Saturday, April 27, 2013

Rants

Driving:

- If you are making a left turn, the law requires you turn into the nearest lane. If I obey this law, and you, the guy behind me, disobeys and turns directly into the right lane and then guns it to pass me, you don't have validation to be angry when I then merge properly 1 second later and almost hit your front end.




- I don't mind if someone passes me on the freeway. What I do mind is someone tailgating me when the left lane is wide open!


Bathroom:

- If you use a stall in a public bathroom, lock the door! There is nothing more embarrassing (for both parties) than opening a door on someone!

Work:

- If you are in a position of authority to give out information, you should probably know the information before you give it out. Example:
  - A lady called in the other day; she was under the impression that once you turn age 59 1/2, you can take money out of a pre-tax retirement plan and not pay taxes on it. Now, this is an unfortunately common misconception (For those wondering, no, you can't put money into an IRA, 401K, etc. and never pay taxes on it. You either pay taxes now or later. There is no escape). In this case, however, toward the end of the conversation she said, "Well, I'm really busy this time of year because I'm a C.P.A." REALLY? I feel sorry for your clients...

Life in General:

- What's the deal with the rise of jogging pants? (for non-jogging situations)

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

April 16th . . . First Day of Spring

I know that the "real" first day of Spring occurs somewhere between March 19th and 21st each year.

In my mind, though, we're not "in the clear" until today.

Here is why -- On April 15th, 1996, there was a short lived yet nasty snow storm. On this link, you can see the picture of the snow flake on the 15th, and that the prior Thursday it got up to 82 degrees. Some of my buddies and I even played some touch football that prior week, only to get snowed on a few days later. Pretty standard Iowa weather.

It was my Junior year in high school, and that year there were something like 15-20 snow days (at least it felt that way). This is significant because in Ottumwa (at least), seniors graduated about 2 weeks before the school year actually ended. AND, if there were snow days, seniors didn't have to make them up. Of course, the thing that ticks me off is that MY senior year there were only 2 or 3 snow days. Grrrr.

I went sledding that day, just so that I could say I went sledding on April 15th. IIRC, my friends Peter Hemmings and Brian Harrison got their car stuck on another car's bumper in the slope between the upper and lower pit.

So, take the shovel out of the trunk of your car, plant some squash, take down the snow fence, etc. We're in the clear now, folks!