I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. I did! I stayed home. One of the best things about my job is flexibility of schedule. If I want to go, say, to the beach, I am not obligated to work my trip into the same three-day span as millions of other working souls. I can go anytime, as long as my work is done. In a worst-case scenario, I can take my work with me, as I have done on many occasions. I know: you hate me for it. However, did I not say it’s one of the best things about my job? On holiday weekends, I try not to abuse my position by sitting in my garden with a cold drink, smirking at the thought of all those fun-seeking families packed into cars, but, lord, it’s not easy.
67 responses to “Photo Finish”
Mark, I was ready to praise you for the poem. I’ve never attempted anything long and haven’t tried anything recently. We have thunderboomers approaching and TWC says it will be bad so we’ll probably not even get any rain. Snow AND a tropical storm in May. I think that I will stop predicting anything, Ok, ok’ hold it down. Wow, we just had a close one. Better go.
CEP, after her death and before the phone was disconnected we were getting those calls at her house.
Coming in to me as “owner” of two yahoo groups I moderate on line. No phone calls, emails.
Yahoo emails on an old account I still use, not my newer Google accounts. Since the actual businesses attached to the blog groups similar to this one of Jimmys are real businesses belonging to real people, not me, these are spam getting through.
In early April, I found my answering machine had recorded an “IRS lawsuit” call on four different days. I remember thinking that as little credibility as the calls had, it would seem they would have had slightly more had they been made *after* the filing deadline rather than before.
Ghost, I beg to differ with you on that one. My cardiologists all say differently, cold, uncaring, mentally distancing to justify their own behavior. Don’t ask. I offered information as expressed by caring physicians.
That wasn’t in regard to IRS. We know how caring they are!
But it did make sense in reply to either comment.
As I said, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that observation by someone who was in a position to know. Nor do I have any personal experience. I’ve had serious relationships with several women, but they were always serially monogamous ones, so I had nothing to hide.
If you get calls like that, google the phone numbers. and any other spam calls, too. There are websites that will pop up with identification of companies if available, and other’s commentaries on their experiences with the callers. Best are 800calls and whocalledme. Others show as potentially dangerous per my antivirus software.
Both ospreys in distance, upper R corner and about “3-o’clock” in 2nd “owl” camera, refurbished GH owl nest in foreground.
http://pg.allaboutbirds.org/savannah-owls-second-cam/
Ghost and Jackie, the man may also become cold, uncaring and mentally distancing himself to preserve his sanity in a bad marriage. Firsthand knowledge. Especially if his normal behavior has been of the kind your friend deemed suspicious.
And look up a website for nomorobo. FTC awarded them first prize in initial competition for best ways to block these spam calls. Works only with home phones, not cellphones.
I’ve been on both Fed and State No-Call lists for years and still get lots of robo and junk calls. (A lot of them seem to be from “Credit Card Services”, but they never say which credit card company.) If I ever retire, perhaps a hobby can be tracking down the callers and reporting them to the FCC and the State Attorney General’s Consumer Affairs Division.
Caller ID and voice mail are nice. If an “Unknown Caller” call comes in, I can let VM take it. If no message is left, I can assume it was a junk call.
All my relationships were monogamous on my part, I can only speak for myself, not others I suppose. It’s hard to read minds, especially absent minds.
Yes, I do google almost every unknown number shown on the caller i.d. It’s kind of an interesting game. Of course, sometimes it’s embarrassing, as when my minster calls from his cell phone which bears a number from another state. I never recognize the number and have looked it up more than once.
I like the calls telling me that my computer has a problem…sometimes I tell them my desktop is a “Merlin 400”, a name I made up. That seems to intrigue some of the callers and they can offer no specific advice.
That would be “advice”, since it is fictitious.
Ghost – One guy got mad and did just that and beyond. Tracked down physical location and litigated them to bits, if I recall.
IRS scams still bug around here too.
Jerry – my “early warning detection of inclement weather kitty” is currently under the blanket chest, so I guess I have some in the way myself. Stay safe!
The chaos resumes tomorrow. Yay. 🙁
Got hair and nails done, bought cat and dog food backup canned food (just as precaution) and restocked some Glucerna and Boost diabetes control. The latter for me.
Going home to clean house and organization, clean sheets and coverings. Makes the trips worthwhile. I miss the housekeepers who kept it like that. Wait, I may have done that?
The Adventure Dog and I will enjoy it.
Tried to find a link to a recent news story about a local sheriff’s department getting one of those tech support scam calls. It was pretty funny – the person answering the phone repeatedly told the scammer (playing along with him a bit), “This is the sheriff’s office, we have lots of computers. Which one has the problem?”
RA, some kid in Mumbai (1) didn’t know what a “sheriff’s office” was, and (2) didn’t have a response to that on his telephone-call script.
I once got one of those calls and when the caller asked what kind of computer I had, I said “I don’t have a computer.” He never missed a beat and stayed on script about what I needed to do to correct the problem I was having with my nonexistent computer.
A friend once got a call from “Microsoft Support” and told the caller he had an Apple machine. “That is no problem, sir,” he was assured. “This is also Apple Support.”
Lots of great ideas about these annoying calls! You guys seem to remain calm and deal with them quickly. That’s what I do. It’s not worth the trouble to get upset over them. I read an awful lot and feel well informed about scams — don’t get too many. One thing I do is, to firmly request that the (has to be a real person) put me on their “do not call list”. They always say they will, possibly don’t, but I only get a few calls now. Like two, three or four a week.
At least I have never gotten the “grandmother scam” call. I know all about it but I admit it would be disturbing. The IRS scam calls actually are upsetting even when I know full well it’s not true. It’s the scariness of it, emotional response.
What is going on in the Funky Winkerbean comic strip — any ideas?
You hit it on the head, Sweet Charlotte. It’s all about selling fear.
Too tired to think about scams so I will say goodnight John Boy. But I seem to be alone with a small dog and pack of cats.