Letters from North
America
Today
the United States Post
Office announced another
two cent rate increase.
Now postage is going to
cost us at least .46 per
envelope. This is to
offset a estimated 7
billion dollar deficient
for the coming year. My
question is….why don’t
they just go ahead and
make it .50 and then
they might stop
increasing the rates
almost annually? We all
know they can never be
profitable and will
never be able to operate
without a subsidy every
year. Just get it over
with and leave us alone
for a year or so. No one
uses the mail anymore
anyway except for
politicians and the
Crate and Barrel catalog
people. I could do
without those without
any problem.
Enough about the good
old USPS, I’ll get more
next January when my
annual rant comes out.
This week I’d like to
focus our attention on
things that we are told
but cannot do anything
about. My question
is….why are we told in
the first place? Do we
care or do we want to
care?
For example the other
day I was reading that
the earth’s axis had
shifted about 3 inches
as a result of
earthquakes. This also
had an effect upon the
length of a day and our
time had been shortened
by about 1.27
microseconds. If you are
like me, I’m certain
this news is going to
ruin your day. Just
think about it for a
second….on the other
hand forget what I told
you, who cares? It isn’t
like you and I will lose
any sleep over this
information. What I’d
like to know is just who
tracks this kind of
stuff and why? Did
someone go to school to
become an expert on the
position of the center
of the earth? Who would
hire anyone for this and
what would they get
paid? Better yet, why
would they get paid? Why
is this important to
anyone?
On the other hand we
have the daily Toyota
recall information. Or
perhaps I should say the
daily auto recall
information for just
about any make and model
automobile. In my
opinion you’d be better
off driving a used
anything than a new
something. It seems to
be brakes today and
engines yesterday. You
could spend most of your
waking life driving back
and forth to the dealer
just to get the
necessary repairs. You
must also take into
consideration that the
days are getting shorter
as I mentioned earlier,
so you don’t have as
much time to waste on
repairs. Think about it.
Got a cell phone? I’ll
give you something to
think about. Try tumors
for your brain. Do cell
phones cause tumors? Who
knows? It seems they do
in mice, but I have a
hard time visualizing
mice making many cell
phone calls. Who could
they call and what would
they talk about if they
could call? These are
the things we don’t need
in our brains.
So, is coffee good for
us or bad for us? One
day it’s good and the
next day it’s terrible.
I drink it anyway and so
that probably puts me in
the rebel category, but
than again I use a cell
phone so I guess my life
is going downhill in a
hurry. As far as global
warming, I’m all for it.
Or maybe I’m against
it…I can’t seem to
remember from one day to
the next which way I
should position myself.
I do know that I have
cut back on my carbon
footprint by making sun
tea instead of using the
stove. I tried baking
biscuits on the hood of
my car, but I found it
took more than four
hours and I was missing
a lot of work. So much
for that idea.
Don’t even get me
started about
microwaves, you can find
over 200,000 articles
about their dangers or
safety. I just know that
I should not put live
things inside of them
and don’t stand in front
of them for hours at a
time. I figure that’s
being cautious enough.
Of course I don’t stand
in front of anything for
hours at a time, so
that’s not much of a
stretch for me.
If you are in your
twenties, then I guess
it’s ok to worry about
these things, but after
you get to be my age you
start to consider all of
that useless information
you have put into your
brain over the past
years and wonder if you
have very much room left
for any new stuff.
Personally I think
anything relating to the
post office or the
location of the earth’s
axis falls in the
category of stuff I
don’t need to know
about. I can’t do
anything about either
one, nor can you.
Comments got to
www.pearyperry.com.
Complaints go nowhere.
