Yes, this is a rant. A good old-fashioned rant that has been brewing for a while.<\/p>\n
The Good #1: On November 15 2011, I was waiting (somewhat patiently) for traffic to clear on 15th street so I could cross and get to the bus stop which is about two long blocks down the street. There was a lot of traffic, and I had resigned myself to being there for days LOL. Then a northbound truck stopped for me, and almost immediately a southbound truck stopped for me too. The drivers of the passenger vehicles were ticked off, but they couldn’t get around the trucks. I said “thank you” loudly and promptly scooted my boots across the street!<\/p>\n
The Good #2: On November 21 2011, I was able to walk to the bus stop without stopping (5-10 minutes) and on the way home I only needed to stop once. I was able to walk from the transfer station to Safeway and back again without stopping and without using a grocery cart as support. I was able to do a normal grocery shopping without having to sit on the floor at least once. This is notable because since I fell on October 1 2011 my thigh pain and back pain has meant that not only do I stop numerous times while walking, I usually have to sit on the floor at Safeway at least once and if there is a shopping cart available I use it as a crutch while walking between the bus stop and Safeway.<\/p>\n
The Good #3: On Saturday night (November 20 2011) my radio station went to dead air. It was supposed to be Tom Kent’s Ultimate Party (http:\/\/www.tomkentradio.com\/main\/ultimate\/<\/a> but after 15 minutes all I had heard was commercials and dead air. Then I tried to play my 70s Radio Hits CD but somehow it had become corrupted–really was mad about that because there are a lot of songs on that CD that I love. So I dug out a bunch of old CDs–Enya, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Windham Hill mixes, country mixes, Vince Gill, Ventura Highway. All of this was a nice break from oldie rock n roll–which I love–but I’d forgotten how much I truly like country music and new age music. Saturday night I listened mostly to the Enya CDs–I am sure my rock n roll loving roommate was in his bedroom throwing up ROFL!! Sunday I listened to Enya again, and threw in the Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Windham Hill mixes, and Vince Gill.<\/p>\n The Bad #1: Friday November 18 2011 I called Mountain High Coins and Collectibles (http:\/\/www.mtnhighcoin.com\/index2.html<\/a>) to ask if 14K gold PLATED jewelry had any value. I was told that it was worth $20.00 per ounce, so I decided to take my 14K gold PLATED herringbone necklace and 10K gold PLATED watch to the store today (Monday November 21 2011). Now–as I’ve stated before on this very blog–I have no transportation other than the bus which becomes really germane to this rant in just a bit. I worked this morning from 6 am to 8 am and then had a Skype interview for another job (full time, $9.00 per hour) at 9 am (I had taken a shower and washed my hair in between getting off work and starting the interview, so that my hair would be dry when I left to catch the bus–around 10:45 am). I probably arrived at Mountain High Coins and Collectibles (http:\/\/www.mtnhighcoin.com\/index2.html<\/a>) around 11:30 am — shortly thereafter I was rudely informed that they don’t buy gold PLATED jewelry because the plating is so thin that its not cost-effective to remove it. Now I don’t have a problem with the gold plated jewelry not having any value — but I do have a problem with mixed messages, rudeness, lack of professionalism, and appallingly bad customer service (especially from a store where I have never received anything other than excellent customer service before). When I mentioned that I’d called on Friday to ask if gold PLATED jewelry had any value, the woman behind the counter first said “you called us, correct?” and when I replied in the affirmative, she said “I don’t know who you talked to, but there is no value to what you have.” Again, she was rude and unprofessional–and her message of ‘you are LYING about calling US’ came through loud and clear.<\/p>\n Now if I had transportation of my own (car, bicycle, motorcycle, scooter, etc) this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but I don’t have any kind of a vehicle. So I am stuck with the Bend Area Transit\/Cascades East Transit bus which runs every 40 minutes (every 80 minutes on Saturday, and not at all on Sunday). So I probably had a 35 minute wait between leaving the coin store and the next bus; to just add immeasurably to the ‘joy’ of the situation, that 35 minute wait was not in warm sunshiny weather. Oh no, it was cold (right this minute at 3:39 pm PST it is 40 degrees–with wind chill feels like 31 degrees), windy (gusting between 21 and 29 mph), and raining. The longer I waited the angrier I got.<\/p>\n The Ugly: I sold a PTR domain to a friend. Now selling it wasn’t the ugly part; getting all the plugins pushed and re-licensed to the new owner has been extremely frustrating. The plugins are licensed to the domain, but the new host won’t install\/reactivate the ones where he doesn’t have proof of purchase (and these plugins were purchased by me anywhere 2003 to 2007). I ceased operation of the site almost 2 years ago so I hadn’t kept copies of anything; I’d intended to let the domain expire for good in June 2012. There are 3 plugin sellers involved with these plugins: Polar Web Services, Cash Plugins, and Scripts-US. Polar Web Services and Cash Plugins have been very helpful. Scripts-R-Us has been a total disaster to deal with. There has been an exchange of emails (4 from them to me, 3 from me to them) lasting from Friday November 18 2011 to Sunday November 20 2011, with the upshot being that they would send me copies ‘tomorrow’ during their ‘normal business hours.’ They finally did send the requested copies at 9:03 am this morning.<\/p>\n And the totally insane? On Tuesday November 15 I was walking from the bus stop in front of *Columbia Sportswear (in the Bend Factory Stores at 61334 S Hwy 97 #440) to **Joanne Fabrics and Crafts (61284 S Hwy 97). Its not that long of a walk, but I am fat and out of shape with a bad thigh. This means that I stop quite often when walking because 1) I am out of breath (or) 2) My thigh hurts (or) 3) my back hurts (or) 4) all of the aforementioned. There are 2 newspaper machines (Bend Bulletin–local paper–and the Oregonian–statewide paper) in front of the Subway store at 61419 S. Highway 97 and I was reading the headlines (not aloud, but I may have made a comment about one of the headlines). I looked up in the midst of my reading and some lady is just glaring at me. So I’m just wondering what her problem is as I was NOT in her way, she had just gotten out of her car and hadn’t even shut her car door yet. I was neatly dressed too, it was obvious I was not some bum or street person. It was pretty obvious that I was reading the headlines from the newspaper–which last time I checked was totally legal LOL. After a few minutes of this I decided to move on, but as I walked away I said (hopefully loud enough so that the insane -IMO- lady heard it) “well, excuse me for reading the damn newspaper!”<\/p>\n