If you want a big tip from me, you'd better give exceptional service.

Recently during my travels I had dinner alone at a restaurant. That's not unusual at all as program hosts usually want to go home to their families after a long day in the classroom and I am left to fend for myself for dinner. Ok, enough of the self-pity party, that's not the point.

For dinner I had a Cobb Salad (one of my favorite on-the-road salads) and a glass of water to drink. The bill came to around $9.50. I realize that's not a big ticket dinner item, but the service was lousy. The waiter didn't even come back to my table during my meal. The salad was delivered by someone else, so essentially I saw this waiter two times, once when he took my order and once when he dropped off the bill. I had a $50 bill that I wanted to change up for a cab ride in the morning so I set the $50 on top of the bill at the end of the table. The service was not good and I contemplated how much tip I should leave.

As I was contemplating what to leave for a tip the waiter came by, picked up the money and the bill and said "Do you need me to bring you change?" I realize that is probably a standard waiter response when they pick up a check and I suspect he said it without even looking at the denomination of the money, but he should have.

I was tempted to ask if he thought the quality of his service and the personal attention he had paid to me during my dinner was worth a $40 tip on a $10 bill, but I didn't say a word. I let my tip do the talking for me... which is a shame because I have been known to give 30-50% tips when the service is impressive.

Fire Chief (ret.) Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, EFO, CFO, MICP
www.RichGasaway.com

Tis the season

I hate politics. In fact, I have a relatively healthy disdain for most politicians. I guess I've seen too much of the ugly side of politics in my thirty years of public service.

Don't get me wrong, along the way I have come across a few whose intentions were righteous and who were true public servants. But I have to honestly say they have been few and far between. Most have been very selfish in their motives, often thinking they were hiding it well (but they weren't).

I was told one time by a very seasoned elected official that the true motivation of every politician is to get re-elected. While I don't know if that's true for all, I can certainly say I've seen my share who look for every angle to make themselves look better than they deserve. Whether that's a photo opportunity with uniformed personnel (after just voting no for the purchase of a critical piece of safety equipment) or publicly praising the efforts of police officers and firefighters after bashing the same people in an executive session to discuss their union contract.

Now it's political season and we are being peppered with mean spirited ads on TV including name calling, back stabbing and mud slinging that have little to do with the real issues we average Americans care about. I see yard signs springing up all over the place for people that most voters know little about. It's scary to think that someone might actually vote for a candidate because that's the name they see most often on a yard sign.

I recall one election where a candidate I would rate as pathetic was running for an office that was important in my community. There were yard signs everywhere for this candidate - enough to cause me to believe this person had an amazing (and unbelievable) amount of support in the community. As I groused about this to another elected official, I was promptly reminded "Yard signs don't vote. People vote." A sage observation. The rogue politician lost the election and our community was much better off for that.

I can't wait for the political season to be over. Political elections are like eating sausage. You may enjoy the outcome, but you sure don't want to watch it being made. I think my blood pressure dropped 20 points the day I retired from being a public official, thanks to the politician-ectomy that occurred that day.

Fire Chief (ret.) Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, EFO, CFO, MICP
www.RichGasaway.com

Above the rules

Recently I was on a flight from Minneapolis to Denver. The forward door was closed and the flight attendant instructed everyone to turn off and stow their electronic devices.

Apparently the guy sitting next to me had some sort of special dispensation from the rules as he continued to text. No big deal, we haven't pulled away from the gate yet, so I let it go.

Then we started our push back... still texting.

Then we were on our taxi down the tarmack toward the runway... still texting.

If there is a downside to all the research I have done on aviation safety it's knowing a little too much about how accident occur, including how latent two-way devices (like cell phones and wi-fi) have impacted the navigation equipment on the flight deck.

I politely asked the guy to turn off his device. He snarled and cussed at me and told me to mind my own business. I guess I could have told him it was my business because if the plane crashes because of his text messaging, I would be very inconvenienced by that.

I simply said the flight attendant had instructed the passengers to turn off and stow all electronic devices. He cussed at me again.

I told him if he didn't turn it off I would call for the flight attendant. He snarled and cussed again. DING - went the bell as I depressed the flight attendant call button. The flight attendant had already been seated and belted so she was not real happy to get up and come back to see what the problem was.

I told her what had transpired (and the guy was STILL texting). She told him to turn it off and stow it. He cussed at her and told her he'd turn it off when he was done. She told him if he didn't turn it off right now, she'd ask the pilot to return to the gate and he would be removed.

He turned it off, jammed it down into the carry-on bag between his legs, searched through the bag and angrily pulled out a copy of "Flying" magazine and prominently set it on his lap so I could see it.

Honestly, did he think I would be impressed that he owned a magazine with a Cessna on the cover? Well, if that's what he was going for, he was surely disappointed when I didn't apologize for asking a "pilot" (assuming he was one and hadn't simply found a copy of the magazine on the floor in the bathroom stall) to turn off his cell phone during the taxi.

He spent the next forty minutes turning the pages of the magazine with such anger that each flip made a loud noise. He wasn't happy with me and I was sending me a message.

Why do some people think they are above the rules?

Fire Chief (ret.) Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, EFO, CFO, MICP
www.RichGasaway.com