Santa came late for some folks this Christmas. UPS couldn’t deliver packages because of the central dispatching hub couldn’t handle the package load and the weather didn’t cooperate. Okay, it’s Christmas, what did they expect, a decrease in packages? As for the weather, it’s December, what did they expect, bright and sunny with temps in the eighties? The way I look at t is centralization. They move everything to one hub and move it back out. It sounds efficient but if anything goes wrong in the slightest way the system collapses. Maybe a break it apart and spread the work around the country. It sorta works for the Post Office. Maybe hubs in California, one or three in the Midwest, a couple down South and one for the Northeast. It could work. The packages would be routed to where they need to go. Yes, it could be labor intensive, but when we have a bunch of people who are unemployed for long periods of time it can help them when Congress in its own misguided way decides to cut unemployment benefits. The Post Office is getting more and more inefficient every year and privatization is becoming an option. Don’t get me wrong, I sent my Christmas cards old school this year instead of e-cards. I like the postal system, it brings a surprise to my door every day. And I like the mail carriers, even though I was turned down for a job as one because they didn’t think I’d fit in, but that was many, many years ago. Anyway, UPS and FedEx carry the load for all the dumb-ass drug dealers who think it’s a smart way to transport the stuff.

Last week some time I tried to post Patti Kuche’s Nylon Daze blog because it had a song by Kristy McColl and the Pogues. It didn’t make it, though the URL is there so if you want to see it. I got two of her CDs this week. One, A New England is become a permanent part of my traveling music. She’s good. The music is hard to classify, maybe city music, you know a kinda rock with Latino beats and that dirty girl image that Madonna projected before she became a pop idol and then a caricature. I’m loading two other CDs onto Rhapsody so I can download them with a bunch of other women artists that I listened to and liked but kind of ignored. Typical male, right? Others include Dixie Chicks, Lorena McKennett, Sleigh Bells and a bunch of others.

The apocalypse is coming, I’ve seen two more signs. The first Bacon Bowls. You get these metal forms, wrap bacon around them and bake them in the oven. The fat allegedly drips away and you have a delivery system for mac and cheese, sliders, BLTs etc. It doesn’t look good. Bacon isn’t one of the healthiest foods, nitrates and nitrites and all that along with the fact that the smoking process is kind of nice for flavor but not too nice for the waist and the possibility of carcinogens. In another time with a less healthy mindset, I’d order one, actually two because you get a twofer if you pay shipping. The second new sign is the Dura Wallet. It’s supposed to hold all the crap you’ve got in your wallet now, except its thinner, waterproof and protects against thieves who’ll scan you wallet and steal your ID. You can get a twofer if you pay extra shipping. A note, you don’t need either of these things because the Bacon Bowl will wind up in a kitchen cabinet and later in a yard sale. As for the wallet, I got six my sister bought at the Dollar Store. I’m down to the last one. The Dollar Store calls.

Delta had a major computer “glitch” this past week. People got round-trip tickets to Puerto Rico, Hawaii and coast to coast for like $88. Call me a cynic, but I think Delta did it on purpose just to boost their image this holiday season. We the people are beginning to look upon airlines as a necessary evil like a colonoscopy. The give away is they’re honoring the mistakes.

See you in the funnies.