Crying Purse, Smiling Car

Because I needed to get a safety inspection done for my car, and it also was time for an oil change, I scheduled a service appointment for this morning. Yes, you now have to make an appointment to get your car repaired. That amazed me the first time they asked me to do it but, in retrospect, it makes sense. No more waiting for hours and your car is ready when you want it. Plus, you set it by your schedule so you don't get as frustrated with things.

I'd requested 9 AM but they set me at 8:30. That's okay, first in first out! My dealership uses a web page to schedule these things and it has a comments area, so I asked for what I needed and included a request for a "tune up". This car maintenance procedure apparently no longer exists. When I described the problem, "It vibrates when sitting in traffic while in gear with my foot on the brake," they said they'd look into it. Turns out I needed more than a typical tune up. If such a procedure exists for a fuel injection engine, my dealership charges about $150 for it. That wasn't what I ended up paying. My car had a bigger problem. It had a gasket leak on the oil tank. This leak had dripped oil right onto a spark plug which had now been sitting in oil and not firing. So they needed to replace the gasket, the tubes for the spark plugs, and of course the spark plugs. There was also some carbon buildup on the throttle body and my air filter was nasty. So in addition to the oil change and safety inspection charge they added another $450. Ouch!

That's actually better than I'd expected. When they mention gaskets and cars I immediately think of head gaskets and replacing those pretty much rebuilds an engine. Thank goodness they didn't need to do that. It's happened to me twice over the life of times I've owned cars and I never want it to happen again. So I'm breathing a tentative, "Whew." And I think they actually took off the oil change price because the bill was about that much less than the near $600 I'd been told.

My car now drives very nicely. No vibrations and it picks up speed much, much better. Thank you Universal Toyota! For all the bad rep that dealerships get, Universal is really a good one. I base this opinion on 3 things:1) when I bought the car they actually listened to me; 2) when I took it back for a check oil light the day I bought it they went beyond the usual level of investigation on the car and I ended up with a better than purchase loaner and a new short block free of charge; 3) a couple of years later when a check engine light kept coming on within a week of being investigated and repaired, they completed the last 3 investigations free of charge and did a $500+ dollar repair gratis too. Yeah, I could have gotten a cheaper oil change at Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't have gotten the level of service this dealership gives to its customers. So, if you live in the San Antonio area and need work on your Toyota I highly recommend them.

Dropping Gas Prices

I just finished reading a news article on Reuters about how gas prices have taken a huge, record breaking, drop this past week. Good as this news is, it was interesting to note that average prices across most of the country still seems to be above $3/gal. See the excerpt below. For the whole article go here.

"In the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) weekly survey, gasoline was the most expensive on the West Coast $3.42 a gallon, down 15 cents. San Francisco had the highest city price at $3.60, down 12 cents.

The Gulf Coast had the lowest regional price at $2.99 a gallon, down 45 cents. Cleveland had the lowest city pump price, down 38 cents at $2.90.

The EIA also reported gasoline prices were down 29 cents at $3.46 in Chicago; down 12 cents at $3.44 in Los Angeles; down 30 cents at $3.38 in Miami; down 18 cents at $3.36 in Seattle; down 24 cents at $3.22 in Denver; down 24 cents at $3.16 in New York City; down 27 cents at $3.06 in Boston; and down 32 cents at $3.03 in Houston."

Some of those gas prices seem really high because unleaded at the Citgo across the corner from me is $2.71 a gallon. I'm guessing that the prices they took their averages from included those "we're on the corner of a highway and can charge an arm and a leg" prices of strategically located service stations. These averages were based on regular unleaded prices, not plus or premium, which are much higher. That reminds me of something my ex told me when we were engaged (he managed a gas station/store), "The difference between unleaded and premium is about $0.04/gal. to the retailer." When he told me this it was in '91 and gas prices were much lower. There was about a $0.20 difference for the customer at that time. Now, of course, it is higher and so is the difference.

My granddad owned and ran a Texaco service station for many years. It wasn't fancy, but the building was solidly built. And the pumps let you know how much you were spending with a nice ding every time the meter turned over another dollar. Back then you got about 3 gallons for a dollar. That the meters reminded you how much you were spending says something about the mindset of the country. People were careful with their money. I'm delighted to see gas prices dropping. I still wish we could go back to the days when the attitude was that folk were respected for their desire to economize, make their dollar go as far as it would, and retailers seemed more inclined to support this.

The Switchover Maze

Times are hard right now and everyone I know is trying to cut back on expenses, including myself. Having both a land line and a cell phone seemed to be an area I could make some economies in so I decided to switch from Verizon, a most excellent company, to AT&T/Cingular who has a better savings in their roll over minutes. AT&T was so glad to get my business that they gave me a $25 credit, but the switchover didn't go as smoothly as it could have.

Before setting plans into action I had checked on the company's reputation. Comsumer's Report doesn't like AT&T very much. JS, on the other hand, did. She said she'd had no problems with them. So I talked to the Customer Service representative and was made a really nice offer which would make the switch over almost cost free. We're talking like less than a dollar. Woo hoo! And I'd have a camera and music phone to boot. So I placed the order. This was at the beginning of September.

The phone, a lovely plum LG CU515, was shipped to me on the 3rd of that month via UPS. UPS didn't deliver it. I waited and waited. I called the apartment office and had them search their package closet. No luck. The office closed at 5:30 but so did work. I didn't want to leave work early to stop by the office. I trusted the package would arrive. Maybe it was on back order. Nope! Eventually at the end of September I got a call from AT&T saying that my contract was about to be canceled for lack of activation, so I took time off from work and went to the apartment office. They still didn't have it but checked UPS for me and found that the package had been sent to Dallas instead. I called UPS. They looked on their records and had returned the package to sender because, "There was no apartment number on the label." Ouch! I'm pretty sure AT&T had my apartment number. It has been on my bill from them for the land line for several years now.

AT&T got my next call. They apologized, made lots of concessions, and set up a new delivery. It took a really long time to get that new delivery set up and I spent 45 minutes on the phone with them, middle of the day, anytime minutes. This was a really long lunch so when I got back to work I apologized to my boss. AT&T called again during the afternoon but I didn't pick up the call. Instead, I listened to the message and received the call again that evening in the midst of an Altar Guild dinner and meeting. The shipment had been canceled because they couldn't bill it to my account and needed a debit or credit card to charge the phone to. So they had to set it up all over again.

AT&T scheduled a call to me this past Monday to check and see if the phone had arrived. It hadn't. They were going to call back. They had shipped it via FedEx this time and FedEx tried to deliver it on Tuesday. I wasn't there. So they brought it on Wednesday. Last night, Thursday, AT&T called again to check and help me set up my phone by "porting" my number from Verizon to AT&T. The customer service rep left me with an automated phone system and I had no idea what was going on. So when I turned the phone on, as directed, and saw an error message about its smart chip I asked for a live person to talk to. That person helped me by having me reset the chip in place. Then we went together through the automated activation system and it worked. Then she had me place a test call to see if the phone would call out. Mom was glad to hear from me. Then the AT&T rep placed a call to my phone to make sure it worked. Whew!

The upshot of all of this is that I have a new phone but still have things to attend to. I need to see if the AT&T store can help me move my phone directory from the old phone to this one. That's a major headache if they can't because who wants to have to reenter all those numbers by hand? Then and only then will I call and give Verizon the bad news, although with the loss of a number I think the already know.

Scrabble Online or How to Survive Without TV

Sandi and I are playing Scrabble online. This is FUN! We're using the Scrabulous website and playing by email. If the two games we've played are any indication, we are pretty evenly matched. But I gotta tell you, I really worked hard for my win!

Playing Scrabulous is free, easy, and addictive. Sandi and I played the first game slow, over a couple of days. The next one we pretty much sat by our computers waiting for the emails to come in. Being the antsy sort, I kept clicking on "refresh screen" to learn her next move. The only equipment I'll need, besides my computer and the internet, is possibly a Scrabble Dictionary. Merriam Webster is on my computer but I don't think that is considered official. It helps though. When Sandi spelled "xi" I had to look it up. That's when I learned you could use the spellings of Greek letters in play. Amazing! It's been years since I last played and we were pretty simple with the rules then, no proper nouns or foreign words. That was about it. Guess I need to reacquaint myself with the rules.

Sandi being good at this isn't surprising. Looking online for the above image, it's from Wikipedia, I learned that most of Britain is in love with the game. She probably played every other day when she lived there. Another thing I learned was that scrabble is available for cell phones. That sounds like fun!

Scrabble is helping me deal with not having a TV. Mine died Friday. I'm not ready to invest in a new one yet. So I'm looking for things to do to fill in the hours I used to spend watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" and "Numb3rs." This is doable. I've got a friend who only recently got satellite to watch. Before that she and her husband did other things. They did have a TV, but, not liking the selection of available shows...or the ads that go with them, they watched DVDs of series they'd heard good things about instead. The summer we landed on the moon my family went on a month long camping vacation. I survived that with no TV and I can survive this.

There are blessings to be had from going TV-less. They are electricity hogs. Yesterday I unplugged it, along with the DVD player, the digital converter, and the powered antenna. That should cut con$umption a bit. The activities I hope to fill the time with will, I think, make my life richer and more productive. I'll read more, listen to music, and practice my guitar. Maybe I'll get some yarn and try crocheting or knitting. I might even go outside for an evening walk. Cooking, cleaning, playing with GIMP and the photos I've taken, there's lots I can do. One thing I'd really like is to find myself spending more time with people. So I think I'll try to make one or two of the evening events at church.

Peace! Hope! & Joy! And with that Peace some Quiet!

New Tea Taste Test (Can you say that 5 times real fast?)

Tea Embassy in Austin, TX had a page on rooibos (red bush) tea and its health benefits (If interested you'll need to scroll to the bottom to read all of it). Rooibos tea is an herbal tisane made from the red bush which grows in South Africa. They said it's becoming popular in the US. It's on the fair trade list, so if I bought one with the fair trade stamp I would be making a contribution to the economic welfare of another country. The page spoke authoritatively and persuasively, so I decided to try some.

There were several brands in the grocery store I went to (Sun Harvest), including one that was both organic and fair trade. That brand was the most expensive costing almost $6 USD for 15 teabags. Rooibos seems to come blended with stuff a lot, and in two different colors. There were both red and green varieties. Sun Harvest didn't have many blends, although Tea Embassy's web page has quite a few. One I did see was rooibos mixed with honeybush. Numi had a plain variety, and I wanted to know if I liked the basic herb, so that's what I bought. Numi's packaging attributed an "earthy vanilla" flavor to it. Tea Embassy said the tea was slightly sweet.

Well, I've just had my first cup and.....hmmm. Took a whiff and it smells like Camphor. A very tentative first sip didn't taste sweet, but, as had been promised, with its low tannin content it didn't taste bitter either. It tasted better than it smelled. Next I sweetened it and that was an improvement. What I got was a kind of minty vanilla taste. That's not bad, the mint was a surprise though, no mention of it on the box. There is a hint of earthiness that's hard to describe. Its a faint darkness that sits on your tongue, a little heavier than smoke but too light to be substance. Rooibos wasn't an instant hit, but it's intriguing and it's growing on me. Halfway through the cup I found I liked it better cooled.

If you've got experience with this tea and any of the variety of blends I'd like to hear your take on it. Which is the best blend? Should I have gotten the green variety?

Eco-friendly and Economical

From Yahoo Green, the Huddler's Green Home blog presented me with ways to cook green. I was pleased to find I already use one of the most eco-friendly methods of boiling water for my tea, the microwave. However, things can almost always be improved So, based on their suggestion, I'm going to try to find a short power strip chord that has a switch so that I can turn it off without getting down on my knees and reaching behind the bakers rack it sits on. I think I'll start unplugging the coffee maker too. Who needs three clocks in the kitchen?

The article is a wealth of information on earth friendly and cost saving options, as is the entire Yahoo Green site. Below is the snippet about power and the microwave. If you're interested in going green and/or saving money I encourage you to visit via the links provided.

• Your most environmentally friendly cooking option- the microwave. Microwaves use between one-fifth and one-half as much energy as conventional stoves. If you have a countertop unit (rather than a wall mounted unit), consider unplugging between uses to save on vampire power.

Quick Shares

This was today's Jig Zone puzzle. It's a pair of medieval shoes. If you go to renaissance fairs you can still get a pair of these hand made and fitted to your feet. A friend, who is a strong member of Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), went to the Houston, TX fair with me and ordered himself a pair. They aren't cheap and take a fairly long time to be delivered because they hand make them. I was impressed. Someday I want to own a set of these shoes. Of course I'd also like a set of San Antonio Shoes (SAS) custom made boots too. I think the factory still does this. They are pretty dear too, but you probably get them quicker than the medieval ones because they are a business with a factory to cut the leather and can use a sewing machine to do the stitching.

Just got off the phone with Mom. Their power came back on Friday afternoon. The cable is working too. Yay, things are getting back to normal. They had to throw out some food that had spoiled in the refrigerator. Interesting note on survival: Mom said that she was surprised the food in the veggie drawer was still good. Apparently the lettuce was still crisp and she had Dad go and get her some tomatoes (now on the approved list again, Yay!) and enjoyed her first salad in a while. They are still drinking the water they put aside before Dolly's arrival because the water is still threatened. Other than that they seem to be fine!

Mom and I talked about the houses I'd lived in as a child. We remembered gardens she had grown and I told her about Sandi's tomato crop. Mom used to have a nice vegetable garden back behind the garage before I was old enough to be in school. I didn't remember that one. Or not much...some vague visuals are returning. But I did remember spending time with Grandma and Granddaddy helping out in their garden. They had a really good one with lots of veggies in it. Grandmother even grew an asparagus plant or two which, if I recall correctly, are perennial and take about 2 years before you can harvest a crop from them. That's certainly faster than the 5 years it takes for an avocado tree to mature. Gee...it's amazing the things you learn and remember from growing up in an agricultural area with two agricultural study farms in the area sponsored by two different universities (Texas A&I and Texas A&M).

Mom also suggested that in writing my resume I might be able to use my blog writing experience as part of my skills repertoire. I don't think of that as "work experience" but I guess some folk might. So I'm asking anyone who reads this blog: Do you think it would be okay to include blogging in your list of experiences or skills? And if so how? I know professional journalists often blog for their company. Is this an up and coming skill or just a hoped for one?

Oh, and one more notable thing I discovered. While talking to Mom about books and the public library I checked out hers. They have a nice website and when I searched their catalog for a book I was going to suggest to Mom not only did I get the book's catalog page but a Discover Tag Cloud with tags for related topics that might be interesting to the reader. What a cool use of technology for a library and a great way to encourage broader reading!

Peace! Hope! & Joy! Wishes for a good week!

Kill the Blues and Your Pocketbook Too

Well I'm back at it again. That age old remedy that women are so fond of using to cure a case of the blues. I went shopping. At Amazon.com!

This past week, along with a lot of the US population, my government rebate hit my bank account. :) Yes, I now have a little extra cash. Part of me wonders how we are going to end up paying for that later, but I loathe political commentary and discussion almost as much as I hate shot needles, so we aren't going there. I promptly put the money in my savings account. Now I've spent about a 3rd of it. On what you ask? Silly question. Books of course!

For a while now I've been wanting a New Zealand Prayerbook. It's all JS's fault. If she hadn't posted that beautiful prayer from it when I needed it so much, I'd never have known the darn book existed. When I realized how cool the book was I went looking around for one. Those things just never go on sale. There seems to be a standard price for them which is about $31. The other day I was telling my friend Susan that I thought an apartment blessing by Robert, my priest, might help me fend off the blues when sitting at home alone. The reason this place gives me the blues is another long story but I got that idea from two sources at once, my PC and my own heart. So I'm planning on having one in the not too distant future. And Susan told me there was a lovely house blessing service in the New Zealand Prayerbook. So now I had another reason to get it. And suddenly I have cash! Oooohh! Google and find the cheapest prices, there were none, so Amazon.com here I come.

Once at the Amazon site I promptly located the much desired book. Yes, I'd checked out the local bookstore too. It had way too many books and not enough info. Amazon offered free shipping. When I looked down the page for shipping details and other stuff (always read the fine print from the editor/publisher), I discovered it was also sold with a celtic book of some sort. Then I remembered when we had that wonderful celtic book sale at Church after the service by Reverend Newell.


There had been a Celtic Daily Prayer book. And if I remembered right, it had Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Eucharist, and communion in it. So with dreams of doing a Celtic version of Morning Prayer I went looking for that one too. Amazon had it and low and behold, it was on sale. At 30% off! Now it's in my shopping cart too. Yay! I can do all kinds of prayers and healing services. It didn't seem to have any Celtic House Blessings but I'm sure something can be adapted. One of the reasons I selected this particular book instead of another one by a well known author is because it is by an entire community and seemed to have some extras in it. By all means go and check out the look inside that Amazon gives.


Then I remembered that good Sir Paschal, had suggested The Artist Way as a book to inspire and help one maintain an air of creativity and spirituality. So I went looking for that too. I found lots of versions but one was The Complete Artists Way. This one had 3 of the books and when I looked inside there were lots of small chapters and exercises too. So, of course that was put into the shopping cart too. It also was on sale. By now my total is well past the $50 mark. I told myself I should pay my bill and leave. But my sensibilities told me I had one more necessary purchase to make.


For the past few weeks I've been carrying my beloved digital camera around in my tote bag taking it to work with me. I'd not been able to find time to wander outside to use it but it was there nonetheless, building the good habit of taking my camera with me at all times(Thank you, David!). The bad thing about that is the tote bag was filled with all sorts of stuff and not a safe place for camera view screens. So I badly needed a camera case. That too is available from the font of all shopping mavens. Searching for a proper camera case for my Canon PowerShot, I found too many extravaganza's with lots of extras I didn't need, and very few real cases until I typed in the model. Then I had 5 choices of which 2 were cases, one of which was out of stock. The instock one was leather and promised to fit my model. But it had no photos. The unavailable one looked exactly the same but in a different color. Oh well, I looked anyway. It had pictures, uploaded by a past customer. And it was the exact same case but in blue. Mine will be gray. It was also available used for about half the price. So of course it is on order too. Now I'll be able to attach the camera to my belt or something suitable and protect it from mishaps while having it available. I feel good about that.

So you think I might be done shopping? Probably not! I need some milk products from the grocery store and I have a really cool 15% coupon for Barnes & Noble, plus a membership, and there is surely a wonderful next book in one of the various werewolf, or vampire series I seem to be so fond of reading these days. That will probably be my next stop. Besides, it's right around the corner from Bath & Body Shop and I just happen to be out of soap. On top of that there are some awesome movies I want to see, among them are Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones 4, and Spiderwick Chronicles.

And I've got still more blogging to do. A while back Terry tagged me for a meme I've not gotten around to. So that's next on my list. You can't say no when it's a friend. Then David suggested that because my dad is writing his memoirs on the web site of the 100th Bomb Group (yep, a genuine first source for you history buffs, just look for posts by Bill Kennedy) and I mentioned that I'd run link trainers when I was in the Navy that perhaps I could write a post on that. So I've said okay to that too. Looks like I'll be busy for a while.

Removing Powercells to Empower Freedom

Over at authorblog, David McMahon has asked the question: How efficiently (or inefficiently) would your household function without batteries?

There used to be a comic, repeatedly published or recited, about how people get fat from using remote controls. Well, my life would be more active if I rose from my chair to go across the room to change the channel on the TV. It would be more poetic as I lit candles during blackouts instead of reaching for the flashlight. I find candles soothing so I'd enjoy that. It might be in a different location as lighting those candles is strictly forbidden in my lease. I might enjoy being in a different place too. Cables would attach the keyboard and mouse to the computer thus making them more reliable and less expensive to replace. Phones would also be wired and I'd probably be dragging those long extended cords around as I moved from place to place talking. This might cost less. We've had that kind of technology around for years. Less expense means I'd be richer or able to afford a bigger place. Safety might be an issue because smoke detectors run on batteries too. My cell phone contract might get dropped because I keep one for safety and have used it to call the electric company when the lights go out.

Outside, I use batteries in my car. Well I guess if we didn't have batteries we would have electric cars or some other form of power and the world would be a greener place. The land fills would be smaller and less hazardous. Planning trips without the cellphone to call for help might mean that I'd know the area better and people might be more ready to stop for others in case they needed help someday. Singing, whistling, or silence would accompany me when out on a walk instead of one of those portable CD players. We might all know our neighbors better because we would need the resources of having friends everywhere instead of carrying flashlights and tasers. Or more of us would have dogs with us on leashes so that our protection went with us. That might be nice, fewer stray dogs because they were valued more, less garbage strewn around the neighborhoods. Less stress because having and caring for animals is a known stress reducer. The world might be a friendlier place.

You know, I can see some real benefits from going without batteries. I can also see one not so great thing. David's camera and flash wouldn't work so we might not get as many great shots. (g) And that would be a real shame.

Don't Blame the System. Blame the Part.

In his latest Weekend Wandering, David McMahon asked the question: Have you ever sworn at a computer?

My answer David's question is, "No. I've worked far too long in the IP industry to ever cuss at a machine for mistakes that were the result of something other than its functioning." You can stop here if you don't want to read a litany of things that can go wrong in computer systems and why it isn't the machine's fault.

Computers today are a collection of systems, part mechanical, part software, and part human operator. A computer traditionally is just the hardware, useless without the rest of it but still, just a machine. Something other than its mechanical functioning is what most computer mishaps are. If the system crashes it is most likely the software design and not the equipment. If the browser crashes after opening a webpage it is most likely a bug in the browser that doesn't work with something on the webpage, again, not the computer's fault. I don't want to think about how often Firefox has crashed after I viewed one of CNN's videos.

Or it could be my fault. If my work gets lost because of a crash this was not the machine's fault. It was mine because I didn't save it early or frequently enough to protect myself. If I get a bug, worm, or virus and whatever else there is out there today it might be because I didn't take proper precautions or opened an email without thinking. But it might also be something new or a trusted friend who accidentally sent me the little nasty.

What a lot of people choose to forget is that computers aren't smart. They are very dumb, fast machines that need specific instructions to do what you want them to do. If I tell it to do something in a way it doesn't understand I can almost guarantee you that the machine will give me an error message or, thanks to the OS designers, ask for more instructions.

Yeah, I know, Microsoft bashing is a popular sport these days. But, for all its problems with security, Windows designers are first and foremost programmers and they know so much more than the rest of us about how to protect themselves that they have forgotten more than we will ever know. They are also human and get used to having those protections in place which is probably why they forget to give them to us. They also know how often they have to recode a piece of software which is why they put in so many "are you sure" and "give me more info" messages that pop up all too frustratingly at times. They were trying to be kind to the novice and even the intermediate computer literate when they did that. If we really hate the company we should probably stop supporting it with our dollars and change machines or the OS. There are other options out there.

All of the above doesn't mean I haven't cussed at a situation I found myself in because of something that happened with the computer. I just know better than to get mad at the dumb machine. Chances are it was that old infamous, "operator error" in the first place. This means, "I'm a dummy too."

Response to Weekend Wandering

David McMahon of authorblog asks the following question: How would you cope if you had no way to use the Internet for a week?

You mean after I went frantic? The web is my chosen tool for communication, banking, bill paying, appointment setting, entertainment, and encyclopedia. Sometimes it is even my muse in that it gives me ideas on what to write about. When my computer goes down I rush to get it fixed. This isn't as easy as it once was. My favorite computer guru is often too busy to deal with my problems anymore. Thank goodness I have a nice stable machine.

If I couldn't do the things I do on the web I'd have to revert to the old fashioned methods. I'd pick up my phone and call people, maybe drive over to see them face to face. I'd pay bills by check and postage. I might have to go to the store to buy things I needed. Life wouldn't be as quickly accomplished as it is now. Things might slow down. I'd have to plan ahead more. Paying by web is instant, by snail mail isn't and you have to trust the generosity of companies to honor the postage dates. Thankfully most companies still honor those. To get entertained I'd have to read, something I do anyway, or watch TV. It used to be considered graceful and gracious to communicate by hand written letters and cards. In many cases it still is. I'd miss the frequency of emails from friends so I think my phone bill might rise or my calling hours would change (cell anytime minutes).

Would I like being webless? No! Could I manage? Yes, I was born when there wasn't any web. Would I be happy? That's hard to say. I worked for many years in the Information Processing industry. Some of my friends use me as a resource to tell them how to do things on their computers that I learned many years ago. Its a source of interaction but not our only one. My friend might be just as frustrated as I would be. Conversation would probably focus on the sudden lack of web.

Mind you the question was only for a week. If the webless state extended beyond that the communications industry might have to step into the hole and create the ways of using technology that we now take for granted. Imagine AT&T providing camera phones when we are used to doing that for ourselves on our computers. Video calls would be very expensive. The world might have to get innovative with other forms of technology...satellites might get more usage than they do now. Would TVs get cameras? In all of the technology questions this is raising in my mind one thing that has nothing to do with technology stands out. Would people be more polite to each other if instant gratification through the web was no longer available?

Peace! Hope! & Joy!

Debit Card Fiasco Update

The awful experience of finding my debit card had been charged twice continues. I never heard back from the store on Sunday. So on Monday I called the store the second time and spoke to a different manager. This one looked and couldn't find two charges on his records. He only found one. So at his request I brought down copies of my bank records showing both charges. He believed me and graciously credited back one of the charges. I went home happy and thought that would be the end of it. It wasn't!

When I got home from school today I checked my bank account again expecting to see the charge credited back. It wasn't. I called the store again to see if there was to be some delay in the refund. The manager told me it usually takes about 24 to 48 hours. He asked me to call my bank and see if there was anything coming through. This is where it got horrible.

On contacting the bank I discovered that there wasn't a credit coming through. Instead there was the 3rd time they had tried to run the card and that charge would hit my account tonight. I panicked and asked for the Dispute department. They got on the line and a nice lady told me what was going on. She also told me she didn't see the credit coming in but she could dispute one of the charges for me. I was happy with that idea but also concerned that my account would go overdraft in the mean time. She told me that sometimes companies take a couple of days to credit refunds and sometimes up to 10. That last was totally unacceptable so I asked her if she could call the manager at the store. She said she would. After I gave her the info I had a better idea. Would she set up a 3-way call so that I could talk to him at the same time. She did and he was very gracious about the whole thing. After she explained to him how the 3rd charge would come through tonight, he told me to come down to the store and he would credit the me the other extra charge and hopefully that would take care of matters. I asked the bank lady if they could do anything to insure that my account didn't go overdraft tonight. She said she would make sure that didn't happen. Whew!

We all hung up and I headed straight down to the store. The manager was as good as his word. We both seemed to feel rather sheepish about the whole thing. Refund in hand, I thanked him and left. Home again, I checked my bank records. The lady from the bank had refunded both charges. Whew! My account now has a nice safe balance. The actual transactions will still take a couple of days to hit my bank. No matter how fast electronic banking is, human handling always slows things down. That's fine with me. The manager did his job. The bank lady did hers. I did what I needed to do and am now feeling in control of things somewhat. Yay for knowing who to call and how to deal with this. Boo for having to make 3 trips to the store for one purchase. Oh well, life goes on.

A Lucky Shopping Trip....Or Maybe Not

To complete my classroom lessons for the upcoming week I needed some things so I went down to Office Max to get them. One of the things I wanted was some thick construction paper or something else to mount some pictures on. I didn't really want to deal with poster board. I liked the idea of card stock better but it wasn't the right size and was kind of expensive. What I ended up buying wasn't much cheaper but I think it will work wonderfully well. I found in the art supplies a pad of watercolor paper. This is really thick and the dimensions are big enough that I can easily mount a full page magazine photo on it to show the kids. Yay!

When I got to the register they were having trouble running my card through because of network problems. So finally they just ran it and I signed for the stuff. More on that later...

Then I went across the street to Barnes & Noble. I was sort of nervous about going in there because I had just spent a bunch at Office Max, but I had a coupon I wanted to use so I bolstered my courage and went in. As I wandered down the aisle I came across a display that had books for teachers. There was a lady looking at them and I stopped to look and we chatted for a moment. Then I noticed it. Just the book I needed. They had copies of 6 + 1 Writing Traits. The school district I'm student teaching in uses this book. So I slapped my coupon sticker on it and delightedly walked off with a copy. As I thumbed through it I found tons of ideas to write into my lesson plans. Yay! Teaching just got easier!

Then I ran by the grocery store on my way home where I bought some much needed supplies. Some of them were paper products. I've been fighting a cold all last week. I'm finally getting better now. Praise God! My debit card didn't work at the register so I had to use my credit card. I was worried about that because is should have. I hadn't gone over the balance in spending. At least I didn't think I had. I decided I'd check the bank balance online when I got home. On the way out of the store the carryout help turned out to be a real klutz. He ran the cart into the back of my ankle. I wasn't badly hurt but it wasn't a pleasant experience. He tried to make nice all the way back to my car. He even held the door for me and shut it after I got in. Nice kid. Then he tried to take the cart between the cars promptly running it along the door so I have a few new scrapes on the trim. Sigh! They aren't horrible but it doesn't help that I can't afford to get them fixed right now. I hope a good wash and wax will take care of it.

When I got home I checked my banking as I'd promised myself I would. Sure enough, with all the trouble running the card at Office Max the charge had gone through twice. No wonder my card got declined at the grocery store. So I called the store and the manager is going to look into it and see if he can't get accounting to reverse the charge. He is supposed to call me back. I hope he does. If he doesn't I'll have to call my bank and have them take care of it. I'm really lucky to bank with a good one. They've reversed double charges before. It's pretty obvious when the charge is the same amount at the same store and goes through twice within something like 15 to 20 seconds.

All in all it hasn't been a bad day. I found out earlier this week that I can't go to the retreat next weekend. I need to have access to a computer and the web to do lesson plans. They don't have that kind of resource at the retreat and I don't have a laptop to take with me to use the ones they do have. Oh well, I'll take myself on a different retreat later after the enormously stressful semester is over. Hopefully I'll have a job by then or at least the makings of one. Now, I'm going to go and heat up one of my frozen dinners the purchase of which got me a free half gallon of really good ice cream. Yay for sales!

And now that I've gotten this post written I have one more thing to do. Blogger has put up a link on their blog page which plays the pictures that are being loaded to the web in real time. As they so accurately said, "It's pretty cool and endlessly fascinating." I'll put a link on the side bar to it. It will be under the Links heading and will be entitled Play.

Happy Sunday and have a good week all!

Dangerous Website Shopping Spree Update

The items from Land's End came in. The shoes are nice and comfy. The picture of the skirt in white is from the Land's End web page. The one I ordered is in light flax. It didn't match my jacket, but I have other things it will go with. The messenger bag is huge. It came with a light that requires recharging and makes the bag visible a long way in the dark. I doubt I'll use the light. This one came with a laptop sleeve and I don't have a laptop. I'll probably stick a legal pad or two in there to give me note taking paper. That dates me some. When I was young a large purse was a hiding place for paperbacks and all kinds of food. I'd still carry the food.

Dangerous Website

The other day a friend and I went shopping. We were being unsuccessful so she suggested I look at Land's End. They are holding their seasonal sale and we both had their sale catalogs at home. I checked on their webpage and found a lovely pair of camel colored ballet flats which will do for work with lots of things in my closet. Being unsure which size to get, I called and ordered by phone. While on the phone I was told that if the shoes didn't fit I could take them to my local Sears store for return. Wow! No standing in line at the Post Office to mail out packages! Then she asked if I had anything else I wanted. I didn't but she told me that I had till 10:00 PM to call and add things to the order if I changed my mind. This is where it got dangerous.

While the shoes were a mere $20, I needed a purse that would hold more then the one I currently use. So, I shopped until I found a messenger bag and selected black as the most neutral color. This also went for a mere $20. I called and added it to the order which moved out of the bargain range into the merely reasonable. Then, because I've put on weight and am shuffling through different pairs of pants to look nice at work, I shopped for pants. There was nothing in pants I wanted but I did stumble across a long, washable, linen skirt that was going for $40 instead of the original $70. It seemed to come in the color to match a jacket I'd bought earlier so I called again. We looked but I'd bought the jacket too far back to be in their records. We checked color descriptions and decided that my jacket matched the flax description. So this too was added to the order. Now the bill is way out of the bargain range.

I'm stopping!!! I laughingly told the sales clerk that I was getting off their website before I blew my budget and she laughed with me. My purchases will be here within the week. If everything fits I'll be happy. If they don't I can return things to the Sears along Loop 410.

I'm sure there are a few caveats I should consider. Flax isn't the preferred color for interviewing, that's supposed to be gray, black or navy. Tough! I'm not wearing a hot color in hot weather. Messenger bags probably don't look professional enough, unless made of leather, when going to interviews...so I won't carry it there...I'll change to a leather purse. For now it'll work for all the stuff I need to haul around while student teaching. Yep, Land's End is a dangerous website.

All Things Harry Potter

It was surprising how few people were at the 6:30 showing of Harry Potter on Thursday. My friend Marion and I had the entire row we were sitting on to ourselves. The sum of the rest of the folk there didn't exceed 20 I don't think. Perhaps it was the time of day. I liked the movie but not as much as I did the 4th and definitely not as much as the 1st and 2nd. This one has too much thrown into too quick a time frame for all that it runs over two hours. Not enough story development. I hope the next one is better.

Barnes & Nobel, on the other hand, was totally packed. It was standing room only. You couldn't walk without running into someone or stepping over them. The areas where you wanted to stand next to a shelf and look at its contents were filled with groups of young folk sitting on the floor and chatting with friends. Everyone seemed in pretty good spirits. So I got my ticket and stood in line till after 1:00 AM to buy the last Harry Potter book in this series. This has been such a huge success for Ms. Rowling that I suspect her fans will demand another smash hit soon. What she will do for an encore I have no idea but I hope it is as good as the past 7 books have been. I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if she will do a sequel. The cover picture you see up there is the British cover. I think it looks better than the American one. Wish I knew why publishers put out different covers for different countries.

And now, I'm taking my new book, my cookie (chocolate chip) and heading off to bed where I hope the cat and the sun don't wake me. G'night all.

Just couldn't stay away

Yesterday I said I would wait for the lines to clear before seeing Spider-man 3. Well, that didn't happen (sheepish grin). Instead I found an excuse to drive past the theater and saw that there were no lines. So I went to see if the show was sold out and the cashier told me there were plenty of seats available. I guess advance ticket sales are not as popular as theaters would like. So I bought a ticket and ended up with a seat at the end of the best row in the house. Yay!

Spider-man 3 was great! I loved the interactions between him and his lady love. He grows so much emotionally during this story that it is heart warming. There is plenty of interaction around forgiveness too. Also the good vs. evil theme is mixed in with all of that. It is a wonderful movie and the best of the three.

The were two downsides to seeing it. The movie is a bit long, 2 hours 19 minutes. Theaters don't do intermissions anymore, so by the time it was ending I was frantic for a trip down the hall. So were quite a few other fans. Also, I don't like that it cost more to get a medium soda and one package of candy than it did to see the movie. This wasn't always the case. When I was a little girl you could see a movie for a quarter, soda was a dime, and a candy bar cost a nickel. Since my allowance was fifty cents this worked out well for me. I had money left over for the rest of the week. Even with inflation counted in today's prices are bad. So, I'm thinking that in the future I won't buy theater food. Their prices are plain old highway robbery and worse than the gas stations that have prime spots.

Cozy Sleep - Bargain Shopping

It just arrived. I unpacked it with my hopes up. Yes it felt lighter than I thought it should. That might be ok. This is south Texas and our winters don't get that cold. What I'm talking about is the down comforter in the picture on the left. That's the image from the Overstocks.com web site. The comforter doesn't look quite that fluffy yet. It is puffing up though.

The amount spent on this wasn't huge, so I probably don't get the guarantees that come with those several hundred dollar ones. I don't expect the quality either. But for $29 I think this one is decent. Tomorrow or the next day the duvet cover should come. They were the same price as the comforter. Shipping was free. So for just under $60 I have some warmer sleep ahead of me. (g)

Right now my only serious complaint is the preservative smell the comforter has. That should go with exposure to the air. This is my Christmas present to myself. At this point, I'm reasonably pleased and hope to be more so later. Since we are having temperatures in the mid 30's tonight I shall probably enjoy sleeping under this. Sweet dreams!

Posting in the new blogger

Switching to the new beta blogger was a bit scary until I did it. I had read so many cautions on the blogger knowledge page that it sounded horribly complicated. Then my friend, Susan, did it and I took heart. It really is easy. Susan answered my nervous questions about her experience with the process and was very reassuring. I know how busy she is and yet she always has a kind word or support to give. I love buddy blogging. (g) Thank you, Susan!

After changing over, I tried to comment on another friend's blog. She hasn't changed over to the new beta and it wouldn't let me. Sigh! So I wrote and asked her to change too. I hope she does it soon.

I have a few impolite comments running through my head on systems that force you to change when you aren't ready in order to gain the convenience you once had. It isn't nice. I've seen this in banking services and now in blogger software. Instant messaging doesn't seem to have this problem. I can message anyone I like in YM no matter what version of the software they have. Why can't other companies be as considerate? My bank wants me to change my accounts over to a version that gives me points, kind of like mypoints, instead of earning interest. No way! I like my extra few pennies every month. Why should I give up that for some point system that might not offer me what I really want to get or only at a huge amount of points that I might never reach. Yeah, I'm sometimes resistant to change. I also refuse to buy watches with gimmicks that don't meet any of my needs and I think that cell phones are getting way too complicated. Ok, I'm a scrooge. LOL

...and still more books!

I thought I was finished with buying books for awhile. It seems I was wrong. In the mail today was a shipment from Quality Paperback Bookclub. This shipment was unexpected. They are supposed to send me an email asking me if I want the current selections. I don't remember any email. So today I had two books in my mailbox.

This club sells better quality literature than the stuff you get from browsing the stacks at most bookstores. That's why I joined. These two books will probably fall in line with the quality of the ones I've ordered from them in the past, but since I didn't know what had been sent I went online to check out the order before I opened it and couldn't send it back. The books that I received are: For One More Day by Mitch Albom and The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis.

I know the name of Mitch Albom. I regret to say, I've never read any of his books. They made a movie out of his Tuesdays With Morrie, and The Five People You Meet In Heaven was on the bestseller lists for a really long time. They apparently made a Teleplay out of it too. With all of that to say about his books I have no doubt I will enjoy reading his latest work.

I've never read any of Kathyrn Davis's books either but the description, on QPB's website, was appealing and on the back of the book are reviews by other authors, usually a good sign. One of the praising descriptions is a little intimidating. Mary Gordon describes it as "metaphysically exploratory, psychologically questioning, and full of suspense." She says the book "combines elements that ought to be unmixable." Wow! After reading the first paragraph of this one I can tell that I will probably not put it down for awhile.

Yes, I opened the package.