Tag Archives: USA

Silent Monday or: A Day That Will Live

11 Monday Sep 2017

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Salutations™!!

On September 10, 2001, my ex-wife and I found out that we were going to be parents for the first (and only) time. We were happy, excited, elated and thinking of a future for our unborn child. Woke up the next day and still felt excited. Then… the world crashed; almost literally. One of, if not the darkest, days in our country’s history happened that day. Sixteen years ago today. I remember talking with my friend Michelle, who was living in Atlanta at the time, keeping her updated via email what was going on because she couldn’t get full-on internet at work. I remember talking with my mother and my ex-wife. I went to eat a late breakfast with my mother and we didn’t talk about much and the people in the restaurant were pretty quiet, too. That day was so surreal, so weird. I won’t post the “never forget” pics because I don’t think anyone that was alive and aware at that time will ever forget. I just don’t like to be reminded to “never forget.”

I post regular pics, though.

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Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out

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“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.” – President George W. Bush

The Inevitable or: A Momentary Escape

11 Friday Sep 2015

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Salutations™!!

Because I know that the internet, Facebook, Twitter, television and radio are inundating our lives with tributes and “Never Forget” memes and themes, I’m going to not do that today. In fact, I struggled with myself as to whether I’d write about it or not. I think it should be a solemn self-reflection from everyone who witnessed that day. My son did not (obviously if you read my post yesterday) but I think he should understand what it means to us that did. Take time to educate the young ones.

I get really annoyed of the “Never Forget” stuff. I don’t mean any disrespect for the lives that were personally touched for good or bad on that day. I’m just expressing that I think that we, the generation that lived it, we can’t and won’t forget it. I’ll just be glad when it’s a scar and not a scab that we repeatedly rip off every year. To the 2,977 physical victims and the billions that are mental and emotional victims of 9/11/01, I offer the rest of this post (with the exception of this picture), or the lack thereof, blank for you.

cfironborn

(photo ©cfironborn)

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp hangs his head in honor…

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“During the September 11 attacks, 2,977 people were killed: These immediate deaths included 246 victims on the four planes, 2,606 victims inside the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 victims at the Pentagon.” – The Online Rocket and CNN (from Wikipedia)

(Not So) Silent Sunday or: It Was Silent Saturday

05 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Life as We Know It, Rant, Silent Sunday

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Salutations™!!

First I want to say that I am not bashing this town. I love this town. But, I equate it to being a parent to 3B. I support him in all that he does and don’t allow others to talk badly about him but I’ll be the first to point out when he’s done something stupid. That’s what I think happened yesterday. Now to give the story on that…

awawisconsin

Photo ©awawisconsin

Yesterday was, obviously, the 4th of July. Independence Day. I know it’s a day for cookouts and family and friend gatherings and all that stuff. We did it. The BCPF and I went over to my ‘Rents’ place and had hot dogs with the fam. It was good. But, it was a daytime activity. We hung out for a while and then we went home. Watched a few things on Netflix and decided we needed to go out and grab some food and maybe have a drink or two.  It’s Saturday night after all. SATURDAY NIGHT!!

We noticed the streets were dead. No one was out. We went first to Twin City Diner. Closed. Across the street, Quiet Pint was closed. 1st Street Draught House, closed. We drove out to Silo Bistro and Bar. Closed. We saw people sitting at Pane e Vino and breathed a sigh of relief. We pulled in and got out of Nigel and started toward the entrance. A lovely lady that I am familiar with came out and told us in a very nice way that they were closed. I asked why? She said that most locally owned places wanted their employees to have the night off. I replied quite gruffly that that was stupid. So, I do want to apologize to Nicole for being an a-hole. She was being quite polite and I was out of line. So, to her, I apologize profusely.

So what are all the employees going to do? I don’t see everyone of them running to a cookout like some smart arse suggested. There’s nowhere to go! If this was a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, I could understand this. But Friday and Saturdays are money-making days/nights. It’s a drinking holiday. It’s a birthday celebration. People go out for birthdays. I think it’s stupid to be closed. If you’re in business to provide service and make some money, you are open. You can’t make money if the lights aren’t on. You can say, “well it’s not about the money.” BULLSHITE!! It’s always about the money. You don’t go into business just because you love what you do. You go INTO the business of what you love to do. But, making money is the main motivator and if you say differently, you’re full of it. I had money to spend and other than Lowe’s Foods, no one got any of it. “Have you not worked in retail or restaurants during the fourth? It’s dead,” someone said. Yes, because you take all the options away when you don’t open.

I do know that a few of my favorite places, Finnigan’s Wake (Official Emerald Isle of The Less Desirables), Small Batch Beer (Presenting Sponsor of The Beer Dads Podcast) and maybe a few others around there were open. But, the bad part is that is squarely ground zero for Heavy Rebel Weekend and I stay as far away from that as possible. It’s great for them to have it but it isn’t my scene and not my crowd. I don’t want to be around that any more than Eugene wants to be around The World Cup. I mean, Finnigan’s is open on Christmas and Thanksgiving evenings. Like Opie says, “when you’re tired of your family, you have a place to go.” I wasn’t tired of my family but we had done our thing. And, I know it’s not just me. There are others looking for something to do that doesn’t require standing out in the open air getting eaten up by mosquitoes or other pests, grilling stuff and drinking half flat beer out of a keg pump and in Solo cups or something as ridiculous and mundane as Bud-anything. I find it hard to believe that I am the only one. Happy birthday ‘Merica, but you’ve made this town boring on your birthday.

I know this all may sound selfish but the most heck I got out of it was from the biggest “all about me and screw everyone else” person I know. So, I must have done something right. Again, I reiterate, I love this town, but yesterday, you let me down, WSNC.

It wasn’t a bad night, though, The BCPF and I went to Lowe’s Foods and got a rotisserie chicken, some many-layered salad something (she was kind enough to get rid of the onions for me) and some olives. I had vodka and dry vermouth at home, so I made my own dirty martinis and they were good. I enjoyed them. We watched more stuff on Netflix and enjoyed each others’ company. We always do, it would have just been better had we found a non-Heavy-Rebel-Weekend restaurant to share that with. Rant over. Soap box back in the corner.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“There are lots of emotions that go with the Fourth of July.” – Dan Harmon

Getting You There or: A Trip Ain’t Just a Trip

25 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Life as We Know It, Rant, Travel

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Salutations™!!

This is coming in late as I’ve been a busy “bee” today. Lots of stuff going on and trying to take care of them. I know I’ve been over this thing about a thousand times but after seeing a friend publicly ask for recommendations about a trip to some place and having that friend seem to be totally surprised when I told her I was one, let me reiterate… I am a travel professional!! I have my own “agency” called Bee On Your Way Travel. It’s an independent agency of a larger, national, umbrella agency.

Now, I’m not blaming this friend, at all. She’s not to blame, I am. I need to do a better job of putting the word out there. Although I’ve been doing it for over three years, I suppose some people just aren’t being inundated with my posts and tweets enough. That’s probably because I’m not inundating anyone with them. Facebook’s new rules, or the fact that they want you to plop down exorbitant amounts of money to advertise through them (i.e. really inundate you with ads) many people don’t see my posts when I do make them from my “travel professional” page.

I’m not posting on there as usual as I’d like because I can’t schedule “shares.” My BOYWTcontent is always vendor-driven. I want people to know what specials I can offer them from my vendors. But, I can’t just schedule things to come out when I want to using that. So I have to create original posts and that’s very time consuming and as we know, Dear Reader, this isn’t my only gig. Same goes with my Twitter account for the agency, it’s hard to get enough content scheduled to create proper content. I can make stuff from scratch but, again, that’s time consuming. Not that you’re not worth it, but that I have to pick and choose my battles. So, here I am, again, letting you know that I sell vacations. I book business trips. I get you where you’re going. I help make dreams into memories (I made that one up – but it’s true).

Are you looking to book your family’s dream vacation to Walt Disney World? That’s a daunting task to sort through all that minutiae to get exactly what you want out of it. I’m here to help you with that. I am a travel professional because of my Disney knowledge.  Dining plans and park hoppers? Deluxe, Moderate, Value? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Don’t worry, you don’t have to, I’ll explain it. I’ll book it.

Looking to get 5 of your employees and you to a trade conference in Vegas but everyone’s on different time schedules? I’ll do that booking for you. You have enough other stuff to worry about than that.  Have a last minute jaunt to a festival you’ve always wanted to go to but hadn’t booked the flights or a room or a car? I got you! Open-sea cruise? Riverboat Cruise? I got you!

Is Europe on your agenda this year? Do you want to have all your luggage loaded and unloaded for you and an English-speaking guide to tell you all that you could want to know about the British Isles or the windmills in Holland or the history of Point Zero in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in my favorite city, Paris? Guided tours are a wonderful way to see Europe. Unlike tours in the past, you still have these guided tours and still have plenty of free time for yourself. You don’t necessarily get to see the behind-the-scenes tours of the World’s oldest and best cities on your own, with these, you do.

How about just renting “aparthotels” in Berlin or Prague and staying like you live there?  More than one city? No problem, I’ll find the perfect free-independent itinerary for you. Piece each part together. Tickets to the Louvre or bus tours around London? I got you! Every kind of travel you can think of, I do it.

In the case of my friend, they just needed a hotel room on the beach for three days in July. Okay! I have many to choose from with a wide range of budgets to consider. A trip to D.C. A trip to Quebec? The Grand Canyon? Tokyo, Korea, Vietnam? Coming soon… Cuba?  I can do all that. Get you there, get you settled in and get you a good time.

I can do this two ways. You can call me, email me, send me a message via my “travel professional” Facebook page, message me via Twitter, anyway you want. Heck even message me here, or if you know me personally, just hit me up on my regular Facebook page. The other way is by visiting my website.  Do you use sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak or the like? Then you can help a brother out by visiting my site, BeeOnYourWay.com. It’s powered by Priceline so it’s comparable to any of the other OTAs (online travel agents). The difference in mine? With the exception of flights, anything that’s booked on my site, I get commission for it. Am I making a lot? No. I’m making minimal, but sometimes it’s just good sense for you and for me to book via that engine. If you want in-depth booking help or questions, then call me directly. I’ll be honest, I make more commission when you do it that way (letting me do it).

Since I’m talking commission, let’s discuss how it works and better yet, what does it mean to you? I’m not going to lie to you. The cost of going through a travel professional does cost a bit more. Usually, it’s a very modest amount. The vendors don’t want to lose money and I need to feed my family so think of it like this: you don’t want to work for free, neither do I. Yes, you can book yourself via the OTA but why? You most likely work 40 hours a week. You work hard for that money. Do you want to go home and spend hours upon hours of time from your family, friends, dog, etc. by sitting at a computer sorting through webpage after webpage after webpage of travel information just to get frustrated and most likely turn off the computer and go to bed mad? No, you don’t want to do that. You also don’t want to get out a ladder (or borrow or buy one) and get up on your roof and clean your gutters out or you’re too busy to mow your lawn. You hire people to do that. So let me be who you hire to manage your vacation or leisure time.  If it cost you $50 more to book a trip through me while you’re still able to work or even sleep. Wouldn’t that be worth it?  It’s worth it, I promise. Now, with Disney, you won’t pay me one penny more than if you book it yourself online. Not. One. Penny. More.

What are travel professionals not? We’re not deal finders. We do come across special pricing promotions every once in a while, but we’re not here to find you deals. You don’t call a real estate agent and say, “hey! what kind of deal can youo find me on a house?!” While insurance agents shop to find bundle deals for your home/car/boat/motorcycle insurance, you don’t call them looking for a deal. You get them to do the work for you: prepping the paperwork, looking at rules and regulations, etc. Same with travel agents (still professionals), we don’t hunt deals, we work so you don’t have to. Use us.

I have made this about 800 words more than I meant to, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to make sure I got the point across and explained all that you may need to know about travel professionals. Use us (especially me!) and allow us to work for you. Contact me and let me help you get where you want to go.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“Now, you’re going places!” – Tim Beeman – Travel Professional