More Headlines

Okay, one day soon I'll have more of a fun post (well, hopefully I will anyway) - and even the last thing on this one should be fun (at least I was amused) but anyway....here we go.

A couple of weeks ago I was waiting at the hairdresser to get my hair cut. I'd taken a magazine because I'd anticipated having to wait. It was a People Magazine. One of the stories was about two people who had fallen overboard off of a cruise ship. When the whole story was told you found out that they were in a room with a balcony and the man was out on the balcony. The woman ran out to jump on the man's back but came a little hard and had more of the "leap frog" (magazine's wording) effect and went right over his head. The man tried to grab her, to stop her from going overboard and got pulled out and down with her. Which is how they both ended up overboard. Completely unintentional. Fortunately there were others in their room who made the ship's personnel aware of the situation. Markers were immediately thrown out and the boat stopped and turned around to find the people. The whole process took a couple of hours, if I remember right. Announcements were made and people were asked to be quiet so they could hear any screams for help. Both people were rescued with minimal injuries. A miracle really. But here's the deal...there were people who actually complained that the rescue was an "inconvenience" and "annoyance" to their cruise! Yes, I realize it wasn't on the ship's original itinerary but give me a break! If the shoe were on the other foot, would they want the ship to forget them and carry on according to schedule? NO! This was brought to my mind again, as I read this week's people and someone had commented (in the letters to the editor section) that those people who went overboard owed apologies. Yes, their actions may have been less that "mature-based" but for crying outloud, no one intended to go overboard! People amaze me.

But on to something else that makes my blood boil even more. The now imfamous Alec Baldwin voicemail message. I know I don't have kids (but I've always wanted them), so my reaction may not be the same as someone who has kids. I think it's AWFUL! You just don't talk to your kids like that! Yes, I understand people get mad and say things they don't mean - I get that...I've DONE that. But all that because his daughter didn't answer the phone? And his response? He's really pissed at his ex but took it out on his daughter, who, by the way, is in violation of a gag order in releasing the tape. Apparently, his responses - including going on The View to discuss the tape - doesn't fall under the same gag order. Personally, I think Alec has issues and needs serious help. The message I heard didn't indicate that he was pissed at Kim Basinger - if he had've been, I think it would have been more of a "you tell your mother...." sort of talk, rather than telling his daughter that she "didn't have the brains or consideration to be a human being" and that she was "a thoughtless pig" or that he was going to come to LA to "straighten out her ass". No, those were directly straight at his daughter. And he wonders why she doesn't want to take his calls.

Okay, now for the one I think is fun. :~) This woman was on Ellen this week. She works at a convenience store and someone (a woman) had come in to buy lottery tickets. The customer told her what she wanted but there was a misunderstanding and the convenience store clerk was stuck with a ticket that was not paid for. So, at the end of her shift she felt she had to purchase the ticket herself (even though she didn't really want to, and suggested that it was more than she could afford - even at only $2). She WON! It wasn't the big winning but she did win $200,000. How cool is that?

Anyway, those are my "ripped from the headlines" for the day. We'll soon return to our light, fluff pieces (or at least that's the plan!).

~L

Job Security

Recently there have been a couple of stories in the local news (one, at least, made national news) where someone thought their job was in jeopardy so they took, what they thought, was appropriate measures to "keep" their job?

One is the NASA, hostage/murder/suicide situation from last week. Some man thought he was about to be fired because he'd gotten negative performance feedback. His solution was to take someone hostage - kill them, then kill himself. He took a second hostage, as backup, but just "tied" her up with duct tape. As far as career planning, not his best move. And committing suicide gives new meaning to "dead-end job", don't you think?

Then, a few weeks ago, there was a major story about an office building fire. Someone from the freeway saw flames INSIDE the building, through the windows. They pulled over to check it out and sounded the alarms (which hadn't gone off - it was an old building) and called 9-1-1. Three people (possibly more...they were having difficulty going back into the building because the structure was so badly damaged in the fire...and I never heard if there was a change in the death count) died. A firefighter was injured and hospitalized. They covered the story for days because the investigators were having problems (the structure damage thing) determining the cause of the fire. Finally someone came forward saying that she was expected to turn in a report that she hadn't prepared yet so she thought if she caused a fire in her office (guess she didn't know it would spread?), it would buy her some time. She's since been arrested on murder charges. Murder charges! But hey, at least she'll have plenty of free time to work on that report now. And who knows, maybe they'll hold her job until she's released. (yeah right!)

So I'm wondering, how far would you go to to keep your job? Inquiring minds want to know.

Television Reception

Remember when you had to get your television antenna just right so that you'd have decent reception? You know, before cable.

Or how about skits about how families had to stand in a particular formation, each holding something related to the antenna to get a sharper image?

Yeah, well, that was me tonight. Seems the cable line that the cable company failed to bury when they replaced it a few years ago (lightening strike) was ripped out of place by the newest addition to my family...Harley.

And it was Dancing with the Stars night so I was not a happy camper. Tonight is the first night in the history of the show that I did not vote - because I couldn't see enough to give a fair judgment. I tried really hard to get a decent picture but it wasn't working - or when it did, it was fleeting.

The cable company won't come out until Wednesday (some time between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm - so glad they could narrow the time down) so until then, I'm basically without television. Oh, I know I could be doing something productive, like working on my wip, but whining feels so much better.

Pass the cheese and crackers please~

Lunch

I had lunch again today with the girl I made cry yesterday (I really think we're okay now LOL).

Anyway there were some things that happened that seemed kind of strange but were oddly amusing to me. So I thought I'd share...

The restaurant we went to is relatively new. It's not convenient (from my perspective) so I've only been twice since it opened (including today, that is) but I'm pretty sure it's been in the last year that it opened. But it's what we decided on, so there we went.

When we pull up into the parking lot there is a traffic jam of a gazillion cars (give or take) and we have to drive to the very back to find a spot. I did mention that it was for LUNCH, right? Not date night at prime time, but anyway... We get into the lobby and it's packed - again like date night at dinner time. I hear the hostess tell the guy in front of us (who said he needed a table for two - same as we would) that it would be 10 to 15 minutes for a table. Again - at LUNCH!

I stepped up to the hostess's table and said, "are those tables available?" pointing to the cocktail tables. She said they were and we didn't have to have our name written down - we were immediately seated (if only we were served as quickly but I digress). I felt the glares and stares from all the people who were (im)patiently waiting to be seated. But what did I care? I was getting seated immediately!

Now, the person who seated us (in chairs so high I had to ask for a leg-up but then again, I didn't have to wait so I shouldn't complain) kept going by our table (and staring at us when they weren't passing us). Let me tell you about this person. Buzz cut. Gorgeous eyes, which looked like they might have make up on them. And a little boy chest. A lot of conflicts so I wasn't sure what gender this person was. And I mention this to my friend, who is wondering the same thing. We talk about it a little and then drop the subject.

Finally our food is brought to us (I ordered the nachos supreme) and we're diving in. Well, let me tell you about my nachos. They were made like individual little tacos but caked with cheese. Lots of cheese. So I'm eating and I realize that there is no way I can get this huge glom of cheese in my mouth - it's not gonna fit, which is hard to believe because I have a big mouth - ask anyone! So I try to "carve" off a bit of the cheese to make it bite size and I'm having to get out my knife because it's glommed together like industrial glommed cheese or something. Anyway, I'm making one last little "cut" to it when it goes FLYING across the room before it lands on the floor. My friend only saw the look on my face but when it hit the floor I burst out laughing. Loudly. And I tell her what happened. But we decide we need to have someone clean it up so that no one slips and falls on it so we wave over a waitress (not ours - ours was the elusive waitress but again, I digress). She asked us if everything was okay and I have her lean in, conspiratorily, and tell her the gentlemen (who were dressed in suits and ties, mind you) behind us were throwing food about. She knew I was kidding (my friend's - on the other hand - jaw dropped...she doesn't know me well enough to know I'm rarely serious), said they were bad boys and cleaned it up with a smile on her face.

Then, we saw a working dog come into the restaurant. It looked like my Max but I thought of Maisy and was thinking about them both as it and its owner were taken to a table in another part of the restaurant. As they were walking out of sight, my friend is looking over her shoulder where they are and says, "It's a girl."

I was impressed. I was thinking about Maisy and my friend has picked up on enough / seen enough to know the dog was female. Wow! Then she says, "And she's confused."

Huh? The dog is confused? How can she tell? And I'm saying this when it dawns on me... she's talking about the waitstaff person whose gender we couldn't determine. Didn't we drop that subject? In the end, I still was unsure but what I am sure is that person had some of the most gorgeous eyes I've ever seen and male or female, the buzz cut worked for them. That's all I'm saying.

So not your typical lunch but entertaining, to say the least. LOL

Because I made someone cry today...

Someone at work did something today that ticked me off and I let them know it ticked me off. Now, I thought I was being diplomatic in my wording but considering she burst out crying, I'm thinking I might have been able to handle it better so...

I thought I'd share something that might put a smile on some faces. I'm totally stealing it from the Jaunty Quills so if you frequent over there, you may have already seen it.

Okay, here goes...

Go to Google
click on "Maps"
type in "New York to London"
and then scroll down to direction 23 (or may be 24)

Enjoy! :~)

Little Treat

I mentioned in my last post that I do my grocery shopping for the week at Walmart. Every week I stop by the book aisle and see what they have out - not that I need any more books but I like to check it out. Plus, I have a $5 gift card for use at Walmart and a book would be perfect. Well, this week I found a nice little surprise.

I found a new release of an author I love but whose name I can never remember. Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. For some reason when I go to look for her books I always (and I do mean always) think her name is Rosemary some middle name (I remember she has three names, just not what they are) and a last name like McMillan or something. Could I be any further off? Seriously.

Anyway, Nancy used to work in law enforcement and brings that experience to her stories. It sometimes gets graphic but it's always realistic. And it's always good. She's an author where I don't have to read the back blurb to be convinced to buy her book. If I read the back blurb, it's only to make sure I haven't read it before.

So, of course I bought a copy and can't wait to read it. I forgot to cash in my gift card but all that means is, I'll have to stop by the book section on my next visit. LOL

In the meantime, here's a book that's high in TBR pile.

Customer Service

Is it just me or is customer service just falling by the wayside? I do early morning, weekend shopping at WalMart to get my weekly groceries. When I'm there, there are usually few shoppers but lots of stockers. Boxes, crates and baskets full of stock clutter the aisles. And I'm okay with this because I don't like to shop when the store is crowded with shoppers. What I have a problem with though, is when you're trying to get down an aisle that has a product you want or need and the stocker has you completely blocked. Their boxes, crates, basket or whatever are blocking at least half of the aisle and they are standing in the lone pathway through. And they don't move. Now I realize they're doing their job but do they realize they're keeping me from buying stuff and that my buying stuff helps pay their salaries? Seriously people, when a customer wants to get through - LET THEM PASS.

But that's not my only example. Contractors are the worst. They don't bother to show up and offer no explanation. A few years ago I had tile laid throughout my house. It was almost like moving because you had to move EVERYTHING from the room they were going laying tile in and put it somewhere else. And it would cause at least one room to be functionless so when they would disappear for a few days, it was really annoying.

Then there was the guy who redid my fence gate last year. I took off of work to meet him - and he knew I was doing so - and he didn't bother to show up. When I finally reached him (hours later) he said, "oh, I wasn't feeling well today". Gee, thanks for letting me know. I had (and still have) a lot of work I need done around the house. If he'd been a little more responsible, he could have had all of it. But I need someone who will do what they promise so he did the fence (he was the only one that showed up when I called around looking for someone to do my fence) and I tossed out his number.

But what I really want to talk about is my latest customer service nightmare....lawn care services. My homeowner's association is giving me grief because I have grass in the cracks in my driveway. I have weed eater issues (I can do it but it's not easy for me) so I do it as infrequently as I can get by with. However, since my HOA is hounding me, I thought I'd call in a "professional". So last Thursday I placed a call to someone who had left their business card on my door. I reached his wife who told me he'd stop by that evening. He finally showed up after dark. Now here's the deal: I only wanted him to weed eat and edge my front yard. I didn't need it mowed and I didn't need my backyard done at all. His business card says "average yard $20". That covers all mowing, weed eating and edging - $20. All I want is weed eating and edging - and only in my front yard...and I have a small front yard (backyard is huge but front yard is small) - and he tells me it will be $20. I point out what it says on his business card and that I'm not asking for even half that work but he insists it will cost $20 to do what I need. Mind you, if he were doing everything to my whole yard, $40 would be reasonable - even cheap. But that's not what I'm asking him to do. So I told him we were done and headed back into my house. He stopped me and after some discussion we agreed on $10 and that he'd do it the next night. He never showed. Even after I spoke with his wife, who assured me he would be there or that she'd call and let me know why. Not only did he never show, she never called. And they weren't answering their phone. Okay, I figure it's a right-off.

I decided to do the work myself. I did a lot of the weed eating, until I ran out of the string/rope stuff. Then I did most of the edging. Then I decided to call someone to finish the job and ask that they do my front yard the whole season. I reached someone last night who said he'd do it today. Well, we were supposed to have really nasty weather starting this afternoon so when I came home at lunch and he hadn't been here, I called him (it was already drizzly - not raining hard and certainly no storms (which still haven't materialized) but I wanted to confirm if and when he was coming). He said he still planned on coming, storms didn't bother him or his work. He went so far as insisting he'd be here at 3:00 to 3:30. I got home at 5:00 and he hadn't been here. So I called. "I'll come out tomorrow," he said. Okay, so I should believe him why? He'd said he'd be here TODAY. I basically said that to him, but nicer because I did want him to come out and he got all ugly on me. Finally I said something like I was needing someone for the season and I needed to know I could rely on them to show up when they said they would and would he or did I need to call someone else? He told me to call someone else!

So I called back the guy from last week. The one that never showed and never called. The work is 90% done, I'm still willing to pay $10 and his wife insists he'll be here tomorrow morning (and she did actually call me back later this evening to confirm) but I'm doubtful.

When did people decide it was okay to screw over their customers and get pissy and demanding with them? That's so not my idea of customer service - not when I'm getting it and not when I'm providing it. But that's just me. Maybe it falls under the umbrella of "progress" but I'm just not buying it.

Book Review

This past weekend the weather was predicted to be really nasty so I planned on staying inside, curled up with a good book and/or watching movies. Well, it was drizzly Saturday afternoon, rained hard in the middle of the night and then was nice on Sunday. Seriously, I could have given a better prediction, but that's not the point. The point is, I decided to stick with my weekend plan and read a book.



Linda Barrett is a member of my local chapter. She doesn't come to the meetings often but she came out last year and spoke about how she sold her Pilgrim Cove series (complete with the diagrams she used to pitch it). Anyway, they had her latest book as a give away at the meeting - The Daughter He Never Knew - and I really liked the cover. I didn't win a copy but when it (along with the rest of the series) was up for auction (I believe Brenda Novak's auction for Juvenile Diabetes - which is coming up again soon), I bid on it. That time I DID win. I read the series in order and just LOVED the way Linda wrote the stories (that's the series that has the Retired Old Men Eating Out, aka ROMEOs), so when her next book came out (A Man of Honor), I snatched it up. Loved it too.

So, it should be no surprise that I tell you, when her latest book (Houseful of Strangers) came out, I went right out and bought it. And that's what I read this weekend.

I absolutely loved it. It's a story about people who are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. Allison Truesdale is a veterinarian whose son died about two years earlier. A month later her husband, unable to cope with it all drank himself silly and got behind the wheel of the car and killed himself (no one else was involved). Allison really hasn't recovered from all of that and accepts a temporary job with a large animal veterinarian who needs help with his practice because he's broken his arm and can't do the job. Allison will be living with Eric Mitchell (the vet with the broken arm) while she works for/with him. Allison knows his mother, Ruth (who I loved in this story), lives with Eric. But she didnt know Eric had a son - not to mention that he's about the age her son was when he died.

Eric, on the other hand, went through a very bitter divorce. His wife was from the city and couldn't handle life in the country as a country vet's wife and ripped his heart out when she left, so he's not issueless himself and has a preconceived idea about Allison because she happens to live in the city herself.

Meanwhile, there's Danielle (Dani). Dani ran away from home when she was 13 and has been living on the street for two years now. She keeps a journal (that was given to her by a runaway counselor)...well actually she keeps several and one is labeled RIP where she keeps a log of all the runaways she's known who have died (she does this because she believes they matter and she doesn't want to forget them - but the list is getting pretty long and she hates that). She's at the train station one day when she sees her father (who abused her, both physically and sexually), flashing her picture around so she buys a ticket on the first train out of there. Of course it takes her to the same country town our other characters are in and of course they find her and invite her to stay with them and of course they become "family". In that respect it was predictable but, it was so wonderfully told. I was crying as I read the story. It wasn't the sobbing kind of crying but the kind of crying you can't stop, where the tears are just flowing, but it's a good cry...you feel good about what is happening.

And then I started to ask myself why it affected me that way and this is what I came up with. All these people were broken in some way (well, except for Ruth and Eric's son) and they couldn't seem to fix themselves but coming together, they each gave each other what they needed. They completed each other (all of them, not just the hero and heroine) and made each other whole. They were a family. And I guess that just touched me in some way. I don't know what that says about me (okay, I guess I do but if I haven't already revealed that in what I've said...) but it did touch me.

So, on a scale of one to five, I'd give it an eight and a half.

What have you read recently (or at any point) that touched you deeply on an emotional level? Or, if you don't want to answer that, what are you reading now? :~)

~L