Eh, everyone's a critic (even cats)

I noticed years ago that Magnum (the fat red striped tabby) never tolerated my singing. It was mostly during the holiday season when I'd break out into Christmas songs while decorating or simply enjoying my light show. He'd come up to me, and meow real loud. If I continued, he'd actually swat me on the mouth. And this routine would be repeated until I shut up.

Okay, I understand I don't have a singing voice. But last night when I went to bed, I was in a singing mood. I suppose the out of the blue phone call from my boyfriend made me happier than I realized. Adira always joins me when I go to bed, and she'll get her snuggles in (and throughout the night). What surprised me was that while I was singing, she was even more affectionate. She put her head on my chest and kept it there for about ten minutes. I'm tempted to see if it was a fluke or she really wanted to hear me sing.

I guess you can't please everyone. But I already learned that in the science field. Gotta go and pet Magnum - he's mouthing off for attention.

The great project

I'm really trying to get serious about this project I started a long while ago. My grandmother had discovered a bunch of photos that my grandfather took when he served in WWII. She didn't remember she had them, let alone where he was and what he did. I know that he was in the Pacific theatre, and probably was a mechanic for planes, but not sure. So my hope is that I'll get some input as to various places, men, and planes that are in the pictures.

In rooting around for ideas on how to organize the pictures, I came across this great World War I photo archive. I couldn't resist sharing this photo:

New perspective on Miers role for the future

Oral arguments have begun in the right to die law in Oregon. I read a great summary of the arguments both sides made, and their weaknesses. But the ending was a great summary of the role Miers can play in affecting future policies:

Count heads, and you figure out that this case could come down to O'Connor. And since the court is unlikely to decide any cases with O'Connor as the deciding vote, Clement and Atkinson may be back for a second round—with a new ninth justice. This, then, is what all the fuss over Harriet Miers' confirmation is about.

You can read the entire article here (no subscription needed).

I have a somewhat different perspective on the Oregon law. I know what it's like to live day after day in constant crippling pain. I developed a way to distance myself from the pain by sleeping (at least I wasn't conscious of the pain then). But I'd wake up and still be tired (because of the pain or from the fact that I probably wasn't getting the restful sleep). And it took a toll on me psychologically. And yes, I'd silently pray that I wouldn't wake up.

So I can understand that if someone's living through this pain, and that's all s/he has in their life for the next 6-12 months before they die, you bet that I can respect their choice to end it.

But I feel that the option should also exist for people that aren't going to die from their pain. Believe it or not, there IS a worse form of the pain then I had lived through. Most of the people that I know that have it have killed themselves because of it. They are just as handicapped by their pain, have no life, and when conscious have this terrible pain. And there is NO HOPE for treatment or cure for these people. If I was living like that, I'd pray I only had six months to live and not fifty years. It doesn't seem fair that they are left to their own devices to end their suffering.

Welcome to PHX, but don't park your car

Since I have family only a thirty minutes drive from the airport, I rarely use this feature. But there have been a couple occasions when I would use the parking facilites at the airport. It was nice because you'd find a space, walk to the middle isle and a shuttle could come pick you up. I don't remember exactly how much it cost, but I think it was around $5/day.

All good things come to an end:

Parking fees set to rise at Sky Harbor
Airport lots too crowded
Ginger D. Richardson
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 6, 2005 12:00 AM

Skyrocketing passenger growth is causing a serious parking crunch at Sky Harbor International Airport, and officials believe there is only one way to fix the problem: charge more.

Parking fees are set to jump 25 to 60 percent by the first of the year and could even double if people keep using the lots at the rate they are now, officials said. That means that rates could reach as much as $10 a day in the economy service lots and $25 a day in the terminal garages.

The goal is to increase the fees so much that it deters frequent fliers from leaving their cars at the airport for days at a time.

"We have to be able to control demand," Assistant Aviation Director Carl Newman said. "That's really what we are trying to do here."

A subcommittee of the Aviation Advisory Board, which is charged with reviewing airport policies, is set to vote on the proposed changes this afternoon; the Phoenix City Council will have the final say on the increases, likely voting next month.

The move to raise parking rates comes at a time when Sky Harbor is grappling with a tremendous surge in passenger traffic. More than 40 million people are expected to fly in and out of the airport this year, a 5 percent increase from 2004.

"We've set passenger records for the past two years," Sky Harbor spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said. "We're just getting busier and busier."

And in no place is that more evident than in the parking garages and lots.

Sky Harbor boasts more than 21,664 parking spaces. But acting parking superintendent Debbie Klein said that during the busy spring and summer travel season, the economy lots and garages were filled to capacity five days a week, forcing the airport to redirect passengers to one of its overflow lots.

Those regularly started closing, too.

Even now, when passengers historically don't fly in peak numbers, the lots are consistently full every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The situation isn't much better at the pricier terminal garages.

Passengers routinely are forced to park on the roof, and at Terminal 4, the garage has also closed eight times since May because there were no more available spaces.

The airport is in the process of building a $43 million economy garage to help ease the problem, but it fears that will soon be overloaded if the rates don't change.

Without higher fees, "we are never going to keep up," Klein said.

Sky Harbor's current rates are much lower than other major airports', and the economy lot fees are comparable to those charged by off-site airport parking facilities, officials said.

But with changes, parking at Sky Harbor will cost passengers roughly what they would pay at other major airports, Newman said.

For example, Los Angeles International charges $30 a day to use the terminal garage and $10 a day for the economy lots.

Fliers parking at Chicago O'Hare, San Francisco International and Boston Logan pay similar fees.

Officials here say they are proposing a step rate increase in order to monitor how much it will take to really curb demand. They plan to raise fees a little at first and then more if the first increase doesn't work.

Here's how it would work:

Daily parking rates in the economy surface lots would go from $5 a day to $8 a day, while fees in the economy garages would increase from $7 a day to $10 a day. Terminal rates would go from $16 to $20.

But if too many cars were still left at the airport, officials would increase the rates again. This time, economy surface parking would jump to $10 a day, double what it is now. Economy garage fees would increase to $12 a day, and terminal garage rates would go all the way to $25 a day.

That's enough to make Milton Dellossier think twice about parking at the airport on one of his many business trips.

"To be honest, the smaller increase probably wouldn't be enough to stop me from parking (in the terminal garage)," Dellossier said. "But if it goes to $25, I would have to rethink my schedule, maybe park in one of the economy lots, because that is a pretty substantial increase."

My biggest gripe about their argument of "other cities charge more" is that EVERYTHING costs more in those cities. Just like housing prices, people making modest livings can't afford the huge increases.

I guess I've been lucky in that when I flew to Chicago in June, our drivers were able to find parking in the terminal parking garage to help us with our luggage. But I do remember hearing on the Phoenix news stations last holiday season was a parking nightmare.

I've also read that holiday travel prices are twice last year's prices. The airlines are gambling that people will pony up the money and help them offset their higher costs. I'm going to be watching this closely - because if people decide the higher prices aren't worth it, then they'll have to slash prices to fill seats. It'd be kinda cool to go back to Chicago for the holidays (if I don't freeze my butt off in the process).

When he drinks too much

I had sent an email yesterday to my boyfriend. First of all, I sent the airline intenary to take advantage of Southwest Airlines internet special of San Diego to Tucson $34/way. So the first weekend of December, I'll be flying instead of driving - which is probably for the best because I hate driving at night. Plus I get to stay longer since I save four hours of travel time.

Then I sent an email because I wanted to go see one of the movies that have been out for a while. Since cheap tickets can be bought for shows that start before 6:00, I figured it wasn't as bad as a $9 full price ticket. I went and saw "A History of Violence". Great movie - sex, nudity, violence. My two issues were that the ending was abrupt and I still can't figure out what I'm supposed to take away from it, and there was a couple that had a little girl with them who was asking what the actors were doing when they had a sex scene on the stairs! (I'll save that rant for another day.)

So after a quick stop at Target, I got home and logged into my IM software. Boyfriend was there, said he'd been drinking vodka. I guess things are going from bad to worse with his current job (from what I could tell when I'd try asking about it). So after about an hour, he says he can't keep his eyes open and should go to bed. We say goodnight, and I put my laptop to sleep (decided I'd start drinking vodka too).

About fifteen minutes later, my phone rings. I have since programmed a special ringtone to his number, so was surprised to realize that it was my boyfriend. He says he's still tired, but was talking to his dad, and was thinking of me and wanted to call. We talked for a half hour, when I finally told him "You're tired, I'm not going to keep you on the phone."

He talked a lot about how he likes to please me, wants me to be happy, and I shouldn't hesitate to call him if I ever need or want to talk to him.

(If I had realized in the beginning that excessive amounts of vodka would turn him all sappy and sweet talking I might have pushed the bottle on him more.)

Just kidding really, it was weird. I don't know how much of it was the vodka talking or how much was him with his tough guy barriers down from the vodka. I tried to find out how much he drank, but said that he didn't pay attention and he had bought that bottle anyway so he was going to drink as much of it as he wanted (it was for his dad).

I hope tonight he sounds more like the guy I'm used to. It truly sounds like things are not going well at work. But he won't talk about it ("I don't want to sound negative" is the line I get when I try). None the less, it was nice getting a call out of the blue - that's not the part I'm complaining about!