Sidetracked Charley

Let me say right up front this is not a political blog. It is not about our position in the world or the roll back of environmental protections. Or even the destruction of our democracy. This blog is how he has ruined us as humans. 1) It is now totally acceptable to be rude and racist and sexist. I fought for year to not be called sweetie or dear or honey or have my butt patted. All that effort was for naught as I discovered in a 30 minute conversation with someone trying to sell me a car. 2) People no longer accept our right to our own opinions. I have been told I have the wrong friends, that I am stupid, that we don't need respect for others or have the right to expect respect for ourselves. 3) Lying is acceptable and you have to only say it verbatim three times to have it be the truth. I am walking away or hanging up at the middle of the second repetition. 4) When caught in a bald face lie you only have to lie about the lie. "It was a perfect transcript."...

While the rest of the world is upgrading to more and more sophisticated cell phones I have downgraded to a burner phone. And have even debated doing that at all. I got it originally for road trouble but on my roads I have no signal in any place where I might have a mechanical problem. It gets used mostly to find my shopping partners in large box stores. I once used it for long distance. But I had signal problems. Turns out 55% of users do have signal problems and I am willing to bet the majority of them live in Utah or New Mexico. And that isn't easy to do because there are whole sections of both states which do not have cell towers. The service at my house has improved except when doing cell phone to cell phone. A whole group of people have decided in the effort to economize to cut themselves off from a land line. Yes, I went the other way when my land line company added DSL. But I had to get unlimited long distance because it does not matter if the person whose cell you a...