The Maddog Rag

I recently sold my condo, and the closing is sometime in mid December. Got a fair price for the market, and had planned on using the proceeds to buy into one of the many Senior Citizen communities around where I’m living now. I’d hoped to get a small apartment as advertised with all the amenities to make it a comfortable place to live out the rest of my days.

I was interviewed by community reps in the few senior citizen hotspots I looked at, to entice me to choose their community to buy into. The “buy in” for each of the communities I visited was a significant amount, but I did have enough cash available to make it work.

The shock came when the health check prior to admission to the place I chose, red flagged me as a “non-desirable” and sent me on my way. I was diagnosed as being a risk as the 6 question entry test they put me through revealed that I had “short term memory loss” and their view on this was to declare me as a “non-fit” for their community. I guess I need to go live on the shores of the Naugatuck River with the rest of the homeless.

Hello?!? I’m f’ing 71 years old. It’s a SENIOR COMMUNITY. And I call that assessment pure BS. I’ve been doing my own laundry, grocery shopping, preparing my own food when eating in, administering my daily morning and evening meds, keeping my home fairly clean, and paying my bills on time.

I’m not a full fledged feeb just yet. And I’ll keep on truckin’.

I Sorta Miss Ya, Ol’ Dude

A man and his sofa. A relationship not to be interfered with. A strong bond.

There it sits. With it’s two beat-to-crap pillows, on a wet, winter morning in January of last year, waiting for the refuse company’s large truck to arrive and take it to its final resting ground. Our culture has regularly related humorous tales in many forms, on the relationship between men and their sofas, and us guys all see the truth in that.

I slept on that comfy bastard, nightly and most weekend afternoons, for at least 15 years. That didn’t do my back much good, creating painful wake ups in the latter years, but I couldn’t give it up. No, there was nothing wrong with our marriage – my wife and I were just very incompatible sleepers. I moved around a lot in my sleep, went to bed later and got up earlier than her. She snored loudly (as I was also known for on occasion) and gave off enough heat to warm a cold room. It was like backing into a wood burning stove.

After dragging the sofa out of the garage and placing it at the end of the driveway, I tossed the two pillows on it and went back into the house. While getting breakfast ready, I looked out the window, and the two pillows and the line under the 3 cushions seemed to make a face. A pleased face, proud of its years of service. A content face, for no longer needing to support my bony ass every night. And a face anticipating a peaceful rest of its own, having lived a life with a thankful man.

Talking to Robots

Sorry, I did not understand you. Please try again. Sorry, I did not understand you. Lets start over.

Sorry. I cannot understand you. Please try again.

Recent experiences at trying to get to a blood pumping, lung breathing, skin draped human when I’m trying to resolve an issue with a large corporation have been mind crushing.

I will sometimes succeed when the robot voice answering the call offers numerical choices I can respond to with my keypad, but when they want me to actually speak to them about what I want, this technology all too often leads me to blast profanity, at high volume, that could get me incarcerated.

Sorry. I could not understand you. Please try again.

This morning’s call into my service provider was the best example yet proving we are still in the infancy stages of this technology. The large corporations using it do so to decrease their head count, and look hip. Twice in the first call I was redirected back to the very top of the question and response chain after spending 3 to 4 minutes trying to provide the reason of my call. If the police or federal agents knock on my door sometime today I will not be surprised.

Sorry. I could not understand you. Let’s start over..

On my second call in, I responded to every request for information with a 5 second hold down of my zero (0) keypad button. This finally led to being dumped into a call center, and after a 5 to 10 minute wait (no problem with that, my headset is on and I’m doing other things), I actually got to an actual live person. It wasn’t the right person (my bad for the hold down the 0 ploy), but a nice person who sent my call to the right place in less than a minute, where my issue was resolved in less than 2 minutes by another pleasant person.

I really do try to play nice with the bots when they present themselves, but the technology just isn’t there yet. And when it starts listing the different issues you may be calling about, I find all too often mine is not offered as a selection. I do use online services so I almost always search the target corporation’s web site for an answer on my problem, or specifically where to call.

Suggestions to our Corporate Czars? Back off a little with the reductions in headcount in the customer service area, until the bot voice technology catches up as a quality replacement. And the folks in your company managing the bot technology may need to understand the human interface a little better.

Sorry. I am not working well for you. I will transfer you to Margie. She will help you.

Blissful Ignorance? Bite me.

Response to a tweet saying I’m not a good citizen.

NOTE: This post was written in rage, and originally published on March 12, 2017. I deleted it within hours, not in the mood for a social media barrage from both sides of the administration’s loudest supporters and haters. Like them though, I have strong feelings about the “swamp” (cesspool?) growing larger in DC, in both parties. I have often regretted removing this post, so here it is.

A tweet in my timeline last week strongly inferred that those of us not participating in “The Resistance” and not availing all our free time to the news media’s political reporting, were not being good citizens. It also stated that we’re all too comfortable in our state of “blissful ignorance”. This got me pretty cranked up.

Ignoring the talking heads and spin doctors is not “blissful ignorance”, and neither is non-participation in street protest. It’s one reaction to not being able to determine which news reports are credible and truthful, due to paid-for bias and the rating wars. Add my core belief we are way past the point where any number of us in the 99% could collectively do anything to bring about change.

The two choices given to us for President of the United States of America last November shows that the ruling aristocracy in America owns the government, and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Our children and our planet do not factor into their actions, as their only concern is keeping their power and satisfying their greed.

About this site, and me…

I am an old man in my early seventies who barely survived Corporate America, working as a programmer, network manager, website builder and maintainer, for about 37 years.

I harbor no animosity towards any race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or life style. I am an atheist. I try hard to be a non-judgemental, live and let live kind of guy. As an American, I will admit to anger when religious leaders attempt or succeed in incorporating their religious laws into the state or federal government laws.

I contribute as much as I can afford every month to trusted charities for addressing children’s health and afflictions.

My short comings include being too ready to anger, more so lately. My views on justice make some folks cringe, mostly due to my backing of criminal executions for certain heinous crimes.

And…

Glad you stopped by, hope you come back.