MY NEW BLOG ADDRESS IS http://DrivingDenver.blogspot.com/
I will archive all the old stuff as I go...
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sitting around the Rock Pile at work, the smokers believe we are being discriminated against.
The Rock Pile is what we called the smoking place in High School. It was at the end of the North Wing at Thomas Jefferson High School, by the Industrial Arts classes. In my Senior Year, we had Senior Hall where you could smoke inside. In college, we would make an ash tray out of the silver lining of the cigarette pack, smoke in class. When I started working, most of the problems were solved over a cigarette. My father died at an early age, probably because of smoking (Camels).
Habits are hard to break. I have tried to quit many times, I was fairly successful several times. Most recently I started again because I missed that socializing, but also because I rebelled at the anti-smoking campaigns. It makes me want to wear neither my seat-belt nor my motorcycle helmet. It seems that we are rejecting our history. Smoking in bars, and especially in Casinos, seems like it should be the last bastion of the evil curse of smoking. Let us die with dignity! Let smoking die with dignity!
Rocky Mountain News Rocky Talk Live recently had a contributor who said, "I have said many times that the 80 percent of us who don't smoke will triumph over the 20 percent of you who do. That's the way it works in a democracy. If you don't like it, you know where the door is." Wow, isn't that the same argument they used for Segregation not too long ago? Why do we need to control the lives of others?
The Rock Pile is what we called the smoking place in High School. It was at the end of the North Wing at Thomas Jefferson High School, by the Industrial Arts classes. In my Senior Year, we had Senior Hall where you could smoke inside. In college, we would make an ash tray out of the silver lining of the cigarette pack, smoke in class. When I started working, most of the problems were solved over a cigarette. My father died at an early age, probably because of smoking (Camels).
Habits are hard to break. I have tried to quit many times, I was fairly successful several times. Most recently I started again because I missed that socializing, but also because I rebelled at the anti-smoking campaigns. It makes me want to wear neither my seat-belt nor my motorcycle helmet. It seems that we are rejecting our history. Smoking in bars, and especially in Casinos, seems like it should be the last bastion of the evil curse of smoking. Let us die with dignity! Let smoking die with dignity!
Rocky Mountain News Rocky Talk Live recently had a contributor who said, "I have said many times that the 80 percent of us who don't smoke will triumph over the 20 percent of you who do. That's the way it works in a democracy. If you don't like it, you know where the door is." Wow, isn't that the same argument they used for Segregation not too long ago? Why do we need to control the lives of others?
I PITY THOSE POOR CAB DRIVERS.
Cab driving was the only job I ever REALLY had fun at. I did it for some 12 years, and then I worked in the phone room at Yellow for 6 years. (I was fired for Union Duties, but that is another story.)
The taxi drivers need to realize that they have to pay for insurance, dispatching services, gas, car upkeep, even accounting. With the new bill proposed they still will need all that, and even if they omit dispatching (and thus serve no public at all), add the $10,000 plus per year their company needs to pledge for serving the handicapped, they will still make no money to speak of. You need to take in about $30 per hour when driving. Hauling people (handicapped or not) and getting $8.10 for 15 minutes of work will not do it unless you can do 4 trips like that in an hour. It doesn't work! It takes you another 15 minutes to get another call, go and pick them up, etc. Maybe a Car Service like you see in New York City would work: pay a subscription fee and/or $20 minimum for a short trip.
Cab driving was the only job I ever REALLY had fun at. I did it for some 12 years, and then I worked in the phone room at Yellow for 6 years. (I was fired for Union Duties, but that is another story.)
The taxi drivers need to realize that they have to pay for insurance, dispatching services, gas, car upkeep, even accounting. With the new bill proposed they still will need all that, and even if they omit dispatching (and thus serve no public at all), add the $10,000 plus per year their company needs to pledge for serving the handicapped, they will still make no money to speak of. You need to take in about $30 per hour when driving. Hauling people (handicapped or not) and getting $8.10 for 15 minutes of work will not do it unless you can do 4 trips like that in an hour. It doesn't work! It takes you another 15 minutes to get another call, go and pick them up, etc. Maybe a Car Service like you see in New York City would work: pay a subscription fee and/or $20 minimum for a short trip.
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