The Good Old Days

 

cursive hand writing

What I miss about the good old days – a list for your enjoyment.

• Butter was good for you, so were cigarettes.
• Ordering something from the catalog and waiting 3 weeks for it to arrive with shipping and handling.  Half of the fun was the waiting.
• A Coke for your toddler was good since it was loaded with the natural sugar that they craved.
• The convenience of a pay phone just a few miles down the street and you got 3 minutes for a dime.
• No fighting over fast food choices, it was easy to pick between McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Yeah that’s right fried chicken was good for you too.
• No diet pop except for Fresca but that was for old ladies.
• Practicing your cursive handwriting and staying between the lines.  I got a C in writing in 6^th grade and my teacher was more heartbroken over it than I was.  Apparently, I did not understand the ramifications of poor penmanship.  I somehow managed to stay out of prison. (so far)
• Bread and butter at every school lunch and after everyone had eaten they offered seconds on a first come, first served basis.  That seems like a reasonable approach to me.  My great-Aunt worked in the cafeteria and you can bet your butt I got seconds if I wanted it.  Nepotism is underrated.
• Watching the NFL highlights show on Monday night was great, you could see a play or two from most of the games played the day before.  It was way better than watching newsreels at the “movie show” like my dad and his pals.
• Getting a full size grocery bag full of candy on Halloween.  Candy was good for you too back then.
• A BB gun for your 7^th birthday.  Who needs 2 eyes anyhow?  Pirates only needed 1 good eye and they got around pretty well – even with 1 wooden leg.

Have a great week suffering through the drudgery of life with Smart phones, ESPN and Amazon.

 

NFL 2014

Touchdown

The NFL season kicks off on Thursday night September 4^th with 2013 champs Seattle hosting Green Bay and the rest of the league tees it up on Sunday September 7^th.  This year marks the 15^th year I have not cared much about the NFL.  I really can’t watch the game since there is no longer a defense or much of a running game.  The rules are slanted towards allowing the passing game to flourish and I decided long ago that I was not going to waste my time on something that doesn’t interest me.

Despite my disinterest, the NFL is more popular than ever so a blog about the upcoming season is not a bad idea.  With that said let’s get psyched for some hard hitting and bone crushing action.  Some things to watch this season are the antics of Johnny Manziel, the rookie quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.  It seems strange that Cleveland has LeBron James in basketball and Johnny football in football.  To quote Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are A Changin”

As I write this, there has been some rumor and innuendo of the Raiders packing their bags and plundering San Antonio for a better deal than Oakland can give them.  For some reason, if they aren’t in Oakland, San Antonio seems like a perfect fit for the Raiders.   Heck, even the geography works as they will still be close enough to their rivals in the AFC west.   The distances from Oakland to its AFC west rivals versus the distance from San Antonio to its rivals is less and is shown below (in miles):

	Oakland to:	San Antonio to:
Denver	939	802
San Diego	452	1,128
Kansas City	1,496	704
Total miles	2,887	2,647

 

Looking ahead to the finale, which is what matters to most people, the Super Bowl will be played In Glendale Arizona, site of the 2008 Super Bowl which was won by the NY Giants who ended the dreams of a perfect season for the New England Patriots 17-14.  The date of the game is February 1, 2015.  There are only 167 days between the publish date of this blog post and the Super Bowl.  Start planning that party, the game doesn’t matter it is all about the commercials anyways.

Have a great week watching preseason football.

 

Laughing At The Polar Vortex

 

Polar Vortex

Last month, the headlines were dire as the northern United States were going to be hit with a polar vortex that would have temperatures plunging to the low 70’s in the great lakes region during the day.  I saw the headlines a week before it hit and I was intrigued because I was going to be traveling to Ohio and Pennsylvania that week.  I clicked on the headline and the link confirmed the worst.  High temperatures the following week would be near 70 for 3 days.    I laughed when I read the forecast because I anticipated the high temperatures struggling to get to 60 degrees.

What has happened to the media outlets?  Are they fighting for ratings so much that they have to contrive stories and false panic?  If the attempt to create something out of nothing wasn’t so lame I would have been angrier.  It did tick me off enough to file it away as a possible blog topic and so here it is; my take on the great polar vortex during the summer of 2014.

As you may know I am a bit of a weather nut.   This is mostly due to my need to have decent weather to ride my bike.  Yes I am a bicycling nut too.  The polar vortex came and went in Youngstown on July 16 -18 and the following high temperatures were recorded.

July 16^th – 70

July 17^th – 73

July 18^th – 76

I happen to have data on the past 3 years for the weather in the Youngstown, Ohio area which was in the path of this great polar vortex.  I looked at the period of June through August of 2011-2013 and this is what I found.  In 2011 there were 8 days with high temperatures of 73 or less.  In 2012 there were 10 days and in 2013 there were 19 days – 20.6% of the entire summer was at or below 73 degrees!  Why was there no outcry and dire warnings of a polar vortex chilling down the great lakes region?  In fact, July 28 and 29 this year had high temperatures of 68 and 69 degrees respectively but there was no polar vortex talk.   How could the weather channel have missed this?  Perhaps they were embarrassed and ridiculed by the hype they tried to create the first time around.

Most of the people I spoke with during the vortex laughed and thought it was a nice refreshing change of pace.  As you can see, it was also nothing at all out of the ordinary.  Yes, a few record lows were recorded during this manufactured crisis but can you really get excited about a record low of 50 degrees?  For your convenience I have included the National Weather Service website where you can see this data for yourselves.

Have a great week enjoying the weather.

 

Business Lessons On A Bike Ride

Hydration For Exercise

I was riding my bike earlier this summer on the silver comet trail and came across a boy and his mom selling energy drink and water. They had a sign right by where they were stationed but no other signs in either direction. As I went past them I thought to myself that they really were missing the potential for more sales. If they would alert potential customers that there were out on the trail perhaps with signs at busy trail heads the riders could take money with them when they unload from their cars in case they need some liquid refreshment.

On my way back I had been thinking about this and thought I would stop and give the lad a lesson about marketing his business. I got off the trail and talked to them about my thoughts and they were very receptive to the idea. They brought up the issue of whether or not the ranger that patrols the trail would allow a lot of signage and I agreed they would have to ask him first. I countered that obstacle with a solution of committing to being there are on a regular basis and have it on their sign so people would at least be aware of their business hours and could plan to take money with them on their rides just in case. If most people are like me, they do not bother to carry any cash since there is really nowhere to spend it – until now.

As I rode off feeling like I did my good deed for this young entrepreneur I realized one thing. I learned a lesson from this young man. He took my advice to heart without any negative response. It did not hurt his ego or pride and that is the lesson. Many times when we are told of a better way to do something we take it the wrong way and reject it because of ego or because it was not our idea. Perhaps I will be working for this young entrepreneur in 10 years when he has a beverage empire.

Have a great week getting your message out so customers know you are available to satisfy their needs and remember to follow good advice without letting your ego get in the way.