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I'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.

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Archive for the ‘Rant and Rave’ Category

Verizon Sucks

This is the third time since June that I’ve tried to cancel my Verizon DSL and downgrade my phone service. That means that every month, I’ve had to pay a bill for services I don’t want. I’m getting frustrated.

Now, I’ve been on hold for over 47 minutes!!!! I keep going around and around with this voice system. When I finally spoke to a real person, she put me on hold and didn’t come back for over 30 minutes. I’m so sick of the incompetence of this scam company that I’m totally ready to get phone service elsewhere.

I’m so glad to be rid of Verizon DSL – if only they’d stop billing me for it. Isn’t there a law against this? Shouldn’t canceling really bad service take less time than an hour? Because in 3 minutes it will be one hour.

Verizon not only sucks, they’re thieves, too.

Mini Rant

I just need to get this out. It’s bugging me.

I really get frustrated with people who try to fast talk me. I always want to ask them if they think they’re that smart, that they can confuse me or do they just think I’m that stupid? Because either way, they’d be wrong.

Maybe the worst is that when you do call someone on it, they talk faster, make more excuses, instead of just admitting they should have been more clear or that they misspoke. Sometimes it’s like talking to a New York car accident lawyer and you just want to scream, “Enough!”

And other times I think I’m talking to one of my teenagers. That’s sad considering an adult really should have outgrown that kind of behavior long ago.

Destroying The NFL?

I love football. Every Friday beginning at the end of August, until the Super Bowl the following January or February, Football rules this house. High school games on the radio or local TV channels, College games on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday fills every weekend here.

Today while reading marketing and SEO blogs, I ran across Jackie Huba’s post at Church of the Customer blog regarding the NFL and their latest bad decision. At first I thought I’d read it wrong or misunderstood. I didn’t. The NFL is going off the deep end.

The NFL is claiming security reasons but I’ll let you be the judge. Beginning with this football season, photojournalists for new media outlets will be required to wear red vests while on the job at NFL games. No problem there. But the vests will bear logos from Reebok and Canon. Yes, photographers will now become walking advertising billboards for the sponsors of the NFL.

Naturally, as you would expect, there has been an outcry over this NFL policy. Those in media have complained but I think all football fans should let the NFL know that this is just wrong. If you’d like to send that message, please consider letting your voice be heard.

Need A New Scheduling Book?

Brit took Kendyll for an appointment today but almost got turned away. Seems someone wrote out the date and time on her appointment card but failed to put it in the scheduling book.

Since Brit had her card with her clearly showing the appointment, the girls at the reception desks consulted with each other and finally agreed to squeeze Kendyll in for her appointment.

There has to be some strange thing going on the in the sky because communications of all sorts are getting whacky.

Enough Is Enough

I typed out a very long post recounting my issues with Verizon, my DSL connection (or lack thereof) and Verizon’s abysmal tech support. It was a long post filled with sarcastic, angry and outright mean remarks. Before I clicked Publish, I rethought that post and you’re getting this one instead.

In the past 30 days, I’ve called Verizon Broadband tech support 4 times. I called the phone line repair once. Verizon Broadband still has not fixed my problem. The phone line repair man verified that the problem is on their end, that he needed to call someone to reset everything on their end and that if it happens again, I should explain this to the tech support person.

Verizon’s tech support is definitely not based in the U.S. These people do not speak English as a first language. I xplained what the repair person said and still the Broadband tech support guy tried to walk me through all kinds of stuff again and when I refused, he then began to walk me through clearing my cache in IE! I use Firefox!

So all day today I’ve been using Verizon’s own online tool to check Internet connection speeds. And all day I’ve gotten slower and slower speeds. For quite a while, my connection was slower than a 56k dialup modem. Most of the time it’s been at a dead stop. Like now.

I’ve been taking screen captures of my connection speeds and I’m going to post them here. That way, I can direct Verizon’s genius tech support to my site to see how zippy this connection is. Keep in mind that I’m paying the higher of the two Verizon prices for broadband. So I’m really getting screwed over with this.

Now, if I can get a connection to post this, I will. Screenshots included.
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I Complain So Good

I’ll bet most every one of us could find at least a few things to complain about regarding our cell phones. I know I can! And I did.

I posted on the Cellrants Forum last month about my mobile phone service provider, Alltel. And today my Rant has made the front page at CellRants.com!

Go ahead over and read my rant then post one of your own. Dropped calls, dead zones, rude CS people are all fair game at CellRants.com. Maybe if we yell loud enough, someone will actually notice. :)

Daily Gripe

I love my house. Yes, it could use a little shining up here and there, maybe more than most houses. But then, I have more kids than most people, too. Still, this is the house I designed and I love it.

I used to love my neighborhood but I really would like to live closer to my mom. The most annoying thing about this neighborhood, though, is that we don’t have Mailboxes! That’s right, we have no home mail delivery.

How inconvenient is that? Well, there’s no running outside to grab the mail. You have to either walk the 4 blocks or drive (in bad weather) to the post office. If you leave before 8am and get home after 5pm, you don’t get your mail. Tell me that’s not a pain!

It’s amazing to me that in this day and age, there are still places like this. But then, as recently as the 70s people in this neighborhood had “party lines” on their phone service. If you’ve never heard of that, let me know and I’ll explain it to you.

This Is Global Warming?

Unbelievable. The groundhog said that we were going to have an early spring. The groundhog is always right when he says we have a lot more winter ahead. So why did he lie this time?

I woke up today to snow. Yes, just days away from Easter and we have snow. In fact, I heard on the local weather report today that The high temp this past Christmas day was 44 while the expected high for Sunday is 38.

I’m going to repeat myself because this is my blog and I’m allowed to say it as often as I want. I hate winter! I hate cold weather! Give me sunshine and give it to me now!

Okay. Carry on.

One Year Ago

On March 14, 2006, heavy rains combined with the evil greed of one man to turn this island paradise into a devastating tragedy. The details of that day are well documented online so I won’t elaborate too much. For those who are unaware of the details, a reservoir broke loose, and poured more than 300 million gallons of water through the valley. Two homes were destroyed; seven lives were lost.

ABC’s 20/20 recently aired a segment on the reservoir break and the attempt to bring James Pflueger to justice. To this day, the man will not admit his guilt or any responsibility in the tragedy.

As an outsider, a mere visitor to this island, I am appalled that money can allow this kind of thing to happen without punishment. I am sad for those who call Kauai home.

I understand the resentment some feel toward those who would develop and over develop this land, to the point where property is so over priced that those who grew up here cannot afford to remain. I cannot imagine not being able to afford a small home in my own home town. And yet, that is how it is here. The wealthy mainlanders come and are willing to pay millions for less than an acre of ground. How can an average Hawaiian afford those kinds of prices?

Since the first day I stepped foot on this island, I have wanted to live here. Over the years, nothing has changed. Even now, a week away from my departure, my heart is heavy and pounding. If I allow myself to breathe, the tears will flow. I don’t want to leave. This, more than any other place I’ve been, feels like home.

Tonight, Jesse drove me to the place where the waters poured out of the Ka Loko Dam and onto Kuhio Highway. I snapped a picture of the homes still standing and the rich red dirt left behind. And I cried.

Now, like everyone else, I wait for justice.

Women’s Issues

I’m going to state right up front, even though I know many will disagree, that birth control pills and patches and devices would be much safer and more fully tested if they were intended for men’s use rather than women’s.

There. I said it. And if you think that’s a woman whining so be it. When a birth control pill or patch for men is released that carries warnings of side effects like stroke and heart disease, then you may have a point. Until then, nope.

A recent class action lawsuit has been filed against Ortho, the makers of Evra Birth Control Patch. According to the seattle personal injury lawyer at the law firm of Paglialunga & Harris, the makers of Ortho Evra knowingly concealed the risks associated with the birth control patch and the fact that the risks are up to eleven times greater than with birth control pills.

Because I have several friends and a number of regular readers from Washington state, I’m hoping this serves as a notice to see your doctor if you’ve used Ortho Evra. And please contact Paglialunga & Harris about this lawsuit. None of us should simply accept this kind of deceptive behavior from drug companies. Women, especially, need to stand up for ourselves and demand the best health care available.

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