Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Just another annoyance.....

Ok, have I missed something? Did the "Do Not Call" lists expire? In the last couple weeks I have been pestered beyond belief by unwanted phone calls. 95% of them have been from people "conducting a survey", the other 5% were just plain selling something or were political calls.

I thought I would be getting a lot of political calls, but that wasn't the case at all.

Have they found some sort of "loophole" that now lets them bother you by claiming they are conducting surveys? And to add insult to injury......every single one of those calls were made by people who had very thick accents. In other words, they were a nightmare to understand. Aren't these companies paying attention?

I especially loved the one from the guy who sounded like he was calling from a busy cafe (noisy) in Bangladesh. His accent was so bad I could only figure out that it was something to do with my computer. I finally lost patience and said "since I don't know what you're talking about, it would be wise of me to end this call....so good-bye" and I hung up. I had to laugh when I checked the caller ID after I hung up; 1-000-000-0000. No lie, that's honestly what it said. Most of the others just say "out of area" and give you no further info.

No......I can't bring myself to be mean and hateful and slam down the receiver, but I'll admit the thought does cross my mind. They are just trying to do a job, although they are not very good at it and cause more inconvenience and frustration than anything.

When oh WHEN are we ever going to be able to block our numbers from these unwanted calls?

My main thought is.....'does anyone ever actually BUY from these people?'......when you can't even understand what they want......how can you make a legitimate purchase?

One of the calls was about the yellow pages. I stayed with her for a minute or so because I was curious. Her English was horrid but I thought maybe I could manage. When she actually asked me to get up from my comfy chair in the living room to go get my yellow pages.....I knew it was time to end the call and I did. "No, I don't want to do that.....so, good-bye". click

When I was in my early twenties, I did telemarketing for about two weeks. It was for college classes through VA and all I had to do was get them the "lead" (someone who shows an interest and gives their contact information) and then someone from their main office would take it from there. I got paid so much for each lead. I can tell you that it definitely was not worth the names I got called or the slammed receivers in my ear, even though I did pretty well getting leads for them. I guess that's why I can't be hateful to telemarketers now......unless they are aggressive. And I have come across a few of those who represented......are you ready for this?....charitable organizations. That's when I figured out my donation was partly going for their pay. Sometimes I'm a little slow. Needless to say, I no longer give to those organizations.

I remember I used to feel guilty about bothering people right at "supper time" but that's when we were told to call, as more people would be home then. I wonder if any of these people I'm getting calls from feel badly that they are disturbing me..............nah.

Anyway.....are any of you getting more of these unwanted calls than usual or has my phone number been put up on a billboard somewhere..........

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Just when we thought we were over it.....

we are now under a winter storm watch with predictions of up to 6 inches of snow by Friday morning. I just knew old man Winter wasn't through with us that easily. Although it may warm up and end up being just rain like the last storm we had.

I'm not complaining. I'm not a fan of snow.

Not much has been going on in my little corner of the world and that makes blog material very scarce. With the crazy fluctuations in temperatures, it has been a playground for germs. In a 12 hour period our temperatures can go up or down 40 degrees or more. I caught a mild version of the flu....very mild. I'm grateful for that and I do think my flu shot was responsible for that. My daughter and her family caught it and it went much worse for them. One Wednesday night at church it seemed like everyone was coughing and hacking, sneezing or nose blowing. It didn't make me feel too good about all the hand-shaking that goes on. You kinda hate to whip out an antiseptic wipe because that could be insulting, but it does cross your mind.

I finally got the window fixed on my car. It's been only......oh ten years or so that it quit working. I was told that it was going to be horribly expensive to fix it, so I didn't. The last straw was when the credit union moved their ATM to the outside wall of their building, accessible by vehicle only. Since my money is direct deposited, this is how I get my cash out.....so I had to do something. I was pleasantly surprised that a friend fixed it for $125.

You know the commercial where the little piggy is going "wheeeee wheeeee"? Well that's just what I felt like doing the first day I drove my car with the repaired window. I wanted to put it down, hang my head out and drive down the road yelling "wheeeeee". Something how such a little thing can give you such enjoyment.

I hope to be back soon but don't misconstrue that to mean I want some drama to happen so I'll have writing material....right now, boring is just fine with me. Hope everyone else is drama-free also. In the meantime, keep smilin'.