One of my computers now has the Blaster/Sasser virus big time. It is the one that I have been trying to get rid of a companion virus called “Infostealer” that my clients pick up when they look at certain sites. I should mention that all my clientele are over 18. I need to rebuild a third computer for myself over there so at least I can go on line when it is busy. I’ll position it near the door to catch anyone who walks out without canceling the timer. The ice cream shop downtown used to have a log book, something I’m keen to avoid. Mind you, they are out of business and the word is there is a new place opened up across the street. I’ll go looking. I must have been right by it and never noticed.My days of quiet, uninterrupted solitude are over. I’m getting telemarket calls every day now. The bad news is most of them are from the two worst places, the health insurance scam and the car warranty scam. Both of these places spoof the call display on either a VOiP or QWEST telephone system and are totally robotic. The health insurance appears to call from 561-524-6524 and the warranty from 319-758-7205. There is another annoying call originating in Canada with a 416 (Ontario) area code that comes through in perfect Mexican accented Spanish. I had gotten calls from that one before, which left me wondering how a Canadian telemarketer ever got my phone number.
The reason this is particularly bad news is the government clearly is doing nothing to put these people out of business and once on these systems, your telephone number is given out to all the small fry. The no-call list doesn’t work when you don’t know who is calling, and besides, that list was a typical political half-measure. It is now going to cost me to have my phone number changed, and I will lose the business from my former customers and their referrals who will be unable to call me.
I would not refer to this day as one of my favorites. Another customer gave me a check made out to cash and there is an unwelcome rumble from my brand new, balanced car tires. Let’s see, is there anything else to bitch about? No, so that means I have to blog some good news. JP was at home last evening and we’ll be getting together probably on the weekend. The space under the trailer is surprisingly easy to crawl around. It is bright, cool and dry and Pudding-Tat is living under there now, coming out only to eat and get snorked on catnip. The days are blisteringly hot, driving all productive activity indoors.
The hot weather reminds me of the first jobs I ever had when I left home. Was I naïve, or what? I would apply as a carpenter’s helper, probably because that was the only work I could relate to. They would promise to teach me the trade then put me to work doing labor. It was not long before I figured things out but by then I had packed my share of concrete forms, pulled thousands of nails and dug a few miles of trench. Since I was a struggling student, I worked only in the hot part of summer, which I always thought was odd. Summer is the best time to be on campus.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked construction work and still do. What I don’t like is construction workers. The occupation attracts bad operators. On a hot summer day like this, we would do 90% of some project and the foreman would pull up in an air-conditioned truck. He’d go on about how long it was taking us, then grab some tool and do the last little bit, then go on about look how easy it was and how much he got done. Does this ring a bell for any of you? Nobody had told me you could go to school to learn carpentry until I was 18 and it was too late (for a variety of reasons but mainly because by then I had too much borrowed money tied up in university and could not start over in something else).
