Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I’ve been driving a stretch of Transit Road from Lockport to Williamsville/Amherst quite a lot lately. For the past two months, I’ve been chauffer/driving instructor to my 20-year old son, who got himself a summer job at a grocery store 15 miles from home.

Now, I had encouraged him to find a job. Unfortunately, that was the one that found him. He doesn’t have a drivers license, only a permit, so we’ve been using the drive as practice. He drives there, I drive home. I drive back later, when his shift is done, he drives home. It’s double mileage, double gas and almost two hours of my time each time he works, but I don’t mind. This post isn’t about that.

After driving this same stretch of road over and over for a while, I have noticed some annoying trends with the drivers I see on the road. Most, if not all of them stem from one simple thing: They are totally oblivious to anything other than their own self-centered concerns. Continue Reading…

I buy a few things online. Let’s face it, there are good deals out there, especially in specialty items that you’d have to drive 25 miles to some local store that has a limited selection.

So there are a number of sites that I have used to either but something, or just shop around at. They all seem to want to personalize their ‘experience’ and make it ‘better’ for you. I wish they’d just skip it, because it usually backfires. Continue Reading…

One of the most irritating things to me is cell phone commercials. They really treat us like morons. So condescending.

Maybe it’s just me. I just refuse to be a slave to them. I remember back in the 80’s telling my wife “If I were cheating on you, do you know how you could tell? I’d have a cell phone!” It was a joke we laughed about at the time. But it was really true. I had no need to get an expensive electronic device to do what I could just as easily do from my home phone. Continue Reading…

I just drove through Downtown Lockport (3:30PM) and witnessed the preparations for the first of the Molson Concerts. It’s already looking interesting and the excitement is palpable.

Many vendors are already setting up and open. Parking lots all over are ready. I still think they are a bit high on their prices which were $7-$10 dollars. The free lots will be in high demand!

Sound checks were going on as I drove down Walnut Street and a lot of people were already walking around the area. Traffic was noticeably slower than usual on Walnut and I can see it being gridlock later. Main St. wasn’t bad, though. Continue Reading…