Go Bears!!

Oh, yeah...the Bears are going to the Super Bowl! Believe it or not, I can still remember watching the 1985 Bears on TV with my dad.

Speaking of family, I hope that the Bears vs. Colts thing won't cause a rift between us and our Colts-loving family members in Indiana. I'm kinda tempted to send some Bears souvenirs to them in the mail as a joke, but I'm not sure they'll think it's funny.

In the hour-long news broadcast following the football games last night, the Chicago CBS news anchors were talking live with a reporter from the Indianapolis CBS affiliate, trading a little friendly trash talk. The Chicago news people suggested that the two TV stations do the same thing that mayors often do, make a little wager over who will win, and the loser has to send a care package with items from their city. Well, then they said, "but I can't think of anything I'd really want from Indianapolis." OUCH! Ha, ha, I'm still laughing about that one!! (Apologies to my Indiana friends. Actually, I think almost all of my friends who know about this blog live in Indiana. There goes my measly readership.)

I'll try to be nice as the Super Bowl approaches, but I can't promise anything.

Go Bears!

Customer Disservice

I feel like I'm in some kind of customer service Twilight Zone. I have known for a long time that good service is ceasing to exist as we once knew it, but the last couple of days have been ridiculous. I just sat on hold for 10 minutes waiting for someone to answer the phone at Target Optical. Last night someone at a store in the mall was so unbelievably indifferent to us that we looked at each other in disbelief (Lenscrafters...they told us on the phone that they could fit us in to the schedule, then when we arrived they suddenly couldn't. When I asked about some eyeglass frames, rather than show me where to go, she waved her hand and said "over there.") I'm not explaining it well, but it was awful. Then, when buying something at Best Buy, W. was in line with the most inefficient, chatty, annoying cashier ever. He actually had to say to him, "hey, I just want to buy this. Now." Twice in the last few weeks we've had to work our way up to supervisors on the phone just to get anything done. In one case, it worked (auto insurance claim); in the other case, it hasn't yet (student loan consolidation problem). For the latter problem, we're considering calling state regulatory agencies, the Tribune's "Problem Solver" guy....anything. I realize the customer isn't always right, but I think a lot of people in the "service" industry need to look up the word "service." W. thinks that the decline of customer service is a warning sign of the decline of the American civilization, and I'm starting to agree with him.

Near Miss with a TV Crew

I narrowly escaped being on the evening news...a TV crew interviewed the woman directly in front of me in line at Starbucks. They were asking for comment about the news that Starbucks is going to stop using trans fats in all of its food items. I'm glad they didn't pick me. Bad hair day.

Never a Dull Moment, #47

Our plans for Christmas included a marathon trip around the Midwest, visiting family in Indiana and Michigan, and being in a wedding in Ohio. We have completed leg 2 of the trip, but not without a setback or two.

After last night's incident, my brother's first question was, "So, did you kill Bambi or his mom?" Yes, that's right, we hit a deer with our car. We had just had the brakes fixed, or we might have ended up hitting all 4 of them that crossed our path. Scary, and we just found out that the damage is roughly $3,000. Ouch! Glad we have insurance.

I really want my life to be boring for a while. REALLY boring.

Affy Tapples

I was in the convenience store near my office, and I saw the funniest thing on a package of Affy Tapples: a big warning that says "May Contain Tree Nuts." You think?

flu shot

So, I just got a flu shot. Our office building's landlord hooked us up with a health provider that had tons of leftover vaccine. We'll see if I get sick because of this. Hopefully not, though going home early on a Friday wouldn't be a terrible thing.

Ewwww

A coworker just coughed in my face as I was trying to help with a computer question. Ewwww!!! Looks like I'll need to start taking Airborne again. Great.

Add that to the nasty film of food residue on his keyboard and mouse, and I'm thoroughly grossed out right now. Sorry if you are, too.

A "Nick Burns" moment...

If you've ever seen the "Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy" sketches on Saturday Night Live, that's what I'm talking about. There are a lot of times when I want to respond to a computer question with, "Are you serious?" I realize that lots of people are intimiated by computers, or forget things, etc., but today when someone held up a blank CD-ROM and asked, "How do I use this?" I didn't know what to say. "Do I have to format it or something first?" This coming from a person who works in an office every day, and has for years. And spends all day in front of a computer. Yikes.

The weather in Chicagoland...

This is why people get annoyed at the weather around here (not that it was 63 degrees only 5 days ago):

the Census picked me!

So, our address was randomly chosen to receive the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census. As one of the few people I know who actually uses Census data on a regular basis, I figured it was important to fill it out. It was unbelievably long...and gave me a clue as to how accurate Census data really is. For example, when it asked how much we pay in real estate taxes each year, I guessed rather than go look it up. Whoops. So much for data integrity.