Summer 2014 August 15 (Friday)
63 degrees this morning.
Thinking yesterday that it is probably the first time since I can remember that I spent most of my summer days wearing shorts, a tee shirt and scandals, with some exceptions when I wore a suit or “business causal “ for a specific meeting. Probably the last summer I will do so for years also. I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed it!
Completed the next to last appointment on my “tooth implant” procedure. It was more uncomfortable than I expected and about twice as expensive as I anticipated. Ouch! The final procedure is scheduled in two weeks, which means it will be just a few days short of a year long process.
Read this morning about private investment firms again “betting” on the misfortune of the “common person”, this time “betting” on electoral outages and “winning’ millions of dollars in a day. Sounds familiar to the banks that “bet” on people losing their houses and then generally taking actions to make sure it happened. When is this going to stop? The money is coming from customers who can’t afford to keep supporting these rackets!
The story in the New York Times was the first time I had ever read of the “betting” on electrical outages. What a racket! I am sure, that just like the “special tax preference” that “private equity” firms receive, it is a result of “political contributions” and “connections”.
A recent story by he New York Times on a Starbucks employee and the irregular hours apparently is resulting in Starbucks starting new policies on employee scheduling. Again, computers are used for scheduling resulting in employees working on extremely short notice, being sent home after only a few hours of work and then called back etc. Again “financial profit targets” are used to justify this. (I’m not sure what to think of this yet, except I can see the frustration and inconvenience it creates for probably the lowest paid personnel, especially persons with families. On the other hand, I can see the point of businesses that they can’t pay personnel just to sit around. Seems like there is a good answer someplace that is fair to both parties. Maybe businesses aren’t planning very well and need to plan better and utilize personnel better.
On another subject, I often (will, occasionally anyway) wonder about the little certificates attached to gas station pumps and elevators. Who really inspects these? What does the certificate really mean? I don’t think I have ever seen a gas pump shut down, so I wonder who really inspects the pumps for correctness? While I expect gas stations owners are generally honest, when I see the number of gallons sent through the gas pump, only “cheating” by a small fraction could raise a substantial amount of money.
I’m sure it has happened, but I have never seen a gas station owner charged with having mis-measuring gas pumps! I will run an internet search on it and see what I find.
Same with building elevators. I wonder who actually inspects them? Are they like airplanes, they have to do a certain amount of preventive maintenance each year? I don’t obsess on this, but I wonder about it enough that I occasionally have a queasy feeling when I get on an elevator that creaks and moans. Again, I need to do an internet search on this!
I think it is easy for me to say, concerning the above, especially the electrify racket, and how to schedule personnel that ‘“I can’t do anything about it, so I won’t worry about it”, but if I don’t worry about it, who will? Nothing would ever get corrected with that attitude!
Looking forward to visiting with some friends this weekend. Good food, good friends, good coffee and warm weather. Hard to beat that combination!
That’s it for now, Friday, August 15, 2014.
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