Returned to Texas ten days ago, sweating a little that because we were back later than we said we'd be. (Helped ourselves to a little more vacation you see). We were a little unsure if our employment was still an option. But, back one day and recieved a call asking if we were available for work starting that afternoon. Since the work site was some 150 miles away, we begged off and arranged to be there by 730Am the next morning. And here we have sat, or more accurately stated: stood up, sat down, in and out the door trying not to get blinded by the dust, runover by a frac trailer or break a leg on the stairs. This schedule is a bit grueling with Lisa and I pulling 12 hours each with not a lot of sit down time. We sleep ten feet from the action with noisy Diesel rigs going by 24/7. Last night one broke down blocking the gate. Soon we had some twenty guys and eight other rigs stirring up a helluva noise. Lisa didn't miss a zzzz. We have also had couple of tornado alerts and have been blessed with easily between three or four inches of rain. The creeks and rivers have been running above flood levels and for a while, every time we went anywhere involved driving through two feet of water running over the road. Because of all the wet at night, it has been, well described as a "Bug O Rama". Really, really a lot of Bugs. The Creep factor is at double digits except for the Tarantulas. So long as one doesn't run up my leg or over my foot, I'm good. I actually get a bit of a kick out of them. Big Badass Spiders.
So as one might expect, I have been mulling over this whole turning Sixty thing. Just as I am sure that everyone else has around my age. I've kind of concluded that if there were any kind of taps to be played for my youth, it should have happened ten years ago when I turned fifty. I'm not gonna quote any media here, but in general I get it that life doesn't just go on and on and on. Nor do I think me or anybody else really wants it to. I think I read somewhere that some 4 billion people have lived and died on this planet before us. So it's not exactly a new thing if ya'll know what I mean. And certainly seeing this close to home in that a couple of folks that I knew rather well have recently passed before their time. So I'm thinking I'll just take a chapter of wisdom from all the other folk that have lived this long and more. I can't be sure of his age but I think my grandfather on my mothers side was eighty or better when he remarried. And that lasted nearly ten years. I was a pall bearer at the funeral of my grandfather on my father's side. He lived past a hundred. The trick of it all seems to be pretty simple. Just keep living til you don't. And Wine, better Wine than I have been drinking. And a good Micro.
" Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself."
Mark Twain
Read about another great fighter from the Seventies died. Saad Muhammed. He was about my age. Most of the great ones that I remember have already died. Greg Page, Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier just to name a few. I didn't have many fights in my short amateur career, but I did get hit pretty damn hard. Damn you Rory and Matt!! Speaking of legendary fighters, a super tough super nice guy that myself and compadre's occasionally reminisce about, Earl Shields is alive and apparently well in South Carolina.
"I have spent most of my life worrying about things that have never happened"
Has Joe the Plummer had his fifteen minutes of fame yet? As a former card carrying member of the NRA I'm even offended at his open letter to the father of one of the young girls killed by the Nut in CA. Let the father grieve any way he needs to. If he takes up a cause so be it. But spurring attention to yourself on such a tragedy. I have about as much respect for you as for the Westboro Baptist Church. Nobody is going to come and take your gun. Now ur house, identity, car, retirement etc. Those are probably up for grabs because you can't think past your gun.
"There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him–early."
Mark Twain
I feel a need to explain something. I was a bit shaken up by my recent Bank snafu. The whole drama has dropped my FICO score about 60 points and I was not late on any payments. In fact, I had paid them off to a 0 balance. The Bank by the way is Iberia. From all accounts one of the better banks. I had aquired a 10 percent fixed rate and have had the card for several years, making the payments each month through my other bank's bill pay service. An arrangement that has worked flawlessly as long as I have had the Card. The problem started innocuously enough. Out here in Texas, I don't have regular mail service. But we had decided to pay the card off completely, it had a balance of about 1500 bucks on it because we had decided to use the Card in Europe. I also sent a next months payment, kind of just in case scenario.
So, here goes. Upon receiving the mail, there were three envelopes containing three different replacement cards. Just like the ones everybody receives annually if you have a credit card. A bit confused I called customer service and asked which one I was supposed to use. They explained the most recent one and destroy the others. Okay cool. Now remember I had already in theory paid the card off. I didn't see anything that said that the old account was closed and payments were to be sent to a new address. Now understand, they still received the money it just went into a closed account. They transferred the old balance to a new account associated with the new credit card.
At the last minute before leaving I made a quick check to make sure the card had a 0 balance. Then I learned that a new address had been set up and also that the funds had not yet been applied. The customer dude said no problemo, all of the payments to the old address were being forwarded and should only be a few days. Cool. I sailed out of the country and two weeks later was in Europe. Plenty of time right. Figuring after expenses we still had almost two grand to live on. Wrong, the card was declined twice. Now after figuring out Skype, I called customer service and talk about a new paradigm. (that means reality) I had maxed it they said and they had no record of any payments. They said I needed to take care of this and offered to refer me to the credit dept if I needed more credit (giggle). Dick. Like any company ever would extend in those circumstances. So I did what everybody does, "I want to talk with your Sup". She was even worse. And she also denied I had sent any funds because they had no record of it. Luckily, the Bill Pay folks at Idaho Central got involved and politely reminded them that they had my money and should send it back if they were going to be such assholes. Then, and only then did they admit they had received the 1,577.00. However it was in a closed account. I said transfer it. She said that was not their policy. About this time Vikings and battle axes were dominating my thoughts. I was close to losing it. Finally the customer service dude said he would ask. Ok, two days later flash ahead. The guy lied, go figure and never asked and all was as it had been.
And nobody had offered to refund my money yet. I had tried sugar, honey etc and I get no pleasure out of making a guy's life miserable who I'm sure makes no more than ten or twelve bucks an hour, but dude, do you really have to be somebody's evil minion? So I talk to a Sup again. Yes it really has to be the same one. I gaggle and gasp through my shpeil which really has to be about the 40th time I have done this, literally. She keeps threatening to hang up. Finally ends with "I will ask but they won't do it". Long story, I know. To shorten it up, another week goes by. (by now I am back from europe vaycay) the bill pay folks get involved and as a resolution agree to mail me a check. I asked for certified, even offered to pay for it. Right, they refused Ten days later and some nine weeks later I get my money back. I had received various statements saying how, to get my money refunded it looked like a loan. And remember the maxed out credit card? Yep, there's the -60 points on the FICO. And finally the epilogue. I decide to go ahead and get one of those cards to transfer the balance. No problem, hasn't dropped by sixty points yet. Call to get balance and remember she said "they wouldn't do it"? They did. The **$&#'s paid me twice. Like the guy who get's the thousands of dollars accidentally put into his account and spends it, he gets arrested. This really is the same scenario. So two and a half months after this whole thing started, it is still half a mess. Later.
"It's too bad stupidity isn't painful"
Not Mark Twain but should have been
Mike n' Lisa's quest blog UA-20271220-1
ga(‘set’, ‘&uid’, {{USER_ID}}); // Set the user ID using signed-in user_id.
No comments:
Post a Comment