The Car Inspection

NYS Signage for "We need more of your money"

Well, Oola, our Alien Green Soul, needed her yearly inspection.  New York government believes they don’t get enough money out of “Upstaters”, so once a year we have to take our cars to licensed garages (anyone who has paid New York State for the honor) and have them hook our cars up to a computer.  Similar to those in Vegas, these play a new, modern version of “Russian Roulette” to see if the car passes, or which expensive fix will keep the garage from passing “inspection”.  This year we were lucky to hear that our dealership, Fuccillo Kia of Clay was having a special!!!  They were charging only $1 to inspect any vehicle during the month of March!!!  WOOT WOOT!! Usually we need to pay $21 to play the “Inspection Game”!!  Pitman calls and the appointment was set for a Monday morning at 9am!!!  Umm….. Pitman?  You have a job!  After checking out the necessary legal paperwork governing the Eagleminco’s Roost, apparently even though this is automobile upkeep and repair, if the male part of the Pitman Community is unable to perform his marital duties, it falls upon the female part of the Pitman community to pick up his slack… again…. <sigh> imagine that.  BUT I digress.
 

The night before the appointment, we were traveling home from dinner at his parents, and the high anxiety part of the Autism world rears its ugly head, and Pitman announces when we get home, he will be checking to make sure all the lights in the car work.  Then he realizes that at 8pm on a Sunday night, he probably won’t find a place that is open where he can get a new bulb.  So then he gives me the directive, “We have one more day, if they find a blown bulb, just tell them thank you, that you’ll replace it yourself, and be back tomorrow!!!”  

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but is my time worth nothing?  I am already planning to travel for 20 minutes, sit for probably another 20 minutes, then 20 minutes home. BAM!  One hour killed.  IF we do have a blown bulb, Pitman is now adding in a trip to Pep Boys (because my son works there, and I will always shop there to keep him employed and I hope you all will do the same), try to figure out what I need because my masculine tendencies do not allow me to ask for help, then I get tired and frustrated and my feminine tendencies kick In and I wait in line and ask for help, get the bulb and head home.  Now, what I envision next is that I will wait for Rob to come home and announce he’s going to do this real quick before dinner.   He will proceed to try to take apart the car only to run into problems ten minutes into the process.  After one half hour and a few new curse words later, we will all choke down some dry chicken while he looks up instructions online until he gets a fire call.  When he gets home from the fire call, he’ll try to put the car back together as best as possible and call it a night.  The next day I’ll head back to the dealership to kill another hour-plus of my day.  So, I inform Mr. Pitman that I will NOT do that.  If, indeed, we need a new bulb, I will tell them to replace it on the spot, so there.

Fast forward to 9am Monday Morning.  I bring in my car and sit and wait.  I have a LOT of observations of my local Kia dealership, all of which I will share with you at another time.  And I wait.  And I wait some more.  After I wait for about 45 minutes, they come out and tell me….  I have a blown bulb.  I try my hardest not to laugh in the poor guys face.  I tell him to go ahead and change it.  As he walks away, I ask how much it is…. He tells me $12.  I say that’s fine, and I start to text Pitman.  “We had a blown bulb.  I told him on the spot to change it.  Its costing you $12.  Neener, neener , neener.”  

Oola is the only one who can't complain I blog about her too much.

Of all the responses I’d expect from Robert, I get a response I SHOULD have expected, but didn’t.  “Which one,” he asks.  

“I didn’t ask”, I tell him, “I was too busy laughing and thinking “Neener, neener, Pitman is a poopy head.”  Then it took them another 45 minutes to change said light bulb.  At that point, I started looking around for Chip Foose or Ashton Kutcher wondering if Pitman had set me up, hoping that Pitman was having me “Overhauled” and not “Pranked”, ‘cause in this family, you never know what you’re gonna get.  When Rob gets home & looks over the paper work, he informs me “You didn’t pay $12 for the light bulb, you paid $1 for the inspection, $1 for the light bulb, and $11 for the tech to put it in.”   Is it just me, or did he get in the final “Neener?”

As always, I will work for money, but I am not for sale.  Meaning, I'll review anything, and I do love a challenge, so send me ideas and suggestions, but my opinions can't be bought.  I do take Paypal donations anytime at eaglemingoroost@gmail.com.

 

Crap Fairs, Gun Shows, and Expeditions, Oh My

Crap Fair!!!!

This weekend was one of the three Crap Fairs that you will usually find me, my Mom, Helen, and her best friend Marilyn, aka “Gert”.  It is held at the Great New York State Fairgrounds.  There are many buildings at the fairgrounds, how “Great” that is depends on who you are, your political affiliation, and how much money you are trying to get to make improvements.  But that, in and of itself, is “a whole nother barrel of monkeys”.  Trust me when I say I had enough monkeys flying in and around all sorts of barrels on Sunday.  If you need clarification of this, let me reiterate.  I took my Mother, Helen, and her BFF Gert to the Crap Fair this Weekend.  It’s a tradition.  Well, the Crap Fair in October is a tradition… the other 2 sprinkled in throughout the year, as well as our many trips to the Christmas Tree Shoppes, are just the Senokot Sprinkles on top of my otherwise calm life. 

Spring Gun Show

As I was saying, there are many buildings on the premises that is home to the Great New York State Fair.  They try to keep them rented out all year long by getting people to hold all sorts of events there every weekend.  So, not only was the “Country Folk Art Show” (also known as the “Crap Fair”, where you can find all sorts of neat things made in China, hand filled cannolis for $7.50 each, Verizon Fios, and about 4 booths of handmade items) there, but also the Spring Premiere Horse Show, the Nature-Tyme’s 15^th Annual Health Fair, and the Syracuse Spring Gun Show.  The whole fairgrounds were simply hopping with the movement of cars and signs with arrows.  Needless to say, I got a little misplaced and drove around a bit aimlessly, following signs with arrows, until they disappeared.  Then I drove around some more until I relocated more signs with arrows, until they disappeared again.  Finally, I found someone in an orange safety vest, and I pulled up next to him, and stated the obvious.

The ACTUAL Expedition.. I was bored.

“I’m so sorry, sir, but I believe I’m probably lost.”  His follow up question surprised me.  “How much gas do you have?”  “umm, I just filled up, actually.”  He answered me with a huge grin and said “Then you aren’t nearly as lost as you could be!!  You are just starting a grand adventure!!!!  You are at the gun show; I take it that’s not where you want to be?”  I couldn’t help myself.  “I’d love to go, but I don’t have any tickets!!!!”, and I showed him my bicep.  AND he laughed at my joke!!!  I did like him!!!  And he pointed out where I needed to go.  So, while I was waiting for Mom and Gert, I was lucky enough to watch 4 other men in orange safety vests help this tiny, TINY woman park her HUGE Ford Expedition!  And that got me to thinking.  When you buy a camper, the camper store won’t sell you a camper if your truck will not safely tow it.  If you imbibe too much alcohol and drive home drunk and kill someone, you actually can sue the bartender for continue to serve a drunken person alcohol.  So why can car dealers sell such huge vehicles to people who cannot even see over the steering wheel?  (Welcome to a glimpse of my mind….  Sorry for the tangent.)

Possible Sign for Car Dealers

I was a bit disappointed in the Crap Fair this time around.  I think I will hold off on completely saying “Waste of time” until after October.  I understand February was a total waste, so they are taking that one off the schedule, and moving it to the beginning of December, instead.  I’m thinking that will be a great move on their part.  I would like to see them get in some new vendors, too.  Keep the people from Pennsylvania, though!!  They are my favorites and have the best stuff!  They are always in the far right corner, in the back.  On top of that, if they are going to keep booking so many venues for the fairgrounds, they need to spread them out more, and improve the parking and traffic flow, especially with the signage.  And maybe car dealers should have those yard sticks that state “You need to be This Tall to Drive This Car”.  That’s me.  I’m the Idea Girl.  

As always, I will work for money, but I am not for sale.  Meaning, I'll review anything, and I do love a challenge, so send me ideas and suggestions, but my opinions can't be bought.  I do take Paypal donations anytime at eaglemingoroost@gmail.com.

The Living Wage Debate/If You Give A Moose A Muffin

I do not have a subject for today, so I decided to do something very controversial.  Let’s attack the living wage.  Do I think everyone deserves to make a living wage?  Yes.  Do I think we should raise minimum wage to $15 an hour?  No.  I could end this here.  But I won’t.

I would like to say a few other things.  I have worked flipping burgers at Wendy’s at age 16.  Actually, I wasn’t allowed on the grill.  That was “men’s work”.  I made sandwiches and ran register.  I still have Don Peevey Nightmares.  Oh, and I dropped fries.  I came home greasy and smelly.  My friends hated me because, while my blemishes did increase a bit, it was nothing near the breakouts they had to deal with.  Friends still hate me.  With the past few years, because of the scrunchie faces I make when my discomfort gets, well, uncomfortable, I am getting wrinkles.  I am pushing 50.  People do not believe me.  But before y’all start hating me because I’m beautiful, let’s get back to the topic on hand.  I worked in personal insurance offices, health insurance claims offices, ambulance services (on the trucks, not the offices), convenience stores, village governments, preschools and high schools.  I have made anywhere between $3 & $18 an hour.  With and without paid benefits, days off, pensions, 401k’s, etc.  There is one thing in common in all of these jobs.  The higher the amount of money made, the easier the work is, and the meaner the co-workers are.  When I was making $18 an hour, 100% paid benefits, I played solitaire all day and the co-workers made me cry on a daily basis, because they were vial.  There were one or two who were nice, and I was told that one of them was being nice because he wanted to get into my pants.  <sigh> 

But when you raise minimum wage, you have people feel they are better than those who are “flipping burgers” who will suddenly be making the same amount.  Like people processing medical claims.  Well, trust me.  People processing medical claims are the burger flippers of the medical world.  Don’t let them fool you.  It’s the same mind numbing work, but they are doing it in a sedentary job, and aren’t doing it for idiots who are complaining “I SAID NO LETTUCE!!!”, all the while you want to yell back, “A FREAKIN’ VEGGIE NOW AND AGAIN WONT KILL YOU!!!!!”  <sigh>  

Do yourself a favor, even if you have no kids, and buy the book “If You Give A Moose A Muffin”.  It’s the story of life.  And it’s funny.  As a matter of fact, I’ll be right back.  I think Cassie gave our copy away, and I have the urge to read it.  I’m going to see if I can download it to my nook for days when I need a giggle.  Nope.. no E-book available.  Anyways, here is the “If You Give A Moose A Muffin” version of raising the minimum wage.

If you give the Fast Food workers a raise, the Managers will want a raise, too.  They’ll tell their parents, whose Home Healthcare Aide friend will hear, and they will want a raise.  If they get a raise, then the LPN’s will want a raise, too.  Well, everyone knows that the RNs have more schooling than an LPN, so they’ll need a raise, and if they get one, then the Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants will need one, too!!!  Not to mention the doctors and the lawyers who sue them!!!  MEANWHILE, if everyone is getting raises, the people who make the products these people buy will need raises, right?  It’s only fair!!!!  And if all these people are getting raises, the CEO’s of all these companies are going to need to get their “fair” share, like they’ve gotten since the beginning of time so they remain the 1%, and they will hike up the cost of all goods by whatever percentage it takes to retain the amount of wealth they have now.  WHICH brings us right back to the Fast Food workers, BACK in the same position they were in to begin with, not making a living wage.  And THAT, my friends, is what happens when you give a moose a muffin.

As always, I will work for money, but I am not for sale.  Meaning, I'll review anything, and I do love a challenge, so send me ideas and suggestions, but my opinions can't be bought.  I do take Paypal donations anytime at eaglemingoroost@gmail.com.