I have developed yet another Pet Peeve. I KNOW! But I can’t seem to help it.
I download huge numbers of free books from the Kindle Unlimited Book Store. I’m really grateful to get them there because I’m a voracious reader and I simply cannot afford to buy lots of books anymore, have no place to put paperbacks; though, sometimes, I try to stuff JUST ONE MORE into a bookshelf.
The upside is that they are free. The downside is that I end up deleting so many of them – some after reading only a few pages – because of the lack of editing. I have done a bit of writing, though I’ve never had anything published. I’m a bit offbeat about my punctuation, wanting to write as I talk, showing emphasis by commas, semicolons, bold text, parenthetical phrases, quotes, dashes, etc. It is almost like sprinkling seasonings into a dish while I’m cooking. Each of us has our own style, rules or no rules.
But I have very little patience with those who don’t proofread. Misspellings, poor grammar, wrong use of words, etc. becomes so distracting and annoying that I just don’t want to continue. The delete button is a very handy tool on my Kindle, but I would really prefer to be able to finish the book before I use it.
It’s a pretty Monday here – quite spring-like, with a high of 83 forecast for this afternoon. We have a cold front coming through tomorrow night, reminding us that we have some winter left, but I think we’re through the worst of it now. Every morning when I open the front door, the sight of the daffodils blooming their heads off all around the well house makes me smile.
Our big things for today are 1) gathering the trash and putting it out at the bottom of our driveway, 2) getting our mail, and 3) voting in the Arkansas primary.
Yesterday I vacuumed a LOT, getting the first floor carpeted areas (our office, the foyer, and the living room) plus the tiled areas (the hallway, two half baths, the dining area, kitchen, pantry, and utility room.) The result was that when I emptied the jammed-full vacuum canister, I was throwing away more than a full dog’s worth of hair. UGH. You would think Amber would be completely bald now, but she has a full complement of hair ready to be shed…
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Yesterday afternoon I almost decided that all the vacuuming I did should count as my exercise for the day. Then I hauled my old, aching body out of the recliner and got down on the mat for my yoga practice. My husband happened to be reading in his recliner. I managed to do a good practice. I did 11 reps of my abdominal exercise and 5 reps on each side on my knee-to-nose-and-then-lifted-out-straight-to-the-back exercise, rather than 3. My husband nodded at me and said, “Good job.” I looked at him and said, “Tomorrow you’ll practice with me?” He looked at me, and then started reading again, not saying a word. :0)
Sent to me by Madeleine Jacobs
For some reason, one of our investment outfits decided to ‘recertify’ us or ‘update our records’, requiring that we send in everything including our first grade report cards to prove who we are. They closed down access to our account until we produce all this stuff. One of the requirements was proof of residence – with something listing both of our names. I don’t know if Arkansas is different than the rest of the states, but all the utility accounts are in the man’s name only. (I’m chattel, I guess.) We sent in our electricity bill, but they wouldn’t accept that. I finally thought of our reverse mortgage statement. It DID list both of us. We scanned that and sent it in today. Hopefully, that will satisfy them and we can have access to our account again… ARRRRRRRGH!
One of the reasons we built our home on top of a ridge line over 30 years ago is that we treasure our privacy. We get really hostile when people come to try to sell us stuff, convert us to their religion, etc. We really love our friends, but really appreciate it when they call first to make sure we’re not in the middle of something before they come. Being on top of a steep incline discourages most people from coming up.
I feel the same way about phone calls. I don’t really like talking on the phone. Since my husband had a couple of strokes, it upsets him when I’m on the phone for some reason. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but he is upset for quite awhile, and makes me angry yelling at me about it.
We have an answering message on our home phone that helps us out quite a bit. It answers the phone automatically – asks people who know us – and aren’t selling anything – to hit # (I think). This eliminates all robo-calls because they can’t respond to that request. It also is a bit intimidating to have to jump through the hoop, unless you know us and don’t mind the aggravation. When the symbol is pressed, the phone then rings for us in the house and we answer. Otherwise, we aren’t bothered at all and don’t know someone tried to call.
I’ve actually had some people who are calling legitimately be laughing when I answer, and ask where THEY can get the answering recording.
Today, a person called. I answered to find she was selling something. I asked her if she listened to the answering recording. The bottom line was that she ignored the fact that we stated we didn’t want calls like hers and hit the symbol anyway. When I told her I wasn’t interested, she continued to talk.
I very carefully got her name and her company, plus her phone number.
I then called the company and asked for the manager. When the person got on the line, I calmly told her that if anyone else from her company ever called us again, I would call the Attorney General for Arkansas to report them. I gave her the name of the employee, the name of their company, their phone number, and the time and date of the call. I explained that the employee ignored our recorded message, bypassed our system, insisted on giving me her spiel when I told her right away I wasn’t interested, and didn’t want to give me her information. I explained that we went to some trouble to enter our phone numbers on the “Do Not Call List” and then to purchase the recording so that we wouldn’t be bothered. I gave her our information and had her read it back to me, adding it to a “Do Not Call List” for their company.
The manager apologized, but it seemed to me that she was just giving me lip service to get rid of me and that they would continue doing whatever they needed to do to reach as many people as possible. I will keep the information just in case someone else from the company calls again.
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