The spacecraft New Horizons just flew by Pluto – the former planet, now a dwarf planet.

Picky people those scientists.
They keep saying “Look at that great heart”.

I keep looking.
I don’t see any heart.
Why do you think it’s called Pluto?
Some scientists make me grumpy.

Here’s how my week started…

Sunday afternoon the air conditioning in the house decided to barf.

When whole house A/C barfs, it’s a big mess.

Lots and lots of barf water visited the ceiling in the hallway and part of the master bedroom.

Uninvited guests can be quite unwelcome.

Our insurance company handled the arrangements to dry everything out in a professional way.

They’ll pay for all the repair work.

Except the air conditioning.
That’s up to me.

This isn’t about the destruction.
Stuff happens.

This is about how companies do business today.

About the only way to find a company for any repair work is ask a friend or check Yelp.

Since my friends are unreliable – Yelp it was.

I looked for A/C repair companies with 5-star ratings and started dialing.

I should be able to hire some folks, spend a bunch of money and move on with my life.

Everybody wins.

Guess what?
It appears just about everyone is working out of the back of their truck these days.

Most of my carefully placed calls went to someone’s cell phone voicemail with a promise to return the call real fast.
Didn’t happen.

Those that didn’t go to voicemail were usually answered with someone saying, “Hello?”

Hello? I have to ask if this is the company I’m trying to reach?

Unless the number listed is your teenage daughter’s phone and you’re working out of your truck.

Not for me, thanks.

Oops, “Wrong number”.
Hang up.
Move on.

And while I’m ranting – have you noticed the shape of many business trucks on the road these days?

They are supposed to be rolling billboards for the company.
The phone number is usually plastered on there somewhere too.

It’s far too common for the truck to be beat up, dirty and the being driven by some kid like a maniac.

You think I’m going to call you?
Fergetit.

Then – when I finally lined up the various “companies” needed to repair the A/C and the ceiling…
Nobody shows up on time for the inspections.

One was 3 1/2 hours late and never called.

When he finally arrived, he was politely fired.

Another was an hour early and dug me out of the shower.
I should have answered the door naked except that would have scared even me.

Some people are forgetting business is competitive.

If I don’t have confidence in you I’m going somewhere else.

So I did.

It doesn’t take much to judge the potential quality of someone’s work by how they respond to an initial contact.

Being unprofessional is the first step my moving on.

It’s things like this that make me grumpy.

Well.
Here we go again.

Airlines, as you know, are always looking for a way to grab a few more bucks.

For us in Hawaii, there’s no other way to wonderful Las Vegas – or anywhere – unless we pony up and hop a flight.

That means paying the bag fees, leg room fees, boarding order upgrades, food and whatever else is the charge du jour.

But the holy grail for an airline is jamming more paying customers on a plane.

Ideas to accomplish this float up from the evil minds of airlines almost weekly.

I’ve bitched before about smaller restrooms and Airbus’ crazy bicycle seating idea.

That’s it on the left in case you rather not expend the energy to click the link.

Now, let’s add this to the manure pile…

Zodiac Seats, the leading maker of airline seats, has filed a patent for a new type of seat.

Up front – it’s stupid.

People don’t think enough out-of-the box.

Instead of one monumental crappy idea, the best they can do is a series of little dumb ones.

Maybe, just maybe, the big one has finally hit.
New seating arrangement.
Yup, you’d be sitting staring at someone else for whatever time it takes to get you where you’re going.

It brings new meaning to “in your face”.

I’ve given this more than my usual amount of thought.
I can’t come up with anything positive about it.

With the nut-case wackos causing problems on planes now – can you imagine what this will lead to?

Let’s discuss…

The scientists say when some weirdo is isolated from the rest of society with a small group of people jammed in a plane and he or she tends to find the most good-looking person there to be exaggeratedly hot…or irritating.

Let the fight begin.

There’s more.

The company’s patent (see it here) says shoulder room will be a lot less with the new design.

Honesty is always the best policy, even if makes us look really dumb.

In fact the patent drawing shows your hand almost resting in your neighbor’s lap.

That should make for some fun times at 30-thousand feet.

And if you’re in the middle and have to go potty – everybody has to move.
Heh.

Fat chance.

Will this actually happen?
Probably not but then it was real stupid in the first place to come up with the idea.

One stupid thing generally leads to another.

Now everyone can be grumpy like me.