OT -- Time to vent

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:44 pm

OK. There are a few things that are really pising me off.
Why is gasoline in this country always xx + 9/10. I don't care if it's $2.89/9 or $1.56/9. Why in hell don't they just round it off???. I mean at the .9 rating, you would have to buy a minimum of 10 gallons to see a single cent savings! I think it's time to drop the .9 hoax and tell it like it is. Don't tell me it's $2.49.9.Tell me it's $2.50 for Christ's sake. This is the most outdated marketing scheme of all time and it needs to stop. And I mean NOW!
And oh by the way, gas prices today here in Tulsa was $2.23.9 for 87 octane ethonal laced fuel. I wonder, why woesn't it $2.24????????

And yet another gripe. I have been considering buying a truck for the past couple of years. I am about to give the idea up. Why?? Because you can't find a truck with only 2 doors anymore. Everything on the lots are crew cabs. I mean even the mini trucks like the Ford Ranger are all 4 door crew cabs. What the hell is the industry thinking?? I need a truck for hauling cargo - not people. Make trucks like they used to be made and for the purpose intended.

And my final bitch. What is with these little japanese cars with aftermarket exhausts that would embarass a Harley? I will admit I have seen a few of these - totally modified engine wise that are really quick. But then these wannabe's just put on the exhaust and think it will make them quick. Instead, it makes them loud, obnoxious (slower than stock like a Suzuki wtih the baffles removed) and target for road rage. Then some of these nerds have 10,000 watts of speakers that would power the Filmore. The entire house trembles as they pass by.

I think I need to polish up my 12 guage.

So lets here it! What pisses you off??

oops. I forgot to mention tail gaters. You are doing 5 mph. over the speed limit - look in the rear view mirror and it looks like you're towing the car behind you. By God, tail gaters really piss me off. I'm fixin to make a string operated sign in my rear window that says 'BACK OFF!

Chel_in_IL · Post by **Chel_in_IL** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:17 pm

oops. I forgot to mention tail gaters. You are doing 5 mph. over the speed limit - look in the rear view mirror and it looks like you're towing the car behind you. By God, tail gaters really piss me off. I'm fixin to make a string operated sign in my rear window that says 'BACK OFF!

In Illinois, the recommended minimum following distance for a vehicle is 3 seconds. For a motorcycle, it's 2 seconds. (I teach motorcycle classes and bring this up in class..) How often do you see anyone in a vehicle even doing the 2 second following distance? Hah!

In the last several years I have been rear-ended several times, all from people just being too close to me and someone in front stops quickly, therefore I need to stop quickly as well. Thankfully it's never happened on my motorcycle.

krwalsh · Post by **krwalsh** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:25 pm

Gas is sold in 0.009 increments for exactly the reason you point out. It makes the math-disabled think they're paying $2.49 when it is really $2.50. Think about it, someone asks you the price of gas, you say $2.49, don't you? It is psychological, which is what marketing and advertising are all about. They also sell scratch tickets in gas stations, and make a fortune. Any pea-brain could figure out that scratch tickets are just a tax on people that cannot do math. Besides, if you're paying $2.499 for crap-ass ethanol, please load a truck full and bring it to me. The station closest to my house is at $3.239. So, you can bitch all you want about the .009, but gimme my $0.73 back!

As for trucks, the most reliable truck I ever owned was a crap-ass beat to hell Toyota 1/2 ton with a 22R motor in it. It has 2 doors, seats for 2, and that was it. No fancy nothin. I paid $800 and it was hands down the best $800 I ever spent on a vehicle.

As for ricers and their Folgers can exhausts, I can't help you. Dumb shits with wings bigger than a Cessna bolted up to their flimsy trunk lids.

As for tailgaters, see my answer to #2. Buy the crap-ass beat to hell truck. When that guy behind you gets tucked in the draft like the NASCAR left turners, slam on your brakes. You'll have a new truck in no time.

What pisses me off? The polarized, horseshit, I'm right, you're wrong, name-calling useless SOBs running this country. And I'm not talking about Obama, or Bush, or insert-name-here politician. I mean ALL of them. I'm tired of the he-said she-said name calling BS. We elected these mo-fos to FIX this crap, not be sound bites and 3 seconds of news. Sit down, discuss the issues, solve the problems. This is not goddamn rocket science. Balance a budget. Most Americans figure out that they can only spend the money they got in their wallet, so they better make the hard decisions between a six pack of beer and food on the table. Why can't the government do the same? How come they all hate a public option for health care, but they take it as Senators and Representatives and have better care than 99% of us will ever get? Do you have any idea how much I pay in taxes every year? I'm no talking just about federal and state income tax, property tax, sales tax, but how much of every product has taxes for everyone down the line before it got to me? I've heard estimates that it is potentially upwards of 75% of what you earn gets paid in some way as a tax. Think about that for a second... Are you getting your money's worth?

tz375 · Post by **tz375** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:08 am

The 49.9c thing is old style marketing and the logic is that forty cents sounds less than fifty.

As for tailgaiting - oops - I do that too often. i try to be ware of it and leave more room but sometimes I forget.

Big exhausts on tiny cars are overcompensating for small you know whats.

As for that last point, I could not agree more. As far as I see it, politicians that try to stop legislation just to make a point or to bring someone else down are traitors not patriots.

As for demanding the right to pay more than anyone else on the planet for health care with some of the worst outcomes, don't get me going. the answer isn't another trillion dollars or to to hand insurance companies a windfall or to maintain the excessive compensation for Pharma execs.

It's time for politicians to remember who put them there and it wasn't the lobbyists, it was the voters. In addition, they seem to have forgotten that they are there to serve all Americans, not just a favored few. To do the Right thing not the easy thing or the thing the lobbyists told them to do.

Time for Obamaa to really talk to teh other side and for McCain to remember what honor means and to fight for his fellow Americans. Time for us to start demanding that our politicians do what we expect of them.

Anyone want a soap box? low mileage. One careful owner...

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:27 am

So did something happened to the dog Chris?

pjmcburney · Post by **pjmcburney** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:19 am

tz375 wrote:The 49.9c thing is old style marketing and the logic is that forty cents sounds less than fifty.

Hmmm... Oz has the same lame marketing scam. I don't have too much of a problem with it - I know it's 0.1 cent less than the closest dollar amount. But, I'm paying around AU$1.40, er, AU$1.39.9 a litre here in Brisvegas at the moment. I'd be more than happy to pay US prices for fuel...

Time for Obama to really talk to teh other side and for McCain to remember what honor means and to fight for his fellow Americans. Time for us to start demanding that our politicians do what we expect of them.

Anyone want a soap box? low mileage. One careful owner...

Try working for the major telecommunication's company in this country and NOT get on a soapbox... I won't start, I haven't the battery back-up in this laptop.

Hey, Richard, aren't you an ex-pat... sounds like you've succumbed man.

Cheers
Paul

markj · Post by **markj** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:15 pm

Well the little japanese cars with the loud mufflers is the equivolent to what we did in high school. You remember - take your old beater put on a cherry bomb and some nice rims and, wel-ah, you have a sweet hot rod.

I agree though. Little four bangers with loud mufflers sound like a pull start outboard motor that's not in the water.

Andy Rooney did a great piece about the very gas price issue you raised. Why not just call a penny a penny. It's the only thing on earth that's marked in fractions of a cent(at least for the general population).

Keep it coming coyote there's plenty more absurdly stupid stuff out that we all take for granted. Let's just get it out in the open. How about the idiot that has to share his boom boom music with every other car within 50 yards. I know he's gonna be deaf in a few years but it's just not soon enough of a punishment in my eyes.

tz375 · Post by **tz375** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:23 pm

Hey Paul,

I resemble that remark...

I have lived in teh US now for a long time and it helps me to see the US perspective, but don't forget that before I was an Aussie, I was a Pommie.

All joking aside, what that gives me is an outsider's view from the inside. Those of us that chose to move here and stayed share some of the old stye US values and some Aussie/Brit values, so I have a very different perspective.

It really is annoying to see the way that some of the lobbyists are able to create such a backlash against health reform, just so they can maintain the status quo. They are now using an approach that plays on old racial and social fears and are playing on old divisions between north and south and whipping up paranoia and fear. This country may not be quite some of its citizens belive it is, but it deserves better than that BS.

I chose to use the typical attacks on both sides to make a point and that is that there are problems here than need to be fixed and the best way to do that is to bring both sides together to work out a solution.

Americans love consensus. This bitterness is not a function of American values. It's created by people who stand to gain by dividing the country for their own end.

That I have very little tolerance for.

As for Tesltra, ........let's take that one off line.

jkevinlilly · Post by **jkevinlilly** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:45 pm

My guess is the .9 per gallon pricing came about when a gallon of gasoline cost a fraction of what it does today, and a cent's buying power was many more times than what it is today. Then it would have actually meant something, not anymore though, now it is just marketing. Kind of like a gallon of ice cream no longer really a gallon, the fact that you can no longer by a "fifth" or pint of liquor, or you have to actually read the exact wieght of a bag of chips, then calculate it in your head the price per oz, to figure out which size is overpriced. This week. Next week it will be a different sized bag.

Coyote, if you are letting this all stuff get to you, your neighbors dogs must be finally giving you a break.

Time to relax, have a beer, and just worry about the stuff you still have some control of. Other wise you will end up looking like a gray-haired old Hippy with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth that rides 35 year old two stroke bikes.

Uh Oh, to late.

Kevin

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:57 am

Kevin ....... and all, the owners of the 4 miserable constant barking dogs have moved. They left in early August. The dogs left with them. Someone else now has to tolerate that misery. It's nice and peaceful now, but the house is for rent again. Lord only knows what I will be subjected to next!!

jkevinlilly · Post by **jkevinlilly** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:18 pm

Chris, glad to hear the serenity has returned to your backyard.

Kevin

rngdng · Post by **rngdng** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:54 am

Everything that other people do that invades my privacy, or forces me to alter what I want to do, irritates me. It's the complete lack of consideration for others that is so prevalent in our society that pisses me off.

My kids also piss me off sometimes. I think that, since we brought them into the world, we should be allowed to take them out. Why can't I divorce them at least?

Lane

Suzukidave · Post by **Suzukidave** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:38 pm

Chris , i really like my Ranger with the 1/2 doors in the back , i wouldnt even try to put a person back there so the little jump seats are pretty much a waste of time but the plus door do come in handy for putting big stuff behind the seats and getting it back out . Plus the extra size cab lets me stretch out some as i am over 6' and when i get into a standard cab small truck like the Ranger and S10 the steering wheel feels like its right in my chest . I can still carry my full size bike in the bed

jkevinlilly · Post by **jkevinlilly** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:00 pm

I have a simular ranger, except it has the stepside bed which is a couple inches narrower than Dave's. You can put a 550 in the back, and just barely close the tailgate. With a 750, you can't quite close the tailgate.

Kevin

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 1:11 pm

My.....some of you boys are testy today......

I think I detect some kind of old-fartism creeping into this thread.

No squawks from me today....except the weather that stops me from going riding....but then it also stops me from having to mow the lawn too, so that's a kind of double-edged sword thing....

....so I'm getting caught up with the laundry and cleaning because the missus has gone off on another junket to Winterpeg for a month or so. That woman is sure enjoying her retirement.

Since I can't go riding, I guess I'll overhaul the front master cylinder on the 650 and at least I'll have accomplished something worthwhile today..... besides all the domestic chores crap.....

OT -- Time to vent

OT -- Time to vent

Kwitcherbitchin!