I made the dreaded call to direct tv.
I bypassed the Philippine Islands and the people they have over there that are manning the incoming call centers.
I got connected to - a particular department that I now call or ask for not naming it here, thanks - and then got into a conversation with a man who eventually said no, he couldn't help me..

Thanks, your manager, please?  You can always tell they don't like that question, but when I ask, it's not going to be anything else, I have determined that only management can help me - if they can or will - so let's get on with it.

Manager gets on the phone and we get into an extended - very, very long - conversation.  But by the end of it, we were talking fishing, this that and the other thing.  The man was very generous, is all I can say, well, all I will say.  He helped me out and that's that.

I still think Direct TV is over priced and at some point, I will probably switch to either Cox or Dish Network - or some other new thing called Prism TV, just heard about it on a radio ad.  Probably won't go with the new one if it's originated by who I think it is.  Oh, yes, just looked it up: Century Link. I equate Century Link's customer service right "up" there with Direct TV, possibly even worse.  I just dumped Century Link and won't be going back anytime soon.

G'nite, it's my bedtime : )

ben

The people who live the next street over.
In recent times, they have gone on an unlimited free-for-all in turning up their music so loud, I can hear it in my living room and bedroom with the doors closed, windows shut, tv on, etc etc, etc.

Apparently everyone else that is subjected to this unbelievably BAD music- it's not just extremely loud, it horrible music to begin with - doesn't care.  I was hoping someone else would finally get sick of it and call the police.  When I call the police, yes they will come out - eventually, sometimes it's hours before they are free to even show up - but then they will just tell them to turn it down and leave.  There is no punitive action for the ordinance violation, so as soon as the police leave, they turn it right back up.

My first call to police was around 6 pm.  I was amazed that police made it so fast, it wasn't even 20 minutes and suddenly the music was turned down.  About half an hour later, music turned right back up.  I waited about an hour and called the police again.  "Did you send the police out to such and such location?".  Why yes we did, Mr. B, do they have it loud again?. YES, they DO.  We'll send someone right out.  Okay, thanks.

A little long for the police to get there the second time, but the music eventually goes down.  It's my bedtime, I go so sleep. I have ear plugs in and my box fan on - always do to help mask outside noises.  But it doesn't matter, it was somewhere around midnight or 1 am, I would have to look at my phone for when I made the third call, but the obnoxious noise that they call music was blaring now.  Like a mariachi band sitting in my bedroom.

I laid there for a while, hoping the noise would be lowered, but it wasn't. I was extremely cranky at this point.  I was going to call the police for the third time, if they weren't going to do anything about it then I was going to go over there myself.  I'm sure the consequences of that action probably would not have turned out too well, but I am SICK of these people who could care freaking less about anyone else in the entire neighborhood.

So I'm on the phone with this sweet sounding lady at police so I am trying to be nice.  We talk back and forth and I finally say: they don't CARE about the cops, they will just turn the music back up as soon as they leave.  Since the city of Phoenix doesn't seem to care to follow their own noise ordinances, I am just going to keep calling back all night long until you finally decide to DO something about this problem.  Of course that isn't really a threat to a person that is paid by the hour to answer the phone, but I wanted to make my point clear enough that perhaps should would relay it to the next officer/s that go out there.

My next course of action would be to talk to the Sergeant and find out why they refuse to do anything about this, ie: start writing citations.  The police must not have been that busy last night, because it wasn't 10 minutes and suddenly the noise was shut off.  I don't mean turned down, I mean turned all the way OFF.  Since their normal, modus-operandi is to play that s*** all night long, I have to assume that the police actually did - something about it this time instead of merely telling them to turn it down.

But I had to call them 3 times over a 6 hour span of time to get anything done about it. I have half a mind to go to Walmart right now and buy one of those obnoxiously loud air horns like they use at foot ball games, go stand out in front of their house and let 'er rip until the thing is empty.  It's 7:30 am, they've been partying all night long, see how THEY like it.

But I"ll refrain.  Instead, I am going to go on a police-calling campaign.  Every time they blast the music, I am immediately going to call the police.  Repeatedly, over and over.  This will generate a "file" against this house - though at this point there must already be one because this has been going on a long time.  But after enough of it for several weeks in a row, then I am going to call either the sergeant in this district or the city prosecutor's office and ask them to review the file on that particular address and also ask why they haven't done anything more than what they have - which up until now has been basically nothing more than a verbal command to tell them to turn it down.

It's raining and not just a little bit.  This is really good news for me.  The ground is getting completely saturated and it will be easy to pull weeds and whatever I want to pull out.

Oh my.  Stink bombs.  Never thought of that.  Harmless but effective. Hmmm.

Well, anyway, it's not getting any earlier and I plan on going to church today, so better get a move on.  Unfortunately, the rain has topped - but - not before it got the ground nicely soaked.  The sky is dark and "ominous", there is thunder and hopefully it will start raining again.

G'day.

ben