apple juice

liz

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by tgoodman00.

This is our new little friend, Madeline Logelin.

I filled up my vehicle with BioDiesel Fuel today. A blend probably, since it’s still liable to snow at any time around here.

I haven’t filled up since February 22. I drove 550, mostly city, miles. I pumped just under 14 gallons. (40 mpg) The cost per gallon was $3.94.

We need to raise the gas tax, again.

Raising the gas tax is the only reasonable way we will be able to pay for fixing all of these roads, build adequate bridges, pay for buses, and continue to make progress on rail transit.

Now, I know that we just raised it a nickel. Big whoop. Raise it a dollar and dedicate it to rail transit. The day I can ride a street car or train to my job will be a happy, happy day. The day that I can take a streetcar to the train station and ride a train to Duluth in 1 1/2 hours or ride a train to Chicago in 4 hours will be a happy day.

California has a $10 billion dollar proposition on the ballot this fall to build high-speed rail between its major cities. This is the scale of regional investment that the Upper Midwest will need to make in the not-to-distant future.

Big SUVs, the suburbs, and cheap energy are on the way out, and we need to plan accordingly.

If the Reverend Wright thing were a poker game, and Obama is playing Clinton… Obama just said “I see your ten and I raise you a thousand”.

I found this over at kottke.org. It is an amazing presentation given by Jill Bolte Taylor. She is a neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke, and with amazing insight, retells the experience.

We’re back on Comcast. The decision to go back was precipitated on the fact that Sonja bought me an AppleTV for my birthday. Very cool device. It deserves a whole blog post all by itself. But anyway, the thought of renting movies with this device is very tempting, until you begin to consider the length of time it’s going to take to actually download the movie at 167KB/sec. Qwest…seriously… need more speed!

So we’re back. Not without drama, of course. No, no. This is Qwest and Comcast we’re dealing with here.

I logged onto Comcast’s website to complete the deal. I thought I’d be able to get through this without speaking to anyone. I picked out the service, the self-install option, gave them my address information, etc.

I clicked the “Complete your order” button and found that I had been redirected to a live chat agent to complete the order. Uh-oh, real people.

It quickly became clear that this “live” chat agent did not receive any of the info I had meticulously filled out in the previous pages. Hrm.

It was also clear that the pricing information was different than what I had previously seen. And no, NO! I don’t want CableTV.

We mutually agreed that it might be easier for me to visit the local comcast store. Yes I know where it is. I don’t need you to look it up for me.

The next afternoon, I visited the store. Surprisingly, there were just two people in line before me. Not surprisingly, there were three times the number of employees as there were customers. It seemed that the majority of them were on break, popping popcorn, or both.

The woman in line tapped my shoulder, leaned in towards me and asked at an uncomfortably close distance, “will you hold my place in line?”

“Uh, sure,” I replied with trepidation.

When it was my turn in line, I explained the situation to the customer service agent. She listened patiently, told me that I was her last customer of the day, took my address and said, “I can offer you:

1. 6 months for $19.99
2. 6 months for $26.99
3. or – 12 months for $26.99″

Obviously, I had a number of questions:

• Is this a trick question? – No
• Is there a contract? – No
• What is the price after the special price? 47.99
  •  For all 3 options? – Yes

After doing some quick math, I tenuously replied,

“I think I’d be a fool not to take the 12 months for 26.99?”

“That’s what I’d do,” she said.

Feeling like I was on a hidden camera or something, I looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She handed me the self-install kit, and asked me to sign on the dotted line.

“Thank you very much,” she said.

“Don’t you need me to pay?” I asked.

She shook her head, and I said something about something the chat agent said, or the website, I can’t remember anymore, that the self-install kit would be $29.99 plus $9.99 shipping and handling, or $19.99… I realized that I was mumbling to myself, and decided to leave.

Lucky for her, the woman who asked if I could hold her place in line had returned. No other customers had arrived. I always wonder how much I should work to defend the place of some stranger in a line at the Comcast store. Or the post office. Why are people always asking me to hold there place in line?