Author: DOuG pRATt

Days of Future Passed Again

Sony SRS-BTX500

This is just about as silly and minor as a blog post can get. I’m playing around with my Bluetooth speaker in the sun room. By switching the wireless link over from speaker mode to headset mode, I can make it sound just like a cheap AM radio.

After spending so much time and money on listening to music from the Sixties in the best possible sound quality, I’m getting a nostalgic kick from making it sound like it did on a transistor radio from 50 years ago. For excellent audio, I can recommend the recent vinyl re-issue, by recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Moody Blues, of “Days of Future Passed.”

This is Retirement?

I was hoping that 2018 would have a better start than 2017, but such will not be the case. My father passed away in October, ten months after suffering a stroke. His death meant the end of me having Durable Power of Attorney and made me Trustee.

To see my father and carry out my responsibilities I have been to Phoenix twelve times in the past twelve months, with some of those visits extending to two weeks. Which wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t quit working. It’s technically retirement, but I’m having a hard time thinking of it that way, as I haven’t been able to do anything normally considered to be a retirement activity.

I am anticipating returning to Phoenix in a couple of months, but something unrelated has come up that could interfere with the trip. I have been diagnosed with a melanoma, adding injury to the insult of being bald since I was 28 years old. The skin cancer has apparently been a long time in the making, although I’m sure that being exposed to the hot Arizona sun so much this year hasn’t helped, so perhaps it isn’t entirely unrelated.

Today was my initial consultation since the biopsy came back positive. Being told by a Harvard-trained specialist to expect “extensive removal” and “significant scarring” isn’t very encouraging, but at least there was a picture of Annie Little to look at in the examination room.

13 Hours of Punishment

https://youtu.be/OMW_dPtm7Bo

For myself, the Silver Age of comic books ended when I graduated from high school. At this moment I can’t think of a comic book title that was introduced during what is, for me, the Bronze Age of comic books, that interests me all that much. Which means that I’m not much of a fan of Wolverine or the Punisher, hugely popular Marvel Comics characters that were introduced in 1974, while I was in college. Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” series for DC in the 80’s is an exception, but those characters were all based on Charlton comics from decades earlier. Speaking of Charlton, I really enjoy E-Man, and he makes the cut because he was introduced before I started college.

Vigilante justice has always been present in comic books, although Superman dropped that approach very quickly, and even The Batman let go of his angst after becoming just Batman and picking up a sidekick. What came about in the 70’s, when vigilantism was reintroduced, were extra helpings of violence to go along with the justice.

In “The Punisher”, now streaming on Netflix, I see more than a little borrowing of elements from the TV series “Person of Interest”, which wrapped up a year-and-a-half ago. There was plenty of obligatory shooting of bad guys, but being a network TV series it never reached the level of ultra-extreme violence that is seen in “The Punisher”. I can’t say that I actually enjoyed all the blood and gore, but one thing for sure is that Jon Bernthal is perfect in the role. He says he wanted the challenge of putting across a sympathetic character that isn’t likeable, and Bernthal pulls it off, as long as you can stand watching him when the Punisher is in “killing machine mode.”

There is one truly great line in the Punisher script — “Pissed off beats scared, every time.” I agree.

Preventive Measures

The safe assumption is that every man, at one time or another, has done something that a woman in the workplace considered unacceptable at a personal level. An overheard comment, a friendly wink, an approving smile, or whatever. So it seems that every man who works someplace where there are women will have to be fired.

P.S. But now the gay male accusations are also making news. Wonder if any men will claim to have been harassed by well-known women?

Sears is Doomed – but we all knew that

I thought I’d be a nice guy and give Sears some business, by buying a dishwasher from them with installation. (Why I need a new dishwasher is another long story.) Bosch had a deal where it would refund the installation cost with a debit card. After placing the order online with Sears, I received a message with this information:

There was no call from a “professional contractor” the next day, nor the day after that. So I called Sears and was told that they were unable to find an installer. Not good, but at least it sounded true. I waited one more day without a call and when I again inquired, I was told the same thing, and that no installation date could be provided. So I cancelled the order, assuming I would get a refund on my credit card in 7-10 business days, weekends and Veteran’s Day not included. Which meant that the drop-dead date for the refund would be today.

Eight days later, on a Friday, I was called by Sears Logistics, and they asked if I would change my mind about the cancellation. They said they still had the dishwasher I wanted in stock, but they weren’t saying whether or not they could install it. So I said no, leave the order cancelled, and that I would be purchasing a dishwasher from another store.

After seven business days I saw that my card had still not been credited, so I called Sears again. They said the credit was being processed, based on the date of the call from the Sears Logistics, which I told them was not acceptable, because I had cancelled the order more than week before that. But there was nothing I could do about it, because the bank requires 15 days — not 15 business days — to dispute a charge. So today I wasn’t surprised when I was told by cash-strapped Sears that the refund would take 7-10 business days from when I called last week.

Obviously, Sears is playing the game of resetting the start date for the refund every time they speak with me. So I have informed them that I have gone to the bank and disputed the charge. I’m now stuck hoping that Sears doesn’t declare bankruptcy in the next month, which seems to be a possibility. If it happens I’d be kissing $735 goodbye! Next up, I’ll be telling the equally ugly tale of what happened with my order at Lowe’s.

Follow-up: Disputing the charge worked. A few hours after doing that, Sears issued a credit for the full amount.