Feud
I know I said my next post would be about Christmas shopping, but first I must relate the latest installment in my on-going feud with Charter Communications. The most recent battle started when we went out and bought ourselves a VERY nice Christmas present - a 50” Sony SXDR 1080p rear projection TV. We had been looking at big-screen TV’s for the past few years and finally decided to bite the bullet and part with some of our hard-earned savings. We read up on them and went from store to store talking to the salesmen, all the while watching the prices drop. I think we got a good deal, since the same TV was advertised for $500 more the next day – in the same store where we bought ours! There really are good bargains for those who brave the crowds the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Anyway, we bought the TV Saturday morning, and were surprised and delighted to learn that Circuit City could deliver it that same day – just in time for the Georgia-Georgia Tech game! We brought the stand home and got it put together about ten minutes before the Circuit City truck arrived. The two men brought the TV in and set it up. I had also called Charter ahead of time to have them add the HD to our package. They said it would be ready when our new TV arrived; all they had to do was enter something into their computer. Well, when the delivery men / installers turned on the tuner, there was no TV signal at all! Not high def or anything else. I got back on the phone with Charter. They kept telling us to do stuff to the cable box, but nothing worked. Finally they said they would send out a guy between 1 and 5 on Monday. So, we had to watch the dawgs beat Tech on the TV in the bedroom. At least we got to see how beautiful the picture looked on DVD’s.
I waited all of Monday afternoon for the repairman to come and called a little before 5:00 to learn that he was running behind but still on his way. He finally got there about 5:30 and took over an hour to get it working. The picture finally came up. The high def channels were awesome, but the lower channels were noticeably fuzzy, not even as good as they had been on our old TV. The repairman finally said the only thing left to do was put new wires in the outlet in the wall, and he wasn’t equipped to do that. So he called and scheduled an appointment for another repairman to come out and do it later. My husband and I both heard him say it would be the next morning between 8 and 10. He left, and we enjoyed watching our high def channels that evening.
The next morning I waited around until noon despite the fact that I needed to do some things at school. When he still had not showed, I called Charter again. I told the customer service representative (CSR from this point on) that I wanted to know if our serviceman was still coming. She asked for the name on our account, which I gave her, and then asked for our address to verify. I gave her that, and then she wanted to know the last four digits of the social security number that was on the account. I told her it was my husband’s number, and he wasn’t there for me to ask him; I just wanted to know if the serviceman was coming. CSR insisted that she had to have the SS#. I explained once more that I could not give it to her since I had not memorized my husband’s social security number, and it really shouldn’t be necessary since all I wanted to know was when the serviceman was coming. CSR responds that she has that information but cannot give it to me without the SS#. I tell her that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. She says that is the policy. I tell her it wasn’t the policy the day before when I called for the same reason. In fact, I say, I have called Charter numerous times due to lapses in their service and the only time I have ever been asked for that info is when I added the high def to the account, which made sense since it involved an increase in the bill. CSR responds that she can’t help it if other people are not following policy, but she cannot give me the information I need. The policy, she says, is to protect me, the customer. PROTECTING ME FROM WHAT? I ask. CSR: It is to protect people from having unauthorized changes to their account. Me: But I’m NOT making changes to the account; I just want to know if our serviceman is coming! CSR stubbornly refuses to use common sense, so I ask for her name. She gives me a name I never heard and can’t understand and so I ask her to spell it. Then I ask her if there is anyone higher up I can speak to. CSR: I’ll be happy to put you in touch with someone who will tell you exactly what I have just told you. Me: Please do.
Momentarily another woman comes on the phone and asks me how I am doing. “Not too well right now, since I can’t get an answer to a simple question.” She says, “Were you wanting to know if the serviceman is coming today?” “YES!” She looks it up and says that he was scheduled to come the NEXT day between 8 and 10. I told her that was not what the previous repairman had told us, but OK, just so I know when he is coming. Then I asked her why the other CSR could not tell me that. “She must not have understood,” she replies. “That is what I kept trying to tell her.”
So here it is the next day – it’s 12:56 and I’m still waiting.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Thanksgiving
The holidays are upon us now, beginning with Thanksgiving this past Thursday and ending with New Year's Day. Of course, Christmas is the highlight of the season, and it has always been my favorite time of the year - until a few years ago. Now I would have to say that Thanksgiving Day is my very favorite holiday. One obvious reason is all the yummy food we eat WAY too much of! Eating good food is truly one of life's greatest pleasures, especially when you feel too old to do much else! Another reason is that all the family is together, but that is true at Christmas and Easter as well. It is great that we have a day set aside once a year to really think about all the things we have to be thankful for, and that is a lot, even if the world does seem crazy at times. But the one thing that really makes Thanksgiving win out over Christmas is .... NO GIFTS! No gifts translates into no stress. And you don't have to decorate nearly as much either. Everybody just cooks a few dishes, gets together to eat, and then lies around miserably full watching football the rest of the day while looking through all the sales papers - until they fall asleep. Perfect.
This Thanksgiving was a beautiful day with temperatures nearly 70 degrees. Doug fried a turkey, and his family all came for dinner. I made a seven-layer salad, sweet potato souffle, and corn. Kathleen brought dressing, biscuits, and gravy. Katie made a sweet potato pie and a pecan pie and her cranberry congealed salad. Misty brought mashed potatoes. I also made a pumpkin cake dessert that we just love. Adrienne was with us and so was Jamie, Sean's old housemate. After we ate and rested a while, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. It was great being outdoors. When all Doug's family left, I went down to see my folks at my sister's house and ate cheesecake down there. I don't think I will get on the scales for a few days!
It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas season is officially begun. The next day I went on my annual shopping trip with my mom and sisters. My next post will have more about that tradition.
It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas season is officially begun. The next day I went on my annual shopping trip with my mom and sisters. My next post will have more about that tradition.
The other day I saw a plaque that was entitled “The Four Stages of Christmas” It went like this:
1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
3. You ARE Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
I’m afraid we aren’t far from the last stage! We’ve gotten a pretty good start on the pot bellies and our hair is nearly white.
I really enjoyed all the hustle and bustle of Christmas when Sean was little. There is something magical about seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. It was fun to make it special for him. We always went to a Christmas tree farm and let him help pick out the perfect tree for his Daddy to saw down. Then we brought it home in Doug’s old pick-up truck and put it up in the living room. I loved the way the smell filled the whole house. For years, we decorated the tree with colored lights and our bread dough ornaments I had made the first year Doug and I were married. I rolled out the dough, cut them out with Christmas cookie cutters, punched a hole in the tops, and then baked them in a slow oven until they were as hard as rocks. When they cooled, I had fun painting them and coating them with shellac to preserve them. Those ornaments lasted for many years until they finally just deteriorated into nothing but crumbs. Other things we used to put on our tree were strings of real popcorn and candy canes. It made a great tree for children.
Another thing I used to enjoy doing at Christmas was singing in the choir. Our church had an annual Singing Christmas Tree, a really big production, and I was in it for several years. It was lots of work, but music is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, and the program at church was what Christmas is really all about. I’ll never forget the year we sang about the Light of Christmas while everyone in the church lighted the candle of the person next to them. It was the most beautiful sight when all the candles were glowing in the darkness.
Another highlight of Christmas was our annual Christmas party with our friends. Most of our kids were getting older when we started doing this, and all of them would come. We had lots of food and played games and took pictures every year. When we first started doing it, we went caroling in our neighborhood, but after a while everyone seemed to lose interest in doing that. I was sorry they did. Anyway, our party became a real tradition. But then the kids grew up, got married, and started having kids of their own. Finally, our families were just too big for our little house, and I gave up having the party.
About the time Sean became a teenager, Christmas got a lot less fun. He became too “cool” to go look for a tree, so we made life easier and less messy by buying a nice artificial tree. I was teaching full time and found that teaching plus shopping plus decorating plus parties equaled STRESS. Singing in the tree became a thing of the past; it was just more than I could handle.
We are on our third artificial tree now, and I am still looking for potpourri or a candle that will make out house smell the way the real one did. I decided to ditch the homey, children’s tree and go for a more formal look with all white lights and gold ribbons. The ornaments are all deep red, gold, crystal, or ivory colored. On top of the tree is a huge bow created by the florist. It really does make a beautiful tree. Our latest tree is pre-lit, making it a cinch to put up.
Our decorations have increased in number and become more elaborate over the years. We now have two lighted, animated reindeer in the front yard, a tree in the garden, lights on all the shrubs in front of the house, wreaths on all the windows, and a single candle in each window. Of course, there is a BIG wreath on the door with a spotlight on it and the mailbox is decorated as well. That is just the outside. Inside I have poinsettias everywhere – on the tree, the mantle, and real ones in a pot next to the fireplace. There is greenery on the big mirror and over the front door. I just bought a new arrangement for the sofa table, and I have a lovely poinsettia centerpiece for the dining-room table. I also set up a winter scene with my Department 56 houses I’ve collected. The kitchen is full of snowmen, and even the bathrooms are decorated. I used to put a separate tree in the bedroom and a small one out on the porch. It finally got to the point that it took me nearly a week to decorate and three days to take it all down and store it away. What started out as fun has become a whole lot of work! (I must admit that I still enjoy it some.) I did give up the decorations in the bedroom and porch. There really is such a thing as too much!
Now that I am working only part-time, Christmas is starting to get fun again. It was great having Misty be part of our celebrations the last two years, and I am looking forward to having grandchildren and seeing it all through the eyes of a child once again.
This Thanksgiving was a beautiful day with temperatures nearly 70 degrees. Doug fried a turkey, and his family all came for dinner. I made a seven-layer salad, sweet potato souffle, and corn. Kathleen brought dressing, biscuits, and gravy. Katie made a sweet potato pie and a pecan pie and her cranberry congealed salad. Misty brought mashed potatoes. I also made a pumpkin cake dessert that we just love. Adrienne was with us and so was Jamie, Sean's old housemate. After we ate and rested a while, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. It was great being outdoors. When all Doug's family left, I went down to see my folks at my sister's house and ate cheesecake down there. I don't think I will get on the scales for a few days!
It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas season is officially begun. The next day I went on my annual shopping trip with my mom and sisters. My next post will have more about that tradition.
It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas season is officially begun. The next day I went on my annual shopping trip with my mom and sisters. My next post will have more about that tradition.
The other day I saw a plaque that was entitled “The Four Stages of Christmas” It went like this:
1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
3. You ARE Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
I’m afraid we aren’t far from the last stage! We’ve gotten a pretty good start on the pot bellies and our hair is nearly white.
I really enjoyed all the hustle and bustle of Christmas when Sean was little. There is something magical about seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. It was fun to make it special for him. We always went to a Christmas tree farm and let him help pick out the perfect tree for his Daddy to saw down. Then we brought it home in Doug’s old pick-up truck and put it up in the living room. I loved the way the smell filled the whole house. For years, we decorated the tree with colored lights and our bread dough ornaments I had made the first year Doug and I were married. I rolled out the dough, cut them out with Christmas cookie cutters, punched a hole in the tops, and then baked them in a slow oven until they were as hard as rocks. When they cooled, I had fun painting them and coating them with shellac to preserve them. Those ornaments lasted for many years until they finally just deteriorated into nothing but crumbs. Other things we used to put on our tree were strings of real popcorn and candy canes. It made a great tree for children.
Another thing I used to enjoy doing at Christmas was singing in the choir. Our church had an annual Singing Christmas Tree, a really big production, and I was in it for several years. It was lots of work, but music is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, and the program at church was what Christmas is really all about. I’ll never forget the year we sang about the Light of Christmas while everyone in the church lighted the candle of the person next to them. It was the most beautiful sight when all the candles were glowing in the darkness.
Another highlight of Christmas was our annual Christmas party with our friends. Most of our kids were getting older when we started doing this, and all of them would come. We had lots of food and played games and took pictures every year. When we first started doing it, we went caroling in our neighborhood, but after a while everyone seemed to lose interest in doing that. I was sorry they did. Anyway, our party became a real tradition. But then the kids grew up, got married, and started having kids of their own. Finally, our families were just too big for our little house, and I gave up having the party.
About the time Sean became a teenager, Christmas got a lot less fun. He became too “cool” to go look for a tree, so we made life easier and less messy by buying a nice artificial tree. I was teaching full time and found that teaching plus shopping plus decorating plus parties equaled STRESS. Singing in the tree became a thing of the past; it was just more than I could handle.
We are on our third artificial tree now, and I am still looking for potpourri or a candle that will make out house smell the way the real one did. I decided to ditch the homey, children’s tree and go for a more formal look with all white lights and gold ribbons. The ornaments are all deep red, gold, crystal, or ivory colored. On top of the tree is a huge bow created by the florist. It really does make a beautiful tree. Our latest tree is pre-lit, making it a cinch to put up.
Our decorations have increased in number and become more elaborate over the years. We now have two lighted, animated reindeer in the front yard, a tree in the garden, lights on all the shrubs in front of the house, wreaths on all the windows, and a single candle in each window. Of course, there is a BIG wreath on the door with a spotlight on it and the mailbox is decorated as well. That is just the outside. Inside I have poinsettias everywhere – on the tree, the mantle, and real ones in a pot next to the fireplace. There is greenery on the big mirror and over the front door. I just bought a new arrangement for the sofa table, and I have a lovely poinsettia centerpiece for the dining-room table. I also set up a winter scene with my Department 56 houses I’ve collected. The kitchen is full of snowmen, and even the bathrooms are decorated. I used to put a separate tree in the bedroom and a small one out on the porch. It finally got to the point that it took me nearly a week to decorate and three days to take it all down and store it away. What started out as fun has become a whole lot of work! (I must admit that I still enjoy it some.) I did give up the decorations in the bedroom and porch. There really is such a thing as too much!
Now that I am working only part-time, Christmas is starting to get fun again. It was great having Misty be part of our celebrations the last two years, and I am looking forward to having grandchildren and seeing it all through the eyes of a child once again.
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