Yikes

Worst time in church I have had since going to the one I am going to now.
I got into a particularly foul mood just before arriving at church and it never
changed. In the Christian realm, it would be called an attack of the enemy.
It came out of nowhere, too.  I was in a great mood and then baam, there I am
fighting off all kinds of mind battles.

I sat there in church wanting to leave and fighting off the feeling.  It never left the entire time
I was there.  Food fellowship after service?  I was leaving and a man who has greeted
me a few times asked if I were staying for food? No, thanks.

I came home.  Ate left over spaghetti and went outside, enjoying my property.
The Honeysuckles are in full bloom.  Both bees and a purple-headed hummingbird
were feasting on the flowers' nectar.  The hummingbird saw me and went to one of my desert
trees and sat on a low lying branch.  He/she started making noises.  I think it was
not pleased to be disturbed in the middle of his feast, but, I certainly had no ill intent.
I was only 6 feet away from that bird while it was sitting on that limb of the tree, which
was maybe 5 feet off the ground.  This is a completely different bird than any of the
other Hummingbirds I have seen here. This because of it's purple head, I have not
seen any others with a purple head, they all have green and red.

I then went out front, climbed underneath a half-shrub/half tree thing and started clearing out
the larger, natural rock that is on the ground to make way for another pathway of my
landscaping rock.  Not that landscaping rock is unnatural, it is mined off the sides of
cliffs, basically, or out of the ground and put through machinery that makes large rock into
smaller rock. It may be the final pathway that I will do on the front with the landscaping rock -
but don't quote me on that.  It is certainly a natural progression to what I have already done.

Completely enjoyable "work", though I don't call it that. If it were work by any of my standards,
I would have skipped it on a beautiful, lovely Sunday afternoon.

Calls to DirectTV.  Yeah, well I got into a lengthy conversation with a supervisor yesterday.
That after being denied any free movie channels from a "regular" incoming call center agent.
He flatly refused, saying I wasn't paying for such services and wouldn't be getting them for free.
He then offered me a series of worthless movie channels for $5 extra per month. They are the "add-on" channels that come with the channels you pay for. Are you serious?

I flatly told him they were worthless channels that I never watch.  I dunno about my tenants, but I didn't mention that.  Why bother.  This went on for a while.  I always preface my requests to corporate headquarters with numerous calls to the regular 800 number.  Oh, yes, you tried that already.  Oh, and I was on the line at that point with their disconnection "department".  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.  He eventually hung up on me after saying there wasn't anything further for us to discuss.

I let it go yesterday, a 45 minute interaction with people I don't want to talk to was enough for me.
So, I called again. The only thing that motivated me is that all 3 sets of movie channels I had for free are
now gone. They only last so long, usually 3 months, though one set I got for 6 months after complaining to corporate.  Oh, I called again like 30 minutes ago.  I don't talk to computers, so I press 0 until I get through to a live person.

The woman that answered? Umm, without going into it, definitely the voice of attitude.  I was not going to talk to this person, I was going to talk to their supervisor or I was going to hang up and try again.  So, I asked for a supervisor.  The line went dead.  Well, there was no sound, anyway.  A few minutes later, the woman comes back on and tells me her supervisor is on the line, thanks.

This person informs me he is with the billing department.  Billing?  I didn't ask that computer to be switched to billing.  What can billing do for me?  I will admit that I thought in my mind that if I said that to this guy and played it out - I'm sorry, didn't know I was with the billing department (which I HONESTLY did not know until he said it!), I don't think you can help me - maybe that would get me what I want.  So I did.

I finally told him that my free movie channels - all of them at this point -were gone.  I didn't bother to mention that superviosr's statement yesterday about the fact that I wouldn't get anything regardless.  He looked up my account, offered me Showtime and that was that.  Thank you, thank you very much!  Didn't have to get into anything but a real discussion without all the bs about it.  Which was nice.

Umm, long interlude.  The lady that reconnected with me - Mary - got me on a Facebook conversation.  Time for bed.

G'nite.

ben

Sunday 11/13/2011

Ohhhh, noooooo, it's Sunday the 13th!  What will happen today?  Lol.  Alright, I have my own superstitions, I guess, but I just have to make a bit of fun at people that see numbers on the calendar and think: gee, this must mean something!  Or the Mayan calendar running out next year, too many people think it's the end of the world. Seriously, I have run into all kinds of individuals both online and face to face that absolutely believe that December 12, 2012 is going to be the "apocalyptic end of the world".  \

Regardless, this kid that has been walking my dogs is now giving me his entire family's "poor story".  They are, undoubtedly, extremely poor people, living just 3 houses down from me.  I can't take care of everyone, that is God's department, not mine.  I can help people, but that's only when I feel "led" to do so.  Those people have been living there almost the entire time I have lived here and they seem to be making it somehow is all I can say about that.

The interesting thing is how many people can living in a single house, especially in this case where it's a single wide mobile home and there are at least 12 people living in there.  Another interesting note is that this kid's dad is as sick of the feral cat population being propagated around  here as much as I am.  Those same cats that come into my yard are going into their yard and yes, crapping and peeing everywhere.  I have to wonder just how many other people around here are in the same train of thought: out of control cats with "owners" that only encourage even more to continue to come into this neighborhood and set up permanent shop.

Okay, I did help them out a little: I have some free coupons from Fry's - they send them to me every month or couple of months. Free salad bag; free pound of bacon and don't remember the other 2.

I'm just curious - changing the subject - as to when one of these space probes, satellites, orbiters, this that or the other thing - is going to re-enter the atmosphere and slam into a city or otherwise populated area.  They have gotten lucky so far, but this news of this Russian thing that is probably going to re-enter - with hazardous materials on board - gets the mind thinking about such.

My friend from teenaged years contacted me yesterday, distraught and not happy.  Apparently some dude dumped her.  She had asked me to come over and help her take down part of a tree whose  giant limb broke off in a recent storm.  She put that on hold.  Which is okay, I will stay home and continue on with my landscaping project - after church of course - though I didn't realize until just a minute ago that it rained last night.  That might put a damper on things, lol.

I have been attempting to figure out what, exactly, these "Occupy Wall Street" protests are trying to accomplish with these people showing up in large numbers at odd and various places around the country.  " They also repeated the main message of Occupy Wall Street movement of peaceful resistance to income inequality and what they see as corporate greed."


Okay, I get it.  They are probably broke, lost their jobs in the economic collapse of 2008 and the ensuing chaos with employers literally dumping employees by the hundreds and thousands.  Probably some or a lot of them have been on unemployment for so long they have lost their benefits or are facing the loss of them.  Maybe facing homelessness, certainly not enjoying anything close to the type of lifestyle that, probably, some or many of them had at one point in time.  


I get that part of it. I don't get what these protests are going to accomplish.  "Corporate" greed isn't going to change because they are out there protesting.  Inequality if NEVER going to change regardless.  I don't WANT to live in a socialist society, thank you very much.  I don't CARE that I am on the lower end of the economic post of wealth, to live in a nation completely controlled by the government is NOT a good trade-off, not in my view of it, anyway.


Why don't they use their energies and start running for office?  City council; mayor; state senators, even president?  There are all kinds of proactive things they could be doing with this newfound energy to go out and attempt to "change our world", I guess they think they are doing, why not do something that actually WILL create change?  


Well it's another beautiful day outside, just waiting for my clothes to finish drying so I can go shower and get ready for another morning at church.


G'day.


ben