Just need to vent...

Thanks to SPAM callers, my phone no longer rings if not on my contact list. But the call history continues shows them "knock, knock, knocking on the door." Remembering recent calls to doctor's offices, I made a custom 'message:'

• "Hello, wait please ..."
• a full minute of silence recorded background noise at night
• "... Ok, I'm back."

The "Hello" triggers their automated system to alert a human operator. The "wait please" gives them hope. The minute of silence is in memory for the latest gun violence victims. The "OK, I'm back" lets family know we're good.

I am thinking about what sort of 'messages' I might substitute for the minute of silence. Perhaps a minute long audio from YouTube or Proverbs or news:

• Baby and toddlers wailing and crying or dogs begging.
• Preaching Proverbs about fools.
• Gun deaths or Alcoholics Anonymous or COVD or script from politicians we support.

The risk of a message is the SPAM caller might enjoy it. KISS, silence is golden.

Bob Wilson

 

I don't want to party like it's 1999....I want to grocery shop like it's 1999. (Stolen from a social media meme.)

 

NOT ME!!!

The last time a human checked me out was during peak traffic and the operator double-tapped me for a $5.99 vintage rubber-chicken wrap that I ONLY BOUGHT because it was the least objectionable quick-meal option.
The person 'serving' me was trying to troubleshoot a thermal paper issue, and was obviously displeased to be having to work the evening shift - or ANY SHIFT, and this person was even SLOWER than updates on PC's servers!!!
Really, PC?
REALLY?
The last time there was a 'migration' that was this lengthy involved Israelites wandering in the wilderness, eating quail and manna!!!

SO....
Not wanting to be a male-Karen, traffic plug I failed to reconcile my badly crumpled and nearly illegible receipt and I did not notice the error until later that evening, forcing a VERY brief cost-benefit analysis while I was trying (unsuccessfully) to forget the nearly indigestible nearly-chicken wrap.
&^^%$^#!

I don't need to flirt or be flirted with.
I'm not much of an evangelizer.
I'm not interested in discussing local politics - or ANY politics, the weather, or how Bama is doing this year.
I don't sell stuff.

I'm polite to a fault in public - even when faced with surliness, but.....really.
I prefer to check out my own stuff any time I'm given the option!

 

Yikes! You're on a roll .... not the kind they associate with gas station sushi either

 

I hear you, Etc! I'm 60 and like the 1/4 of a mile walk from the parking lot into work, I work at a military Agency. Anyway, they have a shuttle bus and a concrete walking path. These <30 folks are the SLOWEST walkers of anybody...really? I get walking path rage when I have to actually walk around them. It's no wonder most of them are pushing 250+ pounds, and in your 20's??? Wait until your metabolism slows way down...

 

What, is there something wrong with keeping the diabetes doctors in business?

.

 

Yeah....TELL me about it.

I've started my first 9-5 job and the schedule is so crazy - I don't have the energy to cook dinner or see friends | Daily Mail Online

^Caught "Brielle" on the interwebs yesterday and yeah.....I get what you're saying about the younguns.
I sent the vid to my baby girl who, while pregnant, held down a 9-5 job AND was a full time college student!!

 

And here I thought I was the only one that walked 5 miles to school in the snow ...

 

Uphill both ways!!!

 

... and barefoot!

 

brrrrr - feet tingled when they thawed out

 

Entropy, my enemy, increases. Due to a problem with an 18" tire impacting the front steering 'king pin', I've adopted the practice of ordering just one of a new tire. Tire manufacturers change their product mix over time so I am used to having to searching and finding my next tire when the drive wheel tires reach the wear bars.

My practice is to buy new tires for the unpowered wheels and rotate those tires to the drive wheels. This lets me get the maximum life out of my tires and only have to buy a pair when I need new ones.

Last week, I picked up my next front tire in Atlanta and tested it Friday. It fits great so I ordered the second and got this note:

PRODUCT AVAILABILITY HAS CHANGED

The manufacturer has updated their expected delivery date to our distribution center from 10/27/2023 to 10/30/2023. The estimated delivery date to you is now 10/31/2023.​

When I ordered the second, the web page showed inventory in stock. I placed the order and then today an e-mail 'Opps' out of stock but you can change to something else or wait.'

A day or so, I'll wait but if they ultimately cancel, we'll have a heart-to-heart talk about the one I already have.

Bob Wilson

 

Yes. I wanted to make sure there would be no problem:

• A past tire purchase revealed king pin interference on the front.
  • WORKAROUND: moved them to rear and the serviceable rears to the front.
• The current rears are worn to replacement and fronts are serviceable for rear.
  • No discount for buying two versus one.
  • Same delivery cost, free.
• This report: Low-Rolling-Resistance Tires Can Save You Money at the Pump - Consumer Reports
  • Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II - discontinued and not in stock
  • Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus 3 replacement
• Total cost of ownership
  • Tires with a high wear rating, 60 k mi minimum
  • Low purchase price versus performance metrics
  • Rotate between front and rear pairs to wear out only one pair at a time

Based on Prius ownership, I still do not trust Consumer Reports. However, this tire report is based on independent, outside testing:



But hindsight confirms I could have bought two ... now that I've test one.

Bob Wilson

 

All the TV commercials and Telemarketing phone calls for Medicare Plans for those of us over 65 during Medicare Open Enrollment this time of year.

Update:
How could I forgot to have mentioned the mountain of unsolicited Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage junk mail to go along with the calls and commercials!

 

Yes, it's hell to be in the elderly databases.

JeffD

 

I hate telemarketers! A fraudulent caller called me five times today (the same computer voice using different phone numbers) and represented themselves as from Spectrum TV service. Their only objective was to get our credit card information.

JeffD

 

whatever happened to the 'free scooters from medicare' television commercials?

 

Long ago I got telemarketed to subscribe to Los Angeles Times (it's a newspaper). I kept that poor schlub on the line for a very long time, explaining and re-explaining all wonderfulness that I'd receive. Then I left the conversation by saying "unfortunately I cannot read".

It is no doubt a low-level sin to treat poor schlubs like that, but I was young at the time.

 

-what's a newspaper?

I have an out of LATA cell phone, that I've had for nearly 20 years.
The LATA boundaries (Local Access and Transport Area) are drawn by the federal government and determine which phone companies can provide local and toll service for each area. They're sort of like area codes only Area Codes and LATAs do not necessarily share boundaries. LATAs exist in multiple area codes, and many times area codes exist in multiple LATAs.
It's complicated, as all government regulated things tend to be, which is why area codes really don't mean much these days.
ONE unintended result is that the idea of paying for a long distance phone call seems about as bizarre as paying for an email - SO having an out-of-LATA cell phone is not unique these days.

But it used to be....
Ordering a pizza for pickup with my cell phone used to be a hit or miss thing.
Getting a call from an unknown local number on my cell phone used to be immediately identifiable as a spam risk, while a number from the area code that I was actually present in was probably a real human really trying to call me.

I used to get calls from The Tennessean, a pretty good daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee wanting me to subscribe.
I got them a LOT!
I tried simply declining their generous offers.
I tried being polite.

Until one day.....
I had some free time, and let's face it.....telecommunications is about as relevant as newspapers.
Sometimes?
I have a LOT of 'free time.'
I accepted their generous offers!
I must have kept them on the line for 10 minutes.
I love The Tennessean!
I wish I could read it every day"
I told them that I would happily pay for a year's subscription on the spot if they could deliver their paper to my address - warning them in advance that my address was a little off the beaten path.
"No Problem!"
"I'm sure we can do that!"

I gave them my delivery address - which at the time was 800 miles distant from Nashville.
I never got a call from them again.

Funny thing, though.
We still subscribe to our local newspaper, physically, for the print edition.
It's a five-day daily newspaper published vestigially owing to Southern culture's unique attachment to PRINTED obits, which are even longer than some of my rambling posts - and about as culturally relevant as copper-fed telephones and print newspapers.
Since it's easier to find polite political conversation than it is to find a 10-year-old kid, or ANY HUMAN BEING, motivated enough to deliver newspapers at Oh-dark-hundred - we get out local paper MAILED to us!

----just like the Tennessean COULD be!