Brain Dungeon

I feel as though I owe it to my readers to explain my wife’s comment on my “bloggy ideas” post about dancing monkeys.

In case you didn’t get to see her response, she said, “I think you should blog about dancing monkeys. Because obviously, they are a driving force to your madness. And then blog about how awesome I am.”

You see, I was on the phone with a good friend of mine the other day and I can’t remember what spawned me saying this, but I said, “DANCE, MONKEY! DANCE!” I think we were talking about our respective difficult days at work or something and while he was telling me about his day I said it as if I were the organ grinder making his day so difficult.

Well, he let the comment go, but later on in the conversation he said something that made me say it again. Then he said something that indicated disappointment and I said, “CRY, MONKEY! CRY!” I guess I was in a weird mood, but then he said, “That sounds so familiar! Where did you get that?”

I said, “as far as I know, I made it up.” Turns out – I didn’t.

Ok, so maybe I DID come up with it all my own, because the Google searches I did for the phrase “dance monkey dance” came up with stuff I had never heard of. Over 37,000 hits for the exact phrase “dance monkey dance”!!! Looks like there’s games, videos, all kinds of stuff. I could hardly believe it! I was so very disappointed. I was astonished. I was perplexed. I was driving my wife nuts with my absolute awe over the fact that “dance monkey dance” was such a widely used phrase on the internet.

Oh – and my wife is awesome!

Well, we heard from the dealership what was wrong with our truck.

Apparently the brake rotor rusted and locked. Bad mojo. To make matters worse, the front to rotors were rusted as well and were in danger of having the same happen. They needed to be resurfaced.

Ok – we agreed to have it done.

I was thinking about what on earth could have caused that to happen. We’ve only had the truck for about 3 months and out of nowhere the brakes rust up on us? What gives?

The Gulf of Mexico – that’s what!

Hurricane Ike missed us by a long shot, but we still saw a storm surge in the Gulf which resulted in some flooding on the northern edges of town. In fact, we went driving around to see what the beaches looked like and ended up driving through some of the flooding that occurred. I was so proud of our 4WD truck that wasn’t gonna get stuck in the water! (no cars were stuck in the water…)

Well anyway, after that we went home, parked the truck and left it there for about a week. (I drive a company vehicle for work and Crystal was working hard at home on her jewelry that week). As it turns out…salt water and metal don’t mix too good! I’m pretty sure that the fact that we drove through the salt water and didn’t rinse the truck off before parkin’ it was the cause of the problems.

So 3 rotors needed to be resurfaced. Oh – and we needed to have the little sensor for our airbags or something replaced because the airbag light had been coming on and staying on for about the last 2 weeks. Worst of all, none of this is covered by the warranty we purchased with our truck. All in all – it was gonna cost around $500.

Now let’s recap what we learned so far – “unlucky” license plates: bad. Salty brakes: bad. Local dealership: loses trucks and doesn’t call back: BAD!

I fear I’m going to sound like Paul Harvey…

And now for the rest of the story…

It was Monday when we found out about the actual cause of the wheel being so stubborn. They said that the truck would be ready to go Tuesday afternoon. Not so bad I guess considering all that’s happened so far.

We got on with our busy lives and realized on Thursday that they still hadn’t called. WHAT FREAKIN’ GIVES?

Thursday they tell us it’ll for sure be ready on Friday by 2:00. I have my doubts, but plan to actually show up at 2 and have a little one-on-one with the service manager about the severe lack of “service” we’d seen thus far.

Friday at 1:00 I get a call. “Mr. Braindungeon Dude, [not really what he said, in case you didn't pick up on that all by yourself], I have good news. You’re truck is almost ready.”

This doesn’t sound like good news…otherwise, why the call? I chime in, “But…?”

“Well the thing is…” and he goes on to explain that the front left router was so badly corroded that they had to “cut too deep” to be able to resurface it. It’s now too thin and must be replaced. I kinda saw this coming a mile away…I have had it happen before on another car.

He goes on to say that they can replace just the one router, but they recommend if replacing one front router, go ahead and replace both. He reassures me that they won’t be charging me any extra for labor but tells me that to replace one router will be an extra $100 and to replace both will (amazingly) be $200. A question suddenly comes to mind. I remember talking to this guy when this all began about the fact that we need an extra key. This magical key costs $50 just to purchase, but $100 to program. (Why even bother telling the price without programming…I mean seriously…???)

I want to know if that was included in the original work order, because now the dollar signs are just flashing past me like crazy and with the lack of customer service they’ve provided, I can’t stomach the thought of paying over $850 bucks for all this. Not only did he forget to work the number into the original work order, but now there’s yet another due date for our truck…MONDAY.

I calmly…coolly…but sternly say “before we talk any more about money…let’s talk about facts.” and I start pointing out every single instance where their customer service has been less than worthy of the moniker.

The conversation went on for a while and I ended up setting an appointment to actually meet with the service manager. Before I am able to get out there, I’m sharing this story with someone I work with who happens to know the General Sales Manager there. He calls him up and let’s him know what’s going on. This guy calls me back and does his best to assuage me and offer to rectify the situation by paying for a rental car for the weekend. I decline and tell him I don’t need it. I bring up the key issue and he offers to throw in the key. He asks if that would make the situation right.

I begin to think about this and say to him, “I would love to get that key and not have to pay for it, but I’m not sure that I can justifiably say that would make me a happy customer. I’m not trying to put you out of money, I’m trying to resolve a customer service situation. At this point, I’m not sure I will ever return to your service shop.”

We decide that I’m going to think it over and call him back. Ultimately, I decide that since I had a need with my truck that they did not fulfill, then fulfilling this other need I have with my truck at their expense is a fair trade. I mean, come on…$150 bucks for a key??? lol

I still wasn’t sure that I was comfortable with that. I was, after all, still not sure I was going to go back there and I didn’t want to come across like the key was “the key” to solving the situation. I decide to go and discuss it with him face-to-face before giving a final answer.

When I show up, he greets me pretty warmly. He’s not a “typical” sales guy. He’s friendly, Has an honest look to him and genuinely, and sincerely is apologetic for all that’s happened. He tells me that he’s gonna throw in the key anyway at his cost (before I get to tell him I’m going to accept it) and says that he is personally going to follow this task to completion. It can’t happen until Monday because the parts that need to be replaced need to be ordered.

We have a friendly conversation about customer service and he asks me to consider giving them another chance in the future. I tell him that I most certainly will consider it, because I feel he has done everything he can to rectify a situation that he only came into at the last minute.

So there you have it. Hopefully you’ll hear from me on Monday that we have our truck back. I haven’t sworn off the dealership (at least not yet!). And I learned a valuable lesson in chemical reactions between salt and metal.

Perhaps it will all go uphill from here…

PS – I added a feed counter to my blog – I HAVE 11 SUBSCRIBERS VIA FEED! Check it out in the upper right hand corner. I can now officially stop using the “(s?)” when I refer to my readers!

PPS – James really can read…so he says…

If anyone read my “please help me” blog and didn’t comment – SHAME ON YOU! Just kidding…

But now I have to explain someone. That is – James.

Before I go any further, I want to point out a new feature on my blog. I owe the idea to…well…whoever came up with it. But I owe COMPLETION of the idea to both Anna and James who commented on my last post. Of course, James was just being sarcastic. I’ll bet he didn’t even know he was saying something helpful. But, thanks to Anna letting me know that I could get the code for enabling E-Mail subscriptions to my blog. Now if you look in the upper right hand corner (go ahead and look now) you can type in your email address and get updates to my blog! Anna, I’ll see what I can come up with for your blogging ideas, but for now, I have to continue with my verbal thrashing of one of my best friends from high school.

Depending on how you know me, you might already know who James is. If you don’t know who he is then before I go on this tirade about his comment on my “please help me” post (link above if you haven’t seen it), I want to make it clear that this is a friendly tirade. It’s typical of our sense of humor and friendship and now that I know he’s visited my site, “it’s on!”

All seriousness aside, James is one of the most fluent sarcasm masters I know. And by masters, I mean that was even his major in college and he got his masters in sarcasm. But I guess that’s needed in order to teach! That’s what he does…he teaches. And I know he had to hone his sarcasm skills in order to teach because I remember the teachers WE had!

James commented that I should continue to blog about having nothing to blog about. Sorry, James. That idea was already used in television. I think it was called “Seinfeld” and you can now catch it in syndication.

He also commented that when he looked at his reader it would tell him that that there was a new blog post about not having anything to blog about. I’m pretty certain that this “reader” is one of his students. James can’t read. He has someone he picks out to do his reading for him.

His comment about emailing people when there’s new information on my the feed from my blog was intended to be completely sarcastic (trust me, I know him), but little did he know that I can actually do that! And now I have. James, have one of your students put their email address in there so they can let you know when there’s more “nothing” on my blog.

He also mentioned using text messages to update people when there’s an email about there being a feed about there being more on my blog. This was just a defense mechanism trying to not let on that he can’t read. That was actually code for “You should call me when you have a new post! But if it’s after school hours, you’ll have to read it to me!”

The fact that he mentioned Morse Code is just a façade. It’s a fluke he actually mentioned a legitimate, albeit antiquated, method of communication.

Ok – I think I’m done for now.

James, thanks for letting me bully you on my blog. Although you may not have seen it coming, I’m sure you’ll take it in stride. In fact, you might even have one of your students type up a blog for you in vengeance!

I’m guessing his comments actually spawned from the fact that I posted a message on my facebook account saying that I had posted a blog looking for ideas on what to post. Hey! In my defense, I was trying to get the word out to the people that I know that I am looking for more ideas on what to blog about. I’m also looking for more exposure, so if you think you know someone who would enjoy my writing, feel free to pass along a link!

Bring on those ideas!

Ok, so I installed Google Analytics to give me some idea as to whether or not I am actually getting any traffic. Turns out I am…a little.

That’s ok, my blog isn’t really meant to just reach out and grab the world just yet, but I found it interesting that I had readers in Texas, Illinois, Indiana, New York and Arkansas. (Most of those were in Texas, and by most I think it was like 9 out of 13) HA!

Anyway, it occurred to me that I have been REALLY silent and that was mostly because I wasn’t sure that I had anything post-worthy. That’s when I decided that I ought to see what my small circle of readers (yes, you can make a circle out of 13 people! Just ask Altell, they do it with 5) would like to hear my thoughts on. So what I’d like (if you would be so inclined as to assist me here) is to find out if there’s anything that you’d like to mention and see how I might respond about it. Depending on the topic, it could be anywhere from humorous to insightful to downright boring, but it’s worth a shot!

I’m really hoping to get some interesting ideas to post about and I’m not sure what to expect (if anything!) but it’s going to depend on all y’all! (I know…I talk like a Texan). PLEASE give me ideas. I’m begging. I WANT to blog. I LOVE to be creative…but apparently my creativity is dependent on others. I do have one request though…please keep the topics clean.

By the way, I want to say, real quick, thanks to Anna who posted a comment the other day on one of my posts suggesting that I add a feedburner link to my blog. I have done so, and hopefully I did it right so I don’t screw up my page, but in the upper right hand corner you should have a “subscribe” link. So if you subscribe to blogs, SUBSCRIBE TO MINE!

I checked out some of Anna’s stuff and it’s worth a look, especially if you are artistically inclined. I especially liked looking at some of the pictures she took.

Additionally – I have shortened the amount of my blog that will show in readers. I kinda did this in hopes that people might be more inclined to actually visit my blog (so I’ll know you’re out there!) and maybe choose to leave me a comment. I hope this doesn’t upset anyone, but if it does, please let me know…I don’t want to drive away any of my few readers!

Anyway – let me know if you want to get inside my braindungeon and see what’s lurking around!

“Lost” is one of my favorite TV shows. Just the word “Lost” however, is NOT one of my favorite words.

In case you haven’t already read my post about what happened with our new (used) truck, you might want to read that first.

Ok, so to follow up: The tow truck had gotten to our house in the afternoon. I thought about calling the dealership right around 6:30 or so to see if they’d taken a look at it yet. By then it would have been there for at least a couple of hours and there was a distinct possibility they’d have had time to run the diagnostics on it. I decided, however, that because it WAS toward the end of the day, I’d give them til the next morning before calling.

Well, shortly after I posted yesterday, I called the dealership to see what the status was. I was a *little* perturbed when they couldn’t seem to find me in the system. I explained the situation to them about my truck getting towed to them for diagnostics. They put me on hold. I waited. For a long time. I was now growing more irritated. Ten minutes on hold without so much as a “we’re still looking” is quite frustrating.

Someone came back on the line “Service, who are you holding for?” I explained AGAIN the situation. I got put on hold AGAIN. This time for not as long tho…someone else picked up the phone and said “Service, who are you holding for?” I, once more, explained the situation and was put on hold AGAIN. Very shortly afterward (we’re at a total of 15 minutes on the phone now) someone picks up and said “Hello, sir?” I had muted the phone at this point because I was talking to my wife about heading over there. In the amount of time it took for me to hit the unmute button, the guy hung up.

Ok, now I’m pissed.

I call back. I explain that I got disconnected. I got put on hold again. CRAP! Oh wait, no, they came back more quickly this time…

“We’re still waiting for your truck. It hasn’t arrived yet.”

WHAT???

Ok. Not cool. I tell them that’s not possible. I explain the timing and how it should have been there for at least a couple of hours yesterday. Nope. They explained that when they closed up shop at 7:00pm the night before, it had not arrived.

Ok, now I’m BEYOND furious.

I call my wife. I ask for the number to our insurance company (who provided the tow truck in the first place). She tells me she has the number for the wrecker company responsible for towing the car. I gladly accept the number and mutter something about someone losing their job and threatening jail time.

Now I call the wrecker company and in a not-so-nice voice, but not the “irate customer” many dread, I explain that I had my truck towed and the dealership claims they never received it. I am given yet ANOTHER number. This guy is apparently the one who was in charge when my truck was towed.

I call him. I’m a little less kind than the previous call, but still maintaining at least a modicum of composure. I explain the situation and his initial reaction is that the dealership it was towed to is pretty bad (nation-wide) about receiving vehicles towed in, but never recording that they received them. He says he’ll call the dealership.

I get a call from the wrecker guy, he says (really…his words) that they performed a “miracle” and “magically” made my truck appear. I can understand his sarcasm since he apparently has problems with this dealership a lot, but it was not appreciated in my mood. Whatever…I tell him thanks.

I get a call from the dealership. “Good news! We found your truck. The work order WAS in the system. Everything WAS done right. The wrecker guy gave the keys to the wrong person. I couldn’t find your truck on our lot because it was already in the shop!”

Bull. Whatever. I don’t care, just diagnose the problem and call me back with a solution. Of course, that’s not what I said…I thanked them and asked when I should know something. They indicate that it shouldn’t be long.

Well, it WAS long. I called 3 hours or so later and they still didn’t know anything. I said “So the diagnostic still isn’t finished?” He said “I’m not saying that…it’s just not ready. It’s not in the computer yet.” Right…and asking the technician who was looking at it is just too hard. I asked when they close. Four o’clock. Good. So I should at least know something in the next 2 hours. NOT. They never called and I was wrapped up in something at that particular moment in time (4:00) so I didn’t get a chance to call them back to find out what the heck was going on with my truck.

So…my loyal reader(s?) – I don’t know as of this moment why the rear wheel on our new (used) truck won’t turn. I may also swear off this dealership. I have been known to completely and utterly avoid companies that give me service that I consider less than adequate.

Oh well. I guess it’ll eventually work out. But – I thought maybe you’d be interested to know that the saga continues.

This has been one heck of a week. Just about every day ended with me in a terrible mood for some reason or another. There were a couple of moments that all seemed ok with the world.

Oh wait, it’s me!

Ok, so, wow. Long time since I last posted. Two months since my last post…almost three since my last “real” post. I know I’m rambling to almost nobody, here, but I still feel the need to catch up…with…myself?

It’s been a hectic few months. Work has been busy, so there hasn’t been a WHOLE lot of social life going on. (oooh…ending a sentence with a preposition – I’m DEvolving!) I took a trip to Utah in August to visit with family I haven’t seen in upwards of 12 years. The reason for the trip was actually the celebration of my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Their anniversary is really in September, but since it was easier to get everyone together in August – that was the month we got together!

So – I saw my parents and one of my brothers and his family for the first time in almost 3 years. I saw my Grandparents and some of my aunts and uncles for the first time in almost 8 years. And I saw most of the rest of my family whom I hadn’t seen in 12 years! Including my “little” brother. I use quotes because he’s 4 years younger than I am and the last time I saw him, he was a short little runt of a 12-year-old whose biggest accomplishment in life was tattling on our sister and getting her in trouble. Now he’s a gargantuan (4 inches taller than me) 24-year-old who spent 2 years on a mission in Taiwan, has learned to fluently speak Mandarin Chinese, and has even recorded for Disney (he plays cello).

Since I came back, I’ve been working a whole lot more. Mostly because the company I work for just opened up a new restaurant. Since I’m the lead on all the techie stuff that goes in (registers, computers, cameras, etc) that means a lot of long hours. But the opening was a success a couple of days ago, and aside from working out a few kinks, I think I’ll soon be able to move on to other projects.

In the interest of not making this TOO long (I think that ship has sailed), I’ll mention one other thing and send you, my loyal reader(s?), off to do thy bidding. Last weekend, I got back from work and just felt the need to get out of the house. I convinced my wife that we should get out and maybe take some pictures or something (we both enjoy a little photography). So, we got in her new (used) Mazda Tribute (4 wheel drive, baby!) and went down to the beach. (Our first time on the beach in 4 wheel drive!) We snapped a few pictures of the water, the birds, and of us! One picture turned out really well and neither of us could believe it actually came out good! Because of my back injury from my military days, this shot hurt pretty bad afterward…but it was so worth it. Check it out.

So, anyway, I suppose that’s it. In case you care, I updated my profile with a new “about me” and a new “random question” and had a little fun with it, so feel free to check it out. Drop me a line and let me know I’m not just talking to myself and hopefully I’ll post again soon…sooner than 2 months!

I know…it’s been a while. But I’ve been busy…

Running for President…

Tell all your friends!

My brain is a jungle of random thoughts right now. So, if you please, I’ll just jot them down and get on with my day.

First, I’m thinking about the adoption my wife and I are working toward. We will be happy to adopt whatever child the Good Lord brings our way, but for some reason, in my mind, I see us ending up with a little Hispanic girl. Why girl? Probably wishful thinking. I’ve always wanted to be able to say “That’s my boy!” but there’s just something about having a “daddy’s girl” that kinda makes my heart soft. Why Hispanic? Probably because of where we live. A significant portion of the population in our area is Hispanic. I guess that doesn’t mean we’ll end up with a Hispanic baby, but the odds are probably in that favor.

I had a dream last night that we adopted a little Hispanic girl. This was not a baby adoption, however. Our first adoption will be an infant. But I still can’t stop thinking about the dream from last night. It was kind of an emotional dream. The little girl was living in foster care until we came along. I remember calling her by her name, but I don’t remember now what that name was…it was something like Syliva or Sarina or something like that. She was maybe 4 years old or so and was just in absolute tears when she came into our home. She was tired of being moved from home to home. In my dream I hugged her and promised her that this was the last time. I explained to her that when she was moving from home to home it was because she was in foster care, but adoption was different. She was now going to be OUR child! She was going to stay in our home for good! She was so happy. Later on in the dream she was a very happy little girl and very excited that she didn’t have to worry about moving to another home because she was very happy that we were her new parents.

Skipping on to the next random thought – we bought a new (used) vehicle yesterday. After doing a little looking around, we found a vehicle that seemed like a good fit. After looking into the fuel ratings of the sedans we were interested in and the SUVs we were interested in, we decided the SUV would be it. The fuel economy between the two was almost identical. The SUV was newer and very well maintained. It’s not a big SUV, but it’s bigger than the car that Crystal despises. Should be good for bringing home a baby from the hospital! I’m sure she’ll be blogging about the vehicle later, so I’ll leave it at that.

And, lastly, I need to stop procrastinating on taking the defensive driving course. I have one month left to take the course and turn in the results with my driving record to the judge (I got a speeding ticket) and requested that the ticket be dismissed from my record in trade of six hours of my life being dedicated to learning how to drive more safely. The ironic thing is that (and I am certain Crystal would be willing to confirm) I am a very safe driver. I RARELY exceed the speed limit (in fact I usually set my cruise control right at the speed limit). I always make sure I come to a complete stop at a stop sign. It’s a pet peeve of mine when people fail to use their turn signal.

This particular day was a very long day for me at work. At 6pm when I was ready to head home, I got a call that resulted in my having to drive an hour out of town to fix a cash register for one of our restaurants. I went to the office and picked up some spare parts and headed out to make the fix. Between being tired from the day and angry that it wasn’t over yet, somehow I misread my speedometer. In this case I was allowing myself to travel 2 mph over the limit. Turns out I must have been looking at the wrong line and was going 2 mph over 5 mph over the limit. Cop said he clocked me at 77 in a 70. Cited me for exceeding 10% over the speed limit.

So there you have it. The mess that is my brain this morning. Hope it wasn’t too boring, but maybe getting it all out will help me focus on the task at hand…internet course for defensive driving. Yay.

Every once in a while, when I am on the web and I have run through my normal routine (email, blog subscriptions, random thoughts I feel I must look up) I will reach a point where I decide it’s time to Stumble. If you’re not familiar with StumbleUpon then visit their site, get the toolbar and start stumbling. It can be fun.

Today I stumbled upon a website called I Am Neurotic. When I started reading the posts, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh, cry, or just stare blankly at the screen. The most concerning thing to me is that I just KNOW that there is something I can or probably even should post there. Almost like a neurotic desire to share being neurotic. The bad part…at the moment, I can’t seem to think of the things that would think appropriate to post!

And the worst part…I subscribed to their RSS feed!