Archives for November 2005

We’re going to regret this I know. We don’t have a Christmas tree yet.

We always get a real tree so I like to wait until around the first of December to venture down to the Merry Christmas Tree Farm in Nesbit and cut one down ourselves. But last year, we waited too late as many of the really good trees were gone.

We should have gone this past weekend but we were out of town. Yesterday it was too wet and today, well, we just didn’t do it. Tomorrow is family portrait day so maybe Thursday.

The Merry Christmas Tree Farm saved Christmas for us a couple of years ago. We bought a fairly large tree that refused to stand upright in the tree stand. The first tree stand bent under the pressure, sending me to Home Depot for a replacement. I picked up the largest tree stand, one of those pyramid shaped plastic green stands that looked up to the task.

I spent about 45 minutes trying to screw those darned screws that are supposed to dig into the trunk of the tree and help it stand up right. No luck. The tree, no matter how much I worked at it, looked crooked. Well, it didn’t just look crooked, it was crooked. I had to use fishing line tied to the wall to keep it from falling over that night. And, I’m not proud of this, but daddy said a bad word under the tree that year.

The next year I picked up one of the tree stands from the Merry Christmas Tree Farm. It didn’t look like much. A red water dish with a spike sticking up from the bottom. It also came with 3 pieces of rebar used to hold it up. The folks at the Merry Christmas Tree farm drilled a hole in the bottom of the tree and told me it would take about 5 minutes to place the tree on the stand and have it standing upright.

Actually, they were wrong. It took me about 20 seconds to have the tree looking display window perfect. Not only that, but once the tree is up, you can hold a string of lights and spin the tree around on the spike to decorate it.

It was the perfect Christmas gift.

We’re headed to Nashville this weekend to look for a house. The station is calling tomorrow morning for some information and bio on me for a press release on my new job. I’m addicted to Nashville blogs.

Workwise, I’m finishing up one big project and writing the other. Then, it’ll be time to work on the family Christmas video. Next weekend’s our big Christmas party. It’s going to be a full couple of weeks. Hope we have time to put a tree up in the house.

I seriously cannot think of a more frustrating customer experience than what I’m having now with Sears.

Quick re-cap. This house came with a new microwave from Sears. A cleaning lady messed up the front glass so the builder replaced it with a new one a couple of months after we moved in.

A few weeks later, it stopped working. I called Sears for repair since it’s got another 11 months under warranty. I sat at home from 8-1 (when they said they would be here) and the repair man never showed. I called again and they rescheduled me for the next week. That week, the repair man called in sick so I had to wait another few days. They finally came out to look at it, then said they had to order parts. Another week goes by and they came back and fixed it.

Two weeks later, it broke down again. Same thing on the repair. Waited a week, then another week and then another week before a repair man came out. This one couldn’t fix it.

It’s still sitting above my stove. The turning plate wouldn’t stop turning until it apparently burned out the motor. The light won’t go off now. The repair man was supposed to be here yesterday but they called to reschedule it for today between 8-1. They called at 10 to say they have to reschedule it for Thursday.

My calls to the customer service center are a waste of time. Sears’ automated phone system has to be the worst outside of Beijing. I sat on hold for 7 minutes only to have the call disconnected, so I had to call back and go through the same dance of “press 1” “say yes or no” and “did you say microwave?”. I sat for 6 minutes on hold that time to have the call disconnected again.

This morning, I had the guy transfer me to the customer service desk who complained to me that he transferred my call to her. She then told me there was nothing she could do about someone calling in sick and that I should take the microwave back to the store where I bought it.

SHE NEVER LISTENED TO ME. She cut me off everytime I tried to explain something. She complained that I was complaining. When I said their phone system needed some work she complained about the BellSouth automated system.

For the past 3 months we’ve gone without a microwave more than we’ve had one working. No Lean Cuisine. No “heat up this cup of coffee for a few seconds”. No thawing out hamburger meat.

Sears doesn’t care about it’s customers. This is one customer they’ll never have to deal with ever again. At least when I can finally eat a bag of popcorn.

I felt a bit like a pirate this weekend.

I spent Saturday with my dad who had bought an old house and is refurbishing it. The house belonged to a guy who had a had a bad car accident years ago. His family went through it and took everything they wanted but left a lot of stuff.

I found a closet full of record albums. Little Feat, Foreigner, Elvis, Alvin and the Chipmunks, AC-DC, and Jethro Tull. I found books by Lewis Grizzard and three old 45’s by Nat King Cole. I also got a 20-inch tv and a label maker

It was kind of creepy going through the stuff, but the Salvation Army will come in and take everything that is left so I was able to take what I wanted. I left a Shriner’s fez, a cabinet full of beer steins and coffee mugs and lots of shirts and furniture.

There was a 1992 Sears Christmas Wishbook which was fun to go through and see how prices have gone up and down in the past 13 years. There was a 45 pound word processor for $2,000 and Nike tennis shoes for $89. VHS video cameras were priced at $2,000 and console television sets (the kind with the wood grain finish) for $1,200.

Funny how 1992 seems so recent in ways.

NBC isn’t showing “It’s a Wonderful Life” until December 10th. According to the tv critic with Scripps Howard, the network chose “Family Man” with Nicholas Cage as it’s “day after Thanksgiving movie special”.

I normally choose not to watch a network presentation of a major film release because of the commercials. Boy, was I ever right.

NBC took this 2 hour movie and stretched it to fill the 7-10 pm timeslot. I put a watch to it between 8 and 9 and found NBC would show 8 minutes of the movie followed by 3 minutes of commercials. I really liked this movie (I like romantic comedies) but it was almost unbearable to watch. I found myself getting wrapped up in the characters but at a crucial moment, the network broke it up and started showing the same JC Penney commercial.

And what’s with the stupid Hallmark spot? Is that the lamest party You’ve ever seen when about a dozen stiffs stand around a table and watch an animated snowman sing “Holly Jolly Christmas”? I feel I want to smash the darn snowman everytime I hear that loser white guy say “hey, do it again!”.

Christmas is too early this year. I love Christmas but I have a feeling I’ll be tired of it before December 18th. “A Christmas Story” made it’s first of about 2,000 appearances on Turner tonight. Radio stations on the way down to Birmingham were already playing wall-to-wall Christmas songs. The wife and kids and my mom are going Christmas shopping tomorrow. I did a bit early this morning.

Please…let’s all take a breath and wait another week before we start Christmas.

I ran into a lot of my former co-workers today. It was a sad occasion, the wife of one of the photographers passed away this week after a long fight with cancer. I went to the funeral today and for the first time in more than a year, saw many of my friends from the tv station.

Everyone was very friendly, even the former station manager who’s now general manager walked over to say hello and shake hands. I saw my former news director sitting on the front row as the service was about to begin.

I spoke to the person sitting with her, shook his hand and then said hello to her and reached out to shake her hand too. Now, let me admit I didn’t expect any warm hugs but I didn’t expect the reaction I got. Instead of politely saying hello and shaking my hand, she crossed her arms and turned her head, leaving me standing there with my hand reached out and I’m sure a pretty weird look on my face.

Oh well, I won’t lose any sleep over it. A couple of my former co-workers saw the whole thing and asked me about it later. I suppose she may be a hater because of some things I’ve written on this blog, who knows?

Geesh, even the Indians sat down with the Pilgrims.

Thanks to the internet, you don’t HAVE to stand in line Friday morning for some of the big holiday sales.

www.bf2005.com/

“I thought turkeys could fly.”
Arthur Carlson, General Manager, WKRP

Sadly the best Thanksgiving episode of a television series is not available for viewing again. There continues a disagreement with the distributors of WKRP in Cincinnati and the folks who recorded the music played on the show.

It isn’t on DVD. TV Land stopped airing it several years ago after miserably replacing the rock songs with generic musical pieces. It’s sad really, when you look in the Best Buy and Circuit City ads on Sunday and see that “Caroline in the City” and “What’s Happening” boxed sets are now availble on DVD but still no “WKRP”. And no “The Wonder Years” either because of the same reason.

So…since we can’t SEE the episode, I thought you might like to hear the funniest Thanksgiving moment ever. Click the photo

I stole this picture off of www.jimthompson.org

Jim left a War Eagle post earlier and I saw this shot as I visited his website. Thanks Jim, and WDE to you too.

Somebody give this kid a scholarship.