Voicemail Hilarity

Pharmacies have voice mail systems, mainly for doctor's offices to leave messages, but patients can leave messages as well. Of course, this can lead to people pressing the wrong button and getting in there by accident. Most people just hang up, but every now and then someone leaves a message, usually on accident, that winds up being funny. It seems it's usually and older person, and it usually is something to the effect of "I can't get anyone to answer the (expletive) phone!" They don't leave their names obviously, but you can almost always tell who it is. Anyway, as frustrating as it probably is for the patients, it can be down right hilarious to to the pharmacy staff.

One message was left by a patient just the other day, who knew he was leaving a message and just wished to express his displeasure with the automated menu, explained that he had tried calling us 50 times and couldn't get anyone to answer the blankety-blank phone. Of course, this particular person has expressed his displeasure with a lot of things, so I wasn't that surprised.

Why Does NASCAR stink?

Okay, so it didn't take me long to think of something to write about.

Way back in the day I was a pretty big NASCAR fan. I still remember the first race I every watched, the 1992 Daytona 500, won by Davey Allison, with Morgan Shepard coming in second. Over the years, probably about 2006 when I moved to Denver I stopped watching races for what ever reason. Since I'm often bored these days I decided to start DVR'ing the races to watch at my convenience (where was DVR when I was a big fan?). I have noticed that the races aren't as entertaining. I realize that if anyone actually reads this post they will say the the races were never entertaining, but stay with me here.

I've though up several reasons why things aren't as good anymore. Thanks to youtube, clips of old races are available to watch and analyze. So, in no particular order, here is what I think.

1) Increased popularity lead to changes. Back in'92, NASCAR was still pretty much centered in the Southeast. There were a few races up in the Northeast, and out West, but not many. As the popularity increased, I think some things happened. Ticket prices increased and as a read somewhere a while back, "the loyal fans that built the sport were priced out."

2) New tracks were built and old ones closed. As the popularity increased, there was more demand to have races in newer markets and new tracks were built. For some reason, the majority of these newer tracks are 1.5 miles in length. A lot of the shorter tracks had their races taken away because they didn't bring in a lot of money. I know a lot of people don't like short tracks, but I like the variety if nothing else. I'm not sure if there are still any tracks that have both front and backstretch pit lanes. I remember when Dale Earnhardt qualified so poorly at one track that it was the first time in his career he had to pit on the back stretch. Oh the horror.
Whatever happened to North Wilkesboro and Rockingham?

3) They decided to make this new rule where the top teams where guaranteed spots in the races regardless of their qualifying effort. I suppose this is good for the sport, ensuring the big names are present, but I king of liked the days of good drivers stinking up qualifying and not having a provisional spot. Better luck next week.

4) The instant caution, where the field is frozen when the caution is thrown rather than drivers being able to race back to the line. I can see the logic in this rule though. If you watch old clips and see drivers dodging stopped cars at 200 miles an hour, there were definitely concerns for driver safety.

5) The cars all look the same. Back in 1992, you could tell the Chevys from the Fords, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles. Now all the cars are basically the same shape with headlight decals being the only way to tell the different makes apart. It is also kind of strange that Pontiac and Oldsmobile are long gone from not only NASCAR but the world in general. The cars back then were nowhere near "stock" either, but I liked it better then.

6) The newer drivers whine too much. Enough said.

That's about it. I could probably think of other things, but I guess this is enough.

It's Been a Long Time--Random Thoughts

So it has been quite a while since I wrote anything. So long that I couldn't remember the address to my blog and had to go to my sister's and click on the link. I can't really ever think of much to say though.

So why do people ask you your opinion if they don't want to listen to you? It happens a lot at work. People ask for a recommendation to treat a particular ailment. When you recommend something, they say, something to the effect of: "My brother/sister/neighbor/friend said I should take this." To which I want to reply: "Then why did you bother asking me if you take more stock in what your brother/sister/neighbor/friend says."

Why do some people realize that most illnesses can't be treated with something available over the counter? People don't like it when my recommendation is go to the doctor.

Not much else to say for today. Maybe soon I'll think of something exciting to write about.

Is This Really Progress?

Remember back in the good old days when you'd head down to the video store, rent a VHS tape. and take it home for a couple of days before taking it back? That has now been replaced by getting DVD's sent directly to your door. Sound's convenient of course, because there are no late fees or such. You can't lose can you?

Of course you can. I don't remember the last time I got a DVD from Netflix that wasn't scratched to the point that it skipped at some point during the movie. This has to be the most annoying thing ever as far as I'm concerned. Back in the days of good ol' VHS tapes, they worked flawlessly 99% of the time.

That's about it for this rant. I hope you enjoyed it.

Blast from the Past

While flipping through the channels yesterday I stumbled across the NFL network, which was running some sort of Football Follies marathon or something. I haven't thought of Football Follies for quite some time, but tuned in for awhile. I watched the 1987-88 edition. It was pretty hilarious, but the thing I saw that I had forgotten about was the multi-purpose stadium.

Now, if you google multipurpose stadium, you'll get lots of pictures of fancy stadiums that host concerts, etc. but the kind I'm talking about is the football/baseball type. The kind where, while watching football, you can know that a player is tackled somewhere in the vicinity of second base.

I thought that Oakland was the only place that still had one, but Marlins/Dolphins share a stadium at least until next year and the Blue Jays share a stadium with a CFL team.

So whatever happened to those days, before stadiums had to have retractable roofs and giant score boards and cost $1 billion dollars? Doesn't it get more high tech than Mile High stadium, which featured and entire side that could be moved back and forth depending on what sport was being played. Apparently, having lots and lots of luxury suites has something to do with it. Seems like it would be more economical to have one of these, but then again, probably no one wants to go back to playing football on dirt.

The Finished Results

What I thought would take a week or so to complete ended up taking about a month. I sanded the table down and then stained it a dark walnut, and it came out looking pretty bad. I think it mostly stemmed from my choice of brush. I could have sanded it down and restained it, but I didn't really want to do that, so I bought some primer and paind and this is the finished result. It looks pretty decent as long as you don't look at it too closely.

My New Project

I know some people still have hard feelings that I inherited this fine piece of furniture. The end table with the lift up top. Well, it needed some refinishing, and since I have the time on my hands, I decided to start. I started sanding it today, and at this rate, I should be done with that part by this time next year if I'm lucky. I was going to sand it all by hand, but I think I'll be investing in a power sander instead.

I didn't think to take a picture until after I started, but it is looking better already. For those of you concerned, I sanded it out on the patio, not in my living room.