For that of Being a Turkey. It is the possibility of a Presidential pardon that motivates turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving.
Reminds of a New Yorker cartoon many years ago. Turkey, standing on a stump, says "I regret that I have but one life to give."
Farmer, holding an axe, says to his wife "He makes a good case for a baked ham, Olivia."
Today I consign to Hell the alarm system in my house.
This evening I was sealed up in what I call the Michelin Man Machine - a clever device that works to counteract the lymphedema with which I am now saddled - with about 15 minutes to go out of its hour-long cycle, when the smoke alarm outside my bedroom door started chirping.
I waited until the thing was done (I was reasonably sure that there was no actual fire), and called a wonderful pair of neighbors to see if they could change the battery for me. They could, and came over.
But as they finished that one, the CO2 monitor also started chirping. And then the house alarm started beeping. And then the downstairs smoke alarm started chirping.
I talked to the folks at the alarm company, and got them to stop it bugging me for about an hour. I called my contractor, a wonderful man, who gave Marc and Kathleen, my neighbors, instructions. Then the alarm company called me back (because something else had been set off), and that chap gave them further instructions on how to disconnect the security system.
Dean, my contractor, is coming over in the morning. Kathleen told me that she's sleeping with her phone by her bed, turned on, and that I am to call her if anything else goes off.
I was going to head to bed early, but instead I'm having a glass of wine. I think I'll sleep better for it.
As regards lovely, kind, helpful, considerate, neighbours, one often reaps what one sows, and I can't help thinking that @Rossweisse is doing just that...IYSWIM.
TICTH being managed by somebody who when I email, "I'd like to make it clear that X and Y are the case", replies saying, "I am clear that Z is the case". I am so very, very grateful that my personal circumstances and my skills & experience mean I've been able to hand in my notice before having a new job lined up. Less than a month until I'm free of this person's crap.
The alarms are all sorted out, thanks to St. Dean. TICTH the Inefficient New Hospital. Last week, I waited 45 minutes for a prescription that should have been ordered up sooner; today, I waited an hour for a shot that had been forgotten.
I also CTH the boulangerie down the street that made my friend and me wait an hour for our sandwiches, and which, after I specified "No black pepper on anything" (world's most inconvenient allergy), delivered mine at last with a lot of...black pepper.
TICTH either Sport Wales, "Better" Leisure Centes, or both - as the free swimming offer for Over-60s will be withdrawn from Centres across our city as from October 1st, except for the nugatory provision of one or two hours per week at fairly random times during school terms only. Obviously one can still pay to swim but that works out expensive! Grrr ...
Ah well - it's all part of the 'government' plan to make the over-60s so ill, and feeble, that we have to rely on the NHS, which will also no longer be free, once we've been sold to the Americans.
If I take out an over 60s "Leisure" membership (18.95 per month) then I can go to an over 60s Aquasize class for the reduced price of ... £6.90 per session.
The only way I get free swimming is by (when in the right place) swimming in the sea or "wild" swimming in rivers.
Yes, this has been a Welsh Government initiative since 2003. However it was "reviewed" last year with the result that they have cut the budget and will be targeting under-16s instead. I think that, in the long term, it may cost the Government more, if older peoples' health deteriorates as a result.
Even if I do have to buy "Membership" from next month, it will be significantly less than what you are paying, I think.
Random man in library, having watched me put microfilm into a microfilm reader, wandered across to say "Woah! You look like you know what you're doing!"
Me: "That's because I do know what I'm doing."
R.M. "If you need any help..."
Me "I've been using these machines since 1984."
RM, patronisingly, "You know, most of that stuff has been transcribed. You don't need to use microfilm of primary sources. You can just download it from the internet."
Me "I prefer primary sources. That way I don't risk perpetuating someone else's mistakes"
RM, with patronising laugh"What? You don't think that the people who transcribe from primary sources know what they're doing? They've got experience of reading old handwriting"
(It obviously didn't occur to him that I am one of the people who transcribe from primary sources. And I, too, have experience of reading old handwriting.)
Anyway, he continued to witter on about assorted websites, and how to google, how to use a "search" function etc as I tried to focus on my microfilm.
I mean, WTF? It's as though when I tried to brush him off by saying I'd been using microfilm since 1984, what he heard was me saying "I'm so thick I'm still using microfilm because I haven't realised the internet exists, please explain the interwebs to me."
What an idiot. I'd have been tempted to shout out loudly 'HELP! THIS MAN IS ASSAULTING ME!', which would hopefully have been followed by his swift exit from the scene...
I use that library often enough not to want to make an exhibition of myself.
He explained the Scotlandspeople website to me. (The Scottish government birth / marriage / death website). I've checked, and I've downloaded 1768 bmd certificates from Scotlandspeople since 2004. I really really, REALLY don't need to have it explained to me.
And another sympathy grrrrr from me, @North East Quine!
Reminds me of the male acquaintance who harangued me, trying to make me buy a very used car (that wasn't running) instead of getting the car I had already chosen. He actually yelled at me!
Fitted sheets that don't. Only finding 2 bottom fitted sheets, no top ones
I am only buying flat sheets from now on.
Sorry Mum, you were right
I buy queen-size sheets for my full-size bed, and tuck in the extra. The top sheet is wider than I like, but fortunately my bed is high enough that it doesn't touch the floor.
Indeed, Lothlorien, it has been a rather hellish experience. Then again though, All Saints hosts are nice. People talk about what they would do if they won a million dollars and make "bucket lists" but I would be glad to have someone to coordinate all the medical stuff.
ICTH the monkeys who built our boiler. From installation it has caused problems - pilot light going out, not responding to programming, pump dying (twice), etc, etc, etc.
Final straw: today we have no hot water, either for washing or in the central heating system. An engineer has just visited and says he thinks the whole thing is shot. So, a top-of-the-range boiler that cost over £3,000 less than 7 years ago is dead - a stark contrast to the one it replaced which was a cheap-and-cheeful model that was at least 30 years old when it was replaced. This latest one has never proved cheaper to run than the one it replaced and over the years has cost (literally) thousands in visits from engineers and replacement parts.
The engineer has asked the company to send somone to look at it because he feels it has always been faulty; I'm not sure what he said but they're coming tomorrow so I think he suspects something serious. We had a visit from a company person 6 months or so after it was first installed and it has always been looked after by someone who was trained by them so it will be interesting to see what they have to say.
Meanwhile, thank goodness for electric showers, dishwashers and kettles
All good luck with the visit from the company engineer tomorrow. Your boiler sounds as if it has been a nightmare.... I very much hope they find something wrong and are able to do something to sort it out. (XX < crossed fingers.)
We bought a new gas-fired boiler for our Church Hall a couple of years ago, and it's been troublesome ever since. Nowhere near as bad as TheOrganist's, but it does make one wonder whether some sort of built-in obsolescence scam is going on...
I just want the damned thing gone. The boiler takes up valuable space that would be better used for something else. And I want some compensation for the endless trouble, expense and sheer embu**erment we've endured. Looking through gas bills this afternoon the wretched thing has consistently used more (and a lot more) than the supposedly inefficient 30 year old model it replaced. The only reason our energy bills haven't been more is because we switch off appliances, moved to LEDs ages ago and have a dual-fuel deal.
TICTH the ADT security company. I have long had a household alarm system with them; when I went to the wheelchair last year, I added a medical alert pendant.
A week ago Sunday, all the alarms - smoke and carbon monoxide - started going off. Neighbors had to come in, disarm everything, turn everything off at the breaker box and pull the wires on ADT's box. (I can't do ladders, and I can't reach any of that stuff.) My contractor came in the next day and fixed it up. This past Sunday, it happened again. (I shudder to think what I owe my contractor.)
That's when I was told that my service had been canceled, as of the end of the month. Today their technician came in and worked on things all morning - and my service has already been cut off.
I spent a half-hour on the phone trying to discover how this happened, and why no one had notified me - no email, no snail mail. I was finally told that there was a mixup because of the medical alert service. But I paid for that a year in advance, and there was no communication about that, either.
To say that I'm angry and frustrated is to be guilty of a gross understatement. And I still want some answers.
A couple of thoughts, for what it's worth, and it might be good to get your support network to help out with this:
--Do any of your local radio/TV stations have any kind of consumer advocacy dept.? They might well be interested. They might want you on air, with your name; but they don't always do that.
--Is there a local disability rights group? (Apologies if you don't identify as disabled!)
--Try contacting your city council member, mayor, etc. Even your state legislator.
--Women's groups. (Considering the safety issues, maybe call a rape crisis center's non-emergency line, and explain the situation. They might well have experience with the company, or similar ones.)
--Do they have a page at review site Yelp.com? At our local section of the site, many companies monitor their reviews--and some even try to make things right.
--Contact the company's corporate office, whether it's local or elsewhere. Info should be online, and there are even sites that list "talk to an actual person" numbers for lots of companies.
Comments
And, talking of turkeys: https://tinyurl.com/y3ryg3tm
For that of Being a Turkey. It is the possibility of a Presidential pardon that motivates turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving.
Oops! I was responding to Golden Key - later posts hadn't appeared on my screen (I'm south of The Needles at the moment).
Reminds of a New Yorker cartoon many years ago. Turkey, standing on a stump, says "I regret that I have but one life to give."
Farmer, holding an axe, says to his wife "He makes a good case for a baked ham, Olivia."
No, lovely sunshine.
This evening I was sealed up in what I call the Michelin Man Machine - a clever device that works to counteract the lymphedema with which I am now saddled - with about 15 minutes to go out of its hour-long cycle, when the smoke alarm outside my bedroom door started chirping.
I waited until the thing was done (I was reasonably sure that there was no actual fire), and called a wonderful pair of neighbors to see if they could change the battery for me. They could, and came over.
But as they finished that one, the CO2 monitor also started chirping. And then the house alarm started beeping. And then the downstairs smoke alarm started chirping.
I talked to the folks at the alarm company, and got them to stop it bugging me for about an hour. I called my contractor, a wonderful man, who gave Marc and Kathleen, my neighbors, instructions. Then the alarm company called me back (because something else had been set off), and that chap gave them further instructions on how to disconnect the security system.
Dean, my contractor, is coming over in the morning. Kathleen told me that she's sleeping with her phone by her bed, turned on, and that I am to call her if anything else goes off.
I was going to head to bed early, but instead I'm having a glass of wine. I think I'll sleep better for it.
I also CTH the boulangerie down the street that made my friend and me wait an hour for our sandwiches, and which, after I specified "No black pepper on anything" (world's most inconvenient allergy), delivered mine at last with a lot of...black pepper.
Tomorrow has to be better.
"The hospital want him off the ward as they need the bed."
Result - more £££ for the 'government'!
If I take out an over 60s "Leisure" membership (18.95 per month) then I can go to an over 60s Aquasize class for the reduced price of ... £6.90 per session.
The only way I get free swimming is by (when in the right place) swimming in the sea or "wild" swimming in rivers.
Even if I do have to buy "Membership" from next month, it will be significantly less than what you are paying, I think.
I'm not going to dig into The Sun's story. If there's a toilet pper shortage post Brexit there will be a market for it, but not before.
Random man in library, having watched me put microfilm into a microfilm reader, wandered across to say "Woah! You look like you know what you're doing!"
Me: "That's because I do know what I'm doing."
R.M. "If you need any help..."
Me "I've been using these machines since 1984."
RM, patronisingly, "You know, most of that stuff has been transcribed. You don't need to use microfilm of primary sources. You can just download it from the internet."
Me "I prefer primary sources. That way I don't risk perpetuating someone else's mistakes"
RM, with patronising laugh"What? You don't think that the people who transcribe from primary sources know what they're doing? They've got experience of reading old handwriting"
(It obviously didn't occur to him that I am one of the people who transcribe from primary sources. And I, too, have experience of reading old handwriting.)
Anyway, he continued to witter on about assorted websites, and how to google, how to use a "search" function etc as I tried to focus on my microfilm.
I mean, WTF? It's as though when I tried to brush him off by saying I'd been using microfilm since 1984, what he heard was me saying "I'm so thick I'm still using microfilm because I haven't realised the internet exists, please explain the interwebs to me."
What an idiot. I'd have been tempted to shout out loudly 'HELP! THIS MAN IS ASSAULTING ME!', which would hopefully have been followed by his swift exit from the scene...
I wouldn't soil my b*m with it...
He explained the Scotlandspeople website to me. (The Scottish government birth / marriage / death website). I've checked, and I've downloaded 1768 bmd certificates from Scotlandspeople since 2004. I really really, REALLY don't need to have it explained to me.
Such unwanted, unwarranted, and continued, interference is surely a form of assault, or abuse.
Reminds me of the male acquaintance who harangued me, trying to make me buy a very used car (that wasn't running) instead of getting the car I had already chosen. He actually yelled at me!
That really was "mansplaining" at its worst!
I hope you will add a footnote to your work acknowledging his invaluable assistance.
I buy queen-size sheets for my full-size bed, and tuck in the extra. The top sheet is wider than I like, but fortunately my bed is high enough that it doesn't touch the floor.
Final straw: today we have no hot water, either for washing or in the central heating system. An engineer has just visited and says he thinks the whole thing is shot. So, a top-of-the-range boiler that cost over £3,000 less than 7 years ago is dead - a stark contrast to the one it replaced which was a cheap-and-cheeful model that was at least 30 years old when it was replaced. This latest one has never proved cheaper to run than the one it replaced and over the years has cost (literally) thousands in visits from engineers and replacement parts.
The engineer has asked the company to send somone to look at it because he feels it has always been faulty; I'm not sure what he said but they're coming tomorrow so I think he suspects something serious. We had a visit from a company person 6 months or so after it was first installed and it has always been looked after by someone who was trained by them so it will be interesting to see what they have to say.
Meanwhile, thank goodness for electric showers, dishwashers and kettles
A week ago Sunday, all the alarms - smoke and carbon monoxide - started going off. Neighbors had to come in, disarm everything, turn everything off at the breaker box and pull the wires on ADT's box. (I can't do ladders, and I can't reach any of that stuff.) My contractor came in the next day and fixed it up. This past Sunday, it happened again. (I shudder to think what I owe my contractor.)
That's when I was told that my service had been canceled, as of the end of the month. Today their technician came in and worked on things all morning - and my service has already been cut off.
I spent a half-hour on the phone trying to discover how this happened, and why no one had notified me - no email, no snail mail. I was finally told that there was a mixup because of the medical alert service. But I paid for that a year in advance, and there was no communication about that, either.
To say that I'm angry and frustrated is to be guilty of a gross understatement. And I still want some answers.
Yikes! (:votive:)
A couple of thoughts, for what it's worth, and it might be good to get your support network to help out with this:
--Do any of your local radio/TV stations have any kind of consumer advocacy dept.? They might well be interested. They might want you on air, with your name; but they don't always do that.
--Is there a local disability rights group? (Apologies if you don't identify as disabled!)
--Try contacting your city council member, mayor, etc. Even your state legislator.
--Women's groups. (Considering the safety issues, maybe call a rape crisis center's non-emergency line, and explain the situation. They might well have experience with the company, or similar ones.)
--Do they have a page at review site Yelp.com? At our local section of the site, many companies monitor their reviews--and some even try to make things right.
--Contact the company's corporate office, whether it's local or elsewhere. Info should be online, and there are even sites that list "talk to an actual person" numbers for lots of companies.
FWIW, YMMV.