Good Customer Service

Sunday I stopped at the Borders store on my way home from church. I had $5 in Borders Bucks and a coupon for 50% off a second item. I had seen an item that I thought might be a good Christmas present for my niece and I knew I could always find a book.

Then I had a flash of inspiration. Kate Jacobs will be in town tonight for a book signing which is being co-sponsored by the Knitters’ Guild and a local yarn shop. I could get a copy of her book. The book signing is going to be held at the local library where the Knitters’ Guild meets. You can’t exchange money at the library so I’m not sure exactly how they will facilitate sales of her book. I don’t have to worry about that since I now have a copy. I just have to remember to take it with me!

As I was looking for the book, a clerk who usually works in the cafe when our knitting group meets there came up to me, called me by name and asked if she could help. She located the books I was interested in. One of the managers also got involved in setting up a display of the Kate Jacobs book and we briefly talked about the book signing.

As it happened, when I got to the register to pay, this manager was on duty there. I don’t know what happened but somehow the sale didn’t ring up correctly and he had to void it and do it over. When he finally completed the transaction, he apologized for the inconvenience and offered me a free cup of coffee to make up for it. We walked to the cafe where he told the clerk I was to have any coffee I wanted on the house. Wasn’t that nice of him? I ended up selecting a Sugar and Spice latte which was delicious.

I don’t know what part the fact that I’m at Borders every week for the knitting group played in what happened Sunday. But I do know that was good — I would almost say exceptional — customer service.

Quick Trip to England and France

Last night I made a quick trip to England and France through the film shown at the monthly travelogue at a local university. It centered on the English Channel which in French is called Le Manche which translates as “the sleeve.” Not sure why the French call it that.

The lecturer alternated between the southern coast of England and the northern coast of France.  Part of the film was shot in Poole, the town in Dorset where one of my penpals lives so it was interesting to see scenes that she sees.  

There were some shots of the various beaches in France which played such an important part of World War II.  British school classes travel to those towns in France to visit museums and learn about the various invasions all the way back to the Normans which launched from there.  I noticed that all the students wore the same color baseball cap and thought what a useful way to keep track of them.  To my way of thinking, the caps would be better than a class teeshirt.  The program ended with the Channel Islands which are closer to the coast of France but are, indeed, British islands.  

All in all, it was a very interesting evening, showing a part of both countries which isn’t usually covered in a travel lecture program.

Old-Time Radio Shows

The Senior Seminar this week was about Old-Time Radio Shows. The lecturer was the same man who has done the programs on ragtime and jazz. He must have an enormous collection of CDs and DVDs of these musical programs and now the radio shows. He’s always well prepared. It amuses me, though, to watch him as he plays a CD or DVD. He twists the button of his shirt, the one right on top of his tummy. I doubt he even knows he’s doing it.

He played excerpts from three shows for us. One was “The Shadow” which I’ve heard of but had never heard. The other two shows were totally unknown to me. As I watched the other seminar participants who were smiling and nodding as they listened, I came to the conclusion I’m too young to know these programs. The lecturer said most of them were on the air in 1938 which was before I was even a gleam in my father’s eye. No wonder I didn’t know them.

One of our local radio stations plays some of the old-time shows on Saturday or Sunday night after midnight. I occasionally hear a bit of it if I’m up especially late. I like those old shows.

Do you ever listen to old-time radio shows? Do you prefer comedies or mysteries? How old does a show have to be to be considered “old time radio?”

A Splashing Good Time At Symphony

Saturday night I attended the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. The program had a Chinese flavor to it in preparation for the orchestra playing at a Chinese festival in New York this week.

The second number was “Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra” by Tan Dun. Watching the stagehands set up for this was very entertaining. First they put down some mats on the floor. The first set of mats were placed next to the conductor, the usual spot for a guest soloist. There were also mats placed at either side of the stage. Pedestals were placed on the mats which were topped with large clear glass bowls. The bowls were the size of a large punch bowl. Various other things were placed nearby to the bowls which were filled with water. Plexiglass shields were erected between the percussionists and the other instruments in the orchestra.   Audience members in the front row were protected by rain ponchos.  Microphones were set up over the bowls of water.

The soloist was Colin Currie. He was assisted by the principal percussionist and the associate principal percussionist from the orchestra. The man sitting  behind me and I were joking about these preparations. I wondered if the players practiced at home in the dish pan.

When the concerto started, Mr. Currie came down the aisle playing something that looked sort of like a brass box topped by “ribs” which came almost to a point. He would slide a bow across the ribs and then swirl the instrument in the air. Once on the stage, the orchestra accompanied the three percussionists who paddled in the bowls, or stirred them, or struck metal plates and dipped them in the bowls. They had clear cups or glasses which they used to strike the surface of the water. Water was flying out of the bowls.  Mr. Currie put a set of what appeared to be hollow wooden bowls upside down in his two basins and struck them for a part of the piece. At the conclusion, he removed those and sank a large collander in one basin. Then he pulled it up and the water draining through it was like a waterfall.

It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen or heard.

Waterlogged Mini Vacation

We have had the wettest October since they began keeping records over 100 years ago. There are flood warnings out now. The ground is so saturated there’s no place for the rain to go but into the rivers.

Last night a friend and I went to a program on Thai Classical Music and Dance at Jefferson College in Hillsboro. If left to myself, I would have cancelled. It was pouring rain. I had to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription on my way to meet her. I was at the stoplight to cross the highway when there was a big flash of lightening. The stoplights went out. Fortunately, they came back on … blinking … in a minute or two. But this was during the rush hour so picking your way across the highway with only a blinking stoplight was not fun. When I got in the store, I learned their computers had all gone down when that lightening had hit but they had come back up in about five minutes. While I was getting my medicine, the rain got even heavier. It was as thought someone had turned a bucket upside down over our heads.   I was wet through my raincoat just getting from the store to my car in the parking lot.

I finally got to the meeting spot and my friend was still of a mind to go. She offered to drive the 25 miles or so we had to travel so I said okay. She’s a good driver normally but she made me nervous because she was driving so fast in such heavy rain (and fog) when you couldn’t really see the lane markings that well. Plus she didn’t keep her wipers on. She’d turn them off and the windshield would get all covered with water, making it difficult to see, and then she’d turn them back on. I managed not to say anything but I wasn’t very comfortable.

The program was interesting but was definitely not my cup of tea. All the music sounded pretty much the same and didn’t seem to have much of a melody to it. The dancers were good. Their costumes were very colorful. For the first couple of dances, the women had all extremely long gold fingernails. Later they danced without them. With them, it looked like they were bending their fingers back double. This group was from a university in Bangkok and were doing a cultural exchange type of trip. The narrator gave us some background of what we were hearing and seeing but she had an accent and was difficult to understand so I’m sure I missed a lot of it. Of course, she did far better speaking English than I ever would speaking Thai!

 

What’s Up with Typepad?

Like most people in blogland, I read a number of blogs each day. They are hosted on a variety of sites.

Several weeks ago there was a flap on the blogs hosted by Typepad. It had something to do with how comments are/were handled. I didn’t understand what the problem was and since it didn’t directly affect me I wasn’t all that interested.

Now, however, Typepad is annoying me. Some of my favorite blogs which are hosted there aren’t opening properly. They open for about two seconds and then close. It makes it impossible to read a post. I can maybe read half a sentence before the post closes. What’s up with that?

I hope someone calls this to the attention of the proper person at Typepad so they get it fixed. In the meantime, I’m very grateful that my blog is a WordPress blog.

To-Do List Tryanny

I like To Do lists. I find they help keep me focused on things which I should/need to get accomplished. But sometimes I think there’s a bit of tyranny in them.

Take yesterday for example. I had quite a long list of items on my list. I accomplished all but three of them. While I had a good feeling as I crossed ffthe completed items, I was left feeling like bit of a failure because I didn’t accomplish everything listed there.

I’ve decided that I refuse to be bossed by that list. I’m the one who made it and if I don’t accomplish everything on it, no one else will care. There’s no one who can punish me for my neglect. Sometimes it’s not neglect; it’s lack of time which prevents completion of the list.

Do you write To Do lists? Does it upset you to have items left over at the end of the day?  What do you do with those uncompleted items?  I’m just going to transfer them to another list which will be for tomorrow.  Today I’m going to do some fun things like go to my knit group and come home and sew on my blouse.  I’ll show that list who’s boss!

Digital Magazines

What do you think about digital magazines? I receive digital newsletters from several publications. One, in particular, I subscribe to in its paper format.

The magazines have gone to a digital format as well as the paper one. Each newsletter encourages subscribers to switch to the digital format. I haven’t done that because I don’t think I’d like it.

I like being able to page through a publication, clip the articles/patterns/recipes that I’m most interested in and either save the magazine for my own reference or donate it to the used book bookshop at the library for sale. Some magazines I keep to use with the reading students I tutor.

I don’t want to spend more hours staring at a computer screen. I much prefer to curl up in a comfy chair with a glass of iced tea and a paper magazine. How about you? Which format do you prefer?

Disturbing News If True

As I mentioned in a previous post, I read a copy of the student newspaper while waiting for a concert to start. One of the articles in there was disturbing to me.

According to the writer, all the countries involved in the United Nations will be forced to take part in universal food and supplement standards on December 31, 2009. These standards will require every dairy cow in the world be injected with BST. Vitamins and minerals will be regulated with many being prohibited.

The article references an emergency conference in 2005 which discussed the disastrous consequences of such action. Why haven’t we heard about this before now? You would think if it was an emergency situation in 2005, it would have received publicity. But this is the only place where I’ve seen this mentioned.

I wonder how the student who wrote the article found out about this.  Have any of you heard or read anything about this?

Faded Fall Colors

I’ve been feeling the need for another mini-vacation. In lieu of one, I wanted to do something fun this past weekend but wasn’t sure what.

I saw a sign on the highway that the Wild Bird Sanctuary was having an open house over the weekend and decided that might work. I’ve never been to it although I’ve seen the sign for the exit to it a lot.

After church Sunday I headed for the Wild Bird Sanctuary. However, it was not the substitute for my desired mini-vacation. I was amazed at how many cars were parked all along the sides of this narrow road leading to the Sanctuary. They had a park ranger directing traffic. The parking lots were full. My arthritis was acting up and I didn’t think I’d be able to walk as far as I would need to … especially since I couldn’t see a building or anything … so I found a place where I could turn around and just left.

My other option for “fun” Sunday was to attend a choral concert at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, about 25 miles south of me. I headed for the college. I expected to see beautiful fall leaves since the road there takes you up and down a bunch of rolling hills which open to some lovely valleys along the way. The hills are for the most part tree covered.

The fall colors were drab, muddy colors … the yellows were the color of Dijon mustard, the oranges were more a faded rust and I didn’t see any bright reds. I was disappointed, especially since the newspaper had said this was the peak weekend for leaf peeping. If that was true, we’re not going to have a colorful fall. There were still a lot of green leaves so maybe things will improve before they all fall off. The rain for the last two weeks has already knocked a number of leaves off.

When I got to the college I couldn’t believe how empty the parking lot was. I went inside the Fine Arts building and overheard the choral groups practicing. Oh, I’m here an hour early! The concert is at 3 p.m., not 2 p.m. So I found a bench in the lobby and sat there, reading a copy of the school newspaper until time to go in.

As things worked out, a young woman with two young girls sat next to me. The older one, probably about 8, was very well behaved. The younger one, maybe 4, evidently ate noisy wiggleworms for lunch. She wouldn’t be quiet, wouldn’t sit in her seat, crawled on the floor, etc. I felt sorry for the mother because I’m sure she wouldn’t have brought them if she had had any other alternative. She had sheets of paper she was filling out so I think she was attending this program as part of her classwork which meant she couldn’t take her girls and leave.

The program was interesting. There was a nice mixture of some classical and some more modern songs. There were three different choral groups participating and they all sang the finale. The director, I was glad to see, had better organized his program and the entrance and exit of the groups was better managed than it has been at other concerts I’ve attended.

But I still need a mini-vacation.