Update

Where have I been? I don't know. I guess I've been working too much.

Now for my comments on current events.

Imus.

Imus is a bore. Why anyone listens to him is beyond me. Obviously he's a racist. Or maybe he's not. Maybe that's just the way he makes money by belittling other people. The way Al Sharpton et al make money is when any white person says such a stupid thing.

Obviously Imus isn't very important because after Virginia Tech...it's...Imus who?

And the only reason CBS fired him is money. If they thought it was a moral issue they would have done it immediately.

Virginia Tech Shooting

The shooter is an insane nut.

The networks are secretly happy that something is actually happening because they thrive on horror and this makes their ratings go up and guess what else goes up...profits. Whooopppeeee.

There is no way to stop stuff like this. You can make the campus safer with better notification etc but there's no way to stop a loon. Other than not having it on the news for an entire week to entice other mentally ill people. And to call his rantings a "manifesto".....please...that just plays into the hands of crazy people.

The War

Remember the war?

32 dead at Virginia Tech and in the last 6 weeks since the surge in Iraq the highest US body count. Over 180 US soldiers dead in that time period.

War? What war?

It's Imus and Virginia Tech.


Alec Baldwin's voice mail to his daughter

It's amazing the depths that people will sink to. And I'm not talking about Alec Baldwin.

Alec Baldwin's voice mail was uncalled for and really hurtful to his daughter I'm sure.

But who leaked it? Kim Bassinger? The mother?

Sure she did. She is the evil one. To drag this dirt in the public to degrade and humiliate her daughter and her daughter's father. It still is her father. No much how her mother hates him he will always be her only father.

Those two kooks need to grow up for that little girl.

My Layover Hotel Procedures

For some reason, my friend Cato finds my layover hotel procedures fascinating and he asked me to document my idiosyncrasies in this blog for posterity.

First let's start with my supplies,

I have a normal Delta suitcase.

With an

extension cord

my own pillow, in a plastic case that all of the air goes out so it can be squished down

those plastic things that you can put on the side of the mattress so that the sheets don't come off

eye shades, lots of earplugs, I actually have a box of 2000 earplugs at home

my noise machine, battery alarm clock, slippers, extra batteries and

lots of drugs. I have pseudefed, afrin, Imodium, band aids, that salt spray for your nose and some herbal pills to calm me down if they ever try to deadhead me on an RJ. Sometimes I bring my seabraclets if I'm going on a long van drive like in NYC so I don't puke.

Alright, those are my necessary supplies.

Now to the setup.

I walk in the room and if it's a connecting room I walk out. I don't stay in connecting rooms. Too noisy.

It goes without saying that the rooms we're put in are near the elevator and ice machines.

Next, after my last trip I now know to immediately pull the sheets back to see if they are clean. If not I need a new room.

Now to begin the process of setting up the room with my supplies.

My noise machine is the most critical. It has to be close to my head so I have to determine if the extension cord will be needed. I set that up.

Then I need to see if my sheet holder things are needed. If they are now is a good time to install them.

Set up my alarm clock next to the bed. Eye shades and earplugs at the ready. Slippers on for the nasty floor.

Oh and check the remote control on the TV because 1/2 the time they don't work.

Check on the A/C because I like a cold room and for instance in LA the maintenance man has to adjust it so better get him up here in the beginning of my nesting process.

Sometimes it takes an inordinate amount of work to get the drapes in the room to fit just right so no light comes in. This could require a complicated procedure involving my work shoes and the ice bucket to secure the drapes just so.

When I'm ready to go to sleep, I put the extra pillows on the floor next to the door to block any light and noise. Then I put my heavy flight kit up against the door so that the bad people when they try to come in and get me will have some resistance.

Then I take the phone next to the bed and put it on the floor or under something. That way as I flail through the night I don't knock the phone off.

Plug in my cellphone in the bathroom.

Check to see if the power light on my noise maker is going to light up the whole room like it does sometimes. If it does, I'll need a washcloth to cover up that light.

OK...ready to sleep.

TV off

Earplugs in

Noisemaker on

Light off

Eye shades on and adjusted

Ahhhh...now I can relax and go to sleep

It's taken the better part of 20 years of travelling for me to become this strange

1-800 Flowers

If you want to read a good story about how messed up a company can be keep reading....if you don't want to hear me whine then stop.

I order flowers from 1-800 flowers for my sister's 21st anniversary of being drug and alchohol free.

I order them on April 1st to be delivered April 5th. Included are big tulips and a baloon that says "Happy Anniversary".

On April 2nd, three days before the flowers are to arrive my sister calls and says oh, I just got the flowers, they're beautiful. I am shocked that they arrive 3 days early and I say, did you also get the balloon? No she says.

So I'm on a trip and I call 1-800 flowers. I ask Matthew, "why did you send my flowers 3 days early and with no balloon. He has no clue. I say I want a refund because I paid for flowers on the 5th and a balloon and they delivered flowers on the 2nd and no balloon.

He says I can have a refund but they will go pick up the flowers.

I tell him that is rediculous ( I don't think he was serious). And I want a refund. He says the best he can do is either redeliver them on the 5th or give me 20% off the bill. I tell him to redeliver. At least the local florist will be punished for being so stupid.

So now I get home and get on the computer.

1-800 flowers staifaction guarandtee is posted below.

Providing exceptional flowers and gifts, and superior customer service is important to all of us at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. We guarantee the freshness of our flowers for 7 days. If there's something we've done and you're not completely satisfied with your order, we'll redeliver, refund, credit or offer a comparable exchange if the original product is not available.

So I call them back and say excuse me, why did Matthew tell me I can't get a refund but your website refund policy says that I can. Ummmmmmmmm.

I don't know she says but let me get you a mangaer.

So he comes on the phone and says, yep, I know what it says, but that ain't the way it is. I've talked to management before and they are going to change the website.

So it's a lie what's on the website.

After we are done with our converstaion, he says he's going to send me some kind of money off certificate in the mail. Sure you will.

Now....drum roll please

It's now the 5th and my sister's flowers are going to be redilvered.

I call her.

Did you get them. Yes she says. But they're miniture tulips. hmmmm

Did you get the balloon. Yes she says. It says you are special.

What? Not happy anniversay.

No.

My sister is specail but that ain't what I paid fer.

So back on the phone I go to talk to them again.

I get some guy. Explain the situation.

He says we can either redeliver them a 3rd time...which I think would be quite amusing or we can give you a refund.

A what?

A refund.

OK I'll take the refund.


What a messed up company.

Good Friday

Evidently not.

In money and greed we trust.

I have friends in Norway and Germany that tell me that everything is closed today in observance of Good Friday.

Other than Delta Airlines corporate offices I don't see anything closed.

I thought we were the Christian nation that was founded on Christian principles.

I thought we were the most moral and church going country in the world.

Well at least that's what Pat Robertson, politicians et al tell us.

So why then is a mostly godless Europe taking today off and we're not?

Yea! Rain in Atlanta and Bad People

It has been miserable in Atlanta the past few weeks. The pollen has been horrible.

The bottom picture is my deck in the back of the house. That yellow stuff is pollen. It is everywhere. You can wash your car, leave it outside and 1 hour later it's yellow again. The top picture is of a car on the interstate that is black. Look at the trunk...it's yellow.

I don't have allergies as bad as some. But with the pollen count at 5500 and 150 is bad I'm ready for this to be over. My eyes have never burned before but they are now.

So it's raining today and hopefully all of this will wash away. Including all of the crime in Atlanta. See below.


Three Wounded In Mall Shooting

POSTED: 6:52 pm EDT March 31, 2007


ATLANTA -- Atlanta police say a gunman shot a security guard and two other people at Greenbriar Mall on Saturday. Investigators say the shooting happened during a robbery inside the mall.

Police closed off the mall entrance near Macy's around 6:00 p.m.

Atlanta police spokesman, Steve Coleman, says one of the victim's has life-threatening wounds.

Emergency crews took all three victims to Grady Memorial Hospital. Their identities have not been released.

As of 6:45 p.m., police were still looking for the suspect or suspects, who may have gotten away in a Ford Expedition SUV.

This happens all the time. The two other people shot were just shoppers who got in the way of these miscreants.

Atlanta is a lawless wretched city. People are shot, robbed, and mugged daily. At the Atlanta Airport layover hotel, several pilots have been robbed at gunpoint.

People drive 85 mph in a 55. Weave in and out. Trucks going through town on the interstate drive 1 inch behind your bumper doing 80.

Here is another example of the violence that happened just the other day. And the city fathers really didn't like this one because this is a new development in the city that they have put a huge amount of money in and now no one in their right mind would go there much less live there.

Atlanta police said one man was killed in a shooting at 401 17th Street, outside the Park District apartment building in Atlantic Station at around 5 p.m.

Investigators said that 28-year-old Rodney Cunningham was pronounced dead at the scene.

Atlanta police said that the suspect is still at large.

Witnesses said someone in a car shot at a man in his 20s on the sidewalk outside the apartment complex, then took off.

"We just heard the gunshots," witness Margaret Neal said. "There was like four gunshots. We looked out the windows and saw people running. So we came out to the balcony, and saw three people running. Two of them walked back. A girl walked back to see what had happened. And I think she said he was shot in the head."


Total chaos and no regard for the law.

So my question is....why do the authorities put up with this?

Guilianni cleaned up NYC...certainly if they wanted to they could clean up little old Atlanta.

But they don't want to and I don't understand why.

Atlanta is a very deceiving city. Very pretty on the surface but very very dangerous on the inside and almost unlivable.

The basketball final 4 is here this weekend. I bet there is security everywhere....to keep the facade up for the unknowing that this is a warzone.