Bike this way - Granger IN to Barron Lake MI

Since I had a vacation day to use before July 1st, I went for a bike ride with my friend John Gardner. For him, it was a normal daily bike ride. For me it was an above normal bike ride but by no means a very long bike ride. Two hours, 24 miles and 20 wellness points.

View Larger Map

Gee, I bought a movie...two

Now why would I buy a movie let alone two? I must be getting old. One reason to buy a movie is that I really like it and intend to watch it over and over. Another is that it could just be cost effective for me even if I only watch it once and I could watch it on my schedule without worrying about returning it. A third would be that it would be the only way I would be able to see the movie (French films aren't always in stock at the video store.)

I stopped by the Blockbuster near Notre Dame because I knew they generally had a large selection of previously viewed movies and some of them could tend to be foreign due to their clientele. Two movies for $20. I figure that the cost of gas plus tickets for Barb and I could easily exceed the $10 per movie if we saw it in the theater as a first run. Even if we saw it at the second run theater my cost could quickly eat up most of the $10. And if it's a foreign film that I would only be able to see at The Vicker's, I'm talking major cost savings even if I use my senior discount.

I happened to find two movies that I did feel worth a purchase, Ratatouille and Mr. Bean's Holiday. (Confession time. I already saw Ratatouille with my grandchildren at the second run theater.) A video purchase for the grandchildren is always a good expenditure of money. Not to mention the fact that I can now watch it possibly in French. :-) For any who might not be familiar with the movie, it is about a Rat in Paris that wants to be a famous chef.

Mr. Bean's Holiday I have not seen. I do like the Mr. Bean character and since this one takes place in France....

The intriguing item about these purchases though was that after their purchase I looked at their parental ratings. They both were G. I was astonished. I think that it is rare that a movie is created and ends up G. Some in the industry may think that the G rating would be the kiss of death for a movie so they would intentionally spice it up to get a PG or PG13 rating.

Well if you will excuse me, I have some special bonus features I want to watch on Ratatouille, another one of the reasons to buy the film rather than see it in the theater.

Nine Moles Mine

It was 1850. Harold had traveled west to California where he would make his fortune in the Gold Rush. A gold vein had been struck and his mining ventures begun. The name of the mine would be Nine Moles Mine...oops. Wrong story.

The kingdom of Heir-olde was peaceful and plenty abounded. All who lived there had no want. But there were those who sought to destroy the kingdom and scar it. They sent moles there to spy out the kingdom. The moles would fill themselves on it's bounty and then return to send others there to ravage it. The king quickly tired of this invasion and posted a sentry in the south east region. The sentry's orders were to capture and kill those that would enter unlawfully there. Occasionally a mole would be captured and the king would preside over a quick trial where the mole had the opportunity to speak in his defense. Non were able to convince the king that their lives should be spared. It particularly irritated the king when a mole would escape the sentry. As the moles were executed, their remains were sent back across the border, but this did not stop them from coming. In this season the king proclaimed across the land "Nine Moles Mine, continue if you dare to spy out my land but be assured that your life will be required."

Thus it is recorded in the allegories of our leader.

Now what's that string for?

Most of us older individuals and maybe even some of you younger ones know what the string on the finger is. It's a method of remembering something. You look at the string on your finger which you know is not normal and you associate it with something that you wanted to remember like "buy eggs". There are variations on the string on a finger. I tried using a variation this morning. As I was getting ready to come to work, I remembered something that I wanted to do when I got to work so I decided I would put my id card, which is used to swipe in and open the door to my office area, in my left pocket instead of my right pocket. That way when I went to swipe in, my card wouldn't be where it was supossed to be and I would remember what it was I wanted to remember.

As I approached the building this morning, I remembered that I put my id card in my left pocket and that I had put it there to remind me of something, but I couldn't remember what it was. Oh well, maybe I should have wrote a note, called and left a message at work, sent myself an e-mail or used Jott.

As things normally go, I will be nowhere near my office when I remember what it was.

We don't have a button for that

"We don't have a button for that." That's the response Barb and I received at a local Subway when we attempted to redeem a coupon for a 10% discount for seniors. The Subway was located inside a gas station. I should have know better than to expect three young people to be able to run a gas station, make a sandwich and give me the advertised discount. It seems the only way these three young adults could give me my 10% discount was to do it through pushing a button on the cash register that would calculate the 10% discount and subtract it from the total. All they would have needed to know was a little math from grade school to do this. They would need to know how to multiply the sandwich value by .1 which is basically moving the decimal point one position to the left. Then they would need to know how to subtract.

Let's experiment. $3.97 * .1 = .39 (Okay, so it's actually .397 but I would allow them to truncate the fractions of cents) Now, $3.97 - $0.39 = $3.58. The didn't need a button, just a pencil and paper at the most. If they rounded the .397 up to .40 they should have been able to do it in their heads. But no, they needed the button that the proprietor had apparently disabled. Now, why would the proprietor disable the discount button and then advertise the discount?

Times sure have changed. Back in the early 70s I worked at McDonald's. I had many jobs during my tenure there at the "Golden Arches" on North Main St. in Elkhart IN. One of them was working the counter and taking orders. Back then we had a pad of paper and pencil to take the order and add up the cost. We then entered the total into the cash register, took the money and made change. The cash register did not tell us what the change should be, it only kept track of how much was added to the drawer. Times sure have changed.


If I were a mean sort of fellow, I'd go back to the Subway order the sandwich and then when they told me "We don't have a button for that." when I hand them the coupon, I'd tell them to keep the sandwich then.

Paging Passenger Rodgers

We had arrived at the airport in plenty of time to catch an earlier flight to Phoenix. At check-in I inquired as to whether we might be able to take the earlier flight. Not a problem, just pay a small fee for the change. I gave them my credit card. The agent worked her magic and gave me my receipt and new tickets. Barb and I were off and would be arriving in Phoenix two hours earlier than expected. While waiting in the seating area, I hear over the speakers "Paging passenger Rodgers". Oh no. What could have gone wrong. Maybe we weren't going to get the earlier flight now. As I approach the counter I see the ticket agent who changed our flights walking toward me. She holds up my credit card. !!! I had left it at the front desk. I hadn't even realized that I had not gotten it back. I wouldn't have known until the next day when I would have used it. Thanks Sophia.

On the return trip home we checked in and walked the long walk back to where we would board our flight. I left our carry-on with Barb and headed off to the bathroom. Just as I was about to take care of business I hear over the speakers "Paging passenger Rodgers". The timing was lousy, but fortunately this time it was just to assign us our seats.

With Deals Like This

With deals like this, on a website that peddles overstocked items, who couldn't make money? Buy low, sell higher. But is it really wise to tell them that you're doing that?

Back in the 60's I was a crossing guard. The Beatles were the rage and there was no lack of fans during Beatlemania. Early on, I would buy what amounted to "baseball cards" except for the Beatles. Hard piece of gum and all. I would buy them for $.05 and sell them for $.10 to girls that came by my crossing. It worked pretty good...for a few days. It didn't take them long to find out that I was price gouging.