Hey, all you slackers, don’t think death with get you out of your cell phone contract: Family Stuck Paying For Deceased Father’s Cell.

The ever helpful Sprint [my local phone company] shows its steadfast insistence on the terms of contracts, even if the individual who signed the contract is no longer among the living.

This is one of the reason John Edwards is, and sounds, angry, because this type of behavior is endemic in what corporations laughingly refer to as “customer service.” I probably wouldn’t even have noticed this if the Mumbai bureau of Sprint hadn’t called me at six bloody thirty this morning to “give” me two free cell phones. The young woman couldn’t understand that I didn’t want something that was free. I then gave her a free gift – an expanded vocabulary of vernacular American English.

[Please note: I am NOT a morning person.]

I just learned an important lesson today – if you receive a gift card, use it immediately!

Family members feel obligated to buy me presents, but have no idea what to buy, so I get gift cards. I had three gift cards to the same unnamed Bookstore chaiN, two from last year. I would normally use them on the ‘Net, but this Bookstore chaiN has an annoying policy about gifts cards on the ‘Net – you may only use one card per transaction. Say you want to buy something worth $60 from them and you have two cards worth $75, you can only use one of those cards and must use a credit card for the difference.

Now if you make the trek to a local store in this Bookstore chaiN, you can use multiple cards, but everything in the store is full retail price. They win and you lose.

[Read more →]

Well, I’m 1 for 2 on predictions, with Huckabee taking Iowa and Edward second on the Democratic side. Obama convinced young voters to come out and join the caucuses, which was his margin of victory. The only thing I really regret about Iowa is Chris Dodd’s decision to withdraw. I would have liked to have rewarded his stand on the Constitution in the meaningless Florida primary.

I will stand by Edwards and Huckabee in South Carolina.

New Hampshire is weird, so I’ll go with Clinton, Obama, Edwards for the Dems, and McCain, Huckabee, Romney for the Reps.

I don’t understand why Kucinich decided to go right in Iowa by telling his supporters to make Obama their second choice. The move seemed totally out of character.

Together Again

Burn something!

[Editor: I’m using this shot from November, because today they are under a wool blanket and Sox is the only blob that can be readily identified. Korats and korat mixes are single coated and don’t have the outerwear for these temperatures. I have also lost the free use of my right hand, thanks to Ringo, but a butterfly bandage closed the wound.]

Friday Ark

In Memoriam

Cat Daddy & Dr. Squeaky had to say goodbye to the noble greyhound, Tuffy.