Hi,
Today is the anniversary of the first episode of All in the Family (1971), Batman (1966) and Dynasty (1981). Zanzibar became independent in December 1963 under a sultan and over threw him on this date in 1964. Finally, on this day in 1992 in Urbana IL, HAL of 2001 A Space Odyssey was “born”.
The West End, the little community just across the West End Bridge from me has several high light businesses. There’s Articraft, a very high end antique store. The gentleman that owns it has no connection to Pittsburgh, the reason he chose to locate here is we are the largest city within driving distance from New York and Chicago, his two major markets. There’s also James Gallery over there. They have shows there and do a lot of higher end framing, no Michael’s Crafts here. 🙂 Anyway, the current show is Pulp Friction, misspelling on purpose. Director Paul Cicozi asked local and national artists to come up with art stretching the boundaries of paper. The artists used torches, sand paper, cereal boxes, photographs and combinations of digital and hand work. It is open Monday through Saturdays, 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. through January 29 and admission is free. James Gallery is S. Main Street, West End 412.922.9800.
Brian from Eventures called me last week and had the courtesy to set up an appointment to meet at 11 a.m yesterday. A few days later, Jay from Catered Elegance called and said Brian and Shannon wanted to meet here Tuesday afternoon, they’re getting married here this coming July. I really needed to get my oil changed and called Blue Wave Auto Spa and set an 11 a.m. appointment. I looked at my calendar and saw Brian and Shannon, but some how missed Brian from Eventures (maybe my brain saw Brian twice and counted it as one?). Brian from Eventures called me to say he was here while they were changing my oil. He was gracious enough to wait for me to come home. They do social and business media, recording meetings and weddings, audio visual effects, etc. Very nice and professional, even though I was so rudely late. The point of the story really isn’t my rudeness, I was flying down I 279 at 85 miles and hour and in the rear view mirror, I see a motorcycle police officer way behind me. I slow down and he comes along beside me, looks at me and shakes his head NO and continued on his way. Thank you. I do speed all the time, but nothing like that. Generally, I go just under ten miles an hour on my speedometer. My speedometer is eight miles and hour fast. So in a 55 mile and hour zone, I’m actually going more like 62. Wrong, but not outrageous like 85.
Anyone that knows me or follows my blog knows how much I hate big. I never go to Walmart, switched to a one branch bank (Slovak Savings Bank), seldom go to Lowes or Home Depot, etc. And I never have anything nice to say about them either. Well, I went to Verizon yesterday and had a pleasant experience. I’ve been having problems with reception with my phone. The agent was polite as well as knowledgeable. He pointed several things out I could do on a maintenance basis. And he reviewed my account and VOLUNTARILY OFFERED TO LOWER MY MONTHLY PAYMENT AND GAVE ME UNLIMITED HOURS. They picked me up off the floor after that. 🙂 I have had such unpleasant experiences with Verizon over the years. Generally speaking, anytime I dealt with them in person or over the phone, they were indifferent, at best. When I moved up here, after being a Verizon customer for years in Florida, they made me pay a deposit because I didn’t have payment history up here with this branch. They couldn’t contact the branch in Florida. Yet, I was receiving continuous solicitations for changing my land line to them, then FIOS started. I would get multiple solicitations in one day. Verizon farms their marketing out to independent contractors (ie make lots of money by working from home) and there was no way to stop it. I ended up letting out a barrage of profanity every time I answered the phone and it was someone soliciting for Verizon. Also, they would send these “account executives” around door to door that would ask to see my phone bill and they would show me how they could save me money. I must say, I seldom hear from them lately. God I hate unwanted solicitation. Anyway, I was impressed with Verizon yesterday. I’m thinking of getting a smart phone (it may help me 🙂 ) and now that they have the iphone, I may go that route.
Steve Bland, the guy in charge of the mismanaged Port Authority was in today’s paper, but I don’t want to rant on two items in one day. Maybe I’ll give him another shellacking tomorrow. 🙂
ed
