On Hold

Two days ago I put three things to accomplish on the board; I have yet to cross off even one.  A trip to town always puts a crimp in my ambition (excuse #1).  Yesterday was bill-paying day.  Before I could start, I discovered a significant discrepancy in my check register.

Math is not and never has been my forte.  Knowing this, I took a dumbbell math class my freshman year in high school, none my sophomore year, and then transferred to a boarding school where four years of mathematics were required for graduation.  Well, that was a pickle.  The school decided that three years would suffice and they put me in Sister Mary Louise's algebra class.  I don't think that was the cause, but I came down with an illness and spent eight out of the first fifteen days of school in Miss Frith's infirmary and missed the basics of algebra and never caught up.  At the end of the year, Sr. Louise gave me the lowest grade possible without failing me entirely and the school decided that, for me, two years of math were enough.  I'm pretty sure Sr. Louise convinced them just so she wouldn't have to deal with me further.  Years later when I was in college, I took several basic math classes, but when it comes to numbers I have a Teflon brain and nothing sticks.

At any rate, it took hours to go back months and recalculate to find my numerical error before even starting to pay bills.  It had been overcast and cold(!) all day.  Nature really flipped the switch on weather.  A week ago it was well into the 90s; yesterday it barely reached 70 outside and a jacket was mandatory in the house. 

Hoping that the long wait times had been a fluke, I called my home buyer's insurance company with the intent of putting in a complaint and then cancelling my policy.  They weren't the only game in town and could be replaced.  I outsmarted Ms. Snotty, the robo-voice, by choosing "Pay bills," knowing that a real person would be there, eager to take money.  Ha!  Not so "ha," as it took three transfers and two and a half hours on hold to reach a supervisor.  Whoever called me stubborn doesn't know the half of it.  It became a challenge and I don't like to lose.  Thank goodness for wireless phones.  I had time and was able to go to the bathroom, heat and eat a dinner of leftovers, watch TV, let the dog out and back in any number of times, and wait, and wait, and wait.

Let's just say I was locked and loaded by the time Supervisor Charles came on the line.  Had Charles been anything but calm, apologetic, and placatory, I would have hit him with both barrels.  As it was, he explained that the company was dealing with the aftermath of the two hurricanes in a number of states and the claims that were pouring in.  He listened when I questioned the lack of service companies under contract in our area, and being told I had to find one on my own.  He agreed that no technician would sit on hold for an hour waiting for authorization, and said they were working to rectify the problem.  In the end, Charles would reimburse me for the cost of the fan and gave me his email address for any future complaints.  Since a number of appliances are over twenty years old, I decided to maintain my policy.  Just shows what a good rep can do.

Oh, about six o'clock last evening, it started to rain!  It's a good thing I'd rinsed off the truck before going to town or it would have been a muddy mess.  The girls were more than eager to get inside at bedtime and made that job a lot easier.

Since life as I know it was put on hold yesterday, I have things to do today