Facie’s Ramblings

I have a few thoughts on my noodle today, things I just don't get. Older kids and public restrooms Yesterday, as I was walking out of the stall in a hospital restroom, I saw a boy who appeared to be 9- or 10-years old at the sink with a woman. I tried not to stare, and if I had been feeling better, I may have made some off-handed comment. I really, really wanted to know the woman's reasoning behind bringing a boy that old into a woman's restroom. What does she think would happen if she allowed him to go into the men's restroom while she waited outside? Most boys I know don't even wash their hands, so he probably would have been in there for only two or three minutes... Hospitals and communications I spent about 10 hours at the hospital today, probably about 6 hours more than I needed to. I hung out with my dad until he went into surgery around 9:40 a.m.. The woman in the waiting room told me he would probably be done in 1 to 1.5 hours, the doctor would talk t...

A few months ago I blogged about my 14-month old TV that died unexpectedly. Unexpected because one would think a TV would last at least five years. I, being naive and optimistic, was actually hoping for at least 10 years, because, you know, my last TV is over 15 years old and still works. I am still trying to bring myself to write a complaint letter, but I am hesitant because I know exactly what will happen. Nothing. But this week's dilemma is brought to you by tires and, apparently, PA roads, which are consistently ranked in the bottom five. But first, let me back up. About 2.5 years ago, when my car had about 26,000 miles on it, I had to replace my tires, which I believe were warranted for 60,000 miles. At that time, the guy at Flynn's told me that original tires never last long, and when combined with PA roads, my tires did as well as I could expect. Or something like that. So I painfully bought new tires, which were quite pricey thanks to my car (stupid Saturn Vue). But ...

Well, my brake-car conundrum did not turn out as I had expected. Not surprisingly, the gurgling sound my car was making pretty much stopped after I made the appointment with my mechanic, which is precisely what happened the last time my car was making funny noises . But since I needed an oil change anyway, and my new brakes do squeal, I went ahead with my appointment. According to a guy at my mechanic's, my brakes are fine . He said a "different" material was used on the brakes, and I am probably just not used to the sound. Although I feel good (well, better) knowing that there does not appear to be a problem with my brakes, I don't feel great knowing that I can most likely expect to hear these various sounds again. One would think with the money I spent on my brakes in June, I could expect them to be noise-free. One (i.e., I), however, would be wrong. Worth noting is my mechanic did not charge me to try to figure out what was the wrong this time, although let me ...

About 2.5 months ago, I wrote about my brake rip-off at Monro . Unfortunately for me, I neglected to do a follow-up post. If I had, I would have told you that I filled out an online survey about 10 days later, completely bashing my experience. The very next day, I received a call from J, the guy at the local Monro, who tried to explain himself. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say he did nothing to convince me to come back. Around this time, my car started to make funny noises, some of which sounded like knocking. I took it to my usual mechanic, who simply tightened my caliper mounting bracket. When I asked what this was about, my mechanic asked if I had recently had brakes put on. Grr. Apparently, had my mechanic not made this fix, my brakes could have eventually fallen off. Lovely. I called Monro that afternoon to tell J what happened. He told me if I brought the bill in, he would pay for it. Or I could have two free oil changes. I, stupidly, opted for the...

Coming on the heels of my last post, I have another customer service issue. Except this appears to be less about customer service and more about my being a woman. Today, I brought my car into Monro for my 8:30 a.m. brake appointment. When I made the appointment yesterday, I explained that my brakes have been squealing for the past couple of months, and more recently, they have felt spongy. Today, J, the store manager (the same guy I spoke with yesterday) again asked me what was happening with my brakes, and I repeated the information. I also added that when I had my car inspected at my "regular" mechanic's back in December, he said that my brakes should be good for a few more months. [As an aside, at that inspection, I told my mechanic if my brakes were "close to failing," he should replace them because I would rather have new brakes through the winter. My mechanic said my brakes still had some tread and replacing them would be like throwing out half a loaf of...

In an hour or so, I will be heading to J's school to make copies of a survey I put together with the help of a small committee. At a tuition meeting two months ago, about 10 or so of us said we wanted the school to see better days. We wanted more for our money. Most of all, we didn't want to just complain; we wanted to help make things better. So about a month ago, I brought up the idea of a survey for the parents to fill out, and I presented a rough draft to the group at a follow-up meeting for the 10 or so parents at the tuition meeting who wanted to make things better. I received some input from some group members, and I am happy to say that most of the group was very complimentary and thanked me for my work on the survey (I put in hours and hours, believe it or not). The idealist in me likes to think good things can come from us. But am I just kidding myself? Some people hate surveys. They loathe the time spent filling them out. They are afraid their comments will have ne...

If you thought my last blog post went on, I am thinking this one is going to be worse. Ladies and gentlemen, Mama Bear is mad. As my alternate post title says, "Stop being mean to my kid!" I subbed for Jordan's class a few weeks ago, and it went rather well. However, she later told me that during the day one boy had told her to shut up, apparently because she told him to be quiet when he was talking when they were not supposed to be. Later, this boy apparently referred to Jordan as "Jordan the jerk." I never saw this happen, which bothered me (which once again shows how difficult it is for teachers to keep track of every student while trying to teach). Regardless, I told Jordan that some kids are simply not kind, kids are going to say mean things, probably much worse, throughout her childhood, etc. But when Jordan told me this is not the first time this boy has been mean to her, and I could see this was bothering her, I thought maybe I should not let this g...

Can I tell you, again, how much I hate the job search process? I had a second interview scheduled for yesterday, for a temporary (about five months) full-time position. This potential job has been causing this household stress because although so far it is the best-paying job I have come close to, once I have to start paying for childcare this summer, we will most likely come up a little short. Of course, the optimist in me figured we would somehow work out the money situation (maybe Jordan would stay home one or two days a week since Brian works from home). And as I said to hubby, coming away with some money is better than nothing (since I obviously cannot sub this summer). Plus this job could end up becoming permanent (the woman I would be taking over for is going on maternity leave, so you never know). But I would be working full time, something I had not done since the day before Jordan was born. And juggling drop off and pick up, plus Jordan's many school days off, would f...

Yesterday's post was a rant about a fairly pointless two-hour delay. For the record, if it is snowing in the morning or if it has snowed throughout the night, I am not against a delay; the road crews have a lot of ground to cover. It is unfortunate for those who still need to get to work and are left scrambling to find child care or have to go in late. But I am all about safety. It is the temps that are clearly going nowhere any time soon that do not warrant a delay, again, in my opinion. It will be cold all day today. Having another delay today, once again, seemed pointless, but I am over it. ***** I had a rough weekend, and I have debated whether I should write about it. As my mom and one of my brothers are so fond of saying (though I will be paraphrasing), "Once you put it down in writing (on paper or in an email), it will always be there. You can't take it back." For that reason, when things weigh heavily on my mind, I don't always share them in this blog....

I have a bunch of thoughts swimming around my head. But since they center around things that are currently perplexing and/or bothering me, I am forgoing a "random ramblings" post title. Here goes nothing. I love Joe Paterno. But I am not sure if he should keep on coaching. On the one hand, he has done so much for the school, and he really is a great, funny (at least he was when I met him about eight years ago) guy. But on the other hand, considering he is almost 84 and seems to have lost a bit of his step, shouldn't he hang it up? Is there an intelligent reason that about 13 million people are still paying off last year's Christmas purchases? I saw this stat on the local news and was appalled. Other than someone's buying a car or perhaps a computer, IMHO there are no other purchases that should not have been paid off within a few months (for the record, if I get to the point where I have to carry a credit card balance, it would not be for gifts, but I am tryin...

I have been pretty nice over the past year and a half. Well, generally speaking, I have always been a nice person; not too many people would describe me as mean, moody, or bitchy. But as much as I try to be kind (or at least not hurtful or rude), today I just have to say that some people are stupid, as mean as that sounds. Yesterday, some idiot on a bike biked right in front of me. Why was that stupid? Well, I was the second car in line waiting for the green light. Once it turned green, the first car went. Then I started to go. Except I had to stop because this moron bicyclist crossed right in front of me when his light had been red for at least 10 or 15 seconds. And he was biking on the sidewalk. At least he was wearing a helmet... ****  Last week I received a letter from a law firm that represents Duquesne Light (you may recall, we had our second power surge in just over eight months, and many of us think DL is responsible). The letter asked that we complete an inventory s...

Well, not really. Or maybe, actually. But apparently quite a few people think there is power in 32 counties in western PA, OH, MD, and WV. Last year, my older brother, who works for the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, emailed me a link to a naming contest for that 32 county region. I have no idea what name I suggested, but I do know I did not win (because, as I have blogged about several times, I apparently no longer win anything). A few months ago, perhaps, I started receiving newsletters for the Power of 32 (the eventual name winner). Before too long, I figured out why I was receiving these newsletters, and I actually started reading parts of them, thinking maybe it was something I could get involved in. So what is the Power of 32?  Here is some info from the Facebook page: A grant-funded, two-year visioning project that provides an opportunity for every resident of the 32-county, 4-state region to participate in creating a shared vision for the region's best futur...

I think I am a pretty nice person overall. I don't say that in a full-of-myself sort of way, but more that I just try to be nice to people, even when they are not to me. I do not like to hurt other people's feelings. And rejecting people makes me feel uneasy. That is why I have medical records at approximately seven eye doctors, three dentists, three ob-gyns, and two family practices. I never had the heart to tell any of them that I did not like something about them and was moving on (part of the reason is the Seinfeld syndrome). Even on the few occasions when I was leaving because I or my work location moved, I could not make the call. Recently we "interviewed" two window people, and I liked both of them and their offerings. Since their prices are less than 50 bucks apart, it makes it hard to choose. The second one did show up late for the appointment, but he was very apologetic (and he did have to go through two tunnels). I wanted to get a third quote, but I dread...

Nowadays, it seems as if it is nearly impossible to find good customer service. I wanted to share some recent experiences. Hopefully you have had better luck than I, at least in the automotive area. Jiffy Lube Jiffy Lube is overpriced, but years ago I decided my time was more important than saving something like $10 by going elsewhere. I knew I could take my car in on my Wednesday off, and be out of there in about 15 to 20 minutes. Except in April, I was there about 45 minutes, which is ridiculous for JL during the week. So I filled out a comment card with scathing reviews, answering things like I was very unlikely to come back, that I was highly unsatisfied with the wait time, that the services were overpriced. Almost two months later, even though I included both a phone number and email, no one at JL bothered to contact me. Bye-bye, Jiffy Lube. Giant Eagle Last month, and I called GE to see if a $99 gazebo on display was in stock. The woman said yes, so I told her I would be ri...