For Amy

Gas Stations and Homeless People

When I was in college, taking all of those economy classes, I remember learning how the check card was hurting the gas station owners. Because of the high prices of gas, gas stations only slightly markup the price for gas. In fact if they have just one "drive off," they loose money for the day and can't recover. Gas station owners rely heavily on the stuff they sell in the stores. A large portion of that revenue is generated by impulse buys that people make when they come in to pay for gas. So, the ability to pay at the pump hurts their business.

The other night, ironically (maybe), as I was walking out of a gas station store where I stopped just to get a drink, and not gas; I had one of the usual late night encounters with a homeless man asking for money. It occurred to me that their business must also be hurting due to the check card. I mean, I never carry cash at all anymore; and I know I'm not the only one. Even if I did want to fund this alcoholic's habit, I couldn't. It also gives me an honest excuse, suppressing what little guilt I used to get when I turned down these people.

My friends, Anthony and Josh, come from cities where this is more common; Memphis and St. Louis. In my travels with them, I learned that Anthony just yells at homeless people when they approach him. Josh starts speaking in French and acts like he doesn't understand what they are asking; a creative, yet just as effective tact. I remember one time, however; when in downtown Atlanta when Josh's method yielded an amusing result. The homeless man started yelling at us. "we don't need you foreign people here!! We don't want you here!! GO HOME!!" I would have told him to go home, but... well...

Crazy Cat Lady

For the second time this month, I've nearly stepped in cat vomit on our front sidewalk. Let me back up a bit. A friendly neighborhood cat started coming by our house recently. It has a collar, but no name tag. My good hearted wife decided it looked hungry and fed it. Now it seems to live in our front yard. It comes in our garage; it sneaks through the door into our house when we're coming home. And it vomits on our walkways. Diane has named her Spot. A second cat started living with us too, presumably after Spot spread the word around about where to get free food. Diane has named him Gary after Spongebob's snail. Diane is well on her way to becoming the street's crazy cat lady.

I May Not Be Blogging For Awhile

I got a..., well, I'm not sure if you would call it a promotion. They combined my job and my bosses job into one job; and I was the lucky one that still has a job. I still do everything I did before, but now I do everything she did too. A pay raise and title change may come later, but it's all been pretty vague. I'm still kind of dealing with the shock of it all. I left work Friday and everything was normal; I came into work Monday and was told by my boss that she had 60 days to train me. But I had not been officially told yet. By the end of the day, the 60 days turned into 2 days, and her boss was calling me to setup a meeting for the next morning. Tuesday, I found that I have the 2 days to learn the bulk of it, and then a week and a half till I'm completely on my own. Today is day number 2 of the first two days, and I haven't been able to contact my soon to be former boss by phone or email, and I'm hoping she didn't get mad and leave early.