No Longer Elite

For the first time in 14 years, I no longer have status with Delta.  While I never had significant status - I was Gold for a 4 year period of that - I did have a heck of a run in staying at Silver.  

It took some doing.  About ten years ago I took a cheap mileage run to Las Vegas to keep my status, and a couple of years ago I bought some miles via a new program Delta launched to maintain Gold for an extra year.

It was worth it.  Even at lowly Silver, the benefits paid off:

• Being able to pick exit row seats had been a huge boon.  Many of them are even better than the new Comfort Plus area - in some instances, by a long shot.
• I got bumped up to first a lot.  It was way better years ago, but I would bet my overall average was about one out of every three flights.  That's a nice benefit.
• My wife got bumped with me a handful of times, which was doubly nice.
• Once upgraded, one got all the benefits commensurate with flying first, with the most important being the first class check-in at the airport and through security.  That was a huge time saver.

No, being captive to Delta isn't cheap, especially at satellite airports like Green Bay and Fargo.  Indeed, most flights from those airports run $650 on average - brutal.  However, the one benefit of it has been that air travel gets aggregated to the one carrier, and with enough trips, status comes along with it.

Now that the job has changed, I just don't travel anymore.  That's fine with me - since 9/11, business travel is a flat bitch.  However, when I do travel from now on, it will be without status, which I'll miss greatly.

It was a really good run while it lasted. 

How's Your Gym Use Resolution Going?

We're nearing the end of January, so it is a good time to check in and see how we're doing on our New Year's resolutions.  If you have a gym membership, odds are your progress isn't going very well.  

In fact, in a recent study by Statistic Brain, 63% of all gym memberships go completely unused.  

63%!

Other stats that they found:

• Of those that go, 82% go less than once per week
• Likewise, those that go will stop completely within 6 months 22% of the time
• 31% of all gym members would have never signed up if they had realized how little they use it

The gym companies know this and act accordingly.  Many gyms boast 5,000 to even 10,000 members while having a maximum capacity of 300-500 because they can count on members never showing up.  

Personally, as of 29th, I've been to the gym 22 times.

And I pretty much have the place to myself.

Maybe Missing the Trip Wasn't So Bad...

As reported previously, I was not able to make my annual trip to Louisiana this year.  It had me completely depressed all weekend - the entire time I've been thinking, "OK, right now if I was down there we'd be doing this now..."  

All weekend long.

However, maybe the fates have done me a favor.  Consider the following:

• When I pulled out of the airport after my failed attempt at my flight, my vehicle signalled a tire pressure issue.  I definitely hit something on my way to Fargo, and it has impacted for sure one and possibly two tires.  I've been airing them over the weekend since the tire shop was too busy to take my rig on Friday.  With my return flight scheduled for Sunday night at 11:30, I would have been faced with a flat tire, and maybe more.
• That would have been made all the more hard because as of Sunday night we're in the middle of a nasty blizzard.  We're expecting 5" of snow, driven by 30MPH winds.  I would have been changing a tire in a cramped, uncovered airport parking lot at midnight in -30 degree windchill in the snow.  After I got it changed, I'd then need to drive home in that mess.
• To top it all off, after I came back from working out at the club on early Sunday morning, my side hurt.  Upon getting ready for the shower, I noticed blisters on my side and back.  Shingles.  I got into the doc immediately after mass and got on meds right away to try and stem the expansion.  Who knows what I would be like if I was stuck on a plane all day instead?

No, I'm not happy about missing my trip.  However, I'm also quite happy that I missed what could have been a really terrible time Sunday night.

The New Christians Vs. the Lions

In just the past couple of weeks, we've seen Christianity under attack by the Left:

• Mike Pence's wife was called out as a bigot for substitute teaching at a Christian school
• Multiple appointment nominees were called out for their participation in the hate group Knights of Columbus
• The March for Life was summarily ignored by the press (again), except for the Covington Catholics, in which case calls for their deaths, the firing and deaths of their family, and the deaths of those that attend their school went out.

Social media and the Left have created this environment of constant outrage and violence.  It is the new Christians versus the lions, except now everyone has a much better seat in the stadium, and, if you want, you can actually be one of the lions.

For all their talk of tolerance, the Left are the biggest bigots in our society.  

Saturday Song Share - Charles & Eddie - Would I Lie to You

We don't dip too far into R and B here at SSS, which is a total shame.  

Here's a totally underrated classic.

Would I lie to you?

No Bayou for This Boy

I awoke at 3:15 (AM, just to be clear) and was on the road by 3:45 to drive through a massive "ground blizzard" to make my flight in time in Fargo.  For the uninitiated, a ground blizzard is a blizzard which is caused solely by the snow on the ground - snow isn't actually falling.  Depending on the wind speed and the amount and type of snow on the ground, these blizzards can be quite dangerous and lead to white-out conditions.

That was pretty much the case yesterday.  However, I had left ample time to make my flight, and my trip was a safe, albeit a slow one.

My check-in, even with a firearm, went smoothly, as did getting through security as our TSA staffing was ample.  Boarding went smoothly as well.  As we sat at the gate and deicing procedures started, the captain came on and told us we had an issue, needed a part in order to fly, and didn't have that part here.  It'd be flying up from Minneapolis and would be here in four hours.

My trip had four legs - FAR > MSP > ATL > JAN.  A four-hour delay was a killer.  While I'll write about it later, the upshot was that I couldn't get to Louisiana for our annual hunt until the following day.  That left me with basically a day and a half of hunting, thus I opted to pull the plug and cancel.

I had done the hard part, was in my seat and ready to go, and fate got me.  If the plane had been working, I'd be putting out decoys right now instead of writing this.  Also, I'd be enjoying some 40-degree temps instead of this nightmare:

More than all of that, I miss the opportunity to see my family.  However, I talked to Mrs. YDP last night, and we're working on what "plan B" looks like, and hopefully this boy will be in the bayou before too long.

Social Media is a Cesspool

If I didn’t need it as an important part of my job, I’d quit all social media starting tomorrow.

Social media is a cesspool.  It is replete with lies, bias, hate, and prejudice.  As the latest example, in just the past two weeks, I’ve had many, many “friends” touting the Gillette ad, and supporting the ruin of the Covington Catholic kids.
  
I’ve dropped them all.  Of all my “friends” on Facebook, I now formally follow less than half.  The rest I’ve blocked.  It’s that bad.

If you deal in hate, that makes you a hater.  If you hate men, that makes you a sexist.  If you hate Catholics for showing up at the March for Life so much that you’re willing to spread lies and ask for people to be hurt, that makes you an anti-religious bigot at best, and a lawless anarchist at worst.

I no longer have time for you.  Begone from my life.

One of the things I’m looking forward to in my future retirement is walking away from social media and never returning.  It can’t get here fast enough.

Guy Tries to Rob Woman UFC Fighter. Oops.

Dana White is president of the UFC, and he shares this little tidbit about a man that tried to rob one of his female MMA fighters.  

How'd it all work out?  We'll let Dana answer:

If you don't rob people, you don't get your ass kicked.  Life's little lesson for today.