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Clearing the Tabs

July 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Another day, another lawsuit against Sig for malfunctioning weapons. This was one of the reasons I didn’t go with Sig when I upgraded my sidearm.

Lego is building a new factory stateside. Normally, I’d wonder if having a local plant would reduce their cost. But, inflation. And collectability.

From Lee Williams, an article on UPS changing its rules on shipping firearms and parts. It’s like they’re taking customer service lessons from Dick’s.

Lastly, Tampa’s largest McDonald’s franchisee is selling off its McDonald’s stores. This is interesting to me as I used to work for Casper’s as a night manager many a moon ago.

The Passing of Two Women

July 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Back at the end of April, my maternal grandmother passed away at the age of 93. "Gammy" was someone who I didn’t see much as I grew up. She lived all the way in Idaho. I think I visited them less than a dozen times before I gained my majority. The longest "visit" was when my parents sent me out to work on my uncle’s farm for the summer. She was always this short, solid woman who crocheted numerous afghans for the family. She had that down-to-earthness, which I came to appreciate as I grew up. Of course, the funniest memory of Gammy is that she always mixed up The Brother’s and my names, to the point that she "autocorrected" anytime she addressed one of us. And the few times she got it right, she would correct, and then recorrect herself. As I got older, we discussed the issues of the day and general day to day life.

Exactly two months later, my paternal grandmother passed away at the age of 95. Because she lived in Okeechobee, we saw a lot more of her. A lot of holidays, long weekends, etc. There were a couple of times my folks sent me down on the train to visit them all by myself. Grandma was a devout Baptist and very active in her church. This led to many discussions on the state of my soul. After she lost her husband, son, stepfather, and mother in about 18 months, Grandma moved out to Oklahoma to be closer to my aunt. Visits became infrequent – although there was the time The Brother and I drove out to surprise her for her birthday. She and I had weekly calls for the last couple of years. It was mostly her listening to the events of my week, but I enjoyed our visits.

I am grateful that The Wife had the chance to get to know both of them. I will miss them both dearly.

Day Job Antics

June 30, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Monday, my brain just couldn’t come up with the passcode to the work cell. I could not fucking remember. No, I didn’t have it written down. The Wife was a bit shocked. I had gone through enough failed attempts that I was worried about the phone erasing itself. So, I called IT, hoping they could fix the phone remotely. Because otherwise, I have to drive fifty miles to work for the IT folks there to do “hands-on remediation”.

The nice lady asked me to be patient. My response was “If you keep me from having to go into the office, I can be as patient as possible.” It helps that almost all of the time, I do work communication through MS Teams. My work phone rarely gets used to actually make phone calls. After about an hour, and multiple attempts by multiple staff at the national help desk, I was informed it was going to be escalated. But I probably won’t have to go into the office.

I’m at home yesterday – which I will explain why next week – and my personal phone rings. Nope, don’t recognize the number. Probably spam. Phone rings again. Same number. I’ve been burned before and most of the folks that would call like that will leave a VM or text to call back. Phone rings again. Same number. Three times is either an emergency or a very persistent spammer. I was willing to take the change it was the former.

It was local IT. Yeah, we think we got your passcode issue fixed. Would you open your phone and check? Sure enough, my work phone is prompting me to enter a new passcode. Much thanks to the IT guy who was persistent enough to call me three times.