Snow in the Capital or Why I Hate Liberal Leave

It is snowing in Washington today, but the Federal Government is open. Most companies in this region follow the Feds and are open unless the Federal Government closes. In some cases, the government gives people "Liberal Leave" which means they can take time off if they want to, but it comes out of the employee's time instead of the governments. When companies follow this logic, they get employees to take a vacation day instead of giving them a free day off. Unfortunately, government workers are unionized and get more days off per year than non-government folks so while "Liberal Leave" to the government may mean, "Hey, you with 80 days saved up, take a day off." To the rest of us poor schmos it means, "Get your ass out of bed and into the office."
I really loathe the whole culture behind the concept that unless the roads are SO treacherous that no part of the road between your door and the office is passable, that you should go to work. I can't imagine being the boss who made some road-weary employee brave the roads and then learning that employee died or was injured because I couldn't bare to let them have an extra day off of work. It's a whole concept that really clashes with my world view. It's sad that we agree to work this much in our society anyway, I can't believe we can't even stand up for ourselves when our lives are at stake.
I don't get the whole "the show must go on" drive in the world. Yeah, some things really are important, but on the average day, in the average office, most of what's going on could be done tomorrow without any consequence whatsoever. It's really sad.

Life's Most Important Questions

So if we have flat tvs, why don't we have flat DVD and VCRs? Why is my alarm clock the size of a DVD player? Why doesn't my cell phone charge last a month? Why aren't the parts of my cell phone interchangable with newer models - even of the same brand? Why does everything still have to be plugged in? Why do we tolerate packages that are a hassle to open? Why don't I have internet access in my car? Why do people think they can change lanes without signalling? Why are there still so few hybrid cars? Why do I have to carry multiple credit cards - why can't they work like a debit card from my bank and let me select the account I want to use? Why do I have to have 5 zillion different User IDs and pins? Why do companies insist on giving me a 30 digit account number? Just today's ramblings...

Anonymous Pre-Recorded Answering Machine Messages

So, for the last nine months we have been receiving messages that start in the middle of a pre-recorded message. The messages say, "We have an important message for Bobbie McYoung. Please call us at . Again, we have an important message. If you are Bobbie McYoung, press 1 for an important message. If we have reached you in error, please press 4." But since the message is on our answering machine and the message comes from an "Out of Area" caller with no number, we can't do anything. Fortunately through the hundreds of other calls we've received for this deadbeat we have figured out the name and old address of the individual. But we're powerless to extract the calling entity, to first correct them, and second see if they can't be prosecuted. Ugh. It's so frustrating.