When Friends Die

I wrote a while back about how I hate funerals.  I wrote it after attending a funeral I really felt I needed to attend, having skipped a few I should have attended.  

There's another thing I'm not fond of, and once again failed miserably.  It's visiting in the hospital.  I can do it right? I can do anything I want.  I have done it and that proves I can.  When it's someone you haven't seen in years, and maybe weren't super close to but still called friend, it's not something you should skip.

The problem with NOT visiting at the hospital is missing that chance.  So Roy had been in and out of the hospital and even a couple of nursing homes over the past couple of years.  His health hadn't been good for a while and so this last trip to the hospital everybody had to know there was a chance it would be his last. I didn't go, and now I can't.

Please don't think my callous when I say I won't be losing sleep.  I hadn't seen him in probably at least 3 years and he knew what I thought of him.  Sometimes it's good to leave things like that.  You don't always need a final farewell, or to be there when someone actually goes.  I wasn't ever really close to him or his family and I'm comfortable with how things were the last time we saw each other.  They'll be better the next time we see each other.

Here's the thing, and the reason for this.  Roy was a guy who would do anything he could for almost anybody.  He was one of a handful of people who helped me move the last time I moved.  That was a bit more than 6 years ago.  Matter of fact- he called so early that morning wondering when we were going to start that he woke me up. 

If nothing else at all he was enthusiastic and tried hard.  Is there really anything more you can ask of anybody?  

So, Roy.  Sleep well.  Your heaven is the Montana mountains and rivers of your youth.  You talked of them like you were still there every weekend, may you find them just as you left them.  Not sure if heaven had a choir without a leader but I'm sure it's ok if you simply sit back and enjoy the music...not like that's your style.

Customer Loyalty Died

My cell phone carrier is T-Mobile. This post is about how to lose a customer. Every 22 months T-Mobile offers what they call a "full discount" on a new phone. To get the full discount you simply have to agree to a new 2 year contract. I called in October to make some changes and see about a new phone. I ended up with a couple of changes, a discount equal to about a month of service and no new phone. I also ended the conversation with a new 2 year contract and my full discount still intact and ready to use when I want. Now if a full discount requires a new contract, and I update the contract without utilizing the discount, I should be able to get a new phone at any time without a contract extension, right? I mean I already did that part. NO! If you do a new contract and don't use the discount at that time you will AGAIN be required to extend the contract in order to utilize the discount. What sort of BS is that? First a new customer already gets a better deal on everything and then a customer who has been loyal for ten years gets hosed. The moral to the story? NEVER extend a contract with a phone company. You can take your number with you, so take it and your money from one to the next until they reward loyalty over new business. This will never happen so travel the companies and shop them hard. Play them against each other. I left Qwest about ten years ago for t-mobile because the qwest guy was like "if cheap minutes are all you care about go ahead"...now I care about other things yet I was duped into a worthless contract extension just 2 months ago and it's almost worth paying full price for a new phone to ensure I done spend another day with t-mobile than I have to.

Missing It?

We travel this earth every day of our lives.  From the day we're born until the day we die we learn, we live, learn to live and live to love.  Or something like that.

We begin by learning to crawl, then walk and finally run. Somewhere along the way we also learn to laugh, talk and some of us learn to sing.

Somewhere along the way we accept that what we are learning, or what we've learned, is actually real.  We learn numbers, letters, words and math.  We learn how to spell and never give a thought that the rest of the world spells the words the same way.  We write, we read and we speak - taking for granted as children that our communications will be widely understood. We never give thought, and we might be missing it.

We might be missing the opportunity to skip rather than walk or run.  Perhaps the sight of a grown adult crawling through the aisles of the grocery store seems too much to take, society doesn't exactly encourage us to be different.

If only more people invented the words they were using, as they speak, we could be confused about something worth being confused about. Imagine how difficult communication would be if we couldn't discern when a person we're talking to needs to use the toilet, and we keep them standing in front of us trying to understand.

We take our world very seriously, perhaps too seriously. Maybe we shouldn't go crawling through the aisles at the store, or invent our words as we speak, if we take it too seriously we might be missing it.

Found

I found an old journal from a communications class I took back around 2002.  I think I'm going to post some of the entries - for my own liking if nothing else.  I'm not sure exactly how I want to go about them so I think I'll make a label or group or however it works to keep them all in the same place.

Keep in mind they're my thoughts from 10 years ago, but you might realize my way of thinking doesn't change much.  I kind of liked reading through them and hope you will too.  If you don't it's ok - move on.
If you like something leave a comment.

I have a lot of random thoughts.  Some of them mean something and some don't.  I'm not sure if I'm safer to write them down this way or say them out loud - no difference maybe.  Tendency with me is if it runs through my brain it comes out my mouth. Sometimes that's good and sometimes it's not.

Just the same keep your eyes open for the random thoughts of a casual observer and partaker of life. If you're sitting you ain't living.