Activities on a Holiday

Everyone except my brother had off for Memorial Day. Momoko thought it would be a good time to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Kit Kat had already seen it with her boyfriend. So Momoko, Little Kat, and I woke up early to see it at our favorite theater. The theater was not opened when we arrive. So we parked and waited.

Before the show, Momoko and I ate pretzel bites with large cheese cups. I had a couple cups of jalapenos to top it off. The show was pretty good. Answered some of the questions from the first movie. Speaking of that, Momoko bought the DVD so we could review the last movie.

Afterwards I had planned to take us to lunch. Little Kat bowed out, so I drove him home. Then I tested my new EasyPass on the highway. I was a bit shocked that the toll road I took had no toll booths. I guess they somehow captured and billed my EasyPass. We traveled to the west to get some Fuddruckers.

Back at home, I caught up with laundry. Me and Kit Kat switched days on the weekends to accommodate her new work schedule. I went outside to finish my yard work. It rained after lunch on Sunday. I chopped a bunch of overgrown shrubs and branches. When I was cleaning up, I could not find my saw. Turns out I tossed it into the can with the branches.

Finding a new Electrician

I had our handyman install a new window unit air conditioner in the bedroom. Now the room is cool. However between the A/C in Little Kat's room, the lights in the two upstairs bathrooms, and the lights in the bedrooms, our circuit is overloaded. The breaker trips in the most inopportune time.

Now I used to just call the local servicing company. A nice electrician would come out and give us some deals. However the electrician was not entirely competent. I heard him get electrocuted a couple times. Plus he had a hard time with switches.

So I have been on the lookout for a new electrician. Found a reference by word of mouth. Sounded like a small operation. Two of the guys came out. They measured the current in the two circuits in question. They proposed running two more wires to the top level to even out the load. They said their boss would give me an estimate.

I waited a week and did not hear back. So I called the boss. He did not pick up. I called their main office. They said they would email me a quote. Finally I gave up on them. What do you know? I just got a quote from them. Not sure if I trust them if they have trouble following through with a quote. But the price is right.

Celebrate Good Times of Summer

Today was Little Kat's last day of the college school semester. I had my final last night. So at lunch, I decided that Little Kat and I should go out to celebrate. Little Kat was agreeable if I would drive to wherever we were going. I chose Sonic. It is far away. But it is delicious.

When we arrived at the restaurant, they only had car hop parking spaces. We parked in one and walked inside. Some dude came to take our order. He was really slow entering it into the system. He made at least one mistake with Little Kat's drink.

I got the double cheeseburger. And Little Kat got the coney. We both had slushes to drink and tots for a side. Donald Trump was on the TV giving a press briefing. The order came with Little Kat's name on it since he ordered first. Little Kat and I both got brain freezes from drinking the ice cold slushes too quickly. They provided Sonic mints without us having to ask.

Here's to a relaxing summer without school.

Going to a Gas Dryer

This past weekend, Momoko and I went shopping for a gas dryer. Our current dyer runs. But it does not dry well. Sometimes we need to restart a load a couple times to ensure the clothes do not turn out moist. At the store, I focused on simple non-digital controls. Plus I made sure I liked how the door opened. The positioning of the front door handle was key. I also needed easy access to grab the clothes out of the dryer.

I chose a dryer and said I would pick it up myself. The sales guy had a hard time keying in the gas version of the dryer. He kept getting the wrong total at checkout. Afterwards, Momoko celebrated with a pretzel from Auntie Anne's at the mall. I asked my bro if I could borrow his truck. He agreed.

Today was the first day I could pick up my dryer from the store's warehouse. Of course my manager scheduled a meeting for lunch. I decided to go to Roy Roger's for a very early lunch, attend my meeting, then head to the warehouse. The warehouse was clear of customers when I arrived. I got my dryer loaded on the back of my brother's truck and got home as quick as possible.

Some kid was walking in my neighbor's yard when I drove up. That was suspicious. It also meant I could not leave the dryer out until my brother came home. Luckily Little Kat was home, having skipped college today as usual. I measured and found we would need to bring the dyer in the front door. I backed up the truck up to the front door. Had a small delay as I had to spray a wasp and pull down its nest from the front door.

Little Kat and I worked smart. We used a dolly to roll the dryer around. We also slid it inside its box down the steps. Only other surprise was that Little Kat had borrowed my brother's dolly and left it at Momoko's school. Luckily we have a second dolly that made things much easier. Now I just need to get my handyman to install this thing.

Statistics on People Getting Degrees

I read a report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) about statistics on schooling. The EPI is a non-profit organization that looks at economic trends that affect the working class in America. The best stats I gained from their report was the percentage of people who achieve degrees. Now they slice and dice those numbers all kinds of ways. I was most interested in the numbers for people aged 25 to 54 years of age. Here are the rough percentages:

10% did not finish high school
25% got just a high school diploma
25% took some college classes
25% got a bachelor's degree
15% got an advanced degree

What I like to do it turn those groups into a rolling percent of how many people you have surpassed, just by achieving a degree:

Get a high school diploma to have surpass 10% of the people.
Just attend college to surpass 35% of the people.
Get a bachelor's degree to surpass 60% of the people.
And get an advanced college degree to surpass 85% of the people.

Seems like the bachelor's degree is the sweet spot. It will put you in the top half of the population based on schooling alone. I am always looking for an edge to set me apart from the next guy. When you have extra credentials, it is easier for someone to give you a job (and a higher paying one at that).

Trip Down Memory Lane

The window air conditioning unit I bought last summer has already died. I called the manufacturer and they said they could replace the unit. They shipped it to an appliance store downtown in the big city that I live near.

I borrowed my brother's truck and headed down to the appliance store at lunch time today. Used GPS to get me to the neighborhood. The store was well marked. But there was absolutely no parking. I parked in a liquor store and used the dolly to bring my broken A/C unit into the store.

Made the switch and drove to their warehouse building to pick up my unit. On the drive down, I passed the site where I used to work during college. I drove this same road when I used to get lunch from there. As I got further into the city, I went by the neighborhood of a guy I knew from computer camp.

The neighborhood right by the appliance store was a bunch of small duplex homes. The appliance store looked like it had been there a while. The inside was done up really nice to sell the wares. The warehouse had a bunch of delivery trucks outside. There were also large empty cardboard boxes with packing Styrofoam.

Newpaper Delivery Triple Failure

I subscribe to the big city newspaper. Get delivery weekdays and weekends. This past Saturday, we received the advertisements for Sunday. However there was no Saturday paper. I called up the newspaper. The automated system said it was too late for me to receive a newspaper.


I opted to speak with a rep from the company. They said there was no way to get today's paper delivered. However I was promised it would be delivered the next day. Turns out I never got the paper. This is the first level of failure.


So I called the newspaper back. I explained what had happened so far. The rep said they would let the carrier know. WTF? I don't need a message send to my carrier. I need someone to resolve my problem. Level two of failure has been met.


I got the newspaper rep to at least credit me for the missing paper. These guys charge a lot for newspaper delivery. And they keep increasing the prices. Then I spoke with a manager. Told them in addition to delivery problems, their customer service essentially sucks. I was given the number of the supervisor of the carrier.


Tried to call the carrier supervisor. Some guy answered the phone. He asked who I was, and only said I could leave a message. Never got a call back from that supervisor. Level three failure, here we come. Finally the next day I get a note from my carrier saying that someone may be stealing my paper.


Stop the nonsense. I have lived here 10+ years getting the paper delivered and have never had the paper stolen. Plus what are they trying to say? Somebody picked out just the Saturday paper from our plastic bundled delivery, but left us with just the Sunday ads? I don't think so. If my brother did not insist on keeping the newspaper delivered, these guys would have been fired a long time ago.