life

John Hughes - was the man who defined Chicago for me while I lived there.
February 18, 1950 - August 6, 2009

Quote:

Barry --

I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing...

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

Part four in a series. Part three is here.

Here's a new twist I found on customer service. A certain satellite television provide advertises on their web site that they have "Better Customer Service for All" and on their contact page it says "Superior Customer Service". So can you guess what it is like to call them?

Part three in a series. Part two is here.

After a lot of promises to have it installed by Friday, and a few Fridays, they finally were able to install my service last Saturday. Of course my phone is disconnected now for no particular reason that anyone at TPC (the phone company) can fathom. Perhaps Monday will bring another visitor to fix that. I cannot bring myself to recount all the horrible "customer service" I experienced since my last entry. But in the end a few people were unrelentless and with their help I am back online.

Part two in a series. Part one is here.

My phone company, The Phone Company (TPC)*, has a whole bunch of customer service numbers. They have the latest in voice recognition technology. It asks you to speak your phone number and asks for the last four digits of your social security number and repeats it all back to you in a nice pleasant voice. It works well if you want to find out how much money you owe them. That's what customer service is all about, right? But if you speak the magic word "representative" then you get put on hold. There is a really neat song that loops without any perceptible break and you get to listen to it over and over again. I think one time I counted 78 loops before I gave up.

Maybe God was punishing me last Friday. It wasn't Friday the 13th. At least not on any calendars with which I'm familiar. And I don't think I've offended any witch doctors or voodoo queens. Sometimes I think that when I have extra cash, my house or my car can smell it. Still that doesn't explain everything that went south.

As an entrepreneur I learned to hate these words. But I never thought I'd hear them in my home from my kids. Yet my son said this the other day when asked to do something. Apparently what I asked him to do was something his sister usually does ergo it wasn't his job.

People can give new meanings to words. Weaning is usually used to describe the process of convincing a baby to give up breast feeding. But being a father and an observer of human behaviors has led me to the conclusion that weaning is a life long process. I'm not suggesting that it takes a lifetime to give up suckling a breast, and many men never do. I am suggesting that "giving up" is a process that continues throughout growth and development. In fact, you could say that we are ultimately weaned from the tit of life itself.

Hubig's pies are back!. According to an article in the New York Times the pies have returned after a four month hiatus. At this rate we are sure to have Mardi Gras this year. Check out Louisiana Lagniappe if you want to eat one. Update: Or now get them here.

Whenever I hear that message I often come to the same conclusion. If my call really was important then they would increase their service staff so I could speak to a human being right away. Instead you wait. You wait while your children fight. You wait while someone rings the doorbell. You wait all the way through an episode of some program you'd never watch on TV except for the fact that you are sitting around waiting.