Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Grump-in-ator

I am too grumpy to live. Not even related to taxes. I'm going to try to post with minimal whining.



This is Stumpy. I noticed him last year because he has such a freakishly short tail next to the other squirrels. Poor guy. I've tried to take pictures of him before but got nothing but a gray blur. I better send Carol a note and make sure she sees this.

Current trend: stores are having a tough time convincing us to buy stuff we don't need so they're focusing on things we need. In the last two days I've gotten two $25 coupons enticing me to change my prescriptions to a different pharmacy.

It's one of my missions in life to avoid prescriptions and at least for now, I'm doing okay.



These pink tulips are among my favorites. They've barely come out and they already look trashy and wind blown. What happened?

I don't understand why financial institutions (or any information collecting entity) insist on asking for every phone number known to man: day phone, home phone, cellphone. But then when they call you they leave a message only on your home phone. Where you aren't during the day because you are at your job. The job they asked about when they agreed to deal with your financial business.

I'm in the process of moving some retirement funds and I'm certain there will be a long ranty post about this in the future. I have nothing nice to say about WaMu investment services, if you're wondering.



Hannah gave me a waterproof tote bag a few years ago after reading this sad tale. It's been disintegrating for some time now and I've been searching for an appropriate replacement. I finally decided on this. It's not exactly what I had in mind but this thing is so durable, my heirs' heirs will be using it. And it was a good color for the acorn appliqué that Caren and Eden gave me.

On average, I'm in the office alone about one day a week. It never fails that on those days some random stranger wanders in. We're not a location where random people wander and it's not the kind of business that gets people off the street. I'm always a bit uncomfortable when it happens.

We've had several people looking for attorneys who were not us. The people would then ask me if we did the type of law they were looking for. Seriously? Hiring an attorney that you stumble upon doesn't seem like a good idea.

There was a guy who came in and started reading something that was on the table. "Can I help you?" I said. "I'm just delivering this phonebook," he said and he dropped the book with a thump and left.

Then there are the cold callers. I'm never going to do business with a cold caller of any kind, ever, except for small children who come to the front door of my home and want me to buy candy to support their ballet or trip to France with the Jr. Symphony. And that's not the same thing. It freaks me out when people come marching in the office and introduce themselves and shake my hand like we're old friends and then start asking me questions. Apparently the words "Indian Tribe" are magic because they went on their way without a fight.