I DECIDED TO ANSWER THE PHONE...
...guess I won't be making that mistake again for a while...
-
RRRRRRING!!! I could tell from the silence when I first picked up the receiver that it was some phone-solicitation thing. Usually I hang up instantly, but in this case I actually said "hello" a couple of times before the lady on the other end began to speak. She told me that as a customer of (the bank I bank with), that some really great new insurance coverage was available to me, at a fantastic rate. Not really absorbing what she was saying, I could tell she had up-shifted to "hard-sell" gear. Vrooom! She was telling me how it was risk-free, that it was reasonably priced, and would be oh, so convenient. Then she said her boss would come on the line and tell me again what I'd already heard, and sure enough, another lady (her boss) came on and began repeating everything; she was hurling facts, figures and advice into my ear at twice the clip of the previous lady. I must admit I was getting heavily "snowed" here; indeed, a piece of my mind was thinking, "why haven't I hung up by now?" And she almost had me, until I asked her, "is this health insurance or what?" and she said, "oh no, these are DEATH benefits payable to your beneficiary". And she's trying to keep me in a Good mood?
-
I thought about that for a moment...'I don't HAVE any beneficiaries'. But I had to snap back to attention, because after all, the lady wasn't thru with her speel...as she kept yakking away, trying to get me to sign up, she was telling me how Convenient it all was, that she could send me a form, allowing me time to decide if I wanted in when all of a sudden, The Caveat appeared: She said I would have two weeks to decide if I wanted this insurance or not, and was telling me how risk-free the whole thing was. So I asked her, "say I don't send in the form after a couple of weeks, would I start getting billed?" And she answered "yes". I then asked her, "how can you tell me this thing is risk-free if you charge me if I forget to send in the form?" I know myself. I'm the baddest procrastinator EVER. And all of a sudden, she melted, just like the Wicked Witch in "The Wizard Of Oz". I could feel it over the phone lines. She ran out of gab, she ran out of answers, the train jumped the tracks and sailed over the cliff. She gave me another '800' number I could call if I wanted to buy the insurance she'd initially tried to sell me, after which she bailed. She was probably glad to get rid of me, the solicitee.
-
Life is supposedly a circle. Everything comes back. My Karma ran over your Dogma. Et Cetera. A while back I got a letter from my auto insurance company, advising me to call them regarding payment. That immediately brought up a red flag of sorts..."wait a minute, how can I owe these guys money when I'm on Automatic Bill-Pay?" And with that, I tacked the letter up on the fridge and forgot about it for a while. Told you I'm a Procrastinator! Time went by, and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made; something along the lines of, "wait a minute...maybe they Owe ME money? Could it be?" Yes, it could. I locked my keys in my car a few months ago, and it turned out "The Gecko" was trying to send me a reimbursement check! Let's just say Lock and Key personnel come cheap. So I was due funds. Call made; money being sent. I like that. Now, I figure if I can receive more reimbursement mail than I do monetary sinkholes via the telephone, then I should survive this life quite well.
-
AN OLYMPIC MOMENT OF GREATNESS: "Our Jess", the English call her. That's Jessica Ennis, a young lady who's been under the greatest of pressures ever. Simply put, she was England's Big Hope for a Gold Medal in the women's heptathalon event. If you look at a map of the British Isles, you'll see they're not really very big. If you're famous, where do you go to hide? After Paul McCartney dropped out of sight after the Beatles broke up, he was tracked down by the press, hiding out at a farm in Scotland with his wife and kids. I don't think anyone can hide anywhere in Britain. Anyway, the heptathalon is one of those multiple events where contestants have to do multiple things, ending with a fairly long running event. Jessica started out with the rest of the field, and she took the lead early. She didn't need to win the race, because her point total was so far above everyone else's. All she had to do was coast to the finish line. Sure enough, two of her competitors passed her with about half a lap to go, and Jess was in 3rd place, still a sure bet to win the heptathalon. What a surprise it was, then, to see her go around the two ladies in front of her and kick it in to the finish line. True Greatness All The Way. That was purely amazing and I'll never forget it.
-
FORTY YEARS AND NINETY DEGREES: I've lived on the Oregon Coast for going on six years now. I can count on one hand how many days the temperature has been above 90 degrees since I've been here. It usually never gets above 75 degrees. In my case, that's about to change over the next several days. You see, I'm heading off to my 40th High School Class Reunion. I'll be heading to the Altered State Of Idaho, which is very landlocked and oftentimes can get very hot in the summer. And, if I don't totally vaporize, I'll be taking tons of photos along the way in addition to providing running commentary in my own pseudo-tactful way. IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Reunion was a GAS! It's amazing, that as the years pass, that we all seem to relate better with each other, and although I wasn't sure how things would turn out, it's worth it, going back, for you find that in many ways, those you are reuniting with are part of You. I'm really glad I went, so if you're wondering whether to go to your reunion or not, I'd say "GO". You won't be sorry. (This updated portion written August 13th, 2012.)

One thing in my favor is that Gas Prices are lower these days, even here on the coast. A gallon is "only" $3.60 a gallon. That's how the business works; the prices get jacked up, then come down to a level above where the prices were before the Drastic Increase. So we're still getting shafted. (Well, I can't very well use the term, "screwed"; this is a family blog after all...)