Week 52: Why I almost forgot to blog.

So, I’m finally at week 52.  This has been quite a year for me.  I did accomplish writing a blog every week, with one exception.  The exception was week 12, and I just posted a short thing saying I was too depressed to write because of all the violence that was happening in the world around me.  I think that was actually an excuse and I didn’t feel like writing for that week.  But other than week 12, I did complete what I wanted to do, which was put out a blog each week for 2017.

For week 1 last year I wrote about food.  I guess that was what was on my mind the first week of 2017.  I know there was a lot of things I wanted to write, but didn’t.  Sometimes it was because I just didn’t want to really voice my mind, and sometimes it was because I was too lazy to put it down in the blog.  There were plenty of lazy blogs for last year.

And now I’ve “resolved” to make videos for each week in 2018.  I wonder how much I’ll leave out of the videos I make?  I’m all set with all the equipment I need, but now I have to figure out the time to film things, and also what to film.  No one wants to see video of me just talking about stupid things.  So what else do I show?  Well, I do live in Las Vegas, and there are plenty of things here to show.  I’ll show what I can when I get time.  I’m not even sure what I’m going to be filming for week 1.  Wow.

I almost forgot to write this final blog.  Why would you forget, Robert?  Well, because I’m up to my eyeballs with flu virus.  Yes, that’s right folks, I’ll be starting out my 2018 with the flu.  Not a fun prospect, but sometimes you have to take things in stride.  I saw someone post something on Facebook the other day that said something like “If you’re sick, don’t go to work, or the store, or the library…etc”.  So what am I supposed to do, just lay in bed and wait to get better?  I don’t get paid to lay in bed, and I’m not rich enough to take too much time off of work.  I would LOVE to have a week to lay in bed and get better, but that’s not going to happen.

It might be fun if I could take some video at work for my first week of video for 2018, but I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement and aren’t allowed to really discuss, or show anything about my employment, so I guess that’s out.  

Anyway, thank goodness for Dayquil.  I can chug down a bit of that and then head to work with all my flu symptoms somewhat gone.  I’ll feel good enough to work.  And since I just sit in a chair and look at computer screens while using a radio and phone, I should be fine.  I hope the dispatcher sitting next to me has some Lysol.  *chuckle*. It really won’t matter.  Once one dispatcher comes into work sick, we all get sick.  There was also someone else sick, so either I caught it from her, or she caught it from me.  Or maybe we both caught it from someone else?  Needless to say though, everyone will more than likely get this.  It’ll just be a matter of time.  And can we all stay home?  That would be no.

So week 52 ends with me being sick.  That’s why I almost forgot to write this blog.  I’ll do the best I can to get a video out each week for the coming year.  If I don’t succeed, blame slow internet.  Until you SEE me next year, ask why all you want.  And let’s move on to video life.

Week 51: Why are people nuts tonight?

Normally I go out to buy some groceries each Saturday.  That’s just my usual thing.  Usually it’s not that big of a deal, I go and get what I need and go back home.  There are always people out, but it’s nothing crazy.  Tonight, it was different.

People were manic out there tonight!  It was like a natural disaster was about to hit and people were desperate to stock up!  I understand it’s the last weekend before Christmas, but damn!  

First of all, it was dangerous just to drive to the grocery store!  People drive dangerously in Las Vegas, but tonight it seemed like people were just out of control.  They were running red lights and stop signs, racing down the road going way over the speed limit.  People seemed desperate to get where ever they were going.

Forgetting the crazy driving, I did carefully make my way around to run my errands.  One stop I made was a store called Walmart.  It’s a large department store that sells just about anything you need.  I just needed a few toiletries and figured I could run in and out fairly quickly.  Silly me!  There were people everywhere!  And not just people everywhere, they were shoving everything they could into their carts!  I saw one guy with ten bottles of shampoo and a gallon of milk.  Is he going to run out of shampoo before Christmas?  Maybe he was giving shampoo away for Christmas and needed a large supply?  It was insane, it was as if people were “hurricane shopping”.  You know, out buying things before a hurricane, or some other kind of natural disaster.  

I quickly found the things I needed and dropped them into my cart (trolley, basket, or whatever you want to call it.).  I figured while I was there I might as well check the grocery section.  Stuff was flying off the shelves there!  The chip (crisps?) section was decimated!  Just like the rest of the store people seemed to be grabbing everything they could.  I decided I would rather fight people at a normal grocery store instead of Walmart, so I paid for my items and headed out, again braving the crazy drivers until I could make it to my usual grocery store. (It’s a place called Winco.). Winco had a lot of people in it, but it wasn’t as crazy as Walmart.  Things seemed a bit easier here.  People weren’t as mainic, but things were still flying off the shelves.  Luckily I did get the things I needed today.  

Another new thing is that I’m typing this week’s blog on a brand new iMac.  So far my experience with this new tech has been spent waiting for it to update itself.  It will take a bit of getting used to as it is different than my PC, but so far I’m loving it!  Time to take a few lessons in Final Cut Pro so I’ll be ready to edit my first video in two weeks!  

So again yes, next week will be the final blog for 52 weeks of Why.  I will have blogged for each of the 52 weeks. Except for one week.  I wrote that I was depressed for one week and didn’t do a blog.  But missing only one week is pretty good I think!  

2018 will be the year of video for me.  I’ll hopefully be recording and uploading a video each week with what goes on in my life.  I’d like to go to a few restaurants, maybe visit a few museums, and show off a few of the things around here in Las Vegas besides the casinos.  Maybe next year at this time I can show some video of the manic people?  Anything is possible.

So until the videos start, keep asking why.  I’ll be back with one last blog next week.

Week 50: Why do I think I need to film everything?

Why do I think I need to film everything?  Well, my life really doesn’t need filming, I guess.  I never did end up getting a new camera.  For now I think I’m going to start out with the cameras I have as I do have quite a collection of them.  Christmas time did eat a bit into my savings this year, so a new camera might be a bit excessive.

It might be different for some people in Orlando, Florida.  I watch videos on YouTube of some guys who go to Walt Disney World, or some other theme park every week.  And it’s fun to watch them, but there really aren’t any theme parks here.  Maybe I’ll have to exaggerate some of my life?  I am going to learn how to do a few special effects while filming.  Maybe more than a few effects.  Maybe I’ll be able to make things fun enough that people might just want to watch me each week?  I’ll have to put some thought into this.

So how do you know what people would like to watch?  Well, I’ll have to go with what I enjoy.  If I like it and think a video is fun, maybe everyone else will, too? I have a few videos I’ve done a while ago, but I think they would be too large to insert here in the blog.  One video has two of me sitting on a couch talking about two books.  I thought it was pretty clever and looked pretty good!  I checked and the file is around 6GB.  I think if I wanted to try and insert that here it would take a couple days to upload it.  And then I’m not sure I can just post videos that large into my blog.  Oh well, maybe I’ll get it out somewhere in another video one of these days.  Old footage sometimes comes in really handy!

I could edit some video from a few theme parks.  I do still have quite a lot of video that I’ve taken back on past trips.  I’m not sure whether my weekly videos should be about what’s currently going on in my life, or maybe show some of my past if that’s more fun?  We’ll see what I can cook up.  From what I’ve been seeing though, if I put my mind to it, I should be able to make some theater quality stuff if I just take my time and learn a program or two in depth.

You might be surprised what people would like to see.  I’ve looked up grocery stores in the UK before and was amazed by the videos I found!  It was thrilling for me to see what shopping was like across the pond!  Should I maybe show where I shop and what it looks like inside?  Would anyone in the UK, or anywhere else like to see that?  I do have friends from all over the world on my Facebook account and that’s probably where I’ll post the links to my videos after I upload them to YouTube.  Hmm, again I guess I’ll just have to gage my audience as I learn film making.

I’m currently waiting on some things to arrive.  Once they do, I’ll have to get started and learn what I can before my first video in January.  I’m pretty excited already!  So why do I think my life needs to be filmed?  Because it’s just something I want to do!  And it will be something left behind when I’m gone!

So until video one comes out, keep asking why.  One other thought, what should I call my video series for next year?  52 Weeks of Life, maybe?  I don’t know.  If you have other suggestions, let me know.

Week 49: Why I may go full Apple.

I’ve thought about this for a while, and I may just go full Apple this coming year.  Now don’t get me wrong, it won’t be cheap!  I’ll have to pay quite a bit to do this, but that’s why I go to work, isn’t it?  I’ve got a bit of money saved up.  I’m still thinking this through. 

I had another little “adventure” with my PC today.  It decided it had to download some updates and that’s fine!  I can respect it needing updates now and then.  So I let it do its thing and the download went on for a while.  When it was finally finished, the PC needed to be restarted.  Ok, so I restarted it.  First it was stuck on a “bios” screen and the keyboard wouldn’t work.  Oh no, not another problem!  I forced a shutdown and restarted the computer.  That should fix things, right?  Then all I got was the PC doing something, but nothing on my monitor.  I fretted for a bit and then tried another restart.  Again, nothing on the monitor and the computer seemingly doing something.  Well, maybe if I just went out and got some groceries things would be fine when I returned. 

I was pretty sure that when I got back from getting groceries the PC would still have nothing on the screen and be not working at all.  I checked, and it was fine.  I guess it just needed to install some things before it showed anything on the screen.  That seemed so unusual to me, though. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my PC!  I would have been heartbroken if something else was wrong!  I’ve had it for so long now!  If we go back a few blogs, I’ve even replaced the power supply in it all by myself.  I’m quite proud that I did that, by the way!  But let’s think this through.  I am planning on moving on to videos next year instead of written blogs and Apple products are pretty good at editing video.  A new iMac would also connect with my iPhone and iPad.  Hmm, now that’s something to think about.  My PC is pretty nice, but it really doesn’t connect to anything besides the internet.  I’d still have my PC, but would have something nice to edit video with.  Choices, choices, hmm.

There is something new coming called an iMac Pro.  The small bit of info I found says it will be released in December.  It’s December now.  So when do I get to see the overblown prices?  *chuckle*  Being serious though, I’ve had a MacBook for years and never really had any problems with it.  I still have it and the battery for it is no good so if I want to use it, it has to be plugged into an outlet.  But it does still work.  And it always was really nice to edit video with the few times I did it with the MacBook.  The big concern here is the price.  I’m going to have to probably pay around $2,000 or more, maybe even up to $3,000 for an iMac Pro when they come out.  Would it be worth that price?

Now you can get a “fusion drive” with an iMac.  That sounds so neat!  Does it work better than a regular hard drive?  If you ask Apple people they will tell it does.  I’m very curious about this.  It has to do with “flash drive” stuff.  It all sounds fantastic.  Again, this will come down to money.  Will I be willing to spend a few thousand dollars on something like this?  A lot of my life revolves around computers and electronic things at the moment.  I really would like something like this.  Again, this will take a lot of thought.  We'll see what happens.

At the moment I’m thrilled with fast food places that let me place an order with my phone, iPad, or PC and then just drive over and pick up the food.  And if I decide to buy an iMac I can just drive over to a nearby Apple store and pick it up.  I ordered and picked up my iPad Pro at the Apple store and that was actually pretty fun. 

Lots of thoughts in my head now.  It’s the end of the year and soon it will be tax return time.  That will give me a bit of extra money with my tax refund.  Is it time to go full Apple?  I wanted to buy a video camera with a microphone (still haven’t decided on one) for my videos next year so I could make sure I have good sound on the videos.  Why not make sure I have something that will help me edit things in a somewhat professional fashion?  I’ve been always been told over and over that the best thing to edit video on is always an Apple. 

Much thought will go into this as I continue to order Christmas things on Amazon.  I love ordering things online!  Until I figure all of this out, keep asking why.

Week 48: Why I love cameras and wings.

I need a new video camera.  Ok, that’s not really true, I already have quite a collection of cameras that can take video, it’s more like I WANT a new video camera.  I’ve decided that I want to do a video a week instead of a blog for 2018.  52 Weeks of Life.  How does that sound?  There are a few reasons for this.

One reason is that while growing up and even into adulthood, my father would always tell me stories about his life.  I loved them.  I would hear about his time in the U.S. Air Force, bits about when he was in high school, and how he grew up on a farm.  I loved the stories and still remember quite a few of them.  My father passed away back in September and now I don’t get to hear the stories anymore.  Anyway, back before he passed on I asked him if I could set up a camera and he could tell some of his stories.  I got a resolute “NO!” to that.  He didn’t want to do that at all.  It was his choice and I respected that.

But now I’m in my 50’s and writing a blog is nice, but you don’t really see anything that’s going on during the time.  You just get to read whatever I write.  Now granted if I do videos you’ll still only see what I want to film, but still the visual medium is much more fun than writing sometimes.  When I was pretty young I knew my Great Grandmother on my mother’s side.  I even used to write her letters (She lived up in Montana, far away from where I was at the time.).  Imagine what it would be like if I could sit down now and watch videos of my Great Grandmother when she was in her 50’s.  That would still probably be back in the 1930’s or 1940’s!  I know there are some old reel to reel movies, but I’m not sure who the people are on them and they don’t have any sound.  Not as much fun without sound!

Ask yourself what you did last year.  Do you remember what was going on in each month or week last year?  I may not if you ask me, but I can go back to this blog and select any week of the year and after reading what I’d written know how I felt, and what was going on at the time.  Imagine being able to go back when I’m in my 60’s and watch, or even show someone what was going on in my life in 2018 with videos!  I can’t pass that opportunity up! 

And this will not only teach me about filming and editing, I’ll hopefully learn more and more each week about how to edit and process videos.  Will I be much better at filming by week 22 next year?  Who knows?  But I think it’s still a fun thing to do. 

So why do I need a new camera if I already have a bunch of cameras that could probably easily do the job?  I’ve decided I want one with an attachable microphone.  It’s just something I want.  I probably don’t need it, but I think sound will be an important part of the videos.  Maybe a new camera that I can screw some kind of lens on if I need it? (What the hell would I need a different lens for if I’m just vloging?  *chuckle*)  Being honest, if I’m going to do this, I should do it to the best of my ability.  I don’t want to just post crap on my YouTube channel.  Well…maybe it’ll be crap, but hopefully it’ll be good crap.  *chuckle* It can’t possibly be worse than some of the other crap that’s on television now!

I’ve looked at some cameras tonight in a shop called Best Buy and they are outrageous.  Anywhere from $400 on up and those are without attachable microphones!  I’ll check a few other shops next week, but I’ll probably end up ordering something from Amazon.  They have some very nice looking cameras with microphones starting at around $110.  I’ll see what I can find and hopefully be ready for all of this on Week 1, 2018!

Moving on to wings, I love chicken wings!  There is a place near where I live called Wing Stop.  They pretty much serve two things: chicken wings, and French fries.  There are all kinds of flavors of wings and one of my all-time favorite thing about this place is that I can order and pay online and then just drive over and they hand me a bag with my order in it! 

Now it’s not just the convenience of ordering online that I like (that’s actually really fun! *chuckle*), the wings are always fantastic!  The people working there smile and greet me happily.  I love the place!  It’s a bit on the pricy side, but still I do think the food there is well worth the price.  You can take a look at my order right here:

I ordered 15 mild wings and they smell wonderful!  A very nice treat for my weekend.  So off I go to eat my wings and finish up relaxing before my return to work.  While I do that, everyone keep asking why!  And think how nice this will be next year when I don’t just write about getting wings from Wing Stop, I'll actually show some video about it!  *chuckle*

Week 47: Why Black Friday and Saturday didn't seem black to me.

This weekend was what is called “Black Friday”.  The day after American Thanksgiving is usually a madhouse at the stores.  People have to get the Black Friday bargains!  There are usually fights and stampedes and all kinds of chaos!  I wanted to see all of this for this year.  I can remember wanting to go to the mall last year, but there was nowhere to park.  Every single parking space was taken the Saturday after Black Friday last year!  I couldn’t even park my car!

This year was different.  I went to the mall today and there were plenty of parking spaces.  I walked into the mall to look around and there were people all over the place, but most of them didn’t seem to be buying anything.  Most of them were just standing around and staring at cell phones.

I didn’t find much to interest me at the mall.  The place also had a really strong smell of incense, soap, and perfume.  Maybe there were other scents, but it seemed to me like those were the prevailing scents.  It would have been nice to smell cotton candy, or maybe cinnamon, or something a bit more Christmasy, but no, just the strong soap and perfume smell.  Almost enough to make you sick.

And so I moved on.  I figured maybe people were in the huge department stores like Target.  So I drove to a nearby Target.  Plenty of parking spaces and again lots of people inside, but the cashiers didn’t seem busy at all.  I picked up some almond M&Ms and used the self-checkout lane without waiting in any kind of line.  Lots of people in the store, but again no one buying anything.  Just a lot of people staring at cell phones.

Maybe the people were all at the grocery stores getting food?  Nope!  I drove to two different stores to get my groceries and didn’t have to wait in a line to buy anything.

I think online shopping is more popular than ever this year.  People will go out and look in the stores, but don’t seem to be buying.  I’d rather stay home and hang out than go out and stare at a cell phone in a mall!

Moving on, tomorrow is my birthday.  I’ll be turning 51 years old.  I’m fat, old, and cranky now.  You can say “No, 51 isn’t old, it’s middle age”, but I think you’d be wrong.  I really doubt I’ll live to 102 which means I’m past “middle age”.  I’m not totally unhappy, though.  I’ll have to work for my birthday night, but that won’t be so bad.  I think it will be better than if I was unemployed for my birthday.  I’ll hopefully be thrilled when I’m retired and don’t have to go to work for my birthday, but by the time I have enough to retire on, I may be too old to do anything, or go anywhere!  I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

So for week 47 I wonder why this Black Friday didn’t seem so black.  Is everyone really buying all their presents online?  As Alice would say, “Curiouser and curiouser”.  Down the rabbit hole we go!  Time to celebrate my birthday a day early this year and watch some movies and play a few video games.  Until next week when I’m officially 51, keep asking why.

Week 46: Why I'm happy with nothing!

This weekend I finally had nothing to do!  Absolutely nothing!  And I was really thankful for the nothing!  I also seemed to have caught the flu, so it was the perfect weekend for nothing.  For weeks now I’ve had things to do on my days off, doctor appointments, getting my driver’s license renewed, work cards, fingerprints, it was never ending.  Finally though, a weekend of peace.  And I didn’t mind having the flu very much because I was able to just stay home and rest!

Even though I had nothing to do, there still seemed like so much to do.  I blame that on all the technology I have now.  Back in the 1980’s if I didn’t have anything to do I could just sit around and watch whatever was on television, or maybe play the radio, or take a nap.  Now I can watch things on Netflix, play with my computer, or iPad, or even work on finishing some video games that I’ll probably never finish.  So many choices!  But they’re all at home!  I don’t have to go anywhere!

I did stop off and pick up a few groceries, but for the most part I just stayed home and enjoyed not going anywhere.  Traffic is horrible and it’s not even Black Friday yet!  Next week will be Black Friday.  I’ll stay home and watch on television as people kill each other for a “deal”!

As for some unnamed relatives annoying each other with Christmas decorations, you rock!  As for me, I’ll go back to enjoying my nothing.  I won’t question it, either.  But you all can still keep asking why.  Until next week, bye!

Week 45: Why I didn't do much for Veteran's Day.

Welcome to Veteran’s Day!  I happen to be a veteran!  I’m not retired, or a wartime veteran, but I still served.  So what did I do this Veteran’s Day?  Not much.  At least I had the day off from work.  A guy at my work place suggested I go to one of the places in town giving veterans a free meal.  I think a lot of those places are really packed with veterans and even sometimes people who aren’t veterans, but are trying to get free food.  I’m not much for crowds, so that was out.

I was invited to go see an air show at Nellis Air Force Base, but declined that, too.  I’ve seen an air show before I enlisted.  You stand around and look up as pilots zoom by in jets.  I wasn’t really impressed as a kid. And probably wouldn’t be impressed now.  I’d just be tired after standing around all day on a flight line.

So what does being a veteran mean to me?  It means I get a bunch of people telling me “thank you for your service", but that’s about it.  Do I get a benefit on my taxes for serving?  Nope.  Can I maybe decline serving on a jury if I get a jury notice?  Again, nope.  Maybe I get paid holiday pay for Veteran’s Day?  HAHAHAHAHA  that would be a huge no.

To me being a veteran meant I spent four years wearing a blue (actually most of the time it was green, or “forest” colored) uniform.  I figured the military would teach me a nice trade that I could use after I was discharged.  They taught me a trade alright, I was just never able to use it in the civilian world.  I guess I could have went on to become a spy, but sometimes those guys get shot in the head.  I’m not a huge fan of that.  The Air Force did actually teach me quite a bit, though.  I might bitch and complain about the military sometimes, but they did give me a fair amount of discipline and taught me how to handle things on my own if I need to.  I don’t regret joining up and if I had the same chance again, I’d still join even if it was wartime. 

So I didn’t do much today.  I visited with my family and went to the grocery store.  I bought some stuff that says it’s Salsa Verde Spicy.

Green and spicy, it looks wonderful!  I have some nice tortilla chips to dip into it and I’ll be digging into this stuff as soon as my blog is finished!

Another thing I really need to do is to buy myself a new computer chair.  The arm rest broke off my current one and if I don’t get a new one, I keep feeling like I’m going to end up stabbing myself to death when I accidentally fall. 

Doesn’t that look really sharp?  It is!  I’ll order myself a new chair soon.  I think it’ll run me around $100.  I may wait until after Thanksgiving when all the Christmas sales come out.  Maybe I’ll be able to get a chair on sale.  I’ll most likely order it from Amazon and have it delivered to my door.  I’ll have to put it together myself, but that shouldn’t actually be too difficult.

Well, that’s the blog for today.  I guess the only real questions this week are how will the green salsa taste and why haven’t I bought a new chair quite yet?

I’m still pretty certain that for next year I’m going to move on to videos every week.  So instead of 52 weeks of Why, we’ll have 52 weeks of life.  Live action bullshit!  I’ll have to figure out what to film when I don’t really go out and do anything.  *chuckle*  So until I end up doing that, keep asking why.

Week 44: Why I was back at the Department of Motor Vehicles

Yes, this week I had to go back to the lovely DMV.  I hate that place and I’m sure everyone else hates it, too!  There’s always some problem.  A machine doesn’t work, or things are suddenly costing more than they should.  It’s always some kind of struggle.  If I wanted to keep legally driving though, I had to go back.  My driver’s license expires on my birthday of this year, November 26, 2017.  I need to drive to work, and work to pay bills, so I need a new license. 

I was worried about the eye test.  I’m getting older now and my eyes aren’t the best.  But I went to the eye doctor and have new glasses.  There should be no problem with the eye test.  I checked online and found things that looked like this:

That should be no problem.  I can see well enough to read letters and things. The legal requirement is supposed to be something like 20/40 vision in one eye.  At least that’s what I think it is.  Who really knows, though? 

I wanted to get there nice and early and so maybe I wouldn’t have to wait hours for my turn.  So I got there about ten minutes before it opened at 7:50am.  There was a huge line out front.  I can wait in a line, I had planned on that anyway.  Now there’s also the problem of “real ID”.  Supposedly you won’t be able to fly anywhere by the year 2020, or 2021 if you don’t have a “real ID”.  Your driver’s license can be a real ID as long as you have the proper documents.  And so I collected all the things I should need.

I get up to the first desk pretty quickly to tell the lady what I’m there for.  Things moved pretty fast once the place opened.  I tell her I need to renew my driver’s…”FILL THIS OUT!  WHAT’S YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER? WAIT TO BE CALLED!

What the hell?  My cell phone number?  I ask the lady if she’s going to give me a number so I know when I’m being called.  She grunts that the last four digits of my cell phone number are what they’ll call.  Well damn, now how am I going to know how many people are in front of me?  I sit down in front of a board showing who’s next and try to fill out my form.  Before I even get halfway finished with the form, my cell phone number comes up on the board.  I hustle over to the window listed and find this old, troll lady scowling at me. 

I tell her I’m not finished with my form yet and she starts growling instructions for me to finish it!  I tell her I need the “real ID” and I have my documents and she demands my birth certificate.  I pass over the certified copy and she growls back, “WE DON’T ACCEPT COPIES!  WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?”  I tell her I got it from my mother.  That’s been good for almost 51 years, but the troll isn’t having any of that.  She denies me a “real ID”.  I’m in no mood to fight, so I just ask for my driver’s license to be renewed.

I ask what documents I need for the renewal and the troll just grunts at me and types on her computer.  She then demands I pull this electronic thing over and look into it and read the first box.  I pull the thing over and look inside.  I can see the box, but everything inside it is a mushy blur!  What the hell?  I can’t see anything!  I can barely make out some speed limit signs on the bottom, but I can’t make out any letters!  My vision is bad, but not so bad I would fail an eye test!

Now I’m starting to panic.  If I fail the eye test, I don’t get a driver’s license.  I need my license!  First, no “real ID”, now the troll may fail my eye test!  For some reason I shifted my head a bit and then things came a bit into focus.  They’re not normal letters though, it’s a bunch of numbers.  It’s like some magical, mystical, 3-D puzzle that you have to unravel and look at from the correct angle, or you don’t get your license.  FINALLY though, I can at least make out the numbers.  It really didn’t seem like a fair eye test to me.  Now the troll does a bit more typing and then demands payment.  I ask if my debit card is ok and the troll growls back “WE RUN EVERYTHING AS A CREDIT CARD!”  A simple “yes” would have been nice.

I had brought my DD-214 along (A copy really, that’s my military discharge form) so that they can print “Veteran” on my license.  For a few minutes I thought the troll was going to tell me that wasn’t enough proof of my being a veteran!  She tells me I can’t have my documents back until after my photo is taken, and then gives me back my documents anyway.  I’m told to go “over there” for my photo.  I wander “over there” in the direction the troll had pointed.

I found a line with people waiting for their photos to be taken and was waiting my turn.  There was only two people in front of me, but the line wasn’t moving at all.  I looked around the place at the other trolls, or employees, or whatever they are working there.  No one looked the slightest bit happy.  They were all scowling and seemed to hate people.  How lovely for them to work with people all day. 

Finally my turn does come and the guy takes my photo and uses some machine to punch the word “VOID” into my current license.  I’m not sure I like that.  Now I have a slip of paper until they get around to mailing me my new license in “seven to ten working days”.

While I had been doing all this, my cell phone was going off left and right.  Someone was texting me.  I’m thinking, “Leave me alone, I’m trying to get this done!”  I didn’t bother to look until later.  When I finally checked my messages, they were all from the DMV. 

The first message said there were four people ahead of me.  Then a message that said I should only be waiting one more minute.  Then a text to go to window 6.  And finally a text telling me they had given my spot in line to someone else.  If I was being helped at window six, how did they give my spot away?  The DMV doesn’t even know what they’re doing!

On the good side, that’s been taken care of.  The new driver’s license should be good until 2025.  They can stick the “real ID” thing where the sun doesn’t shine.  I’m not going back for one of those. 

In other news for me this week, I used a Cupcake ATM.

This was actually pretty neat!  I chose what flavor I wanted, used my debit card to pay $4.50, and the ATM gave me the cupcake!  I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks delicious!  I’ll try and upload the video of me using the ATM to my Facebook page if anyone is curious.

So until next week, keep asking why there aren’t more cupcake ATMs!  And keep asking why about everything.

Week 43: Why I was part of both old, and New Vegas this week.

I live in Las Vegas.  Actually, I live in a place called Henderson, Nevada, but it might as well be Las Vegas.  I work in a Las Vegas hotel/casino and have been here now for over 20 years.  This week I got to be a part of both old, and new Las Vegas.  Let’s start with the new:

In modern Las Vegas you have to pay the state of Nevada to work in a casino.  Yes, you have to pay them.  It’s called a “Sheriff’s Card” or gaming/non-gaming card, or whatever else you’d like to call it.  It’s basically permission to work for five more years in a casino.  It’s also a pretty big money grab for the state of Nevada.  I HATE when my card is due!  My current “card” (I’m being generous calling it a card because they don’t even issue you an actual card anymore!) is due in December, but since I’ve been notified, I might as well get working on it now.

Back when I first moved to Nevada there was only one place you could get your Sheriff’s card.  That would be the Sheriff’s office.  And since everyone in town needed a card, you would get to the Sheriff’s office bright and early and wait in a four to five hour line to get fingerprinted, background checked, and finally you would get your card.  They did issue actual cards back then.  Today, it’s much different.

Today, I just had to go to an office where I worked, log on to a computer, assure the computer that I hadn’t been arrested, or have any child support, or any felonies, or whatever, and then use my debit card to pay $75.  Actually, they charged me $0.50 to use my card, so my total was $75.50.  I’m still not finished with all of that.  I still have to find some place to fingerprint me.  My finger prints are already on file, but I still have to have it done again every five years.  I’ll also have to pay for that, too.  Sheesh, it’s expensive to work!  But at least I wasn’t waiting in line for four hours this time!

Moving forward, let’s forget about the Sheriff’s card for a moment.  This weekend I was invited to the Neon Boneyard Park.  Usually they charge to see old Las Vegas neon signs, but for today it was free!  And it was quite a trip into the past!

Before entering the Boneyard place, I found a truck serving some food.  It was called “StripChezze”.  I don’t know what they were serving, but I loved the name!  *chuckle*

Getting inside the boneyard we began to see old, retired Las Vegas neon signs from Las Vegas past.  Those were the glory days of this town!  I found the La Concha sign.  I think this was way before my time and don’t know where this hotel was, but it looks so fabulous in old photos!

The Yucca, Las Vegas.  What was this place like?  Wow!

I remember driving by the Silver Slipper when I was a really young kid while we were passing through Las Vegas on vacation.  I don’t think we ever went in there, but I loved the neon shoe!

These signs reigned back when the hotels had “color TV” and gift shops would promise “Tender Sympathy” and "free aspirin" for a hangover.  *chuckle*

My last photo is of a giant neon duck.  I don’t know where this came from, but I loved it!  I guess I could have asked someone, but it was more fun for me to just have a photo of the duck without really knowing anything about it.  Feel free to comment if you have any idea what this neon duck is really from.

So there you have it.  This week I was part of modern Las Vegas paying for my new work card, and I also experienced some of Las Vegas’ past.  I’m sure I could have wandered around and asked everyone why there, but it was more fun just to think about those bygone days when those old places were still open.

So until next week, keep asking why.  And get out and experience part of where ever you’re at.  Fun things lurk everywhere, sometimes you just have to find them.  So do something fun, and then ask why!

Week 42: Why I paid out the eyes.

Maybe the title of this blog should be Why I paid out the ass?  Eyes seemed more suitable, though.  For this week my little chore was to go and see an optician.  I can still see ok, but I need to renew my driver’s license soon and I’m sure that will be a whole blog and a half by itself.  But before I head to the Department of Motor Vehicles, I wanted to make sure I could easily pass the eye exam part.  You never know, right?

I had a nice appointment in the afternoon for the optician.  I’m not afraid of the eye doctor, but I hate going to them for two reasons:  Firstly they always do this test where they blow a puff of air into each eye one by one and I absolutely HATE that!  It hurts!  Yes, I’m being a big baby about this, but usually when they do it I get all pissed off and then whatever they’re looking for gets worse and they want to do the test again and again!  Maybe things will look better after a few more shots?  I just get angrier and angrier and the test results look worse and worse, whatever they’re testing!

Secondly I hate going because it ends up costing me a damned fortune!  Even with insurance these guys are outrageous!  Well let me correct that, the optician visit was only $10.  The new glasses and frames are what cost a fortune!  And they never have the frames you want!

My last visit was only a year ago, so they remembered me.  I’m not sure if I was that much trouble, or that nice about things, but they did remember me.  Especially when the eye air puff thing test started.  I don’t think she wanted to screw around with me much for this visit, so she just did each eye once and then said that was fine. 

Then I get to see the actual optician.  She’s very nice and wants to dilate my eyes.  No dice there, I don’t want my eyes dilated.  She’d like to take some photos of my eyes.  I don’t want photos taken either!  I just want to see if my eyes have changed and are bad enough that I won’t pass an eye test for my driver’s license!

She checks me over and then tells me that my eyes are a quarter better again.  A quarter of what, I don’t know.  What’s going on is that I’m extremely nearsighted.  And now that I’m getting older, my eyes have decided they want to be a bit farsighted.  This just corrects my nearsightedness!  So if I live to be about 80, maybe I’ll have 20/20 vision without glasses!  What a pain in the ass! 

So after what was a quick and painless appointment with the optician, I now get to deal with the people in the outer office.  They are expensive.  VERY expensive!  I take the prescription the optician has given me and give it to this very nice girl.  I also tell her I want the same exact frames I have now.  I like the frames I’m wearing, so why not get the same thing, right?  She types everything into a computer and then tells me the insurance won’t pay for the frames.  I’m not surprised, they barely paid for anything last year!  They apparently only want to pay for frames once every two years.  They’ll pay for an optician visit once a year, but not for frames.  Insurance companies really suck at the moment.  When they do pay, I think it's only about $20, or some shitty amount like that.

I want new glasses, though.  It doesn’t make sense to go to the optician and then not get new glasses.  So I just pay the $265.  Yes, that’s how much it cost me for my new glasses.  They should be ready in 7 to 10 business days.  F&%$K!  So I don’t get my expensive new glasses for about two weeks or so.  How lovely, huh?

Is that the end?  Of course not!  I find a message on my phone shortly after leaving the optician’s place telling me that the frames I want are no longer available.  That’s just fantastic.  What the hell?  I called back and the clerk tells me they “manufacturer”  had a few other frames that were supposedly pretty much the same.  I wonder how “pretty much”?  I have to choose between the colors of gun metal, or gold.  I chose gun metal.  Maybe I should have chosen gold?  I certainly paid enough for gold glasses!

I’d like to think I’ll have my glasses by the next blog, but who really knows?  So why did I pay through the eyes this week?  All so I will hopefully be able to get a new driver’s license!  Until next week, keep asking why.  Then thank God every night if you don’t have to wear glasses!  You’re saving a lot of money if you can see well!