Driving

So I drive a lot. A LOT a lot. Mostly freeway driving. I have a lot of pet peeves about driving, especially freeway driving. My wife is tired of me telling them to her, so I am dedicating a blog post to get this off my chest to the world.

1. The speed limit is 60. NOT 55!!! If you don't want to go 60 miles per hour, get off the dang freeway and drive the back roads. I would love you more if you went 65, as that's what I like to go, but 60 is the minimum you should be going. I know that speed LIMIT means that's the "max" you can go, but for the courtesy of those around you, go 60 (and in the right lane, not the left lane).

2. The way you merge is to get up to the speed the traffic is going, THEN go the speed you want. Not going super fast then having to slam on the brakes so you can fit in with traffic. Or going SO slow, not building up speed, so the traffic has to hit their brakes so you can fit in. Both instances cause TRAFFIC JAMS!! Seriously, hit the gas and let's get going!

3. For the people weaving in and out of lanes while in stop and go traffic, STOP IT ALREADY! This is what takes everyone longer to get going! Your constant switching of lanes is what is slowing down everyone behind you. Unless you need to exit soon, switching lanes in stop and go traffic is unnecessary.

4. Don't be so dang nosy! Accidents, stalled cars and people pulled over by the cops seem to be the main causes for slow downs sometimes. Traffic is super slow, then I pass by an accident or other distraction, and then traffic speeds up to normal. If people weren't so nosy and stopped to look, then we could have been going a LOT faster and not wasted time in traffic. But I know why people do it, they're like, I waited this long to get by this (because the people ahead of me slowed down), I want to see what happened. One time there was a minor accident just before the Tacoma Dome on Southbound I-5. Traffic was stopped way past the Fife curve, and sped up as soon as you got by the accident. I didn't look just hit the gas when I finally could go, and looking in my rearview mirror, saw the guy behind me stop and look instead of going. Don't be NOSY!!!!

5. Plan ahead. If you know your exit comes up in less than a mile, get over NOW! Don't wait til the last second, slam on your brakes to get over 3 lanes, then get over. This is the worst pet peeve of mine. Slamming brakes to change lanes and exit when they could've been over to their exit a mile back. This also hits on another two minor pet peeve of mine: hitting your brakes when changing lanes and not using your turn signal. You should be speeding up when changing lanes, not slowing down. Both of these combine to make for slow downs in traffic. You also have a turn signal for a reason. It's for the other drivers around you, not for you. If I know you're switching lanes then I can plan for you to all of a sudden be cutting me off, but if you just cut me off then I get pissed at you. If people planned ahead and sped up when changing lanes it could stop some of the traffic slow downs I face every afternoon coming home.

Thanks for reading my complaints and pet peeves. Also, thanks for remembering them when you are out and about from now on :-)

18?

So, the NFL is looking at an 18 game season. I don't get it, cutting out 2 preseason games and adding 2 regular season games. I love the idea of more regular season games, don't get me wrong. I love football but HATE the preseason. The problem I have, the NFL is getting SO involved in injuries with the players, so let's add 2 more games where they HAVE to play and risk MORE concussions and other head injuries that affect the players in the long run, after their careers are finished. I mean, Aaron Curry got a concussion like, 3 weeks ago during training camp and the NFL is keeping a close eye on him to make sure he's ok. Might not let him play in some games if something happens. So now, let's make these teams count on these guys for 2 more games where their bodies will wear down, and they will be at more of a risk for major injuries. An 8 year career with this setup is adding an extra year of a 16 game regular season. I don't like that for the players. I love watching them year after year, and don't want their careers to end sooner. Also, I don't know how all the single-season records would translate. A 2,000 yard season would be a regular occurance. 5,000 yards passing wouldn't be all that impossible. Fantasy football numbers would go crazy. It seems too much to me, and I vote no. I say shorten preseason, keep the 16 games, and quit trying to change the best sport in the US right now. Nothing can touch football, with the insane fans, fantasy football, and just the week to week awesomeness that is football sunday.

Work Stuff

So a couple of weeks ago, Franz did what's called a "line sale" at Safeway. What this means, is we put a bunch of different breads on sale at 2 for $4. I put up a table at my store and had 2 displays with different items on them from the sale. I made sure I had plenty of product for my displays, and made sure my rotation was dead on so I didn't pull out much stale. Last week, my supervisor told me that my Safeway had the BIGGEST dollar increase out of all Safeways in my Sales Manager's (my Supervisor's boss) division. So out of all of the Safeways delivered to by Franz salesmen from the Seattle and Lynwood depots, mine won! I was SO excited! I apparently am going to win a $100 gift card somewhere, and I made some good bonus points with my bosses. Now I've been putting in a lot of hours at work (usually at least 12 a day), and they really want me to get my hours down. But with this, I think God is just blessing my stores and my work, and showing me that if I trust Him and ask Him for His help, my work will be blessed. I just think we have SUCH an AMAZING God that wants to bless us if we ask Him for it! I think He's just showing me that, while I'm working lots of hours, He is in charge of my stores and is working in my stores and my efforts. Not only is my Safeway the big winner, but my Grocery Outlet, M Street Market AND Safeway are ALL up in sales over last year at this time. So since I took over, 3 of my 5 stores are doing BETTER in sales! Only 1 of my stores is down, but it's going through a remodel, and that's my QFC. The QFC down the road is also down in sales as well. It's just awesome to see God work, and if you just pray and ask Him to, He will bless your work 100 times over. Thanks for reading!

Randomness

First of the many topics in this post; Inception.

Wow, what a GREAT movie. The more I reflect on the movie, the more I love it. The acting in it was superb, especially Ellen Page and Leo. Leo DiCaprio is one of the best actors I have seen in a long time, but he usually chooses strange movies that don't show off the amazing talent he has. Ellen Page is great too, and they both shined in this movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great too, as well as Marion Cotillard, wow the acting was great. The writing and story was so complex and so well done I can't even tell you how impressed I was. The concept of the movie was so well developed and was so unique that I was hanging on every scene. I was so lost and confused for most of the movie, but instead of being frustrated, I got more interested and intrigued. The visuals of the movie were so great, and all of the effects were perfectly executed. It was such a creative movie and the visuals helped the movie instead of hurting the movie. The dream sequences were exactly what a dream felt like, and I can't say enough for the genius of Christopher Nolan. I think that any movie he is a part of is now a must see. The ending of the movie was so fitting of the movie, but in the effort to not give anything away, I can honestly say this was my favorite movie I have seen this year, and I can't wait to own it and show everyone the genius that is Inception.

Second part of this post is a reaction to my last post.

I know that politics is a touchy subject, and I know that I don't know too much to be saying stuff about it. The point of Hitler was brought up to me, and my reaction to that is this. I don't know why Hitler was allowed by God to be in office, but there is a reason. We will never understand what and why God does things, and we just have to trust that God is in control. I understand how people could think this is a naive to look at things, but I think it's more of a mature thing to trust God's soveriegn power. Freaking out and being anxious about the future of our country is not trusting God's soveriengn power and not believing he is in control.

Third part; God's love.

Sometimes I forget how much God loves me. I know that He loves me, but I don't think we will ever grasp the full nature and depths of His love. I know that I tend to not realize His love is so amazing, becuase if I did I wouldn't be able to contain myself. I would tell anyone I saw or came across about it. Last night, the sermon at church there was the statement: As a Christian, we will never be able to understand everything. I truly believe that, and I just can't believe we have such an amazing and complex God.

Sorry for the random and long post (all 3 people that read this). Now to enjoy my day off, and I really need some food...

A Non-Sports post...

I know right? It's about time! I just felt like I needed to write about something other than sports...or How I Met Your Mother. So I'm going to write about another TV show. Just kidding! A couple of months ago, I started a post about politics, and I never finished it. I just wrote about how I feel that complaining about who is in office is really not trusting that God is in control. I'm not calling anyone out, because I know that I have done this numerous times, but just think about it. God puts these people in positions of power for a reason. He is in control, and if I start to doubt these people, I am doubting God's plan. Maybe that's a little over exaggerated to state my point, but I don't think it is. God is sovereign over everything, and to doubt anything that He does is wrong. He has put these people in place for a reason, and His plan is ALWAYS right. Maybe these leaders weren't who we had in mind, but God wanted them there and we can't argue with that. We just have to trust that God is the one controlling everything. So please, all of the "Obama is the Anti-Christ" chain emails can stop. He is our President, and even if you didn't vote for him, he deserves respect as our leader. Cutting him down and being disrespectful to who he is doesn't change the face he's our President. It's also not Christian-like to talk bad about him. If you don't agree with his policies, that's fine, but to talk bad about his character is not a loving, merciful character that God calls us to.

Athletes

Right now Darrelle Revis is holding out from training camp and is refusing to play football for $1 million. I know that he's probably a top 5 cornerback in the league and arguably their best player and should be making more than $1 million, but dude they're paying you CRAZY amounts of money to PLAY FOOTBALL! He's under a contract that HE SIGNED saying he would play football for that amount of money. Imagine if you could do that with your job. You know Franz, I am the best bread man you have, so I want you to make my salary 10 times what it is now (or I'm not showing up for work tomorrow). I would be SO fired. That's basically what he's saying. I don't understand how you can sign a contract, and in the middle of it just up and say; I don't like it anymore and won't play for you until you pay me more money. I do think he should be paid more than $1 million this year, but the fact he can just not show up and not play even though he's under contract is ridiculous. This is how he holds the cards though, why would they negotiate more pay for him if he was there? What if they give him more money and he has a crappy season? Can they get some of the money back? Nope. He could get all this money, then crap out on the season and still collect his money. Welcome to the NFL and contract negotiation. This is why I would rather be in the front office of a MLB organization than a NFL one.

Nothing to write about

I feel like I have nothing to write about right now. Work is going ok, just having trouble with one store. It's a store that barely does $1,000 in business a week, where I get more than that at my QFC in 2 days! It's frustrating because they think that they do the most amazing business and I have to have them COMPLETELY stuffed and have backstock too. Oh well, I think they're taking that store off my route soon, not soon enough in my opinion! In other news, Shannon had an ultrasound on Monday and got to see the baby kicking and swimming around. My little Michael Phelps! :-) I had to work so I wasn't there, but the pictures are AMAZING! I wish I could've been there, but sometimes you just can't help it.

Now I'm watching How I Met Your Mother, probably my favorite sitcom. So the future Mrs. Ted Mosby apparently has a yellow umbrella. Every time there's a yellow umbrella in the show it apparently is his future wife he hasn't met in 5 seasons. I just wonder, is there NOBODY else in the ENTIRE city of NEW YORK that has a YELLOW UMBRELLA?!? Seriously, why is it that she's the only yellow umbrella owner in the whole city? And his poor kids, listening to stories of 5 years of his life, and they still don't even know how he met their mom. How annoying would that be? The show has to end soon though, because they can't keep stringing it along. Also, doing the math, he has to meet her soon because his kids are in their late teens, and they're hearing the story in 2030. That means they have to be born in the next few years, and he has to be married before they're born too. I don't know, I just have this feeling that the show won't last more than 1 or 2 more seasons. And now that I've gone on and on about a TV Show that (ultimately) means nothing...I will now eat some breakfast...