A little help over here, please? Monday morning rant....

Anyone else having this experience? You call a company, you get shifted to one of those automated menu messages where not ONE of the options is what you need? Or worse yet, the phone rings many times and either goes to voicemail or is ignored? You sign up online (sometimes repeatedly) for more information and never hear from the company again? What the heck happened to customer service?

All summer, I've been chasing several businesses that I dealt with in the past and have little success getting a response the first, second or third time. My pork supplier that I've worked with for 3 years now, has only bothered to respond once to my numerous emails and phone calls, and that was to say she'd "check her messages". And I was ready to throw lots of money at them! Two other farmers I buy from either do not confirm my order and payment or are slow to do so. Bought tickets for the local beer festival online, because that's the only way they wanted to do sell them, and it took 6 WEEKS to get a confirmation that they had my money. Tickets didn't show up till 2 weeks after that! The auto body shop that I've dealt with a couple of times hasn't bothered to reply to emails/calls AT ALL! I'm having the work done by another, closer but slightly more expensive, body shop. I just spent 2 days chasing down the Ziebart dealership to ask a question and make an appointment--finally got him an hour ago after strong-arming his assistant. I'm ready to go for a test drive in a car and possibly purchase in the next day or so, but can't get the Online Sales Manager to actually call when he says he will.

I could understand the slow/non-responses if I were simply a casual customer but these are businesses that I've done business with before! I realize that the economy is recovering slowly but I would think businesses would go the extra mile to retain old customers and attract new ones. I just don't get it.....

You may now return to your regularly scheduled day.

Dedicated to my family, neighbors and friends

Feeling sad today for losses I've endured, heard about, and witnessed. Found this:

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.
~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Some folks will do and say things within their family that they would find abominable in people outside the family circle. Yet they plow into each other in ways that are so destructive to all parties. Do they think that family are impervious to their hurtfulness? Do they think that they do no harm to themselves?

Play nice today......

Fawns a'plenty!

We woke up this morning and looked out the window to check for any storm damage from last nights rain. Curled up in the front yard was the sweetest little fawn, just growing out of his baby spots. Mom was nowhere to be found in our yard so we assume she was out in the woods having a little "Mom Time". I apologize for the blurry photo, it was shot through the window this morning.



Last week, doing the breakfast dishes, I saw this same fawn with his/her mother, grazing in our yard along the edge of the woods. An hour later, another doe with twin fawns crossed the yard going in the other direction, wandered around the property finding good things to nibble, and disappeared behind the neighbors house.

Here I am in the heart of a populated suburb, with all sorts of wild animals crossing through our large yard. I suppose it's the only 'meadow' in the area and they realize they can shelter in the surrounding woods and safely come out for food (although sometimes their idea of "food" does not mesh well with my flower and vegetable plantings) It's fascinating to watch them and we love the fact that living here is almost like camping, except we have all the comforts.