Watch Your SHTEP

Maybe its genetics, or passed down from my baby nurse.

For years my aunt had over an old friend of the family. As she got on in years, I assumed her eyesight was not a sharp as it had been when she was younger, and she must have had some issues with the "shtupid shcreens" on the screen doors to get into the Sukkah. I know this because my aunt would put signs at eye level ON the screens, so that people could see that the door is closed. A brilliant idea, I thought, but not one needed for people under 70.

Now I always prided myself on my ability to realize that a door is closed, and then to open it before attempted to pass through. I also had little tolerance for those younger than me for sure, who did not seem to to able to master this feat. So I was actually quite filled with mirth when Boo failed to see that the glass door on the deck was closed and bumped into it over the holidays. And in her defense, there was no light on the deck at that point, and may not have been in the dining room either.

Well, my feelings of smugness and self worth didn't survive past Saturday night. We were invited to the Iceberg Carwash's ( The Icebergs? the Carwashes? whatever) for a little pizza and family. As I was exiting the Sukkah to go into the house, basically plowed through the screen to get inside. Aside from feeling bad that I might have ruined the door ( I didn't, cheese eater apparently beat me to it) I felt both like an idiot, and quite old ( more like an idiot, though.)

I could probably make up some excuse that I was distracted by the noise, or was trying to escape some family member, but the fact remains, I WENT THROUGH a screen door. That was closed.

I think I will make some signs for my door at home.

Up up and Away

There's something very wrong with mileage programs. I have always been somewhat skeptical of their value and am constantly surprised at the backward bending some of my friends practice in order to get a few more miles into their accounts.

Let's begin with the airlines. It is a fact of life that where you live determines, in most cases, which airlines you fly on the most. This is especially true for frequent travelers to many different destinations, less so for the leisure traveler with one or two fixed destinations. If you live in Atlanta or Detroit you are more likely to fly Delta than another airline. If you live in Chicago or San Francisco, Dallas or Los Angeles you are most likely to fly United or American and if you live in Houston or if Newark Liberty is your preferred airport Continental is your most likely choice. There are many other airports where your choices are limited to one or two airlines.

This is because, at the airports mentioned, the preponderance of flights are with the dominant airline which will have the most flights to the most destinations and you are most likely to use them more frequently than others. This leads you to a situation where you have a lot of miles on the dominant airline and bits and pieces on other airlines serving your city. While I have no hard data on any of this, it's reasonable to believe that most business travelers pay for their business travel and accumulate the mileage for their personal travel.

So when you want to take a vacation to an exotic destination you find that your most convenient airline doesn't happen to have the best or cheapest route to your dream vacation spot. In order to correct this flaw, each major airline offers a credit card and purchases on said card will accrue mileage plus the signing bonus. Why pay 9.3% interest and no annual fee to some non affiliated card when you can pay 13% plus an annual fee and get mileage towards your dream vacation. Also, as you collect cards, your credit rating goes down because the credit agencies see a multiplicity of credit cards as a high need for credit rather than a high need for miles.

And then there is the granddaddy of all credit cards, American Express which not only charges an annual fee but charges another $40.00 a year for the mileage program and additional charges to link your business cards with your personal card.

Now it comes time to use the mileage you have painstakingly and doggedly collected for many years. You find that your miles are worth between .75% and 1.5% of your expenditures. Don't forget, there are some cards that offer almost 5% in certain types of benefits. Not only aren't your miles worth much, if you want to augment missing miles you can buy them from the airlines for more than they are worth or, in certain situations where transfers from one account to another are permitted, the fees are equal to or exceed the points' value.

The only miles that are worthwhile accumulating are flown miles because you don't fly in order to gain points.

Making financial decisions based on the chimera of free vacations just doesn't make sense.

A Few Thoughts on the Political Landscape.

Little bit of politics, folks. I try to avoid constant preaching, but sometimes it is necessary.


1. Tea time in America?

Someone aught to tell the Republicans that now is not the time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The party needs to become the party of inclusion. Might I say, the new democrats. For the Republican leadership to distance itself from the Tea Party candidates instead of embrace them under the umbrella of conservative thought, especially when all the energy on the right seems to come from them, seems silly at best and irresponsible at worst.

The time is ripe for a major shift in the house and senate, it just has to be packaged properly, and if so, I believe that there is no Democratic incumbent that is safe.

2. Hypocrite for the Ages, Mike Bloomberg

The same (alleged) brain that tells us that he can't do anything about the mosque at ground zero because it wouldn't be proper or right for him to tell anyone what to do has now come up with a scheme to limit even further the rights of smokers to light up in open air, uncontained public spaces.

Yes, smoking is bad, yes, so is second hand smoke, but just being in the general vicinity of a smoker does not mean you are inhaling second hand smoke. If this were the case, every building in New York City that had a heating system and every manufacturing plant within the five boroughs would have to shut down, since it would be spewing nasty smoke into the air, and someone somewhere might breathe it in.

I say enough already. focus on the terrorists and restoring the quality of life that affects all people all the time, like crime, homeless people, the infrastructure, and leave the greening alone.

The Cobbler has no shoes, or in this case, Brains

I have a very peculiar habit. Especially in the town I live in. I check registration and inspection stickers in people's car windows.

I do this as a service to them, since I know people tend to forget that they have to do annual inspections, and that their registrations are due every two years, and sometimes the renewals do not come in the mail.

This is especially a problem outside of New York City, where they are very diligent in ticketing cars that have expired registrations or inspections. I always tell people that they should be very careful when going into the City, since it is something the traffic enforcement agents look for, and will gleefully slap a $65.00 ticket on your car.

I just consider it a service that I provide to the community, since it is something I constantly think about.

Or so I thought.

We were in the city for the High Holidays. Parked for three days on the streets of Manhattan. I was able to completely forget about the car after diligent effort, so that I could focus on thoughts of the day. So I didn't even glance over at it (much) when I walked by to make sure that it and all its pieces were still there.

Well, Lovey comes to get us Saturday night and she tells me that we got a ticket for an expired inspection. I felt pretty stupid.

But it gets better.

Now, I know that if the inspection just expired, then you get it done immediately and send in the receipt, and they knock down the ticket significantly. Someone once asked me what could be done to fight such a ticket, but they had been expired for NINE months! I thought at the time how could anyone not notice that they were months overdue? In that case, you just dispute the ticket, and the city takes off about $23.00.

So I look at the ticket, figuring I will send in the receipt, and I would just check to see how little I was overdue.

June 30th.

'nuff said.