A BIT OF THIS, A BIT OF THAT

13 August 2015

Just a few little things today.  Last night I realized that the dogs have taken over Sheila's jobs.  It was Sheila who made sure I went to the couch to sleep at night.  After she died, I thought--how nice.  I can stay up as long as I want!  But no, now both Polly and Lizzie dance around, poke me or bark when they think it's time for me to go to sleep.  They never did that before. Also, Sheila used to walk back and forth in front of the couch, so I could first pet her backside and then pet her head.  Then she'd lie down next to me and sleep there.  Suddenly Lizzie is doing the walk-pat thing.  She doesn't turn around like Sheila did, but she walks past me twice, then climbs into her chair to go to sleep.  Kinda nice, actually.

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I was upset to hear on TV that companies like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are dropping their contracts, which means that you no longer will be getting "free" replacement phones every 2 years.  I have been limping along with my current iPhone which seldom rings for incoming calls and never notifies me of text messages, until it was time to replace it ... in November.  Now I'll have to pay full price when/if I get a new phone.

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Had lunch with my friend Kathy today.  As usual, we talked and talked and talked.  We trashed a local production I (and everyone else) had given a bad review to (it has closed early), talked a lot about Donald Trump and the current political situation, and eventually got around to an offspring update.  We were there about an hour and a half, about half an hour after we finished eating.  But the waitress had told us it was her birthday today and I gave her a bigger tip than I would have normally and wrote "happy birthday" on  the receipt.

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I came home and immediately sat down to finish my book, which I was so close to doing.  I've been on a real reading jag lately.  I've already read more books in 2015 than I did in all of 2014.  I had finished "The Martian" couple of days ago and had started "Chasing the Dime" by Michael Connelly at Logos last week and was so close to the end.  So I didn't do anything until I finished it.  Then I wrote a review for the Books Read in 2015.  When I finish writing a review for this web site, I always copy it into my list of read books on Good Reads.  It wasn't until I started to post the review that I realized I read the book in 2011  Trust me, I remember absolutely nothing about the book and nothing in the book while I was reading it sounded familiar.  It must not have made much of an impression on me in 2011!  (Good book, tho.)

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I finally finished a package to send off to Compassion, with letters and little gifts for several of the kids.  i started it awhile ago, but didn't realize HOW long ago until I saw there was an introductory book in it for Eunice, a new sponsored child in Tanzania...I had recorded in my "stuff sent" file as having been sent in April. Oops!  Fortunately it's not time sensitive, and it takes so long for packages to get to the kids, it won't make a difference.  It feels good to finally have it sent off.

The post office has been driving me nuts because they have an employee who goes down the line of people waiting asking them the questions about liquids or flammables, do you want stamps or anything, do you want a mail box?  It always seemed a ridiculous waste of time since when you get to a clerk s/he asks you the exact same questions.  However all I had was a flat rate envelope and when she asked if I was going to pay by credit card, she told me I didn't have to wait in line and that she could ring me up right away.  I feel better now about the double questions!

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The 2014 Oscar nominated films are slowly being released to the pay channels, so I finally got a chance to see Whiplash tonight....wonderful, yet pretty scary performance by J.B. Simmons, who won the award for best supporting player.  Definitely no Farmers Insurance guy!  To be recorded in the next couple of days are Foxfire (which got Steve Carell nominated), and The Theory of Everything.  I'll eventually get to see them all.

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I'm getting a free box of Haagen Dazs ice cream bars.  We have little snack bars after dinner and last night my bar was not ice cream.  It tasted like ice milk and was grainy in texture.  So I wrote to Haagen Dazs and told them, politely, how often we eat their bars and how I was surprised by this one.  I got a very nice letter back from customer service this morning, explaining about the effect of temperature change on ice cream and telling me that they would be sending me a coupon for a free box of bars.  I have had very good luck with complaint letters, always being polite and never expecting anything.  I also feel it necessary to write about GOOD service or something that pleases me.  Seems only fair.