A complaint, sad news, and whatever else comes to mind.

My, and many others complaint. I live about six miles away from the big airport here in Boston. We have always heard and seen planes taking off and landing but now they have changed the flight patterns. Not only that but they are flying lower than before. It goes on all day and all night. From accounts I have read some planes are flying at about 1000 feet above us. Last night Arlene and I were sitting outdoors. It was a lovely evening but the racket from these low flying planes was about the worst it has ever been. I began to time the intervals. Every 45 to 60 seconds planes were taking off. This has been a recent event. Sure if you live near a major metropolitan area, there's going to be a major airport nearby, you are going to see and hear planes in the air. This is nothing new but the feds have changed the flight patterns saying they are safer and less noisy. Well they're wrong. At least for us. A friend of mine who lives in East Boston (right next to the airport) said the planes are louder here now and we're six miles away. Granted six miles isn't much when you're travelling at 500 miles an hour but my city is now under the direct take off routes and it does not matter where the plane is headed. It could be Europe, California, Florida, or Montreal. The airport is right on the ocean. They used to, for the most part, take off over the ocean and circle around so by the time they were above us they were at a higher elevation. You might hear or see them but it wasn't bad. I realize that when you have a big airport nearby somebody is going to have to deal with the noise problem. Well now it's us. Apart from all this everything is ok. 
I have fixed my slow leaking tire. The dealership did nothing to fix the problem except siphon $400 from me. I have never had a good experience dealing with a car dealership. It's usually been, "Leave your car here for four days and we'll charge you a lot of money and not fix the problem." The only reason I went there in the first place was because I was still under a warranty. Well that's over. I went back to my regular mechanic who I have been going to since 1986 and guess what, he fixed it and charged me $20. Now I have another problem which the dealership could not fix. I told Andy about it and he told me to bring it in. I trust him. Years ago I had a problem, which he fixed, but I didn't have the money at the time. He told me to pay him when I could so a mutual trust has developed over the years. He knows his stuff and he works alone. There's no huge corporation behind him. I have no use for these huge multi national corporations. There only mission is not to serve you but to squeeze every dollar out of you. The bigger they are the worse they are. They are always complaining about government interference yet when corporations like General Motors go bankrupt they have no problem with the government bailing them out with our money. I owned a General motors cars once, a new 1982 model. My only new car. What a piece of junk. I once went over a rather large bump once and the trunk lock tore out of the body and my trunk lid flew open. One day as I sat on my front porch facing my car parked on the street I watched a strip of the body side molding peel of right in front of my eyes. I had that piece of shit for four years. I moved on to a 1984 Thunderbird. That was a great car. My present car is my first really nice car and for the most part mechanically I haven't had a speck of trouble. It's been a series of annoying little things. It drives great and handles well and is quick enough. What has happened to American car manufacturers? 50 years ago they were the envy of the world. I guess it's just greed. I will never buy another General Motors product.

So what else is going on. I'm only working two short shifts this week and hopefully have next week off. I have nothing planned except for a couple of day trips. Arlene and I used to do this with more regularity a few years ago but our work schedules (we work for the same company) got crazier and crazier as we were moved around from store to store because of the lack of help. Of course this wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't laid off 700 people. We both semi retired within a week of each other. Now if they want to send us someplace else for a day or a week we can say no. We're only part time and we can set our own availability. That wasn't the case before with full time employment. I have worked every shift, from overnight to 6 a.m. starts. Now we are experiencing a jump in business because one of the big chains around here is having a worker strike. The chain has been shut down because the powers that be ousted the ceo who was good to his workers and the workers just stopped working in protest. This story even made national news. They were a very successful privately owned company and now they are slitting there own throats. You can tell when one of their customers comes into our stores. They are shocked at the high prices. We had a customer throw a package of prepared chicken wings back at the clerk when she saw that they were $8.99 lb. It is an interesting time to be in the grocery business around here.

Arlene and I are still adjusting to our part time status. For me it has been particularly tough because I did this for 43 years as a full time employee and when the boss isn't around I still feel responsible, as I was before, for getting things done. I suppose I should just take an I don't care attitude, like other part timers, but it's not easy. There are times I want to say, "You should do this first then that." but that would just create another problem. I know my new boss appreciates having me there. She will give me a task instead of her full time clerks and I know this really ticks them off. Too bad. I can work rings around them simply on my experience. Arlene is faring a little better. She is working in one of the three top stores. It does a million a week. My store which used to be the top store in the past, does about $600,000 a week, Still pretty good though.

I, as many other people around the world, was saddened to hear of Robin Williams passing. The man was a huge talent. He was as funny as anyone has ever been. He was witty, clever, extremely quick and a wonderful actor. Apparently his demons won out and he took his own life. I'm sure in the future there will be a movie on his life. I just wonder who could play him? Who could duplicate his comic performances? He was one of a kind. The world is a sadder place without him. R.I.P.

As always I am still thinking of my friend Beth. I miss her blogs, comments and the wonderful person that she is. I hope for her a speedy recovery. Blogging is not the same for me without her. She's one of the good people that I have met since I started blogging. She has always been kind and complimentary to me and everybody else. I miss her. Be well quickly Beth. We all miss you.

That's it for now. I'm off today. I have a couple of errands to run then I think I will play my guitar, well one of them anyway.

I'm outta here.