Daily Gripe

Hello, my name is Stu. Today my gripe is once again - gas prices. This weekend is a 3 day holiday weekend. Once I believe it was one of the most traveled weekends. Not so, anymore. This fourth of July - I - will be sitting in my backyard watching and listening to the neighborhood fireworks. Yes, they are illegal but they go on for about a week. Perhaps we could charge outrageous taxes on them to reduce the price of gas. Fireworks are illegal to purchase for recreation. They are legal for agriculture purposes. What a bunch of CRAP.

Back to the gas gouging prices - that impacts all of us, except for the CEO's of fuel companies. I can't afford to leave my cul-de-sac and that has a direct impact on other business's. I won't be going to the grocery store to purchase items for my trip. I won't be buying new clothes, trinkets, and I won't be visiting, parks, cafes and other establishments that rely on my business. Multiply this by hundreds and what happens? Business's raise prices to offset their merchandise decline or just go belly-up. The domino effect. People are laid off due to lack of business and the unemployment rate rises. Crime increases to offset the unemployment. Buildings are boarded up, taxes are not paid, people are homeless and gas gouging continues.

The world is falling apart, decaying and rotting away in deficits. Who suffers? We know the answer to that question and it is not VP's of fuel oil companies. They get richer and the average hard working stiff - gets stiffed. A vicious circle, not even a circle a dead end, with nowhere to go. What happened to all those who praised - thinking inside the box? Well the box is made out of cardboard, you dummy, and when it rains the cardboard gets wet and disintegrates. That is why I have always thought outside the box. I refuse to be confined in small spaces. I will sit in my large backyard and watch with amusement as the illegal fireworks light up the sky.

I cannot afford these high gas prices. Can you?



Sincerely,



Mr. Pid

Daily Gripe

Hello, my name is Stu. Today my gripe is with DUI. I even go further than this charge DUIOB. Translation - driving under the influence on a bike. Bike - DUI - can be just as dangerous as car drivers. Why? because sometimes it doesn't occur to us that a wacko weaving on the side of the road may be intoxicated.
The first clue might be a middle age man in a bit of disrepair riding a bike to the convenient store in a place where no one should be riding a bike. Busy traffic, dangerous intersection, no shoulders at dusk with no lights. The fact that he has this glazed look on his face is another small clue. Now, a man in this predicament - you gotta know he has no drivers license. And why I wonder?
I watch him park his bike, look around - guilt written all over his body language. Wobble into the store. Weebles wobble but they don't fall down, although they may kill an innocent bystander. Out he comes with (not a brown bag) his earth unfriendly plastic bag filled with 4 cans of beer and tries to tie the bag to his handle bars. The guilt of doing something wrong is still evident. He hops on the bike and weaves away into traffic, at evening rush hour.
He makes it across the busy highway stops the bike almost falls and sits on a bench. He chugs down one beer and reaches for another. I drive away in disgust.
Apparently, losing your license does not stop one from drinking they are so desperate they use alternate means of transportation and it is not due to the price of gas. Gas prices a major gripe of mine.

Sincerly annoyed,

Mr. Pid

Daily Gripe

Hello, my name is Stu. Today my gripe is with careless, lazy smokers. You know the ones that flip their butts in the street, on the floor, in the grass - wherever they feel like it. When they are done - flip goes the butt and where it lands we all know. That's littering and you are destroying the earth. Why can't you move your lazy tush and walk over to a trash can and drop it in or place the offending butt in your ashtray and not in my environment.
I don't give a crup if you smoke - but have the decency to put your butt where it belongs. Stop desecrating our land. Talk a walk anywhere USA and count the butts in one block. Disgusting. Get over it and do what you need to do.

Sincerely,

Mr. Pid

Daily Gripe

Hello, my name is Stu. Today my gripe is with - tomato growers. What the flup are you people using for fertilizer? What kind of poisin are you using on us? You have tainted our beef, spoiled our spinach and now during the height of tomato season you have soiled our tomatoes. What's going on?
I've also heard whispers that the lettuce pickers urinate on the lettuce for fun or whatever. You are tainting our food. Healthy food!! Do you just want us to eat unhealthy? They have taken away our trans fat - they say it's bad for us but yet we let anyone smoke? Apparently smoking isn't bad enough to ban. We can no longer have tasty french fries but we can light up.
Now, the price of tomatoes are right up there next to gas prices - if you can find tomatoes to purchase. So I can't afford the gas prices and now tomatoes are off my list. What will you do to us next? Taint the coffee beans? Can you just imagine all the caffeine starved people walking around throwing tomatoes at all the gas pumps.

Daily Gripe

Hello my name is Stu. Today my gripe is with inflating gas prices. I am sure I am not the only one annoyed by the rising fuel prices. The average person (CEO of oil companies not included) has been hit hard in the pocketbook with the escalating fuel prices. I need a second job to put gas in my vehicle. Out of all the negativity, frustration and fury I find creative individuals rising from the ashes like the great Phoenix. We will not be kept under someones controlling thumb.
I have seen more people riding bikes to work. KUDO'S for you if you can!! Then there are companies giving incentives to employees who are biking to work. Hooray for them!!
As a nation we are so creative. I just read where a company 'Jobing.com', is wrapping employees vehicles in advertisement and giving them supplements for their gas. Sort of like - 'you scratch my back - I'll scratch yours.' I'll wrap my car in a second to advertise my company and help me with the cost of gas. When the chips are stale we will find another source.
We are thrown into a dire situation and we find ways to get ourselves back onto our feet. We are not quitters we have - you know round circular objects. We have fortitude, guts, perseverance and persistence - we will overcome this issue.
To all of you who have profited and been rewarded for your part in rising fuel prices - may the road you have chosen be washed away and you slide down into a deep dark abyss.
We the average hard working person will survive as we always have. I applaud everyone who is struggling with the economy and finding a better way.

broke but not beaten,

Mr. Pid

Daily Gripe

Hello, my name is Stu. Today my gripe is with consumer profilers. I recently found information distributed to employees of 'big box' stores and how they profile their customers. Customers are type cast into Lifestyle Groups and then the associate can target them with specifics. I feel like I am being personally invaded. They think by profiling me they can asses what I need and what they want to sell. Profits are the goal. Nowhere in this information is 'me' as a real live person. I'm just a lifestyle group and this is what you can sell me.

I feel that I am not in any of their profiled groups and I am insulted by their tactics. They talk about 'the attitudes and psych'. What? If I'm coming into to buy a camera and I have done all my research why do I need you to use your profiling skills to get me to buy MORE?

We have all become numbers in the profit game and we mean nothing but statistics to big business. I have being judged and given a first impression by my age, gender, race or what I wear. If I'm over 25 I do not fit in the 'Urban Trendsetter' profile? Perhaps if my hair is grey I am automatically put in the 'Empty Nester' category?

Instead of profiling me and trying to sell me crap I don't need to increase your profits - why don't you sell me quality products with associates who have knowledge of the products.

Ask Questions?
*engage family
*be curious
*ask lifestyle questions
This is none of your business!!!

Engage
*10 ft/30 sec. - This means hit me quick and be close when you hit me.
*customers just walking past department - This means hit me quick to secure a sale in your department.
*overcome - "I'm just looking" - This mans Hit me quick for that sale, make me buy something I don't need or want.

Have you ever thought that perhaps - "I'm just looking?"
I feel violated by this marketing ploy! I think I shall do my own profiling of associates the next time I go to one of those 'big box' stores. They will be glad when I leave their department.

Sincerely,

Mr. Pid

Daily Gripe

Hello, my name is Stu. Today my gripe is with grocery carts. A rather harmless item that really gets under my skin and erupts. First I will start with grocery carts that are left outside in the rain or have STUFF growing all over the handles. For some strange reason the carts never seem to dry off. Everything you place in the cart gets wet. And that green stuff slimed along the handle can only mean snot from a snot nosed kid or adult. You reach over to snag one of those freebee hand wipes and the container is empty and bone dry.

I believe there are grocery cart trolls who sneak around and do little nasties to the wheels on the carts. They disperse their magic right onto those little wheels that should go round and round but don't always play fair. It never fails that the grocery cart that I inevitably choose has a wheel with a loose screw. Sometimes even two bad wheels. And then those little rascals put a spell on the cart wheels for the invisible brakes to turn on, usually right when you are getting close to the check out line with no customers.

The little buggy stops dead in the water. She ain't going anywhere soon. Then the old fart with 60 items jumps right in front of you in the express lane. Then I end up with the cart with string ? wrapped around the base of the wheel? I know those pesky trolls are wrapping string around the wheels. Then you have the wheel that can only move backwards and you need to move forward. She ain't going anywhere soon.

There are also carts possessed by some higher power. They move at will and sneak off into the canned fruit display - crash into it and silently move right back to you. Everyone stares. You know you didn't give her a push or a shove - must have been that illusive troll.

The grocery cart takes on another life once it is outside on the pavement and near so many cars and other vehicles. It particularly likes shiny new cars - without dents! It draws right to those cars like a magnet. And of course that crabby owner is sitting in the drivers seat. And don't even think about leaving the cart parked in front of your car. Off she goes at break neck speed heading for that nice new caddy. Wham.

Sincerely,

Mr. Pid