Crabby Fat Guy

The Lancaster Eagle Gazette reports this morning that $359,000 has been given to Lancaster and that it will be used to improve the Lancaster Public Transit system (click here). The money will be used for:

• new vehicles – $100,000
• new parking lot – $97,000 (How big is their parking lot anyway?
• Capitalized maintenance – $80.900
• Renovate offices and storage facility – $72,500
• New radio system – $6,500
• New computer – $2,000

Did I miss the entire point of the stimulus bill?  Who is getting put to work?  You know what would have been nice?  Use the money to expand the hours of the transit system so people could use it to get to and from work!!!  As it is now the transit system is suitable to get the elderly to the grocery store and beauty parlor and that is just about it!  People work 24/7/365 but the Transit system closes at 9:00 PM on weekdays, limited hours on Saturdays and closed on Sunday and holidays.  Additionally LPT will guarantee that you will get to work on time.  If you have to be at work at 2:00 PM you would have to schedule your pickup at 1:15 PM.  You will be picked up sometime between 12:45 and 1:30 and you will get to work somewhere between an hour early and 15 minutes late.  People going to work get the same priority as aunt Tilly that is going to have her hair re-blued.

So much for my rant.

The last time I went to donate blood I was told that I was ineligible to donate for 2 more days.  I usually donate double red cells so I can donate every four months.  120 days is fine, but 118 is right out.  They told me to call the chapter house to reschedule.  Well the local chapter house referred me to 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.  I gave them a call.  Unfortunately they cannot take calls from cell phones.  Like a growing number of people I do not have a wired phone.

Since they will be doing the monthly blood drive next Monday and Tuesday at the Knights of Columbus I just tried again.  After accidentally dialing a “talk line” trying to dial GIVE-LIFE I tried again and finally got through.  They are still not taking calls from cell phones.

Hey, Red Cross!  Wake up!  This is the 21st Century!  You need to make it easier for people to donate, not more difficult!

• Don’t set up appointments  for dates before a person is eligible.
• Do take cell phone calls.

I’ve got a couple units of O negative blood.  Do you want them or not?

Several months ago the Unites States Postal Service revised their postal rates. For standard letters the increase was a mere $.02. For package services the increase was much higher. As an example a 1 oz padded envelope with a small item in it went from $.39 to $1.13. That’s an 89.7% increase!

The biggest insult to small shippers, however, came from the increases in international package services. They used to have two main classes of mail – airmail and surface. The surface option was dropped and there is now just”International First Class”. The cost jumped substantially. In most cases International First Class is fairly fast, but for some countries the International First Class mail is still being shipped by slow-boat (literally). Most notably shipments going to Italy and Argentina via International First Class takes a full SIX WEEKS to reach their destination.

It is time that the USPS and congressional oversight take a long hard look at rates and what is actually provided for those rates.

You know what grinds Crabby’s gears? Yes, I know it’s petty, but many including local news sources have been calling last week’s snow a “Blizzard”. There is a specific meaning for blizzard. It means sustained 35 mph winds which leads to blowing snow and causes visibilities of ¼ mile or less, lasting for at least 3 hours. We did NOT have those conditions in Lancaster – maybe elsewhere, but not in Lancaster. Yes, we had heavy snow (by Lancaster standards), but that does not make it a blizzard.

Do we really need to make up our own definitions for words to as an extender to the real news?