You inspired me to take a walk to the Capitol on a beautiful sunny
first day of Spring. You can tell it's Spring because in addition to an Irish
flag outside the Dubliner restaurant there is a shamrock flag.
Next stop in our walk with Mary is this:
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Mary Takes a Walk
I'm glad I'm like that woman on Biggest Loser encouraging other people to exercise. Oh yeah, but Mary writes:
I'm Cable Ready... And Then Some
In review, I lost the cable that connects my camera to my computer. Search high and low, even under the bed. Couldn't find a cable, couldn't borrow a cable. Ordered two from Amazon. 99 cents each plus $9.95 shipping. Arrived today. Yippee. Two cables!
I then go to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee... (my first since my return) What? what's that? Lying on the top of my K-cup basket of K-cups is the blankety-blank blank blank lost cable. Did you ever just hold something in your hand and stare at it as if you can't believe your own eyes?
Well, now I have three cables, the original and the two news ones (which are the right fit). I guess I'm set for now.
PS: I have no earthly clue how that cable got in the kitchen, much less in with the K-cups... I know! I'll blame it on a mouse!
I then go to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee... (my first since my return) What? what's that? Lying on the top of my K-cup basket of K-cups is the blankety-blank blank blank lost cable. Did you ever just hold something in your hand and stare at it as if you can't believe your own eyes?
Well, now I have three cables, the original and the two news ones (which are the right fit). I guess I'm set for now.
PS: I have no earthly clue how that cable got in the kitchen, much less in with the K-cups... I know! I'll blame it on a mouse!
Wisconsin Mary (doesn't) Find Spring!
Here's Wisconsin Mary as opposed to my BFF Mary... Wisconsin Mary writes: Here's my "first day of spring on my patio" photo. :-( 6 degrees this morn.
Thankfully the sun is shining.
Barbara Finds Spring!
She explains: What a difficult assignment! I did not find much that looked like Spring on
my way to work this morning! On the subway platform everyone was in winter
coats (first picture). The best I could do was some tulip leaves coming up, but
they look like they won't be blooming for awhile yet (second picture). I think
I may have managed to also get a Crown Vic in that picture though, maybe you
will give me extra credit?
Pat says: Yes, the Crown Vic definitely earned you extra credit. I'm amazed you found the tulips. On my way to and from the CPA tax guy this morning, all I saw were bare trees and little piles of snow so I think you did quite well here with the tulips. It was 26 degrees in NYC this morning.
Pat says: Yes, the Crown Vic definitely earned you extra credit. I'm amazed you found the tulips. On my way to and from the CPA tax guy this morning, all I saw were bare trees and little piles of snow so I think you did quite well here with the tulips. It was 26 degrees in NYC this morning.
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| Spring is trying to sprung at Park Avenue and 28th Street, NYC. |
Mary Finds Spring!
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| Mary says: I'm never sure what this tree is - an early cherry? A plum? Whatever it is, they ate scattered all over the city and the bright soft pink (is that a contradiction?) really contrasts with the grey of everything around it. |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
More Money Matters
I don't normally say nasty things to people in public -- really -- but a number of years ago, in the grocery store, the woman ahead of me in this jam-packed line had written a check. There were a number of holdups -- price checks, that sort of thing, can't remember the details, but finally she handed the cashier the check and I thought, "Finally!" It was my turn.
But the woman didn't move on. She stood there balancing her checkbook. I wouldn't have minded if she just put the amount in the check register, but she started subtracting past checks and really working on what her balance was. She was flipping those pages back and forth doing the addition and subtraction,
I said to her, "We would all appreciate it if you would do your bookkeeping at home." And she got very offended... Harumph kind of offended. Now that I write it, it really wasn't a nasty thing to say, but maybe it was my tone. I was not offering her a helpful hint, but rather telling her to move her butt on.
So fast forward to the present day and I had success getting paid on that old Rotor Rooter bill from Christmas -- I still had not gotten paid, and I changed my approach. Called accounts payable today, rather than the guy, and referred to it as an "outstanding invoice" instead of going through the whole story. The woman called me back (surprise!) and she said to deduct it from my April maintenance which I was going to do anyway, so that's one problem solved. It was a good lesson in speaking to people in their own language.
But the woman didn't move on. She stood there balancing her checkbook. I wouldn't have minded if she just put the amount in the check register, but she started subtracting past checks and really working on what her balance was. She was flipping those pages back and forth doing the addition and subtraction,
I said to her, "We would all appreciate it if you would do your bookkeeping at home." And she got very offended... Harumph kind of offended. Now that I write it, it really wasn't a nasty thing to say, but maybe it was my tone. I was not offering her a helpful hint, but rather telling her to move her butt on.
So fast forward to the present day and I had success getting paid on that old Rotor Rooter bill from Christmas -- I still had not gotten paid, and I changed my approach. Called accounts payable today, rather than the guy, and referred to it as an "outstanding invoice" instead of going through the whole story. The woman called me back (surprise!) and she said to deduct it from my April maintenance which I was going to do anyway, so that's one problem solved. It was a good lesson in speaking to people in their own language.
Feeling Old
I had to contact Citibank today to check on the payee of a check for tax prep. On Citibank online, you can click on the check number and an image of the check appears. Well, not today it didn't. Then I tried "live chat," had the various boilerplate exchanges with "Bruce" and then it froze. My third attempt was calling by phone, knowing I'd have to do the annoying voice recognition phone tree. At one point, I coughed and the voice said, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said..."
I was asked for my SS#, then asked for the first four letters of my mother's maiden name -- those letters didn't match for whatever reason so they gave me a second attempt which was my birthday date and year. Really? That's not exactly private info, and for that matter, neither is my mother's maiden name.
And speaking of annoying security questions, when I checked another account -- you can tell I'm doing tax prep -- the two security questions that came up for me was where I went on my honeymoon and the first name of the best man in my wedding. Sure. Let me see if I remember.
The point of this post is that when I finally got the human being, she had to go through the various script points which included this line, "Ms. Luebke, I see you've been a customer of Citibank for 37 years, and we want to thank you..."
GULP!
37 years! That's how long I've lived in New York. And I do remember opening that account. In those good old days, you basically opened an account at whatever bank was in your office building. In the case of One Park Avenue, it was Citibank, or back then it was actually First National City Bank.
Back then, you had to adhere to banking hours -- 9 to 3. On payday, you spent your lunch hour standing in line depositing your paycheck. There were no ATMs. You better prepare for the weekend and your cash needs. Man, we had to plan in advance back then! Let's see: deposit slips had carbon paper. You had a little passbook for your savings account which paid 5.5%.
I think I brought this up before, but why should I have a savings account? I still have one. I used to park money there to get interest and then move it to checking as needed. For having $2000 to $4000 in a savings account all year long this past year, and I know this for a fact since I just did it for tax prep, my interest was under a dollar. I do have another account -- a former ING online savings account which was paying 4%, but that kept going down and now it's like 1% and owned by Capital One which turns me off. ING was just this great little funky company, and Capital One is Crapital One.
Banking certainly has changed. I remember one time, going on vacation, and I missed the bank closing by 30 seconds so I was facing a vacation with no cash. I was devastated and then the company said they'd cash my paycheck for me. In those days, I would also buy traveler's checks for vacation. I forgot the last time I bought any, but I was surprised when I returned home with extra traveler's checks and no one would take them -- tried to use it in a grocery store, etc. I finally used them to pay credit card bills. I figured those folks would take anything, and they did. I don't think anyone uses traveler's checks these days -- can you still even buy them?
I was asked for my SS#, then asked for the first four letters of my mother's maiden name -- those letters didn't match for whatever reason so they gave me a second attempt which was my birthday date and year. Really? That's not exactly private info, and for that matter, neither is my mother's maiden name.
And speaking of annoying security questions, when I checked another account -- you can tell I'm doing tax prep -- the two security questions that came up for me was where I went on my honeymoon and the first name of the best man in my wedding. Sure. Let me see if I remember.
The point of this post is that when I finally got the human being, she had to go through the various script points which included this line, "Ms. Luebke, I see you've been a customer of Citibank for 37 years, and we want to thank you..."
GULP!
37 years! That's how long I've lived in New York. And I do remember opening that account. In those good old days, you basically opened an account at whatever bank was in your office building. In the case of One Park Avenue, it was Citibank, or back then it was actually First National City Bank.
Back then, you had to adhere to banking hours -- 9 to 3. On payday, you spent your lunch hour standing in line depositing your paycheck. There were no ATMs. You better prepare for the weekend and your cash needs. Man, we had to plan in advance back then! Let's see: deposit slips had carbon paper. You had a little passbook for your savings account which paid 5.5%.
I think I brought this up before, but why should I have a savings account? I still have one. I used to park money there to get interest and then move it to checking as needed. For having $2000 to $4000 in a savings account all year long this past year, and I know this for a fact since I just did it for tax prep, my interest was under a dollar. I do have another account -- a former ING online savings account which was paying 4%, but that kept going down and now it's like 1% and owned by Capital One which turns me off. ING was just this great little funky company, and Capital One is Crapital One.
Banking certainly has changed. I remember one time, going on vacation, and I missed the bank closing by 30 seconds so I was facing a vacation with no cash. I was devastated and then the company said they'd cash my paycheck for me. In those days, I would also buy traveler's checks for vacation. I forgot the last time I bought any, but I was surprised when I returned home with extra traveler's checks and no one would take them -- tried to use it in a grocery store, etc. I finally used them to pay credit card bills. I figured those folks would take anything, and they did. I don't think anyone uses traveler's checks these days -- can you still even buy them?
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