Farrter's Day
Fathers day was very low key this year. It started with my grade school aged daughter giving me a handmade card. She's been into frogs lately and the card has a cute green frog drawn with big blue eyes saying "Rrrrappy Farrter's Dayrr!". Now, I know I'm supposed to say it as "Happy Father's Day" sounding like a frog, but somehow I find the unintended meaning to be so much more irreverently amusing. Aw, this is a keeper!
The Doggy Days of Summer
It is summer and the dog is confronting her arch nemesis regularly in the morning; the back yard lawn sprinkler. The sprinkler is the kind that has the jet of water that pulses to move it in an arc. The dog goes after the jet of water at the source. She gets absolutely drenched. Cheap entertainment for her, as well as us - if we keep our distance.
Support Escalation Hell
Our DSL line went belly up. It drops on rare occasion, but generally comes back shortly. So I waited. I tested to make sure everything at my end was working OK.
The next day I called Earthlink support. There I ran into the most extensive teleprompter I've ever had to navigate through. Seriously, it took on the order of 20 selections to get to their support person. Plus listening to all their messages. Then that person, with a strong India accent, started running me through their troubleshooting process. Step by step by step... With a fair amount of repeating so I could understand what she said. During the process I had to disconnect my home network, disable all firewall and virus software, and reconfigure a good number of system settings. In the end, I was escalated to a "senior technician".
That meant calling another number with my handy dandy ticket number. No teleprompter this time, but I got another person with a strong India accent. Then we did more testing. More questions. Once again I got escalated. My ticket was submitted and this time they would call me...
I didn't have to wait too long before I got a call from someone who actually sounded like English was their primary language. They ran through some of the same checks and let me know that everything on my side was checking out OK (like I said...). Little consolation to me that all the recabling and reconfiguring had only proven that it was unnecessary. So ... three hours into it, I was once again escalated. This time to SBC, who takes care of the actual phone lines and hardware. No phone call this time, unless things weren't working after 24 hours.
Apparently someone kicked the right machine, because the next day my DSL was working again.
Would you consider this good support?
Friday, June 24, 2005
Friday, June 17, 2005
The Fathers Day Dilemma
What to do for Fathers Day...
Last weekend I was at a school carnival with my dear wife and kids. From across the playground, one of the kids called out "Daddy!". You probably guessed it, half of the adults turned their heads. All those well conditioned fathers. Myself included. Being a father is more than having kids, it's a state of mind.
When I dropped the kids off at school today, one of the kids was telling one of the school workers "On Fathers Day, my Dad gets to do anything he wants". I thought "If only...". Okay, I'm sure the "within reason" is assumed. A nice dreamy sentiment nonetheless.
You see, to me Fathers Day is about acknowledging and honoring the Fathers in our lives. Our own fathers first, and then other important fathers. Done with a healthy dose of appreciation. It isn't what you get a father, it's what you give him. I'll spare you my commercialism of special days rant. Just to say, the best things in life aren't things...
Sometimes it's as simple as a letter, phone call, or visit. Taking the time to make dad important. Or just spending time together. Sitting and chatting over good bottle(s) of beer or wine with my dad, what could be better? Or to do something he enjoys with him. Yes, it could be giving him the day to do as he pleases (within reason - loosely translated as keeping the kids and chores out of his way). Quality futzing time is always a welcome luxury. You get the idea. The cards or gifts are just the traipsings that add to the spirit.
Last year my dear wife and kids gave me a home-made booklet of coupons. It had coupons for breakfast in bed, special dinners, hugs, kisses. Stuff like that. While there probably wasn't much I wouldn't have gotten anyway, it was a very nice gesture. It showed thought and spirit. Then I was well fed and had plenty of futzing time that day. I got some handmade cards from the kids. Nothing extravagant.
I know that I am loved and appreciated. What could be better...?
What to do for Fathers Day...
Last weekend I was at a school carnival with my dear wife and kids. From across the playground, one of the kids called out "Daddy!". You probably guessed it, half of the adults turned their heads. All those well conditioned fathers. Myself included. Being a father is more than having kids, it's a state of mind.
When I dropped the kids off at school today, one of the kids was telling one of the school workers "On Fathers Day, my Dad gets to do anything he wants". I thought "If only...". Okay, I'm sure the "within reason" is assumed. A nice dreamy sentiment nonetheless.
You see, to me Fathers Day is about acknowledging and honoring the Fathers in our lives. Our own fathers first, and then other important fathers. Done with a healthy dose of appreciation. It isn't what you get a father, it's what you give him. I'll spare you my commercialism of special days rant. Just to say, the best things in life aren't things...
Sometimes it's as simple as a letter, phone call, or visit. Taking the time to make dad important. Or just spending time together. Sitting and chatting over good bottle(s) of beer or wine with my dad, what could be better? Or to do something he enjoys with him. Yes, it could be giving him the day to do as he pleases (within reason - loosely translated as keeping the kids and chores out of his way). Quality futzing time is always a welcome luxury. You get the idea. The cards or gifts are just the traipsings that add to the spirit.
Last year my dear wife and kids gave me a home-made booklet of coupons. It had coupons for breakfast in bed, special dinners, hugs, kisses. Stuff like that. While there probably wasn't much I wouldn't have gotten anyway, it was a very nice gesture. It showed thought and spirit. Then I was well fed and had plenty of futzing time that day. I got some handmade cards from the kids. Nothing extravagant.
I know that I am loved and appreciated. What could be better...?
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Changing Course
There are a lot of lessons we learn, not from our own experiences, but from others.
While I was in college I rented a house with 3 other students. One of them had completed his 4 year liberal arts degree. He discovered that the job opportunities this presented to him were less than appealing, so he went back to school.
He entered a 3 year law degree program at a pricey local university, paid for in full by his more than proud dad. The first year was tough. The professors worked the students hard and attrition was high - something like half the class didn't make it to the second year. The second year wasn't much easier. I remember the stacks of books piled in his room and the amount of time he spent pouring over them. But if a student survived the first 2 years, they were considered golden. While the first two years whittled the body count down, the third year was smooth sailing.
My housemate survived the first two years and started the final stretch. Then he had another change of conscience. With little more than half a year to go he decided that a career in law wasn't for him. Everyone questioned his sanity. He had made it too far to quit. Even his professors tried to convince him to stay the course. "At least get the degree". His dad was especially put out.
Do you know what my housemates biggest lament was? He wished that instead of spending the outrageous amount of (his dad's) money on law school, that he had taken it to a quaint village he knew of in Mexico where he could have lived on it very comfortably for 20 years or more. "Like a king"... Of course the reality of being unemployed with little savings set in shortly after.
Was he a fool? Most certainly. But it was his to be. Sometimes we need to pursue a path to find out it really doesn't go where we want to be. There may be other lessons in the story, but the lesson I learned was respecting him for being his own person and making the tough decision. He made a decision that was right for him, even when the easy thing would have been to sell out to the expectations around him.
Random Ponderings...
My health club is in the same building as a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream store. Do you think they increase each other's business?
At my health club the treadmills and stair steppers face a front window. We watch the cars hunting and waiting for parking spaces to open up near the door even when there are plenty of spaces a row further away. Do these drivers think they're conserving energy for their workout?
Why do some women put on makeup right before working out?
Sylvester Stallone has announced tentative plans for new Rambo and Rocky movies. He is also publishing a magazine named "Sly" attempting to appeal to men. Does this count as a mid-life crisis or a late-life crisis? Can't he get into politics like the rest of Hollywood?
There are a lot of lessons we learn, not from our own experiences, but from others.
While I was in college I rented a house with 3 other students. One of them had completed his 4 year liberal arts degree. He discovered that the job opportunities this presented to him were less than appealing, so he went back to school.
He entered a 3 year law degree program at a pricey local university, paid for in full by his more than proud dad. The first year was tough. The professors worked the students hard and attrition was high - something like half the class didn't make it to the second year. The second year wasn't much easier. I remember the stacks of books piled in his room and the amount of time he spent pouring over them. But if a student survived the first 2 years, they were considered golden. While the first two years whittled the body count down, the third year was smooth sailing.
My housemate survived the first two years and started the final stretch. Then he had another change of conscience. With little more than half a year to go he decided that a career in law wasn't for him. Everyone questioned his sanity. He had made it too far to quit. Even his professors tried to convince him to stay the course. "At least get the degree". His dad was especially put out.
Do you know what my housemates biggest lament was? He wished that instead of spending the outrageous amount of (his dad's) money on law school, that he had taken it to a quaint village he knew of in Mexico where he could have lived on it very comfortably for 20 years or more. "Like a king"... Of course the reality of being unemployed with little savings set in shortly after.
Was he a fool? Most certainly. But it was his to be. Sometimes we need to pursue a path to find out it really doesn't go where we want to be. There may be other lessons in the story, but the lesson I learned was respecting him for being his own person and making the tough decision. He made a decision that was right for him, even when the easy thing would have been to sell out to the expectations around him.
Random Ponderings...
My health club is in the same building as a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream store. Do you think they increase each other's business?
At my health club the treadmills and stair steppers face a front window. We watch the cars hunting and waiting for parking spaces to open up near the door even when there are plenty of spaces a row further away. Do these drivers think they're conserving energy for their workout?
Why do some women put on makeup right before working out?
Sylvester Stallone has announced tentative plans for new Rambo and Rocky movies. He is also publishing a magazine named "Sly" attempting to appeal to men. Does this count as a mid-life crisis or a late-life crisis? Can't he get into politics like the rest of Hollywood?
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