Vote…

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…for change.

For the past six or more years, I’ve been watching my country — and my town — deteriorate as the result of bad decisions by our leaders.

We go to war in Iraq, spending $341.4 million per day. Thousands of people die — our soldiers and Iraqi civilians — and many thousands more are permanently maimed with lost limbs and worse. We lose the respect of many nations because of our arrogance and stubborn refusal to “lose” a War we can’t win and probably never should have started in the first place.

Our country is in financial meltdown because of bad lending practices and other policies of greedy financial institutions. The “flip this house” mentality has caused thousands of people to invest in properties now worth far less than they paid. Rather than pay mortgages they can’t afford, they’ve been mailing their keys to the mortgage holders, leaving them with properties they have to maintain and sell in a market they’re not willing to lend to.

Businesses have sent thousands of manufacturing and support jobs overseas, leaving fewer job opportunities at home for Americans. With the economy tanking, thousands of people are losing their jobs every month. People without jobs don’t have money to spend on the goods and services still offered in this country, so they’re not buying. Less revenue for U.S. businesses forces them to cut staff even further. It’s a vicious circle.

The country has split into two factions: conservatives, who strive to force their values on everyone, and liberals, who want the true freedom this country promises. Among those freedoms are the freedom of speech, so recently misunderstood by a vice presidential candidate. Yet when we speak out about what’s wrong with this country, we’re labeled as unpatriotic traitors.

Clearly, the country is sick and needs a cure.

I’m voting tomorrow and I urge every U.S. citizen reading this to do the same. It’s only by voting that we can make a difference in our country. Vote for a change. Vote to make things better. Vote because it’s your right and your responsibility.

And don’t let the polls con you into staying home. Your candidate needs your support.

Get out and vote.

8 Ways to Lose Weight without Dieting or Exercise

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Well, kind of.

Have a lot of weight to lose? Need a jump start?

I lost 45 pounds in just 4 months with Medifast, a program based on low calorie, low fat, low carb meals. It’s easier than counting calories on your own and it really does work. I used it to get my weight where it should be and I follow the tips in this article to keep it there. Learn more about my experience here.

Throw away your fad diets. If you’re serious about losing weight, there are only two things that matter: calorie intake and exercise. Consume fewer calories and get more exercise and you will lose weight. It’s as simple as that.

Reducing calories and increasing exercise doesn’t mean dieting and hitting the gym. Here are eight things you can do to lose weight without making major changes to your diet or lifestyle.

1. Drink water.

Glass of WaterWater does several things that can help you lose weight and feel healthier:

  • Water can decrease your appetite by fooling your stomach into thinking it’s fuller than it is. If you’re hungry, try drinking a glass of water and waiting 20 minutes. You may not be hungry anymore.
  • Water has no calories and no caffeine, so it’s a great alternative to other beverages that contain one or both.
  • Water is vital for a number of bodily processes, including removing waste, carrying nutrients, regulating body temperature, reducing fluid retention, and keeping bowel functions normal.

Different sources recommend different amounts of water in your diet. One source I found suggested 64 ounces a day. Another suggested 48-64 ounces a day. Still another suggested 1 ounce for every 2 pounds of body weight — so a 150-lb person should drink 75 ounces a day.

2. Eat only half.

Half plate of FoodOne of the problems with American food portions — especially those in many restaurants — is that they’re just too big. The next time you’re faced with a huge plate of food at your favorite restaurant, eat just half of what’s on your plate. Take the rest home in a carry-out bag. Not only will you eat less food, but you’ll have a free meal the next day.

When you cook at home, make smaller portions. Pay attention to portion size on prepared foods and only cook what you and your family need. While leftovers are nice, it’s all too easy to eat all the food you prepare instead of stowing some of it away in the fridge for the next day.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: the less I eat, the less I want to eat. It’s almost as if I’m shrinking my stomach so it needs less food to feel full.

3. Snack with fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables make great snack foods. Not only are they good for you, but they’re often very low in calories. They’re also easy to prepare — especially when eaten raw — and taste great.

FruitsSome fruits to keep in mind:

  • Apples
  • Blueberries
  • Cantaloupe
  • Grapes
  • Honeydew Melon
  • Orange
  • Peach
  • Pineapple
  • Raspberries
  • Strawberries
  • Watermelon

VegetablesFor vegetables, try:

  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Cucumber
  • Dill Pickles
  • Lettuce
  • Tomato
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Zucchini

And, in case you’re wondering, I’m talking about fresh fruits and vegetables here. The good stuff. Leave the cans on the shelves where they belong.

4. Say “no” to dessert.

No DessertBoy, is this a no-brainer. If you’re accustomed to eating dessert after dinner, just stop. Instead, reach for a piece of fruit. Fewer calories and better for you.

5. Park in the farthest parking space.

Parking LotHow much time do you spend cruising for a parking spot close to where you’re going? Did you ever think that that time could be better spent walking from a parking spot on the other side of the lot?

Park far away. Then walk to where you’re going. It’ll only take a few minutes and you’ll be giving your body an extra dose of exercise it wasn’t expecting to have.

An added bonus: You might actually find a spot in the shade.

6. Get off on the wrong stop.

Walk from the BusDo you take a bus or train to work? Instead of getting off at the stop closest to your workplace, get off one or two stops before or after it. Again, you’ll be treating your body to some extra exercise.

Sure, it might take a few minutes more, but you can always catch an earlier bus or train. And imagine the new things you’ll see along the way.

7. Take the stairs.

Take the StairsOnly need to go up or down one or two floors? Avoid elevators and escalators. Take the stairs. More exercise squeezed into your busy day and only your body will notice it.

8. Walk your kids to school.

When I was a kid, I walked to school. Rain, snow, heat — it didn’t matter. Four blocks to elementary school, eight blocks to junior high school, and a full mile (with uphills and downhills both ways) to high school.

Walk to SchoolWhile I realize that times are different and many parents are concerned about the safety of their kids, you don’t need to drive your kid to school to ensure his or her safety. Take a walk instead. You’ll get exercise and make sure your kid gets some, too. You’ll also have some quality time to spend with your kid on that walk.

Want to make it really count? Take the dog along, too.

Do the Math

My doctor told me that 3500 calories equals a pound. That means that knocking 500 calories off your daily diet will result in a loss of 1 pound a week — without increasing exercise. But if you add exercise to the equation, you can drop weight a bit more quickly without sacrificing your health.

You’ll also develop some healthy habits that’ll stay with you for the rest of your life.

Got more tips? Share ’em in the comments. And please do let me know how you do with your weight loss efforts.

On Coupons and Lost Sales

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Who the hell has time to clip and save coupons?

While I was away this summer, my dear husband neglected to water most of my plants. As a result, most of them died.

The plants in question lined a high “plant shelf” in my dining room and the tops of kitchen cabinets. They looked kind of nice up there and helped deaden the echo of our high-ceilinged kitchen/dining area. Once they’d dried to dust, the only thing left up there were the empty flower pots and decorative baskets.

Although I absolutely hate fake plants, I realized that if I wanted permanent green up there, I’d have to go with decent quality silk replacements. As an experiment, I went to Michael’s, a “craft” store that sells these things, and picked out three large, realistic-looking replacements. They weren’t cheap: they cost $9.99 each. I brought them home, stuck their pointed bases into the dirt remaining in the flower pots, arranged their leaves, and put them into position.

I stepped back. One of them — the fake spider plant — actually looked pretty darn good. The ivy didn’t look bad. The other one…well, it needed some work.

But, in general, I considered the experiment a success. I figured I’d need about five more to complete the project on top of the cabinets.

Now, there is no Michael’s in Wickenburg. And there’s no place to get quality fake plants. So phase 2 would have to wait until I was back in the valley.

I got my chance on Monday, while waiting for the helicopter mechanic to do his magic on a 100-hour inspection in Scottsdale. I rented a car and, after a very pleasant lunch at Kierland Commons, hit the road, looking for a Michael’s.

I didn’t find one. But I did find a JoAnn. JoAnn is Michael’s competitor. Same stuff.

I do need to step back and insert some opinion here. Apparently there are quite a few women out there with nothing better to do with their time than put together scrapbooks and decorate their homes for the various seasons and holidays and spend money on crafty crap that they likely throw out within a few months anyway. (After all, a home can only stand so much clutter.) These places — Michael’s and JoAnn — are filled with these women, who wander the aisles with shopping baskets, looking for ideas on how to waste their time and money.

When I go into these places, I’m on a mission. Go in, get what I need, and get out.

Part of me wishes I had the time and money to waste — believe me, I wouldn’t be wasting it in a craft shop.

Anyway, I went into JoAnn and zeroed in on the fake plant aisle. I soon found what I was looking for, but the per plant price was $15.99, which I thought was really excessive. I picked out just two Boston Ferns (which would never survive in my desert home had they been real) and brought them to the checkout counter.

I waited behind a woman who was buying fabric and Halloween junk and being quizzed by the cashier about what she was going to do with it.

“I’m making a pillow for my mother,” the customer said.

“Oh, how nice,” the cashier responded. “Mothers always like that kind of thing.”

She’d obviously never met my mother.

The woman went away and I plopped my two Boston Ferns down on the counter. The following conversation began:

Cashier: “Did you find everything you need?”

Me: “Yep.”

Cashier: “Do you have any coupons?”

Me: “Nope.”

Cashier: “Are you on our mailing list to get coupons?”

Me: “Nope.”

My short, one-word answers were definitely unnerving her, but she went on.

Cashier: “Do you want — ”

Me: “Nope. I get enough junk in the mail.”

I could tell that my rudeness — and let’s face it, I was being pretty rude — had bothered the cashier. Her script was bugging me. But she decided to retaliate.

Cashier: “You know, if you had a coupon, you could save 40% on these.”

Me: “If I went to Michael’s, I could save 40% without a coupon.”

That shut her up. She rang up my fake plants.

Cashier: “That’ll be $34.54.”

I gave that some thought as she began putting the fake greenery into a bag. Her 40% challenge had put me into an interesting position. If I paid up without the discount, I’d be agreeing that their outrageous price was fine with me and that I didn’t mind being forced to pay full price when a piece of paper could have saved me 40%. I decided that I didn’t want to be in that position.

Me: “You’re right. That’s too much money. You can keep them. I’ll go to Michael’s.”

And I walked out the door.

Yeah, I know. I can be a real bitch sometimes.

The Wayside Inn is Open

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Stop in for a hamburger in the middle of nowhere.

I’ve written about the Wayside Inn before in this blog. In my post, creatively titled “The Wayside Inn,” I go into a lot of detail about the place and a visit there by helicopter back in 2003. You might find that piece interesting reading if you enjoy long, rambling stories about my helicopter travels. (Some people do.)

The short version is that the Wayside Inn is a small trailer park with a restaurant in the desert about 5 miles south of Alamo Lake. It’s accessible from Wickenburg and the rest of the world by two routes: the 40+ mile long dirt road that starts near Date Creek off Highway 93 or the combination of paved and dirt roads starting in Wendon (on Highway 60) and stretching to Alamo Lake. There’s another road from the north and I have no idea where it starts, but I do know that when the lake is full, the road is under water.

You can get an idea of its remoteness by this Google satellite image, which also includes Wickenburg. The red X is the Wayside:

The Wayside Inn on a Satellite Image

The Wayside Inn has been a destination for pilots for quite a while. It has a landing strip, but the strip has been left to get overgrown with bushes and weeds and is not maintained. So instead, pilots just land on the dirt road in front of the place. I’ll admit that there aren’t many pilots who do this. It’s mostly the folks who fly taildraggers and aren’t afraid of landing on something that isn’t a real runway. And helicopter pilots, of course.

About a year ago, the Wayside Inn burned down. I didn’t know the details, but had noticed that the building was missing when I flew from Wickenburg to Las Vegas last November. The building was simply gone.

But a few weeks ago, I saw a flyer up in Ed’s hangar. Ed is the local aircraft mechanic and he does some of my engine work, including oil changes. The flyer announced that the Wayside had reopened. I put it back on my mental list of places to go for a quick bite to eat in the middle of nowhere.

On Sunday, October 19, I had an opportunity to check the place out. I was taking a video guy and a journalist along on my Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure. Another video guy would be meeting us in Sedona. We had a few hours to kill before we were due to arrive at Sedona Airport. I figured that a stop a the Wayside would kill some time without taking us too far from our course.

So I flew us out there. The journalist took this photo as I made my approach to landing. I set down on the big triangular area at the crossroads, across the main road from the trailer park.

Landing at the Wayside Inn

The old building had been replaced with a double-wide manufactured building. Inside, the layout was much the same as the old building had been: bar, tables, pool tables, and a limited amount of groceries and fishing supplies for sale. All of the Polaroids of fishermen and their fish were gone. The drop ceiling panels were decorated with good-luck dollar bills signed by patrons. Before we left, we added one to the collection.

The video guy interviewed the owner of the place. Turns out, he’d bought the place right before the fire had burned it to the ground. After the interview, he made us breakfast. When it was time to leave, he rode his ATV out to the helicopter with us while his dog rode on the back and asked my journalist friend why she hadn’t eaten her bacon. (She’s a recovering vegetarian.)

We’d stopped in for just about an hour. The meal was good, the price was reasonable. The atmosphere was pure Arizona “remote.”

If you’re ever out by Alamo Lake and want to stop for a bite to eat, I hope you’ll look for the Wayside Inn. If you stop in, tell them that Maria in the red helicopter sent you.

Worst Western

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Or why I won’t stay in a Best Western again.

This past week, I spent three nights in a Best Western motel in Page, AZ.

There are two Best Westerns there. I stayed in the one that had no hot water for more than 24 hours during my stay.

I learned about the hot water problem when I returned to the hotel at about 8 PM on Friday night. At the time, I was told that it was unlikely that the hot water would be working before Monday. I was due to check out on Sunday.

I was paying for not just my room, but the rooms for three other guests. Since they were my guests, I felt it necessary to take action when the hot water system in the hotel broke down. Although I was on my way up to bed — I was going to be picked up at 6:00 AM the next morning by an aerial photography client — I asked the desk clerk to find alternative accommodations. I told her not to call me that night since I was going right to bed. I told her I’d check in at the desk in the morning to see what she’d found us and would talk to my guests about our options the next day.

At 5:00 AM the next morning (Saturday), I gathered up some clean clothes and prepared to walk down the block in the dark to the Travel Lodge, where the cold water Best Western had arranged for its guests to shower. (I can’t make this stuff up.) I stopped at the desk in my hotel, where I was shown a reservation for four rooms and two nights at the other Best Western in town, which I assumed still had hot water. I took the reservation sheet, put it in an envelope with a note, and slipped it under the door of one of my guests. I showered and dressed at the Travel Lodge, then walked back to the cold water Best Western. A little after 6 AM, my clients arrived and I went to work with them.

At around 11 AM, I finished with my clients and met with one of my guests. He told me that the hot water problem had been fixed. I called the other Best Western to cancel the reservations that had been made in my name.

And that’s when the shit started hitting the fan.

Apparently, the clerk at the cold water Best Western had used my credit card to reserve the rooms. The hotel has a 24-hour cancelation policy and refused to cancel the reservation.

In the meantime, we were all still checked in at the cold water Best Western (which now had hot water). My guests didn’t want to move. I didn’t either.

I need to make it clear to all that I never authorized any charges to my credit card for any hotel other than the one we were staying at.

I called several different parties at the Best Western hotel chain. After a lot of time on hold and call backs and excuses, I was told that my reservations would not be cancelled.

Today, I found four pending charges on my credit card statement for $157.73 each. There was also a $1 charge from Best Western.

Of course, I have no intention of paying these charges.

I’m absolutely appalled at the poor customer service of the Best Western chain. Specifically:

  • The failure of the Best Western Arizona Inn to promptly and professionally handle a failure in its hot water system.
  • The unauthorized use of my credit card by the clerk at the Best Western Arizona Inn to book hotel reservations that could not be cancelled.
  • The failure of the Best Western Lake Powell to cancel the hotel reservations made without authorization by another Best Western hotel employee.
  • The failure of the Best Western customer service department to cancel the hotel reservations made without authorization by a Best Western hotel employee.

Clearly, these people don’t care about their customers. Clearly, they have no understanding about customer service. Clearly, they have no problem fraudulently charging a customer’s credit card for reservations made without authorization.

I have called and written to the Best Western numerous times about this matter. They have not satisfactorily resolved it. Now I have to go through the bother of starting chargeback procedures with my credit card company. I may also need to press charges with the police against the Best Western employee who used my credit card without authorization, thus resulting in this nightmare of customer service failures.

Do you think I’ll stay at a Best Western again? Not likely. And I suggest that anyone reading this think about my customer service experience with this hotel chain before booking a room there.