L.A. Fast Food Ban

This is so funny!
"The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city." Ha ha. They should have gone on television and said, "Hey kids, we know you like burgers & fries, but we don't want you to have them anymore. We're only going to let more expensive, sit-down restaurants come in. We'll decide what you want from now on, because you're too dumb and we're smarter than you." Talk about L.A. Weight Loss!

As if the ban itself isn't imposition enough, it's in a "low income area of the city". What sit-down restaurant is going to be cheaper than fast food? I think the city council's inability to get over itself is funnier than most sit-coms. This kind of thing should happen more often, and it should be on TV during prime time. Then stay tuned for "Mass Transit" and find out where we'll allow you to go!
Social engineering rocks!

Vacation 08

Mrs. Derifter and I just returned from our summer vacation. It was a bit of a whirlwind, covering in just 8 days:

Mt Rushmore
The Badlands
Deadwood, SD
Yellowstone Nat'l Park
Glacier Nat'l Park, and
Banff Nat'l Park.

We never did get to see a grizzly, which would have made my year, but my wife caught a glimpse of a black bear that was about to be tranquilized by Park personnel near Lake Louise. We had a great time, but it wasn't nearly long enough to see all of those things the way we would have liked. And I learned that there really are some good things in Canada!

Love Your Enemies

In a mind-blowing, Twilight Zone-like couple of minutes last Tuesday, my nemesis at work ended our long-running, almost legendary feud with an extended hand and the words, "Life's too short. Let's put this behind us." To which I replied (with my jaw on the floor) "For real?"

He said, "Yeah."

Me: "You're serious."

Him: "Yeah, sometimes it's just easier to let stuff go." Then he started to right some wrongs and really fix things that have been messed up for, well, all together, about a year. I still have a hard time believing it. This feud of ours had gotten so out of hand that I had begun to justify my part like Samson when he said, "This time I will be blameless when I do the Philistines harm." I had often convinced myself that my co-worker had it coming because of what he did or said so really, who could hold it against me? I was only doing what's right (I told myself), to teach him that he can't get away with that. When I'd pray for my enemy, it was that somehow he'd get his head right and see things my way. Now that he's not so much my enemy, I find it easier to pray for him genuinely. That's messed up, ain't it? Anyway, I told him that it was pretty cool the way that he had ended it and that that took a lot of stones. He just laughed.

Someone who had obviously not heard that our feud was over told me that he had heard through the grape-vine that I was going to kick the other guy's [butt]. I wasn't planning on doing that and I don't know who told him that, but I said "No, it turns out he kicked mine if he's for real."
I had tried ending it before but it just never worked out. This time he took the high road and although I still haven't hopped on his bandwagon, I don't want to pass up this opportunity if he really is serious. It feels like someone opened up a window and let a fresh breeze blow through.