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.  They hired my son-in-law when he was in desperate need.  They are also consummate capitalists at the top of their world.  For now.  And this is the part all you Wal-Mart haters will love and true fans of Capitalism at its finest will enjoy, I know that they will fall from their lofty perch for history repeats itself.  We have seen it happen to others, like K-Mart, Montgomery Wards and even Sears.  They will fall from their number one slot and someone will take their place.

Someone must, please, because I have observed their customer service standards.  They have spent an awful lot of money on remodeling their stores and making them look nice, but I think the money could have been better spent in leaving the store the way it was so I could find things and rather adding more clerks.  Early in the morning (to some), between 5:30 and 7:30A.M., I go to the store up on the north end of town.  There may be thirty-two lanes, (I haven't been there for a while so I don't remember.  It may be more) four of which are supposedly self-serve, but there is only 1 lane open to serve customers.  One lane.  There are many people in there at that time, people who work in large offices and construction sites in the local area; people who have to be to work and just zipped in to pick up one item or maybe their lunch or something for an office party and there we will stand, five, then six, then seven, then eight in line.  If one of the people in the line has even the slightest problem, say the computer stops responding or the price is wrong or any of the myriad of problems that happen in a retail setting, everything stops and there we stand.  Some people just set their purchases aside and walk out, shortening the line for a moment (and the money from that sale just walked out the door) but soon more people come.

An abandoned cart sits at the opening of the aisle to show you where the line is, frozen things dripping on the floor (lost sale/inventory shrinkage).  A manager and the clerk are huddled over the computer in deep discussion while others come and go in the line and a man in a black cowboy hat sighs loudly and impatiently.  I don't really go to the store unless I have an absolute need, this particular instant my car required something and required it NOW.  I feel sorry for the airman behind me with his sandwich and cokes and chips and tell him he can go ahead of me if the line ever moves.  "Thanks, but I have to be to work pretty soon.  I may have to do like the rest of these people and just leave this stuff here, but I can never get out of work at lunchtime and if I come here it's chancy whether I get out of here in time, so I will wait until the last minute to decide to leave."

The guy with the black cowboy hat (that would be me, by the way) walks up to the front of the line, people watching to see what he is going to do, and says to the person with the "Head Clerk" badge, "Say, how about calling someone to open another register while you guys fix that?"  I watch her reaction, annoyance, frustration, anger, but she merely says, "I'll see what I can do."  Turning to the clerk, she says, "Do you know if Mathilda is here yet?"  She then mumbles something into her mike and I walk back to the airman, who thanks me.

Don't thank me yet.  Nothing.  The head clerk (or whatever her title is) calls out to employees to try to find some help, and finally someone comes.  Now, of course I am the first person to understand that everyone has a bad day.  Some days are downright evil-bad days and companies as well as people have them.  I know this and would be able to forgive this little frustration, but...It happens ALL THE TIME.

Now I am no computer genius and no network guru, but I can put together an excel spreadsheet and have used Access databases so I know, because even back in the prehistoric times before computers, it was possible, there are ways to track when you have high volume and when you need additional help and when you have a lot of sales. And if it were at one store at the one time of the day, I am the easy-going, forgiving kind of guy who will chalk it up to whatever.

But in the evening, between 5:30 and 6:30P.M., when I must, unavoidably, go to the store, this time at a more south/central part of town, a similar scenario plays itself out on a larger scale.  This store has thirty-two lanes, no self-serve, and twelve of them open, eleven at the far end of the store, and with at least seven or eight people in line.  At least.  Again, I HAVE to be there and get what I am getting, and again with the wait.  I am in the humorously named "Express Lane" behind eight other people and there is an older lady behind me.  At the head of the line is someone who knows what the sign on the rack said but her purchase is not ringing up correctly (this was true this time, too).  The clerk has to call a service manager who has to call a department manager who has to call a flunky to run and get the right price and run back (and by run I mean it in the sense of how I enjoy running, i.e., moseying along just sort of looking around as though I have never seen any of this before) then it has to be overridden in the computer.

While this process is going on I accost a young man with "Sales Associate" on his tag.  "Say, how about getting someone to open another lane over here?"  "Oh," says the wide-eyed youth, obviously a newbie, he still thinks customers should be treated with a modicum of dignity and respect, "I'm sorry sir, but a manager would have to do that.  When they see the need they will call someone right away."  Clearly a canned speech he has been trained to parrot in instances like this.  "Could I speak to a manager, then, please?  I need to speak with someone who can fix this."  "Right away, sir," he says, scooting off into the press.  Much to his credit, he has not ditched me completely, but I see him talking to a woman and pointing me out.  I am the big guy in the black cowboy hat, you can't miss me.  A person with "Customer Service Manager" on her nametag walks up and I explain my frustration.  I am not loud, but I am frustrated and I ask why there are thirty-two lanes when only twelve of them are open and who can I talk to to fix this?  "Well, sir, that would be me.  I've called all my management team up front and they've opened all those registers over there."  "Well, thanks, I guess, but who can I talk to about fixing this permanently.  If this were the only time it ever happened, I would feel bad complaining, but it happens every single day at the same time.  You have people leaving carts full of stuff and walking out and people getting frustrated and it happens all the time."  "Yes sir.  I know sir."  "I know they must have a computer somewhere in this company that can figure this out.  I'm no computer and I can tell you what your problem is.  Wal-Mart is just lucky that there aren't bunches of Target stores all over the place or you guys would go under doing business like this.  You say you are the person that can fix this, so what do you plan to do about it?"  "I will, ah, I'll, um, tell my manager that I've had yet another complaint."

At this point I thanked her, let her go and turned to the poor elderly woman in line behind me, and said, "Well, at least she pretended to listen."  The lady said, "It doesn't matter that she opened all those lines over there, my car is on this side and I can't walk all that way."  After a little while longer of the clerk struggling with the price problem, they opened another "express" lane.  I let the little old gal go ahead of me and her transaction was painlessly quick.

Every time I go to the Target near our house or the Super Target I never, ever, ever have to wait in line.  I may have other problems with them, but standing in a line like that is not one of them.  Are they the next big heavy-hitters?  Will K-Mart come back?

My personal plan of action is that every time I have choices and options, Wal-Mart is not going to be my first pick.  They know they have a lot of folks over a barrel because their prices are so cheap and in our town they are the only ones on easily accessible bus routes making it hard to go elsewhere, especially when you are going out of your way to pay higher prices.  I watch the sale fliers and I shop for groceries other places, but until people refuse to stop being abused and will stand up and not only leave, but will complain as I did, will anything change.

Herb (NOT a hater) Thiel

Tea Party Racists

I had heard some allegations about there being racism at TEA Party movement rallies.  Well, before we get to the clip I found that I wanted to share with you let me tell you, as the lady says in this clip, there will always be racism because that is in a person's heart.  This clip interested me because these are people you never hear from or about in the Lame Stream Media.  There are maybe a dozen gathered here, but that only means there are more where they came from.

Racism needs to be replaced by Americanism eventually.  It won't ever be completely eradicated, but just by human nature, change will have to come.  I got to thinking about this the other day, before I saw this clip or heard about this issue, when someone explained to me, and I know it's true, that there are places in the South where if you have even a drop of black blood, they will go to hating on you.  Well, I know it's true, it has to be, because there are places in Wisconsin that are like that and even here, in a relatively open-minded military town, when Ben and Isabel go places, they are treated differently than when Ben goes by himself.

You see, Isabel is half-black and half-French and looks Puerto Rican.  Ben, on the other hand, is, on my side, half-German and half-Irish, and on his mom's side is part Dutch and English and can trace some of their roots back to Zebulon Pike, discoverer of America's mountain, but, like me, if he has been out in the sun, looks either Hispanic or Indian.  So what does that make my grandchildren?  American.

These sorts of things are happening all over the country and mixing up the gene pool until some day it won't matter where your family came from as much as where you as a person are going.  The folks in this video present the facts with style and grace.  How much coverage did the LSM give them compared to the bare-faced lies that were told as factual news?  Also notice in this clip how the reporter so unprofessionally does not merely ask the question in the beginning, but argues almost to the point of being combative about it.  She doesn't want the truth or other views, she wants her narrowminded little ideal validated.

To the TEA partiers I just want to remind you that this started out as a joint effort across a wide band of people.  At rallies here I have seen Democrats and Liberals standing alongside Republicans and Conservatives crying out against the ridiculous extravagances that the Government is doing.  Beware of RINOs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GizNwzKo3n8

Bear Lee - There

(To see pics in larger size, click and it will open in a new window or tab, depending on your configuration.)

 We have a lot of wildlife around here; deer frequent the place and are seen quite regularly in the neighborhood, as a matter of fact this pic is from our backyard last year.

We have also had a fox and a family of raccoons travel leisurely through our yard.  In the field near an elementary school about half a mile from the house we saw a coyote, then one night about a block away as we were coming home from church we saw a coyote.

 A couple of weeks ago we were driving on the main road not far from our house, Cheyenne Meadows, where the elementary school, Fox Meadows, is and as we passed the field behind the apartments just before you get to the school, Margaret said, "Look, there's a bear on the hill there."  I did a U-ey in the mini-van so I could get a better look and told her to get the camera out of the glove compartment.  Well, Bears (Black Bears, not Grizzlies, there are supposedly no Grizzlies in Colorado) will, as a general rule, not attack a human but will avoid an encounter so as soon as I jumped out with the intention of getting a couple of shots off, he just started trundling away.  The battery door on the camera is broken so all I got were these two of his backside.  Warning, the following pictures contain images of a bear behind.

 And now, Lee.  I nicknamed him Lee, of course, when I started trying to think of a title for this piece.  I am guessing that this bear from a couple weeks ago is the one that was seen last week near the 7-11 in the middle of B Street, also about half a mile away.  The recent HOA newsletter had several reports in the area including one picture of a bear (most likely Lee) balanced on a fence, drinking from the hummingbird feeder.

Since it has been so hot this summer, often in the nineties, and higher humidity than we are accustomed to, we have been leaving the windows open and a fan blowing the cool night air into the house.  Then before the sun rises, I close everything up, the result being that the temperature inside the house is ten to fifteen degrees cooler than outside.

Longtime readers and people who know me, know that I an a morning person by nature and it is nothing for me to get up at three or four.  Yesterday morning was no exception.  It was about 4:15 and I was sitting here at my desk, cool-ish air blowing in slightly, reading e-mail when all on the sudden Fraidy Cat started hissing in the direction of the window.  "What are you hissing at?" I said, and when I turned and looked I saw a silhouette with a long snout and round ears.  It was a bear, looking in the window at me.  Fortunately for both him and me he has not lost his normal instincts and when he heard me talk and saw me start to get up he ran away.  They run a lot faster than you would think (average in summer about 30 mph although reports have made it as much as 45.) and fortunately for me he was running the right way.  Away.

I am more curious than a cat, sometimes, and after I had closed the back patio door, figuring that a flimsy screen of that size might be too tempting, a couple moments later curiosity got the better of me.  I went out the front door to look and see if I could see him running off, but there was only a musky smell in the air.  They have a smell that to me smells just vaguely like a skunk, but not as pungent or lingering.  I checked the trash cans, but his curiosity about the window of the house (these are those small, crank-out style windows that they had in the sixties) and subsequent getting frightened away made him forget all about them.  Yesterday.

This morning I went out and one of the cans was tipped over, and a bag of trash had been dragged out and gone through and I had a mess to clean up.  Grrr-rah!  As the Cinnamon bear http://cinnamonbear.co.uk/ would say.

Well, needless to say, this means the big doors have to be closed at night, but the windows are too small for him to get through, fortunately.  Here in Colorado people have had bears come in and raid their refrigerators, so I am being careful.

If you meet a black bear in the woods you should just speak calmly to the bear and back away slowly.  This identifies you as human to the bear while at the same time giving him space.  Black bears are much more docile and easy-going than grizzlies and won't attack a human, especially a polite human that will give him his space.  If you want to see pics, get info, watch videos of black bear cubs, etc, there is a great site http://www.bear.org/ with all manner of stuff on it.

Well, I must be off and everyone said, "Herb's off!"

Okay, I'll sign!  If you have a hard time seeing it, try the "zoom" feature on your browser or else it does link back to the original, which is a bit larger:

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2010/06/27/

Greetings, Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

Just thought I would let you all know I am still alive and kicking.  I fixed the links in frames link to actually work now.  Now you can visit all of the blogs that I visit, although the list will be changing to remove people who have blocked their blog from the general public.  As always, if you leave here and go visiting I cannot be responsible for their content.  That being said, these are all people I personally read whenever the chance offers itself.

I really enjoy putzing with the code, so I guess that some portion of this site will frequently be messed up.  Speaking of messed up, while in the process of looking to redesign the Louis L'Amour pages,  http://herbthiel.com/original/ on the original site since they seem to be the most popular, I discovered a hugely egregious error that has been on those pages for all these years (I wrote most of that code using notepad and Word back in ought-one) and NOBODY has ever bothered to point out or call me on.  I will tell you what it was after I fix it.  Only a fan would be likely to spot it, but still...nobody pointed it out.

I am going to be redoing several sections of the original site and removing some.  I am considering adding a page for the real Republic of Bob and adding a military/trivia/oddness blog for Carter.  The man knows so much about such strange things, especially the military and history, that it's a shame to keep it all in e-mails between ourselves.  Time will tell what all will transpire, however because, yes, I am still working on the project, this time a fairly significant rewrite.

On the political side, which is where the most common sense is needed and most lacking, I cringe in fear that the Chairman of the Politburo has every intention of continuing to sit on his hands until he has criminalized all oil production and use and now will push through the second portion of his criminal, communist takeover of the economy with his “Cap and Tax” policy.  He already has the dot gov websites spouting off its virtues and has lied about its costs. 

I think that the TEA parties are sending a clear shot across the bow of tax-and-spend-and-business-as-usual politicians but they need to remember that their appeal is in the fact that they are not a branch of the Republican Party and that the earliest and best parties included people from every party who all agree on one thing, that the government and its spending is completely out of control and it’s time the people took it back.  Even some of the most fierce, but intellectually honest liberals I know are saying that the government is believing in its own omniscience and worse, its omnipotence, and something must be done.  If the TEA movement continues to focus on this one issue, there may be hope for true change.

Freedom-loving Americans of all creeds must stand up for themselves.  This used to be a traditionally Republican value, but as the Republicans move away from conservatism and embrace the crass commercialism of merely trying to win elections rather than standing for what is right, people need to take notice and take action.  This year we can fire the entire House of (supposed) representatives and start over by electing people who actually represent our values and beliefs.  I think this is possible.

Note to spammers:  Um, I have “Comment Control” on, you dorks, so if you leave a comment on an old post hoping to place a beacon and a link to your idiotic website, think again.  I may start collecting the names of these sites from whence you come and publish them in a “Please Never Visit These” post.  For now I will just delete you and see if you are smart enough to figure out the flaw in the system.  You may, and then I will have to turn on complete comment control, but I can do that.  The real people that come here won’t mind.

And so, Gentle Readers, I must take my leave of you for the nonce,  Please leave me a comment,

Herb (The best TEA is what gets dumped in the harbor) Thiel

I apologize that you have heard little or nothing from me and that half the stuff on this site doesn't work right.  I have been without an internet connection for a couple of months now and am also working on an extensive rewrite of the book, but I don't want you all to think I forgot about you.  One of the big problems is the phone company.  They have this crazy policy that if you don't pay them for several months they turn off your service, if you can imagine anything so ridiculous.  You actually have to choose to buy food instead of fun.  Isn't that crazy?  I don't believe in using credit cards because they are just disaster waiting to happen.  I would rather rough it out now than pay 18+% later.

I want a bailout.  The Obamanomics of Obamunism are not made for a guy like me, though.  Actually, if you can find something useful at my site for All Internet Needs dot Com and order it the commisions will help a bit, depending on what you buy.  (That was about the most pathetic sales pitch I have ever heard.  Swtrike it from the record.) https://www.allinternetneeds.com/Home.html

All of the stuff from the t-shirt, etc. business, Logan's Outlaws and Trail Riders, will be on an e-bay auction being handled by Consider It Sold in a few days.  I'm a bit bummed but I'm young, I'll get over it. 

In the meantime, I did get something that was really cool, not for my birthday or any special occasion but just because my son saw something in a store that he thought I would like and he was right.  http://www.ionaudio.com/ionttusb10 Now I can digitize all of my albums, including my Smothers Brothers and Allan Sherman ones that are not (legally) available on CD and my autographed Dennis Day album.

Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me, you have not heard the last of me, bwahahahahahahahaha

************EDIT/ADD*****************

Just after I wrote this I got the e-mail with the links to 3 of the five auctions

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290430219374

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360257747991

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360257747934

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HELP! I NEED SOME SERIOUS, HARDCORE, DAILY NAGGING TO GET MY REAL WORK OF WRITING DONE. I HAVE TO MAKE SOME QUALITY BUTT-IN-THE-CHAIR WRITING TIME. NAGS OF ALL AGES AND GENDERS MAY APPLY.

In the meantime, this cartoon, by one of my favorite political cartoonists, answers a question that has come up to me on a couple of occasions, perfectly.  Sorry it's skewed on the page but since I have the most intelligent readership on theInternet,with not only book-larnin' but common sense, You'll figure out how to scroll it or click it to go to it's page.