Some of the existing stores have already moved to their new locations, including Barnes & Noble. For my part, the new format for the Barnes & Noble isn’t really for me. It’s beautiful, I guess, and there are a ton of books (and non-books, along with a café), but the space is definitely more of the Amazon style (books facing outward) and less of the classic library style that they had in their old footprint. So, since it’s pretty much Amazon, but with higher prices, I’ve been buying my books on Amazon since the new Barnes & Noble opened in November 2024. Kind of a bummer, although I’ve been to the Barnes & Noble in Freehold and Toms River and they’re both still in the old format, thankfully.

Just wanted to post this entry to share these pictures. As of this writing, the old Barnes & Noble is actually torn down except for the roof as is most of the interior mall, though the roof is gone from that part of the mall. It’s a little weird being able to look directly through where the mall used to be, but that’s how these big real estate developments work. I used to love going to the mall to walk around and see what the shops were selling – especially around the holidays. I don’t think I’ll be doing that in the new, outdoor format because, well, it gets cold out side!

What I enjoyed about voting last week (besides the 3 minute commute to my polling place) was that I had a chance to vote for candidates that will have some level of impact on me and my immediate community. Again, as a guy who has been voting in Morris County for the last 15 years, the people that I’ve been voting for have largely not been the Mayors, Town Councilors, Board of Education members, State Legislators, and Congressmen who have a direct impact on the community where I actually live. Last Tuesday, the votes that I cast were different in that they have a direct relationship to my daily life.

And the American in me enjoys the fact that I get to vote in the first place! Unlike most folks out there, I enjoy voting for people from both sides of the aisle – which I did last Tuesday. One of the great things about this country is that we have a choice. Frankly, I wish we had more that two viable choices and I really wish that the Libertarian and Constitutional Parties would grow to become larger players in American politics. But that’s okay – the people are beginning to realize that there are more than two answers to every political question and that it’s not such a bad idea to get people with different ideas involved.

As for the results from last week’s elections, well I didn’t think it was any big surprise. Of course the Republicans were going to run away with the Senate and increase their lead in the House – the majority of the places and states in this country are center-right and every political map proves that point. Yes, the cities and urban areas vote heavily Democratic and that’s where the President has his most ardent supporters, but most of this country isn’t filled with cities and urban areas. Thus the results from last week are no big surprise.

Plus, I’m a big believer in divided government. We have a Democratic President and I think it’s a good idea to have a Republican Congress to check his power. I thought the same thing when President George W. Bush was in charge – a Democratic Congress was good for him to have to collaborate with the other side (which he did very well at the beginning of his first term as well). The biggest “check” that I think will come out of the Republican Congress is their ability to conduct fuller investigations in the Senate. The talking heads on television suggest that there are a variety of scandals brewing from Benghazi to the fast and furious gun running issue to immigration and now to the fact that there were blatant lies told to the American people in order to get the Affordable Care Act passed.

While those are all issues that deserve fuller investigations, what I’m looking forward to knowing more about is the IRS targeting scandal. Folks, if the accusations are true – that the IRS targeted individuals and groups that they disagreed with politically – then that is going to be the biggest scandal in the history of American politics up through our lifetimes, I guaranty it. This is the exact type of issue that the colonists rebelled against back in the late 1700s and it’s the exact type of issue that makes our government ineffective in the 2010s. So… that’s what I’m looking forward to from the new Congress: a true investigation into the IRS targeting scandal.

1. The Overall Setting. More than anything else, I like the setting of my new home and the layout of the structure. In truth, the “setting” of the new house isn’t that much different than the old house. It’s still a townhouse and it’s still in the same development. However, where my old rental used to be an end unit right on the major road going through this development, my new home is the second to last unit in the building and I like that better. In addition, the new place is situated far off of the main road and at the end of a cul-de-sac. It’s much quieter than my previous place, which brings me to my next point.

 

2. Kids… Kids All Over! Look, I’m a fan of kids getting up off their butts, getting out of the house, and running around outside playing. How many more studies do we have to read talking about childhood obesity dooming future generations? When it comes to kids and their health, I think that video games have generally done us wrong as a society. And you might be reading these comments thinking, “What’s the point here, Joe?” Well, the point is that the kids who used to live on my old block were not obese because they were constantly outside playing! And it was annoying!
    
   Let me be clear, though – I’m not contradicting myself with this statement. Yes, the kids who lived on my old block were outside playing and getting their energy out in a healthy and productive way. The issue was that they were always outside and they had that weird thing that kids have in their heads that tells them it’s okay to scream at the top of their lungs any time they’re outside of their houses. That includes the minute that the step off of the bus in the afternoon and, more importantly, the few minutes that they spend waiting for the bus every morning. I don’t have any kids, but I can tell you that the school bus stops on my old street (directly in front of my old end unit, by the way) at 7:57am every morning. I know that time because that’s when the morning screaming would end (and, presumably, start up again on the school bus, but who knows). Suffice to say that one of the best parts of the new house is that there aren’t that many screeching kids running around on my end of the block. It’s… peaceful.

 

3. Arrogant, Entitled People. Everyone has a version of this story. You know how the story goes: you live in a small neighborhood or on a block where the neighbors all know each other and there’s always that one neighbor. The one who thinks that they are entitled to something a little bit more than the rest. On the block where my old rental unit is located that person lived on the other end of the street. How did her entitlement manifest itself? In general, she believed that she was more important than anyone else. The best example I can give was during one of the major snowstorms that we had a few years ago. Everyone who lived on our side of the block moved their cars to visitor parking so that the snow plows could come through and clear out our spots. That process worked well until Madam Entitlement moved her car into our spots (I write “our” spots because at the time I had roommates)! We left a note on her car asking her not to do that because we needed our spots cleared out as much as she needed hers cleared out. Of course, like the Empress of the Street that she believed herself to be, she left a note back to us explaining that we don’t own those spots and that she has important work to do and needs access to the main road.
    
   I was waiting to read the line in her note saying, “And in case you were wondering, the answer is yes – my feces do smell like the Queen’s roses.” That’s how full of it that woman was – and still is, I’m sure. Getting away from a self-absorbed, self-obsessed fool like that was an added bonus for my move.

 

4. People With Too Much Free Time.

A closely related type of neighbor to the entitled kind is the neighbor who just has a little bit too much free time on their hands. Granted, I didn’t have many of these folks living on the old block. There was one person, though, who seemed to fit this bill. Whenever there was a bad snowstorm or whenever we had the parking area repaved and had to park on the main road for a few days, she would stand outside of her house and encourage people to call the homeowners’ association to complain. I don’t have a great deal of angst or anger towards someone like that, but I do think that they need to understand reality a little bit better. What constitutes a major crisis in their eyes may just be a minor inconvenience in my eyes. In fact, it may not be a problem at all in the eyes of someone else. It’s all a matter of perspective and people with too much time on their hands have a very bizarre perspective sometimes.
 

5. The New Place Is Newer! This may seem a little obvious, but the new place is newer than my old rental. It was built almost 20 years after the townhouse that I was renting was built. That means that I have different, better perks over here than I had in the old place. For example, while the old place had one assigned parking spot, my new house has a garage with a driveway that I park in. Another example – the old place had a standard, wood burning fireplace that worked relatively well, but was a filthy mess to clean up. The new place has a gas fireplace. It’s incredible.

 

6. It’s Mine! It’s pretty cool that I own this place. And yes, I understand that I own everything on the inside of the townhouse and my homeowners’ association owns everything outside of the walls. I’m cool with that arrangement because I get to customize the inside of this place and make it my own. And that’s just what I’ve been doing since I moved in. For example, I’m writing this blog entry from my new home office and I’m putting this office together the way that I want. Before I came upstairs to write in this office, I was downstairs in my living room that is furnished with brand new furniture that I bought and sits in a room with walls that I painted with colors that I chose (okay, my designer chose the colors – I just approved them). When you’ve rented for the better part of the last 15 years, having the freedom and mobility to do whatever you want inside of your own home is pretty great.

There you have it – 6 reasons why I’m glad to live in a house I call my own. In the future I’ll write about the financial impact of the purchase and why last spring was the right time to buy for me. Stay tuned!

Millions attend mass on the beach at World Youth Day 2013

To help remedy the reality of rudeness, here are 11 tips to assist those who don’t get to church too often.

1. Welcome! There is nothing that regular churchgoers love better than seeing more people in the church, so WELCOME! Seriously, even though my own parish gets a pretty good turnout during the four weekend masses, it’s great to see an overflow crowd praying and worshiping together. In fact, there are even places in America that are engaging in “mass mobs” which is the same concept as a flash mob, except they focus on bringing dozens if not hundreds of people into a Sunday service. It’s a pretty cool concept.

   Anyway, welcome back to church! You should know that the Church welcomes you back, the parish welcomes you back, and the parishioners welcome you back. And hey, after Christmas and/or Easter are over – why not consider coming back once in a while for a traditional Sunday mass? Not only are those masses shorter, but they cover different topics that you might find interesting.

2. Get to church on time. Okay. I know. Sometimes something pops up and you make it to church late. Hey, I walked into mass a few Sundays ago 10 minutes after the service started and I felt bad about it. Yet, there’s a difference between someone who goes to church every week arriving late to a non-holiday mass and an annual/CEO showing up 15 minutes late to a holiday mass. The difference is that the excuse of something “popping up” actually applies to someone who attends mass every week. For an annual/CEO the excuse that something popped up to prohibit you and/or your family from getting to mass on time on the one day of the year that you actually attend is malarkey. You had an entire year to prepare yourself for your annual pilgrimage to church – don’t believe your own lies and think that it’s okay for you to walk into church late because something “popped up.”

   What popped up is that you didn’t really plan your morning well enough… even though you had a year to do so. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re going to be walking into a Sunday service 5 minutes late or later, then you should probably wait until the next service and go then. If you have an appointment coming up that requires you to attend this mass versus a later one, then at least pray for forgiveness for being so self-absorbed that you couldn’t plan out your morning better even though you had a year to schedule it.

3. Don’t sit at the end of the pew. This is always a bone of contention for folks who talk about mass attendance. Where should any of us sit when we attend mass? In terms of how far back in the church you should sit, I don’t think there’s a particular unspoken rule or generally accepted bit of guidance on that item. Personally, I like to sit in the fourth row at my church because I can’t quite make out what’s going on at the alter if I sit further back (and that’s with my contacts in). On a rare occasion I’ll sit in either the first or second row, but it depends on how many people are attending mass and how early I get there.

   And that’s the key here – if you arrive at mass early (which most people do on Christmas and Easter), then you absolutely should NOT sit at the end of the pew! When I write “the end of the pew” I mean you walk into the church, choose which row you’re going to sit in, you kneel down, and then sit right there at the end of the pew so that every other person has to walk over/by you in order to sit down. This is rude and obnoxious! If there is no one else in the row, then move into the middle of the pew and sit there. Of course, if you have a medical condition that forces you to leave the mass during the service or if you have another extremely rare situation that requires you to get up and leave in the middle of worship, then you should sit at the end of the pew. But if you’re just old, if you want to be the first one out of the church, if you feel entitled to sit wherever you please, or if you just don’t want to be in the middle of the pew – those excuses don’t count. Don’t be rude, move into the middle of the pew, and make it easier on everyone else.

4. Yes, YOU have to turn off your cell phone. I always find it amazing when the Deacon or Priest makes a specific request before mass starts that everyone turn off their cell phones and then someone has their cell phone go off during the service. Look, we all make mistakes. I get it. Still, when the Deacon or Priest specifically asks us all to turn off our cell phones, my goodness – the least you can do is put the thing on vibrate! Just remember that when someone says to turn off your cell phone before the service starts, then YES – they are talking to you. Put the thing on vibrate or turn it off.
5. The response is “And with your spirit.” A few years ago, the church changed America’s “And also with you,” response to “And with your spirit.” As it turns out, the entire world was saying “And with your spirit,” except for those of us here in the United States. I remember when the change took place – it was only a few months after I returned to church on a more regular basis. Believe me, it was mass chaos (pun intended)! People were saying “And also with you,” over others saying “And with your spirit.” There was a comedy about all of it, but after a few weeks most people had the new response down. Sure, a few of the folks who have been attending mass for decades still had a hiccup here and there, but even they’ve gotten the hang of it.

   And then Christmas hit that year and the annuals were inflamed that people were saying the new response versus the old one. But, as we know, the annuals come and go… and usually don’t come back. So then Easter hit and the cries of “Foul!” were heard all over again from the annuals/CEOs. Those folks who had been attending mass regularly since the changes sort of looked at the annuals at that point and thought, “God, help them.” Today – more than two years since the change in the wording has taken place – feigning anger or consternation over the now-not-so-new wording is just ignorant. With these changes in the wording, the entire world now says the same thing during the mass (in their own language, of course). Get with it.

6. Be quiet! There are many frustrations that regular mass attendees face during Christmas and Easter. Chief among them is the lack of reverence for the sanctity of the mass. The Easter Vigil mass is one of the most solemn if not the most solemn mass of the year. It’s the longest mass of the year (about two and a half hours at my parish) and it’s the one where the most reverence is required. Many people go to the Easter Vigil in an attempt to not go to mass on Easter Sunday, so there is usually a huge attendance at this service.

   And most of the people who attend have no care, concern, or consideration for the reverence of the service. They don’t care that an entire community of churchgoers has been waiting for this mass all year so they can reverently pray and reflect on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

   I put this one on the list because of the Easter Vigil mass that I attended this year. I had the unpleasant experience of sitting in front of a troop of girl scouts during the mass. Now look – we have a problem in this country (and Western society in general) where we train our young girls to be vapid, mindless bodies who require excessive amounts of assurance and social agreement in order for them to just feel normal. Why we do this to our girls in this country is beyond me and probably a topic for a future post (though I have a strong suspicion that the problem is linked to the American form of hyper-feminism that has perverted traditional gender roles only to leave future generations in the dark about issues of self-confidence). However, these young girls talked through nearly the entire service. There were not two seconds that went by for the entire two and a half hours where this group of young girls were not gabbing with each other in a hushed whisper. They were doing the fake laughs of approval that are popular among that age group, they talked through each of the readings, they talked through the homily, and they even talked through the Our Father which really amazed me. The only time that these girls gave themselves more than a one second break in their babbling was when they were kneeling down during the preparation of the Eucharist. I think it was because they were positioned where they couldn’t easily interact with one another.

   If you’re attending mass for the first time this year or the first time since Christmas, then do everyone a favor and show some reverence for the service. And if your kids are the ones whispering and not paying attention during the service, then separate them from one another and try to spend some time before mass explaining to your kids about respecting the service and the reverence of the regular churchgoers. Again, if you’re only going once or twice per year, then the least you can do is be respectful during the service.

7. The issue of babies and kids making noise during the service. For me, this isn’t an issue. I don’t mind a crying baby and I don’t mind a kid who makes noises here and there. I have three baby cousins and I imagine that if they were at mass each week, they would probably cry or make a noise from time to time. The issue here is the parents and their ability to be aware of their surroundings (see the bullet point about being aware of your surroundings). If you have a baby with you and the poor kid is crying nonstop throughout the service, then you should really get up and go into the vestibule or the family-designated room until the baby calms down. You have to be aware of your surroundings. If you’re in the Christmas or Easter service (or any Sunday service for that matter), then chances are that you’re surrounded by hundreds of people who are trying to worship with some peace and dignity. No one is going to care about the occasional cry or whine or noise, but when that noise is constant (like those Girl Scouts in my example above), then you should respect the people who have gathered in the church and move to another location where the noise will not be a distraction.

   Let me offer a brief example because I know there is some ignorant parent out there thinking, “You don’t know what it’s like to have kids!” (Amen!) There is a parent in my parish who has a young kid – the boy has to be 4 or 5 years old. Whenever they’re at mass the kid has a running dialogue that goes through the entire service. Understand what I’m saying here, folks. There is a running dialogue from this kid. He talks nonstop – NONstop during every portion of the mass. He’s not loud and I think that’s why people don’t get particularly mad at the parents (I know I don’t get mad at them, just a little baffled). But after about 30 minutes of nonstop talking (albeit in a hushed tone) it is amazing that the parents don’t take the kid into the vestibule to let him get the rest of his dialogue out before coming back into the service. Of course, you each have your own experiences with something similar, I’m sure. For some of you, the babbling little boy is a 6 month old baby that cries for 45 minutes straight while the parents don’t get up and leave. Whatever the case may be, a good rule of thumb for churchgoers is to never get mad or angry at noises from kids unless they go on for a prolonged period of time and begin to distract from the service. A good rule of them for the parents of noisy kids is to remove the child from the public space after about a minute or two of nonstop noise.

8. Wait for the person ahead of you. If there was one piece of advice that I could give to most people who are in public places, it would be to be aware of your surroundings! One of the most frustrating things for anyone at mass is for them to go up, receive the Eucharist, and then get in the line for the wine only to begin walking back to their seat and having to climb their way over 7 or 8 people who couldn’t wait an additional 15 seconds for them to finish the wine before rushing back to the pew. While I was at Easter mass, I waited for an older woman who was sitting next to me to get the wine (I didn’t get the wine) and in the process, about 10 people got backed up because they were rushing back to the pew. One woman (in the most passive aggressive way) whispered towards me, “Kinda holding up the line.” Since I don’t respond to numb-minded idiots, I looked past this rude, self-obsessed, dullard of a woman towards the older lady making her way through the jumble of people and offered her to walk ahead of me in the pew so she could go back to sitting next to her equally older husband. The older lady smiled and said “thank you” and I told her “you’re welcome.” Of course, there was an ENORMOUS older guy who couldn’t wait for this older woman to get in the pew so he went ahead of both of us… and then he wouldn’t get out of the old lady’s way. As we began making our way through the pew, the HUGE guy looked at the old lady and smiled. She said she had to get by and he smiled at her again. She then pointed to her husband at the end of the pew and the fat guy looked at the husband and then leaned back maybe half an inch. The woman very politely said to him, “I think you’re going to have to sit down.” So he sat down and we both climbed over him back to our seats.

   The lesson here is that you should always wait for the person ahead of you to go back into the pew before you do. And you should always be aware of your surroundings and how you interact with them!

9. Wait for the closing hymn to finish. One of the rudest things that takes place on both Christmas and Easter is the rush of the annuals and CEOs to get out of the church immediately after the final blessing. It doesn’t work like that, folks! Granted, the ritual part of the mass is over when the priest gives his final blessing, but out of sheer respect for those who are tasked with the music ministry and out of some semblance of dignity for the sacred service that you’re at, WAIT until the final hymn is finished before you leave your pew and head out the door! Trust me, you’re not that important that you can’t spend another minute and a half listening to the closing hymn before you rush back to your likely-boring life. Show some respect and let the music ministry play or sing you out before you run for the door. Besides, you only go to church once or twice a year – if you want to run out so quickly, then don’t come in the first place.
10. Don’t hang around primary walkways. This is really a piece of advice for all people in all public places. If you’re attending the church service and you’re either on your way in or on your way out of the building, try not to stop to have a conversation with whoever it is that you’re talking to while you’re standing in the middle of a primary walkway. Look, chances are you’re talking to a neighbor or a friend that you see each week or possibly even every day. Do you really have to stop the flow of people entering or leaving the church to have a 2 to 3 minute conversation about something that is probably a bore and/or meaningless? You can’t cover those topics during the other interactions that you have with this person?

    Is it okay to stop and hug someone that you haven’t seen in a while? Of course. Is it okay to stop and have a 30 second conversation with that person while you’re in the middle of a primary walkway? Of course not.

11. If you’re not going to participate, consider not attending. This one is a tough piece of advice to give out because as I noted above we welcome everyone to the church and we want you there – particularly on holy days of obligation! However, if you’re not going to pay attention and talk through the entire service or if you’re going to be so preoccupied with your life outside of the church that you can’t give the Lord an hour or so of your time and attention, well you should consider why you’re attending mass in the first place. Somewhere in the Bible it says that going through the motions doesn’t count. In other words, if you go to church just to say (or know in your mind) that you spent an hour in nice clothing listening to a service that you didn’t understand, well… no one is impressed by that except you. If this is your perspective, then chances are you’re breaking most of the suggestions above. Chances are you’re not aware of your surroundings, you’re hanging around primary walkways, you sat down at the end of the pew, you talked or whispered throughout the service, and you’re packing your stuff to leave as soon as the final blessing is over. If that sounds like you, then really consider the question of why you attended in the first place.

While I understand that some of these pieces of advice come off as harsh, the truth is that none of these would even be necessary if we spent more time in this country working on basic manners. And since we don’t spend any time on real manners any more, thus I write this entry to help those of you returning to church either for the first time in a year or the first time since the last major holiday.

Welcome back! Be respectful. Enjoy the service.

Here is a look at the interaction (or lack thereof) that I had with the Morris County Clerk’s office. First, the information that they posted on their website:

EMAIL APPLICATIONS TO ASMITH@CO.MORRIS.NJ.US OR FAX APPLICATIONS WITH EMAIL ADDRESS TO 973-285-5233

BALLOTS WILL BE SENT TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

RETURN BALLOT TO BALLOTSUBMISSION@CO.MORRIS.NJ.US OR FAX TO 973-984-8412

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HURRICAN SANDY DISPLACEMENT VOTER njelection.org

APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN 5PM NOV.6TH 2012.(EMIAL/FAX)
THE VOTERS MUST TRANSMIT THE SIGNED WAIVER OF SECRECY ALONG WITH THE VOTED BALLOT BY FAX OR EMAIL FOR RECEIPT BY BOARD OF ELECTION NO LATER THAN NOV.9,2012 AT 8P.M.

Okay. Easy enough, right? According to the information above, all I have to do is send a copy of the application (which was readily available on the county website) after I filled it out. Which I did as you’ll see below. This is the e-mail I sent to the Morris County Clerk’s office at 7:57pm on Monday, November 5th:

Subject: Application for E-Mail Voting – Borough of Mount Arlington

Good evening,

Attached to this message please find my application to vote in tomorrow’s election via e-mail. You may reach me at this e-mail address or on my cell phone if you have any questions. I look forward to receiving my ballot via e-mail and voting in tomorrow’s election.

Best regards,
Joe

I sat there and I waited – patiently – for a response from the County Clerk. Frankly, I just wanted my ballot sent to me via e-mail – I didn’t need any discussion! I figured that the ballot would be sent my way at some point the following morning. Well, the next morning came and went and I kept on waiting. It was 12:00pm on Election Day – I heard nothing from them. It was 1:00pm on Election Day – I heard nothing. And then, right before 2:00pm (it was 1:52pm to be exact), I couldn’t take it any more. I sent the following e-mail to the County Clerk’s office:

Hello,

I e-mailed my application to vote by e-mail ballot last night at approximately 8:00pm. I have not heard back from anyone at the clerk’s office, so I am going to my polling place in Mount Arlington instead. As such, I withdraw my application to vote by e-mail for this election.

This system is obviously not ready for use by the public. You should not have made it available for this election, regardless of the demands coming from Trenton.

Good luck,
Joe

A few minutes after I sent this message I got in my car, drove to Mount Arlington, voted (in less than 3 minutes), and then went to my family’s place to hang out for a bit. And in case you were wondering whether or not the Morris County Clerk ever got in touch with me to explain what was going on… no, they didn’t get in touch with me. On Twitter, they noted that they received thousands of requests for these e-mail ballots. By the utter lack of communication that I received from them, I would imagine that they didn’t really have that many people confirming the applications that were received and then sending out those specific ballots. I stick by my comment in my second e-mail: this process was not ready for prime time and should not have been made available to the public as a viable voting option.

Think about this – if every person’s vote counts, then those “thousands” of people who request an e-mail ballot probably don’t have their votes counted yet. And they certainly didn’t have their votes counted last night. In fact, the MorrisElectionResults.org website shows that zero of those ballots have been as of 11:23pm last night.

In other words, if you voted by e-mail ballot, absentee ballot, or provisional ballot and you’re a Morris County voter… then your vote didn’t count this year. Oh sure, eventually your vote will be counted and added to the totals, but at that point the concessions have been made and the majority of the elections are over and no longer waiting for your vote to count. Imagine if those thousands of e-mail ballots, absentee ballots, and provisional ballots all voted for the same candidates in one of the countywide, statewide, or national elections. Those accumulated votes might not have been enough to sway an election, but it might be enough to suggest that a victory which was reported (for example) as 65% for one candidate and 35% for the other candidate was actually 55% for one candidate and 45% for the other. That change in total votes is a big, big deal and directly impacts the post-election discussion!

And here’s the thing – I like the Morris County Clerk’s office. I think that they’re probably the most efficient clerk’s office in the state (I deal with several of county clerk offices and the team in Morris County is really among the best, if not the best in the state). But I don’t like that they made the e-mail option available for yesterday’s election. I know that it was somewhat pushed on them by Trenton, but it wasn’t ready for wide use by the public and that gives an otherwise great clerk’s office an unfortunate, temporary black eye.

That’s right. I enjoy going to church.

This is my new church - it's a really great house of worship.

I’m sure that there are scores of CCD/Sunday school students, kids, and teenagers who would read that comment and say, “Blech! Church is SOOO boring!” I know. I said the same thing just a few years back. But it’s true – I enjoy attending mass each week.

Before some of you think that I’ve turned into a holy roller or a crazy religious person let me be very clear that that hasn’t happened at all. From time to time I’m unable to go to the weekly mass service and I don’t get hysterical when that happens. Sometimes you just can’t make it to church and as long as your reason for not being able to attend isn’t frivolous, then God understands. However, as I get older I’ve found that I’ve grown into a routine. We all have our routines. You wake up to a certain rhythm, you get ready for bed with a certain rhythm, you arrange your office to a certain rhythm, etc. Over the last few years I’ve found that after I added regular spiritual worship to my weekly routine via weekly mass and (more recently) the occasional penance service, that I really do enjoy attending these services. They’re short, to the point, and a good chance to get out and be part of something bigger than yourself.

And if there is anything that is bigger and more worthy of our attention than ourselves then it obviously has to be the Church.

The church that my Grandmother attended when she was young.

One thing that I’ve been missing in my worship is a dedicated church and parish to call my own. To fix that problem, I spent the better part of each Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning over the last few months trying out different churches. Below you can find some thoughts on what I was looking for in my search for a new church.

Here are a few of the important items that I looked for when I was searching for a new church to attend:

• Interior Church. Let’s face it – we are all greatly influenced by our surroundings in all that we do. When it comes to worship I think you need to be in a place where you feel a good mixture of comfort, reverence, austerity, and ritual.
• Proximity to Current Area. Even though I haven’t moved to a new apartment in three and a half years, I still move around a lot more than other people in my age group. Not having a set place to call home really bungles up some things in life including finding local communities in which to participate. Finding a parish that was near to my current location was important to me because I’ll probably wind up staying in this general area for the next few years.
• Volunteer Opportunities. Many folks who read this blog wonder why I spend so much of my free time volunteering. Well, I enjoy the whole volunteering process including helping people. Understand where I’m coming from, though – I have a few large-scale, national volunteer obligations coming to an end in the next year and I think the next time I dedicate a great portion of my “time, talent, and treasure” to a cause I would like for it to be closer to home. So, the availability of volunteer opportunities is important to me.
• The Process of the Mass. This item may seem a little bit weird to those of you who have not been to multiple Catholic churches, but one of the things that I’m looking for is a little bit of commonality in my masses. Sometimes I got to a mass and I can’t follow the basic parts of the service because the particular church that I’m attending has their own music, process, and/or added verses. For example, I can’t tell you how many different times I’ve heard the “Gloria” sung with different words, added words, different melodies, different tones, etc. It gets confusing and, frankly, a bit annoying. Makes me wonder about the fuller impact of the Third Roman Missal, but that’s a blog entry for another time.
• The Songs. The parish that I wound up registering at has an excellent selection of music for each service. They don’t choose obscure songs in the hymnal, but instead choose songs that the people will probably know. For example, during the Christmas season at my church we’ve sang Ode to Joy, Hail Holy Queen, Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, etc. There’s no reason to sing some ancient, old song that no one “gets” these days. The church that I registered at understands that fact and gives the parishioners the opportunity to sing songs during mass that are known in most households.

The first picture in this entry is a picture of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Farmingdale. It is a great place to worship. The second picture above is from Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Long Branch. This is the church that my Grandmother attended as a child with my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother. Of all the churches that I attended, I would prefer to attend Our Lady Star of the Sea simply because of the family connection. However, this church is a bit far from where I live – about 25 minutes away – so I only plan to attend services at that building every once in a while.

There you have the summation of my great church search during the latter part of 2011. I’m very pleased with the church that I wound up registering at which is only about ten minutes from my house. The interior of the church is beautiful and they keep it very clean and tidy. There seem to be ample volunteer opportunities if at some point in the future I decide that I want to volunteer for the church locally. There is a very consistent, very by-the-book process for the mass. The songs are all well-known and not obscure, random songs that don’t connect with the congregants. It appears to be a great parish to grow in faith and I’m looking forward to continuing to attend services there in 2012.

What memorial day means to me
copyright joseph p.martino

“America land of opportunity, home of the brave and free.
Where the American flag and eagle fly for one and all to see.

Our nations flag ripples proudly in the breeze, from sunny California to the sandy shores of Maine, all across America up to the ocean sea’s.

Many of our brave and patriotic son’s and daughter’s who fought on foreign shores, have now gone to their eternal rest.

On memorial day Americans honors our veterans, they deserve our praise and glory for they are truly our nations best!

Some made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe and free, they paid our future obligations in the name of liberty.

Please do not take for granted the legacy they bequeath, for these brave hero’s never heard the words: ‘run’ or ‘defeat.’

So always remember and shall we never forget, to thank our veterans and active service men and women every chance you get.

That’s what, MEMORIAL DAY means to me.”

COPYRIGHT Joseph P. Martino
Poet,writer,motivator,inventor

I hope that you all have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday.

But I’m not a fool. I know when a brand or a company doesn’t give a damn about its customers. And – after my brief experience in Walmart today – I know what many of my friends and I have thought about the Neptune Walmart for some time – this store does not give a damn about its customers.

The Walmart in Neptune Township, New Jersey does not care about its customers

I’m not going to go off on a rant because I don’t have the time or the inclination right now, but let me rundown the brief series of events that I just encountered. First, my intention in going to the Neptune Walmart was to get two money orders. That’s it – I didn’t need or want anything else.

When I walked in the front door, I noticed there were about ten people in the customer service line (typical at the Neptune Walmart – where they never have enough people working on the front end). Instead of waiting in that line, I figured why not go and buy some stuff that maybe I don’t need, but that I have to get at some point anyway. With that thought in mind, I make my way to the back of the store to the automotive section and after spending about ten minutes browsing around, I picked out two Rain-X windshield wipers (the ones that are $18 a piece – I was feeling good) and some Rain-X bug remover wiper fluid (I like Rain-X). All together I had about a $40 purchase in my hands.

Then I walked up to the front of the store and literally did a double take at the cashier lines. When I tell you that each line was 6 or 7 customers deep, that’s not an exaggeration. In fact, it’s probably an understatement because most of the lines were backed up into the clothing areas.

Some of you might ask, “What could make the lines so long on a Wednesday early evening?” And you’d be asking the right question – partly. One of the major disappointments about the Neptune Walmart is that they have around 25+ cash registers, but typically only have 7 or 8 open for business. They clearly need to have more cashiers operating at all times, so why aren’t they putting more people out there? Do they think that the few bucks they save in personnel costs is worth the aggravation of their customers? Talk about being shortsighted!

After realizing that I wasn’t getting back to the customer service counter without waiting 15 to 20 minutes in line to buy the Rain-X stuff (yes, when you shop at the Neptune Walmart, you typically spend more time in line than actually shopping), I decided to leave the stuff up at the front of the store and leave. As I was walking out the door, though, I noticed that the customer service area had no customers in it, so I redirected myself to get my money orders.

And when I asked the woman behind the counter for two money orders she very politely told me that the money order machines are down and they don’t know when they’d be back up. I looked at her for half a second, smiled, and thanked her as I walked out the door.

As if that wasn’t a big enough, epic failure of a trip to the miserable Neptune Walmart, don’t forget that it was raining today. And when it rains in New Jersey, no one remembers how to drive. Apparently, my neighbors in Tinton Falls and Neptune Township really forget how to drive when it rains because those folks couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot without stopping short left and right, forgetting to use their blinkers, cutting people off, etc. It was misery.

But, believe it or not I’m not that mad at the whole experience because this was indicative of a typical trip to the Neptune Walmart. They just don’t give a damn about their customers. And you know what? That’s okay. That’s their prerogative. Just like it’s my prerogative to not shop there for the next month. That’s right, folks. After today’s abysmal experience at the Neptune Walmart, I’m not going back there for a month. I spend a lot of money at the Neptune Walmart each month and I hope that the good folks at the Ocean Wegmans and Neptune ShopRite enjoy my money because after today’s experience, the Neptune Walmart is on probation.

Unacceptable, Neptune Walmart. Unacceptable.

October 1st: I bring my car in for a checkup and because the brake light is on. There’s also a loud noise coming from underneath the car that sounds like the exhaust is messed up. I stress to the nice girl that checks me in that I would like the technicians to take a look around the car while they’re inspecting to see what else needs to be fixed, if anything. She tells me – no worries, Honda has a multi-point inspection that they put each car through so whatever the problem is, they’ll find it.

I leave and get a phone call a little while later from Honda saying the brake light is on because the fluid needed to be topped off so they topped it off. They say the exhaust is making noise because the muffler needs to be replaced and that they’ll order the muffler now and call me when it comes in. Honda also gives my car a full transmission fluid flush or something like that (I don’t know). Oh, and my car passed that Honda multi-point inspection with flying colors. I pay $240+ and go about my business.

October 2nd: The brake light comes back on.

October 16th: Honda calls to tell me that the muffler has arrived and that I can drop the car off at any time to get the thing installed. I ask how long this process takes and the folks at Honda tell me it takes about an hour and a half. Great! I ask them if I can drop it off on Monday, October 18th in the morning and they say sure, but the guy won’t be around to do the install until 1:00pm so I tell them that I’ll see them at 1:00pm on Monday, October 18th.

October 18th, 1:00pm: As promised, I drop the car off at 1:00pm. In fact, I drop it off at 12:58pm, but that’s neither here nor there. As I’m waiting for the service clerk to process the fact that my car is dropped off, I notice a large computer screen hanging from the wall listing out the service appointments for the day. I’m watching the times and names of the customers flip by and I see my name listed at 1:20pm. Weird – my appointment was for 1:00pm. Oh well, who cares? As long as I get the car back within an hour and a half so I have ample time to prepare for a career panel that I’m speaking on at 5:00pm at the local university. When I drop the car off, I tell the folks at Honda that the brake light went back on right after I took the car back on October 1st. They say that they’ll look into it. The cost of the muffler replacement is about $350.

October 18th, 3:00pm: I’m hanging out at my place preparing for the panel later that night and waiting for the Honda call that says, “Hey Joe. Your car is ready to pick up – come on by and get it.” The Honda call that I get instead is, “Hey Joe. We looked into those brakes and it turns out that your brake lines are rusted through and that’s why the brake fluid is leaking. The car isn’t safe to drive. We can replace brake lines for you, but we probably wouldn’t be able to get you the car back until Wednesday. And it’ll cost an additional $700+.”

For a moment, three thoughts try to squeeze themselves into the forefront of my mind and ultimately out of my mouth. The first thought is, “Didn’t my brakes pass some Honda multi-point inspection just two weeks ago? Why wasn’t this picked up at that time?” The second thought is, “How hard would I have to throw this phone to actually break the glass in the windows in my bedroom?” The third thought is, “You clearly need to have this work done – the car isn’t safe to drive without it and you’ll only be without the Civic until Wednesday. Just do it and get it over with. Plus, you’re giving this car back to Mom after you’re done with it and you don’t want her driving an unsafe car.”

The third thought wins the momentary race from my mind to my mouth (you’re welcome, Mom!) and I tell the woman on the phone that I want the brake lines replaced. I ask her about a loaner car since I have that career panel to get to and a job that requires me to actually show up at the office each day (novel idea, huh?). She tells me that Honda doesn’t have loaner cars, but that they have an arrangement with the local rental car place and that she can have a rental car ready for me as soon as I come by. My roommate and I get into his Nissan (which works perfectly fine, by the way), head back to the Honda dealership, and I meet the rental car guy. Turns out the rental car will cost me $40 per day, but they take a $150 deposit from my credit card just in case it goes longer. Weird. The only thought that goes through my mind is, “Son of a bitch. Well, I guess it’s only $80 in total so I’ll deal with it.”

October 18th, 4:45pm: As I’m walking into the building where the career panel is being held, Honda calls again to tell me that whoever replaced the muffler last time (Meineke) used parts and pieces that didn’t actually fit the year and model of Civic that I was driving. Thus, I should have some tube somewhere underneath the car replaced so that the new muffler works as its supposed to work. The technician tells me that the alternative is to have the new muffler constantly banging off of the gas tank and have a clanging noise inside of my car. Since I’m crazy enough as it is without having the 2+ hours that I spend in the car each day joined by some clanging sound underneath the car, I tell the technician that I’d rather have that pipe fixed, how much does it cost, and what’s the estimated additional time to have it fixed. The technician says that they actually have the piece in stock, the additional price is about $250 or so, and that it won’t add any time to the repair. Works for me – I tell the guy to fix it up.

October 19th: While I’m at my office, Honda calls me since they promised to keep me updated throughout the repair process. The nice young woman on the phone tells me that they can’t get me the car back by tomorrow because they didn’t actually have both brake lines available in stock – they only had one. In fact, they can get me the car back on Saturday, which is when American Honda will be able to deliver the part.

Much like the day before, three thoughts make a mad dash from my mind to my mouth. The first thought is, “So the same people who did the awesome job on the multi-point inspection must have checked the shelf and reported that there were two brake lines available when, in fact, there was only one. What type of clowns do they have working over there? Why isn’t anyone actually doing their jobs? I mean I’m paying good money here, damn it! And now I have to pay another $200 or so for this ridiculous rental car?! Are you serious?!” The second thought it, “I know how supply lines work. These things are a pain in the ass and can take forever to deliver something as simple as a thimble to somewhere as close by as the room next door.” The third thought is, “I better close my office door because I’m about to blow up.”

As my third thought alludes to, the first thought wins the race to my mouth and as I shut the door to my office, I get a little loud with the girl on the phone. Some mixture of the following leaves my mouth in an ever increasing tone: “Why didn’t your guys check for the required parts yesterday?! Do you realize that it’s not another four days, it’s another $160 or so in rental car fees?! How can you NOT have a loaner program? You guys better be paying for the additional four days since I only rented this car under the auspices of having it for two days! Why should I have to pay more because you guys didn’t do your job?” And yes, I did use the word “auspices” while I was yelling into the phone. At the same time as my voice got loud, so did the girl on the other end – in fact, I expected her to get loud. Hey, it’s her job to protect the company she works for, right? I fully understand and it doesn’t bother me.

We agree that Honda will pick up two days worth of the cost of the rental since I was told that pieces were in stock when I rented the car. As I hang up the phone I think to myself, “I haven’t yelled at someone in a while. That was kind of fun.”

October 20th: My daily call from Honda comes in. This time around, it turns out that American Honda can’t deliver the part until next Monday morning – not this Saturday like the girl on the phone promised the day before. The girl also tells me that it wouldn’t have mattered if the part was delivered on Saturday because the guy who is doing this repair doesn’t work on Saturdays.

That’s right – you guessed it. A multitude of thoughts rush through my mind at this point. The first thought is, “If the guy doesn’t work on Saturdays, then why did you tell me that I’d get the car back on Saturday even if the part was delivered? What’s going on over there? Why am I being dicked around so much? Who’s in charge? I want to talk to a supervisor immediately. This is crap. Why am I being promised things that never seem to happen or – in this case – can’t possibly happen in the first place?!” The second thought is, “I hate you. I hate Honda. I hate everyone right now. Don’t call me again unless you’re telling me that my car is ready to be picked up, damn it.” The third thought is, “Damn it. Whatever. Just fix my car.”

As the third thought is racing towards my mouth and crossing the finish line, the girl on the phone cuts me off and says that she understands that I’ve been put at a disservice and that she’s going to look into paying for another two days of the rental car expenses. If she can’t get the additional two days of the rental car paid for, then she’s going to try to do something about reducing the labor costs. My better judgment immediately picks up the doublespeak going on here – she’s going to “look into” getting more rental car days paid and she’s going to “try” reducing the labor costs. I feel like telling this girl, “Believe it or not, I’m a highly educated guy with a ton of business experience – I know what those words mean.” They mean that this girl isn’t going to do a damn thing or, at the very most, she’ll ask a question to a supervisor and (of course) be told “no” and then stop at that answer. In other words, this girl has a job to do and that job doesn’t necessarily involve fiercely advocating on my behalf to a decision-maker at Honda. Just as I’m ready to let all of these thoughts out, the third thought from a few minutes ago finishes the race and I tell her that I appreciated that she was going to look into the additional days and that I’d wait for her call on Monday to pick up my car.

The same little voice that – just 24 hours ago – told me that I missed yelling at people tells me, “See? That’s why you should yell at people – it makes them look into the obviously legitimate answer (in this case, paying for more rental days) without you even having to ask.” My conscience, with its feelings hurt, tells the little voice to shut up.

October 21st: I realize that even though the Chevy Aveo which I’m renting is the absolute bottom of the line in terms of features, it’s not that bad of a little car to go zipping back and forth to work. When I say bottom of the line, I mean NOTHING on this car is automatic other than the transmission. Later that night, I start pricing out how much a brand new Chevy Aveo might cost me.

October 25th, 3:00pm: I’m at the office and, at this point, I actually like the Chevy Aveo. One of my coworkers and I were just having a conversation about how we like the Chevrolet brand because it’s pretty durable and provides a good value when Honda rings my phone. My coworkers are happy that Honda is calling because they feel for me on this situation with the dealership and everyone in the office agrees that I’m getting dicked around by Honda. No matter, Honda is calling me with the good news that my car is ready to pick up.

I pick up the phone and the girl that I’ve been working with is back. She tells me that she looked into having the dealership pay for a few extra days on the rental and the answer is no. I immediately motion to my coworker who happens to be standing in my doorway to get out and close the door behind her; it’s about to get loud in this office again. The girl on the phone does her typical spiel of talking loud and talking nonstop so I can’t get a word in edgewise. In the midst of her talk she says, “Unfortunately, American Honda didn’t deliver the part today and they won’t be able to get it here until Saturday.” At this point, I’m convinced the clouds covered the Sun because even our closest star would be blinded by how bright I’m about to light this girl up on the phone. The girl ends her talking points by saying that this is a rare circumstance and this usually never happens and that she apologizes that the dealership can’t pay for more than two of the rental days.

Now it’s my turn to talk and there are no thoughts racing to my head – I have this response down already without having a mental war with myself. My response goes something like: “I have no major problems with you guys and your shop. [In fact, I do.] I have a major problem with American Honda. Why are they telling me that the part will be delivered on Saturday, but actually that means Monday, but actually it’ll be the following Saturday? What’s going on over there? Why can’t they deliver a part when they say they’ll deliver the part? This is absolutely unacceptable.” The girl on the phone says that she understands and agrees, but that this is a rare occasion and that she’s sorry about what’s going on. With a notable increase in my tone, I ask her: “Who did you talk to about paying for the rental car days? The service shop manager? The manager at the dealership? Who?” She tells me that she spoke with both of these guys as well as the district manager (whatever that means) and American Honda and no one was able to provide additional days. Knowing exactly what I’m going to do here I respond with: “Good. Give me the number of the district manager’s boss. I want to talk to that person.” She is audibly startled and after a quick verbal stutter step says, “Oh. That would be American Honda. Hold on. I’ll get you the number.” I get put on hold for about two minutes during which the following thoughts start going through my mind:

• This is absolutely ridiculous.
• That’s another $200+ for this rental in addition to the $200+ that you’re already paying. We’re getting to a point where you can’t afford this excessive expense.
• Why does no one at Honda understand that each day this repair gets prolonged it costs me an additional $40? This is outrageous!
• Did she say the part will be delivered on Saturday? Didn’t she tell me last week that the guy who is repairing the car doesn’t work on Saturdays? Wait a minute… I’m getting bamboozled here again!
• Hold on – didn’t the muffler take two weeks to get delivered? Why didn’t I think of that last week when I dropped the car off? American Honda can’t deliver a part in under two weeks…
• I could probably drive the car without the new brake lines installed. I drove the car onto the Honda lot with the rusted through brake lines and the car drove fine. It’s just that damn brake light…
• Maybe I can find a way to just turn the brake light off?
• I should just pick up the car this afternoon. To Hell with it all. The car drives fine.
• But what if the brake lines are really in bad shape? I could get into an accident and nobody needs that crap. But what are the chances of that happening? Well, they might be good – who knows?
• What the hell is a brake line anyway? Let me get on Bing for a minute and search this thing out…
• You know what? That’s it – I’m picking the car up today and bringing it somewhere else. Wait a minute – one of the guys that I advise in the fraternity owns a car repair place – I’ll bring it there! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place?! Damn it!

The girl gets back on the phone and gives me the generic 800 number to American Honda. As she begins to tell me that the piece will be delivered on Saturday I cut her off and tell her not to worry about it because I’m picking up the car today. She says, “You want to come and get the car? It’s not safe to drive.” I say, “I drove it onto the lot and it drove fine. I’ll drive it off this afternoon.” She says that they’ll top off the brake fluid for me, but that I’ll have to sign some disclaimer since the car isn’t safe to drive and they alerted me to that fact. I tell her that it’s fine with me and I’ll see her at 6:30pm. She also gives me the quote on the final bill (about $610 or something like that), which would be a reasonable expense for the work that the shop performed up until this point – a muffler replacement and having some tube under the car being replaced. But when you factor in the hundreds I’m spending on this rental car…

When I hang up the phone, part of me is proud that I pulled my business from a company that clearly doesn’t want to play fair with its clients and that clearly doesn’t give a damn about this client. Another part of me, though, isn’t happy at the thought of driving a possibly unsafe car off of the Honda lot. I know what the next move is here…

October 25th, 3:10pm: I call my buddy with the repair shop and he thinks the entire story with Honda is a complete joke. Not only is it crazy that the part wasn’t in the shop at the time when I brought my car in, but the piece should be easily delivered in a short period of time – i.e. not two weeks later. My buddy does tell me, though, that the car is probably unsafe to drive and that I should get it fixed before taking it a long distance. I ask him to ask his father about the timing on getting the car fixed if I drop the car off later tonight. He’ll call me back.

October 25th, 3:15pm: Honda calls back and now one of the managers is one the phone instead of the girl that I’ve been dealing with throughout. The manager says that he’s reviewed my previous discussions with the young woman I was dealing with and he’s sorry that American Honda has been so goofy with delivering the brake lines. He reiterated that this was a rare event and that he’s sorry that it happened.

I tell the manager that it’s not the fact that the shop at the dealership isn’t delivering on their promises to me (although that’s not helping), but that for a week now my car has been sitting on their lot and – like most folks who are without their car – my life is somewhat put on hold until I get that car back. He understands and asks for another 24 hours to work with the folks at American Honda to try to put together an arrangement where they’ll pay for some more rental car days given the fact that they’re the ones causing the unnecessary delay. In exchange for giving him and his staff another 24 hours to work with American Honda, he’ll pay the rental expense for the additional day. I thank him for the offer and say that I accept the offer, but that I’m not happy with the way my business has been treated by American Honda and that I’ll be by tomorrow to pick the car up. He asks me to wait until they call tomorrow to allow them to work with American Honda on those extra days. I agree and the manager apologizes again for this outrageous delay.

October 25th, 3:25pm: My buddy calls me back and lets me know that his father doesn’t think it’s a good idea to drive the car, but if I could get the car to their shop tonight, I’ll definitely have it back by the end of the week if not mid-week. As my buddy goes into the details on how the brake lines can be fixed (about 80% of which I understand) a few thoughts go through my mind. First, I’m bringing my car to this guy’s shop from now on. Second, no one at Honda bothered to get into the details with me on what needed to be fixed with the brake lines. Third, how the Hell would I get my car down to his shop? I explain the conversation that I just had with the dealership and my buddy asks me to give him a call tomorrow when I know more.

October 25th, 3:30pm: While I was on the phone with Honda and the young man that I used to advise, I looked up what a brake line actually was and am almost sick to my stomach. Have you ever looked up a brake line? No? This is what it looks like:

That’s it! That’s what I’m waiting for the great folks at American Honda to deliver! Why couldn’t they drop those brake lines in a little box and send them off in a FedEx to the shop at the dealership?! FedEx will get it there overnight – guaranteed! Unreal. Absolutely unreal. The supply chain that is used by American Honda absolutely sucks and that company ought to be ashamed of itself. It’s not like I’m asking for a new transmission to be delivered or like I need a new steering column or something that doesn’t fit into a FedEx-sized box. Come on already!

October 25th, 3:35pm: I decide that this experience is too ridiculous and too full of completely outlandish and outrageous statements to not share it with my readers on JerseySmarts.com and I begin writing this entry. Once I began writing this blog entry I didn’t stop until it was 5:30pm – way past my time to leave the office. However, the angry little voice in my head appreciates the therapeutic power of writing and is now at ease, much to my conscience’s contentment. All of the information written from this point forward comes from a different writing session than everything written above.

October 25th, 5:50pm: Apparently, I’m really at ease from the writing because I find myself listening to some shitty dance music on one of these garbage terrestrial radio stations and actually dancing in the Chevy Aveo. If you don’t find the humor in this, then it must be because you don’t realize that at 350 pounds I’m about the same size as the Aveo. Somewhere in my subconscious the voice of wisdom says, “You clearly like driving this car – stop the work on the car at the Honda shop and go buy a brand new one of these. You can afford it – just do it.” And while the Nike-inspired voice of wisdom would seem to make perfect sense, my conscience reminds me that I’m engaged in an epic battle against the two headed monster that is my student loan debt and that I’m literally weeks away from destroying one of the heads on that monster. The voice of wisdom retires for the day.

October 26th, 2:00pm: Thankfully, I’ve recovered from that bizarre dancing episode and for some awful reason I have a headache which probably won’t go away any time soon since my Excedrin is at home. Note to self: don’t dance in the car any more – it’s not worth the headache. The Honda dealership makes their daily call to me and since I’m in my office I opt to close the door so that my yelling doesn’t bother my coworkers. That’s right – I know before I answer this phone call how I’m going to approach the discussion which is, namely, either American Honda pays for this absurd rental or I’m taking my car back this afternoon. Period.

The girl says hello on the phone and I return the greeting. Sorry folks, there aren’t a bunch of thoughts racing to get to my mouth this time because there are already words on the tip of my tongue: “I’ll be by after work to take my car back.” Before I have a chance to use this quick verbal barb, though, the young woman on the phone says that the manager talked to someone “above” and American Honda will pay for the three days on the rental that they already agreed to pay for as well as paying for every day of the rental starting with today up until the job is finished.

As you might expect, the “I’m taking my car back” jab punches backwards instead of forwards and for a split second I’m not sure how to respond. Internally, my mind is thankful that someone up the chain of command at American Honda understands that the company hasn’t done right by me as a good, paying customer. I respond with a thanks and a brief statement that goes something like, “This is good news, but when do you expect to have this piece in the shop and the car repaired?” The young woman tells me that the piece should be delivered by Friday (I thought it was Saturday?) and that hopefully it’ll be installed quickly. At this news, a tremor of “Go get ’em, cowboy!” builds up in me since yesterday it was Saturday and today it’s Friday and I have no reason to believe either day, but I did just get a free rental for the remainder of this repair so I keep it shut.

My conscience wins a roaring victory by silencing the tremor and I thank the young woman for her assistance and let her know that I’ll be by later that day to take some items out of my car that I need for work (EZ Pass, GPS, hands-free headset, etc).

October 27th, 12:00pm: The local car rental company charges me an additional $222. I call and ask what the problem is and they say that it has to do with me having the car for over a week at this point. The anger begins to build within my mind, but my conscience is having a wonderful day and no battle ensues.

October 29th, 4:00pm: I’m up in North Jersey celebrating my Mother’s birthday which was actually the day before. My Mom and I think that the Honda dealership will probably call me while I’m up at the family party for her birthday since she lives about an hour and a half from the dealership and there’s no way that I’d be able to pick up the car that night. Almost as though if someone had set this up ahead of time, the Honda dealership calls me and says…

Bad news – They need to do more work on the car that will require a new rear wheel cylinder to be purchased and installed. They also need to replace the the rear brake shoes and resurface the drums. Good news – They took the liberty of going down to the AutoZone to get an aftermarket rear wheel cylinder instead of having me wait a few more days for American Honda to deliver the part. Also, the brake shoes are already in the shop and they’re not going to charge me extra labor to get the job done. After asking how much this is going to cost (another $285), I tell them to go for it. Then I ask how long it will take to get this done and they say that it’ll be done today.

Later that night my family decides that since we all have various financial goals that we’re aggressively pursuing, we don’t think it would be wise to waste any money on useless Christmas gifts this year. We decide, instead, that we’ll do something as a family and I hear my wallet audibly applaud the decision.

October 30th, 10:00am: I gladly pick up my car, sadly drop off the Chevy Aveo, and angrily pay for the repair.

In total, here is what I spent on repairing the car and paying for the rental car:

Absolutely, without a doubt, 100% completely unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. In fact, the total cost of this repair is ridiculous. In all truth, the car rental place refunded me $210.40 (remember, American Honda and the dealership were paying for a few days of the rental) so that my final cost for this repair and rental was $2,079.83, but that doesn’t make it any less heinous that I was treated like nothing more than easy money for American Honda.

And that’s the story, folks. I’m not totally mad at the people working at the local Honda dealership (though to not have a loaner program when you have a lot full of unused cars is unacceptable), but I’m furious at American Honda. I think that this entry appropriately displays my aggravation and all of the reasons why I’ll never purchase a Honda. Sure, Honda might see me as a single customer in a sea of potential customers, but I hope that this entry changes at least one other person’s mind about purchasing a Honda. The truth is that American Honda doesn’t give a damn about you as a consumer. All they care about is you as potential income to them.

And that, in this economy and for this consumer, is absolutely unacceptable.

The familiar Check Out Hunger tickets

CHECK-OUT HUNGER RETURNS FOR 20th ANNIVERSARY YEAR

HILLSIDE, N.J. – Check-Out Hunger, an annual front-end awareness and fund raiser for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, will be marking its 20th year milestone this fall. This campaign, which began in New Jersey, is run at supermarket chains across the northeast.

The Community FoodBank of New Jersey reports that need for nutritious food is up 30-40 percent at its partner agencies (soup kitchens, pantries, shelters, etc) this year.

In 2009 Check-Out Hunger crossed the $2 Million plateau for the first time. The campaign raised $2,093,086 for food banks across the state. Since 1992, millions of people have supported the program at food markets and online at www.checkouthungernj.org.

Participating food markets include A&P, Food Basics, Foodtown, Kings, Pathmark, Shop Rite, Super Fresh, Wawa, and Wegmans.

This campaign was developed by the Community FoodBank in conjunction with the New Jersey Food Council and supermarket chains with headquarters in New Jersey. Currently the Community FoodBank of New Jersey administers the regional campaign with 14 chains for 32 food banks and affiliates in 9 states and the District of Columbia.

The Community FoodBank of New Jersey, a member of Feeding America, distributed 35 million pounds of food in the last year to people in need in 18 of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Its staff and volunteers fight hunger and poverty not only through the distribution of food and grocery products, but by education and training, and by creating new programs to meet the needs of low-income people. The Community FoodBank of New Jersey has earned Charity Navigator’s highest honor, a four-star rating.

Here’s how people can help:

• Right in their own neighborhood. Shoppers will find a display of Check-Out Hunger donation slips at the checkout aisles in their local food stores.
• Right in their own home. People can donate through the Check-Out Hunger in New Jersey website at www.checkouthungernj.org.
  Also, just a reminder that the retail partners run the campaign at varying times from late September through the end of January, with the bulk of the food stores running it in November and December. There are a list of participating stores on the website.

So, folks, if you’re at the checkout counter and you see the different colored tickets like in the image above, consider donating a few bucks to help the Community FoodBank of New Jersey out this holiday season. Thanks.