Parents should pay for school buses

It has been a while since I have been in school, and don’t we all remember that the old days were harder for kids going to school then than they are now?

One thing, though, seems far easier for them than for kids of years ago. That is getting to school. It appears that in the country that the districts offer door-to-door service. In the cities, service appears to be offered to kids living nearer to schools that it was to kids in the past. Buses along country roads seem to stop every hundred feet or so for pick-ups. Door-to-door.

Why is it necessary to stop at every house where a kid lives? Shouldn’t kids be at school bus stops? I’ve been told that it is dangerous for kids to walk the roads. Sure. Then why do parents choose to live there? If it is so dangerous, why do we see the walking up and down the road visiting friends?

Aren’t parents responsible for getting their kids to school? If so, then why should we all be paying for the school bus system? The parents chose to live at some distance from the school; they should be willing to foot the bill for transporting the children.

School tax for education is obviously good. Educating kids is one of our greatest responsibilities. Both the kids and us benefit. Getting the kids to schools safely, however, should be the parents’ responsibility.

How? I’m sure a formula could be derived. One that comes to mind quickly is to calculate the annual mileage driven by all buses. Divide by all the kids taking the buses. That would be the annual cost to parents per child. I’m sure there is a flaw in my hasty logic; let those with a greater grasp calculate it. Then let the parents pay each month in advance. Make it easy for them, but put the burden on them.

Relieve the transportation cost from the taxpayer and place it on those who use the service.

Flying lessons begin

It’s official. I’m training to be a pilot, a radio-controlled model airplane pilot.

I know I could never afford to fly full-scale airplanes, hearing all the horror stories of how much you have to pay for an hour of flying, including airplane and gasoline.

Starting last week, Mahlon Hirsch of Fairview, PA, an extremely experienced radio-control pilot, began my instruction. Mahlon is 90 years old and has been flying for 50 years. He has taught a lot of others to fly, and I am honored he came out of retirement for me.

The airplane, an Alpha 40, came from the Hobby Shop at the Thermal-G Airport on Hamot Road, Summit Township, south of Erie, PA. Full-scale flying and model flying has been in the proprietor family, the Gehrleins, for decades. The knowledge  is deep in the Gehrleins old buildings, and the laughter plentiful.

I received the airplane as a birthday gift from my wife, Bernadette. Why an Alpha-40? On orders from Rory Gehrlein, the third generation of the Gehrlein family at the airport.

In the remaining pleasant days of fall, I’ll be learning to fly out on the field at Mahlon’s side, his left side if I know what’s good for me.

PennDOT creates rush hour jam in Erie

A few months ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said it would improve the traffic flow on W. 12th St. in Erie, and also minimize so-called aggressive driving.

How? By cutting the number of traffic lanes from three each way to two. It seemed counterintuitive.

The dust has settled and it looks like all that PennDOT accomplished was to create a rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic jam.

I took a test drive yesterday during Erie’s rush hour. Erie’s rush hour is nothing like rush hours anywhere else I have been. Erie drivers are fortunate that the rush hour is only a few minutes long and so light.

The distance that formerly took me about five minutes to drive on the way to work took me almost 15 minutes yesterday.

Almost half of the way my speed was less than 10 or 15 miles an hour because I was jammed in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. I very seldom saw this before PennDOT’s redesign.

The drive took me three times as long as before, but I saw no aggressive driving. How could I? We could hardly move for half of the trip.

Your tax dollars at work.

No wonder businesses fail

At I-90 Exit 44, the last in Pennsylvania near western New York, are two businesses. A Kwikfil convenience store that sells gasoline, and a McDonald's hamburger stand.

Why are they still in business? It has to be the shear volume of passing traffic, but these two should take heed. Other businesses at this exit have folded. These two could be next.

My wife and I stopped there yesterday.

First off the Kwikfil gasoline service island is cramped and dangerous, and chockful of nitwit drivers crossing through to get to McDonald's. Kwikfil is "full service," but I had finished filling my tank before I even knew that. Wonderful service. The pumps are so old they don't take cards. When I went inside to pay, nobody acknowledged my existence other than to swipe my card. No greeting, no thanks, no nod that I even existed. Nothing but surly treatment.

Next door at McDonald's was worse. I didn't stay there long enough to even talk to a manager.

Eating at a McDonald's would have been my first McDonald's fare in several years. I got as far as the rest room, though. It was the second most disgusting restroom I have visited. (The first was at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Breezewood, PA.) I gagged just long enough to get out of the place and decided that there would be no way I would eat food from a kitchen of a place with a restroom that vile.

I made a fruitless attempt to talk to the manager. As is so often the case in McDonald's, everybody at the counter had their backs turned to the customers. I decided not to wait to complain.

There's an exit I won't stop at again.

Sunny pine woods

On a walk through the pine woods, I was moved to grab a photo.

Its nothing special, but I liked what I saw and like how the pictures captured it.

US Airways frequent flier service rated poor

I always believed that US Airways would treat its Frequent Fliers with some respect, in fact coddle us. Don't believe it.

After holding for 10 minutes on my first call to the Frequent Flier telephone number, I got an extremely broken-English Filipino woman. I couldn't understand her and became concerned when we got to booking flight numbers. She was having trouble discerning the date I wanted to travel, the twenty-second as opposed to the twenty-seventh. Even when I spoke slowly and clearly, she couldn't understand. Nor could I understand her.

I stopped the transaction, and explained that I couldn't understand her. I asked for another agent who spoke better English.

She immediately responded to my request by hanging up on me. Nice woman. Nice service.

My next call got another broken-English speaker with whom I had to argue to get to a supervisor. When I got the supervisor, I complained about the woman hanging up on me, and the supervisor wanted her name. Who keeps track of names of people answering 800 phone numbers? Without that, nothing could happen. No apology. Nothing.

At the end of booking the flight she wanted to charge me $10 for the pleasure of talking to her on the phone. I told her to forget the booking and that I would go elsewhere.

Because US Airways feels no loyalty to me, I feel no loyalty to the airline, on which I have flown for a long time. Is their any question why travelers like me will bolt to the nearest, cheapest airline seats? US Airways loyalty doesn't exist. US Airways service is extremely poor.

I suggest that US Airways sell its seats to Filipinos, or that we pay in Pesos.

Starting to fly

It's about time I took to the skies. For the past three years I have been viewing the skies at night. First with a telescope, and now with both binocular and telescope.

This current connection with the sky dates from childhood. I have always wanted to fly. Various pilots and trips over the years resulted in my piloting something or other, from a single-engine airplane to a Navy Blue Angels jet. What a rush.

Now, however, I will take to the skies in my own radio-controlled aircraft. I have been flying the simulator for a few days, and am waiting for someone to be looking over my shoulder when I get to the airfield. I really can't wait!

Woodshop remodeling begins

This was the week I began remodeling my old pole barn woodshop into a place I can work comfortably.

I've been planning for some time, and standing on the sideline, planning and talking about it seemed to be my favorite activity until a friend pushed me into the game.

Jan, a buddy who lives in Florida, had said last year that he wanted to come and help me redo my shop. I had told him one day when he was visiting that I wanted to get the place in order. I thought he was kidding. Last month I told him I was about to get going. He said he would come to help, but would not be available in September. "O.K.", I told him, "I'll let you know when I get going on it." And hour later he called by and said he had airline reservations for earlier this week.



Photo by Bernadette Zona

My shop had almost no bench space, other than the five-foot x 21-inch bench I built. It had a laminated maple top. That's all the space I had to work on, so I fabricated projects on my saw table and radial arm saw table. So cramped.

Jan and I built almost 30 feet of bench surface, with fabricated 4 x 4 legs, 2 x 6 joists, at 3/4-inch sub-top and a 3/4-inch particle board top. We made space for the old maple laminated benchtop. That is two and a half inches thick.

Jan's bright idea was one he implemented on his bench. Literally, a bright idea. He installed lighting under the benchtop to illuminate the shelf below the benchtop. He explained that I would get much more usable storage because I would be able to see everything stored there. Nothing would be lost in the dark. He's right. I can tell already.

By the time Jan left, we had finished the supportring structure and the plywood top. Yesterday, I screwed down the particle board work surface.

On the agenda next is installation of the shelving under the bench.