Anyone who reads our other blog will know how heartbroken that we lost our giant saguaro cactus to root rot this morning. Add to that the 419+ point loss on the Dow today and the day is off to a rotten start.

After all this heartbreak and aggravation, we got all of our gear and other stuff loaded into the truck at the Arizona house to take to California only to hear stuttering clicks when trying to start the engine; the battery was almost completely dead. We like to get an early start when making the six hour trip and this would add at least another 1.5 hours to the ETA to get Triple-A out to jump us and for a short trip to the automotive shop for a new Interstate Battery.

Of course, on traversing greater California in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, the afternoon stagnant traffic (due to the miserable infrastructure vs. population syndrome) slowed our ETA even more.

The good news is that we’re in the California house (which we deem ‘the albatross’ for now) safe and sound and we will shortly be joined by family members anxious to see us before we head back after a very short visit.

Can you guess which panel below was imaged by a $500+ Canon Digital Rebel Xsi and which was imaged with a $2.99 Kodak disposable camera?

Near the end of September, the company I worked for threw a retirement luncheon for me. The lady who organized the event brought a bunch of throw-away cameras to be handed out to folks who attended so they could take some candid photos of the party. I grabbed one of them that the boss used to get some shots, so I could get them printed out.

There were about 13 shots left in the camera, so I took it to the Botanic Garden to finish the roll off. I snapped a shot of the Koi pond roughly at the same time that Damsel was shooting it. You can see the result.

The drugstore film possessor offered a Photo CD for a couple of bucks extra, so I went for it since all of our recent media is digital. I got the pix today and they were a disaster. Both the prints and on the CD. It looked like they scanned in the prints after using the grainiest possible print media.

Bottom line: you get what you pay for.

There comes a time in our lives when (if we’re lucky) we can hang up our toolbag and start to live the life of leisure. This is my year to put everything in motion to allow me to begin my retirement in just a few weeks. I have pulled all the handles to make things happen - it’s too late for me to stop the train from leaving the station now.

My first Social Security check will be deposited this Thursday.

Now, comes word that the Social Security Administration has suspended Cost Of Living Adjustments (COLA) for the next two years. Oh, by the way, they aren’t going to suspend premium increases for Medicare Part B.

From Yahoo:

Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn’t happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.

By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly. …

Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation. Many also have suffered from declining home values and shrinking stock portfolios just as they are relying on those assets for income.

“For many elderly, they don’t feel that inflation is low because their expenses are still going up,” said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. “Anyone who has savings and investments has seen some serious losses.”

Hat Tip - Captain Ed Morrissey.

We’re back in California (for the time being) and planning to spend our last day on vacation visiting Joshua Tree National Park. We drove through the park from the south entrance today, so we have our preview of tomorrow’s tour. We’re camped in Twentynine Palms, CA, tonight, and plan to head back to the park in the morning. After the visit to the park, we’re headed back to the grind at home - for now.

We enjoyed our trip and look forward to our upcoming retirement and eventual return to Arizona when we get our affairs in order. While in Arizona, we both enjoyed our 2nd amendment rights to carry in a place that gets it. We can hardly wait to get the freak out of liberal California.

The taxes are finally done. I procrastinated as long as I reasonably could, but dove into the depths of the IRS and Franchise Tax Board murk last weekend. The results are that both the FTB and IRS vacuumed the funds from my account early today, even before I had a chance to tell my money goodbye.

If anything could turn a mild-mannered nice guy, like me, into a ‘radicalized right-wing extremist,’ it would be tax season. I had a notion to head over to one of those ‘tea parties’ with my fellow extremists, but now that the taxes are done, I’m feeling better. I have to get back to regular life mode and attend to making my living, and the living of numerous deadbeats and financial bailouts that steal need my money.

As for my fellow extremists going to the tea parties, I wish them well. Don’t let ACORN and other communist organizers upset the teacarts. Hang in there and get plenty of media coverage (besides FOX, that is).

I have been reassigned to another job in another location. I hate to move. All that packing up, making arrangements to transfer the services, etc. Even with the aid of an administrator, changing job assignments where a physical move from one facility to another is a pain.

That having been said, the job change is a good thing. It takes me out of the ‘doghouse,’ a less-than-desirable ‘Dilbert’-style cubicle facility and puts me into an office tower in a well-known beach town. My office will have a door that closes and locks and walls that go to the ceiling. There are two windows (a corner office) with a view of a local park and a shopping mall.

As for the old job, the product line is a very good thing. Decoupling from that fact, the skill set for the job I was doing required little other than some fundamental knowledge of computers and a little analysis. Not to brag, but it was not much of a challenge and didn’t take full advantage of my experience.

The new job is similar to systems that I worked on in the past. My domain knowledge and skill set dovetail perfectly with this project. Literally, a return to the true definition of ‘aerospace engineering.’ I could tell you more about it, but then . . . well, you know.

Is it just me, or does everyone get their parcels smashed by the Postal “Service?” This box only contained a book, so there wasn’t any serious damage done. Click the image for a close-up.

This isn’t the first time that we have encountered this sort of scrunched package - once we had to return a ceramic crock which had been jolted into shards even though it was packed to withstand a ten foot drop. It looked like one of the handlers went “postal” on it.

And this isn’t the only USPS incident. Once, we ordered something on-line and the package didn’t arrive even though the on-line tracking showed it as delivered. We called the USPS to complain, and they didn’t own up to losing the package. They told me that my only recourse was to contact the seller with a lost package request. We did that and the seller (Amazon, in this case), made it good and shipped a second package. Weeks after the second package was received, lo and behold, the USPS finally delivered the original package! We followed Amazon’s instructions and refused delivery, and hopefully, they got their merchandise back.

We experienced another recent incident where a bank deposit by mail failed to show up in our account. A call to the originator of the check got them to put a stop on it, and they issued a new deposit, this time as a direct deposit to our account. A few days later, the original deposit showed up at the bank (which was dishonored, of course).

Doesn’t USPS have some sort of quality goals like most viable service organizations? When we use Fed Ex or UPS these things seldom happen.

Today’s Dilbert Comic Strip is dedicated to the bluetooth-toting mall and sidewalk loudmouth, the ringtone-in-the-meeting inconsiderate doofus and to the distracted-while-dialing-the-wireless driver.

It ain’t a phone booth - other folks have to listen to your inane crap and dodge your distracted a$$ in traffic. Hang the *&%$ up!

So, Damsel and I were in the drug store to buy some stuff, just a couple of little things really. When we got to the register, the purchase came to five dollars and seventy-one cents. I put down a five-dollar bill and counted out seventy-five cents in change. After waiting a longer than would be normal delay for my four cents change, the young lady at the register announced “two dollars and four cents is your change.” There were people in line behind me and I took the change and walked to the side without saying anything.

Now, I wouldn’t normally take the small windfall, but it would have enormously confused this poor child and inconvenienced the people in line behind me. So I stuffed the change into the little collection jar for a charity.

I figured out what happened afterwards — the girl keyed seven dollars and seventy-five cents as the amount tendered and let the cash register do the math for her. Damsel says she was checking out one of the male clerks walking through the store as I counted out the change.

So a combination of poor math skills from our failing public schools and hormonal distraction got the charity a couple of extra bucks.

I pity Generation Y people as they undoubtedly will collapse under their own stupidity.

There is no question that using cell phones while driving a vehicle causes driver distraction. First, the matter of driving one-handed while holding a phone up to the ear is clearly incapacitating to some degree. Second, the interface to operate the device should be considered; drivers are distracted while dialing and answering. Finally there is the consideration of distraction due to animated or even angry discourse with the party on the other end of the connection.

We posted about this a while ago in Top 10 Reasons Why People Use a Wireless While Driving.

Now, there is legislation pending in Sacramento that would ban drivers from using hand-held devices. However, some argue that there needs to be more studies to analyze effects of the use of hands-free devices as well.

Mixed signals in hands-free phone debate - sacbee.com

Americans spent 1.7 trillion minutes on their cell phones last year. Although no one knows how many minutes were spent talking while driving, one state senator wants to make sure Californians keep both hands on the steering wheel.

“We know you’re distracted. We know the risk has risen dramatically. Now the question is one of control,” Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, told fellow lawmakers on the Senate floor in making his fifth attempt to ban the use of hand-held phones while driving.

His proposal, Senate Bill 1613, cleared the Senate last month and is expected to be vetted by the Assembly Transportation Committee in the coming weeks. If passed, drivers would face initial fines of $20, going up to $50 for subsequent offenses beginning in July 2008.
As California considers joining a growing number of states and cities imposing cell phone restrictions, there are conflicting reports on whether hands-free is safer than hand-held. New York, which was the first state to implement a ban back in 2001, has yet to complete a review of the law’s impact.

While many studies have shown cell phone use is a common form of driver distraction, experts say there has been relatively little direct research comparing hands-free with hand-held devices.

[Full story]

I say enact the ban on hand-helds now and continue with the studies. At least the obvious one-handed drivers will be eliminated from whatever the equation turns out to be.