Random Thoughts and Poor Customer Service

Late last week the weather turned miraculously and unseasonably warm. As the snow finally began to melt from pavements and curbs--where it was heaped in frozen hillocks making crossing the road a challenge—I discovered the joy of wearing shoes again. Since mid-January boots were the order of the day either to negotiate the frozen precipitation or for warmth.

Shopping for light bulbs isn’t simple any more. There’s halogen, LED, spotlights, CFL bulbs that last for 9 years providing x wattage but using x amount of electricity…good grief. TMI, I just needed x wattage in a plain old light bulb that doesn’t cost the bleeding earth. So off to Amazon I went.

On my to-do list since last year has been the task to set up a corporate account with Southwest Airlines. Southwest doesn’t list its flight inventory in the usual airline databases. Booking a flight means entering traveler information for each flight and fiddling either with paper or .pdf files if flights need to be cancelled or changed. Naturally, I had a few questions about how their corporate program operated.

A little history is in order. Southwest was the first budget/low-cost airline I’d flown. It was in 1986 or 87. I was used to full-service airlines, which in those days included meals, drinks and treats served by cabin staff. It was an early morning flight to Albuquerque. Breakfast consisted of a blueberry muffin and coffee, tea, and juice. I asked the cabin attendant for another blueberry muffin and was sharply informed that it was one muffin to a customer. I looked at the cart full of muffins and then at the cabin attendant and replied, “Well I won’t be flying this airline again.” And I didn’t until 2012.

After two days, one email, two dozen phone calls, and two voice mails, I finally got a returned call yesterday evening. Before the call, I had decided, that if I didn’t have a voice mail or return call this morning, I was going to complain on Twitter. The corporate accounts person was very nice, very apologetic—more than a little relieved that his call avoided my going to Twitter—and I finally got the information I need to proceed.

I subscribed to Vogue Knitting magazine in December or January and am supposed to receive a login to download an electronic copy of the mag to my tablet. Well it’s February and the spring issue is out and I don’t have a login and haven’t received a response to my email of Thursday last requesting one. So, now that Southwest is taken care of I’ll be chasing up Vogue and maybe this week they’ll be able to respond in the 48 hour time guarantee as stated on their website.

On the 14^th of February I ordered a mobile WiFi device. I was promised an email when the product shipped. Called last week. They were expecting a shipment of the devices by the end of the week and I should have an email with shipping details by Monday or Tuesday. Called yesterday, and the shipment is due next week and I’m on the priority list. Well a simple query to the database for all orders not filled, merged with an email apologizing for the inconvenience and a statement of when shipment is expected and I suspect I, along with countless others, would be happy campers.

I started the BonBons Mitts last Friday using Harrisville New England Shetland. I just need to knit the thumbs. 

Toupie sat out his food coma this morning on the dresser. He’s just never happy when he sees the camera:

 

But the prospect of a catnip marinated toy:

 

 

 

Last week a good friend died. She was a rare jewel in so many ways. Her smile was a beam of equanimity, warmth, and joy. She always spoke of her family and her husband with love and respect; not that there weren’t times of annoyance or disagreement but the love and respect always shone through. She was a very pious Christian but so human and humble with and about her faith. She would laugh with you about you but laughed best at herself. She wasn’t rich or powerful in position, but her absence over the months of her illness and now her death has left an empty space in the lives of her family and the hundreds all over the world who knew her that only memories can fill. And despite my sadness that she is no longer here, I am comforted by so many memories and touched by how often we laughed, even at the serious. What more can be said of a life well lived, than her husband’s words: If you want to remember Ernie, be like her.

Knitting from stash continues. I have a pair of legwarmers on the needles, though I fear it will be too warm to wear them when finished. The Gold Socks are done. I realized on the second sock that I neglected to put in the ribbing on the foot. I didn’t want to frog and reknit. I am seeing the need for a yarn scale to give me some idea of how much yarn I have remaining at the end of a project. I suspect I have about half the skein of this yarn.

 

Toupie wasn’t interested in this morning’s sock photo session.

He curled up on the crocheted rug awaiting a more exciting activity: like following me to the kitchen to watch as I made my second cup of coffee.

Snow, Knitting, and Toupie

Between the southerly dips of Arctic air and the march of Nor’easters, this winter is leaving us buffeted between waves of frigid temperatures and snow and freezing rain. Phil’s prediction was surplus to requirements: We didn’t need a extricated rodent to tell us that we were in for another six weeks of winter. 

Acclimatization comes surprisingly quickly. People were walking around in light jackets and sweaters the day after last week’s big snow. Temperatures were in the mid-thirties. Indeed, at the bus stop on Friday morning, I thought I could have worn my fingerless gloves and been quite comfortable.

It is perfect weather for knitted goods. My Nomads Hat keeps my head quite toasty. Scrolling through saved patterns, I found the Simpliworsted Gansey Mittens & Neck Warmer by Geoff Hunnicutt for Skacel. I used Cascade Eco+ in Lavendar Heather colorway on size 8 dpns to create a very tight fabric. This was a quick knit. Next time I knit this pattern, I will make the cuffs longer.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to capture post breakfast photos of Toupie this morning. He demolished a can of food formulated for indoor cats overnight, so I expected he wouldn’t have been as hungry this morning. Wrong! He settled down to the bowl and finished half of the this morning’s can. After mounting the bookcase for a session of face washing, the food coma set in:

That is until he discovered he was being photographed:

I listened to Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thurbon. If I had unlimited resources and unlimited time, this is the journey I would take. It is rather dispiriting to think that war and political unrest makes such trip almost impossible these days, but on the other hand, hasn’t it always been so. What makes the Silk Road so intriguing is its endurance despite the constant transformations from migrations, ecological changes, war, the rise and fall of polities. Travelogues are not something I find enjoyable, but as always, it is the writing that draws one in. Here the Shadow of the Silk Road succeeds. 

I also finished listening to The Jewel in the Crown, the first book of the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott. I had read the quartet in the 80’s and 90’s. It struck me on listening how such disparate characters are clearly drawn and through the narration of these characters; the plot is moved forward despite the fractured narration. What particularly impressed me was how well he captured how much of the Indian’s time, thought, and effort was spent in dissecting, analyzing and developing strategies to deal with the British. Not just in the political arena, but in negotiating the minutiae of everyday life. I understood the criticism of a younger Indian relayed by one of the narrators that too much time and effort was spent by Congresswallahs under the Raj on politics when that time and effort should have been spent on learning how things worked or on building the practical competencies to run the economic and social engines of the nation that emerged after independence. In short, those in the independence movement let the British determine how power would be negotiated when real power is self-sufficiency and that means having the local/indigenous competency to manage the social and economic infrastructure.  

This resonated with me because I see as a lesson to be learned for all peoples who lack access to institutional or political power. That the primary focus is on gaining access to political power is on that power—elections, policies, etc., not on developing competency that puts people in the position to be the locomotives of implementation. Once the political access is gained, the engines underlying infrastructure--that is the real bulwark of power—never changes or changes much more slowly because the focus on competency comes after the focus on political power.