The Night Driver

more shopping fun
the reverse karen
Oh, just show me some pictures

Do you ever notice how your sleep gets really out of whack when you’re sick? Mine is already out of whack naturally, so I would think maybe it could be back “in whack”?

No such luck. I collapsed on the couch in the office around 9 pm, and woke up at about 2 am. Refreshed, to be sure, but stuck in that lala land of nothing on TV, and unable to sleep. So I did the most boring thing I could think of: Scan the family photo albums. There’s a lot of them.

Speaking of TV, have you seen some of the titles of some of the infomercials now? I’m not even kidding. A quick look at the DirecTV guide shows… well, I was going to take a picture, but none of the good ones are there. But I’ve seen things like “Perkier Boobs Now!”, “Lose that crepey skin now!” (which I initially misread as “creepier skin”), various terms related to marital aids … wow.

To be fair, we’re both feeling much better today. I don’t feel like being a large potato today, or at least as much of one as I’ve been lately.

More Shopping Fun

So to add to the fun, our refrigerator died. This makes Kenworth, officially a dick. I’m not mad because it died. It had a good 30+ year run. I’m just mad that it chose to die at the time it did. But this forces me into a weird guy-spot: Shopping with mom for a new one.

For me: Measure old unit, find similarly-sized/featured new unit at decent price, 3 mouse clicks, and wait. Yup, push buttons and make stuff happen.

For her: Call appliance-repair store to find out they don’t work on that type of unit anymore, and it would likely be less expensive to purchase new unit. Shop around, find the right one online, arrange for delivery. Then comes the “it’s $10 cheaper here!” Nope. This is what we’re getting.

The Reverse Karen

I wasn’t sure what to call this person, so this may or may not make sense to some of you.

Some people are almost too nice, almost an anti-dick, if you will. Let’s call Customer Service to get the billing date changed on my credit card.

Me: Hi, I’d like to change my billing date to the 18th, please.
CSA: [verifies that I’m me] OK, that’s a done deal. Your first new billing will be December 18th. Anything else?
Me: Nope, thanks, and have a great day! <click>

Time spent (besides on hold): Less than a minute.

The Reverse Karen: Hi, my bill came a few days early, and I like to sit at the kitchen table on a sunny morning and write checks all at once to pay the bills. The squirrels are running around, and there’s the most precious Steller’s Jay bobbing around. […. blahblahblah…]
CSA: *what is this ‘check’ she speaks of?* What date would you like?
RK: Oh, I think around the 18th is when everything else gets here, the electric bill was a little early but that’s not too bad [ …. blahblahblah …]

You see where this is going. I’m not a CSA, but I think that they are evaluated based on pleasant interactions, which Reverse Karen is good for, but they are also evaluated on how many calls they resolve, as a measure of efficiency.

I don’t think it’s Reverse Karen’s fault, though. As much as I preach about not being a dick, she’s genuinely not trying to be a dick. But dickdom creeps into the most insiduous of places, it’s sneaky like that. RK has no idea the CSA has 50 other calls on hold, etc. So I’d call it a wash. I’d attribute it to the whole ‘old versus young’ thing.

I’m perfectly happy using the self checkout. People tell me that I’m working for free, taking jobs away from cashiers, all sorts of things. Human cashiers definitely will always have a place, because there’s always the person that wants to pay with a check, has a bunch of coupons, etc. But for a quickie? I’m through it faster than Taco Bell through a 19-year-old frat boy.

Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t

You earned it. You read through all my blathering, or you skipped here from the top. Either way, here you are, and you get the rewards of some great mountain views.

I’m really trying to get my style dialed in, so please feel free to comment / criticize, or for that matter, what you want to read from me. Have a great day.