The Life of Kevin Hauge

At gas stations that is.

I noticed this morning that my front tire was a little low on air so I drove over to one of the gas stations along the way to work. My first stop was SuperAmerica and pulled up to the pump only to see a sign notifying me of the $.75 charge for air? Given that all the gas stations around my previous home were free, I decided to drive a block down to the Holiday station to check that out. Sure enough, air wasn’t free there either, but at least cheaper at $.50.

Since I didn’t want to drive that distance with a low tire nor did I want to be late to work, I dug through my change compartment to find two quarters to buy some air. I’m pretty sure this isn’t “premium” air or anything … just a way for the stations to make some extra money off their customer’s misfortune.

Personally I find it a bit sad to charge for air … and up to $.75 at that. What’s next? Charging for the use of the window squeegee?

Since it made national news (and even had the President fly out) I’m sure everyone has heard about the I-35W bridge collapse over the Mississippi River on August 1st. Being a Minnesotan it obviously hit close to home.

Given that I was in the process of moving into my new house (in the south of the cities, not the north) I was oblivious to what was going on. It was only when my friend John (who was helping me move) received a phone call from his family making sure he wasn’t crossing the bridge at the time. All of my family is located on the south or east side except for my sister (who was at home at the time, so wasn’t affected). Given that I was just moving in, there was no TV that I could flip on to see what was going on. At first I thought it was just a section that fell, but after driving to my parents house, I was able to see the actual chaos.

The urge (for me at least) was to drive out there and see if I could help, but even outside police / fire personel were being turned away at the scene because they had enough help from the surrounding communities. My other urge was to pack up my camera and take some photos of the scene, but I wouldn’t want to interfere with the on-going recovery operation either.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected and those who lost loved ones in the I-35W tragedy.

I am about a week and a half away from closing on the house, meaning I am trying to arrange for all of my new services to start up when I move in. One of the questions I’ve been fighting with is what to choose for my television service. I originally had Comcast at my townhome but was quite frustrated with their service … there were more outages with cable than everyone I talked to who had Dish.

So I have been researching the channels and packages and they both appear fairly equal … the only channel I would be missing is DIY Network as Dish Network only offers it on the highest package (and the lowest, which doesn’t make sense … but whatever). I’ve talked with family and friends about their packages and all say they are good.

To get some sort of decision going, does anyone have a suggestion either way? If you have one of them, why you would recommend it or why you wouldn’t choose it again even if it were free … etc. Suggestions are welcome.

If any of you Harry Potter fans have been one to make an evening out of the midnight first showing of a new Harry Potter film, you know exactly what I’m about to describe … utter chaos.

My girlfriend (Emily) has a tradition with her friends to go to the first showing of any new Harry Potter movie, and this year evidently it was my turn to be initiated into the cycle. Given that I haven’t read any of the books, I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard Potter fan … though I have seen all the movies (mostly on DVD) and will admit they are decent. Evidently everyone else at the packed theater that night, however, was a die-hard Potter fan.

Boys young and old were walking around in their cloaks, wearing their round glasses and waving around sticks (evidently they were “wands”). Girls were dressed either in similar cloaks as the boys or sporting the uniform of the school (white shirt, maroon and gold tie and skirt) … but in a sluttier version. Any other location (like bars on Halloween) I would be all for outfits like those on a girl in her 20’s … but these are girls in their tweens (10-13)! Aside from the fact that no girl in the movies has an outfit quite like that … how can parents let their girls go out in public like that? Even worse … there were plenty there with their parents!! Did you not see what she was wearing when she hopped in the back of your mini-van?

Obviously this is starting to show my age … and that I’m probably transforming into “dad” mode instead of “guy” mode. Even though I’m years away from being a father (and many years from a tween-age daughter), it still boggles my mind what some parents allow with their children these days.

Even more showing of my age is that I just can’t stand being up till the wee hours of the morning anymore. The movie started 20 minutes late, thus not ending until nearly 3am. Add onto that the chaos that is trying to drive out of a jammed parking lot with hundreds of other vehicles and a 30 minute drive home … and I may need to be “busy” for the next Harry Potter opening night.

My alma mater, MSUM (then called Moorhead State University) is going 100% smoke-free on January 1st, 2008. They will be banning smoking, tobacco use and tobacco sales on all university property. Evidently MSUM is among the first major universities in the country to officially go smoke free.

According to the university:

34% of MSUM students and 12% of MSUM employees are tobacco users; 13% of MSUM students and 7% of MSUM employees are “regular users” of tobacco.

And when asked if this change would affect enrollment, a survey of prospective students showed that (if anything) it would influence them to be more likely to attend if the campus was smoke-free:

• 58% (33) - It would not influence their decision in any way
• 39% (22) - Yes, I would be more likely to attend
• 4% (2) - Yes, I would be less likely to attend

Should be interesting to see if these numbers hold true or not.