After Hours

Seven years ago, a co-worker and I were discussing 'spare change', somehow we began wondering how many $ would exist in a five gallon jug of spare change.    Shortly after that, my co-worker decided to relocate to Texas and the day after he left I found a five gallon glass jug in my office that had a single quarter in it.   A note was under the jug that said "Why don't you find out?  Here's
a quarter to get started!"

On the way home that day, I purchased another five gallon jug.  Since that day seven years ago I have faithfully put my pennies in one jug and all silver change in the other one.   I have no idea how much money either jug contains but I hope it is a lot because the way things are going with the economy that is going to be MY RETIREMENT!

I don't know what happened to me yesterday but I really began getting ticked off thinking about the exorbitant bonuses the bank CEO's received from the last spendulus package.

Just think, some of these guys got over 20 million dollars for RUNNING BANKS INTO THE GROUND!!!!   I could have run ALL of the banks into the ground for FIVE MILLION DOLLARS and saved the tax payers plenty on paying bonuses!

I think I began getting angry as I was working on my thirteen year old car, I was repairing a molding piece that had come off because GM decided during this time that doublesided tape would certainly hold molding onto a car.   Over the years I have had pieces simply slide off due to age and have used 'plasti-weld' to repair them like they should have been installed to start with.

As I was doing this I began getting irritated that I had to do this repair to start with due to the fact GM had cut costs yet they were looking for a loan because no-one is buying their cars due to the the fact cars made by US Manufacturers have not been reliable.

A while back I talked with a former Ford quality control engineer who was downsized years ago.  He told me that he attended a meeting with the Ford executives where an idea was pitched to change the rings in their problematic transmissions which would make them more reliable.  The cost?  $20 per transmission.    But the idea was shelved because the execs felt that they could convince people getting repairs to buy new cars!

Then, I began thinking of the CEO's and their bonuses.  Which led me to think of how I have been frugal for years in order to build up my retirement portfolio which has now dropped dramatically thanks to the wall street crooks.

This led to a foul mood which took a while to get out of.

Oh well, no-one ever promised me a Mercedes Benz....

In the future, I truly believe that there is going to be an upsurge in anger towards the people who work on Wall Street, particularly the CEO's who seem so incredibly out of touch.   (See Link)

I wish it wouldn't get to that point but I can truly understand how angry one can get over this.

Lets put all of these people along with Bernie Madoff on a deserted island with only the basic tools and let them build their own houses from bamboo poles and eat banannas.   We can circle the island with boats that will SHOOT them if they try to get off.

To entertain themselves they can sell each other palm fronds as investments.

One thing I have noticed from reading various articles from various journals and from talking to other individuals is that the US worker is really getting tired of working so hard.   In the days of our parents (or Grandparents, depending upon your age), if you worked hard for a company you could eventually expect to be promoted.   Even if you weren't promoted, if you worked hard you could stay with the same company, retire and get a watch upon retirement.   

Over the years this attitude has changed, it seems that NO-ONE trusts upper management anymore!   The prevailing attitude seems to be that upper management is only there to get in, get rich, get out and damn the consequences!    Due to this, the average worker no longer TRUSTS their
employer and thus does not want to work so hard...why should they?  They are DISPOSABLE.  

_________________________

Onto fun things.

My youngest son's Cub Scout troop was having a Pinewood Derby which he naturally wanted to enter.

It had been a few years since I had participated in one of these so I did some research on Pinewood Derby cars and was shocked to see how seriously people take this now!

There are web sites devoted to helping one get the most out of their 5 OZ block of wood cars!

You could easily drop a hundred dollars in order to win a five dollar plastic trophy!

After reading many articles, my son and I decided to build a wedge shaped car with rounded edges and lead fishing weights stuffed in the back.   We painted the car with plastic paint to cut down friction and rubbed the car with teflon wax.

We then spent a weekend 'deburring' the axles, this means removing all sharp edges from the nails used as axles in order for the wheels to run without 'catching'.  

We spent another day sanding and polishing the plastic wheels.

All total, we probably had four days of work in this 5 OZ car.

The last time I had participated in a Pinewood Derby, I remember it being an all day event where all the scouts got together and the whole day was a picnic.   You raced your car on each of the six tracks and the cars that came in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd were moved to the next race to compete against new cars and the whole thing started again.

It was really a lot of fun watching the kids stare each other down and prizes were handed out at the end of the day to the tired but happy winners.

I imagined this race would be the same and I actually had problems sleeping all week in anticipation!

I imagined me and my son, standing shoulder to shoulder, taking on everyone with his car!   GRRRRRR!!!!

On the Saturday of the race, his pack was to report at 11:00.   We showed up at the race site and had his car checked in to verify the length and weight was ok (no problems) and turned it over to the event organizers.

We sat in some folded chairs and I then realized the only people present were the kids / parents from my sons pack.

I looked at the track and saw that there were six race lanes and a box was at the end of the track which had wires coming out of it.

I took a closer look and realized the box had photo-electric cells attached which fed into a computer.

The computer also had a long cable leading to the front of the track and was wired to the 'drop bar' which held the cars back.

What this meant was the person running the laptop could simply click a button and the cars would be released and the times recorded electronically!

Pretty slick!

So, the first race went and my sons car was in lane one.   The bar dropped and the cars went and an electronic voice announced "Winner...lane....ONE!"

They then moved the cars around, and my sons car won in another lane.

Again the cars were shuffled and I spoke with one of the organizers who told me the program they used insured every car was raced on EVERY track and the average time was recorded.   The car with the fastest average times were then selected as 1st and 2nd and 3rd.

In less than 45 minutes, the whole thing was done and my son had won first place.   They gave him a ribbon and said it was time for the next pack to come in and the winning times for the entire troop would be announced the following week.

Huh?  

I talked with an event organizer and was told that instead of personally racing against other cars, each packs 1st, 2nd and 3rd place times would be compared to get an overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner.  

That way each pack would have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner and could get a ribbon.

That just sucked the fun out of the whole deal!

Four days of work for 45 minutes of racing?

Sometimes, technology can ruin everything.....