Ongoing Letter - Allan's Place
Allan's journal to the world. (Sounds important, doesn't it?)
This is where ranting and raving occurs. Venting. Blowing things out of proportion. That kind of thing.
I went to Safeway to get some cream for my coffee. I’ve had milk in my coffee for four days now! Imagine! Gross. It has a sickeningly sticky, hollow taste to it. (Now enjoying a second cup mixed in with my first cup, with cream. Much better.)
슬픔, 부끄러움. 세상은 미쳤어.
We all know the five Ws – who, what, when, where, why – and their neglected cousin, how.
But when we use these words to create compound words in reply, this happens:
But that about the other ones?
English is weird.
Headache day. Not a big one, but one nonetheless. I’m at Henderson Park catching up on tutoring work. I have four classes to add and homework to create for all.
I went to Starbucks on 5 Ave. N. The air conditioning was too strong, the clanking and banging from staff was incessant, flies were landing on me, and the coffee had too much cream. Did I mention I had a headache? Was all that discomfort created from my headache or vice versa?
AVG Antivirus broke my system! Instead of coming to my OGL and posting something, I’ve spent the past 1.5 hours trying to sort through why my computer is broken – specifically, why Explorer Patcher has been quarantined by AVG Antivirus. It actually started last night when my computer couldn’t open a simple .txt file. Then more of it this morning! They claim it contains a trojan virus. I really don’t believe it does! It’s just an add-on program that changes the goofy Microsoft Windows 11 look of a computer back to Windows 10 or 8 or 7 or whatever you like. It takes the stupid context menus out, gets rid of the silly screen one sees when punching the Windows button, etc. An hour and a half! Buggar off, AVG! Stop trying to rule how I live my life!
I hate the fact that Walmart has their bicycle racks right next to the smoking booth. Smoke and the stink of old cigarettes and cyclists right next to each other!
Been busy the past few days. I installed some deadbolts in the rear of a rental property, cleaned out part of the garage, completed my taxes, blew out all the leaves from the red shale rock on the East side of the house, and attended a pot-luck supper at the community centre.
Boy, the music at Starbucks sucks. There was some opera tenor bellowing away like a sick cow in the previous song, and now we have show tunes. Should a person run the risk of sounding like a complainer, put up with it, or leave?
I left.
So we’re back with Shaw / Rogers after a brief stint with TekSavvy.
A few weeks ago we had switched over to TekSavvy for internet, TV, and phone. Then we got a bill from Rogers for S2477.86 – almost 25-hundred dollars – a cancellation fee. We signed up a year ago to a faster service and, apparently, inadvertently, signed a 5-year agreement with them.
Fine, except that the 5-year agreement was a contract that, somewhere in fine print, stipulated a fee of 50% of the remaining contract if we cancel. FT and I were on the phone for an hour trying to sort it out. In the end, FT decided to reinstate the internet and cable TV so as to avoid paying that fine.
So, although TekSavvy seemed to be a good company with which to sign up, we are now stuck again with … Rogers <say it with disdain> … for another four years. Vultures!
I cancelled another credit card – this time HBC’s Neo MasterCard. Why? I think 24% is a bit excessive, don’t you? As well, I can’t download transactions into Microsoft Money (my accounting software).
You’d be surprised at how many banking / credit card people who don’t know the difference between transactions and statements. Transactions are they actual purchases, payments, charges, etc. that one incurs, downloadable as digital whatnots that financial or spreadsheet software can read. Statements are paper or PDFs that you can download to view the transactions of a given period.
Scotiabank, Home Depot, HBC Neo, and Walmart MasterCard all have no downloadable transactions. So, I rarely use them … except for Scotiabank because they give me a sweet interest rate.
I’m at Northside Dodge (now called Gary Moe) having the Chrysler Town and Country diagnosed. The engine light came on a few days ago. So now I have some downtime in the ‘service lounge’. What to do? I should have brought receipts to do finances. At least I have a cup of coffee.
I went to Starbucks today for a Pike Place coffee and brought my own cup. The server poured coffee into a paper cup and then threw the paper cup in the garbage can. I called him on it; he said it was to measure the right amount of coffee. What is the point of bringing my own cup?
It’s snowing again. It started yesterday afternoon while we were working.
