Adventures in Customer Service

A part died in my fridge. It died a few months ago, but I'm still under warranty and it didn't seem all that important. It was the part that controls the digital temperature display/controller. The death of said part started to become problematic recently, as my fridge decided it should be colder. And since I had no way of telling it not to be colder, it was time to call the GE Service Technician.

Actually, it was more a matter of filling out a form on their website. I scheduled the appointment for this morning (Saturday hours! Woot!) and my tech arrived at 8:45 -- not bad for an 8-12 window. GE had been pretty good about confirming the appointment, too. Two phone calls and an email. Each one reminding me to leave my pets behind a locked door.

Really? The tech is afraid of nine pounds of cat? (Well, I suppose if he has an allergy or something.) Still, it's a pain in the butt to lock her up. She doesn't like it and associates it with being punished, so if I put her behind a locked door, she'll claw at it and whine for the duration. Besides, she still has that healthy fear of strangers (and the doorbell), so can usually be counted on to run and hide once the tech rings the bell.

I'd checked the little box on the form saying "Call before coming," figuring I could ask him then if he minds the cat. Tech arrives at 8:45 without calling. First thing he says when he hits the door is "Sorry I didn't call; I forgot my cell phone." Which was terrific because it gave me an excuse for, "OK, but I didn't have a chance to lock up the cat." And, of course, he didn't care. Gold star!

He replaced the main circuit board in my fridge, which somehow did not solve the problem. Apparently, I need a new circuit board for the temperature controller. He has to special order this; they'll FedEx it to me and he'll come out next week and install it. On his way out, I pointed out (laughingly) that the little "GE" logo on my fridge is falling off. He promised to order me another one of them, too. Because (as he put it), I should always be telling the world that I buy only the best appliances. :) Nice tech; I hope they send him again.

In the meantime, I may spend part of this afternoon playing a game of, "Who wants my business?" According to Verizon's website, my "New Every Two" contract will give me $50 off a new cell phone on November 12th. And as the website is, y'know, an impersonal thing, it can't be convinced to to just move that up five days in order to make a sale. Let's see if the fine (commission-based?) folks at my local Verizon Wireless store are feeling a bit more flexible.

Shallowness

Well, that was a fun blog share! Although I confess to spending way too much time yesterday lurking around the page where my anonymous post was posted to see what people had to say about it. :)

OK. Now, since the following conversation took place between two theatre geeks, it totally worked. But since I am, personally, one of those theatre geeks, I'm not entirely sure if the subject matter here has made its way into general non-theatre-geeky-consciousness. I'll give it a try anyway...

At lunch, a co-worker says we'll have to talk about what's in New York in the spring, as she's planning a trip. I said I'm planning to go in a couple weeks. She asks, "What are you seeing?" And then she answers her own question with, "Superior Donuts ... and what else?"

She is correct. I am seeing Superior Donuts. However, with that already on the list, I am forced to look down at my shoes, shyly, and say, "I'm so shallow -- Hamlet and A Steady Rain."

It took her all of a second to process this and burst out laughing.

Family -- Blog Share

Here is our blog share guest anonymous author post:

FAMILY

I recently learned that a woman I know is leaving her husband and three children and moving across the country to be with a guy she met on the internet. I can't imagine what she is thinking - That somehow life will be better with this new man, without her children, that it's a good idea to tear up her children's lives this way for a chance at her own happiness. I can't imagine how she could do that to her family.

Growing up I didn't have any siblings. Well, that's not true. My dad had a daughter from a previous marriage. No one ever explained this situation to me fully, but the bits and pieces I got were that there was some mental illness in the girl's mom, and she disappeared never to be heard from again, and that my dad decided it wasn't fair for my mom to have to raise this other woman's daughter, so the girl lived with her maternal grandparents. To the best of my knowledge, there was not child support. Maybe this was before the days when they mandated that, or maybe there was support and I just never knew it. We didn't have much money most of my childhood, so maybe he didn't have it to give? Essentially, we saw her twice a year, on her birthday and around Christmas. I remember once when I was 6 and she was 9, her asking why I hogged our father. I remember feeling hurt - I didn't keep him from her, at least not in ways I could help. I can remember a few times when my mom took the two of us to a movie, or to fly a kite. When we were teenagers, we tried to be friends. I think she resented me too much. I remember once she walked past the place I worked right out of high school and yelled "B*&#h!" so loud that I could hear it through the glass door. She hated me for being the daughter who lived with her father. A couple times in adulthood, though not in the last decade or so, she has tried to forge a relationship with my dad, but nothing ever came of it, and as far as I know, no one has heard from her in years.

I don't have a close enough relationship with my dad where I would be comfortable asking him this, but as someone's child and as someone's mom, I've never understood how he could let one of his children grow up not really being a part of her life. Nor can I understand how this woman can move away and leave her children without a mom in their lives regularly.

Welcome to Blog Share ...

Hi all.

The next post you'll see is not written by me -- it's by a guest anonymous blogger participating in "Blog Share." And, sometime tonight or tomorrow morning, an anonymous post by me will be magically appearing in the blog of someone else. (See how that works?) The list of blog share blogs is at the bottom of this post. Check 'em all out -- just don't try to guess who wrote what.

If you're a regular reader of So, this is a treadmill (which, really, should be called "So, this is an elliptical," but no matter), please (1) make our anonymous guest blogger feel welcome; and (2) feel free to check out all the other blog share posts.

If you're clicking through here because of blog share, welcome. Please feel free to poke around. You'll find the usual mix of travel diaries, rants, attempts to gain (or give) insight, totally random stuff, and stories about my cat.

Here's the blog share list -- and a big thanks to -R- of And You Know What Else for putting this little party together.

Not the Daddy: http://notthedaddy.blogspot.com
O is for Olson: http://oisforolson.wordpress.com
Red Red Whine: http://redredwhine.com
Rediscovering Me: http://leavingthecocoon.blogspot.com
Reflections in the Snow-covered Hills: http://snowcoveredhills.com
The Reluctant Grownup: http://gilliangaladriel.spaces.live.com/
Sauntering Soul:http://saunteringsoul.blogspot.com
Serendipity Now: http://serendipitynow.wordpress.com
Snarke: http://snarke.net
So, This Is a Treadmill: http://sothisisatreadmill.blogspot.com
Thinking Some More: http://3carnations.blogspot.com
Time for Change: http://ngradstudent.blogspot.com
Together They Come: http://togethertheycome.wordpress.com
Wondering and Pondering: http://wonderingandpondering.wordpress.com
And You Know What Else: http://andyouknow.wordpress.com
Andrea Unplugged: http://andreaunplugged.wordpress.com
Arctic-ulate: http://arctic-ulate.blogspot.com
Bright Yellow World: http://brightyellowworld.com
Bwildered: http://bbwilder.blogspot.com
Catheroominations: http://catheroo.com
Did I Say That Outloud?: http://tracyoutloud.blogspot.com
Dispatches from the Failed Mommy Club: http://failedmommy.com
Full of Snark: http://fullofsnark.com
Heidikins: http://heidikins.com
Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men: http://hotchicksdigsmartmen.com
Just Below 63: http://littlepieceoftexas2.blogspot.com
The Little Goat: http://thelittlegoat.com

Fitness Update

Yes! I've done it!

I've finally mastered using the elliptical machine for 40 minutes -- the entire length of a one-hour TV drama!

Well ... more or less. The "weight loss" program on that thing is pre-set for 28 minutes (Lord knows why -- all the other programs have variable times), and it has a five minute "cool down" thereafter. Once I've finished that, the pedals keep ellipticalling (can't say "circling," now, can I?) with no resistance until the show ends. So I s'pose I'm really only "working out" for 33 minutes. (The thing of it is, in order to actually lose weight on this thing, I have to keep upping the time or the resistance, so the next step is to clearly increase resistance on those last seven minutes.)

Still ... being able to use this thing for the duration of a TV show saves me from looking at the "time lapsed" all the time. I'm done when the show is done.

(Of course, compared to my initial "12 minutes per day," this is also making me late for work. But at least I'll be fit when I get there.)

Live Blogging Halloween

If I had a twitter feed, it would look like this....

4:30 -- Reset the lights on my garage to go on at 6:00 rather than 7:00. The damn settings on the timer are anything but user-friendly, and it involved reprogramming it fully from the start. Can’t wait till 6:00 to see if I got it right.

5:00 -- Setting out costume so I’ll be able to change into it as soon as I’m done with trick-or-treaters and head to my friend’s party.

5:15 -- Looking for nail polish to go with my costume, I spot the, er, “facial depilatory.” Realize I meant to use that this morning. Wonder how scary it would be if I answered the door with white cream on my upper lip. Give it a go, hoping that no kids come before 5:30.

5:25 -- Whew. No kids. Although I may be having an unfortunate reaction to the depilatory. Lovely. Red marks all over my upper lip. THAT’s attractive. It’ll look great at the party tonight. If I were going as a zombie. Which I’m not.

5:30 -- No kids.

5:55 -- Still no kids. I may be consuming a lot of “fun size” candies this week.

6:00 -- Garage lights on! Victory!!

6:32 -- No kids at all. Not even the little boy from across the street. If he comes, he’ll probably got a whole handful of candy.

6:37 -- Turned on porch light. Checked from window to see if it screwed up the look of the spooky things in the windows -- porch light is out. Dammit. Too late to change the bulb.

6:40 -- Eh, could probably change the bulb with light from inside the house. Get new bulb from garage.

6:41 -- Go outside to replace bulb. Bulb has broken from its base and is hanging by a thread. Sigh. Go into garage for pliers.

6:42 -- Having now mastered the correct way to use pliers to remove a broken bulb, this takes no time at all. My next-door neighbors come by to say hello, and wonder where all the kids are (as they often come in busses from other neighborhoods). They think H1N1 fears might be keeping them away.

6:42 -- Neighbors leave, bulb base removed. I go back in the house for the new bulb. Which I promptly drop and shatter on the floor.

6:43 -- Back to garage for yet another new bulb. (Note to self: Go to Costco; running low on bulbs.) Insert new bulb.

6:45 -- Back in house to vaccuum bits of broken lightbulb. Cat already had cut her paw-pad on something yesterday, I don’t need her stepping on broken glass.

6:54 -- Done with cleanup. Porch light does not affect spooky stuff in window. Ready to go. Still no kids.

6:58 -- Am watching last night’s “Numb3rs.” Enjoyed the shout-out to the “Pie & Burger.” They DO have good pie.

7:07 -- Kids! Dad with a Batman, a skeleton, and a little girl dressed as a pumpkin. Too cute.

7:08 -- My cat is giving me the “WTF?” face.

7:12 -- Return of same family -- now mom (cat make-up) and another little girl. Batman and Skeleton watched from about 10 feet back; did not try to double-dip. (!)

7:47 -- More kids. May or may not have been the same skeleton; I’ve sort of lost track. But I’ve got to head off to the party, so didn’t say anything when one kid took, like, 5 candies.

7:48 -- Older kids now. One wasn’t costumed at all, but another one was in a nice chef’s outfit, carrying a lovely platter with a brain on it. Very nice work.

7:49 -- A mom with a tiny little ladybug who was too scared to even say “Trick or Treat.” (Or even “Thank you,” as her mom urged.) Sweet little thing, though.

7:50 -- Oh sure, NOW they come. Was planning to leave at 8:00 to be fashionable late to the party. Gotta eat dinner; feed the cat; and somehow put on my gypsy costume while still answering the door.

7:52 -- This last pair looked like they were eighteen? REALLY?

7:53 -- Refilled the candy bowl, as all that was left were Snickers. Note: Kids like Skittles better. (I tend to agree.)

7:55 -- Anyone seen my cat? Seriously. It’s not like her to sneak out the front door, but she’s not in her usual “the doorbell scared me” hiding place.

7:56 -- I’m used to seeing one adult with a bunch of kids -- here’s four adults with one little girl. And all of the adults have trick or treat bags!

8:01 -- Shit. Cat didn’t come out when I put out the cat food. She ALWAYS comes out when I put out the catfood. Last pair of kids were wearing signs labelled “Help the Homeless.” Tactless, maybe?

8:04 -- Damn. She’s not under any of the furniture. I’m not leaving this house till I know for sure the cat’s inside it. One of my outside motion-sensor lights is on. I hope she’s not out there.

8:07 -- I won’t freak. This is me not freaking. I know she knows more hiding places I do, but I have been opening the door an awful lot. I’ll just sit here and eat dinner and hope she shows up. Shit.

8:11 -- Four more kids. I’ve moved to the back-up bowl of candy. Still no cat.

8:16 -- Two more kids and an adult. Each kid takes one candy. The adult says, “Can I take three?” (Still no cat. The not freaking out isn’t working.)

8:24 -- More kids; more kids; no cat. I’ve got to shut down the Candy Store and get the hell out of here, but the feline hunt is still ongoing.

8:30 -- Porch light out; halloween décor put away. Closed for Business. Turned off TV so maybe I could hear the cat’s widdle bell better. “Jasmine?” “Jasmine??!!” Going to change now -- hope no damn kids come when I’m nekkid.

8:32 -- FOUND!! Kitty magically appeared while burshing teeth. Must hug her and kiss her and call her George.

I’m outta here y’all. Happy Halloween!

Feeling Grown Up

Ever since I've gotten the house, I've felt grown-up in ways I haven't before. It pretty much started before I moved in, when I'd drive by on Sunday nights just to put the trash cans out. It's a responsibility that I've never actually had before, and it's something I definitely have to do. I mean, if I miss a week, I'll have overflowing garbage for the next seven days. Nobody else is going to do it for me, and I can't just "make it up tomorrow."

Had the same feeling today when, in preparation for what may or may not be hordes of trick-or-treaters (I live in a very "holiday happy" neighborhood, so it's quite likely I'll be overrun), I went outside with a broom and actually swept up my entryway. It's been very windy of late, and the walkway to my door is sort of enclosed on three sides (well, four, if you count the skylight), so once leaves get in there, they aren't going anywhere. So, here's me with a broom, sweeping up about four dustpans full of leaves and random dirt. Because small children will be arriving soon, likely with parents in tow, and I want to make a good impression.

I don't want to say I enjoy doing chores (one look at the current state of my laundry hampers will disabuse you of that notion), but I do get a simple sort of high out of taking care of my house. Partly because it's my house, and partly because I'm doing what homeowners do.