Saturday is usually all about Freya, with either a class or a competition to attend. Today, I considered taking her to a fun match or a rally obedience drop-in class, both held at locations we will be trialing at in May. But today was my best chance to catch up on a number of different non-doggy errands that have been put off for too long.
I closed the last of my accounts at a bank I have been with since my first job downtown. I’m not a very sentimental person in general, and I’m thinking it would be really hard for even a gushy emotional type to be sentimental about a bank these days. I’m mostly just angry and annoyed that changes they’ve made over the years, particularly in the last two years, have finally gotten to the point where I felt forced to seek a bank that is more friendly to the very small investor.
I dropped off my pretty red VAIO laptop at the Sony Style store for a warranty fan replacement. It will take about a week from the time the laptop actually gets to the service department on Monday or Tuesday. Since I also have an iBook G4, I don’t have to go laptopless. But computer years are like dog years, so this five-year-old laptop is showing its age. You see where it is a G4 and thus still a PowerPC, so I can’t run the latest and greatest versions of a growing number of applications. It’s old enough that a built-in webcam still wasn’t standard (although the SuperDrive was, thankfully).
I shouldn’t complain, I know. It’s like whining about a rather unexciting meal when there are people starving in other parts of the world or for that matter, in other parts of this city. My most-needed documents are cross-platform and saved to my giant-ass 1.5TB network drive. I have Mac versions of my most-needed applications (some provided by and for work, and others purchased by me… yes, being cross-platform comes at a price). So I’m not exactly suffering.
I know today is iPad release day, and since the Sony Style store is in the same mall as an Apple Store, I suppose I should have gone to check it out. I did walk by, and it was very crowded. Apple fanbois and fangirlz make me want to kill on a good day, and this probably would not have been a good day. So I kept walking.
Really, I just can’t get that excited over the iPad. Yeah, it’s cool, but it just doesn’t seem like something I need. But if a nice new 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro fell out of the sky to replace my trusty iBook… now that would be exciting!
A couple of weeks ago, there was apparently a leak of some kind from my van. There was an oily spot near the passenger front tire in the garage. It was due for an oil change anyway, so I took it in and mentioned the location of the leak and that I didn’t think it was an oil leak. They checked a number of likely suspects, but didn’t find anything. It wasn’t oil, brake fluid, tranmission fluid, or engine coolant.
I think I now know what it is. The one thing they probably did not check, since spring had not yet sprung at that time and temperatures were in the 40s, was the air conditioning. Today, spring sprang with a vengeance and temperatures rose well into the 70s. The interior of the van was pretty hot at the end of the work day. I turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year and I got… nothing.
Maybe not. I spent some time today trying to get a number of things changed or corrected, and it must not have been easier to do it right the first time.
Most important one, at least in my warped priority system: Freya’s URO2. I know I have bored or irritated some of you who are not psycho dog people yourselves with my insistence on keeping close tabs on the dogs’ title progress from the day we first start competing for a particular title, until the day the paper certificate is in my hands. So I feel vindicated that I finally have a discrepancy to report. I’m not saying I am pleased, because I am quite far from pleased. But at least now I can point and say, “see, it happens.”
Only two of Freya’s three Level 2 legs were recorded as qualifying and the other was recorded as non-qualifying. I spoke to a very nice and helpful person (Beth) in UKC’s Dog Sports Department, and I am almost 100% sure that a review of the original trial paperwork will get the records corrected. There were only four dogs in our RO2A class so it can’t be that hard to straighten out. At least, I hope that’s the case. We have the qualifying ribbon and even a placement ribbon. Unfortunately, there may or may not be awards photos, and I did not get copies of our score sheets at this trial. You can bet from here on out I will do that without fail, regardless of who I have to inconvenience. Sorry, show secretaries. I don’t want to be a bitch; that’s Freya’s job. But I want to have all the proof I can gather in my own hands in case of anything like this happening again.
ADDED 3/31/10: I just received an email from Beth letting me know that she has heard back from the judge, who is out of town but will check his records upon his return home on Friday. Very pleased to hear that they are very much on top of things!
Two other annoyances involve credit cards and banking, so are obviously much lower on the priority grid than Freya. I mean, Freya is FREYA!!! and money is only money, right? The credit card one was easy but aggravating. The APR was arbitrarily raised a few months ago for no reason that I could see. This is a credit card that I have had for about 20 (yes, 20) years. There have been a few late payments over the years, none within the last year, and it has never been over limit. I advised them of these facts and they agreed that the APR was inappropriately high, and adjusted it back down. Had I never called, they would have never done a single thing. I almost never carry a balance on that card, and perhaps they raised the rate because of that fact and because I don’t use it often. But really. How screwed up is that?
As for the banking annoyance, I do not think it should take two emails and a phone call to resolve a mistake made on the bank’s end. I won’t say which bank because everything else has been fine so far. New checking accounts of the type I recently opened are supposed to get the initial check order at no charge. When I saw a charge for checks on my statement, I emailed to verify that the free checks were not a limited time offer. The bank’s reply confirmed that, apologized, and said there would be a credit issued that day. It wasn’t. A few days later, I emailed again to inform them of that fact. They apologized again, said the branch had been notified, and that I may want to call them. Ummm, no. I do not want to call anyone. I want it fixed without my having to call anyone. You guessed it. I had to call. I got a long wait on hold, yet another apology, and at least this time, an immediate credit that was visible right away when I checked online. But should I have had to initiate contact this many times for a problem this simple that was their error from the get-go? I think not.
I’m not sure what category my last annoyance fits into. It’s a bit unusual. The company that services our phone system at work doesn’t usually cause much annoyance, so I won’t mention their name. However. Their trouble ticket system has had my name and email listed as primary contact on someone else’s account for some time. So whenever that account has a problem, I get a confirming email from the trouble ticket system. Since those confirmations do not say anything about the email address being unmonitored, and I never got a bounce-back from my emails trying to inform them about the error, I assumed they had received them. Until today, when I got yet another confirmation. This was extremely annoying because their website lists NO way to contact them via regular email. I had to phone them. The person I spoke to did not sound stupid at all, but it took forever to get across to them that not only was I not the right contact for that company, I had no idea who they even were, and that it was pointless to ask me who the contact should be, because I didn’t even know who worked there. I think they finally got it. I am wondering who will get the confirmation email the next time our company has a problem, though!
This was not one of the more successful rally obedience trial weekends for Freya and me. But even though it was disastrous in many ways, we did not completely fail. While we did NQ twice, we also Q’d twice albeit with some very lackluster scores, and earned two legs toward the ten we need for the APDT Level 1 RL1X title.
Oh, and ONE point toward the ARCH Rally Champion title. I will absolutely have to remember to get a screenshot including our ONE lonely point once the scores are posted online for this trial.
Most of what went wrong for us can be attributed to training issues, and if you recall, being overscheduled and thus underprepared. I have only myself to blame for not making some time to practice on what was a totally new thing for us, artificial soccer turf, something that was a much bigger problem for us than I had expected. I also know I don’t put as much time into training for heavy distractions as I should, and that is on the priority to-do list as well.
However, I do think that the heavy distractions we faced at this trial were out of the ordinary: ongoing light construction and setup, erecting a swimming pool, and agility lessons and practice going on in the same room with only a tall mesh fence separating it from the rally trial. Kudos to those of you who successfully train your dogs to work through stuff like this. Although it is obviously what we should work toward, it is a little beyond what Freya and I can handle consistently at this point.
As a small business owner myself, I can understand why the facility owner may not have wanted to cancel scheduled classes, especially in the current economic climate. As a competitor, I wish I had a more accurate picture beforehand of what the trial site would be like. Again, I am not saying that I should not have trained harder. What I am saying is that in general, I would like to have enough information to make a good decision about whether a particular trial venue is right for us.
Winter is just ending in northern Illinois, so I would choose to avoid outdoor trials until we have some opportunity to train on grass again. I can choose obedience- and rally-only trials, rather than trials held in conjunction with large all-breed shows. I can choose venues that run a single ring rather than several rings concurrently. And at this point in our training, I would have chosen to skip a trial held with agility lessons, or an agility trial, going on in the same building… that is, had I known about it.
That’s enough whine to go with our string cheese (best training treat ever, loved by dogs and people alike). On to the next trial weekend, which will be our last for about a month. We’ll take a break, and now that we’ve identified some more definite issues, we can get back to training.
Why is it so hard to find good (emphasis on good) information on the ‘net unless you already sort of know the answer? Case in point: I just had a physical and my bloodwork says my cholesterol is okay but my triglycerides are a little high. For every page containing useful and (probably) true information about diet and lifestyle changes to help lower triglycerides, there are a dozen trying to sell me their special fish oil with Omega 3s that are better than that other guy’s Omega 3s, and a dozen more with old wives’ tales or non-information. I really don’t know that much about nutrition, but I do know when someone is trying to sell me fish oil! This is going to be bad, by the way. I live for carbohydrates, especially white rice (I am Japanese so I will say it is genetic), and I am supposed to be cutting back on those.
As for today’s events of the generally regarded as noteworthy variety, I really don’t have that much to say about either one.
I’m running out of feminine hygiene jokes about Apple’s iPad (I had completely forgotten about that ahead-of-its-time MadTV sendup; link may or may not work by the time you click it). Like most Apple products, it’s eye-catching and has that cool gadget cachet. Like most Apple products, it’s also somewhat overpriced. And unfortunately, like one other Apple product, you’re stuck with AT&T if you want 3G service. Still a deal breaker in my world. Also, the manic rah-rah Apple fanboys/fangirls are getting on my nerves, as they always do. Folks, it’s hardware, not a religion.
I haven’t watched any video from the State of the Union address yet. I’ll look for some highlights and bullet points before I go to bed. Prez, just a reminder that your new-guy free pass is just about expired. Obama fanboys/fangirls get on my nerves even more than the Apple fanboys/fangirls.
Tonight I received an e-mail update from the Black Nail Brigade on the nail polish killer. For those who are new to this blog, this refers to a fatal crash in May 2009, when Anita Zaffke was killed when her motorcycle was struck from behind by Lora Hunt, who was painting her fingernails as she drove.
A motion to dismiss reckless homicide charges was heard today. The judge’s decision will be heard on February 10, 2010.
Greg Zaffke’s update gave a few highlights from the hearing. I have to say this part totally floored me, especially because the defense attorney was using this statement by Lora Hunt to justify why the crash should be considered negligence rather than reckless homicide:
I was distracted by applying nail polish, [which I contemplated whether or not to do]. I chose to do a very stupid thing.
Wow. Isn’t that the very definition of recklessness, dictionary or legal?
I hope this plays out to the correct conclusion. I can’t say happy ending, nothing happy about it.
That question is pretty much never followed up with good news. This time was no exception, or should I say the good news was that a charge of almost $1,000 to my credit card made by some jagoff that is in no way authorized to use it was declined by the card issuer due to its suspicious nature.
Thank you, Citibank Fraud Protection people. They were right on top of this, and when I remarked that the time frame for receiving my replacement card seemed a bit long, they immediately offered second day air delivery at no charge. Yay for a good customer service moment.
I’m very much aware of the rules for safe credit card use. Statements are fully destroyed upon reconciliation. New solicitations (I really don’t want any more credit cards) are fully destroyed upon receipt. I do make a fair number of online purchases, but only from known sites that appear to be secure.
I’m posting this mostly to vent about thieving jagoffs and to remind everyone that even if you are knowledgeable about credit card and information safety, and do everything possible to keep your information safe, it’s still possible that someone, somewhere, will get to it despite your best efforts.
I’ve had something like this happen before. I doubt I’m being targeted since the last time was several years ago. The circumstances were very similar. A large-ish charge was made to a store in a foreign country, probably over the phone since my credit card was still physically in my possession. The charge did go through that time, but was promptly reversed upon my phone call to customer service.
Since then, fraud protection has been stepped up quite a bit, at least by the credit card companies I use. I’ve had a couple of legitimate purchases questioned because they were larger purchases made out of state, while on vacation. Considering what just happened, I’m good with a little bit of suspicion now and then.
Note to self: Remember to make posts public or get that automatic posting thing working! It’s not a big deal this month, but next month is the “real” NaBloPoMo and it would not do to miss any postings, especially if there’s actually a post written, but not made visible!
(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 7 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 229 of 274)
