

It started with him telling the other person at the end of the phone he wasn’t getting as many hours as they were, so they should be taking care of something (i.e. you make more money than me- waahh).  

Then he went into the fact that he has been working with the electric company to get his power turned back on (i.e. he hasn’t paid his bill for months and months and months and they have turned his heat and lights off – electricity and gas are combined in our area).

Ummm, dude, this is a small, kinda tight knit area around here– ANYONE could know you inside that building.  Are you sure you want them to know that you don’t pay your bills and you’re petty jealous of someone who has a better wage than you?

THEN, which was the big one for me – he went on to say he was down to his last five dollars.  OK – THEN WHY IN THE HELL ARE YOU IN LINE AT STARBUCKS SPENDING YOUR LAST FIVE BUCKS ON SPECIALTY COFFEE?????  Leave the building immediately.  

Not that I’m being judgmental or anything – but yeah, I kinda am.  Five bucks can buy you two days worth of food at the grocery, a gallon and a quarter of gas, a bag of salt to keep people or even you from falling down on your property on the ice, or even a whole 1lb bag of non-starbucks coffee to brew at home, for a month.

So, today I am officially changing the name of Starbucks to Lastbucks, in honor of the "no personal boundaries" and "poor fiscal choices" fool in front of me in line today.  Instead of the mermaid on the front of the cup, we can put a green dollar sign in the circle, with a line through it.  What do you think??

Post delayed until afternoon of 2/11

Tech Savvy

I don’t know, maybe I should have bought it? 

What do you think?

I mean I have NEVER seen one before. 

It was pretty compact, looks portable, comes with a key board and the screen is small.  Plus I think you can make toast in it.

No you say, no toast.  Huh, I like toast – doesn’t everyone?   

Are you sure, I mean look – there are buttons under each slot, maybe for lighter or darker, and an orange on off button – are you sure it’s not for toast?

Ok, fine, crumbs and computers probably don’t go together.  It is a computer right?

NCR stands for National Cash register (you know the company – they made all those beautiful ornate brass registers – back in the way back time).  I had no idea they forayed into computers.   

Apparently they were no match for HP, Dell and Apple.  They went the way of IBM in their quest for the personal computer market (which I think Macintosh stole some of IBM’s ideas way long ago and that’s why they did not become the big player Apple is today – just saying).

But I did look them up, apparently we can thank NCR for LCD’s – hey thanks, hope you got good royalties because our LCD TV is fantastic!  

But back to the computer – it must have really special in its day – I mean TWO slots for floppies, not only could you save stuff off the computer, you could copy stuff from another disk – remarkable!  (and I should add a BIG disk, this was the early, early days)

I love estate sales, I know they mark the passing of people, but sometimes you can tell those people were really special.  I mean look at the cutting edge person who owned this – a personal computer, in their home – from the 1980’s.  

Extraordinary I’d say – too bad we didn’t know them beforehand – I bet they would have had some great stories to tell – and who knows, maybe they even knew Bill Gates, Jef Raskin, Steve Wozniak or Steve Jobs – I’m sure the circle of computer geeks back in the day was tiny.

Holy Blizzard Batman!

Whew, it’s a good thing we have a doggie snow plow!  I’m not sure if you can see it, but she really is plowing the snow.   (I should mention she gave up after she got this far – which was not far at all, turned around and came back in the house).

We got up today and I had a hard time getting the back door open, we were indeed – snowed in.  Once I pushed the door open, it all collapsed back inside – so if you want to get technical, we had snow much snow this morning that it had nowhere to go, but inside the house.

Now I ask you this – hubby is away in Arizona for work, he was also away in December – when we also had major snow dumpage – do you think this is planned?  I mean the stuff is taller than your boots – so there is no way to go out and clean it up without coming in thoroughly soaked through to your toes– and we have good boots here in Michigan.  Guess I should invest in some waders for the next round – he’s away again next month, probably should plan on another major snow event for that week.

Anyway, we all knew something was coming, so I’d like to share with you our grocery store shelves.  I just want you to note the priorities of folks “stocking up” for the snow-megeddon.

Um let’s see – ah yes, the potato chip isle is barren – yes, yes, if you were to be snowed in I can see how the need for potato chips (crisps) would be a priority in feeding your family.  Bizarre.

A tad more encouraging was this aisle:

Ok, potato chips and yogurt – gotta have priorities I guess?  Never mind the bread, milk and eggs – grab those chips and strawberry yogurt before they are all gone!!!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with this shot – as soon as we can find our way into the garage – we’ll grab the snow saucer and go for a ride – it’s not every day you can sled in your own back yard!!  Weeeeeee….