Good Morning,
Northside was really jumping yesterday afternoon. The Pirates got 39,000 fans for their season opener. There was cars and people everywhere. And they won.
My head’s peeling. When I was out at Betty’s on Thursday cutting up the fallen trees, I did take a bandanna, but had it wrapped as a sweat band instead of a head covering. The trees in her woods just have buds, not leaves yet, so I was in the sun all afternoon. You’d think at this point in my life, I’d have learned my lesson by now.
Lisa and Mike stopped by Sunday with the newly covered cushions for the Veranda wicker furniture. The old fabric really wasn’t worn that bad, but it was a light color and really showed the dirt. Besides them being all fresh and new, I like this pattern better than that tan with palm trees. This fabric is black with tropical flowers and I think it fits the wicker furniture better.
Update on Office Depot. When I called Vera, the customer service rep, last Thursday, she said Office Depot does not sell or share their mailing lists. I faxed her a cover letter and copies of the two solicitations I received from the Pittsburgh Business Times and USPS with Allan G’s name on top, just as Office Depots catalogs were. She called me back this morning to let me know that she was wrong, Office Depot does “rent” (was the word she used?) their mailing lists. She apologized and claimed they have stopped this practice. I told her that after a year of trying to get my address removed from their mailing list, in good faith, that they now had sold my name to others was just unacceptable. What I want, is for Office Depot to get my name off these mailing lists, this is the only acceptable solution. I am in this annoying position because of Office Depot’s initial incompetence and then greed. If I receive another solicitation addressed to Alan G, I will pursue all avenues I can find to complain about Office Depot. First of all will be a follow up to the Palm Beach County BBB (where Office Depot’s headquartered) and I believe the FTC is one venue I can pursue. I’ll have to look into what other grief I can cause them. As you can tell from past posts and this one, I hate corporate America and and their greed. How we have just become statistics to them and how they tout in their ads how special we are to them. Yet as they get bigger and bigger and turn more things over to automated systems, we end up on mailing lists and have to fight for over a year to be removed. Yes, I’m ranting, I’m sorry.
I finally sent Jerry L an E-mail over the weekend. Any of you that stayed at The Parador of the Palm Beaches, would remember Jerry as my Manager/Housekeeper. Jerry was great. We really haven’t kept in touch (my fault) since. When I left, he took over managing the property for the new owner that was running it as short term stays, which meant intransigents which meant drugs. (Not all intransigents are druggies, but you need to manage your property to keep that element out and the new owner was just concerned with the revenue, not the quality of renters). So I hooked Jerry up with an acquaintance of mine that was running a motel up in West Palm. My first two trips to Florida after moving back up here, I stayed at Sam’s place, but Jerry had already quit with no notice, I just had Sam’s side. The motel was fairly rough, but my first year down there Sam told me of his plans and showed me how he was trying to clean the place up (so he said). My second year down there, the place as so bad that when I came back to Pittsburgh, I put all my possessions I had with me down there in the Loft and fumigated them for bugs. A couple of months later, friends of mine from the Mad Hatter bar in Lake Worth (where I used to tend bar) sent me an article about how the West Palm police had permanently closed the place because of drugs and prostitution. In my E-mail to Jerry I passed this on to him. He hadn’t heard and was glad for the update and then filled me in on his side of the story. Always get both sides of the story. I was surprised that Jerry would quit with no notice, but people do what they feel they must. After hearing Jerry’s side, I’m surprised he put up with it as long as he did. In his E-mail, he spoke of coming to Pittsburgh for a visit this summer to see the New Parador, I hope he makes it. He was always a good guy and good friend, the best kind of employee anyone could ask for.
It was gorgeous this morning when I got up, all bright and sunny and sixty degrees. It’s just got all overcast. That’s OK, I don’t have any gardening to do today, so if it stays like this, it will encourage me to finish my Office project. This weekend I purged my files, I don’t need warranties on appliances I had in Florida, nor do I need instructional newspaper articles on how to grow palm trees. I would like to finish this so I can have a clear and uncluttered desk and get back to the manuscript. Maybe this is just an excuse to put it off further, but I don’t think so. When I was last working on the manuscript, I kept seeing the piles of paper on my desk and would get distracted. I probably have the smallest pile of pending issues I have had in over a year.
Darn, I thought this was going to be just a short three liner post. Have a great day all,
ed
