I blogged about the business reporting service called YELP where people can do reviews about their experiences with local companies, restaurants and professional services.
I recommend taking the reviews 'with a grain of salt' as many are spawned out of anger.
Last year I booked an appointment at the eye doctor for a yearly exam. I missed the previous year due to COVID. The company is listed on my insurance and they have several offices in South Florida with one about a mile from my house. Expecting the service to be covered in 2021, everything was good until they called to reschedule because the optometrist decided to take a vacation. I got bumped to January.
Too late to find another service, I agreed to the 2022 date. After the exam, I didn't want to wait to order glasses as there were 5 or 6 people in front of me. Checking their website, there was another center a few miles from my office. I made an appointment and went through the process of explaining what I wanted and didn't want from a new pair of glasses.
All I wanted was a simple thin black frame slightly taller than the readers I've been using for many years. It would be a progressive lens set mid height as most of the time they will be used for computer use. I didn't want the lenses coated as I found the finish deteriorated after a year and the plain lenses lasted 3-4 years. For some reason they only showed me a more expensive frame made from stainless steel.
I paid the balance after the insurance credit and told they would call me in 2 weeks.
After the 2 week wait, I called them, but no one answered the phone so I left a message... a few days in a row. This required a visit to the store to pick up my new glasses. For some reason they couldn't find my order. I didn't have the receipt with me so I got their email address and would send a copy for them to trace the order.
I found the receipt but looking carefully, it didn't have my name on it. The receipt for the credit card transaction was attached. I scanned this and sent it to store.
Not hearing from them, I returned to the store where the receptionist said they mistakenly used another clients name on the order. Okay, where are my glasses?
She told me they were ordered yesterday when I came it. My response was to cancel the order and refund my payment. They did.
I'm thinking about all the bad reviews this place had. Why didn't I listen?
Yeah, I'm the one telling people to check the Yelp reviews and avoid the ones that consistently get bad reviews.
I was surfing some guitar sites and hit a Pinterest page with mug shots of famous singers/musicians.
Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, ___, Kurt Cobain.
I didn't recognize the one before Kurt.
Link:
Original links:
I got up to temperatures down to 42 degrees in my county and the counties north of me are under a frost advisory. Yeah, I know that means nothing to people who actually get snow.
My brother in Dayton, Ohio called yesterday to tell me about 17 degrees and snow.
It's time I do some planning for my future. COVID changed my plans of buying houses/condos in need of repair, doing renovations and selling/flipping them for profit.
House prices are off the scale and if you actually find one it's a bidding war to get it.
So my direction must change and I need to see the advice of a certified financial planner.
By coincidence, one of my clients is in the business...
The TPMS is a Tire Pressure Monitoring System that is standard equipment for all new cars. It's part of the tire valve stem located inside the rim where you add air to the tires. The sensors are linked to the car's computer and a warning light on the dashboard will come on to alert the driver when the tire pressure falls below a predetermined value. For my car, it's about 28 pounds of pressure when the sensor activates the low pressure warning.
I typically have my tires filled to 32 pounds of pressure.
We've had some cold weather this month with morning temperatures in the high 50's. Tires normally filled when the weather is in the 80's will have much lower pressure at 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the warning light comes on.
After 15-20 minutes of driving, the tires have warmed up and the pressure is back into range. The warning light goes off.
This weekend, I'll add some air to each tire enough to keep the warning light from coming on, but not so much that it's above specification when the outside temperature is back to the 80's
Ronnie Spector co-founder of the legendary Ronettes, dead at 78.
Rest in Peace...
The headlines stated a New York man burst into flames after officers used a taser to subdue him. Some details were he appeared intoxicated and doused himself with hand sanitizer. Admitted to a burn unit, the man died 6 weeks later.
The New York attorney general is investigating the man's death.
I've read elsewhere that alcohol based sanitizer can be flammable and the taser had enough electrical energy to set off a spark.
Unfortunately, it was an attempt to subdue the man so he didn't hurt himself.
Enter that parameter into the 'Police training simulator'
Before I could (legally) drive a car I was in love with the Austin Mini Cooper. My brother and I went to Speedway Park to see some races. Typically they were American muscle cars, but one race was for the mini series. I was blown-away by their high performance.
I ordered a photo book with specifications of makes and models of the minicar series as they had a few manufacturers and lots of different body style.
That's when I learned names of parts to cars were very different in the United Kingdom than in the United States. First off, tires are tyres, hood is bonnet, trunk is boot and the think that confused me the most is the front glass.
In America, it's called a windshield. In Europe, it's a windscreen.
We are talking about
wind... I have screens on the windows in my house. They are there to allow air to pass and screen out bugs and often dust or leaves when it's really windy.
My boss has a secretary who answers the phone calls and screens ones of people he's not interested in talking to. Screen... some calls can pass through.
Roman soldiers had wooden shields that were used to protect themselves from the swords of their enemies in combat. Shield... block the attack.
By definition, a windshield is designed to block the wind. That would mean a windscreen is designed to allow some wind to pass.
Are you kidding me??
Windshield versus a windscreen...
I'm not sure the story used the correct word as a straphanger is a person who holds on to a strap on a crowded bus where all the seats are occupied.
However, I read a story today about a 28 year old man in an attempt to avoid paying the $2.75 subway fare, jumped the turnstile. In doing so, his foot caught and he tumbled head first on to the cement floor.
This happened in Queens, New York. He was declared dead at the scene.
What a terrible fate to pay for avoiding a subway toll.
Story link:
It's a new year and I typically reflect on the past year as well as previous years.
My goal is not to repeat mistakes leading to failures. It's something on the lines of an Einstein quote about insanity of doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
I joined CS about 3-1/2 years ago and have seen some familiar faces and met many new faces. Usually, I hang in blog section daily and visit the forums a few times a week.
When I surf CS on my cellphone is get lots of popup ads and though I've installed a few browser ad blockers they don't do much as It's like land mines and I back arrow to maneuver around them.
In life, I'm expected to remember many things... passwords used to be simple but now I've got about 20 of them and to my surprise need a 'cheat sheet' to get them right. Birthdays and anniversaries aren't much of a priority, they often get missed. My ex-wife has been help on reminders. Dentist and doctor appointments were easy but since COVID, they are booked weeks in advance and often get rescheduled. I rarely miss an appointment... any appointment.
What works for me is a simple calendar on a sheet of paper. I print a weeks schedule and it doesn't fail me. It's easy to flip back a few weeks to review things. Previously, I had a calendar on my phone that wasn't reliable. In business, I'm using Google as my office monitors and can book appointments on my behalf. I check that calendar often.
I knew a guy (on another site) who had a fear of losing his memory. Beyond forgetfulness, he was afraid of dementia or Alzheimer's. I worked with an interior designer who's husband was in an advanced stage of Alzheimer's and became abusive If he didn't recognize someone. He was too dangerous to be in the house and she was trying to get him into a facility who could handle him when he was enraged. She was bruised from one of those episodes. I never saw her again and wondered what the outcome was.
Checking memory, I recall a few of my blogs disappearing. How many and which ones I'm not sure of, with an exception of 2 that were predictions. One was about global warming and the rise in the oceans. Living in Florida, it's a concern as 5 feet above what we have now will put most of the coastline under water. NASA on Cape Canaveral will be forced to move or else they will be forced to shoot rockets from a barge. The other prediction was about an attempt to block the presidential election process.
My memory hasn't forgotten the blog from a CS moderator stating their position on political and virus blogs. A few weeks ago they made a sweep by knocking off a few members and pulling a few blogs.
Some members here have a memory loss about the wishes of CS administration... or maybe it's a case of 'I'll do what I want' where I equate that to urinating in the public pool and ignoring the signs.
I also hand write my 'do list' if not noted on my written calendar. it's quick and easy to scratch in little notes than trying with an online, digital version. Maybe this year I'll try to go digital again... that is if I can remember!
Pet Peeves? I've got a few (dozen) and I'm sure you do too...
Top of my list this month relates to driving and aggressive drivers because the world doesn't have enough.
There was a time when we only had red and green lights. I was probably a kid when they added a yellow light to let drivers know the red light was only a few seconds away. The timing on the yellow varies depending on the length of the intersection and it allows drivers ample time to get through safely before the light turns red.
What's worse is the multi-lane left turn where they have an arrow (or arrows) and typically when the lights turn red, on coming traffic has the go-ahead. That doesn't stop 5 or 6 cars from pushing through their left turn on a red light, forcing oncoming traffic to wait.
Please, Department of Transportation, deputize me and set me up at a busy corner with full ticket recording video machines (and a full length bullet proof body suit) to catch offenders at an average of 5 for every 4 minutes it takes for the lights to cycle.
I'll work for commission. Tickets for running a red light are $75 and and 10% seems fair. That calculates to 48 tickets per hour or $360 per hour. I'll show up on rush hour morning and night 5 days a week. That's enough to quit my day job!
I haven't seen a driver's handbook in a few years, but a car approaching an intersection to make a left turn, is to remain stopped until they can safely complete the turn. You can be ticketed for crawling out and stopping diagonally along the median waiting for the other side to clear. While everyone does this, they've been doing it for years as though it's correct. The same thing goes for a right turn on red. They leave out a small detail of AFTER FULL STOP.
U-Turn yield to right turn. I was making a right (with a right turn arrow) and had to brake or a driver making a U-Turn would have hit me. Yeah... the sign (he ignored) was clearly there.
That's probably the same skill-set for the people who make U-Turns on a red light.
The most irritating and dangerous is 'charging the intersection' aka anticipation turns. Back to the 6 lane road with turn lanes and wide median. You're driving along in the outside lane, no one behind you. A driver from oncoming traffic wants to make a U-Turn (or left turn) and starts his turn BEFORE you reach his car. That means he's already 110 degrees into a 180 turn. If someone in front of you shows down and you hit the brakes, the driver making the synchronized U-Turn has a good chance of hitting your rear side.
I was in the middle lane when someone made a wide right turn into my lane at the same time another car was charging the intersection. Anticipation of a disaster, I leaned on the horn and both drivers realizing their stupidity, cut back avoiding a 3-car collision.
That should qualify my pet peeves for the month of December. Stay tuned there could be a cameo later in the month.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and longtime associate of convicted p*dophile Jeffrey Epstein, was found guilty Wednesday of five charges in her highly publicized sex-trafficking trial. She faces up to 65 years in prison.
Of her options, she could appeal and fight the decision... or start cooperating with investigators and start naming names for a possibly lighter sentence.
"I just wish her well"
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