Do not call telemarketers back! Plus Good News on the Grandma Front

I'm really slacking of late – posting entries, reading blogs, etc., and I apologise.

Latest Grandma news is good news!!! Woohoo!!! At physical therapy this week, starting on Wednesday, they began bending her knee! She was a little scared at first, expecting it to hurt, but she said it didn't. Also, one of my CA aunts was in town for a few days and she got the Medicare/Blue Cross issue straightened out. From the sounds of things, both will pay for 20 days in rehab, but they both wanted to pay for the first 20 days, so Grandma was going to get kicked out after 20 days, even though she wasn't allowed to put any weight on her leg for 6 weeks. The social worker has told Grandma that she will not be kicked out until the end of April, although Grandma thinks there's a possibility she'll be able to stay longer than that, if need be. We shall see. I don’t have a lot of faith in the "healthcare system" in this country.

I still don't know what's up with her dermatologist appt. and the atypical cells, but I'm sure I'll see Mom tomorrow and she'll tell me what's up. The YS is home from Texas, and due to Grandma's fall decided to do her next rotation here in Michigan, so we're going to harass Grandma tomorrow and then go for sushi! Yay! It's been much too long since I had sushi.

I mentioned a while back that my work phone is one number off from a telemarketers, if you remember. Well, I finally got tired of being sworn at for something I didn't do, so I asked my boss if I could be a bit more blunt in my voicemail message. He said, Yes, so a few weeks ago, I changed my VM from the standard BS to "Hello. I AM NOT A TELEMARKETER and DID NOT CALL YOU. You have reached My Name at Big Faceless Corporation and can't answer your call right now. If you know me, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Or something very similar to that. One of my co-workers called me last week and was just laughing throughout his entire message to me. He asked if I had permission to do that. Yup.

It worked up until last night when I got someone saying "You lie, you did too call me." ARGH!!! Actually, I had THREE messages from people yelling at me once again about calling them. Today's message is even more blunt.

"Hello, you've reached My Name at Specific Department at Big Faceless Corporation. I am not a telemarketer and I did not call you. The last number is a zero, not an eight. If you are a supplier or a co-worker, please leave a message."

If you know me and my work #, give it a call and a listen…let me know what you think. I think my irritation shows through. I had said the next VM message was going to include information on how to get their phone # on the Do Not Call Registry, but I was too pissed this morning to do it. Maybe next time I need to get even more explicit. Yes, I could get a new phone #, but I've had this number since I started here almost 8 years ago. It's on every order I submit, it's the # everybody knows, etc. I don't want a new phone #!!! I want people to stop being stupid and not only calling telemarketers back, but too stupid to discern a zero from an eight!!!!

I'll keep you posted on well this works. Just hope the new big boss doesn't feel the need to call me when I'm not here. ;-)

One week from today I'll be at the street circuit in Long Beach for the last ever Champ Car race (even though technically it's an IRL [f*ckers] sanctioned race, it's my cars and engines and drivers, so we're considering it a Champ Car race). The LB is coming down from NorCal Friday night and hanging with us for two days. Figures we get him into Champ Car just in time for it go away. Last year in Vegas he came down to see us (he and HRH get along great because they're both so politically conservative). On Friday, he took the rental car to the Grand Canyon where they had just opened the tourist rip-off Lucite platform (you can't take a camera on it), and he was supposed to leave late afternoon on Saturday, but he joined us in the cool grandstand over the track and watched the cars coming at us and getting only a little airborne (since they fixed the massive bump overnight) and he looked at me and said, "Do you think I could get my ticket changed to tomorrow? Do you think Uncle Kevin will mind if I miss Easter Vigil?" "It can't hurt to try. Are you kidding? Uncle Kevin doesn't give a shit about stuff like that." (Note: Uncle Kevin married our aunt 20+ years ago – we're Catholic. He's been attending a Catholic church all these years, their kids all went to Catholic school, he just finally got around to converting officially last year – adult conversions are formally acknowledged/done during the Easter vigil which is a complete nightmare and can last up to three hours.) The LB was able to change his ticket leaving Sunday (as it was Easter) and he sat there watching cars and asked "Why is NASCAR more popular than this? This is so much more interesting." Ah, LB, you have asked the eternal question, which is even more pertinent now that my series is no more.

I need to post pics of the progress of Grandma's bed jacket, but first I need to download the images from my camera. Let's hope it doesn't take as long as my October trip. ;-)

Have a good weekend. I'm going to the Token Lounge tonight to see Ursa's hubby play with his old band. I'm pretty sure there will be some absolutely fabulous people-watching happening this evening, as it is a rock/metal concert. The funny thing is that I grew up not all that far from the Token and have never ever been in it. I've driven past it numerous times, but never stepped one foot inside. I shall now find out what I've been missing all these years!

Random Rantings

I've been meaning to write about this for a long time. My work # is one digit away from a telemarketer's number. The difference seems to be a zero vs. an eight. You would be SHOCKED at the number of people in this country who: 1) call random #s back that show up on their caller id; and 2) can't tell the difference between an 8 and a 0. When I get to work after a weekend or even just overnight, I can tell that my telemarketer was at work because I'll have 8 or more missed calls with any number of voicemail messages ranging from "Don't ever f***ing call me again." (to which I respond, "I didn't, you idiot.") and "I'm just returning your call." Who the bloody hell calls telemarketers back????

2nd rant of the day has to do with people who do not appreciate window seats. I'm not talking about on the plane, because I'm an aisle person myself. I'm talking about at work. I work in a massive building (I've been told it holds 6500 people) and up until they moved my group to Building C (for Crappy) I always had a window seat (to me, a window seat is any desk from which you can see the window w/o having to stand up. I was always a row or two away from the window, but again, to me, that's a window seat. Since the move in September back to Building A (for Fabulous – although it's really not, just is in comparison to Building C) I'm stuck a good six rows from the window, but besides that there's a supervisor cube just on the other side of my row toward the window and supervisor cubes are higher than regular peon employee cubes. And to top it off, the jackass supervisor has a huge poster board of something jutting up an additional 3 feet (almost to the ceiling). Anyway, in all the years (six) that I had a window seat, I never once closed the blinds and my computer screen always faces the window so there's a glare. To me, when you're stuck inside working for 8+ hours a day, you put up with a little glare and you keep the blinds open, so you can have a clue what the weather is outside. And you don't feel so claustrophobic. Now I literally never have any idea what it's doing outside, unless I check the Freep before leaving. I get in early enough that I will go to the windows and open the blinds before anybody else is in. I had a battle of wills with the group near the windows, until they finally figured it out and there's now a compromise. They leave the blinds open, except on one window. I think the window seat people are spoiled and need to be moved away from the windows and their desks given to people who appreciate a glimpse of the outside – like me!

Here in Michigan I've heard a number of people say that if it's going to be cold they want snow and also that they want to see the sun. I disagree on both scores. First off, snow does NOT make cold weather any more palatable. In fact, to me, it makes it that much worse, because snow sucks – just for the record. And the sun issue? Here's the deal: when it's sunny in Michigan in January or February, you can guarantee that it's bloody cold. Case in point: last week the sun was blindingly bright and it was, as I like to put it, freezing butt cold – negative windchills, etc. Yesterday and today, the temps have been in the 30s and 40s, respectively, and guess what, it's cloudy!! I'd much rather have it be 40 and cloudy than sunny and -20, which is what it's going to be tomorrow. Yup, good ol' Michigan, the temperature is going to have a variance of 60F degrees in less than 24 hours. I'm going to be an unhappy camper walking to work tomorrow. Have I told you that I hate winter? I'm not sure I have.

I leave next Tuesday after work for Vegas. I'm bummed because it's not going to be "Kathleen lying by the pool while HRH takes on the house" weather. ;-( I have no clue what I'm going to do Wednesday & Thursday while HRH plays blackjack. I was hoping to lie by the pool and read a book. Ah well. [Okay, I know that I'm a self-confessed grammarian, but I have to admit that I have always had trouble with lay vs lie. I thought it was people lie on beds, but you lay the book (or some other inanimate object) on the table, but I'm just not sure. Can anybody help me on this point?]

My LB and his girlfriend (whom I quite like – first time ever) are coming down from NorCal and on Friday we're all going to Zion National Park. Saturday we're going to the Valley of Fire and then Sunday, the LB, his GF and I will be going hiking at Red Rock (HRH doesn't hike – she likes looking at nature, but doesn't like to be "in" it). I'm very excited. It'll be nice to see the LB and spend more time with his GF who just seems to be quite lovely.

I finally took a picture of the very cool purse I got for my b-day way back in August that I never posted. I also took a pic of my first knitted lace scarf. I swear I'm going to buy an external hard drive and get my music off the computer and download pictures. Sometime this century you'll be inundated with all the pics I've taken since last April. (Road America, Baltimore, Maine, Vegas, scarves, purses, etc.)