BrewBlog

Neighbors

We finally have new neighbors next door. The house has been empty for months. The pigeons have taken the place over and pooped everywhere. The last people living there were a little strange. They had a life size Indian statue that freaked me out a little. Allison blogged about it, complete with picture. The people before that rented and were nice but were evicted by the bank because the people that owned the place were running a scam against the bank and the folks renting. They took out a loan bigger than they should have been allowed to take, didn't make payments and collected rent from renters. They took the money and ran, likely doing it again somewhere else. The scammers were Russians that bought the house from other Russians, which is what made it seem suspicious to me because it would be an easier scam to pull off if the buyer and seller collaborated on the whole thing. Also, their other neighbors told us that they thought they heard them joking about it, mentioning something about going back to Russia and then laughing. Who knows. Anyway, now we have the new neighbors. We're hoping they join us in battling the pigeons but more importantly, we just hope that they are good neighbors. So far it's too early to tell. They have a dog, they have children. That's all we know.

Then there is our other neighbor. We call him "Too Much" because he asked me how much money we spent to have our backyard landscaped and when I told him he said it was "too much". He was serious. He also wanted to know what we spent on the house when we bought it. I think it's just a cultural thing. I wouldn't ask someone I barely knew a question like that but that's just me. So ever since, we call him "Too Much". We don't know his real name. He's nice enough and his family is pleasant. He's one of the loudest talkers I've ever heard that's for sure. The only complaint we have is that their front yard is the crappiest on the entire street. The lawn is not kept up too well and he has random debris scattered around, including a big traffic cone. Then there is the smell of curry that occasionally makes its way through our vent. I like curry but the smell is too much (no pun intended). They had a big dog that used to bark and drive us crazy in the middle of the night. Allison went next door and asked them to do something about it and they actually did. They've been keeping it in the house at night and that solved the problem. We think the dog is dead now because we haven't seen it in a while and they have a new dog. Now this new dog is barking very loudly in the middle of night, throughout the night. I understand that dogs bark but its right by our bedroom window and Jackson's bedroom window and it wakes us up when it barks. It's unacceptable. Allison and I have taken turns screaming "shut up" out the sliding door as loudly as humanly possible at which time they put it in the house. Sigh.

I just know everyone wanted to know about our neighbors! I've vented a little and now I feel better.

All U-turns Should Be Legal

Traffic has been getting worse pretty much all over and getting around can be a little frustrating. Part of the frustration is different driving styles. I drive similar to how I move my body outside of the car. I make calculated, swift, deliberate movements. Why waste time when you're trying to get somewhere or get something done? I do occasionally go for a "Sunday drive" where I put around but most of time I'm actually trying to get somewhere and do something. Others are going somewhere too but they seem to have all day to do it. I guess that's fine since it's each person's decision to drive slowly and make traffic worse for everyone else. Same goes for outside the car. Sure I go for walks for enjoyment and to relax but when I'm getting something done in a strip mall somewhere, I'm on a mission. If you want crawl through the store, move in slow motion and shuffle your feet through life, that's totally fine. Just please never mind my swift and progressive movement.

I'd like to slow down a bit and I actually sometimes envy people that take it slow. It's something I could spend a little time working on for myself. My idealized lifestyle is much simpler and relaxed. It's slower. In reality though there are obstacles that limit my quality time with my family or what little personal time I have to myself. Why not take those obstacles on as best I can? That means walking briskly through the supermarket and driving with purpose. A more dense population slows us all down and it's not the good kind of slow. It's the maddening kind of slow. Stupid traffic laws are also obstacles. Almost all (if not all) "No U-turn" signs are dumb. Also, many illegal turns are dumb. I understand the intention of many of these signs. You can usually tell by looking at them as to why a certain turn is illegal. Traffic engineers can probably explain to me how traffic actually flows better when I have to turn left, do a u-turn elsewhere, and then turn right again to get to the same place a simple U-turn would have gotten me. Regardless, I should get to do a U-turn anywhere I want and often do. We should rethink traffic signs but that's never going to happen. As John Kerry once said, "America can do better", even though I don't think that's what he meant. He ran for president a few years ago in case you've forgotten.

Reserve the Right to Refuse (Part 2)

Until people demand better service companies will consider pricing strategies as their number one priority. Some industries do tout service as being their competitive advantage but there are fewer examples of that. Personally I'd pay more in support of better service in many cases. I consider myself extremely low maintenance and an ideal customer. I pay my bills on time and I rarely need help with anything. Customer service engagements for me are almost always because they have screwed up something. Is this the case with Sprint? Perhaps it is. But let's not let the idiot general population off the hook that quickly. A general lack of self sufficiency across society at large will drag down the rest of us at some point. How about an analogy! In general, if you buy something and use it properly and take care of it, it will likely serve you well through its intended life. However, if you misuse something or you don't take care of it, it will either break or it won't work to its fullest potential. If you think of all the things that society must share, the analogy plays out similarly. If a group of people misuse something we all must share, those of us that are "taking care" suffer as a result of those "not taking care". That's top reason number two why I'm a Republican. You can screw up your life if you want but you will not screw up mine. It's a bit of a stretch but I think some of you know where I'm coming from. In the same analogy, what is difficult to discern but a worthy challenge is deciding which people are misusing this "thing" we share because they do in fact need extra assistance, mean well and otherwise exhibit good intent. Or is it that the person knows better but is selfish or lazy. I think as a society we want to help along those that have the good intent and need a helping hand and punish those that are selfish and lazy.

The Sprint customers that had their contracts canceled probably fell into all sorts of categories and we've already talked about Sprint's likely fault in this. We all know that some of those customers are just such a pain in the ass and refuse to solve their own problem, meet the company half-way or are just plain unreasonable. Don't mistake what I'm saying; the company is often to blame. If we look beyond Sprint and into any business serving the general public, you'll always find the bad customers and people that drag down the system. As consumers we all share these businesses. We share the coffee shops, supermarkets, day care for our children, playgrounds, doctor's offices, DMV, etc. People that are difficult, impossible to please, selfish and lazy, for example, make places we share less desirable and in many cases more expensive for the rest of us. My dollar goes as far as the next person's but regularly taxing the system reduces the efficiency and desirability for those that play by the rules. For example the unreasonable person in line that has a problem with this or that is holding up the line for me. It happens all the time. I've already talked about the supermarket in my post, Ready Pay. How about the dumb-ass in DMV that clogs one of the windows with his long stupid story and problem and excuse or whatever it is. Sure it's the businesses fault sometimes and we have a way to hold them accountable often times. For private businesses we can stop giving them our business and they will go away. But what is the recourse for bad customers?

When I was a waiter at Chevy's there were customers I wanted to refuse service to because I knew they were not going to be worth the trouble for me and the company I was representing. We had a few customers that all of us waiters hated to serve because they were a pain in the ass. At first glance you may think that since they are returning customers, they must be ideal since they are bringing in their dollars and supporting the restaurant. No. There was this one family that would come in do all the things we hated. They would want to sit somewhere other than where they were sat, every time. Then they would order things and alter their order to the point where they no longer even knew what they were ordering. No matter how many times we'd go over their special order, they were not happy when they got it. So they would return it. Meanwhile they are complaining about how long it's taking even though it's not taking long. So when we take the food back we have to throw it away. That's perfectly good food being wasted and the restaurant's food cost is going up and profits are dipping. Also, while they are complaining to me I'm not able to assist my other tables, people that have been great and deserve my attention. These good tables will tip me well. These other assholes won't, even though I've done nothing wrong. And they do the same thing every time they come in, often times getting something free because the "customer is always right". No they are not. I wanted very badly to refuse service to these losers.

I see them coming…

Me: "Go, we're not serving you because you are a pain in the ass and not worth the effort."
Bad Customer: "Excuse me? I want to talk to your manager."
Me: "My manager agrees with me and wouldn't want to be bothered by the likes of you people."
Bad Customer: "You can't do this! I'm outraged!"
Me: "Don't care. Go be outraged somewhere else. We've decided not to serve people that can't simply go to a restaurant and enjoy themselves. You see, you have problems and issues that we can't solve and those problems and issues have impacted the staff and our other good customers, even if indirectly. I suggest you get help and take a long hard look into the mirror and ask yourself where you went wrong and what made you so unreasonable and such an asshole. Maybe with a little reflection and hard work you can turn things around and be worthy of our service. More importantly maybe all the other problems I can assume that you have because of the way you've behaved here in the past can be resolved or at least perhaps progress made. With any luck you can even be a positive role model for your kids so that they aren't like you. Meanwhile, go somewhere else."
Bad Customer: "Gosh, you're right sir. I wish someone like you would have come along sooner and talked some sense into me because until this very day, society has been an enabler of my poor behavior. Thank you."
Me: "You're welcome, now go."

I've exaggerated slightly with this example but what if businesses took more of a stand against the bad customers? Would people be molded into better people? You can think about so many examples of people bringing others down with their nonsense. I'd love to see a revolution of sorts where we take small steps towards weeding out the bad customers to make the "public" a better place to be.