In memory of my twin sister

Debbie was and always will be a free spirit. In the past she rarely could find an outlet. Here’s hoping she has finally found one. According to her own assessment she was also a very old spirit. Old in that she had been around the block a few times on a plane from which few of us ever operate. She channeled in such a way that made you want to come along for the ride, but all you could do was remain behind and watch and pray that she return in one piece. While the rest of us shuffled around in circles, she was riding bareback on a wild appaloosa, wind in her face and oblivious to the perils that lay in her wake. Toward the end she just needed someone to be there for her. Not uncommon for someone who had become so fragile. Not uncommon for anyone.


Even when Debbie became so pale and weak, you could sense a multitude of things churning around in her like a horse that had been separated from its master. Some might say she did this to herself. And maybe in the final analysis that’s true, but she didn’t deserve it. She just wanted something back. Something to hold onto. I don’t think she ever found it. Again not unique. Here’s hoping she has found that Something now.

I am very thankful each time I catch a deep breath or wake up with a clear head. Some folks can’t ever seem to make that claim. To them I say, keep working on it.

Debbie and I spoke to each other everyday without exception, until her last two days. I never called her back. Our uncle had just died; he was our last remaining kin in the states. I was starting a regiment of Chantix and four hours of sleep a night. I guess I’ll never know what happened those last two days. I can only pray and give thanks that she has finally found peace.

To her daughter Natalie and family and friends, I know it’s hard, but I am asking you all to be happy for her. She suffered a lot of setbacks and trauma over the years.

I’ll end with a condensed version of the story of Molly, a horse about whom Debbie told . In short, the horse was abandoned in Hurricane Katrina, was rescued and sent to a farm after weeks of roaming lost. She nearly died from a pit bull attack and had to have one leg amputated. “She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood that she was in trouble.” Said the surgeon who rescued her. A human prosthesis designer built Molly a leg. Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people, and she had a good time doing it.” It’s obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life,” Moore said. “She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.”
The bottom of her new leg has a happy face embossed on it. Everywhere she goes she leaves the imprint. Debbie left smiles everywhere she went and I hope the rain doesn’t wash them away either.

Thank you all for your love and support and God bless you.

It doesn't work

I had to go back to August 1, 2009 to view the last time I talked about customer service. It was a glowing report. This one won’t be. Not to pick on anyone in particular, let’s just say this concerns the management on hand at the Walgreens at 1306 N.Beckley and Colorado in Oak Cliff at 10:29 AM on Wednesday, September 30, 2009. I walked from one end of the store to the other, slowly, twice. Not a word was spoken. I felt like Mad Max out in the middle of the desert alone. I finally tackled a guy as he tried to dart around me, again without a word. He was the manager on duty! I followed him like a pet duck until he came to an abrupt halt at cosmetics. He answered their price check request and proceeded to just stand there facing no one. I finally waved at them sideways and said “later.”




I was now standing in the checkout line when lo and behold, here comes the mgr. who finally looked up and saw me, much to his dismay. Then he got all wiggly and apologetic so I proceeded to give him my story. All I wanted was someone, anyone to restock two items that they had been out of since I bought both of their last defects. Neither refund request nor complaint did I have. Just replace this crap that stopped working. Up until now, I have shopped there since it was a new store. I spent hundreds of dollars there just this month. Only two defects out of dozens of necessities, not bad really considering I don’t think one single item was made anywhere near the good ole U.S. of A.



Then came the excuses for not wanting to do any kind of actual work. Well we don’t stock that anymore was the first one. This coming after I had been told just days before that it would be restocked on Monday. So order one from another store I said. Well they probably don’t stock it either came the next one. Can’t you just check for me so I don’t drive all over town looking for a lower volume store that still has one in stock? Give me credit for trying to do the green thing here, folks. I’m sure they would be glad to get rid of it. I’m not asking for sex exactly, just do your job. Well we don’t and they won’t and she might. Try the girl in cosmetics. So I did. She yelled at the checkout girl whose line I was removed from ten minutes ago. I walked over to check on her after a few minutes and caught her going through a box of other defective items looking for one to swap out. Finally the first girl took my phone number down on a receipt that someone never received. The sign says you get $5.00 if they don’t give you a receipt. That is only there to cut back on employee theft. Don’t worry about me. I don’t have a receipt either. It was a gift to me from a good neighbor. I think what I’ll do is wait by the phone until I need a haircut or something. Then if they actually call me to say they found one, I’ll say “Just put it in stock. I’ll get up there sometime when I’m ready.”

PS  I drove to two other stores and found two of the same items. I bought both of them and I think I'll keep the defect as a momento.

It works

I bought a showerhead at the grocery store on impulse. It went very strategically onto the shelf for the next six months until I noticed it the other day. My current shower hardware spews tiny streams into my eyes and ears all the time. Very irritating experience indeed. So I screwed it off and twisted the new one on. That took at least fifteen seconds. Then something simply shocking happened. It worked! I mean voluminous columns of hot water frothing about my body like a personal car wash were pelting down and if I turned it up it actually hurt. When I got out I was ionized. It was as though a spring thunderstorm had moved through my bathroom and then vanished. I dug out the package to read the part again that said “built in water saver.” I’ll bet I had some of you brewing up an argument about the environment there for a while. Well you can exhale. I even scanned it so that I would have proof. If you still want to send me to enviro-boot camp, then I don’t mind. I’m actually very liberal when it comes to not wanting to toast the planet for my own amusement. I just don’t want to toast the people in the process.



So I got to thinking, “How much other stuff am I missing out on?” I went through the house (the workshop is next) and found all kind of neat gizmos that I was hanging on to. They were just waiting for a friend to play with. They were waiting on me. To notice. To act like it really matters to me if they are around, or should it stay on the shelf until I really need it? The status quo works just fine as long as our needs are met. Well maybe it’s time for a change.



I have adopted that same attitude toward people. They might just be waiting for a playmate. Someone to share. Something old, but new. We mustn’t overlook them like an old car that we take for granted because we know it’s always there. Sometimes people and things just need to find themselves in a new spot, all dusted off and shined up. Then we can begin to have a brand new experience with the people we love. Don’t get me wrong. Just the fact that you exist is enough to satisfy me. But wouldn’t it be nice to actually feel appreciated for a change. Would it make your day to know that you are not just in the way? Someone is actually looking for you. Well it seems rather simple to me. Just notice things and people as you spin your web while busy doing nothing. Then things and people get a lot more interesting.

Hang on

I recently had my truck tested for emissions as part of the state inspection process. It failed. So $244.00 later I had a long needed, new catalytic converter. Irene only runs on Royal Purple motor oil and I had that changed also.(All my trucks are named Irene.) I used to do all that stuff myself, but figure time spent on labor, time looking for a place to recycle the old oil and filter and the hospital bill for a torn rotator cuff and I’ve got plenty of reasons to shell out the ten bucks to have it done. It has never run better. I’m happy. We’re done. Right? Wrong. Everywhere I look I see signs saying, “Failed?” Get up to $600.00 toward authorized repairs or $3000.00 + to just junk it. What to do?

How about I fix it and pay for it? I’m already here. It’s my truck, my wear and tear and my mileage. “Hang on to that truck” was all I ever heard before now. Well first of all I’m encouraged a lot more to just junk it than to fix it. I need a new car payment and $3500.00 cash in my pocket anyway. Don’t you? It used to be simple. Emissions parts all came from the factory with a “limited lifetime warranty.” I don’t know about you, but my lifetime is certainly limited; guaranteed. But wait! There’s a catch. You can’t just fix it and be done with it. You must seek and receive the state’s assistance before you actually try to accomplish what you took time out to do in the first place. So many choices and neither the time nor the cash do I have. I know, I’ll call them at this phone number that they advertise a lot more than they do their website. Leave it to government to do everything backwards.

So here’s what I did. I fixed it and I paid for it and I drove it…a lot. I produced more emissions that day than I had in the preceding two months. But I’m good; the truck “ran clean across Texas.” Most importantly, the state is $244.00 richer. Can I have that money to put up a sign that says, “Take responsibility?” Just two words to live by are all I ask. Okay here are two more or did I already see this one? Drive friendly. That kind of grammar used to drive my Mom crazy. But on the other hand, she once sold the best car she ever owned, a very low emissions 1977 Corolla, because a heater hose broke. She should have hung on to that car.

The letter

My favorite word processor just blew up but I want to write this down before I fix that.

Oddly enough, my subject is writing. We call, text, i.m., email, Twitter and even blog to our family and friends, but when was the last time you actually wrote a letter? That’s right. Have you written a letter lately, or have you ever for that matter? I don’t mean tweeting about every lame event in your life. I’m talking sharpen up a pencil and put into words how you feel about someone. Yeah all that up close and personal stuff. Must everything be so temporary now? They used to write on the cave walls.

It really doesn’t take that much time out of our busy schedule, considering the time one might spend chatting with anyone who will listen. Need some examples for starters? How about “We’ve known each other a long time and I’ve never asked you this.” Another one might be “This is how much you mean to me.” Just pretend I’m writing this letter to you. Here are some first sentances.

Words do a poor job here so dig down deep into my heart and know that I love you like no one else.

It’s not God, family and friends, it’s God, family and you.

Only the time we have yet to spend together will eclipse the times we have had.

All I know is you are my friend, come what may.

Being with you can be a complete deliverance from the humdrum of everyday life.

Just knowing you exist is enough.

Time goes so quickly when we’re together, the opposite when we’re not.

Bring me your sadness and I’ll make you forget. Bring me your smile and I’ll make you remember.

I guess I’d better stop. One more?

The average heart beats 2.3 trillion times in a lifetime. Every time I see you that number goes up.

The Void

There’s a place inside each one of us
That cannot be denied
Escape is evanescent
Every time it’s even tried
And countless games of love
With which we toyed
They never filled the void
It takes some getting used to
Some days are not so bad
When happiness eludes you
But you’re not exactly sad
It’s the movie
That you thoroughly enjoyed
But it did not fill the void
So do we stand alone without connection
While caprioling silently through space
Or is it just the longing for affection
That keeps us coming back into this place
A strategy that need not be employed
It will not fill the void
The voice that whispers softly
The reason for the soul
When God’s love shines from deep within
Forever you’ll be whole
The earthly things so easily destroyed
Creator of the void

Jeff Hall
Archives

For Natalie

Above the lake when thunder break
To shatter peaceful silence
With lightning flash an angry cash
Of force rekindles violence
And down below where rivers flow
To wash away the soil
They tear away the rock and clay
Undoing all the toil
But deep within away from sin
And safe from subjugation
Below the bed of watershed
A mere of lost elation
Is waiting there without a care
And quietly reminding
That safe and sound you’ve finally found
The one thing that’s worth finding

Jeff Hall

June 2006

I'm Bored

Ever since I was a young man perched on top of the garage gazing at the stars, I have had the philosophy that no matter how dull my life may seem at the moment, there is a wonderland of playgrounds in searching for rocks, star gazing, people watching , toying with ideas. Well you get the idea. Just please don’t say those two ugly words. “I’m bored.” Okay that was three words. See there? One can debate the very words we speak, but one cannot be bored without being boring. There, I said it. But don’t let me bore you with that.

Thoughts are like seeds in a field. Imagination is the rain. Your faith is the sun. Put them all together and the possibilities are endless. I like the way the world sounds when it snows. The smell of fresh cut grass. My face in the running water. Toes in the cold sand at night. The taste of my first vine ripened tomato. Why am I talking in sentence fragments? I don’t know. Try walking on the other side of the street. Better yet get out in the woods by yourself and just be. Then come back refreshed and make someone smile. Don’t forget children and seniors alike.

My point is, there is a child in us that refuses to let things or people become commonplace. The child, who plays with a stick all day, pretends to be a spy and marvels at a trickling stream. Sure the car won’t start or the kids are sick or money quit growing on trees. The real world doesn’t go away. It just gets a little easier to deal with and believe in.

Paging Dr.Seuss

I was having chest pains, right where my heart is located. So I went to the doctor, and another one and another one. “Let’s perform an EKG and blood work,” he said. What did they find? Anemia. Eat something. “What we have here, is a failure to communicate.” – Cool Hand Luke.

So that called for more testing and more testing… because that only addressed hunger pangs. Cardiac enzymes were not present, but evidence of internal bleeding was. “Let’s perform a colonoscopy and an EGD- esophagogastroduodenoscopy,” they said. That was all clear for the most part. “Let’s do a capsule endoscopy,” they said. Remember the movie Fantastic Voyage? It was like that only I swallowed it. As Craig Ferguson would say,” I got nothing.” I had to have an x-ray to verify that the capsule “escaped.”

Oh wait. Chest pains you say. Okay “Let’s do a nuclear stress test,” they said and another EKG and a mammogram of the heart and a scan of some kind. More nothing results ensued. Well you see where this is going? Good, I don’t either. But now I am only waiting for the results of my insurance claims. The chest pains are gone. I did catch T.B. or something from being around all those sick people.

Well it wasn’t a waste of time. I got to have some fun. While in one of the waiting rooms I was asked if I needed help with something. My stolen response was “No thanks, I’m just waiting.”

"The answer my friend..."

The era of customer service is rapidly vanishing. That having been said, I have finally found a service that “just answers” my questions. It is called “JustAnswer.” How often have you clicked on one of those obsolete links like: Contact Us, Cust. Service, Feedback and so on only to get a response like “Here are some FAQ’s” to chew on or “Visit our forum” and talk to someone else who is clueless? Live chat is popular if you don’t mind asking the same question three different ways.

Here is the catch. IT IS NOT FREE. Yes folks, the mighty dollar rules again. You might have to spend actual cash to participate. But for $14.00, $18.00 or $30.00 they will attack your question like a bum on a bologna sandwich. If the first expert doesn’t get it then your question is escalated to a bigger expert. If they don’t know, then everyone gets in on the action. No answer, no pay. These aren’t just your usual Internet know-it-alls. They include Doctors, Lawyers, Vets and Mechanics.

My question was about Windows Media Player 11. Not all of my prayers are answered but I am well on my way to the healing process. And now that I’ve proven to be a paying customer, I will be treated like royalty because I was a “fun” person with whom to work. So next time you say out loud “How come,” you can read the excellent books by Kathy Wollard or you can visit www.JustAnswer.com. Just ask for:Molinari





‘

My Facebook experience

I joined Facebook nine months ago and promptly forgot about it. [Except for some lady who keeps inviting me to polo matches in Argentina.] Then the other day it came. That loose thread that you just have to pull on. It was the question that starts out with “Are you the one who used to…? I calmly replied that I indeed was that person.

Next thing I knew eleven requests to be friends flooded my separate email inbox and they were all from people that I knew! This was Monday before last and it’s like someone lifted an upside down bowl off of an ant to expose a whole new world.
Are privacy issues at stake here? Could I have a bad experience? Will the bullies pick on me? Probably. So what?

Here it comes. The quote about “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.” I agree. But privacy is a whole other issue. I hate to say it, but if you want privacy, don’t use the web for social networking. On the other hand, I see no harm in a little gossip and fun with old friends. Plus I really rock at “cartoon trivia” quizzes and I get to taunt my peers with a challenge.

So is it harmless? Will it suck your brains out and leave you quivering on the sidewalk?
Only time will tell, my friend. In the meantime, did you know that the first bedroom scene on TV was with Fred and Wilma Flintstone?

The best bargains are still at garage sales

For no good reason that I can think of, I awoke at 4:30 AM. But it was a good thing I did. The garage sale across the street was at a fast rock n’ roll cadence by 7:30 AM. I moseyed on over like I had no interest in someone’s second hand junk
.
It was then that I spotted the blown glass swans mounted atop a mirrored, rotating music box that plays Swan Lake. My sister collects both swans and music boxes. It came at a hefty price of twenty-five cents. Then came the solid brass unicorn for another whopping twenty-five cents. One of my dearest friends collects unicorns. It weighs in at almost two pounds.
I had to dig out two quarters for a sack full of jewelry and stickpins. One of them was a solid brass unicorn.

Rounding out the long, grueling trip across the street in 76-degree weather during July, I purchased a working dinosaur skeleton, some cd’s [now playing] and other gift items. Now saddled with a single digit debt, I spotted two large antique matching pillows still in the original packages. Mine, not a gift, mine. As I returned with more than I could carry, an old saying came to mind. “Used to be a hand full of money got you a sack full of groceries. Now a sack full of money gets you a hand full of groceries.” Not at yard sales it doesn’t.

I just met big brother...his name is Skippy

I’m not sure if I want to believe what just happened right here in my office. Did big brother just pay me a visit? Should I call the FTC?
If you have ever turned over remote control of your pc during an online chat with “technical support” from Symantec, here’s what you just did.

By the time I got offline with them it was five hours later and I was at level three with the supervisors. No, my problem with their software was not resolved, and it wasn’t even security related, but that’s okay. I applaud their efforts. Here’s where it gets weird. After I signed off with them I restarted my computer, not because it is probably just a good idea, but because I was prompted to do so in order for some “changes” to take effect.

“Finally I can get some breakfast, it’s noon.” But wait a minute! What did I just see? The cursor on my screen just moved. Is that the theme from The Twilight Zone I hear? No. Skippy from India has remote control of my pc again! No I didn’t enter any access number or click “I agree” anywhere. Skippy just waltzed right up and hacked into my computer. Are you creeped out yet? No?
Well that’s not all. At one point he, “Skippy”, was reading my email, trying to access my 401k info and just being generally nosey.
No my “cards and log-ins” still doesn’t sign me directly into my Gmail like it does my Yahoo account, but that’s okay. A little privacy feels reassuring about now.
I’m sure this is all harmless or is it? I don’t know. You make the call. I’m going to unplug my computer and rest easy.

The slammers of the internet

With the advent of “no call” lists, the sleazy art of slamming is back in full swing. If you don’t believe me just look at your phone bill. Chances are there are charges on there that you don’t remember authorizing.

Voice mail companies are the latest offenders. Two examples that I have dealt with recently are: [this is how they appear on your bill]
YOURPRODUCTBILL, INC-VMAIL MTHLY FEE (1-800-433-4518) $8.23 & tax
And
MY VOICEMAIL NTWRK, INC-VMAIL MTHY FEE (1-888-956-1234) $12.95 & tax
One day you actually read your bill and there it is. “When did I agree to this?” you say.
Well apparently it happens when you fail to read the dreaded terms of service agreement and simply agree to it. [We are all guilty.]

The good news is that most of them will cancel your new contract if you simply agree with them when they accuse you of having signed off to the terms. If you’re lucky like me you might even get a refund when you ask for one.

But what happens if you, like so many people, just pay your bill on time every month without question because you actually trust the phone company? You pay hundreds of dollars a year for services to which you don’t remember subscribing.

So dig out that easy to read phone bill and take a closer look at all of those “regular” charges. You might save money and even get some back. Just call the number usually listed above the charges [required by law no doubt] and then call your phone company and say “Shame on you” for allowing this practice.