When?

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When was the last time a friggin' tag irritated your skin?

Yeah, Hanes is hardly the only men's clothing manufacturer to stop using tags and go to printing right on the article of apparel. But just what do you suppose is cheaper, printing the info on the material, or purchasing additional material, cutting it to size, then print the necessary info and sew it into place? You betcher ass it's cheaper the "new" way.

My daddy had a saying that most certainly applies here:

Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining

A Tad Peeved

Don't you know it.....

Picked up my mail the other day, and lo and behold, I have a bill from a bill collection agency. It's for my emergency hospital stay. All the bill said was that the total was such and such, and I owed so and so. No itemization or squat - no indication of individual items and what the insurance paid, had not paid, or was pending. Just a bill.

From a collection agency.

Made me stew for a while, and I did have plans to call them and ask for an itemized bill, and then this morning, after I fired up my cell phone, I had a voice message.

From the bill collection agency.

Are you f$#@ing kidding me? I just got this bill in the mail about three days ago, no bill before, and already I've got bill collectors after my ass? For what?!?

I have no plans of NOT paying this thing - but I'd like better information. So I called 'em back and told 'em I did NOT get an itemized bill, and before I paid the complete balance, I expected to see one.

I've had this problem before - it's the voice of experience. This time it's the hospital, last time it was a certain medical center in the certain town with Boot Hill and Wyatt Earp Blvd. off to the east. When checking in there, they require you to at least make a payment on any outstanding bills. I was seeing a doctor there fairly regularly. I was paying every time I went in. Each time, they required at least fifty bucks. Finally, one day, I got an itemized bill. They were into me for several hundred dollars - there was no need to keep adding money to my balance. They'd been billing me for the full amounts before the insurance settlements, getting the settlements, and never letting me know I had a balance. So, the next time I went in, I was told I had to make a payment. I asked why? Well - because I owed it. Really? You want fifty bucks when I've got over two hundred on account? You tell me why again.

Oh. Well. We don't look at that.

Well, that little experience let me know that the billing side of their business is set up to draw in as much money as possible, legit, owed or not.

I was highly peeved and let the person know about it. They could have given a rat's ass. They've all justified their despicable behavior so they can sleep at night.

So, this gal today would send my itemized statement right out. I told her I'd put five hundred down (the bill is over $1800) just so they knew I was gonna pay. Of course the next thing was to get me to agree to monthly $500 payments.

Nope, not gonna happen until I get the itemized bill, and make sure the insurance company is through paying.

Honestly, I'm sure that my health insurance had paid off, and this is the final bill. But I don't know that for sure.

Y'see, this whole mess is one reason why I grate my teeth when the subject of uninsured patients come up. Why in the wide wide world of sports do ya think this crap goes on? Why do you suppose that bills are padded, services are overcharged and people who actually pay bills harassed? Why do you suppose that many doctors take cash payments that are severely discounted compared to what insurance companies pay (excuse me - partially pay).

It's to cover the uninsured who do not pay their bills. It's to pay for the illegal aliens who register under a false name and no billing company on earth can track 'em.

This is hardly the most equitable of income redistribution, but it is happening. Most of these for profit health organizations are quite healthy in the ol' balance sheet, and it's not because they're such Good Samaritans when it comes to people who can't afford their bills. They've just gamed the system to have the rest of us cover it.

And now Barry and the Democrats want us to cover even more expenses, and we're gonna have the IRS as the collection agency.

What could possibly go wrong?

Sell Me Some Magazines, Baybee!

No patience for telemarketers at all.

Some years ago, I did business with "X" magazine subscription resale company. Supposedly, the "profits" went to "Certain Non Profit Organization." I purchased a car magazine from them.

Many years ago, Sis ran short of ideas for a Christmas present (or was it for my birthday? I forget), so she decided to buy the subscription to the car magazine for me. This has been going on for ten or more years.

This has not stopped "X" from calling me repeatedly over the years. Yeah, they had business with me in the past, and are technically exempt from the no call law. Thanks to the miracle of caller ID, if they call when I'm home they got ignored. Of course I get to see that they called me while I'm gone as well. Me not answering their calls apparently has never sent a message - hope springs eternal in a telemarketer's breast.

Cue the stage for tonight. I'm home feeling like crap and cranky to boot. Age hasn't mellowed me one bit - just because some idjut has my phone number doesn't mean I have to be at their beck and call (see what I did there?) when their autodialer decides it's my turn.

Ring! Ring!

@#$&*%! It's "X" Company. This is gonna stop now.

Hello, Mr. Jeffro (launching right into the pitch - not even asking if it's me or not), this is so and so with "X" Company calling in regards to your recent subscription to Car Magazine. As you know, we will donate to "Certain Non Profit Organization."

Excuse me (talking over the continued sales pitch), EXCUSE ME - (still talking over the sales pitch) - You are lying when you say the subscription was recent - it was over ten years ago. My sister has been buying that magazine for me for over ten years now (still talking over the Bu... We'll be savin.... Money goes to a goo...). We have a past business history, but it's OVER TEN YEARS AGO (still talking over and interrupting our extremely optimistic sales person) and YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE A SALE HERE TONIGHT.

Suddenly the line gets quiet. Guess I got Extremely Optimistic Sales Person's attention.

We have not had a business relationship for over ten years now for a reason. I don't appreciate sales pitches and want your company to stop calling me and to take my name from your list.

Yes, sir. Your name will be removed. We won't be calling you.(in a rather crushed tone).

Okay! Thank You! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'll - I'll try sir.

Better have thicker skin if yer gonna be a telemarketer, kiddo.

Next up - the "Fraternal Organization that Supposedly Gives Money to Cops Or Deputy Sheriffs or Some Sort of Law Enforcement Personnel." Back in my grain haulin' days, I gave some money to an organization that looked after our State Troopers. Who sold my name and number, no doubt. These outfits always begin with "Thank you for your generous donation last year." 

Which is a lie, because I didn't give any money to any LEO org last year - more like fifteen or twenty years ago. They're gonna get called on their lies, and I'm gonna enjoy it. In the past - politely decline. Not so much anymore.

Express Lane

Joan of Argghh! has another thoughtful post up about the NPR/Juan Williams issue - where she is preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned (AFAIC). But, she mentioned being in line behind someone in a ten items or less express checkout lane and the type of people who abuse that system. We all hate people like that, and I know I've often wished for the checker to intervene.

But, I have had that happen. Specifically, to me.

Back in the day, I used to smoke. I'm talking about cigarettes - even though I did smoke the left handed variety even further into the mists of time - you couldn't buy those at El Marto Del Wal. Regular garden variety cancer sticks - yes.

I'm sure you've all seen the tobacco "center" staffed by an associate with checkout duties at the local discount emporium. They staff an express lane and service smokers wishing to purchase the objects of their addictions. It used to be that one could purchase a carton of smokes at an adjacent line - the checker would fetch the desired product for you while you were purchasing your selections from the rest of the store. Well, at some point, that stopped. If you wanted cigs, you had to go through their line. OK, fine, I'll take my large wad of stuff over to that line, even though it's generally a fifteen or less line.

Which was OK for a period of time. I had to go through that line to get what I wanted to purchase - too bad if I happened to want to purchase more items than the "law" would allow. Or perhaps they'd rather I only purchased ten or fifteen items and went elsewhere for the rest of my groceries and other goodies?

But, one day, I was told I had too many items for that line. I said I was well aware of that, but since they didn't allow me to purchase cigarettes in any other line, they could sure check me out here. Nope, if I wanted cigarettes, I could go to another line, check out and come back, or just reduce my items for this line. New management decision. Nothing they could do. The checker manager confirmed this.

So, if I wanted cigarettes in WalMart - I had to buy my regular stuff in one line - waiting for ten or fifteen minutes in line, then take my now paid for cart to the cigarette express line, wait for another ten or so minutes just to get a carton of cigarettes. I told them that if their management couldn't keep enough checkers in place to service customers as they came, so I didn't have to wait for long periods of time, then they didn't need my cigarette business. Or, they could pay me or give me a discount for my time waiting, which for some reason didn't fly. I wasn't going to stand in two lines for a major portion of an hour just to get out with my purchases. There were actually cheaper places in town that sold the evil cancer sticks, even though it wasn't as convenient. So, I checked out at an adjacent line and left without any cigs.

It might have been more inconvenient, but I never did buy a single cigarette at a WalMart for the rest of my smoking career.

Saturday Delivery

Well, we've all heard the USPS is going to stop Saturday deliveries and how they're claiming to save money doing so. I wasn't sure what the extent of their shutdown would entail, but after reading some of their plan, I've got a clue.

In order to understand what they are proposing, one needs to understand the mechanics of moving mail. I worked at a Sectional Center Facility (SCF) office - specifically, Dodge City KS. That office processes primary (raw) mail going outbound to the world from all the towns that start with 678 in their zip code. This requires a fleet of bid carriers that pick up the raw mail from the towns on their route to present it for processing at Dodge in the evening. The third shift (Tour Three) of clerks process (cancel the stamps, and sort letters into machinable or manual - machinable is then sorted by machine and manual by hand) that mail to go outbound. The outbound mail is shipped on several trucks that have different destinations. One winds it's way around some of the other state SCF facilities on the way to Kansas City, and the other goes straight to Wichita - the main office "over" Dodge. The Kansas City truck stops at Hays first, where mail going to Hays, Denver, and Colby is dropped off - as an example of how the Dodge City office has to separate the mail. They can't just lump it all together and send it to Wichita. Another truck comes straight from the Kansas City Bulk Mail Center and arrives in the afternoon. Junk mail - all of it.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of trucks headed towards Dodge City from KC and Wichita. They get to Dodge a little after midnight with mail from the rest of the world bound for the 678 area. The first shift (Tour One) sorts this mail - it's already processed down to at least the 678 level. Some trays of letters might be directs - all the letters in that tray might all go to Garden City, for instance. That mail is merely "cut" to the staging area for that contractor to haul there. The rest of the mail has to be sorted manually or in the case of letters - by machine. Lots of mail still arrives in bags and must be dumped, then sorted into bags for each town. Towards the end of the shift, the sorting has to be finished and the various letter trays finished and cut to the runs, bag racks torn down and cut to the runs, and so on.

Remember the bid carriers from the small towns? They spent a few hours grabbing some sleep, then early in the morning, pick up the mail for their route, and deliver it to each office in the wee hours. Clerks in the satellite offices finish sorting their processed mail. The bid carriers go to bed for a few hours to repeat the whole thing once more later that evening.

Meanwhile, the home office switches gears and sorts mail for Dodge City. That mail is sorted by carrier route. The machines can sort letters in the order they're delivered, but much of the mail has to be sorted manually. This mail must be finished in time for the carriers to "case" - they sort their manual mail in the delivery order. Tour Two - the carriers, window clerks and maintenance crew show up for work. The carriers deliver their mail, and at the end of their day, one has to go on "collections." That carrier follows a route and picks up the raw mail from all the blue boxes scattered around town, plus the contract outlets at certain grocery stores. Tour Three came on in the middle of the afternoon, and started working on bulk mail, but in the evening, switches to primary.

This goes on five days a week. Saturdays - Tour One has a full load and sends out the usual amount for Saturday delivery. Tour Three is a skeleton crew that merely passes primary mail on to Wichita for processing, and unloads the bulk mail truck. Primary first class volume is minimal compared to the rest of the week. Sundays - Tour One still shows up for work and sorts mail that will eventually deliver Monday. Tour Three is a skeleton crew again - just enough to unload the bulk mail truck and work some of that mail.

Monday Tour One generally sends out a glut of mail - backed up bulk mail and first class mail that arrived at the center both Sunday and Monday mornings. Most of the satellite offices have to curtail delivery of bulk mail in favor of getting the surfeit of first class mail out on time.

This is all an oversimplification, and I'm not sure I'm being all that clear. My point is that there is a rather complicated set of events that have to happen in order and happen frequently or there is a major disruption in the mail flow. I've seen what happens if a truck is delayed by - oh, say - a blizzard. It ain't pretty. Plus, the truck volume is pretty well maximized already. They leave and arrive full. There are only so many hours in a day, and there are only so many workers that exist to sort this mail. In many of the smallest offices - it's just the Postmaster or their temporary replacement - Postmaster Relief (PMR) - who usually only works on Saturday or when the PM goes on vacation.

Now, let's look at what the Post Office has to say:

Discontinuing Saturday delivery and collections would result in significant savings by eliminating work performed by city and rural carriers. These savings account for $2.7 billion of the estimated $3 billion total.

City carrier savings will result from no longer needing the carriers who handle the sixth delivery day. This work is primarily performed by carrier technicians employed specifically for this purpose. These nearly 25,000 positions would no longer be needed. Other part-time and full-time assignments used to replace the regular carrier on the sixth day would also no longer be needed.

To determine the savings for city carriers, analysts considered the profile of average Saturday work — what portions would be saved by eliminating Saturday delivery, and what would still need to be done Monday through Friday to deliver Saturday mail volumes.

Most of Saturday’s office time would be transferred to other days, Monday through Friday. Most of Saturday’s street time would not be needed to deliver volume during the week.

I certainly disagree with that last statement. If you've just eliminated a full day's worth of "office time" - when the carriers sort their mail - it's going to have to be made up somewhere. There will be some time saved due to eliminating duplication of part of the job - the carriers will only be "tearing down their cases" for delivery once rather than twice, but still. I understand where they're coming from by claiming to eliminate the part time carrier assignments on weekends. They are saying the senior carriers will be working five day weeks and the part timers who fill in on the sixth day won't be needed. Currently, carriers work a rotating day off - they might have Tuesday and Sunday off this week, Wednesday and Sunday off next week. There are several PTF (part time flexible) carriers who fill in for them. The Post Office is saying those hours will be cut. I also have doubts about this, too.

In order for this to work, carriers must be able to process twice the mail on Mondays in the same time as before. Not gonna happen. There will be more office time on Mondays for sure. This is going to eat into their available street time. One of the current strategies for getting all the mail delivered on a heavy day is to have the PTFs take part of the regular carriers' mail and deliver it for them as the day goes by. The supervisor hears that carrier so and so is having trouble, so they'll dispatch a PTF to meet the troubled "delivery specialist" and take some of their "loops" to help deliver. Carrier supervisors are going to need all their extra help on site and working during the first part of the week to cover the extra load, period. So much for eliminating beau coups hours thataway. Another thing that has to be noted is the overtime regulations the Post Office is contractually obligated to follow. Anything over eight hours is overtime. Even for part timers. If Joe Part Time works ten hours in a day, and that is all he works all week, he'll draw eight hours straight time and two hours overtime. Also, if he goes over ten hours, penalty overtime is triggered. Anything over ten hours is double time. Supervisors who authorize double time are cutting their own throats for any promotions in the future. So, penalty OT is right out. This proviso is suspended during the Christmas rush - it's just regular OT during that time period. In order to avoid burning penalty OT, managers are going to have to be Johnny On The Spot with help for their senior carriers.

And another thing while I'm at it - reading the Post Office proposal might give you the impression that the "temporary" or "part time" help is sort of unnecessary, thus eliminating them will save money. Welp, the ol' PO is dead set against full time positions and fights the unions over this all the time. They'd prefer that all the help should be in a part time mode. So, any time a full time employee retires, it's a fight between management and the union to replace that position. Sometimes, management wins. As a result, the part time employees actually put in more hours than most of the senior full time employees (who had to run through this gauntlet in the past, and aren't all that interested in tons of hours anymore - they're in a position to refuse overtime, and do so). In order to get the mail delivered in six days requires quite a few "part timers" just because of deliberate short staffing strategies. Do you really think that just because there is a day less to do it all, the part timers are gonna be sent home?

The estimated work-hour savings for the four types of rural routes are based on the current rural carrier compensation rates. Estimated savings are 18 million work hours, nearly 10 percent of FY 2009 rural carrier hours.

The bulk of the savings would come from work-hour reductions for rural carrier associates (RCAs). The wage rate for RCAs is about half that for regular rural carriers

There also would be vehicle-related savings. Reduced driving would provide savings in fuel and maintenance costs for postal vehicles, and reduce payments for equipment maintenance allowances for carrier-owned vehicles.

The rural carriers are private. Most work five day weeks, and have an RCA available for their off day. I can see the RCA hours being cut and money savings, but it's going to come at the expense of the rural carriers. They operate on bids, so it doesn't matter to the USPS how many hours they work. There is no floating pool of "delivery specialists" to help them. They're on their own. And, I can see the vehicular savings as well. If it's parked, the only costs are fixed. The rural carriers will only be traveling their routes five times instead of six, so mileage allowances will be cut.

Eliminating Saturday delivery also would result in supervisor work reductions. These work reduction savings have been offset to reflect the cost of continuing to deliver Express Mail on Saturday.

About $200 million in annual savings could be realized because of lower processing costs at plants and Post Offices. Moving outgoing sorting from Saturday to Monday would allow savings in plant clerks, mail handlers and supervisors, and reduced maintenance.

Further, eliminating Saturday delivery and collections would reduce the need for clerk staffing at Post Offices. While much of the work formerly performed on Saturday would need to be done Monday through Friday instead, there would still be savings from the activities for which costs are driven by the number of routes and days of delivery.

About $380 million in annual transportation savings would be realized by eliminating Saturday delivery via highway contract, postal vehicle drivers, and contract delivery. Highway contract savings would result from a reduced need for highway transportation on Saturday and Sunday.

Air transport savings would be achieved because less mail would require use of air transportation. Also, eliminating Saturday carrier delivery and collection reduces the need for vehicle service drivers to transport mail between Post Offices and plants on Saturday. Contract delivery savings would also result by modifying contracts to eliminate Saturday delivery.

They are clearly saying that all that delivery machinery on Saturday and Sunday will stop. There was a comment about delivery of Express Mail on weekends, but if there is no way to get it delivered to the destination office, there isn't much point in keeping someone around to deliver it to the destination address. There is also not much point in guaranteeing Express Mail delivery overnight or second day by three pm. If you take it in on Friday expecting it to be delivered at the advertised time, you will be disappointed. Can we say USP or FedEx? If they eliminate all the truck routes, then there has to be some sort of system set up just for the occasional Express Mail piece - which works if you are close to a major airport. Otherwise, it has to be trucked.

FedEx actually carries quite a bit of first class mail for the USPS - a major portion of Priority Mail is handled by them. I'm not sure about the capacity - maybe FedEx has enough space on their planes in place and the USPS has it contracted to absorb the glut of mail on Monday. Considering the planning I've seen from the USPS in the past - well, Oh Ye of Little Faith, I guess.

What does this all mean? The Postal Service self monitors it's delivery goals with EXFC scores - External First Class delivery times. That is gonna go to hell, I guarantee you. Historically, the weekend drop-off in volume trickles down to the delivery points about Wednesday. That means the lowered volume takes that long to show up at the other end. Mondays have always been hectic both for the carriers and clerks - volume of primary mail spikes and the weekend backlog of mail inundates the carrier and clerks sorting mail for their office. It's about to get a whole lot worse - it's a kiss of death for a supervisor to curtail first class delivery, but I'd bet that's about to change. Plus, I've already pointed out that the trucks from the major hubs arriving locally are pretty full. The USPS isn't paying for half full trucks to run up and down the highway - if they are half full, when the contract is renewed, they'll want a smaller truck. So, the trucks are definitely full on Mondays already. The mail that wasn't shipped on Saturday? If it's not being shipped, that means it's going to be stored. That means mail will be curtailed due to lack of cubes in a semi-trailer headed to SCF facilities. By Thursday it might all be shipped, but some will be delayed, end of story.

I've been looking at this from two points of view - the carriers and the shippers. Well, the clerks have to get the increased volume worked up and sent out to both - and that's gonna require extra hours, extra help or extra delays. A lot of my dark predictions depend on the clerks to actually get all the extra mail sorted in order for there to be a glut affecting the shippers and carriers. I'm sure they'll partially succeed.

I'd say the USPS will probably save some money from this - not as much as they're so optimistically predicting, but it will save some. What they aren't saying is how it will affect their performance. Add rate increases, and perception is gonna go downhill even faster.

To be fair, at least part of this isn't their fault. While they have a monopoly on the mailbox, they are not allowed to compete fairly in a lot of arenas. Have you ever bought wrapping materials at a Post Office - like a roll of tape? Ever notice how high priced it is? It's deliberately overpriced so as not to compete with other businesses - if you want it bad enough that you don't want to drive to a store that handles that stuff cheaper - you pay. That's out of the POs hands, as it were.

If anyone reading this is into marketing - has it ever bothered ya that sitting right there is still a positive brand with a fair amount of foot traffic, and it's not being utilized? No mini branch banks or McDonalds inside the local PO? No advertising allowed? Wouldn't a Kinko's style business work just great sharing space in a larger Post Office? The USPS pays a price for it's monopoly of certain services, and staying out of other commercial enterprises is one of the associated costs. Another huge advantage UPS and FedEx have is that if they don't have something for you, they don't come by at all. USPS does - six days a week.

I used to be against privatizing the Postal Service. I had drunk deeply from the union chalice on certain subjects. Sending a letter from Chicago to NYC would be cheap, but just how much would it cost to send a letter from Outer Mongolia Montana to Tumbleweed Texas if there were several entities that had to interline to get it sent? That argument ignores the agreements and cheap shipping prices the freight industry enjoys - a pallet of stuff might pass through several different shipping companies, but it's accomplished at a fairly reasonable rate no matter how many companies handle it. I'm sure private enterprise would be able to figure something out, and what was once the USPS could be right in there competing with the rest, and making money instead of wanting bailed out all the time. If not, oh well. Someone would step up.

Otherwise, considering the inevitable decline of mail volume, we'll be seeing this again, only going from five day delivery to four, or some other cut in services and increasing rates.

Frankly, I'm sooooo glad I don't work there it ain't even funny.

Bah!

I drive a day cab truck - which means it doesn't have a sleeper berth. My company has me stay in motels when I'm on the road. I stop quite a bit at the Super 8 in Limon CO, and usually I order pizza in. Tonite, I decided to walk across the road to the TA Travel Center. Their buffet (when they don't have too much fried food) is tolerable, and a salad sounded good. I also like to read a newspaper when I'm eating alone.

So, I walk to the restaurant and look for a newspaper. They used to be in the breezeway that leads from the TA side to the Subway and the convenience store in the same building. No such luck. I walk to the register and ask. "They are around the corner outside of the convenience store." So, I walk down to the other end of the truck stop, step outside, and there are two dispensers, but for the same paper. However, the papers look old. One was dated September 30. I wasn't that anxious to buy an old newspaper. I ask at the counter in the c store if they had any newspapers. "Just the ones outside." Ok, how about a magazine? No magazines.

Back to the TA side, but in the gift shop. Did they have any magazines or newspapers? An older fellow manning the cash register informed me that there were magazines in the trucker's lounge. I told him I was planning to eat at the cafe. He informed me there were paper machines on the other end of the building. I informed him the newest paper in the display was a September 30 paper. He informed me he was sure he'd bought a paper from the dispenser after that, and it was current. I informed him he could go and look, I wasn't going to again. He then informed me there was a store about a quarter mile down the road had all that stuff, and besides that, the walk would do me good, as walking does us all good.

Well, I can't argue that I could sure use some serious walking time, but I didn't need to hear that from Doctor behind the counter at a truck stop guy.

I said "I already walked over from the motel, and up and down the truckstop looking for a newspaper."

"No, there's no motel at the store down there."

Huh. "I said I walked over FROM the motel already. You should listen."

"Well, why didn't you get a paper from over there?"

"Because I expected a full service truck stop to have a friggin' newspaper."

He started yammering on - yes, arguing with customers is a great way to generate business. I walked away: "Just forget it."

The cafe had a "Please allow us to seat you" sign up. I stood for three or four minutes, when the waitress told me "Oh, go ahead and seat yourself."

I finally got my order in for the buffet, and went to the salad bar first. Semi-ok, they had tomatoes and green peppers, but no cheese. There was some potato soup with a lot of celery. Interesting.

I eat my soup and salad, and check out the main buffet line. Mexican food tonight. Tacos - no cheese, and some sort of frito casserole. There was also a "prime rib" and a hunk of ham, but there was supposed to be a slicer manning that post. No slicer. The waitress finally notices me through the lattice, and summons a slicer. Great, I'm in business.

I get back to my table, and someone is sitting there.

"You are sitting at my table!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know!"

Well, of course he didn't know, someone had cleaned the table while I was at the buffet line. The waitress shows up, and I sit at the next table, and she gets me a new drink.

She brings me my check, but I don't get a refill. I decided I could drink all I wanted back at the motel, so I paid my check and left. I did leave a dollar tip - all she did was bring me a drink and my check, and it was a buffet, so considering all that, she did good. Normally, I'd have gone twenty percent if it was decent service. Better service gets a better tip from me.

There is a new Flying J across the interstate to the north being built as we speak. The buildings and the fuel islands are about done, so paving will be the final step. It won't take long.

The "Hook" is so gonna kick the ass of the TA.