No business, but so what? I get the day off to head into the shop and put in some real time of my own. Today, I finally found a grid that let me calculate my Social Security, and the news is not good. I would not get any more than if I had spent my life on welfare. Even getting an excellent job for the remainder will not make a lot of difference. Nothing to worry about, but I needed something to go on. I placed an employment ad.
An offshoot of this was that I talked to Paulina, who had given me the original information. Turns out, she did not know but had not quite said that. She quoted what you get if you had been on welfare and had less than $3,000 in assets. That is not me, nor what I asked for. I wanted the amount you get at normal retirement age if you had worked minimum wage all along. For me that means 66 years old.She is indeed a weird one, I want to coin a term. I’ll think of one soon, but it is to describe those people like Paulina where no matter how long you’ve know them, every conversation has to start off at kindergarten level and will stay there unless you begin an exasperating process of escalation, which she fights all the way. At one point she was even describing to me how to go to the Social Security office and take a number and get in line. What a dodo! Or was I the dodo for pretending this was all great stuff she was speaking?
Furthermore, the upgrading of the conversation has to be in one long string. Anything that distracts her, like a phone ringing or a car horn and she reverts right back to idiot talk. That is what prompted me to include the picture of my newest flat tire. Add another picture of a banyan tree. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but it looks Banyan to the untrained eye. Or mangrove.I wrote to all my contacts in China (three so far) explaining they were to put everything on hold, unless they wanted to process some small orders for me personally. Again, Sean was fast on the reply, so I asked him about the lighter cameras. A small order of 24. A fellow named Chad has also responded, he can ship small things cheap. He is based in California. Since I cannot finance huge inventory, I’ve asked them all about their assistance in setting up a “sample shop”, where I display items for sale but then either drop ship or put in larger orders for others. I’ll trust you with the replies when I get them.
Nextel wasted my time. They said that Fred’s phone would be there in 48 hours, so I went there after 54. Not until “11:00 tomorrow morning”. Nice of them to call, don’t you think, being that they are a telephone service supplier.
Somehow I forgot it at Panera this morning, but I found an ad from a lawyer like nobody wants around. I’ll find it again. The ad is for people who have fallen down, not because they were clumsy oafs, but because somebody else had a cracked sidewalk, or didn’t put in a guardrail. Don’t you just love the guy already?
A customer came in with a video for transcribing. I recognized the scenery instantly, it is in Whistler, a ski resort in western Canada. Made famous mainly because one of their plastic Prime Ministers picked up his "girlfriend" there. (Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who apparently never stopped to wonder why an old broad was hanging around untaken at a sports lodge.) I mean, I recognize the mountains. Heavens, I could never afford to go to Whistler, I was only making $50,000 a year back then. Interestingly, that old $80 DVD player I picked up at the computer show has breathed life into the system I’ve got here. I found a set of jacks on one side that will accept and through-put VHS. This is neat, because not only can I monitor it from here, some incompatibility with the Sony picks up a constant input signal.
For those who don’t remember, the Sony disk burner has a very annoying defect that it does not stop recording when it hits Studio Blue. Studio Blue is that totally blue screen you get at the beginning or end of quality tapes, instead of the squiggly herringbone pattern of cheap tapes. This blue causes Sony to ruin the DVD. I always had to watch for the end of the tape, that is, where the signal ended. This way, I can let it play until I notice the end, or set a timer without having to keep an eye out. It is not over yet, so if Sony can screw me around, they will.
Cancel practice. I called Brian before I left and it turns out he wants to watch some Presidential speech on television. Such behavior horrifies me, but since he indicated he spent close to six hours on “Act Naturally”, I suggested we pick things up next week. The plan is that if he does not get his guitar playing back, I have the number of a dude called “Fenwick” who likes to play. As long as he can be talked down to a reasonable price, I can use him. I mentioned only that I knew guitar players, not any names, to Brian.
What is Acai juice? I’ve seen several articles that it is the newest miracle cure, again from a plant in the Amazon. The usual patsy doctor makes some lofty claims along with a host of testimonials from people with everything from dislocated back disks to “itching warts all over my legs that kept me awake at night”. Acais look like blueberries. I remember the ad because of the disclaimer which got me to thinking. Would it not be nice if they allowed people to copyright their own addresses? Nobody, including advertisers could then use or store it without written permission of the owner.
“No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language in any form by any means without the written permission of the owner.” It has a nice ring to it. I know, there is a certain element that would begin to ask how the authorities were supposed to tax, fine and draft people if they couldn’t use their addresses, to which I would say, “That would be their fecking problem, wouldn’t it?”
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