Think These'd Sell?

I Hate Being Stuck

I've been in Bismarck for Christmas since Wednesday. While I didn't have the boys this year so it was a different sort of holiday than it usually is, I have had a great time with Mom, Dad, Brandon, Grandma R., and Pat & Bern. Ate a couple great holiday meals and a hella lotta great other food between them. I'm almost sick of eating in fact, and am going to have to live at the gym for awhile to ensure non-fatness.

I drove here Wednesday to avoid the storm that was supposed to start that night in Minneapolis, and while I've been here, the storm has hit ND and MN hard. North Dakota has closed all of I-94 and I-29 (the two interstates that run through the state) as well as some other major highways including Hwy 83 and Hwy 2.



That means I'm stuck.

And while this ain't a bad place to be stuck, I just HATE being stuck. Anywhere. I was stuck in Cabo San Lucas once because of a hurricane and didn't particularly enjoy being stuck there.

The roads are the first barrier to leaving, but a close second are my mother, father, grandma, great aunt and all those that would just as soon strap me to a chair to prevent me from putting myself in harm's way.

Of course, I appreciate their concern.

But I don't appreciate being stuck.

I was supposed to have the boys this weekend, and I was going to make Hamburger Strudels for a post-holiday special meal and we were going to open presents and stuff. Hopefully I'll get back tonight, so I can pick them up in the morning and still do all of that tomorrow.

I Hold Commercial Grudges

So, on my drive back to Bismarck for Christmas, Chad Hagen rode with me as far as Fargo and it was nice to have some company. We got to talking about stuff, and after talking about the crappy reception our iPhones were getting, we got on the topic of companies we're biased against. It wasn't until I put them all together in one conversation that I realized that I have a few!

• AT&T - www.att.com

  This is where the conversation started. I've hesitated to switch completely over to my iPhone because of AT&T's shit-coverage in ND. I don't even know if it is as true anymore but that impression is still stuck in my head, and I can say that at multiple points in the drive between Minneapolis and Fargo, the iPhones had NO coverage, while my Blackberry on Sprint had like 4 bars and full digital service.
  

• TCF - www.tcfbank.com
  

  When I'd first moved to the cities in the mid-90's, I was in some mall (Southdale maybe) and had to take some cash out of an ATM to spend in the food court. It was a TCF machine, and was the very first time I'd ever encountered having to pay a fee to take out money. They charged me like $2! I know it is common practice now, but still to this day I have stayed true to my vow never to bank with the greedy bastards who led the way.
  

• First Bank (now USBank) - www.usbank.com
  

  My childhood accounts were with First Bank because of my parents' relationship with them. I think I had a savings account that I'd had since I was little, as well as checking account and I was always perfectly satisfied with them and their service. That is, until I went off to college in Moorhead, MN where they apparently only employed snide bitches with chips on their shoulders.
  
  I don't even recall the series of incidents that contributed, but now that I think about it, I think one of them involved an overdraft charge that was a result of a bank error, not mine. Well, that and the young woman that had a total attitude with me about it. I had NO money then, but I closed all of my accounts and moved over to Norwest (now Wells Fargo), and vowed that no matter how much money I'd have some day, First Bank would never see any of it.
  
  I haven't been able to keep that one though, because USBank bought our mortgage at one point. Fuckers. But I'll never actively open an account with them, no matter how many stars of service they guarantee.
  

• US West (now Qwest) - www.qwest.com
  

  I had the absolute worst experience with US West multiple times, and at multiple points in my life. I can't even quantify the countless hours I've spent on the phone with their customer service organization, or waiting patiently for a real person to pick up. When I finally did get through to a live person, I'd invest heap long-time trying to get them to understand the issue at hand, only to be transferred along to someone else, wait another half hour for THEM to pick up, and then have to invest the same heap-long time telling the same damn story all over again. And it wouldn't end there. I'd be told it would be fixed, and days later the problem would still exist. So I'd get on the phone and go through the whole damn dance again. And again. And again.
  
  Never again.
  

• Ford - www.ford.com
  

  I had a used, maroon Ford Taurus back in college that was either an absolute lemon, or I was taking it to a service shop that would fix one thing and intentionally break another in order to create a recurring revenue stream. Either way, we sunk so much money into that car that we could have bought a new one off the lot.
  
  Although I said I'd never buy another Ford, we bought a Mercury Villager when we had kids, which is manufactured by Ford. But I'll still never buy a Ford.
  

So there you have it. I'm sure there are more that I'm not even thinking of right now, but I certainly hold commercial grudges, and I'm okay with that.

Song of the DayThe Whitest Boy Alive - Burning

No reason, except this song really hit the spot just now. And they have one of the coolest band names ever.

If I Could Save Time In a Bottle...

This cud has been chewed before by poets and scientists and philosophers and the like (none of which I am), but why is it that the time you want to savor passes the quickest, and the time you wish would pass the quickest takes forever?

This weekend falls squarely in the domain of the former.

Damn It Cecil! Take a Chill Pill.

So, I was up late last night again. Too late.

I'd just went to bed and had successfully drifted off when I heard a loud, dull commotion going on somewhere outside my room, but inside my house. It was loud enough that, even amidst my slumber, I got a little of the "fight or flight" adrenalin rush stirred up but as I gained a little bit of consciousness, I rationalized it away by sleepily cursing my goddamn cat for getting whatever wild hare he had up his ass that would made him run around out there and collide into walls repeatedly like an idiot.

It made sense at the time.

Until the second crashing sound, a couple minutes later.

It was clear then that this was no cat. Shit was goin' down out there, and since I didn't have the boys with me last night and it couldn't be them, I best cowboy up and see just what was what.

So, vulnerable and dazed as a naked mole rat, I sheepishly opened the door to a pitch black hallway to face whatever dangerous creature was wreaking havoc upon my casa. My heart was beating a little fast when I reached jerkily for the light switch, and flipped it on.

Would I see some nefarious invader after the extensive loot everyone knows I have in my crackerbox of a house?

No.

I'd see a hallway closet who's shelf had torn free from the wall, flung the closet door open and spilled its 40 pounds of contents onto the floor in front of the bathroom, including two cases of Lipton's Diet Green Tea with Citrus and assorted coats, vacuum attachments, and my inventory of lightbulbs.

Luckily, nothing had broken. Well, except for the closet.

But I saw that coming. I'd noted that the shelf was kinda listing a few weeks ago, and frankly was biding my time until I had occasion and dollars to fix it. Well, my time ran out at 2:45 in the morning.

I kinda shoved what I could back in there into a big pile and shut the door, resolving to deal with it later.

So, tonight, after I picked up the boys, we went to Home Depot and bought wire closet organizer shelves and stuff, and I done fixed it up goooooooood. It now has TWO shelves that can hold like 60 pounds each (that's two small children!), and one of them is about 4 inches deeper than the one that ripped itself out of the wall.

So my closet is GLORIOUS now.

Merry Christmas to me (and Little House), and for Christ's sake Cecil, let me sleep in peace tonight!

Song of the DayFleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

In honor of the white winter we all-of-a-sudden have.

I Need To Own These Shoes

How do I get me a pair of these, short of stealing them from the bowling alley?