Saturday there was the annual community “Breakfast Walk”, starting with breakfast in one of the Community Gardens (or “Allotments” for us Brits) and then on to view some gardens in the neighborhood. As well as getting to see some of the gardens, it’s also a great way to meet the neighbors and we had quite a few nice chats along the way!
I just wrote a piece for my “Daily Thoughts” blog and noticed that it was my 200th post – 200 days of continuous posting, wow!
I’m actually quite impressed by that fact, and encouraged to go on – over the weekend I was actively thinking of just walking away from this stuff – just stopping writing altogether. It was a 3am thought – which is always a bad time to be awake and thinking – but it has stayed with me for a few days now.
Much of it was caused by a conversation I had with someone – well, not so much a conversation – more an explanation to me about why something i believe in was bad. and why money was the only thing that mattered. And whilst I don’t have to take what he said as true, I do feel the effect of it still. How does the world value us? By how much money we have.
That may be a simplification, and I may or may not like it (I don’t), but it is generally true. So why am I spending my time doing something that will not make me rich? What is the freaking point?
I don’t know, and I can’t answer the question I was asking myself in the dead of night. All I know is that one day at a time, I got to 200 days of writing, and I am happy with that, no matter what others may think of it.
Back in January, I purchased some furniture from a store, and when it was delivered, the delivery people and I noted that the back of one of the chairs was out of alignment. They reported it to the store, and after a wait of 3 weeks a repair man called, but said he couldn’t repair it, and sent in a recommendation that it be replaced.
After a few more weeks, the store called and said that they “had the part” and would send the repair man again to fix it. Again we had to wait for the repair man to call, and when he did he still couldn’t fix it, so again recommended we get a replacement.
This time the store said that they would replace it – they had to get one from another store, but would do so and get it delivered.
Another two months elapsed, and every time I called the store I was told that It was on its way, and that it would be with us soon.
On Tuesday of this week, I was looking at Facebook and noticed that the Page for this furniture chain had put up a piece about an upcoming “exciting event”, so I commented that I hoped it was the delivery of my chair that I was still waiting for after several months, and I told a brief version of what you’re just read. There was a reply from their Social Media person, with a suggestion that I write to them direct.
On Wednesday, I received two calls within about 5 minutes – I was busy and didn’t take them, but listened to the messages later.
The first was a call from the corporate office of the Furniture chain, wanting to talk about my Facebook comments.
The second was a call from the manager of my local store, saying that, totally by coincidence, the replacement chair had just appeared on their system on Tuesday, so when could they deliver it.
As yet I’ve not spoken to the corporate office, but I did talk to the branch manager, and he at first said he would deliver the chair today. Later he called back to say that he’d looked at the chair, and it too was damaged, but he’d get me one from another store, and call me today with an updated delivery time.
Interesting.
Being the “nice guy” and playing by the rules got me nothing. Playing the Social Media card at least got the store to call me, something that I’d never been able to do by leaving messages with them direct. And maybe will get me my chair, which is all I’m interested in.
More will be revealed – mainly on Social Media.
Now, I admit that I’m not the best speller in the world (thank you God for spell checker!!). My grammar sometimes leave a bit to be desired, and I can, on occasion, use the wrong word in the wrong place. And I do have the bad habit of using too much punctuation.
BUT
I recently went to a website for a Spa, because I had a voucher to use there. Without that reason to carry on, the heading on the page would have put me off going there – here’s what was at the top of the opening page of the website:
<company name> 24HR SPA.NATURE-FRIENDLY
SPA WITH AN AROMATHERAPY CONCEPT. ~WITH
OUT AIRBORNE CHEMICALS.<company name> 24Hr
Spa is a one person spa any no calls or no shows
will automatically forfeit the paid services.After
Hours start at 8pm to 7am with $15.00 down
payment held with a credit to [V.I.P] your
appointment not valid with vouchers Thank You.
I have a number of issues with this – the first that it is almost totally incomprehensible until you have read it 3 or 4 times. And I’m still not sure what “a credit to [V.I.P.] your appointment not valid with vouchers” means, or even if that is how you are supposed to read that sentence.
So, once I got over the language and phrasing, I scrolled down the page to find how to book an appointment. Trying to ignore the garish background colors, I eventually found this way down on the page:
Please call to confirm your appointment . Please call xxx-xxx-xxxx and thank you.Also pampering service are available after hours 24/7 by appts.
Please select your desired services, date, and time in the required fields below. We’ll respond shortly to confirm your reservation. Please be advised that 24 hour services are by appointment ONLY. Reservations are held by credit card. Your card will not be billed until services are rendered.
So, I think that means I can book it online, they will respond back to me, but I have to call them anyway. Quite why the word rendered was written bigger than the other words is beyond me, as is why some of the words are in different colors (no, they are not hyper-links).
And before you ask – this is (I’m told) a respectable spa – the “services rendered” are legitimate treatments like reflexology, manicure and pedicure.
Let’s just hope they are better at the treatments they offer than they are at web design.
As most of you will know, my first published book – Cast A Long Shadow - is out now, and I’ve been looking at producing some short Travel pieces for the Kindle. So far I’ve only done one of these, but I’m also started on Cast a Long Shadow 2, which will be another 90 days of meditation words.
If you’d like to read along with the writing process, my blog “Daily Thoughts” will have the drafts each day as I write them, and you would be welcome to read along:)
In the mean time, the first 90 “thoughts” are available for you to buy from Amazon and also direct from the publisher – please do consider buying this book to keep with you on your journey.
The adventure continues!!
These pictures are from a recent visit to Creve Coeur Lake. I went there one evening, and so there are some sunset over the water pictures.
It was my first visit to the lake, and I found a better place to start this walk, so I may return another time and do a complete circumnavigation of the lake – if so, expect more pictures!
“Delmar Loop” is an interesting collection of old and new buildings, as these pictures show. At night it is bustling with life, and the many restaurants are always full. During the day there is a more relaxed air, with just the few tourists and students going about their business.
Don’t forget to check out my new book of meditation, “Cast A Long Shadow” available now!
Well I’ve crossed a new bridge – produced a short Kindle book!!!
I’ve had this idea for a while to write about my various travels, but every time I sit down to write it all, it seems too daunting. But doing it a chapter at a time? Yea, I think I can do that – so I’ve published the first part of what will some day be “To Travel, Hopefully”. This is all about my California exploits, and we will see how it goes from there.
The cool thing about Kindle is that it “replicates” publishing in all the Amazon sites, and in the local currencies; so for the USA you’d go to Amazon.com and see it in dollars, but in the UK you’d go to Amazon.co.uk and see it in Sterling. The same goes for all the other Amazon sites: France (Amazon.fr), Germany (Amazon.de) and so on.
I’m pretty excites about this, and really want to keep the ball rolling on Cast A Long Shadow too
These collection of lampposts just caught my eye as being unusual
My new book, “Cast A Long Shadow” is available NOW – check it out:)
Well, quicker than they promised, Cast A Long Shadow is now available on Amazon, as well as still being available direct from the publisher.
Here is an extract from the meditation regarding “Work”:
…
Here we come closest to a meaningful definition. When we work on a problem, we spend time looking for solutions and resolving issues. If we do this in an office for money, on a farm to grow the best crops we can, or in our private life to increase the affection we share with a loved one, we are doing an activity in the hope of obtaining an outcome.
