Black Froday, Cyber Monday

Well I survived the madness of Black Friday.

This is mainly because I had to work. Thursday too. And Saturday. So being safely away from all sources of retail craziness, I was not really worried about being trampled to death at a Wal-Mart.

So as a result, I really do not know how Black Friday went. Sure - there were stores that had long lines of idiots standing around for 6 - 8 hours waiting for the doors to open. And I assume the mobs were orderly, as I did not hear any reports of a trampling death this year.

I have heard various "news" reports however. Bloomberg reports that sales "may have" advanced 2.4% over last year. Of course last year there was a slump of some 8% over the year before. But the retail industry forecast of a 1% slump in spending seems to have held true also - so who knows.

I think the actual numbers are WORSE than what is reported. For one, nobody was trampled to death. Compare this to the 90s when multiple people would get trampled to death. And not just at Wal-Mart! Oh no, you were taking your life into your hands every time a new shipment of Tickle Me Elmo hit a store. And even if you were just driving within 50 miles of that store - you were at a greatly increased risk of harm. People had lost their mind.

When the economic shit hit the fan in 2007, it was close to the holiday season. Sales were down from what they were, but since many people did not realize just how shitty things were to become stores were still hopeful. It took the sales figures AFTER the entire holiday season was over to make that clear. As the season went on, things got shittier and shittier.

But still - people were trampled to death on Black Froday.

Last year we all knew what was up. We were firmly into the shit. No question about it. Anyone who said "oh, this economic thing is not so bad" was clearly smoking crack.

And still, on Black Froday there was one trampling death.

So I have developed an index. The more people who get stampeeded, the better the season is. Pretty simple really.

This year, by my accounts - nobody was killed. Nobody even so much as tripped and fell down. It all seemed to be rather calm and controled - which is not a good sign really. Chaos and madness is a better indicator.

Saturday, after work, I did make a spy mission to a Best Buy. The store was full of stuff. Much of it was Black Froday sale items that had not sold out. There was one Garmin GPS for $99 that was sold out - but from what I could see everything else was still there. Even the $25 DVD players.

So either the Best Buy stocked up and built up sufficient inventory (unlikely in my opinion, given the poor sales forecast) or else stuff did not sell as anticipated.

Also -there were not any people in the check-out line. I did see some people walking out with stuff - but there were no check-out lines.

Now Cyber Monday is more my speed. This is the day when people spend time at work looking for online deals. I did this. I ordered a Garmin Nuvi 550 GPS for $199, a universal mount for the GPS ($20), and a LED light ($8). That concluded my Cyber Monday shopping extravaganca. Not very exciting, but now the Waverunner has a primary GPS, and the boat has a secondary backup GPS. I can also use the 550 in the truck, on foot, or on a bike. It has car mode, boat mode, foot mode, and bicycle mode. Plus it is waterproof. Pretty cool.

I wonder if there is a measure of productivity lost on Cyber Monday. I bet that the sales boost minus the productivity loss would make for an interesting topic for an economics class.

And today - the universal GPS mount arrived. Just now. Really. West Marine apparently ships shit out fast. So today, on my traded day off - I have something to install on the Waverunner! Now if I can just get that GPS in all will be good.

Thanksgiving Adeventure

At work. Thursdays are not one of my days off, so I had to work.

But all is not so bad. Sort of. It was not a very busy day. It was actually quiet. So it was a chill out day.

I brought rum cake. So at least there was rum cake. It was a pretty big hit.

There is a rumor that there will be holiday pay - but I am not really holding my breath over that. Whatever.

Lets see what else......well nothing really. It was a workday, but a very low key workday.

After work I had my dinner.

And that, so far, is it. Well there is the beer I am about to open. Maybe watch some TV. And so on.

Hope everyone had a good day!

1/2 day off

Today is my 1/2 day off. I do not have to be at work till 1300 (1 PM). Now normally I would be tempted to sleep till at least 11:00, but not today! I have two missions to accomplish!

1. Get my teeth cleaned

AND

2. Refuel the boat.

The dentist office called the other day and reminded me that according to their records, I have not been there in a while. This is true. I had an appointment in January that I just bailed out on - on account of limited funds and whatnot. Well I decided that teeth are important so I scheduled another cleaning for today.

As for the boat, I actually got to use it for a couple of hours Sunday. It needs to be topped off. Nothing major, probably 6 gallons or less per tank. So Ill get that done.

Then after that Ill put the boat away, lock it up, and go to work.

I should have enough time to get it all done and still not be late! Work days that start at 1300 rule.

Insurance And Stuff

One of the things I have done (so far) with my days off is kick on the TV. It seems I have not missed much when it comes to the great health care fiasco.

Now I have one of these full time jobs that the right likes to talk so much about. You know, the kind that comes with benefits and options and all that other happy horse shit. So therefore, I must be set!

Well not exactly. You see, my employer is somewhat cheap. The plan offered is really not a plan. It is a supplemental plan. The way it works is that I get paid directly if I need care, then I use that money to pay bills. So I can go anywhere and see any doctor. It does not matter.

Well here is the problem with the plan. Without real insurance to back it up it is WORTHLESS. Lets just take emergency care for example. If I were to end up in intensive care the "plan" offered would pay a whole whopping $750 per day. The problem is that intensive care costs somewhat more than $750 per day.

They will pay $25,000 if I need an organ transplant. Hey great - better than nothing but I would still be in the hole by a couple of hundred grand.

So I opted to not sign up for the plan. I did my cost benefit analysis and determined that the plan was not worth the cost.

So what about routine care? Well it turns out I can do things like see the dentist or eye doctor and they will also pay me directly. Problem is the amount they will pay me is less than what I would have to pay anyway. They will give me $80 for a routine eye exam for example - but for me a routine exam is closer to $125 - $150.

Now why the hell do I want to pay someone about $7 per pay period so that they can give me back $80 later? Keep in mind the premiums I would pay would total more than what I would get back in routine care reimbursement. Here is $100 - you can give me back $75 later! What a great deal that is.

The "plan" was also fragmented. There was the emergency plan that only covers emergency care, the routine plan, the dental plan, the eye plan, the cancer plan, and so on.

To get them all would equal the premiums for a real plan.

So what good is the plan offered? Well lets say that a real plan was also offered (which it is not). I could buy into the supplemental plan and it would more than cover the deductibles for the real plan.

But offering only the supplemental plan is just a joke. People who buy into it think they are covered - but guess what? If you need anything beyond routine care (which you will have to pay roughly 1/2 the cost for anyway - on top of the premiums paid to get back less than what you paid in - which in effect just makes your routine care MORE expensive) you will end up bankrupt.

Well to hell with that. If I am going to end up bankrupt, I am going to keep the $7 every 2 weeks premium payment. That will at least pay for a six pack. I will get more benefit out of the beer than the plan anyway.

So there you go. More reason why we NEED more options. There are those of us out there working 40 hour weeks, in what appears to be a real company with some 400 employees (with plans to hire another 600 upon planned expansion) - but we have no real insurance.

And I am not really being paid enough to buy my own private plan. As it is now a decent place to live (as in not an apartment in Crack City) will cost me more than 1/2 of my income. At the very best, with the move in specials because the economy sucks I might be able to find a decent place to live for 1/2 of my income. This leaves me another 1/2 for everything else.

In other words - nothing for health insurance.

I also do not see wages going up anytime soon. At least not till the economy recovers. Right now it is not like there are a lot of other jobs I can just take. And as long as there is a shortage of jobs, employers can offer lower wages and people will take them.

I know of people with many years of experience, and graduate degrees - working for $10 - $12 per hour. So that is the reality of today.

But as it stands now - we need more choices when it comes to health plans. I would like to be insured - but I can not afford to buy into a private non-group rate plan, and the garbage plan offered at work is not worth the premiums I would pay.

I suppose some radio clowns would just call me a cheap bastard who thinks everything should be free. Someone who probably supports labor unions, and who is just lazy and really hates capitalism. Why I might even be a communist! Or at least a socialist.

I just do not want to be horribly in debt should I get sick. I suppose that is too much to ask for.