Hirschwrites - Musings and Rants

Class

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 22:59:28 GMT

Class: I headed out to have lunch with seven of my classmates, all of us in our mid-eighties. I don’t know why it particularly struck me now, but all of our lunches over these past couple of decades have been at private clubs, not just regular restaurants. The two I’ve been to last month and now did not admit Jews until fairly recently.

Though we all came from families that could afford our tuition, some old money, some new money, going to that private school meant we were in a particular social

Data Security Settlement

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 21:31:36 GMT

Data Security Settlement: Got a check in the mail today from Volkswagen/Audi for $22.79. Mailing says I was part of a class action suit back in 2021 regarding possible data breach of personal information. Don’t what of my data was breached. I look at the check and wonder both how this paltry amount really compensates me in any way, and how much money the attorneys got to try and settle this matter.

Bad Service

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 20:31:03 GMT

Hilton Garden Inn – Madison Huntsville Airport, Alabama: Regarding stay 11/19-11/22/2024

There were several issues that need to be addressed either by Hilton or by the local management at this unit. I prepaid for rate that included breakfast.

Breakfast:

No napkins or utensils until cooked meal served. Thus, if I wanted to eat yogurt, fresh fruit, etc., there was only plastic ware and no napkins
The container that held bread and rolls usually only one or two pieces and no selection.

Room:

Receptacles on one side of the bed were all dead.
Thermostat in room was off by four degrees. Had to set at 76 to get
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Election Aftermath

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 17:00:21 GMT

Election Aftermath: It’s been ten days since the 2024 election. And it’s hard to avoid its aftermath. There are lots of analyses out there. I try not to read any of them. It is what it is, as they say.

So, I’m just doing the best I can to live in the present. Sadie sits on my lap as I keyboard and browse the web, do my daily routines and business. I walk her four times a day on the paths and sidewalks in our subdivision. I look for the young deer that sleep sometimes on a grassy hill. It’s the

Locked Out

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 22:11:16 GMT

Locked Out: I went to Home Depot today to purchase a new hedge trimmer. When I went to the aisle where the battery-operated hedge trimmers, weed eaters, chain saws, blowers and the like were located, besides a demo piece for each, the boxes for purchase were all behind a locked fence. Guess I have not been in Home Depot recently. I was surprised. I understand locking up lithium batteries and small stuff like that which have hefty price tags. But fairly large boxes containing a trimmer, blower, etc.? Woman who unlocked the fence and got me out what I wanted

Old Men at Lunch

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:59:09 GMT

Old Men at Lunch: Eight of us at a round table, an annual affair, now sixty-six years after we went to high school together. We are, as individuals, quite separate in our lives, friends, interests, marriages, health, and more. Our bond is “Class of 1958.” Of the 50 who graduated with us, 10 are gone.

We tell stories, some of which were told in previous years. We’ve lived through an age of fast-moving technology, medicine, and more, the pace of which is accelerating. 1940s first small-screen TV sets to 2020s digital wonders. The state of medicine today versus for our parents,

Aids in Avoiding Being Hacked

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 21:13:06 GMT

The following are steps you can take to protect yourself as much as possible. However, realize that hackers can access some of the databases where your information resides and get around some of these “fences.” And this assumes you don’t click on anything you shouldn’t!

Use distinct passwords, different for each place a password is needed. Change passwords from time to time.
Encrypt passwords using an app such as 1Password. And have 1Password generate the passwords for you given that the configuration will be random and will be saved in 1Password. If you have Firefox or the like generate a password, make
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Art Saint Louis Artist Dialogue

Thu, 13 May 2021 18:57:06 GMT

Art Saint Louis interviews its artists around various exhibitions. I was interviewed for Maturing and its Muse. Here is the link to the interview. My part starts about page 11. Enjoy.

We Don’t Really Know Anything Much

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 19:38:47 GMT

Social media is filled with all sorts of posts alleging this and that about the Coronavirus.

Anti-malaria drugs impede Covid-19…oh, no, they don’t.
One study shows people with Type A blood are more prone to serious results from the virus, one shows people with Type O are more protected. Will other studies come out refuting the findings, contradicting them?
We were told to make sure to wipe down all we got from grocery stores and then told there was a really minimal danger of being infected that way.
We spent weeks going into the middle of the street to walk if someone was coming
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Change, the Subject

Tue, 19 May 2020 17:09:31 GMT

In 2007, I collaborated with Carol Kaplan-Lyss to do a poetry reading supported by music titled Change, the Subject. The idea was to use poetry and melody to convey the arc of my life. Sections of this hour-long presentation included:

Where I was
Where I am
Where I’ve been
Where I’m going

It’s a journey of childhood, losing childhood, cancer and its effects, and hope going forward. This seems especially relevant in this time of disorienting change we are experiencing.

Our son, Jeff, recorded a performance and it’s available on YouTube. And credit goes to his wife, Donna, who helped us fine-tune and acted as our

What Do I Photograph?

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 21:40:12 GMT

People ask me what is the favorite thing I shoot. My usual response, and there is some truth to it, is it depends on where I am and what interests me at the time. Yes, if in New Zealand or Iceland, I will predominately take landscape images. If in a bustling city, mostly people on the street. However, if I look at the overall pattern of my work as it has developed over time, the following comes out as what interests me as a photographer now and going forward.

People on the street, in shops, in everyday life, with their pets
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I Am a Storyteller

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 22:02:20 GMT

I am a narrative poet, same with trip writings and images. There are stories I want to tell, to share, to jog my memory as time goes by.

I went on a three-week photography trip to Italy in October, 2019. My trip writings (link here) give an idea of where and what and when including, sometimes, what I thought or saw. Read the log and you can travel with me. When I review a log later, it helps me relive the trip. The same with my images (link here).

On the trip, I experienced/saw, among other things:

Cities big and small,
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They're Always Listening

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 18:55:01 GMT

This morning, while reading an article in The New York Times on my Amazon Kindle Fire about new devices Amazon was releasing, I said to my wife: “There is an announcement of new Alexa hardware.” My Kindle then spoke: “What do you want me to announce?” to which I replied “Nothing, Alexa, Cancel,” which was followed by my voice from the Kindle saying “Nothing, Alexa, Cancel.”

This afternoon, I was eating lunch in the kitchen when our female Jack Russell mix started to make noises to tell me it was time, in her opinion, for me to feed her even though

Restaurant Reservations

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 20:04:32 GMT

Restaurant Reservations: By now, you’ve probably heard about our Santa Fe restaurant reservations issues. If not, briefly, I make reservations in advance. For one of our Santa Fe restaurants, we found out through Open Table it was closed due to a change of ownership … would not reopen for a few months. For another, Open Table warned us it was closed and we found out there had been a fire in the kitchen and they were remodeling. So, made two new reservations and it was fine.

We’re in Birmingham now. Before I left home, I made a reservation at a restaurant

Bad and Good Customer Relations

Sat, 22 Jun 2019 19:32:27 GMT

I got my cc bill from AMEX today and saw an interest charge of $181. Since I don’t buy things “on time,” I called AMEX. Note that I have been an AMEX cardholder since 1960 and that I have gold or platinum cards. The representative told me that I had underpaid the last statement by $50 and that an automatic charge goes into place even if one underpaid by $1. Really? Really?

In looking back at my Quicken account from AMEX for that period, I saw that one $50 charge never was downloaded. So, my Quicken balance, I thought, was what

Text Message Rant

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 18:39:24 GMT

Lots of text messages are sent out to several people as a group. Seems to me that these messages mostly fall into two categories:

A question is asked of the group such as “Are you free on xxx to go out for dinner?” Or “Did you get the message I sent with attachments?” Or something similar where an answer is solicited. For these, please respond only to the sender of the group email and not to everyone.
Some group messages are meant to be shared. “Loved all of us being together tonight. Thanks.” “Need to know
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A man walks into a bar ...

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 21:34:41 GMT

But this is not the opening line of a joke. A man, a father, a close friend of our daughter and her family was shot to death at point-blank range in a bar after an argument with a stranger about the weight of a dog and the weight of the victim.

This whole tragedy is really outside of reality for me. I have come to terms with the death of friends and relatives, both the sudden ones from a failing heart to the lingering ones as a cancer lives up to its name “terminal.” I can even

Delta Dawn

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 19:32:29 GMT

It’s today – 331 days before our scheduled return flight from abroad back to the US – first time I can make the reservations. And we have Skymiles points with Delta and they have only one non-stop flight a day. So pressure is to make the reservations now trying to use points before those seats disappear. Oh, and it’s business class.

Called the Skymiles number around 8:30AM. Asked for “representative.” Was told by the computer voice that I would be called back in 30-49 minutes. Time passed. I got the callback. I told the representative what I wanted to do and

On Using Miles

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:18:39 GMT

Today, just before flyting out to New Zealand, I called Delta to attempt to make airline reservations for next Summer to go to Israel. I want to use miles, of course, which is why I called today. Here’s what I found out:

First, no reservations can be made until 331 days before a flight.

Second, if you are trying to book a round trip, you have to wait until 331 days before your RETURN flight to do so.

Third, if you, say, want to make reservations for your outbound flight 331 days before it and then return flight later, there is a $150

Airline Awards Miles

Sun, 29 Jan 2017 22:46:17 GMT

I have two credit cards associated with two different airlines where I earn “miles” with each dollar I spend. With what is going on now at the airlines, I really wonder if this is a good way to go.

Case 1: I want to fly round trip to LAX first class. On the day I want to go there, while they had several flights during that day, there were no flights available for an upgrade from coach to first class using points. And the amount of points to “buy” the ticket were huge. When I inquired, it was six months before

Labels

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 20:56:36 GMT

Stereotyping and labeling have always been in vogue, but seem to be even more so today. It’s just too facile to throw these labels out at people with whom you disagree. Fill in the blanks and consider the labels you apply and why you rely on labels at all.

If he voted for Trump, ___________________________________________
If she voted for Clinton, __________________________________________
If she supported Bernie, _________________________________________
If he questions Israel’s policies or actions, ___________________________
If she supports movements like Black Lives Matter, ____________________
If she opposes the views of the NRA, _______________________________
If he is a Muslim (or speaks in Arabic), ______________________________
If he is a Jew __________________________________________________
If
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AT&T Device Logic

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 21:23:54 GMT

My iPhone contract with AT&T is over. I wanted to have the device unlocked so I could change carriers with the phone. It’s hard and a bit Byzantine.

Some things I learned:

They used to be able to do this for you over the phone, but no longer can.
While I have a login online and in my My ATT app with a specific password, you need another passcode to deal with (a) ATT online customer support (chat, telephone), and (b) trying to get the doggone thing unlocked online.

I went to the site I was told to access. I put in my name

The Men Around the Table

Tue, 19 Jul 2016 17:22:57 GMT

Twelve men, mid- to late-seventies, all from my high school year or a couple before. I’m about the only moderate (and the only one who votes for Democrats) in the room. We sit around an oval table in one of the restaurant’s private rooms. Invariably at these reunion meals, someone brings up politics.

A man to my right said he’d heard Loretta Lynch say that the police shootings in Baton Rouge and Dallas were “just the blacks getting revenge (against the police),” as if she condoned them. I confronted him about passing on unsubstantiated rumors, and, while he stopped, he said

Dealing with a Bully

Thu, 05 Nov 2015 17:27:18 GMT

I attended a meeting of the City Council of the City of Chesterfield, Missouri, last night. The subject of the meeting was a motion of censure by Council against Mayor Bob Nation. For those of you who read this and do not have background information on the mayor’s conduct that brought things to this stage, I commend you to read the charges, which were the result of an independent investigation about allegations regarding the mayor’s conduct.

http://www.chesterfield.mo.us/webcontent/CouncilPackets/11-4-2015_City_Council_Packet.pdf

It was all initiated by a

Dog Chasing Its Tail

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 14:34:17 GMT

Notice came on my iPhone this AM that there was a charge to one of my credit cards for a bit over $100 from “Travel Reservation USA.” Not anything I recognized. So I called the credit card company for details of the charge to see if it was legit. All they could tell me was that it was through Expedia. They had no other details, but said they’d call Expedia to find out more. Time passed and the agent told me that the wait time for their call to Expedia was over 30 minutes, so he’d call me back once

The Confederate Battle Flag That Flies at the South Carolina Statehouse

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:56:35 GMT

There was quite a bit of controversy recently when Indiana passed a law that looked as if it infringed on the rights of LGBT citizens. There was a mood to boycott Indiana. Organizations like the NCAA weighed in as did businesses. In some minds, even though the original law was amended, the fact that the Indiana legislature passed and the governor signed the original law was evidence that regardless of any backtracking, this is a state to be avoided for tourism, sports, business – boycotted.

Now we get to the Charleston massacre. It’s clear this was a

YouTube Videos

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:11:24 GMT

Mom and Dad’s wedding 1933

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o70TJ6I0zRQ

Mom and Dad in 1982: He was 76+, she 69+, I was 41+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivCGeDvmVI8#t=828

Bud’s “Sorry Don’t Mean a Bag of Beans”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJYeoJ3kIc

Bud’s “Crepe Fromage”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodNx_2zr94

Jeff’s Moments in Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrvUQJvUOd4

Email Your Questions, But Don't Expect Answers

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 01:43:00 GMT

I had a question for Canon and a separate question for the New York Times. For each, I went to their websites, looked a the FAQ section, looked at chat streams all in vain. I could not find an answer to my question online. Well, each site had a way to send an email to customer service. I was very precise in the question I asked of Canon and the question I asked of the New York Times.

The question to Canon was about whether a particular lens was going to be updated and, if so, when. The response was generic

Cancellations

Wed, 01 Oct 2014 21:54:42 GMT

We are selling our old house and the closing is scheduled for this week. We have an AT&T Uverse landline phone there and have an alarm system with a monitoring service. First thing I did was to try to login to my AT&T account on line to “manage” it. Seems as if there are different logins for AT&T, AT&T mobile, and AT&T Uverse. Stumbling along, I could not seem to login anywhere. So, started a chat with a rep.

I told him what I wanted to do was to login to

Kurds in the Way

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 01:03:44 GMT

I wrote this poem before the invastion of Iraq:

AT&T Sucks - Part 2

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 03:21:58 GMT

Last Saturday we got a computer-voice call from AT&T Uverse saying we had a technician appointment to install equipment the following Monday. We hadn't scheduled anything. Didn't ask for an appointment. So I called Uverse to let them know this was a mistake. This has to do with the house we've moved from that should only have telephone service as we try to sell it. In the course of the conversation with the representative, I found out that we were still getting billed for data and TV service even though it was supposed to be stopped at least two weeks

AT&T's New Motto: "It Ain't Ever Easy"

Sun, 25 May 2014 16:51:40 GMT

We built a new house. The old house is for sale. Before we physically moved from one to the other, I arranged with the local AT&T Store near us to (1) put Uverse into the new house on, let’s say, Day 1; (2) move our existing land line number to the new house on Day 4; (3) put a new land line number at the old house (for our alarm) on Day 5; and (4) stop our data and TV service at the old house on Day 6. The timing for the above was recommended by the local AT&T

Seared and Well Done

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 14:50:39 GMT

Needing a new washer and dryer, I went into my local Sears store. I have been buying appliances from Sears for decades. Met with a nice salesman and quickly found the set that would meet our needs. The salesman said there would be a $70 delivery fee. I said that I had seen online that delivery was $50 and it was waived with orders of $500 or more, which this was. He said he could waive the fee as well. So, I ordered the washer and dryer, took a snapshot of them, and went home.

That night, I went online to

Customer Disservice

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:48:41 GMT

About a week ago, I went online and charged four picnic dinners for Opera Theatre of St. Louis to my credit card. I got an email confirmation of the charge that day.

I generally download my cc transactions pretty regularly and was surprised to see that I had been charged twice for the same thing. And the charges were from “Box Office” and from “Opera Theatre of St. Louis.” Different. But the same amount, same date.

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Customer Service - The Response

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:07:48 GMT

Last night I received the following email from MacMall:

"Good Morning Sir, This is Kenneth Aranda, Assistant Team Lead. I was informed by my Manager to contact you regarding the sad event early today. Can you provide me the best phone to reach you? I will call you as early as tomorrow morning and we’ll deal with the said issue no matter what. Thank you for your utmost understanding."

I looked on their website after reading the above and saw that the laptop I was interested in was again shown at $1,849, the price I had inquired about when

Customer Service? You Be the Judge

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:50:23 GMT

I sent the following to MacMall's customer service email address:

Please read through this chat. I would like this message referred to a supervisor immediately. Then such a person can respond to me via email. The gist of the initial inquiry was to find out why there seemed to be a price change between yesterday and today on a closeout MacBook Pro with Retina display, 13", 512 GB Flash Drive, 2.5 GHZ processor, 8 MB RAM found at;

http://www.macmall.com/n/Macbook-Pro-Retina-Display/macNavLinks-753

It was $1849 yesterday and $1.994 today. No one would give me an answer. Marian seemed clueless. Ross

So How Was Your Day

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:24:15 GMT

Tuesday – Got up this morning to find that my iMac would not start. It was just supposed to be asleep, but, well. After a phone call to Jeff, I opened my laptop and got an appointment at the Apple Store this morning.

While I was waiting to go, I thought I’d catch up on some business and do the payroll for Chesterfield Arts. So, I opened QuickBooks on my laptop. Since we back up our files with Intuit, I went online to pull up a backup files I had put on there two days earlier. However, the Intuit

"What's in your wallet?"

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:52:39 GMT

I assume you know this familiar phrase from television advertising. In an earlier piece, I wrote about choosing a new credit card and my thoughts regarding rewards. So, I got a credit card that gives you two points for every dollar spent toward rewards that include refunding the cost of an airline ticket you purchased on that credit card.

Ah, but there is a catch that I didn’t know about when I got the card. If you have lots of points and then buy an airline ticket, no problem. You use the points to offset the cost. So, a

Nine Eleven

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:06:35 GMT

Eleven years ago today I was recuperating from prostate cancer surgery, still at home, still with catheter attached. It’s like when JFK was shot – we all remember, and should continue to remember, where we were and what we were doing. I was watching the “Today” show much like any other morning. First, there was the confusion about the smoke coming from the first tower. Then we saw the second airplane hitting the second tower. And, and, and from that point on down the twisting path since then over these eleven years.

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Reorder Redux

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:22:51 GMT

I want to get a refill on a prescription. Using my iPhone, I opened the Walgreens app and scanned the bar code on the pill bottle which had printed on it “3 refills until 12/2/2012” and this is only August. While the scan was accepted, a message came back telling me I would have to call a Walgreens’ pharmacist since I could not get my refill accepted online.

When I called, the pharmacist looked up the prescription and queried Medco, my insurance provider. A message came back to her that they’d have to get permission from my physician to

Todd You So

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:22:02 GMT

I’m worn out by all the blather on TV that masquerades as advertising for various candidates. How the other person is a doofus and has done all sorts of things reigns the airwaves. No matter if the truth, whatever that is, has been genetically modified to suit the video rant. It’s not what a candidate stands for. It’s what his/her opponent stands for even if that’s been distorted and out of context.

There are, to be sure, some reality being projected. The whole brouhaha around Todd Akin is one where video/audio doesn’t lie. Then there is the obfuscation by

Vilified

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:24:23 GMT

Yes, he had baggage, the reason for the attack. Almost 20 years ago, he diverted some federal housing money to a private account, was caught, and was convicted of a felony. He was not employed by the county’s economic agency when he made this error in judgment, but that is why he ended up resigning from this same post about 14 years ago. He was given a few years of probation and a period of time when he could not contract with the federal government. Those years are now well in the past and his vita since then speaks

Wasn't That a Time

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:53:45 GMT

There are three other retrospective views that must never occur. The first would be: “Wasn’t that a time when the Jewish community of America vanished?” An impossible statement, you say? Not really. The Jewish community for too long a time has tended to underplay being a Jew in the true religious and cultural sense and tended to overplay fitting into the American scene and organizations as such. Time is moving on.

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Generating Art

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:10:34 GMT

I’m a photographer, poet, long-time community volunteer in the arts, and we support the arts financially as well as attend plays, opera, visit galleries and museums. I’ve been asked how I got interested in the arts. Some important steps along the way:

· Mother was an advanced amateur classical pianist, who just played for her (and our) own pleasure.

· Dad was a photographer all his life getting new equipment to try as it emerged in

Write, if you get a job

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 20:31:51 GMT

I always asked a senior partner from a large public accounting firm to come into my management/cost accounting classes. Many of the students wanted accouning as a profession due to being good in math, liking bookkeeping in high school, or, perhaps, having a relative who was a CPA. In most accounting classes, especially those in financial accounting, tax, and auditing, the emphasis is on learning the rules and regulations so a student can pass the CPA exam. Alll important.

However, what I wanted to demonstrate was what a successful career in accounting (both public accounting and corporate) looked like

Just Rewards

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:46:32 GMT

I have written before about the confusing rewards for my BP VISA. This is about rewards and trying to figure out a rational way to deal with these credit cards. Okay, some “facts:”

· American Express/COSTCO gives you 3% on gas, 2% on vacation/meals/travel, and 1% on everything else. You get it all at one time once a year with a check you take to COSTCO to cash and the card costs $100 a year. No upper limit on rewards.

·Read more...

Do Two Hacks Make a Summer

Sat, 26 May 2012 19:20:25 GMT

As I wrote earlier, I had my Amex card hacked with a charge to The Home Depot somewhere in the NY area while I was in North Carolina. Came to find out today that a relative of mine in North Carolina where I was visiting had her debit card hacked with charges at The Home Depot somewhere in NJ. This all happened within a week of one another. I got a replacement card and her bank restored the money that had been taken out of her account. Coincidence, dear reader?

Hooray for American Express Security

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:49:35 GMT

As we pulled into my cousin's driveway in Durham, NC after having spent two weeks on the Outer Banks, I got a mobile phone call from American Express security. The robo voice asked who I was and did I have my card with the following digits in my possession. "Yes." Then the robo voice asked if I had made a certain charge at The Home Depot. "No." From there, I got an agent on the phone. Same questions about my name, billing address, and whether I had the card in my Possession. I actually opened my wallet to verify what

Chasing It

Mon, 14 May 2012 21:20:36 GMT

We’ve all read about the $2 BILLION loss that JP Morgan-Chase suffered and the trading that led to the loss. I’ve been reading the news reports as well as the op-ed stuff about how this kind of trading was supposed to be illegal after the financial crisis, but how the regulations and the legislation had been watered down given the strong bank lobby … and especially the head of JP Morgan-Chase. He’s derided the kind of regulation that would have prevented this practice, actually been unkind about the people who are for it.

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Another Advantage of Age

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:37:09 GMT

Trip insurance. You know, the insurance your travel agent really wants you to get in case you cancel your trip (for listed reasons on the policy), the cruise line goes bust, and so on. While lots of stuff can be cancelled with little or no fees within a couple of days of reservation dates, other things are either non-refundable or have a long cancellation policy. So, you get travel insurance.

Let’s assume, for the sake of this discussion, you are taking a trip that has non-refundable costs of $5,000. Maybe a cruise. If you’re under 60, that would cost you about

Running With The Bulls

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:26:46 GMT

He called to tell me it’s fixed. I went down to pick it up with a friend in his pickup. We got it home to find out that the accelerator cable was so rusted that it would not work (start, run, stop). The next step was to borrow a single-axle beat-to-crap trailer from a friend on which a wire-tied the lawnmower and took it back to The Home Depot.

The technician actually preened when I picked it up (oh, we went in the friend’s pickup again). “It’s just like it came from the factory,” he exclaimed. I started it up; it

We Win, You Lose

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:54:40 GMT

Ah, now I know how the new BP VISA rewards program works. I wrote earlier about how confusing it is, but here's the scoop. You earn "cents per gallon" based on a formula (so much for BP gas, 2% for dining and travel, 1% for all else). Rewards can be taken in a discount per gallon for BP gas for a fill up of 20 gallons or can be taken as a credit on your VISA bill.
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Feeling Pumped

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:55:51 GMT

So, you get some particular cents “in cents per gallon.” Say, what? And how are there cents per gallon anyway when you charged your Big Mac or hotel bill on their credit card? If this weren’t enough, it goes on:

“Enjoy two ways to redeem cents per gallon rebates:

Right at the pump – Just swipe your car at a participating station then select YES to redeem and watch your per-gallon price drop instantly. Rebates are good for a one time fill up on 20 gallons of fuel.
Right on your statement – Get $15 statement credit for every $1 in cents
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No Intuition

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:58:00 GMT

Another rant about companies where databases are separate so the customer has to do extra work. I am business manager of a non-profit arts agency. We keep our book on QuickBooks. Every year they charge us an annual fee for their updated version coupled with their payroll function updates. Every year they ask us for proof of our tax-exempt status. Since we have already sent them a state tax exempt certificate that covers several years, I always call and ask why they need another one. Well, they do. On some occasions, they can find what we’ve already sent them. On

Do You Have a Modem of Decency

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:16:26 GMT

Time passed. Nothing arrived at our house from AT&T. On 12/1, I went online to my Uverse account, saw the order number I had been given, but it looked like it was either in limbo or had somehow been finished. So, I called the 866 number I had been given. I spent about 10 minutes talking to a customer service representative who looked up my account and said he could see the order number, but could not see any action being taken on it. He contacted Peter (since I had his ID number) and said he would check into all

Would You Like Pepper Spray with That?

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:19:56 GMT

“Patrol Guide 212-95

The NYPD’s Patrol Guide Procedure Number 212-95 governs the circumstances in which pepper spray can be used and the proper procedure for using the spray.5 The purpose of Patrol Guide 212-95 is “to inform uniformed members of the service of circumstances under which pepper spray may be intentionally discharged and to record instances where pepper spray has been discharged, intentionally or accidentally.”

Patrol Guide 212-95 lists five situations in which an officer may use pepper spray. Pepper spray may be used when a police officer “reasonably believes” that it is necessary
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About dogs and age

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:34:00 GMT

Minnie, my 14-year-old Pointer/Australian Shepard mix, suddenly turned old. I went to Venice for a week. When I came back, she was old. Stiff. Still willing, but lacking her usual energy. Even her appetite has changed from ravenous, wolfing down her food to slow, picky, wanting to be fed by hand.

All is normal in the health department when she had her usual six-month checkup this week (which, along with one for her brother and worming and flea meds cost $800). But she’s old now. She has outlived her mother, as has her 12-year-old half-brother, Simba.

As I contemplate
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A Word About Customer Service – Bread and Wine

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:34:00 GMT

Over the weekend, four of us went to dinner at a local restaurant that is pan-Latin. It’s one we like and have eaten at frequently. The service was as slow as sap in January in Maine. But that’s not what this is all about. We ordered a bottle of a particular malbec, one that we’ve ordered many times here. After quite a delay (the poor service thing), the waiter told us the wine was no longer available. He tried to steer us to a wine that was $51 a bottle as compared to the $39 for the wine we
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A turkey, a squirrel, and a coot...

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:32:00 GMT

all in one person today.

I took my mare, Rosie, to Queeny Park today to ride in the shade, under the trees, on its nice chat paths. It’s a social place with walkers, runners, folks with dogs all cheerful and cordial as we pass one another going in opposite directions or if we overtake one another in the same direction.

Rosie was walking on a downhill part of the trail. We were ambling right down its middle. Up ahead, I saw two walkers coming toward me, so I moved Rosie to the right. As I was doing this, a man about my
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A we story

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:32:41 GMT

The other day, I was in Magianno’s for lunch. It’s a chain of restaurants in about half of the lower 48. When the waitress arrived at my table, I asked what the specials were. She replied, in part, with: “Today I have … and I have … and I have ….” Then I asked where the men’s room was. Her reply: “My restrooms are upstairs and to the left.”

This gets me to the kernel of all this: what’s with this use of the first person (either singular or plural) by waiters at restaurants? With this waitress, she implied
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Side Effects

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:52:29 GMT
As I have written about earlier, I have a persistent cough that gets worse, then better, then worse. It’s turned from a cold to bronchitis to pneumonia. Now, we’re not sure what I have. Over the last three weeks, I have taken or am taking the following prescription drugs:

1. A round of azithromycin during the first week. That didn’t seem to do much.
2. An Albuterol USP inhaler to dilate my bronchial tubes.
3. My favorite is Promethazine with Codeine. It lets me sleep instead of coughing all night.
4. Then there was a double series of steroids
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Tyred

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 12:52:01 GMT
It’s been a weird few weeks. I have had a cough turn into bronchitis turn into pneumonia. The coughing is ongoing and sometimes involves spasms where it’s hard to catch my breath. And about every time I think that I have turned the corner on it, there seems to be another corner ahead.

Then our well pressure tank became waterlogged, as I have written about. That was all about too much water and not enough air.

In addition, it seems as if our water softener has not been working. So, we have had a build up of
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Form for Dysfunction

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:51:31 GMT
Out state health plan has lots of different providers depending on what medical service you want. So, it’s not odd to get a letter from one or another of them regarding information they say they need. Such was the case over the weekend when I received a form addressed to Marian.

The first question (which, somehow, was Part II) was confusing. It asked if any of the household was covered by another health plan. Then, in parentheses, they specified group health, Medicare, Medicaid). Well, I am 65 and am under Medicare, so you would think the proper answer
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Lowe's and Behold

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 12:50:59 GMT
For the last week or so, I have had pneumonia. The germane definition for this piece is: Pneumonia (noo-MONE-ya): An infection that occurs when fluid and cells collect in the lung (from: http://www.smcancercenter.com/resource/p.shtml). I have been having spasms of coughing, but am otherwise fine.

Last night around 9:00 PM, Marian told me that there was some water collecting around the big water pressure tank we have in the basement. We’re on a well. There is a 150-gallon tank in the basement that is not only a reserve of water, but also creates the water pressure to move it through
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While Supplies Last

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:50:02 GMT

I own a Husqvarna helmet pretty much like this picture. I use it when weedeating or using the chain saw. Inside the helmet is a harness which is the hat band and suspension that fits over your head and keeps the helmet from falling off. Well, the harness broke…plastic headband just snapped. So, today I embarked on a mission for a replacement part.

I first went to Lowe’s. They had new helmets for $47 and their special order catalog did not show they could order replacement parts.
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Questioning My Honesty

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:49:23 GMT
On January 9 of this year, I wrote “The Tax Assessor Calleth” in which I describe a telephone conversation with a member of our county’s assessor’s office. Here is part of what I said then:

“Where,” I was asked, “was the trailer listed last year? Surely it must be a horse trailer.” “Nope. Only a beat-up farm trailer with no road license that I use to haul fence posts through the pasture to make repairs. It’s right there on my schedule of equipment.” It was.

At 8:15 this morning, the telephone rang and the same member of the
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Dusty Bottle Club

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:48:47 GMT
I wrote the following poem and it’s in Roots and Paths:

Fine Whine

The message that came with the bottle
Says the wine will be at its prime
In about ten years. Aged a bit
Beyond perfection myself,
I’m taken aback.
Is this a sign
I’ll be here
To enjoy the bottle in its time?
If I keep buying young wine
Will it extend my life,
Or will the bottles I put in the rack
Have another’s fingerprints
When poured?

A couple of months ago, I got a brochure from Clos du Val, one
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The Nose Knows

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:48:20 GMT
Within our family, I am sometimes criticized about how sensitive my sense of smell is. The slightest smell of certain things can be overpowering to me. This is, of course, coupled with a less-than-adequate ability to hear.

Less than a week ago, we installed a Sharper Image Ionic Breeze with UV and all sorts of bells and whistles in our bedroom. These dudes put out clean air, but they also produce ozone. When we got it, I cranked it up to full throttle for a few hours, but found that the ozone odor was too much for me
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All That Glitters

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 12:47:54 GMT
It should not seem hard to close a credit card account that you don’t use, but it was hard for me with my American Express Gold Premium Plus card. Right there on the front of the card it says I have been a member since 1960. That was while I was a junior in college, 20 years old, driving a 1958 Ford, the year before we got married. It’s been a long relationship, not one to casually cut up and throw into the wastebasket.

I used to charge anything and everything on my AMEX card. There were those
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Sometimes, a Picture....

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:43:08 GMT

Ah, drink no wine before its time.

$35.10

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:31:00 GMT

When we got home from our trip, I downloaded my credit card bills onto Quicken. I saw that we had two charges the same day from Barnes West County Hospital, each at $35.10. Before we left on vacation, I had called the hospital’s billing department and charged that amount. So, while the amount was correct, it was clear to me that they had double charged me.

Bright and early the next morning, I called the billing inquiries number for the hospital. I told the person there about the two charges on the same day for the same amount. She
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Jack Web

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:42:29 GMT
I have just tried to publish a photo album to my .Mac website using Apple's new iPhoto 2006. What a bust. You cannot do what you could always do. The album does not go where all the rest of my albums are. The templates available are a pale subset of what used to be available. It really sucks. Hope Apple fixes this.

What CDS Meant to Me

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 12:42:01 GMT
About two months ago, one of my Country Day School classmates sent out a flyer about our 50th reunion and some plans we are formulating for it. Attached to the flyer was a stickie note that said: “Bud, can I get a sentence or two from you about what CDS meant to you?”

I did not know whether to just pitch the flyer and note into the recycle bin or what. I put it on the floor beside my desk on the top of a couple of catalogs and food magazines. Yesterday, I was cleaning out the pile and
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Give Them Credit

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 12:41:23 GMT
Last Saturday I opened a piece of mail from SBC (opps…the New AT&T powered by SBC). The envelope contained an SBC VISA Gift Card also marked Debit right above the hologram. Three pieces of paper, printed on both sides, were also in the envelope.

The first one thanked me for my recent purchase. What recent purchase? It told me how to activate my card. And it also said “Card Value: $0.00.” On the back of this cover letter is a statement (in very small print) from West Suburban Bank outlining their prepaid card privacy statement.

Still a
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Ring, Ring...

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 12:40:51 GMT
About a month ago, I accidentally misdialed my mother-in-law’s number. I was off by one digit. A couple of weeks later, we got a message on our answering machine from the person at that number asking if we had called and why. I ignored the message thinking, naively, the person would figure out it was a wrong number.

Yesterday morning at 7:15 AM while I was in the bathroom doing my morning ablutions, the phone rang. Marian was asleep, so the answering machine picked it up. I came out of the bathroom and picked up the phone while the
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Ah, the Noble Crown

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:40:15 GMT
In yesterday’s mail, I got a form from my dental insurance plan from the State of Illinois telling me that the gold onlay I just had replaced was not covered. So, I thought the first thing to do was to get online and see what the list of benefits are. I went through the procedure of trying to register as a new user, since I had not been at their web site before, but to no avail. The system would not take my SS# or the ID# printed on my membership card. However, in a manual from the state, I
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Don't Want to be Blase

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:39:34 GMT
Last Friday I had my semiannual PSA test, the one where zero is the number that wins the prize. I asked the technician when the results would be back and was told Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

Today, Wednesday, as my massage therapist was working on my cancer operation scar and I lazily remembered what was taken out and why, I suddenly realized I had not called for the test results. I rationalized for a minute that if things were not good, the doctor would have called me already. But, to say the least, I was not too relaxed
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How to Diet

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 12:38:46 GMT
I have been doing quite well in trying to take off some weight. Seems like all the lamb and sauvignon blanc in New Zealand a year ago has not left my aging body. Well, I am not sure I want to get near a scale right now. Saying I fell of the wagon this weekend would be an understatement. I fell off and the wagon rolled over me as it careened out of control.

Friday evening we joined my older sister and my brother in law at the country club for what I fondly call a trafe feeding frenzy
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The Tax Assessor Calleth

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 12:37:53 GMT
About this time of the year, I file a personal property tax declaration for my horse farm. And it never seems to fail that someone from the assessor's office gives me a call. If you know me, you know that I'm keen on details and accuracy on these kinds of things. Well, last year the woman who called wanted to know about a $7 difference between my filing the year before and my filing of last year. This $7 difference was for a set of farm tools and equipment that totaled in five figures. That's a rounding error at worst.
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The Mundane Profane

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 12:37:17 GMT
This morning I accessed my bank online and was informed of a new security procedure where I have to pick a picture and give it a title so they and I will recognize each other on a web connect. I was also asked to choose among several challenge questions and then give answers. In all, I had to choose three different questions.

In the first one, I chose “What’s your maternal grandmother’s first name?” as my challenge question. Well, while she had a proper name, everyone called her Pussy. So I put that in the answer space.

The
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What A Pill!, Part II

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 12:32:17 GMT
I sent a you, strong message to follow" email to Medcrap after the previously ranted-about incidents. I told in excruciating detail the whole bloody story. In it, I asked that it be shown to a supervisor and I get a response from one. I got an email the next day giving me the name and direct line to a supervisor as well as her regular hours. I also was told I could email them back with how to get me and when it would be most convenient.

So, I called the supervisor during her office hours. Got
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Error 1012

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:31:30 GMT
No, this isn't a Windows error. It’s Sprint PCS. All we wanted to do was to connect to Sprint PCS (the web) to download some ringers onto Marian’s phone. I went to the proper place on her phone and pushed the proper buttons. It tried to connect, but came back with “Error 1012” which told me it could not connect and to try again later (it did not work no matter how much later I tried) or call customer service.

So, I dialed customer service from Marian’s mobile phone. I got that recorded lady who asks you what the
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What A Pill!

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:31:00 GMT
We get our prescriptions through a drug plan from the State of Illinois. Recently, the state switched over from one company to another. Let's call the old company Careforyou. Let's call the new company Medcrap. So the deal with either company is you mail in your prescription and they mail you a 90-day supply of the medicine and charge a little over $30 for a co-pay. Refills can be handled on line.

With Careforyou, I never had a problem. When I mailed in prescriptions, I got the medicines within a couple of days. Same with refills on the Internet.
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Just Checking

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 12:30:23 GMT
About two weeks ago I mailed my fourth quarter estimated income taxes and my county real estate and property tax checks. I download my checking account activity fairly regularly, so I know when a hand-written check clears the bank. Within three days of mailing, the check to the state for income taxes had cleared the bank.

The county? Checks had not cleared. So, I wondered idly if, perhaps, the mail had not been delivered to them. Hey, it’s the holiday season coupled with usual USPS efficiency. But this idea was dispelled two days ago when I got my “Paid”
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Money, Foibles, and Caulk

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:29:52 GMT
Twenty years ago we put some new windows into the house as part of the renovation when we bought it. Two high, triangular ones lost the seal between the glass panes and the men were here today to replace them. This isn’t like replacing a double-hung window. There is no frame on the glass. It’s held in place by molding and caulk.

First two men (an experienced hand and a young apprentice) came. When the older guy saw how embedded the old panes were in caulk, nails, and staples, he called for reinforcements, comprised of another older-younger team. It
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Don't know what I did, but...

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 12:29:01 GMT
The following is in the current email newsletter of the St. Louis Writers Guild:

ANNOUNCING… 2006 GUILD MEMBERS OF DISTINCTION! The St. Louis Writers Guild benefits tremendously from the generous assistance of its members. The Guild has established a formal, annual Member Recognitions program, effective December 2005, to identify the many ways that a member can serve the Guild and recognize members whose contributions are significant. Details of the program are available on our Members Only page and on our Discussion Board. See the current listing of our eighty-six 2005 Significant Contributors, which include 14 members who were recognized by the
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Harold Pinter's Acceptance Speech

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 18:26:37 GMT
I commend to you Harold Pinter's acceptance speech for his Nobel Prize.

Printable version is here.

If you want to see the whole thing as broadcast and have broadband connection, follow these steps:

1) Open Real Player
2) Command-L to load url
3) Open this URL: rtsp://rs.nobelprize.org/lectures/2005/lit/pinter/pinter-lecture-hi.rm

Many users will already have RTSP configured for Real player and may be able to just click the link to play it.

Enjoy.
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It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 18:25:04 GMT

I got my SBC bill today for our two lines, LD, and DSL. Hmmm. Looks as if the DSL charge has gone up from what I remember. So, I log on to the SBC homepage and look at my account. Then I go to the DSL section and am confronted with several different plans, most of which I did not know existed. Back to my account to see which of these, if any, I am now on. Seems like I am on Express. Back to
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Ah, Wilderness

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:23:55 GMT

Actually, Wilderness is across the street from us to the south. First they leveled anything growing. Then they gave the subdivision its name.

This view is northward. It does my heart good to see suburbia choking in around us. You?

Spitting Spam

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:22:33 GMT
Ah, those enticing titles in spam I have received in the last week encouraged me to put some of them together into the following ode:

Impotency can easily be cured with no embarrassment
Don’t be inadequate anymore!
CHEAPEST WAY THAT WORKS TO BIGGER YOUR DICK next
You CAN have sex like you used to!
We have the convenience of ordering performance enhancers
72% of members got laid
Paul Silva efferent
Make all the stress go away
Connection dropped, sorry

Shadows and Ties

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 18:20:42 GMT
I had not planned to go riding today, but it was sunny with the promise of reasonable temperatures and the prediction that tomorrow would be cloudy and colder. I cleaned up Rosie and headed for Babler State Park.

You could see the forest for the trees. You could see to the farthermost hills. Way off in the distance were the bluffs on the other side of the Missouri River. Beautiful horse farms and grand houses were clearly visible down in the valleys outside the park. Small ruins off the trail emerged from hiding behind summer brush. There are
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Outfoxed

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 18:18:46 GMT
I’m not sure what to do with various animal sightings over the last few weeks. I have written before about the coyote. This past weekend was a fox encounter…well an almost encounter. I was in Babler Park riding alone. I had the feeling when I mounted up that I would see a fox. And I was apprehensive about that since the last sightings of foxes in those woods had been when my father in law had just been felled with a stoke and then, weeks later, right before he died. The fox (or foxes) I saw then was a small
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Brazil Nuts

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 18:17:42 GMT
A good friend took us out to dinner for my birthday at a Brazilian restaurant. The food was good, but it was a weird experience overall. Our waiter came over and asked if we wanted something to drink. Three imported beers were listed with one of them Corona. So, I asked about the other two and whether they were light or dark. He said that one was light and one dark, but he did not know which was which. I told him to bring me the light one. He got about 20 feet from the table and said: “You want
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What's Your Favorite Subject

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 23:13:00 GMT
I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a high school senior creative writing class a bit over a week ago. (It was the day after Yom Kippur. I had read some of my poems at the memorial service that day.) The students and I talked about how I became a poet, I read some of my work that is in print and some in process. At one point, a young woman asked what my favorite subjects are.

In response, I read the first few lines of a poem I am working on:

Marian cries in the back
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The Raspberries of October

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 18:12:52 GMT
One of the wonders of this October in St. Louis with its too-hot-for-autumn weather is the raspberries that continue to grow on my plants. I go out each evening when I am returning from feeding the horses and dogs and collect a handful of dark, ripe berries that adorn and enhance my morning's cereal the next morning.

Clods of Dirt

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:11:27 GMT
We went to the funeral of a friend's father today. In the entry hall of the synagogue are pictures of their past rabbis. One of them is my great grandfather (who died when my Mom was only two or so). The strange thing is that I have known all the rabbis of that congregation since my great grandfather, known them well, even though it's not the congregation we belonged to when I grew up or now. A strange link to my past that I only experience at life-cycle events there.

We then went to the cemetery and participated in
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Sixty Five and Awe

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 18:10:39 GMT
In five days, I am going to be 65. Tonight is erev Rosh Hashanah and begins the Days of Awe. It's a time for teshuvah, connecting, being on the journey. It's a time when the gates are open. It's a time where it's decided who will live and who will die.

So, smack dab in the middle of all this, I am going to be 65. Yeh, there's Medicare Parts A and B. Yeh, there's Social Security benefits in six months. But becoming 65, an official old guy geezer, right in the middle of the Days of Awe?
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De Vine

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 18:08:27 GMT
It was a glorious day to ride a horse. Out on the trail in Queeny Park, I looked up to see a thick vine hanging down almost within reach. One part of the vine was attached to a tree on one side of the trail, another part to one on the other side. Perhaps I should stand on my saddle and grab it. I could swing into the woods like Tarzan of old. Then, of course, the vine could be rotten and I would fall. Or it could be poison ivy. Then, again, I could swing into the woods and
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Pay, pal or eBay at the moon

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:53:25 GMT

Ebay owns PayPal. Until not long ago, you could sell stuff on Ebay and collect funds on PayPal via direct bank transfers with no fees. Then they tightened it so that you could not sell more than $1,000 in any month without incurring fees. Then it was $500. Mind you, this was for a Personal account, the casual seller, not the big boys and girls who make a living on Ebay. So, I always listed my stuff for sale that I would take PayPal (but only a direct transfer and no credit cards) since I did not want a business
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Paying for Katrina

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:42:28 GMT

I wrote the following to NPR today:

I was so shocked by what the Congressman from North Carolina had to say on TOTN this afternoon, that I turned the radio off rather than hear more. He was billed by the host as fiscally conservative. What I heard, however, was a very right-wing social conservative who branded the Davis-Bacon legislation as a "sop to the unions" and who wants to cut funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. What I see here is a ruse: the right-wing folks using the screen of paying for the war and Katrina by trying
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German Car Logic

Sat, 15 May 2004 15:41:49 GMT

The owner’s manual for my People’sCar SUV is about 300 pages long. You would think that with as much detail as it includes on being careful not to drive off cliffs when going off road, that it would be a wealth of information on useful topics as well. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

I turned into my driveway and a yellow warning flashed on the screen in front of the steering wheel accompanied by a screaming warning sound: “Tyre Monitoring Function Has Faulted.” Worried, I got out of the car, inspected all four tires, got back in the
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Barking Dog

Sat, 01 May 2004 15:41:10 GMT

My dog never barks. While the neighbor’s dog barks all day long, my dog ignores it. He has the run of a pasture during the day and is in a chain-link kennel by the barn at night. With his history, I was aggravated when he started barking in the middle of the night. It is loud enough to wake me up. When it does, I get up, trudge to the front door, open it, and tell him to quit. I can see him run back into his dog house and, usually, that is that for the night.

But
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The German Car

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 15:40:14 GMT

I just bought a German urban assault vehicle. This particular vehicle is named after an obscure nomadic tribe in Sub-Saharan Africa. Far from the simple, no-frills life of its namesake, it’s loaded with computer wizardry to the extent that I think you either need to be a fighter pilot or an engineer to operate it. Based on both edicts from the EPA and a Germanic sense of overkill, there are sensors for about everything. You are told when you need to refuel, if a tyre (yes, that is how it’s spelled) has too low air pressure, whether the spare is
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Can It, Buddy

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:38:12 GMT

Our housekeeper, Chris, came in this afternoon and said that our trash tote (that big blue thing on wheels) disappeared from the curb. Today is trash day and it was out there when I came home about an hour ago. So, I call Big Blue Trash and Garbage to inquire. The customer service representative tells me that there was a note from their driver that the tote (her term) was broken, he picked it up, and there would be no charge. Naturally, I ask when a replacement tote would be here.

She tells me that there is a
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When the 5 Second Rule Doesn't Work

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 15:37:11 GMT

You know the five second rule, don’t you? Food that lands on the floor and stays there for five seconds (more or less) is fine to pick up and eat. I tried to apply that rule in another setting, but it does not translate. After cleaning the stalls this morning, I filled the dogs’ water bucket, a nice stainless steel one, and carried it out to their pen. Upon setting it down, I heard splash, clunk. Looking down, there was my mobile phone at the bottom of the bucket fully submerged under six inches of water. I quickly snatched it
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I Surinder

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 15:32:09 GMT

I took a stroll through Best Buy on a recent Saturday. Nothing really in mind. Just there to look at the merchandise. Since I had not been in for awhile, I stopped to glance at the new phones available from Sprint, with whom we have service. As I looked at tiny phones with buttons meant for gnomes, I marveled that this is one thing where a guy thinks that smaller is better. I looked at the phones with color screens and the ability to do email and download from the web. Interesting idea, but you would need to have much
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And the Bank Doesn't Call You to Refinance, Either

Sat, 15 Mar 2003 15:13:06 GMT

I took a stroll through Best Buy on a recent Saturday. Nothing really in mind. Just there to look at the merchandise. Since I had not been in for awhile, I stopped to glance at the new phones available from Sprint, with whom we have service. As I looked at tiny phones with buttons meant for gnomes, I marveled that this is one thing where a guy thinks that smaller is better. I looked at the phones with color screens and the ability to do email and download from the web. Interesting idea, but you would need to have much
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You Just Can't Get There from Here

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 15:04:28 GMT

Ah, a new computer with Windows XP aboard. And all that free stuff that comes loaded with it. It’s a glory to behold. Want to make sure that you get automatic Windows updates (to fix their security hole du jour)? No problem.

Wait a minute. There is a little message popping up at the bottom of the right-hand side of my screen. It implores me to sign up for .NET from Microsoft so I can get better service from them and all sorts of other neat stuff. Well, trusting soul that I am (naïve, stupid also), I sign
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UN TED WE S AND

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 15:03:13 GMT

Recently, I bought a new computer for my wife using the web site from CompBuyCity. It was a set package of features (no changes allowed) from a well-known manufacturer. I had tried to buy this model at the local branch of the store, but they were out of stock and their web site offered it at the same price with no shipping cost.

It’s a nice machine. I went into CompBuyCity today to look at it and comparable models to see what I might buy for myself. The model I had bought through the web site was there on
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Intuitive and Me

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 14:57:44 GMT

Intuitive and Me
January, 2003

Time to buy a new version of Quick Money. Mine was two years old and who knows what wonderful goodies are packed in the current one? So, down to Best Buy, get it, and install it. No problems. Of course, you have to immediately update it from Release 1 to Release 3 (current releases are never shipped, it seems). Data conversion—no problem. Let’s open it and see what’s there.

Hmm. Doesn’t look like the old version. I cannot see how to make it show things I thought important. I go through all
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Hunting Deer With Your Car

Sun, 15 Dec 2002 14:53:26 GMT

So, you are not the sporting type, but would like a trophy. No rifle with a scope? Don’t want to be dressed in camouflage and sit on a board up in a tree holding a loaded weapon? Not up to creeping through the woods with a bow and arrow to get your prey? No worry. Here is a much more fun way to hunt deer.

In the usual form of hunting, you take the trouble to go out and find your quarry. Hey, let the game find you. No need to get up before dawn, wait for sunrise, and
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Rules On Forwarding E-Mail

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 14:51:22 GMT

Many times you receive an email forwarded from someone else which had been forwarded from others as well. Here are some simple rules on such emails.

1. Make sure never to edit out the email addresses of others along the forwarding trail. It’s nice to allow spammers and other curious people get new email addresses to harass.

2. When you send the forwarded message, put all the varied recipients in the TO box. Don’t hide their names by putting them as BCC. This advice is a corollary to #1 above.

3. Don’t edit out those several-line headers
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Coyote Howls

Sat, 02 Nov 2002 18:16:48 GMT
Yesterday morning, about 6:30, one of my dogs was barking....which meant there was a coyote in the pasture. Sure enough, when I went out to feed about an hour later, I saw one who, when he saw me, sauntered off uphill through the fence. That night, about 11:00, we heard yipping and howling of at least two of the critters right outside our bedroom window. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I always put faith in some sign coming from an encounter with animals. Foxes seem to have a particular meaning each time I
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With Whom Are You Siding?

Fri, 01 Nov 2002 14:47:26 GMT

Maybe it’s just me, but I am amazed and confused about the new houses that are swiftly covering the land around us. It must just be me, because these houses seem to be selling almost as fast as they can get them up. I am talking about subdivision houses that are being built out here where civilization (so to speak) meets farm fields.

My beef is with the design of these houses and the materials used on them. You drive down the road and see new developments with houses that are “starting in the $700,000s.” Realizing that this is
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Everything's Harder Than It Appears

Wed, 16 Oct 2002 14:44:55 GMT

The landscaper brought over the bid. We were going to rip up some of the asphalt near our front porch and replace it with stone walkways and perennials. Naturally, the price he wanted for the full job gave me a jolt that was more than a triple espresso. So I asked what I could do myself. This is the time when we all think that we can save both time and money if we just did that home improvement job ourselves. I mean, who wants to pay the outrageous prices that competent vendors want?

The two of us looked
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DSL Training Sesssion

Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:40:07 GMT

Welcome to the DSL First-Level Technical Service training seminar. These notes will help you become a more valued employee of DSL Internet Media Enterprises, or DSLIME. You will be our front-line contact with our customers. After a dizzying array of touch-tone choices that only deal tangentially with why a customer has called, he or she might find a way to actually contact a human, you. Some customers actually have found direct telephone numbers that connect with first-level technicians. We are continually trying to block this entrance since it is a less-efficient queuing system than the maze of touch-tone choices.

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Fee Fi Fo Fum

Tue, 01 Oct 2002 14:34:51 GMT

RING, RING, “Welcome to the Chump One Bank VISA customer service line. Listen to this message since our menu has changed.” I wonder if there is a vegetarian entrée yet. What follows is what happens if you press 1, 2, 3, or 7, and, blessedly, that you can get a “customer service associate” by pressing 0. You are then asked to key in your account number. “For training purposes, this call might be monitored.” Good, I think. I have a bone to pick with these folks.

“Hello, this is Stephanie. To whom am I speaking with?” I tell her.
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So You Want to Close the Account?

Sun, 01 Sep 2002 14:30:55 GMT

So You Want To Close The Account?
September, 2002

Have you ever tried to close a MasterCard or VISA credit card account? First, you call the handy-dandy customer service number on the back of the card. You are asked to enter the 16 digit card number. After listening to the message about there being new options available and how you should really do your business on line, there is the litany of what number to push (or say) and what it will get you. Finding one that leads to a real person is sometimes hidden and sometimes not. I
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