Prudentia Sit

Wal-Mart Haters

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

There is a group of people who claim that they hate Wal-Mart and how vile and rotten and evil and greedy they are.  Well, these people are, obviously, entitled to their opinion, and I will even respect their opinion if they don't actually shop there themselves.  You lose some little credibility with me if I am behind you at the light and read you bumper sticker just a-hatin' on Wal-Mart and then your car turns right into their parking lot.  I mean if you shop there you don't really hate it.  You may despise it, hold it in disdain, find it distasteful, unlikeable but you don't really hate it.

I actually appreciate them in some ways.

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My Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

Here's something unrelated to the previous discussion that really just ticked me off.  I was at a blog I infrequently frequent, owned by the daughter of a friend of mine and her new husband where the general discussion has been upbeat and positive stuff about his military career (he was just promoted) and their new little baby on the way.  Stuff about ultra-sounds and baby names and like that.  Fun family stuff.I was just there and the poor girl was really angry.

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This is originally from July of 2006, but still fits.  I was going to re-write a couple of the more convoluted sentences, but instead left it as is.  Originally titled "Changed" I thought I would use its working title:

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Okay, so I learned it was rude to type in ALL CAPS back when we learned how to type on a typewriter.  It is considered the same as shouting.  Using red ink in letter writing was at one time the most insulting breach of etiquette.  I have known this and it is with full knowledge of this fact That I dedicate this post to

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On 8-22 Ashley (who really likes visitors and comments, so feel free to do both) did a post on a program that D.C. middle schools are doing where a kid can get up to $100 per month for getting good grades.  She asked for opinions but I didn't really have much to say at the time, not having thought about it too much.  What it did do, however, was make me start paying attention.  So, when a couple of weeks later one fellow blogger says that her husband pays for "A" grades and there was a comment from another that said they basically do the same and subtract for a "C" I did the scientific thing and asked Abigail if her friends got paid for grades.  "Oh yeah.  Some of them get a lot of money for an A."

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You know, I feel sorry for some of the people that drive these brand new cars.  Not so much that they are pretentious, which some are, of course, but rather that people have to get them without all the niceties.  I have never bought a brand-new car, but I know that a lot of times they give you options to chose from and that's where it gets sad.  So many people buy cars without all the optional equipment.  See, was it me, and I could order a new car, one of the little amenities I would order would be

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I think it's a good idea to have a clue about car repairs, even if you can't do them yourself.  As I was writing yesterday I realized that either one of the repairs he did was the kind that an unscrupulous shop could easily take advantage of.  But the guy was an artist.  I am always in awe of watching people work their craft when they really like it and are really good at it.  As vehicle systems become more and more computerized and more and more difficult to diagnose they are still mechanical at the heart of them.

I had met the owner of the honest mobile repair shop when the alternator had gone out on my 1999 Fords Windstar, which I have finally named "Waltzing Mathilda."  When I heard the price of just the part I about keeled over.  I told him what we could afford and asked him if he would accept postdated checks and him being the owner he decided he would give us a chance.  (We cut up our credit cards 15 to 20 years ago which is one of the smartest moves we ever made.)

On that note, I talked to dad and we were talking about the push toward a one-world government and "the system" in general and he told me, "Yeah, Herbert, it's going to a credit system now.  Banks don't even have any money anymore.  People don't even rob banks nowadays, they rob filling stations and the filling stations rob people."

Anyway, that was the time I began to learn that most of Ford's "Better Ideas" were most likely thought up by some guy who had never touched a wrench in his life and probably received all kinds of awards for thinking up ridiculous ideas that were supposed to make the work easier but in reality meant that dealerships would get all the repair business because they were the only ones with the special tools or secret knowledge required.  Sorry, I know there are a couple of engineers and an architect who stop by occasionally and I hope you don't take it personal, but come on, some of these cars will be on the road long after their warranty runs out and will have to have real people putting a wrench to them.

I may be wrong about the design part, though.  It may have been some man-hating woman or effeminate male who, as he was growing up always resented the boys that had things like elk or deer or pickup truck motors hanging from a tree in their yard who said, "I'll get them back.  They think they're so tough, but I'll show them.  Let them try to fix THIS!"

Not that I think all people who design things are that way (and it isn't only Ford), but I can hear it in the drawing room, "Sir, you can't make people have to remove a motor mount and jack up the engine just so they can fix their alternator."

"Well, if they bring it to one of our specially designed dealership shops they won't have to do that."

"But if you just leave it out handily accessible then all it would take is a simple set of wrenches and a screwdriver."

"And how would that help out our dealerships?  Our dealers have to eat, too, you know.  And what about our profits?  If we make something that any putz under a tree can fix, our shops will be out of a job.  No, we will go with the first idea."

So the person who tried to make a design based on reasonability and ease of use got shouted down for trying to exercise common sense.  Vehicles are never designed for the people who have to fix them.

Then a couple of months ago I had a serious problem with the brakes and had taken the car to one of those places that has "Brakes" in the name where I got a quote of almost a thousand dollars.

"Don't you have a credit card at all?"

"Nope."

"Not even for emergencies?"

"You still have to pay for it."

"Well, this vehicle is unsafe.  I can't let you drive it out of here.  Can't you get a loan?  We can help you find financing."

"I'd still have to pay it back and at a highly inflated interest rate.  No."  I went on to explain the postdated check system, which of course, being a chain, they couldn't accept, "So you see, your fellas will have to put it back together again."

"Well, I need you top sign this estimate to show what I did with my time and that I advised you of the repairs you will need."

Anyway, a lot of that stuff she had written up didn't have to be done.  One example of what my contention with them was that the old clips and screws were perfectly serviceable but she wanted to put all new ones on.  I said that she would only have to replace the ones that might break.  I noticed, too that when she put my car back together it was using the old parts.  She must be pretty cold-blooded if she really believed my life was in danger driving that car and she let me out of there.

I had (thankfully) kept the card of the guy who had fixed the alternator and gave him a call.  They only did the work that was necessary to get the car rolling again for about $275, which was a fair price for the amount of work I needed.  Of course they didn't charge me for things that I didn't need, like the clips, which were not pretty, shiny and new, but were perfectly serviceable or were considered an expendable "shop stock" item.

"Why did the place with ‘Brakes' in the name want to charge me almost a thousand dollars?"

"Their job is to make money.  So is mine.  The difference is, they are looking for customers that will leave their car and their credit card with them and go for a walk.  They advertise these hundred dollar specials, but then there's always something else.  I could find something else wrong with your car right now.  There is always going to be something else wrong.  Plus, if you went to their shop and they didn't put on a new clip because the old one looked perfectly serviceable and something happened that involved that piece, they are afraid of getting sued.  ‘Why didn't you replace the faulty clip?'  ‘It seemed perfectly fine at the time.'  I'm not worried about that.  I do my best to do an honest job and make sure I make a profit and my guys are taken care of and you know that and you come back."

I have always valued honesty and respected profitability in a businessman.  I also like common sense, down-to-earth people that don't automatically assume that you are stupid.  And now, this leak repair will be the third time he will have some experience with working with us and I look forward to a long working relationship with this shop.

Remember, the good book says, "Let the buyer beware!"  Well, really it does say, "The shopper says, ‘That's junk--I'll take it off your hands,' then goes off boasting of the bargain."

Gentle Readers, Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

I have decided where I stand on an issue that is vital to me and that has been the source of a difficult and significant decision to me.  Yes folks, I have become, please don't be too ashamed of me, this was very hard and stressful and I am not even sure that I should tell you about it, except that I count you all as my friends and you ought to know.  Maybe you will want to take down your links to my site after this confession and as strong as some of you are in your convictions, well, maybe you should.  I hope you don't.  I hope you will respect my decision.  You see, ladies and gentlemen, I have decided after thinking about it and even praying about it, that the time has come for me to proclaim to the world that, I am - I didn't think coming out with this would be so hard - I have decided to become a pro-choice activist.

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Well, since the site I used to belong to has decided they can add google adword ads to my blog entries on their servers I am going to make a concerted effort to transfer everything over here.  I will probably date most of them with the original publish date, but if there is something I want to share again, I will post it as current with a little note.  I will start with my faves first.

Dear fans, friends and fiends,

If you don't hear from me and it seems real sudden, I am having computer issues.  You know, it's like, one step forward and two steps back.  Many grinding and whining noises.  I will be doing as much as I can but at the best I will have to see if John can either fix it or build me another one on the cheap.  I may have to go to the library to check e-mail if it gets worse.

Remember, the good book says that spelling "Arrgh" with one "r" is really inadequate.

"ARRRRRR

 

RRRRRRRR

 

RRRRRRRR

 

RRRRRGH!"