Ford posts worst loss in its history

I seriously think Ford should just turn off the lights and close the doors for good.  What are they thinking? 

The company has rolled out or will introduce several new or updated products during 2007, including the Edge crossover (have you seen this car?  Talk about playing catch up….can you say Murano, or Lexus 330?!) , new F-series Super Duty pickups (who cares?), a redesigned Focus small car (why don’t they make a hybrid Focus??) and an updated Five Hundred larger sedan.  (Just what we need….a larger sedan!  baloney.)

But many analysts are skeptical that the products are strong enough to turn the company around.  ——uh yeah ya think?!

Here’s the link to the obituary for Ford:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_ford

have a great day!

Dawg

The Wave

I am writing tonight about drivers that purport to be courteous, but are really not.

You know the ones.  The Sunday drivers on a Monday afternoon, after 3 back to back meetings at 5:30 in the afternoon. 

They are the ones that, when their lane merges with yours, are too stubborn to let you in.  They are also the ones that see you coming as the turn right into your lane.  Without coming to a complete stop and waiting till it’s clear to proceed.  They don’t care if they cut you off.  You can slow down, sucker!

Tonight on my way home the latter happened, where the guy turned into my my lane and then as almost run into the guy’s bumper, as he cut me off, he gives me the wave.  This was as if to say Thanks!  Usually thats you do when someone does something nice for you on the road, you wave.  Well this time the wave, was more of a “yeah I cut you off sucker!  Now back off!  To that guy I have the following:

My point is this, be sincere with the wave.  Don’t abuse it or you may just get the bird!

Have a nice night!

Dawg

Pedestrian Etiquette

I gotta say, pedestrians really are getting bolder as time marches forward.

January must be “Pedestrian walk like an ass-clown month.”  Every Friday I pick up a few bags of bagels for my team.  I think they appreciate that so alas, I continue. 

It always seems as if every time I back up my car in the bagel store’s parking lot, that there is some idiot thats sees me backing me up (and I see them too) but they keep walking behind my car, ensuring that I stop for them. 

Are these people idiots?  Don’t they realize that it’s a bad thing to walk behind a car that is in reverse backing up??  I don’t care if they haven’t had breakfast or their morning latte’ from Starbucks or Peet’s.  The bottom line is:

Don’t walk behind a car that is backing up. 

You put yourself and my car’s bumper at risk when you do this.  Not to mention the time synch it could be.  The last thing I want to do is back over you and have to get out to pull your bloody ass from underneath my car just because your are an ass-clown pedestrian!

As support for my thoughts I found this (here’s the complete link to the list):

“#11, Always look for signs that a car is about to move (rear lights, exhaust smoke, sound of motor, wheels turning), and never walk behind a vehicle that is backing up.”

Dolts!

over and out.

911 Wait Time

It took 5 1/2 minutes today to reach a live operator on my cell phone

On the way in to work today I passed an accident that had just happened seconds previously. 

A young lady in her 20’s had plowed into the back of a large pick up truck, which didn’t have any visible damage.  The truck driver was exiting his vehicle and the lady’s airbags had deployed.  She was just sitting there, dazed and her car looked totaled. 

Obviously she needed emergency help.  If for nothing else to get her and her car out of the road so another on-coming car didn’t rear end her and cause more damage.

So I call 911 from my cell phone. I wait and wait and wait and wait. 

The whole time I am thinking, what if I was running from someone with a gun trying to rob me?  5 1/2 minutes is a lot of running, or a lot of anything especially if it is an emergency.

My soundoff:  I pay enough taxes to live in California that I should receive a lower response time than 5 1/2 mins for a 911 call.  Prior to this, I had heard rumors that cell phone 911 calls didn’t have priority, but I didn’t believe them until now. 

I would think that this issue would be a MAJOR concern with parents giving cell phones to the kids or with women feeling like they have a security blanket in their cell phone, because they don’t. 

Come on California, hire more 911 operators to answer the cell phone 911 calls!

Some additional articles are here and here and here for your reading pleasure.

Jiffy Lube

I just want to give a shout out to the folks at Jiffy Lube.  This morning I had 1 hour to get my oil changed.  I rolled into the neighborhood JL at 7:30am and asked for the “Jiffy Lube Signature Service^® Oil Change“.  They asked my oil weight preference and tire pressure preference.  I said 5/30 and set the tires all around at 40 PSI please. 

I had my keys back in 25 mins.

Done.  Now that is awesome.  Thank you Jiffy Lube for keeping my car happy and lubed to the fullest.

Tire Pressures

I am going to rant for a moment about how hard it is to find a gas station that has a good area to inflate your tires.  I have searched around my house within a 10 miles radius and they all want from $.25 to $.75.  What a pain.  Now I have to BUY air??  Well, the place I went to tonight to check my tires was a 76 station.  I went inside and asked the guy if he could turn on the air for me…..they have a “freebie” switch they can push for you to avoid the fee apparently.  The thing with the freebie route is you have to ask him 4 times to turn it on.   Let me tell you, on the fourth time, I felt like I was bothering him.   But I saved at least $2.00.

All gas stations should have the following for their “Tire Inflation Area:”

1)  A clean well lit area.

2)  An Air Hose at no charge-push the button and it turns on.

3)  A compressor that at least fills the tire, not the other way around or deflates it.

4)  A working, accurate tire guage attached to the air nozzle.

5)  Paper Towels.

6)  Squeegee with soap and water.

That’s it.  If I could find a gas station with that, I would even buy my gas there.   Why can’t they all have this set up?  As much as we pay for gasoline and the rate the prices are rising, they should definitely have it.

Funny Commercial

I was watching my two favorite television shows last night, Prison Break and Heroes.  In between the excitement, I laughed my ass off when I saw a funny commercial for the new Dodge Nitro.   The really funny part is that a weak SUV like the Nitro could even provide enough power to jump start that old behemoth, Dodge Aries.  It is also too ironic that Dodge chose to “blow up” one of it’s own.  Great stuff!

Start Here!

Welcome to the daily Bull.  I will post daily rants, complaints and general musings to the bl0g as I see fit.  It will be daily, so keep the channel tuned and your seat belts fastened, unless you are a kid on a school bus, where there are no seatbelts.