Vermont Service

So there are many reasons to live in Vermont, over the last 10 years I have come to realize service is not one of them.  Need an item at the store like a lamp?  Well, if it is not a box store the hours are most likely Tues.-Wed. 10AM to 1PM. When you try to actually ask about the item, the staff most likely will treat you like you are imposing on them.  For some reason, people with unexplained sources of income come to VT and open retail outlets or restaurants and then run them like they don't intend to make any money from them. Last night I ran into the perfect example.  These are the details and I swear I am not embellishing at all.

I went into Tina's Interiors on Church Street at 5:15PM.  Keep in mind it was a Tuesday and this is the week before Christmas.  I enter the store and a woman who can't be bothered to look up from her paper work asks if she can help me.  To be fair I knew what I wanted and told her maybe in a minute I was double checking on the rug I cam to buy.  I was a little brusque.  So I get my confirm at 5:21PM... it is on my phone and time stamped.  I walk to the counter and tell the woman I want to buy a rug.

Counter Woman: Are you parked out front?
Me: Why?
CW: Well, we are about to close.
Me: It is not even 5:30?
CW: Well, sometimes it takes awhile to get the rug out and into the car.

I stand there in silence for a minute thinking about how absurd this is.

Me: I don't mean to be a jerk but do you often tell a customer that asks to buy a rug no questions asked that you are about to close?

Thinking to myself I can't believe they do enough business to throw away an easy guaranteed sale for a few hundred bucks.  CW #1 continues to do paper work and barely acknowledge my question.

CW#2: Well, not usually but we are getting ready to close and it takes time to get the rug out.

I am shocked. They are trying to close early, in the middle of the week, and it is literally the top shopping week of the year.  Is this a drug front?  Did they sell 35 rugs earlier in the day and meet their quota?  Is this place owned by Bill Gates?

I tell them to hold the rug and storm out cursing under my breath and noticing several other stores closed the week before Christmas at 5:30PM.  No wonder there is so much turnover on Church Street, these stores are run by morons.  Except Outdoor Gear Exchange which was open, well staffed, and ready to take my money!!!

Political Rant

I just watched Boehner and Cantor announce their "Plan B" for the fiscal cliff.  They claim that the President has not been accomodative and does not want to work with them and until he meets them in the middle (or what they perceive as the middle) they will not budge and will move to Plan B where they keep tax cuts for everyone earning under $1MM.  Now I am all for keeping my taxes low but here is the issue I have w/ the House Republicans... first off, you have been complaining about how Obama will not cut spending so for Plan B you are not addressing spending in any way. That is Plan B?

Here is the big thing. You lost this last election.  You did not win the presidency, you did not win the senate.  You cannot win this Fiscal Cliff argument you can only be a pain in the ass.  Whether I agree w/ the winner or loser the fact is Obama won and now he is in the driver seat.  He does not have to run for re-election and can be as big a dick as he wants.  Folks may speak of his legacy but if this falls apart he will say it was because the House was protecting taxes for the rich and few in this country will fault him regardless of the ancillary issues that actually are in play.  It is all perception.

Secondly... let's take the President out of this.  For months, Republicans have been banging the spending drum.  The issue here is credibility.  For one, when the Republicans controlled the Congress and Presidency they increased the Federal budget by 104%. This included not only defense spending but increases in Social Security, Medicare, and thousands of subsidy programs (1816 according to the Mercatus Center).  You only care about cutting spending when you do not control the wallet.  This goes for the left as well.  The other thing about spending is that the reason the Right will not specify their proposed spending cuts is that they cannot agree on them.  Every member of Congress has their own base and their own spending needs.  Is it any wonder that no one can come to a compromise, they all want different things? I have not heard much from the Arizona or Florida Republicans on Social Security cuts?  Weird! 

This is a mess where no one is willing to actually compromise.  We as a country have elected a bunch of assholes.  We should go over the fiscal cliff.  Take the hit and move on.  Uncertainty has killed business for the last 4 years, not tax rates. If people know what business will cost they will spend their money that has been on the sidelines, they just need to know what their costs will be.

And lastly... f*ck you Grover Norquist.  You are a dick.  You came from a privileged background and take money for granted. Sure, you don't want your parents money taxed. Meanwhile... you are an old Nixon guy who's big hero Reagan raised taxes several times and directly led to the fiscal mess George H. walked into and was later politically lynched for. So you have backed Nixon, G.W., Reagan, Gingrich, and Jack Abramoff.  That is a real Murderer's Row.  Basically, you are the type of unyielding cranky old turd that keeps things from getting done.  The Federal Government needs revenues as well as responsible spending and neither Norquist nor Obama seem to realize that.  A balanced budget is difficult.

Hey, Guess What

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Get It?

Old Farts... ASSEMBLE!!!

I flipped in and out of the 12:12:12 concert last night and a few things stood out.  One, it was a party for old white men. Seriously.  They were up on the stage and filled MSG.  If you were a senior baby boomer banker/lawyer/doctor/accountant... this was your Woodstock!  Also this was a benefit for NYC that was dominated by British rock bands? Ok.  Adam Sandler sang a sort of funny song.  What my lady and I noticed is it looked like he has eaten David Spade and was hungover as all get out, at 7PM on a Wednesday.  He looked terrible in other words. So the Boss got like 3 songs.  Alecia Keyes who is big time New York got 2 or 3. Roger Waters brought out Eddie Vedder so they bumped him up to I think 4. The Stones got 2.  How many would you budget for The Who?  1, 2?  Well, they had an entire concert of like 13 songs!  Roger Daltry is totally shot, his voice is a mess.  Of course he made up for it by undoing hid shirt and busting out is over tanned, shaved old man chest complete with pacemaker scar.  Needless to say the 5 women in the audience went crazy!!  To be fair Pete Townsend sounded pretty good.  That is when I checked out for good. 

So we are getting closer to the fiscal cliff and Obama is taking things OFF the negotiating table?  Interesting tactic.  That guy just doesn't give a f%$&!  Meanwhile Georgia rep. Paul Broun went on CNBC and rambled like a fool culminating in him suggesting we totally disband the Department of Education, the EPA, and a few other federal departments.  Sure, that makes sense.  Let the states handle it.  Yeah, Georgia... you are definitely more qualified to run education.  We will blow by China once they realize the Earth is 3500 years old, there were no dinosaurs, 2+2=Q and the capital of Spain is Portugal. 

Looks like the Sox are close to signing Ryan Dempster.  I am furiously making sure my NESN subscription is up to date... no way I can miss those 8 insanely mediocre starts!

NSFW

Not sure f*cking what the Government is doing w/ this fiscal cliff stuff.  Really, you both just basically were told by the American people that you are on thin ice and are going to be even bigger d-bags in 2013?  Solid work my friends.

12-12-12... freaky. Not really, it had to happen.  Is there any chance that there really was no beginning of time or the universe and that it has just been going forever and that the concept of time is really just a construct of our mind?  Nope, I have not smoked pot today. No acid either.

I wanted the first Pope tweet to be a really dumb personal philosophy or a bikini shot on Instagram like other celebrity tweets. Speaking of a pope in a bikini... here is Lauren Pope.  I don't know who that is and I think my wife will not be impressed w/ this.

Am I happy about the no name Sox this season?  I am indifferent which is better than loathing them like last year.  Could be worse, we could have a steroid adjusted average age of 62 like the 2013 Yankees.  Apparently Don Mattingly was unwilling to switch to third so they had to pick up Youk.  I loved him w/ the Sox but his bat is slowing pretty bad.  Happens when you don't juice and play balls out all the time, your body wears down.  After the PED years we have forgotten how a normal human body reacts to physical stress (A-Rod I am looking at your chalk like hip joints).

That Bo Jackson 30 for 30 show on ESPN was pretty good.  They do a really nice job w/ those.  When I was a kid I read his autobiography that Dick Schapp helped w/.  It was not a good book but was interesting.  I also remember being so excited to see him play at Fenway.  He didn't do shit in the game (I think Jody Reed of all people hit a home run that day), but he crushed these unbelievable bombs during batting practice.  And when he played football?  It was ridiculous.  The guy was an alien. Was a great athlete and a shooting star. Like a rock star, better he blow up than to fade away.

Misery Loves J-Bird

I apologize to the 3 of you that may read this blog.  I have some shit going on these days that has been challenging to say the least.  It has made it difficult to get out and try new places from a food and wine perspective.  So a little whining out of the way... I did slip out w/ a co-worker today to check out the new Misery Loves Company stable space in the Noosk. Right away we were struck by the crowd.  the place was packed and the line stacked up to the door.  It is a very open clean space which is nice.  The food?  Off the chain yo.  I did not know what to order there were so many things I wanted.  I bailed on a doughnut which I regret after seeing someone eating next to me.  Instead we split pork buns and fries and I had a Korean Reuben.  The fries were crispy, and addictive. We did not even go w/ the meat scrap option.  The pork bun was my least favorite portion of the meal but it is all a matter of degrees.  No one can really replicate a China Town pork bun, just can't be done.  This one was a bun split in half and filled w/ pork like a slider.  The bun was a little dense and the pork a little dry.  It is like a whoopee pie, you can make them good but to truly hit transcendent version is a fleeting whisper. How about the Reuben.  Well if you don't like thick cut fatty corned beef w/ Kimchi, and a spicy mayo sauce on a delicious salted bun... well, we can't be friends.  It was decadent and delicious.  I felt a year of my life slip away w/ each bite but it was worth it. To be sure this is a treat that should be savored infrequently, even more so than BBQ but there is a reason a line forms to and out the door.  These guys are nailing it. The "misery" must be my now clogged arteries but they will soon have company from the veins. 1 9/10th thumbs up.

Congrats to the Pumas on their new edition.  Good people and I look forward to meeting the little guy, and maybe being the bad influence family friend!

Now, if you will excuse me I have to go pass out and struggle to breathe.