In years past, we have done business with ASI Hastings on several occasions – the installation of our heater and air conditioner, and two major repairs. We were pleased with that work, with the people they sent out here, and with the price. Pleased enough that I recommended them to my readers, friends, and neighbors.
Today we had them out to repair our air conditioner, and it will most likely be the last time we ever call ASI Hastings again.
My wife called them this morning and asked for them to repair our air conditioner, which had just completely failed. There are two major issues I have with what they did.
First, the prices for the repair items are just insanely high – hundreds of dollars for a contactor (relay) and startup capacitor.
Second, they sold my wife something we didn't ask for at all – an air cleaner to take dust and odors out of the air. We asked for a repair, not some things we neither needed nor wanted.
I'm done with them. Anybody got a good recommendation for a local (to Jamul, preferably) air conditioning repair firm?
Monday, August 15, 2011
Post Office Nears Collapse...
The Post Office's horrific “business” problems have actually made it to the news recently, so I thought it would be a good time to post this excellent primer on the Post Office's travails. It's longish, but well worth reading if you'd like to understand this institution's problems – and why crazy people like me have long advocated ceasing all subsidies to the Post Office, and eliminating all special privileges of the Post Office.
As the article makes clear, the subsidies are not all direct and their removal will be politically challenging to accomplish. Even more politically challenging: the huge union membership of the Post Office's work force. The privileges granted to the Post Office are unknown to most people. The most important of these is that the Post Office currently enjoys an absolute monopoly on carrying first class mail, and on the right to deliver mail to a mailbox. These privileges exist only to prevent carriers like Federal Express and UPS from competing with the Post Office.
It's time for this beast to die...
As the article makes clear, the subsidies are not all direct and their removal will be politically challenging to accomplish. Even more politically challenging: the huge union membership of the Post Office's work force. The privileges granted to the Post Office are unknown to most people. The most important of these is that the Post Office currently enjoys an absolute monopoly on carrying first class mail, and on the right to deliver mail to a mailbox. These privileges exist only to prevent carriers like Federal Express and UPS from competing with the Post Office.
It's time for this beast to die...
A Story to Make Liberals Squirm...
...and me smile, of course. Here's a fellow who's figured out how to make money on the backs of the poor while making their lives better at the same time. Everybody wins, as opposed to charitable doles, where everybody loses...
Starry, Starry Night...
And moonlit, too. I was out walking the dogs at about 3:15 this morning. The moon was high in the southern sky, full and bright. It washed out most of the stars in the sky (especially near the moon), but in the northeast I could see almost all of Orion, rising from behind Gaskill Peak.
The dogs, of course, didn't care about all this beauty in the sky. The three brown dogs were (as usual) doing the important work of smelling every possible scent deposited during the night. Race, the border collie, had himself a stick. He went through an endless cycle of dropping the stick, backing up and watching it intently for as along as he could stand it (maybe 10 seconds), then pouncing on the stick and victoriously dancing around with it.
The stick made an interesting sound when it struck the pavement – something close to the metallic ringing of a bell, but a muted and distinctly wooden. It's not the mushy, soft sound one usually hears when a stick drops, though. Once, years ago, struck by this sound, I did a bit of investigation. I discovered that hardwood is more likely to make this curious sound than a softer wood. Also, it turns out that the drier the wood is, the clearer this almost-ringing is. So when I picked up Race's stick this morning, I wasn't surprised to discover that it was a piece of manzanita wood (very hard wood indeed) and very light (meaning it's very dry)...
The dogs, of course, didn't care about all this beauty in the sky. The three brown dogs were (as usual) doing the important work of smelling every possible scent deposited during the night. Race, the border collie, had himself a stick. He went through an endless cycle of dropping the stick, backing up and watching it intently for as along as he could stand it (maybe 10 seconds), then pouncing on the stick and victoriously dancing around with it.
The stick made an interesting sound when it struck the pavement – something close to the metallic ringing of a bell, but a muted and distinctly wooden. It's not the mushy, soft sound one usually hears when a stick drops, though. Once, years ago, struck by this sound, I did a bit of investigation. I discovered that hardwood is more likely to make this curious sound than a softer wood. Also, it turns out that the drier the wood is, the clearer this almost-ringing is. So when I picked up Race's stick this morning, I wasn't surprised to discover that it was a piece of manzanita wood (very hard wood indeed) and very light (meaning it's very dry)...
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