WARNING: Slamming door may cause vehicle to tip over

President Obama's plan for auto makers to boost the average fuel efficiency to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 is a flash back to the years between 1975 - 1987. During that period the average fuel efficiency of American cars and trucks improved by nearly 70%. Can the auto makers repeat that feat and boost the overall fuel economy of American autos by 40% achieving the goals of our President?
Never fear, if you must drive a giant dinosaur in 2016 you'll just have to take out a bank loan to fill the gas tank. As for myself the next car I buy will be so small that it will probably come with a kick stand and a warning that slamming the door may cause vehicle to tip over. I've owner two such autos both VWs. Neither had any creature comforts at all, no AC, no Heater, no Defroster, no Power Steering, no Power Windows or Power Brakes but I had more fun driving those two automobiles than any vehicle I've ever owned.
2016 will be here before we know it and by then gasoline will probably be $8 a gallon. Maybe I better order my kick stand now or better yet use my senior discount to purchase tickets for public transportation. You can bet your gas guzzler that even when gas gets to $8 a gallon I'll still be driving down the road and having fun if I can remember not to slam my car door to hard.

Mail Box # 27

This past week the United States Postal Service raised the price of stamps once again adding another two cents to the price of postage for a first class letter. Like most people I counted the remaining older stamps I had on hand, went to the Post Office and purchased an equal number of two cent stamps. Always trying to do the right thing I placed a two cent stamp along with a old stamp on the first letter I mailed after the price increase had taken place. The following day when I checked for new mail I found a hand written note from my rural postal carrier in Box 27. The note informed me that I did not need to add a two cent stamp when using a Forever stamp. What the heck was the postal carrier talking about? Sure enough when I checked my remaining old stamps they were Forever stamps. Living in the rural area I do, when ever I need more stamps I just leave money in the mail box and the following day the postal carrier leaves the stamps in my mail box. The postal carrier had left me several books of Forever stamps some time last year and I've been using them almost a year without knowing they were Forever stamps. Guess I need to start paying more attention to the things I take for granted.
The personal note from my postal carrier got me to thinking about how most of of us get our mail today. E-mail has taken over most of our mail duties leaving the US Postal Service relegated to a billing service. Which mail service you choose says a lot about you and what you stand for.
@mac.com: You are an Apple fan and probably have an iPod grafted to your head. You can usually be found in the hippest non chain coffee shop typing away on a $3000 aluminum MacBook Pro, white ear buds properly positioned in your ears and an iPhone 3G at your ready.
@gmail.com: In 2004 I thought I was pretty special because I had been invited to use Google's free e-mail allowing me to ditch my now pass'e @yahoo account. Gmail users hate Microsoft and have entrusted all their personal information to the Do No Evil Google guys. All gmailers are always trying to be twenty something when they are really 30-60 years of age.
@yahoo.com: Yahoo was the place to be in the late 90s. It was the first mail portal that was not related to your ISP mail account so you thought it was kind of secret and loved it's forwarding ability. It also had all those little simile faces, Yahooers love their simile faces.
@aol.com: Having the aol handle was all the rage in the 90s then dial up bombed and the AOL post office all but closed. The only reason most people even still have an AOL e-mail account is because they love to hear "You've Got Mail". If you fit into this category you qualify to have the AARP magazine delivered to you or you are a soccer mom who is still using Windows 95. Anything more complicated than a generic Facebook page scares the hell out of you.
No e-mail account: Now what is e-mail again? You are in your teens or early 20s and you equate sending e-mail with using a fax machine, watching broadcast TV and buying CDs. You text and IM and that's about it.
Which ever e-mail service you choose I don't think any of them will ever leave a nice note for you like my postal carrier did. Yes electronic mail is nice but it will never replace the feeling you get when you walk to the mailbox, open it's door and see a letter that has been placed inside by the warm hand of a postal carrier. It all seems so personal, the human to human thing. Now if only I could get my postal carrier to announce "You've Got Mail" every time he or she opened the door on Box 27 or maybe Box 27 could automatically run up it's red flag every time a letter arrived, I might be able to give up e-mail. Until that times arrives I will continue to look into Mail Box # 27 each and every day never knowing what the warm hand of my postal carrier may have placed inside.

Generations

Every generation is defined by it's struggles. The so called Greatest Generation weathered the depression and WWII making them resilient and sacrificing. They are such a contrast to Generation Y who are called lazy, entitled and indulgent. I fall in the generation between the two but I have characteristics of each. Just because I am some what fluent in all things technology does not mean I am more concerned with updating my web page profile than I am with working hard. OK you've got me on that one! I have not seen hard work in almost twenty years but don't throw me to the wolves of the Greatest Generation just yet.
I for one am not about to write off Generation Y before it's members have had a chance to do anything with their lives. People have been writing off young people every since kids first danced the Charleston. Maybe all the naysayers should be injected with a little of Generation X's flower power. That would surly put a little more free love into the world and lord knows the world could use a little of that right about now.
Great generations come in cycles but none of us living today can really determine how long those cycles are. Every generation is faced with war, financial devastation and the battle of certain human rights. The members of each generation march into these uncontrollable storms of doom with their heads held high and full of a strong sense of self, yet they usually walk out of the storms triumphant.
Whether or not any generation is ever painted with greatness I could care less because I've had too many doses of flower power to think any other way but when the color of greatness is called for I'll be the first one to join the march.

Cornbread Deficiency

Mothers Day is a time when you tell your mother how much she means to you. If she is no longer on earth it's time to reflect on the things you loved about her. Like a lot Moms mine could cook better than any Mother I ever met and that's one of the things I remember about her the most. Warm buttery cornbread and pinto beans was my favorite mothers dish. Such a simple meal yet today's kids are forced to eat canned and microwaved meals so most don't know the joys of warm buttery cornbread and a bowl of pinto beans.
Today's world has a cornbread deficiency which has caused too many over weight kids. If more kids had a glass of cornbread and sweet milk before bed the world would be a much happier place and they sure would not need two Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits and a cola to wash it down with when they got up every morning.
Plain and simple today's Mothers are not providing enough cornbread and pinto beans for their darling children. I understand today's Moms have a very busy lifestyle but the importance of 3 grams of cornbread a day can't be understated. The side effects of a cornbread deficiency includes an inability to play outdoor with other children. The only outdoor exercise today's kids get is when they happen to be standing outside while they are using their fingers while texting another kid.
Maybe the world needs a non profit organization to deliver care packages of warm buttery cornbread and pinto beans to every kid in America on a regular basis. That may be the only way the cornbread deficiency can ever be eradicated. I call on all you Mothers to start being a little creative and throw away all those boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix and cans of Ranch Style beans. Surly one of your friends on your Facebook page has a recipe for warm buttery cornbread and pinto beans. Happy Mothers Day.

How Low Can They Go

Take a look at your shopping list. Have you noticed how prices on many goods have plunged? Merchants are so eager to move inventory it makes you wonder how they are even making a profit. Business are working overtime trying to convince consumers to spend and in return have brutalized their profit margins. Those margins are not their biggest worries. They are afraid low prices will become the norm because attitudes about consumption and frugality have changed for the vast majority of Americans. Businesses are losing their pricing power. They know its a lot easier for prices to come down than for prices to go up.
The Recession will end one day but unrealistic profit margins will never return. In the future, service and time savings are going to be the heart of any successful business. With margins cut thin by competition on every corner a business had better take the time to baby each account or they won't be in business very long.
I've been in the service business since 1990, selling a service rather than a product so I know what I am talking about. My business has always been about service and time savings. I preform a service the customer does not want to do or does not have the time to do. Lots of times I do things for an account that I don't think fall under the job classification but I do them anyway. It puts a smile on the customer's face and a smile on my face every time I go to the bank.