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Favorite things: Front porches
I know this is a weird thing to have as a favorite thing. But I really love having a front porch. Here in Romeo we have the deluxe! It’s about 10×30 and full enclosed. At our new place in San Diego we also have a nice front porch with a nice porch swing.
There is nothing quite as nice as enjoying the cool evening breeze on a porch. And I prefer a front porch over a back patio/deck any day. Call me
crazy but I rather enjoy the neighbors walking by and saying hello. In fact, as I was typing this post two families walked by and cheerfully said “hi.” And a large group of drunk high school students… but that was fun too.
There is actually something nicer. I enjoy sitting on the front porch, doing my little internet thing, and enjoying the company of my wife. If you don’t have a front porch I highly suggest getting one right away.
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A few new customer service annoyances
- #1 Delta Airlines. To say that our flight from San Diego to Atlanta on Monday was a disaster is an understatement. We’re a family of four traveling together. Do you think you’d seat children with their parents? It would seem logical that a parent would be seated next to a 4 year old, wouldn’t it? But not on Delta. They seated Megan and Paul together and Kristen in the same row, just other side. Then they stuck me way in the back. Long story short, I had an empty seat next to me. I asked if the flight attendant could go to Megan’s seat and get her for me so that I could sit by her and then Kristen could move to sit by Paul. He said… “No problem. Actually, there is a way to all sit together if you move up to their row.” So I got up… and as soon as I got up he moved a lady/child into my seat and then told me he couldn’t really get us together. He tricked me out my seat to solve his problem. Thus putting me in a worse situation! I went from a window seat with an extra next to me to a middle seat surrounded by other adults. I said to the flight attendant, “You know you just totally screwed me right? I trusted that you were telling me the truth.” He went on to try to say that the other lady wouldn’t sit apart from her child and that it was the only way the flight could take off. When I, rather bluntly, told him that what he did was lie to me to prioritize that family over my own and that he was wrong… he tried to be empathetic with me and offered us “free videos” on the flight. Of course, being Delta even that didn’t work. So Kristen and I were roughly near the kids but not next to them. It gets worse… so we were scrunched next to people and the kids were alone. Of course, our seat mates promptly fell asleep so that no one could easily go to the bathroom. Then to make matters worse, the flight attendants spent 4 hours peddling food and credit cards to us! I can’t believe that in order to fly I have to listen to a credit card offer and buy $6 snacks. Give me a break Delta. Kristen got off the plane and aptly described the flight as “the worse flight of my life.” So if you fly Delta, look out for flight attendants who lie and peddle stuff to you the whole time. Totally annoying.
- #2 Semco Energy. This is our local natural gas vendor. Their billing system is totally jacked up. I never get bills from them anymore. I don’t even get late notices. Their phone system calls my cell phone all the time but doesn’t say anything… literally just blank air. The only time I hear from them is when they drop off a disconnect notice! The crazy thing is that I typically pay via their online payment system. Well, starting in May they started rejecting my online payments. I have no idea why. They keep telling me that my routing numbers are off… but they aren’t. (Pay almost all my bills online!) Then about 3 days after I try to pay I get this really ugly letter from them. Then I get a hand delivered disconnect notice. Calling their customer service line is nearly as much fun as calling AT&T. After 40 prompts and entering my account number 2-3 times, giving them my SSN a few times, and verifying my billing address at least twice. I get told the same thing over and over again. “Our system is fine.” The best part about our latest disconnect notice is that it’s for so little money AND our bill isn’t even late! So my bill is due 7/28 but they are going to disconnect our gas today. Brilliant customer service. Morons.
It seems like every day I either have great customer service or horrible. Here are the last few that I’ve encountered.
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Open to suggestions
If you only read my blog via RSS, you may want to come to adammclane.com and check out a new widget.
For the longest time I’ve pretty much blogged whatever I felt like. Sometimes I rant about stuff, sometimes I post silly things, something I try real hard and post something thoughtful.
Well, I want to make sure that I give you the opportunity to suggest stuff for me to write about. That’s why I’ve added Skribit. How it works is that you suggest something for me to write about. If you don’t want to create an account, your suggestion is completely anonymous. See a good suggestion? Simply vote it up and put the pressure on me to write about it.
Deal?
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The injustice of grace
Have you ever thought about what Jesus did and thought, “eh?“ I’ve been having this thought lately and I just can’t shake it:
It’s a complete injustice that I experience grace.
First of all, I need to be clear what I mean by grace since there are several definitions for this word… even the Bible uses it 5-6 different ways. By grace I mean “the active communication of divine blessings by the inworking of the Holy Spirit, out of the fullness of Him who is “full of grace and truth,”” (Louis Berkhof, 1949) In other words, grace is the good stuff we are blessed with because of our relationship with Jesus.
Have you ever been comped on something? You know, you show up to a place and because you are with “him” or “her” you get free stuff. That’s a practical expression of grace… and it’s a total injustice! In my life I’ve gotten comped on some very nice things. Rounds of golf, meals, retail stuff, vacations, stuff like that. It’s always a weird feeling as you of look at the person whom you’d normally pay and then flash a glance over to the “big guy” and the need to pull out your wallet goes away. (Sometimes a half thumb pointing at the big guy helps.)
Why is that an injustice? Well, you get stuff you can’t afford for free! Other people have to pay big bucks for the round of golf I play for free… that’s really not fair to those who have to pay, is it?
It’s the same way in a lot of areas of my life right now. God is granting my family a lot of injustice lately. When I look my kids I can’t help thinking… what an injustice, I don’t deserve this awesome family. Even as a family, there is so much good stuff happening to us and all around us we’re kind of left simply shrugging our shoulders and pointing at the “big guy” and admitting… “we’re with Him.” God is comping us on little things (stuff) and big stuff (a family who choses to honor God with what they do) and the only word I can use to describe it is overwhelming injustice.
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Why I like student ministry
I like student ministry because all of these kind of seem like they could be a youth group game.
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Sunglasses and Beach IQ
- I think there is a link between the lens size on a woman’s sunglasses and her IQ. The smaller they are– the higher her perceived IQ. I promise you, we saw some women who may be hovering in the low 80s. Those big satellite sunglasses aren’t cute on Paris Hilton, imagine how “fabulous” people look with cheap imitations. If you aren’t picking up CSPAN with those bad boys… get some smaller ones and you’ll look so much more fabulous.
What’s up with the ugly tube top deals? I don’t know what they are called. But they are like this lampshade looking shape with no straps. We were in a place in Old Town and I promise you, 2 ladies near us had to adjust themselves 2-3 times per minute. A little advice, either pin those suckers so nothing ever could pop out or get some duct tape. This is almost as odd a fashion item as the low cut jeans/g-string thing. Blech. A side note, these should not be sold in sizes larger than large unless in the maternity department. Under no circumstances should number 1 & 2 be combined. Low IQs and elastic based tops shouldn’t mix.- There are some swimsuit styles out there which should be banned. I don’t mean the teenie weenie or the yellow polka dot bikini as that is fine and normal to see. It seems most women in the 300 lb and up radius have figured out bikinis aren’t for them. But there is a new style that has like no back and this weird swoop thing to about half way across the stomach. Basically, there is a small bit of fabric that connects the bottom of the suit to the top. This shouldn’t be worn by women with rolls (and I’m a dude with rolls, I know how to hide some fat!) and I don’t think that style of swimsuit would look good on anyone. Seriously, the cast from Baywatch would look pretty nasty. It’s the cut, it’s not you girl.
- At the end of a long day at the beach, please don’t cover up #3 with #2 and pop on #1. It just confirms the whole IQ thing.
Having just spent 8 days on the road in SoCal with the family, we ate out and went to a lot of public places. I made a couple of observation/over generalizations — OK, they are just Adam-isms. Here we go:
Speaking of Baywatch, I think I saw The Hoff at Coronado Beach yesterday. Either that or this was one tan dude who looked just like him. We checked the parking lot and Kitt wasn’t to be seen. So I must have been confused.
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ESPY Recap
HT to Gman
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