As infuriating as the price hikes are after Ike, it's nice to see local British Petrolium stations are not gouging, at least the cases that I've seen. I looked up the local gas prices down by our office and the lowest was a BP at 3.79. I wasn't sure if they'd still be low - or have gas. Zipped down and sure enough. They had gas and it was still 3.79/gal.
Nice - Kudos to BP Gas. You'll have my biz in the future.
(Of course, the question is - are they being altruistic/responsible or maybe those crazy Brits didn't realize a hurricane was coming to town :)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
BMW Lost my Vote
In this election season it might be good to ponder the other areas of our day-to-day that involve a vote of sorts. We choose to stop at a certain gas station, for example, not necessarily for the quality of gas, but the quality of service, convenience, and maybe the Quik Cup of Coffee. Every time we stop in they either work to retain our vote, or alienate it.
Car dealerships also get votes. I'm in the market for a car and as I review my options and update myself on the various offerings each auto maker has, there's a running vote in my head. In my early twenties I got cornered by the high pressure salesman and his bad-hair piece credit manager and barely escaped with my life. As a result I've never entered a Nissan showroom nor considered them an option. Their attitude has tipped my vote against them in an irrational and permanent way.
BWM of Roswell has also lobbied for a vote against BMW [Update: Yes, Grant - specifically, this is about this dealership, and the service department people. It might be about Friday afternoon too.]. My 91 Camry is on its last metaphorical leg. Though I've fixed this and that it sometimes doesn't want to start. I stopped by the BMW dealership on the way home to take a look at the new 1-series, which looked very nice on the web, and turns out looks very nice in person. The sales guy was helpful enough, though he did not offer a test drive. I guess it was the unshaven Friday face, jeans and loud Siveillance Orange T-Shirt. And maybe that was also why when my poor Camry failed to crank up I failed to get them to help jump start it.
In the end I spent an hour in the BWM parking lot, just outside their showroom floor, surfing the web looking at Audi, Lexus, Volvo and Honda. While they wouldn't help start my car, it sure was nice of them to give me free wireless to research all their competitors.
Upon telling this story to Joe Robb, my excellent Lexus sales rep, who has now received repeat business from me, he said I should have called him and that he'd have sent someone over or come himself. I actually don't doubt that he would. Even if it had been totally self-serving on the part of BWM to help me with a friendly attitude in order to sway me to buy that nice 1-series...it would have gone a long way in swinging my vote their way.
BTW, when I say BMW wouldn't help what I should say is that three people from their service department said they'd help and then left me waiting in the very hot car while they went to get something...or a car... or did whatever they did. Fortunately, after I was done using their wireless and my battery was getting low, I expertly (er, randomly?) jiggled some wires under the hood and she started right up.
Car dealerships also get votes. I'm in the market for a car and as I review my options and update myself on the various offerings each auto maker has, there's a running vote in my head. In my early twenties I got cornered by the high pressure salesman and his bad-hair piece credit manager and barely escaped with my life. As a result I've never entered a Nissan showroom nor considered them an option. Their attitude has tipped my vote against them in an irrational and permanent way.
BWM of Roswell has also lobbied for a vote against BMW [Update: Yes, Grant - specifically, this is about this dealership, and the service department people. It might be about Friday afternoon too.]. My 91 Camry is on its last metaphorical leg. Though I've fixed this and that it sometimes doesn't want to start. I stopped by the BMW dealership on the way home to take a look at the new 1-series, which looked very nice on the web, and turns out looks very nice in person. The sales guy was helpful enough, though he did not offer a test drive. I guess it was the unshaven Friday face, jeans and loud Siveillance Orange T-Shirt. And maybe that was also why when my poor Camry failed to crank up I failed to get them to help jump start it.
In the end I spent an hour in the BWM parking lot, just outside their showroom floor, surfing the web looking at Audi, Lexus, Volvo and Honda. While they wouldn't help start my car, it sure was nice of them to give me free wireless to research all their competitors.
Upon telling this story to Joe Robb, my excellent Lexus sales rep, who has now received repeat business from me, he said I should have called him and that he'd have sent someone over or come himself. I actually don't doubt that he would. Even if it had been totally self-serving on the part of BWM to help me with a friendly attitude in order to sway me to buy that nice 1-series...it would have gone a long way in swinging my vote their way.
BTW, when I say BMW wouldn't help what I should say is that three people from their service department said they'd help and then left me waiting in the very hot car while they went to get something...or a car... or did whatever they did. Fortunately, after I was done using their wireless and my battery was getting low, I expertly (er, randomly?) jiggled some wires under the hood and she started right up.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Trip to Wasserburg
We travelled to the town of Wasserburg last night. This is the hometown of Ralf, one of our hosts in the office. We were not disappointed. It's wrapped in the Inn river and there is only one bridge entering (there's another road through the mountains). The town is rich with history, with shops and cafes and great cobblestone roads. As usual for Bavaria it has a large historic catholic church.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
English Garden in Munich
Today we headed into Munich and stumbled onto, as they say locally, Englisher Garten. We had been told that it was worth visiting but due to language barriers were having trouble figuring out how to get there. We headed to the general direction and found ourselves there. It was worth the trip - a totally awesome park. Largest in Europe, it's massive. We really didn't walk the whole park but we saw most of it.
One of the first sights was the river. We saw it from the road as we entered the park. It was very soothing after walking through the hot Munich streets. The water exited a tunnel through the road into a nice waterfall.
The river was very relaxing as we walked along under the trees. There was a proud mama (I assume) with curious babies. As she swam over to me she puffed up her wings. Karl thought she was expecting food. I wondered if she expected to peck my eyes out. I backed off since I had no food and like eyesight.
This little baby was much more brave than I - well, ok, the little ducklings were quite harmless.
One of the most unique and surprising things was the local surfing scene - yes, Surf Munich.
The river is very impressive - the speed and the volume of water was both peaceful and (ask Karl - he jumped in) invigorating. There is also these massive open areas that as the day went along filled with people. The park is described as having as many people during a good day as a medium sized village - it's true.
Overall, a very impressive park. Yes, we saw other parts of Munich but spent most of the day here. I think Karl wanted to just camp out... I'll post some video later.
One of the first sights was the river. We saw it from the road as we entered the park. It was very soothing after walking through the hot Munich streets. The water exited a tunnel through the road into a nice waterfall.
The river was very relaxing as we walked along under the trees. There was a proud mama (I assume) with curious babies. As she swam over to me she puffed up her wings. Karl thought she was expecting food. I wondered if she expected to peck my eyes out. I backed off since I had no food and like eyesight.
This little baby was much more brave than I - well, ok, the little ducklings were quite harmless.
One of the most unique and surprising things was the local surfing scene - yes, Surf Munich.
The river is very impressive - the speed and the volume of water was both peaceful and (ask Karl - he jumped in) invigorating. There is also these massive open areas that as the day went along filled with people. The park is described as having as many people during a good day as a medium sized village - it's true.
Overall, a very impressive park. Yes, we saw other parts of Munich but spent most of the day here. I think Karl wanted to just camp out... I'll post some video later.
Ludwig's Tribute to Louis XIV
We visited a pretty impressive Castle yesterday. On an island in Chiemsee there was this enormous clearing hosting this castle, Herrenchiemsee Palace. King Ludwig II was pretty infactuated with King Louis XIV and with absolute monarchy so he built this castle as a tribute. The courtyard and the castle are a replica of the Palace of Versailles. While we were in the courtyard the fountains came on, which was very impressive.
As impressive as the Castle was, I couldn't help wondering WTF. I guess Ludwig spent a whole 10 days there and that's it. The project was never completed due to lack of funds. Ya think? Hauling all those materials out to an island? Ah well, as Mel Brooks quipped: "It's good to be the King".
As impressive as the Castle was, I couldn't help wondering WTF. I guess Ludwig spent a whole 10 days there and that's it. The project was never completed due to lack of funds. Ya think? Hauling all those materials out to an island? Ah well, as Mel Brooks quipped: "It's good to be the King".
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
No Business like Milk Business
Every morning we have our breakfast in the hotel overlooking the street. Our hotel is right in the center of this farming village. There are at least three working farms withing nostril distance from the hotel.
This ole boy drives his tractor out every morning around 8am, disconnects the trailer, leaving two large canisters that are filled with raw milk - I assume cream and all. Around 8:30 a very large milk truck pulls up and the guy pulls out a large hose and "vacuums" up the milk into the truck. He pulls off and sometime soon after Farmer Dell backs up his tracker and returns the canisters to the ready position for the next morning.
There are a lot of these smaller district operations - from mills, to bakeries and the many farms. All around us are fields with wheat, oats and hay. Very nice community. Very slow pace of living. Still dangerous to cross the road because slow translates differently with the drivers here.
This ole boy drives his tractor out every morning around 8am, disconnects the trailer, leaving two large canisters that are filled with raw milk - I assume cream and all. Around 8:30 a very large milk truck pulls up and the guy pulls out a large hose and "vacuums" up the milk into the truck. He pulls off and sometime soon after Farmer Dell backs up his tracker and returns the canisters to the ready position for the next morning.
There are a lot of these smaller district operations - from mills, to bakeries and the many farms. All around us are fields with wheat, oats and hay. Very nice community. Very slow pace of living. Still dangerous to cross the road because slow translates differently with the drivers here.
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