C&C or (s)iting and counting

I took my recyclables to the center to cash them in. It is an  ongoing fight with them. They are typical city workers. They move at a snails pace, slow down even more when they don't like you, such as me, then they keep the scales in their truck so that you can't see how much your stuff weighs and then they pay you what ever. Boy I hate government. You can't say a damn thing to these guys or they will pull some other crap on you that only makes you more mad. It all started when I showed up 10 minutes before there lunch hour. They leaned out of their truck to say that they were going to lunch in ten minutes. In other words they wanted me to come back. Well I told them I would not take longer the 5 minutes if they worked properly. And you know what? it did only five minutes. But they made me lift up the large rubber trash can with my plastic in them up to their truck. Great for me with my messed up hands and back. But I did it because I had no option. 

This recycling program has gone the way of the TSI workers at the airport. If you say anything you aren't going to get to fly. Why is it when ever they put some person with no education and low self esteem into a position of little authority they feel they need to make you go through hell just because they can. 

Last time I was there I brought one bag of bottles and it came out to around $7 dollars. This time I brought two bags and got $8 dollars. I guess I really will have to count them next time I go. Maybe I should show up again 10 minutes before there lunch. Hum, wonder what they will do to me then? I think I'd better find out how close to their lunch I can show up? And I'd better make sure I'm the only one there or they will take their time with the person ahead of me and then shut me out. Man they make me mad!

Fractions Don't Count

Today on Public Radio, the SISTER of Cindy McCain was being interviewed. It seems that Cindy has been telling everyone across the nation that she IS an only child and that her father, Cindy kidded wanted a boy so he treated her like one. Or something in that vain and then she laughingly said, oh he was such a cowboy.

Well needless to say, Cindy's sister was upset when she heard this as she was Cindy's fathers first daughter from his first marriage. When he remarried then Cindy came along. (I'm sorry I can't remember her name)

In my book they are related. I think you would call them Half sisters? Or maybe Cindy can't do fractions so she does not count her sister as being related?

Well her father obviously did as he bought his first daughter school supplies and I believe he even helped out with his grandchildren going to college. What ever it was he did recognize her even after the divorce.

So why doesn't Cindy, the pillar of the community, the activist who helps out children in need in other countries to the point of adopting one of them. But maybe she dosn't believe in Charity begins at home.

Her father who became a millionaire due to his beer business, seemed to favor Cindy too.

When he died being worth millions he left his entire estate to Cindy. To his first daughter $10,000.
Cindy's sister did not know that until she found out that her credit cards had been cut off. Hum, I wonder who did that?

What kind of a person would deny to the nation the existence of a sibling and be dumb enough to believe that no one would ever find out?

What I find unbelievable is that no where in the news does it even mention this. Can you imagine if Obama's wife were caught up in such a lie?

Cokie Roberts jumped all over Obama for taking a vacation in such an exotic place as Hawaii (as if it were not even part of the US let alone his home town) boy she would have a field day with Michelle trying to hide a relative.

When Public Radio tried to reach senator McCain for a response they did not return PRI's call. Hum, I wonder what kind of skeletons lie in Cindy's closet beside herself?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93708729

Docking My Tail

Now I know I've mentioned that little terrier that I was supposed to get but didn't because, well, Max happened. Oh, and I know I said that though I could not have this little dog I would have max and he would be like mine, only I would not have to do any of the work to take care of him. 

Well fast forward 6 months and you are looking at the picture of my tail. My daughter was walking him 5 days a week then she got sick. So I stepped up from 2 days to 4 days and she walks him 3 days until she recovers. 

Truthfully, he is getting so much better at walking he has only pulled my back out once. He nows just whimpers when he sees other dogs and I'm able to contain him in a sit position as fellow travelers go by. 

I've slowly been introducing him to other dogs that seem to be sociable. Two people were very good about it one was not happy when Max bared his teeth to there little pup. I could not see it as I'm not able to bend my knees to get down and look but I was very apologetic. It seems that women are more apt to let me try this then men. I guess men think I'm trying to put the moves on them. 

Yeah, like I can barely move my legs let alone bother with making inane conversation with them. Max doesn't like men. Don't know why, maybe he thinks there to into themselves too but I want him to get over this fear. So I will continue to stop men on the street and ask if they can just stand there a moment while Max learns to sit comely in front of them. Eventually we will meet some men who are in rhyme with their minds and not get all coogleated. 

Since Max sleeps in my room so that I can prevent him from taking running leaps at me in the morning if he has not been with me all night, I've taken to bathing him also. He stinks! If it goes past one week it smell like a litter box in my room (and I know what that's like because of ending up taking care of blind cat) and if I wait for him to be bathed I will end up with Pepe le Pew.

But I've come to love this toe licking, big brown eyed adoring me, on my heels every minute dog.  So I guess I won't dock my tail or I just may be cutting off my nose to spite my heart.  

So, What Are Grandmas For?

I've been wasting time on my computer all day. I tell you I try to learn something about a program like Twitter or blogging, I end up digging deeper and deeper and before I know it I've wasted the whole day. At 12:30 my grandson says to me, "Grandma when are we going to the library?" He is mindful of the fact that we are not going to go to the library to check out DVD's anymore because I am tired of him not wanting to look at books. After all what is a library for? Now I realize I've been sitting in my chair from 8 AM, well not continuously, I mopped, vacuumed and did several loads of laundry and fed Nico a couple of times, but as much as I could I was on the computer.  So the day will not be a complete loss, as the humidity is starting to make me cranky, I decide I will take photos of the Hawaiian Quilts at the library. I pack up the camera, my purse, Nico and his Bumble Bee transformer. I run across the street to get the library books from Nico's friend to take back with us and then realize I forgot our books. I run back into the house get the books pile everything into the car, make sure Nico is buckled in and were off. 

As we walk into the Library I am happy that I bothered to take my camera and try to decide where I want to photograph the quilts. Meanwhile Nico finds a life size stuffed Dinosaur that is so colorful I decide I must take a photo of them together. With my sore knees I carefully bend down to his hight and set the shot up. Nothing happens. My battery is dead. So here I am with the camera around my neck and out of luck. Well I had to get books for research anyway but I was disappointed. Oh well, At least Nico was happy because in the end he had managed to get 4 DVD's to check out. At least one of accomplished our goals 

  

Me, Myself and I

Working on my story of abuse. Though it will largely be non-fiction I try to recall some of the things that went on in my house. I always felt that I was the lucky one, the loved one, even the chosen one but the more I dig for something to add realism to the story the more in touch I get with my past.

As I was writing to my cousin I started to explain how we had such different concepts of each others life. Explaining a little tidbit that I had put into my story I realized how incensed I should have been as a little girl. 

I described a scene from my story to her how as  a young child the protagonist loved a particular pair of shoes  I wrote how the shoes got too small for her but she continued to wear them.  Her socks would be soaked with blood in the back where the heel would rub against the shoe. 

 Of course this was me when I was young.  I thought at the time how cool I was to be able to take the pain and I loved to pull away the soaked sock that was stuck to the back of my heel.  

Now I think how horrible that was! If my grandson came home with a sock like that I would be so upset and hurt that he had suffered so. I would have known immediately that there was something wrong with his shoes because,even if I had not taken off his shoes and socks, when I did the laundry I would see the blood as  the socks would tell the whole story. 

My mother never once said anything and so I never realized that what was happening to my foot was out of the ordinary. I wore the shoes time and time again, pulling the sock off of my foot countless times. As I continued to write this into my story I felt smaller and smaller. I felt helpless and depressed. That was not a miner thing it was neglect! 

Now I'm starting to understand my anger. Because I am now realizing that a child does not know when they are happy, sad, loved properly or improperly or not living a normal life. It is next to impossible to gain control of your adult life when you don't know up from down. 

We're doing you a favor

How big do you have to be before you are considered a customer worth keeping? Where has customer relations gone? Is business so good that it does not matter if you keep a small customer? The following was my experience this past month with a company that has great coffee. Please, it's not Starbucks. 

I am lamenting the loss of community I guess. I remember a time when business owners didn't want to loose your business and would make amends to keep it. I'm not talking about giving you free orders but just a little gesture to say they were sorry things got messed up. 

We put in an order on July 20 for 4 pounds of Hazel nut coffee.  When it had not arrived by the 31st  we called to see what had happened. We were told that there had been a delay in the shipping and it was shipped out the 29th and that is should be arriving by the next day. When it did not arrive within the next two days I called again. They did not know what was happening but they felt sure that it should arrive soon and they would talk to someone to see if anything could be done because of the delay. I don't know how many calls I made in all to them as sometimes I would call and because of the time difference the computers would be down or there was no supervisor that could be contacted etc. So when the coffee had not arrived by yesterday the 5th, I decided to call this morning as now I am thinking maybe it was not shipped at all. Meanwhile I can't put a tracer on it as there is no tracking number and I'm thinking in the 8 years we have been ordering through them we've never once had a problem. 

So when I call this morning I talk to David, whom I always seem to talk to, a wonderful guy and  very personable. He said he was going to talk to the shipping department and call me right back. This is at 5:30 in the morning my time as I now need to make sure to call there when there is someone in the office. I've had to do this a couple of times. But it's great coffee and I like the people so I'm willing to work this out. 

The supervisor calls me back a half hour later and the first thing she says is, you will have to contact your post office and put a tracer on it because it was shipped out on the 25th. She tells me this in a Very matter of fact manner, like she is talking to one of her employees who has made a mistake. I told her I was told at least 3 times that it had been shipped out on the 29th. 

No she said that was a glitch in our system so you will have to trace it yourself. We never ship parcel post the day we receive the order as we wait for at least 3 packages to accumulate before we call the post office. 

 I said, why was I not told that in the first place? Why have I been waiting all this time? I've never had this problem it has always taken 3 days.  Couldn't someone have told me that in the first place? 

She said, You'll have to deal with it yourself. If you want we will ship you another order. I can't tell you when it will ship out because we have to once again wait for the packages to accumulate so maybe another 3 days before it will be shipped. All this time she is saying it in that voice of a supervisor who lords it over on her employees and she could care less if they stay or quit. I have dealt with people like that all of my working career and I've come to the conclusion that you must have that kind of a personality as a prerequisite to become a manager. She could care less about the customer she was giving me her spiel and to the point. 

I thought maybe because they had not given me accurate information in the first place and now I was having to be treated like a kid who had spilled his milk that maybe they would have taken it to the post office just as a goodwill gesture. But I knew it was no good to have said that to her because obviously my order of 4 pounds was a drop in the bucket and I now realize that bottom line my business will not be missed. 

Once again she asks me if I want it shipped and I told her well it's either that or have to drink coffee that has been sitting around who knows where getting stale and who knows when that will arrive, but this will be my last order. 

She said that's fine,as though this is one less idiot she has to deal with and it was a relief to loose my business. No "I'm sorry that this has happened and it's come to this" or any kind of gesture at all. Then she added just let me know when your first order arrives as it always happens after the fact. I was shaking by then and just hung up. As if I want to talk to her again. 

Now I must say in all fairness, I have just cut off my nose to spite my face. I will never have that wonderful coffee again and the Earl Gray is the best and I've not been able to buy anything to compare it too here in Hawaii. I will miss that store. But like my mother used to always tell me, where you are wanted little go none at all. 

So that is how I started my day this morning and it has been really depressing me. No one wins when you have these disputes least of all the customer.

Karen 

Birds in the Trees

As always, double click on the photos to get a closer look. Especially the one with the egret.
Hum, fat cat has that hungry look in his eyes. It must be at least 10 minutes since he last ate.  "Oh there's blind cat, he mews, maybe I can eat his food before he sniffs me out."

"Drat he has that guard boy, who thinks he's Bat Man, with him. He'll never let me eat the food.

Oh wait who's that outside my window? A babe in the woods."

"Ah, a baby mynah, how simple." But then fat cat remembers how he saw that group of Mynah's circling  one of their own, each in turn attacking the offending bird. "Hum, I think his mother is sitting up there in the tree watching him. Nope, wont go there. They'll pull all the whiskers off of my face."

"Ah who's the guy with the skinny legs hiding between the leaves? It's an egret." Hey there's no cows here, he must be lost. Now, if I could just walk a little lighter, uh, oh, there he goes."
"Hey, how did Bat Man get over here, a peacock would taste good right about now. Darned kid, go away boy you bother me. Oh well, who wants a mouth full of feathers?" 
"Oh, Geese! And Christmas right around the corner. I bet those kids would love to get those honkers out of the yard. Wait, what's that over there watching me?"
"What a pig! Ok, Ok, I'm leaving, who wants to eat a greasy goose anyway?"

 And so fat cat decides he will just sit at the top of the stairs and wait for Max.

 As poor Max tries to head up to his grandma's room, Fat Cat refuses to let him by. 

"You big furry hair ball. you may be able to take running leaps and knock grandma down but you won't get past me. Not even Bat Man gets past me." Fat cat is full of himself. Mostly because he can't get full on birds.

Fat Cat folds his legs under his fat body and closes his eyes. Poor Max. He sits and waits, and waits and waits, at the bottom of the stairs. "Grandma, grandma, can you hear me?" Max whines, "Fat Cat won't let me by."

Fat cat purrs to himself, ah, nothing gets by me.

No Fun in the Sun

Double click photos for closer look

I promised Nico that I would take him to the beach. So we left Kunia and headed for Haleiwa on the North shore. The traffic was bad and I could not pull over to take photos so I just stuck my camera in the window as I drove along and snapped. This is us heading into Haleiwa town. 

Nico kept watch on the weather out his side of the window on the right of the car. “Grandma it’s not raining on my side, it’s only raining on yours” he said with hopes that it would be clear when we arrived at the beach.

We passed the Golden arches of McDonald’s which was arch-less due to the towns prohibiting them from putting it up so that the fast food joint would not look out of style with the town. That was the only way they would allow the restaurant to open. 

We passed the Market place where my favorite clothing store is, Silver Moon and Cholos a good place to have Mexican food. And the sun was still on Nico’s side of the car but just barely. 

Then we arrived at the beach. The sun was shining above so Nico and I made it down to the Sand. I did not take my camera down there so use your imagination. I did not want to take the chance that I would get sand in it. 

Now Nico was only to walk and collect shells on the beach so I did not bring him a change of cloths and towel. But he begged to just put his feet in the water. My reason for not wanting to take him into the water was, 10 years ago with my son;s boy, Alex we went to the beach when he was just a year old. The water was calm while we let the waves role up and lap around our feet. A rouge wave came up and I had no option but to life Alex up and while in my arms turn my back on the wave so as to not let it hit him in the face. It lifted us both up as I held on to him and just dropped us flat on my rear end. I’ve had a messed up back since then. 

I am so afraid of it happening to me with Nico I just won’t take him in. I have to go to a beach where there is no wave action. But this beach does have waves. Well anyway. Nico decide to just jump in the air while we are wading and lands flat into the water and is now all wet. 

So I had to let him play in the san in hopes that the sun would dry him off so we could go home. As luck would have it the cloud from my side of the car caught up with us and it rained. 

Trudging up the beach with a very unhappy Nico, we headed for the car.

I took one last photo of the boat harbor before the clouds burst and off we went

As you can see my cloud connected with Nico’s cloud and this was the result.  

I thought I would go down a road I had never gone down and It was quite nice in a country sort of way.

This was the view from the road.

And this was one of the houses on the raod. The only thing that would make Nico happy was to know that he was going to get a treat. I took him to Zippy' in Wahiawa, bought him a cream puff and lunch. Of course Lunch was to be eaten first . This was implemented after much arguing.  

And here is Nico in the restaurant happily waiting for his macaroni and Cheese while he colored. Thank goodness it rained on both sides of the car on the way home or I would have had him arguing to get back to the beach again. 

Don't go near the water

I decided to take a swim in the ocean even after the Nuclear spill. I was pretty wiped as you can see by the photo. 

Check out the site below if you want to read about the Montauk Monster.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/07/east_hampton_officials_deny_mo.html