January

I have many reasons why I haven't kept up on my blog, but the biggest contributor has been January. I dislike January more than any month of the year. I just want it to melt into May overnight. It's COLD, SNOWY, and BORING!!!

Instead of this month being a time to relax and reflect on the end of another year, I use January to get riled up about all the things that upset me. (Too much time indoors and too many dark hours.) I did join a gym in November, and nearly daily, take out my frustrations on the elliptical. However, there are some things that just can't be solved pounding away on a machine, such as:

my hatred for cell phones, cell phone contracts, cell phone employees and cell phone bills. The phones are cheap and intentionally fragile, the contracts are unbreakable, even if you die, the employees think customer service is seeing who can make the customer the most frustrated and miserable and the bills, with all the different fees and taxes, are more confusing than trying to buy an advertised airline ticket for $89.00. I hope anyone associated with a cell phone provider has their home, car and livelihood flooded out with the massive melt of 2011.

my growing frustration with the US Postal Service. My grandfather was a rural mail carrier for most of his career life. He had a long, treacherous route which he diligently serviced 6 days per week. Back in the 50's and 60's, mailmen were often the lifeline for those living in rural areas, especially during the long ND winters. My grandfather had many "customers" who lived 1/2 mile or more from their mailboxes, and he frequently recognized that the widow Jones or whomever, wouldn't be able to navigate the road to retrieve the mail. In his very old car, (no SUV's back then), grandpa would wind his way through the snowbanks to take the mail right up to the front door to his "customers". Note my use of the word customer. We the people are customers of the US Postal Service. We pay for the service by way of mailing charges and federal tax dollars; thereby being the customer. In my neighborhood, customers are considered an annoying by-product of mail. Our "rural" mail carrier will not deliver our mail unless there is a 30 ft. loop in front of our box where he can swing in and out without ever leaving his warm vehicle. If there is a car parked nearby or the snow hasn't been removed adequately, he just drives on by and doesn't give us our mail. The street department often leaves a 6 foot tall trail of icy chunks along the roadside, thereby necessitating the hiring of a bobcat at $100 an hour to remove enough snow and ice (off the public, city street I might note), so the mail carrier will deliver. What's wrong with this picture? I hope all these employees paid by our tax dollars need help sandbagging this year. I'll be in Florida.

January is rough. Too much time to think and be mad about something. Can't wait for February when I can be reminded that I am 56 years old and shouldn't expect to be able to ski all day and then walk around bragging about it the next.