DALA's Blog

Firstly - I cannot mention our business name because the people who "monitor" this blog will probably disallow it.

My spouse and I own and operate a floral business in Sussex (four years old).

We have never attempted to institute a minimum purchase price in order to allow the use of a credit card and probably never will.  Yes - we pay for the ability to "take" the credit card, but the value of a repeat customer way exceeds the cost of the credit card fee.

What do you folks think?  Do you think that our business should be allowed to do so?

I mean, seriously, isn't it up to the business owners to decide if we wish to lose a customer (or not)?  I don't think that's one of the rights of a credit card company.

 

(I thought this was funny if you keep in mind the voices of the slack-jawed yokels from the Simpsons - misspellings intentional)

Durlene: Cletus!  Whater you doin' out theyre?
Cletus: I'ma gettin' yer Christmas present ready!
Durlene: Yer doin' whut?  Then why'er you up in that there tree?  You better not be huntin'!
Cletus: 'Chorus I ain't huntin' 'cause I knows how you feel about it.
Durlene: Thens why are you up theyre?
Cletus: Durn.  I was ta hopin' it'd be a surprise.  Heyre.
Durlene: Well, what the heyll Cletus?  That's theyre's just a switch!
Cletus: No it taint.
Durlene: I'ma lookin' right at it!
Cletus: It ain't a switch.  It's that new fangled coat you had yer eyes set on!
Durlene: Whut the heck is wrong with you, Cletus?  That ain't no coat neiyther!
Cletus: But, Durlene!  I got's it from thisee here fur tree 'cusa yer one uh them peoples who don't like to kill animuls!

Last night, about 8:00pm and a telephone call came in to our house.

A recorded message played that asked us to hit either a 1 or 2 (on the touch tone phone) and #1 would bring up an operator.  Since I'm such a big fan of (what I think is - and should be - illegal) telemarketing (especially since I'm on the state and federal "do not call" lists), I decided to hit #1 and attempt to gather more information.

For what it's worth, the information given in the recorded announcement made it sound like the people - who were calling - belonged to the City of Milwaukee in some way.

When a person finally came on to the line, a man didn't say "hello", didn't introduce his company, and asked, "Year, make, and model of vehicle?".  I asked, "What company is this" to which he responded "Milwaukee (something) Service" and then ask me "Is this (my name)?"  Perhaps "Milwaukee Title Service" or "Milwaukee Vehicle Service".

My answer to this was, "Well, if I don't recognize you or your company or why you're calling me, I would never give you my personal information.  So, again I ask.  What company is this, who are you, and why are you calling?"  He hung up on me.

There's a serious lesson to be learned from this phone call, folks.

This was (to me) an obvious attempt to gather information about the cars I currently own.  Since scams are so common this time of you, it occurred to me that - if I had given this information out freely - I could have been the next victim of a car theft or - if I was lucky - more crap in the mail (that I don't want) and a sales pitch.

The person DID know my current address and had the correct name!  I'd watch our for this!

So, the city work crew comes by to (supposedly) clean up the remaining snow in our area.

A front-end loader comes by and (accidentally?) pushes an additional two feet of additional snow RIGHT INTO THE MIDDLE OF MY DRIVEWAY skirt and leaves.

Oh yeah. Remember those REALLY IMPORTANT cut-outs that they have on our corner? The same truck completely ignored it and STILL left 4 feet of snow blocking it from the street side.

THANKS, JERK. We'll be reporting you. Oh yeah, we'll be including the camera image which was taken by my neighbor. It has a nice image of the driver and the truck number.

With all the recent stories - on every local news channel - we have heard the reminders that one is supposed to shovel the snow on public walkways within 24 hours of the time that the snowfalls ceases.

Both Saturday and today, we were out clearing it all off much earlier than the required time.  The sidewalk and "cut outs" are clear.

Now, it's time for the city to complete their job.  There's deep ice and snow - in the street - completely blocking both "cut outs" (and I mean the street - no portion of our walks have ice or snow on them).

Even if I was motivated to continue for another couple hours and chip out the piles they left, I doubt I could clear it out by hand.

Hope there's no handicapped people around here 'cause they are not getting through it.  Heck, I could barely get over parts of it safely.

I had taken one of my vehicles out of use for a while. It so happens to be a truck which I bought new in 1998.

Back in 1998 when I bought it, I got the license plate and sticker which indicated the month of March - that means, the license plate will expire at the end of March each year. Over time, I did my standard renewal every year.

Some time ago, without my realizing, something strange happened to my registration record - it now indicated that February was my expiration month - meaning, the license plate will expire at the end of February. Why, I don't know because I simply hadn't watched close enough to notice it.

About a week ago, I went into the offices of the DOT on Mill Road and was going to update the registration of my vehicle and found a minor problem to resolve. When I paid for the registration, I was offered the opportunity to pay for the year 2009 in-advance! I thought, "cool" - one less time to do this stuff! I did the paperwork, paid the fees, and went home with my shiny new 2009 sticker.

But, wait. The registration now says that it expires in January! What's going on?

I checked my records and have paid a full fee each year it has been renewed (meaning, no short-pays which might indicate an 11-month renewal or some dumb thing like that). I decided that it was time to call the folks in the Madison office of the DOT to check this out. Yes - I still have the original, 10-year-old March sticker on the license plates for the vehicle, but I had somehow now lost a second month (which finally sunk in when I looked at the paperwork).

I spoke with one of their representatives - Sue - who asked me, "Can you send me a copy of the new (2008 and 2009) registration forms?" I did.

Sure enough, she called me back and said, "Yes, in 2001 - for some reason - your records were changed to indicate a February expiration. This isn't right. I'm going to update your information and give you back your two months."

Well, okay. But, how many OTHER people have been short-changed by having a month or two removed? Seriously, with all the vehicles in WI - this could add up quickly!

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To quote the lady from the DOT, "You should ALWAYS have the same month on your plate for the life of the vehicle."

If anybody else has ever experienced this, GET YOUR RECORDS CHECKED and GET YOUR MONTHS BACK!

I've never been the most religious person in the world, but I have to admit that I really understand what people mean by the "commercialization of Christmas".

Walmart has a new commercial that say, "Save more money so you can give more Christmas" - or something like that - which makes me sit back and say, "What the hell does that mean?"

It's not Christmas unless you've spent a bunch of money giving stuff?  In this case, it's not Christmas unless you bought a bunch of crap at Walmart?

sigh  I disagree.  I feel thusly.

Firstly, it's not how much you spent while you're giving.  Secondly, it's how much it's worth - to others - that counts.  Meaning: the gift that means the most to somebody else is worth the most.

If those are both true, then it must be Christmas every week around our family.  We all give of ourselves to the rest of the family - extended or biological - all the time.

Noticed a message in the Inbox of several of our personal (and business) email accounts over the last couple days.

Thankfully, there was nothing malicious in this particular message, but - as always - somebody opens this stuff because they get caught by the subject line.

If you don't know the source (maybe even if you do), if the subject simply doesn't make sense, is spelled incorrectly, if the message is sent to numerous recipients that all have an email address spelled close to yours, or anything else gives you the slightest inkling that a message might be a phishing or SPAM email - it probably is.

 

Learn how to read the email headers in whatever program you use.  If you use a web browser to read your messages, chances are that you are not only unable to read the headers but you are also much more vulnerable to malicious messages.

A few minutes ago, I was watching the Fox 6 news and heard one of the stories about the staph' infection in a local school.

I asked my spouse, "Why are they making such a big deal out of it?"

She said, "It's the kind that can kill you."

I asked, "Wait a minute.  You mean staph' infections can kill you?"

She said, "Oh yeah!"

I said, "Well, you mean that - when I got the staph' infection, when I was working at [the company that rhymes with] Leane - I could have died from it?  Wow.. no wonder they wanted me not to say anything to the rest of the people who were working there!"

Lovely?  Here I do all this griping about how bad of an employer I felt that Leane was only to find out that they were even worse than I thought.  Guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Firstly, if I remember correctly, we already have an extra tax being taken for a stadium.

Now, I don't know what your parents taught you, but my parents (accidentally) taught me that spending foolishly - meaning, before you actually have the money to spend - causes way too many problems to be worthwhile.

In other words, finish paying for your previous debts - which, by the way, I'm actually paying - before you spend more of my money.  I cannot - and I certainly hope nobody else can - justify a near-20% jump in sales taxes.

Sure, some of it seems like good reasons to spend.  But not in parallel with other debts.  It also occurs to me to ask, "If the new stadium costs us only .5% of an increase then what the heck are we going to get for a whole percent?"

I'd be happy to see a general increase in value of our communities and, perhaps, make them more attractive to promote growth.

Guess I need to see more specifics, first.

Secondly, if I remember correctly, wasn't the park system shortening the time they were open partly because of non-use?

Judging by what I see on my street, the kids don't use them.  They seem to have no problem wandering the streets, through my and my neighbor's yards, and playing in the alleys.

There are several parks to which these children could be taken - by their parents or elder siblings - at almost any time.  Heck, there's one just down the street.  I rarely see anybody in it and I pass it often.

1 work day.

480 minutes!

28800 seconds!

...and I haven't even started watching the clock yet.  :)

Seriously, I've had a good few days getting things cleaned up and prepared for the next unfortunate soul.  People seem to actually appreciate all the extra effort I've put into it and I feel good about my efforts.

Too bad it came so late.

We're sitting waiting for a late-night show to come on and bang, bang (11 times).

It sounded like a 9mm (or similar caliber) hand gun.  Regardless of size, it was certainly a gun and was only a couple blocks away.

Such a lovely place to live.

The story about a t-shirt - with the names of deceased soldiers - struck a chord with my spouse and I because we have a son-in-law who is going to be stationed overseas in the very near future.

I strongly believe that the man who has printed these t-shirts has every right to print them, distribute them, and allow them to be viewed by all of the public.  So long as he has not violated a federal law - and to my best knowledge, he has not - he may do so freely.  The names of these soldiers are public information, after all.

 

However, there clearly is a moral debate in the works here.  While this person may have the right to print and display the names of the soldiers, he should do so at his own expense and be barred from making a profit.

I believe that all profilts from the sales of these t-shirts should be distributed to the families of the lost soldiers.  No questions asked.  The person who printed these shirts should be allowed a share no larger than his own personal share of lost family members.

If he lost a family member in this war then he should be allowed to take only his personal share (based on the total number of people lost) just like any other family.  If not, then his "statement" of disapproval should result in no personal gain.

To me, this resembles "ambulance chasing".  In other words, "I saw something bad happen, so I'm going to try and make money off of it by amplifying the negative effect it has on the public without returning anything (useful) to the public."

 

No, I haven't seen the Simpson movie yet so that's not where I got the theme.  Really.  heh

I went out to my truck - after work, today - opened the door, sat down, and looked out my window.  Wait a second, what's that on my window?  A hand print?

Not the side window or on the side of the front window, but right in the middle of my line of sight on the front window.  Nothing was missing, but - then again - there's nothing to take.

Not weird?  Okay, does the fact that I'm inside of a locked, fenced-in area help?

Still not weird?  Okay, does the fact that the truck stands about 6'8" tall (80 inches for those who don't like to multiply), has no step bars to assist with climbing, and the reach from the tire to the front window is well over 5 feet help?

Still not weird?  Okay, I was an idiot and turned on my windshield wipers to clean it off before I had somebody get the prints.

Now that's weird.

For those of you have followed my comments about my employer, here will be one of the last about them. I gave two-week notice to the employer with my last day being September 21.

Why, Monday, did I give notice?  For one, I've been looking at other employment for almost two months and finally found something more acceptable - I was just waiting for the idiots to do something else.  Friday, they did.

My weekend plans were set - for almost two weeks - and I had no work responsibilities for the weekend.  Thursday, a member of my "team" sends a message saying that they've "assigned" me to support duties for the weekend.  I say, "no" in so many words.

The next day, the same person - who is not my supervisor, by the way - tells me, again, that I'm taking the on-call for the weekend and makes up an excuse so the "boss" will approve it.

Again, I said no and they ignored me.  I told the "boss" and he ignored it.

Over the weekend, the person abandoned their on-call duty and didn't answer any support calls so they came to me.  They didn't bother showing up for work yesterday or today, didn't give any reason or notify the team, and again the "boss" let them get away with it.

I gave written notice shortly after I saw it happen.

Shortly after, I told the "boss" to grow a pair and stop letting the team members walk all over him - especially those with no real programming talent because they're killing the company's reputation.  Tell them what you want and enforce it.

Funny thing are: officially, I have about 80% of the applications that our group supports.  Considering we have six people, I still don't know why.  They now think that I'll have enough time to properly educate my first replacement in nearly 20 applications and my second replacement in the remaining 10.

Oh yeah.  The assignment manager hasn't approached me in two days so, apparently, he must be used to people leaving because of abuse.

Those of you in the IT field, avoid large IT consulting firms that rhyme with Leane.  They'll let their own staff walk all over you and don't give a crap - probably because they can always find another sucker to take your place.

Tough luck, jerks.  I'm outta here in eight business days.