A Beater with a Heater: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (& Bicycles)

It doesn't pay to be tied to a mechanical piece of equipment. Reliance on the operation and availability and possession of something that is just a 100,000 pieces of metal, fiberglass and plastic, but zooms along at inordinate speeds (sometimes), and people have the expectation that it works nearly 100% of the time is rather foolish, once you find yourself without it, or left with the carnage of financial deal gone bad, or at the mercy of some yah-hoo careening down the turnpike and smashing into your hot ride.

My family drew the low card in the game of asshole with the car problems. You can't even imagine what I go through with them over something I have come to despise as much for its presence as I do for its inadequate operation.

Now, I can hear you thinking: "Complaining again about whatever is his woes." No, that isn't my Johnny Quest here. My thinking is that I would rather never see another car again. They pollute. They take too much money to acquire and maintain. They have to be recycled somehow. And I always feel we miss out on the freedom of being unencumbered by their usage in getting our daily bread made.

We need machines - green ones would be nice - but I get tired of fact I must own one to have a way to pay for meals, live in a box that is worth less than a painting by Grandma Moses, or taking a woman to some overpriced Steak & Ale joint far as hades from the Sunset Strip of my Lost in Translation reality. Anytime I put myself in a car, I say, "Fuck I hate driving."

I remember driving on some last piece of Route 66 when I was young, thinking how awesome the feel of the wind and sun was in the car. It was foolish youth - in a new experience - that guided my thinking.

Now, after five years of driving 75-125 miles per day, I am over the fun of playing a bit role in the demise of the U.S. Economy. I don't need a car to have a life.

I like bicycles now. More freedom and joy comes from the pedaling and picking a path out to wherever than comes from my automotive experience. It's healthy - I need to lose 10-20 lbs. - and that might help America too.

Get off the planes, trains and automotive gerbel wheel and start loving your bike.

Failing Down on the Job: Blogging this summer

I've pretty busy trying to figure out my long term plan in life. It's complicated - not so much in what I perceive is the needed path to follow - but in trying to fit my close relatives into that picture. To be totally frank, it does not look good for them.

(We) just got a 20% pay cut on the delivery routes we've done for 4 years, this time. (All together over a decade of service to that cause.) The company, Lee Enterprises, somehow thinks it is a good practice to leave completely out of the picture those most affected by their bottom-line alterations. Lacking the class, or business sense, to at least bring in the carriers that will remain behind to craft a better operation and working relationship. I understand how hard the print media has been hit - but it seems they never learn how to run a more effective and efficient operation.

Meanwhile, my family refuses logic or long-term thinking. They still sit in foreclosure status. My aunt refuses to file for bankruptcy. Too many pets (14) and not enough assets. And I've made every possible attempt; and now, I must somehow get my own ideas moving forward without money or assistance from anyone of import. (So far.)

I continue to work on my baseball tome - with a completion date of November 15th of 2009. It will be (to me, anyways) a lasting work - which is why it has taken 4 years plus to research, read, write, edit, analyze, gather images, work out charts and diagrams. But I am tired of the project - in some ways. That means I need to move on to something fresh, inviting and stirring of those intellectual juices in a pot of potential.

Fiction writing and a new business of some sort. I do have a fledgling idea: an online to print-on-demand press for starters, but with a twist or two.

In today's world, your own business is the only way to keep from being at the mercy of mercinary management types that do not care as much or as often about their employees. It is fine and well established that customers are your revenues - but your employees are your potentials for innovations and future revenues. They work to put food on a table - but you must give them some security.

The Globalization of commerce put everyone in a too competitive framework - which I do know drives innovation - but it incumbent on employers to cut down the ruthlessness (and rapidity of workforce turnover) that some engage in for the sake of too oblivious wealthy stockholders.

Meanwhile, employees, you must engage in enrichment of your mind and keep your body able to roll with these punches. No free lunches. No slacking or exploiting the bosses good graces. You have to be a "mini-boss" while being flexible and likeable enough to stay a sound and savvy employee.

After that diatribe, I can say my problems have not changed significantly - but I have attempted a new attitude. I am looking for opportunities; utilizing what others toss away; taking in the best I find from people I meet, and discarding the rest (hopefully, not the person too.)

So, my blogging is way down, as I work on a book, trying to read and think up a new business plan, where I might have to live, and the adventure and pleasure of meeting new ideas and people behind them. My blogging energy to worry about Health Care, Erin Andrews of ESPN, the Cubs, the darfur genocide ,or a myriad of other world concerns is taxed. I can write about it - but does it really matter???

Tomorrow: American & Personal History, Synergy and Circumstances

In tribute to my grandfather, this nation and the National Pastime, I will post on that intertwining. I have to work on it tonight - with images, and hopefully fitting video links.

Stay Tuned...