Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Earlier this week I wrote Five Years of the Coronavirus Pandemic about what has and hasn't changed over the 5 years since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic. I intended it to be a gentle reminiscing about how things have evolved. It turned, though, into a more strident criticism of the politically motivated denialism that reached fever pitch about the pandemic and then spread to other aspects of reality. So, how about those gentler musings? I'll cover there here in a part 2. Here are Five Things that have or haven't changed since the pandemic:

1. Remote Work. Working remotely was a reality for me for years before the pandemic. The crisis of the pandemic made it a reality for a lot more people. As business leaders praised how effective it was many of us thought it would become the new normal. Many leaders have subsequently yanked us back to the past with Return to Office (RTO) mandates. I've remarked before that there's absolutely value in teams being together in an office with low barriers to communication... but the reality of the business world independent of the pandemic is that companies have offshored or distributed so many jobs, especially in technology, that it makes only limited sense for people to sit in an office while still having to use phones, email, chat, and video to communicate with colleagues.

2. Prices. It didn't happen early in the pandemic, but at the impacts of supply chain disruptions, government stimulus, and changes in habits hit, inflation hit. Significant inflation hit. Monthly price changes came an annualized rates upwards of 10% at certain points. But while the overall full-year consumer price index never really rose about 5%, certain sectors saw way more inflation. For example, I've seen the prices of a wide variety of groceries increase by 50% - 100% over the past 5 years.

3. Eating at Home. Eating at home suddenly became a necessity when restaurants closed in March 2020. I'd made that shift a few days ahead of the shutdown. It was a big change for me as I was accustomed to eating nearly all lunches and dinners at restaurants. I made a knife edge transition from dining out 13 times a week to 0. As risks eased I added back dining out— or at least ordering take-out— at once a week, then twice, then more. I've gradually ramped up to dining out about 9 times a week now; but that's still down from 13 pre-pandemic.

4. Tipping is out of Control. Tipping standards increased during the pandemic. As people realized restaurants and take-out food were "essential infrastructure" even though food service workers are among the lowest paid people in our economy, people wanted a way to say, "Thank you for risking your life so I can buy this burrito." Tipping standards increased, and "Add a tip" interfaces appeared on payment kiosks where they hadn't been seen before. The sense of gratitude has lessened along with the risks of dying for a burrito, but the prompts on payment kiosks have not. In fact, kiosks prompting for tips have only continued to spread— including in silly places like self-service checkouts at grocery stores. There's now a widening backlash against expectations of tipping getting out of control.

5. Less Socializing. One of the most enduring social changes from the pandemic is that we all socialize less. Safety closures not only got us out of the habit of "third spaces"— places like coffee shops and bars where we can casually see & be seen outside of work/school and home— but also greatly reduced the second space, too, as work/school became remote much of the time. People got accustomed to living most of their lives from their bedrooms and sofas. Having gotten out of the habit of meeting people face to face— including spending the time and effort of going out to meet people face to face— it's hard to get back into it. And it's to our detriment as we humans are fundamentally social creatures. Depression is up, satisfaction with life is down, and record numbers of people report feeling isolated.

Years ago Hawk challenged me, "All your business travel has given you really expensive tastes." I objected; the reality of business travel is seldom luxurious. The main thing that drove my choices across hundreds, and then thousands, of nights on the road was paying enough to avoid unpleasant surprises. That what you get as you start climbing to higher rungs on the ladder from the cheapest, most basic accommodations. You do get a few extra creature comforts, but mostly you get reliability. ...And not reliable luxury, but reliable comfort.

The past few weeks with our Friday Night Halfway trips I've experimented with stepping back down a lower rung on the ladder. A few weeks ago in Yreka, last week in Auburn, last night in Jackson; we've stayed at Best Western hotels. Heck, we're still here at the Best Western in Jackson.

You might not think of Best Western as a cheap hotel chain. It's definitely not the cheapest. It's also not the worst. Trust, me I've stayed cheaper and gotten worse (with eyes open) several times But BW is down in the part of the hotel chain spectrum where comfort and quality start to get dodgy. It's unreliable. And again, the point of paying more is reliable comfort.

What drove us to stay cheaper on these trips? Prices, largely. Everything's gotten more expensive, and especially this summer a variety of hotels we've stayed at in the past at, say, $140/night, are asking $180, $200, or more. And since we're really only interested in "8 hours and a shower"— and we're just going hiking the next day anyway we could skip the shower if it's not working—we're willing to trade down and take our chances.

These three BWs we've stayed at haven't been bad, on the whole. We've gotten a clean and comfortable room 3 times out of 3. Oh, and safe, too. One of the things about dodgy hotels is the doors may not lock well. And there may sketchy looking people in the parking lot— or in the room two doors down. In the past we've stayed at dodgy places were people were clearly using/selling illegal drugs down the hallway.

Sure, a few of our neighbors here at the BW in Jackson look a bit sketchy, but I try applying the logic that Will Smith's character used in an early scene of the movie Men in Black. That young guy sitting outside furtively smoking a cigarette and looking guilty? I'd look guilty, too, if I were smoking in 2024. I mean, the packs have only been labeled "This shit's gonna kill you" for 60 years now. He's probably looking over his shoulder because he's afraid his wife/girlfriend is going to catch him and slap him for wasting their tight budget on cancer sticks.

And as far as my "8 hours and shower"? Well, I only got about 7 hours last night, but that was as much my fault as the hotel's. And the shower this morning was surprisingly good. This otherwise worn down, not quite 2 star hotel room has a shower with a rain shower head and high quality tile walls that wouldn't be out of place in a 4 star hotel. Though after a relaxing shower I dried off with a towel almost thin enough to see through. 😂

Update: The guilty looking smoker I saw Friday night I saw again Saturday morning... in a Best Western uniform. He was probably looking guilty because he was concerned he'd be recognized.

Update 2: Also Saturday morning we noticed that a neighboring room that smelled like pot smoke Friday night was filled with employees and employee gear Saturday morning.

Well, it's been a year. ...Actually, it's been more than a year. It's been 16 months. I know because I wrote about it in my blog last time I did it. I ate at Taco Bell. And I liked it. Well, kinda. 🤣

Wendys--; TacoBell++;

My inspiration for "Making a run for the border" again was a particular Taco Bell restaurant.



This one opened near my house several months ago. It replaced an old Wendy's that had been there for at least 30 years, probably longer.

I drive past this spot at least a few times a week. I even used to work around the corner from here. The Wendy's used to do a fair business at lunch. It got hit pretty hard, like most restaurants did, during the Covid downturn in 2020-21. It closed for good sometime in that period, after which the building sat empty for a while before someone new bought/leased it and renovations started.

Multiple times during that period I thought, "I could really go for a Wendy's combo for lunch today." I could have gone to the other Wendy's in town 3.5 miles away, but the drive over there is annoying with midday traffic. Wendy's isn't that good. 😂

Thus my impetus to try Taco Bell again this past week for the first time in over a year was part curiosity about the new place and partly sublimated desire for Wendy's. 🤣

The 1980s aren't Completely Gone

Well, the outside of this old fast food spot is refreshed; what about the inside?



Inside, the restaurant is refreshed... but not thoroughly. The stupid "greenhouse" extension that Wendy's had at the far end of the dining room, where the temperature could never be regulated properly and some of the side windows leaked, has been removed. The furniture is all new and 2020s style, for better or worse. But that 1980s drop tile ceiling— yeah, that looks like maybe all they did was replace some of the dirty tiles with clean ones.

Okay, enough about the building. How's the food?

newPrices = oldPrices * 3;   // Haha yes I'm still writing code

Before I get to the food I need to spend a moment on prices. That's because before I eat the food I have to order it, and ordering it means looking at what's on the menu (remember, I haven't been here in 16 months), and the menu includes prices.

Recently I've seen discussions online where older Gen Z members complain about their Boomer* parents not understanding that the cost of things has risen, markedly, since 30-40 years ago. (I stick the asterisk next to Boomer because, really, Gen Z has Boomer parents? Their parents are three generation cohorts older than them? Of course, lots of Gen Z thinks anyone over 40 is a Boomer. Including my nieces and nephews.)

The generational misunderstanding in these situations is that because prices have risen so much, wages also need to be higher. The $7.50/hr that a Boomer (or Gen Xer) fondly remembers as a great entry-level wage from way back when is nowhere close to sufficient today... if someone wants to live on their own and afford things, not live with their parents who carp constantly about "NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK aNyMoRe!" ...Yeah, for a paltry $7.50/hr and a jackass boss who thinks that's generous, they don't.

One way I put in perspective how prices and wages are different today is by comparing fast food prices with what I remember paying as a teen and early 20-something. Overall I think of things today being 3x what they were 30 years ago. In fact my first time eating at Taco Bell was a hair under 31 years ago (I was a late bloomer) and a basic 3-taco combo then was $2.99. Of course, that was 3 plain tacos. A taco supreme combo, which seemed splurge-y at the time— I mean, c'mon, who can afford to add sour cream all the time?— was $3.59. And that same combo now is very nearly 3x that, at $10.79.

So, did I order a 3 taco combo, for old times' sake?

I'll Try the Cantina Menu

No, I decided rather than try food that Taco Bell's been hawking for decades I'd try something that's at least marketed as new. The "Cantina Combos" were advertised as new and special. Plus, they were the same price, $10.79, as that lowly taco supreme combo. I mean, for $10.79 my fast food combo had better be something special. 😂



Well, the Cantina Combo sure came packaged special. Look at that fancy cardboard box! We're way above plastic fast-food tray with paper liner level, here. We're up to cheap pizza level now. 🤣



Inside the box are tucked a chicken burrito, a ground beef taco, a bag of chips, and dishes of cheese sauce and green salsa. The green salsa was a special order. I was happy they obliged me... and didn't charge me $.80 extra (or whatever an extra 1-oz. dish of sauce costs nowadays).



Once unwrapped the food looks... not disgusting. 🤣 Yeah, that's damning it with faint praise, but I feel it's necessary to put it that way given how much many of my peers deride the notion of eating food as lowly as Taco Bell.

Disgusting? Only the Pepsi!

Sure, Taco Bell isn't great food. Especially here in California there are tons of tastier choices if you want Mexican or Mexican-inspired food. Though most of them are 2x the price or more. And that dish of nacho cheese sauce, which I really thought was going to be disgusting, was actually decent. I ate the whole thing with my chips. And overall, that's what everything was: decent. ...Oh, except the Pepsi. The Pepsi was disgusting. If there's any one reason from this visit I won't set foot in a Taco Bell for at least another 16 months, it's because they serve Pepsi.

And look, nobody's getting sick from eating at Taco Bell. There aren't lines of people outside the restaurants throwing up in the bushes. Nobody's dying from Taco Bell, either. Though maybe that's just because nobody's filmed themselves eating there for a month solid and then died 20 years later from alcoholism and cancer.

I've seen a number of news articles in recent weeks that people are dining out less due to high prices. It's to the point even that some restaurants are realizing they need to roll back their last price increase. ...Though articles this week note that some restaurants are still raising prices, even for the second and third time in 12 months. People dining out less or "trading down" in their choice of restaurants makes sense to me because that's what I've been doing for a while already!

"Trading down" is most of the change I'm making. I'm less often dining at a full service, sit-down restaurants and more often choosing fast-casual, quick service restaurants.

My primary reason for this is financial. It's gotten so that eating at a full service restaurant means a bill of $65-70 all-in for the two of us— and that's with sodas or tea as our beverages. Swap in a few drinks from the bar, as when we're already spending that much money on the base meal we figure we might as well make it a treat, and the bill quickly runs toward $100 for two people. ...Or more, if "a few drinks" means a few per person. And I'm not even talking about high-end restaurants, here. This is slightly upscale local restaurants of the kind I used to dine at 3 times a week.

The financial issue isn't even affordability. My spouse and I are well enough off that we could afford to dine out 3x a week at $70 a pop. We could afford to... but we don't want to. Because while we're affluent enough to afford it we're not rich enough to ignore what everyday things cost. To put it another way, we have discretionary income but we still need to exercise discretion in how we spend it.

When I consider whether I want to dine at the $70 sit-down restaurant or a $35 fast-casual restaurant I literally ask myself, "Will the choice of A over B bring me/us $35 more enjoyment? Especially compared to any of the other things I/we could do with $35?" The answer almost all the time is no.

Recently I noticed that my electric shaver hasn't been giving me as close of a shave as I expect. It's missing a lot of hairs even when I work it over the same spot on my face or neck a few times. It worked way better when it was new. That means it's time to throw it out and buy another one, right? Wrong! Key parts on electric shavers are replaceable!

There are two parts that can be replaced on many electric shavers, the blades and the screen. The screen is the mesh cover up at the top. Underneath it are the blades. The blades are the cutting tool, and they oscillate back and forth rapidly via the electric motor. They naturally dull over time and don't cut as closely. The screen covers the blades so they don't touch your skin. When the screen wears down it can result in the blades getting too close, causing skin abrasion, or not getting close enough, causing less effective trimming.

I looked up the model number on Amazon. The first thing I saw is that I can buy a new one of the same model for $125. That seemed like waaay more than I paid years ago. Out of curiosity I clicked through the link... and on the product page Amazon helpfully told me, "You last purchased this item in 2013." Wow, 10 years!

I searched my 2013 orders and found that I originally bought this shaver for $75. First of all, wow, I thought I spent way less than that. I usually buy an inexpensive shaver because I don't need fancy features. Though ISTR choosing the Panasonic even though it was more expensive than certain other brands because I'd had a good experience with a previous Panasonic after poor experiences with 2-3 other major brands. Second, $125 today vs. $75 ten years ago doesn't seem so bad considering inflation. But OTOH, third, this is now a 12 year old model.... Shouldn't it be cheaper now? Well, it kinda is... the newest models are $150 all the way up to $400. 😳

It took some careful shopping but I did find replacement bits. Amazon helpfully remarked above the product image of a blade replacement "Purchased Aug 2017". The manufacturer suggests replacing blades every 1-2 years, not 4-6. Well, here I am now. And I'm replacing the screen for the first time in 10 years AFAIR. I found a blades-and-screen combo for $47.

I paused for a moment before ordering. On the one hand, $47 seems like a lot of money to spend renewing a 10-year-old, $75 item. OTOH, it's less than one-third the cost of the cheapest new, current generation technology. And it seems quite likely it'll rejuvenate my old shaver well enough that I'll be satisfied with it for at least another few years. I bought it.

Now the only problem is the parts have to ship from England. 😂 They'll take 2 weeks to arrive.

Well, my prescription drugs are no longer free. The pleasant surprise I had in August when all of the regular prescription medicines I take became free of charge has been undone. It's not that the insurer backtracked on its policy of making preventive drugs available at zero copayment; it's that my company switched its selection of healthcare plans. Effective Jan 1 there were no more plans from the previous insurer, Blue Cross of California. I would've stayed with them if I could. Now I'm on a plan with United Health Care, and I'm back to copayments for everyday prescriptions.

So far the costs aren't onerous. Of course, I've only had to refill one prescription so far since Jan 1. It cost me about $25 for a 90 day supply. An increase of $100/year isn't going to break my budget... but this is just one 'scrip. Another med I'm on has a reputation for being pricey on some health plans. I could get socked with a bill for hundreds of dollars every quarter.

Recently I bought a few CDs. ...No, not compact disc CDs. I do still buy those, though only a few a year nowadays. I'm talking about another seeming relic of the past, certificates of deposit CDs.

I hadn't considered buying these CDs for a long time. Years ago one financial advisor quipped, "Certificates of Deposit? They should call them Certificates of Destruction!"

He was referring to the fact that CDs pay less than the rate of inflation.

By definition pretty much any safe investment (any CDs are among the safest) pays less than the rate of inflation. They pay more than zero but still, over time the purchasing power of your money will be eroded if you put it in CDs. It'll erode slower than if you stuff your cash in mattress, or even keep it in an interest-paying savings account. Those are all well below inflation. To get ahead of inflation you have to invest in something riskier.

So why did I buy CDs if they're merely the slow road to destruction? I bought them because I finally had a purpose for them. And BTW, that purpose is not "investing". That financial advisor years ago who called them Certificates of Destruction was really talking about what a bad idea CDs are as investments. I think a lot of people regard CDs as a simple form of investing. They're not. They're actually a tool for cash management.

For years I haven't done much fancy for cash management. With inflation being low, like around 2% annually, it didn't matter a lot. I kept most of my cash in a high-interest savings account. CDs paid only slightly more, so they weren't worth the tradeoff of locking up money for periods of time. But now with inflation running high, more of a spread is opening between rates.

• At Ally Bank the current rate on a high yield savings account is 2.75%


• A 6-month CD pays the same as savings, 2.75%


• 12-month CD pays 3.75%


• 18-month CD pays 4.00%

I use Ally Bank as a point of comparison because their rates are routinely among the best. They're also easy to work with as an online bank.

I was surprised when a friend pointed out to me that substantially better CD rates are available elsewhere. Brokerage CDs have noticeably higher rates. They're only available through brokerage accounts, though. Something about economies of scale, lower overhead, and passing along the savings, I suppose?

I checked for CDs available through my stock brokerage and found much better rates, especially on shorter term CDs. I snagged a 3-month CD at 3.9% and a 6-month at 4.5%.

Getting short terms at high rates is key to why I finally bought CDs. In doing cash management I'm not looking to tie up money for the long term. Long term is investing, and as I explained above, these rates don't provide enough returns for investing. Instead what I'm doing is taking some of my short-term cash pile— you know, the "keep emergency savings in cash equal to 6 months of expenses" thing you read about— and moving it to higher rate accounts. The short, 3- and 6-month terms fit nicely within the 6 month horizon of the cash savings. And these CDs can be bought in units of $1,000, so it's not like you need to be wealthy to use them. Yeah, if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck they're not for you. But if you're sitting on even a few thousand of "I might or definitely will need this in the next few months" cash it's worth doing.

Earlier today I posted "Democrats Screwed Up The Messaging" about how they've not just lost the messaging war for this year's election but have underperformed on messaging for several years running. There are two important facets to messaging.... It's not just what you say but how you say it. In my previous blog I explained the high level mistakes in "how". Here's a bit on the "what".

BTW, you might be tempted to dismiss this as "Monday morning quarterbacking". Well, election day's not 'til tomorrow! So this is more like "Inside the 2-minute warning quarterbacking." 😅

In my previous blog I described that Democrats' 2022 issues of protecting reproductive rights and protecting the right to vote against conspiracy nuts gaining control over the levers of power got hijacked by Republicans making this election about household issues of inflation stretching family budgets, and crime. Because the Democrats have long been seen as the party of working class Americans it's notable that Republicans are further stripping away this demographic from them. It's not longer just the "God, Guns, and (anti-)Immigrants" White Christian working class that's with the Republicans; recently it's more ethnic minorities, too.

So, what could Democrats do (or have done) differently? Dems could own these issues. Here's just an off-the-cuff level response I'd make on inflation if I were a Democrat leader:

"You're worried about inflation. We get it. It's tough when prices on almost everything are going up. But while we've tried to pass programs that would help working families, Republicans have blocked them. And what does the Republican party propose to do instead? They've got nothing. Nothing.

"So look at what they did last time they were in power.... They passed a tax cut benefiting the rich. A tax cut that had to be paid for by the government borrowing more money. Excessive borrowing is part of what's caused this inflation!

"And what have the rich done in return? Just this week the world's richest man, an outspoken supporter of Republic politics, bought a company and promptly laid off 3,700 employees. 3,7000 well paying jobs, gone. You can't trust these people to fix inflation."

And on the subject of crime:

"You're worried about crime. We get it, we don't like crime either. But the Republicans are feeding you scare stories about how bad things are. The fact is that crime is at a historic low in the past 50 years. You and your kids are safer now than in your parents' or grandparents' generation.

"There's one sub-category of crime that really does seem to be getting worse, though. Mass shootings. These used to happen once a year. Then once a month. Then once a week. Now they actually happen more than once a day. They've become so frequent that most of them aren't even news anymore. And that's doubly terrifying.

"People in churches and schools shouldn't have to worry about getting shot by a nutjob with a gun who thinks he's fighting a race war. Yet what are the Republicans saying about crime? They're blaming it on immigrants and communities of color, fueling the racial animus of these mass shooters, and then saying the solution is more guns. Do you really want more guns in the hands of troubled people fed stories of racial hatred?"

Again, this just an extemporaneous take on how Dems could be looking to take control of the message. It's sad that with their wealth of experience and power they've missed so badly. That's why it's time for new leadership. New Democrat leadership.

Some things in life change gradually enough it's hard to notice them day by day. For example, dawn arriving later in the morning. The long days of summer meant plenty of sunlight pouring through my bedroom balcony doors (even with the shades and curtains drawn!) in the morning. The abundance of light helped me rise with my 6:45 alarm. As we progressed through September dawn arrived later each day, to the point that it would be barely gray outside when my alarm rang, making it a bit harder to stir awake. I noticed the changes in aggregate, of course, but day by day, even week by week, the difference was too small to notice.

Travel has a way of laying bare such gradual changes which otherwise sneak up on me. In Florida the sunrise time was abruptly different. My 6:45am alarm rang not in the gray of early dawn but in the pre-dawn darkness. That sudden change reset my expectations. Now, back home, the time of sunrise is not much different from in Florida, but it's clear how it's different from even a few weeks ago.

Another gradual change that's become abrupt is the price of gas. It's gone up a dollar since before I left 10 days ago! Okay, maybe that's not so gradual— a full dollar in 10 days would be noticeable as I drive past gas stations and observe their posted prices almost every day— but seeing it all at once makes it shocking. Especially when the cheapest prices here are now just under $6/gallon while Florida was ridiculous cheap at around $3.30/gallon.

Update: "Just under $6/gallon" is the Costco price. I checked it on the Costco app. When I was out shopping this morning I saw that name-brand gas stations are charging closer to $7/gallon, and in some cases over $7 for premium grades:

Well, this is seeming like Insurance Week on my blog. This is now my 3rd post in 3 days about insurance. Surprisingly, though, these posts are about 3 separate things. It's just a coincidence they're all coming together in one week.

The issue today is our insurance company has hit us with a 27% increase in the premium for our condo owners' policy. This is a policy that covers our possessions but not the building itself. The building is insured separately, including for earthquake. This is the policy that just paid us on that claim for theft. The 27% increase, though, is not due to that claim. This is not one of those, "When you make a claim against insurance your rates skyrocket," cases. The rate increase actually hit a week or two before the theft.

Hawk called our agent this week to ask about the 27% increase. Inflaaation was basically what the office said. Bullshit. Inflation is a big story right no, but it's 7-8%. This is 27%.

Well, what can we do? Ordinarily with this kind of price increase coupled with haughty salesmanship I'd tell the vendor to go fuck themselves and cancel the service. But I can't. Buying this insurance is mandatory. Possibly that's a big part of why they believe they can shove a 27% price increase down our throats and treat us like fools for objecting.

While we may not have a choice in the immediate term except to pay— the renewal is due tomorrow— we'll start comparison shopping. Possibly one of their chief competitors can offer us a lower price. And BTW, if the insurance company loses our stuff-inside-the-house policy, they lose all our business. We'll move our auto insurance, too, which is more than 3x the business.