Just some more recent photos of the pond. At some point soon I’ll mount a couple more of cameras from my security system and stream at least one of them on my weather station website. Nothing at the link currently, it’s just a placeholder.
I’m real funny about clothes. Hell, most of my shit is over 20 years old and up until a couple of years ago anything I had bought new amounted to the same style jeans I have been wearing forever and t-shirts from vacation spots which have taken the place of t-shirts from concerts. I guess a lot of guys are pretty much the same way, with a few exceptions. I guess we are the same about hair styles as well.
Anyway, a couple of years ago I started noticing that there were a couple of companies that are manufacturing some pretty cool clothing. Roar and Affliction are a couple of them. I took a liking to quite a bit of the stuff that Affliction makes and sells. It’s up to date but still sort of ‘80s metal, which of course is when I came of age and my brain will always be partially stuck there. Never mind that I’m 44 and supposed to be past that crap.
So I started purchasing Affliction. Not a shitload but considering how much they charge for their stuff I probably have a couple grand invested. Since I am not a rock star or anything like that (except to my children) that’s quite a bit. Most of it I buy locally from the Buckle or occasionally online.
About a year ago I purchased a pair of jeans and almost immediately a button fell off the back pocket. WTF? No huge deal but I tried to get in touch with someone from the company and my emails went ignored. I never pursued it after that.
This past December I purchased myself a $600 leather jacket from Affliction through Buckle’s online store as a birthday gift to myself. Never mind that I got it during a great pre-Christmas sale, the going price was $600. As a matter of fact it was the same jacket I gave my son as a 21st birthday present last year. I liked it so much that I wanted it for myself and considering that my current jacket had finally started falling apart it was time to get a new one.
Anyway, flash forward to the end of January. The jacket has metal studs on the back and epaulets and three of them had already fallen off. Christ, as I mentioned I am 44. It’s not like I’m moshing in a pit or running through the woods or other stupid shit. I wear it to work and then come home. So I started emailing Affliction, asking how I could get it repaired or where I could find some replacement studs for the damned thing. No answer. So I emailed them again. And again. Still no fucking answer. At that point I posted to their Facebook page. I figured someone would see it, shit, they have something like 70,000 likes on their page and they post daily, usually several times.
Still no answer. Not only that but I think maybe they deleted the fucking message off their wall. Their wasn’t even any cussing in it. I was fairly polite as I always am until someone really pisses me off and I feel that I have no resort.
So I waited another week and finally emailed Buckle, which as I mentioned is who I purchased it through. The director of their Internet merchandising responded within 24 hours, recommending that I take it into the local store and show it to the manager. Since I am on vacation this week I stopped by a couple of days ago. While they don’t carry any replacement studs or anything like that the manager graciously took my jacket and apologized for the lack of customer service on Affliction’s part and they ordered me a brand new one, shipped straight to my house. I just tracked it a short while ago and it’s supposed to be here tomorrow. That’s pretty fucking expedited and nice on their part. Perhaps whoever is running the PR show for Affliction, who are so fucking worried about clothing Rock Stars and MMA fighters on my dime, should take a fucking lesson from Buckle. Of course the folks at Buckle realize that without consumers on their side they won’t have anyone to sell their stuff to. I guess Affliction doesn’t have to worry about that shit.
I was going to file a BBB complaint but since the company I actually did business with was Buckle I won’t but I did look up Affliction Clothing on the Better Business Bureau and guess what? They got an “F”. That figures. “F” doesn’t stand for fabulous or fucking awesome at the Better Business Bureau. What it does stand for though is this:
“We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.”
Damn, that’s harsh but it’s exactly what I have dealt with as well.
As much as I like the clothing and will probably continue to wear what I already own, I highly doubt I will ever spend another fucking red cent on anything manufactured by them again. There are plenty of folks who make quality stuff that will be more than willing to take my money and then answer any questions I have without making me kiss their fucking ass or jump through hoops to do it.
The energizer bunny by god. That’s me some days, or at least it feels like it.
I didn’t sleep for shit last night. In bed at midnight, up at 2AM, up again for work at 5:30ish. Although it was officially my day off one of my managers is off as well so I am responsible for staffing and whatnot. Wednesday being payroll day I had to show up at 6:30 and send that stuff to the office and then pressure wash one of the sidewalks at another one of my stores. I managed to finish that stuff up shortly before lunch so went and got a haircut, which looks mighty fine, I might add.
Arrive home at noon, plant a bunch of flowers, vines, a bush or two. Cleaned out the other pond, which was really nasty. Nasty enough so that I couldn’t see my hand when I stuck it in to pull out the plants. Got this one huge 3’x3′ mass of lily pad roots and miscellaneous garbage that they have grown around. From the bottom it looks like hundreds of snakes or worms all wriggling around. Like I said, fucking nasty. Trimmed back the Wysteria and wove some of the extra in around the wiring which brings us to right now.
I also put in some kind of pond grass that the wife picked up from a friend. Half of it in the pond and the other half just outside as an experiment to see if it will grow. It get’s these really cool purple flowers but other than that I have no idea what it is.
Now that I’ve showered and am starting to fel a little better I think I might print out a burn permit and get rid of a couple of piles of brush that are just sitting there calling my name. I’ll have to wait a little while though. The girls have to be picked up from school in a half an hour or so and I need to put a couple of posts up at my other sites anyway.
Hell, the day’s only halfway over. I’m sure I can find something else to do as well. I know my seedlings need to be watered but I can do some of them while I’m burning.
…smoking that is.
This is really a no-brainer but the article entitled “Smokers encouraged to give up for financial health” really struck a chord with me. It’s all about how much money you can save by quitting smoking. It shows how much money you save if you smoke twenty cigarettes a day and quit smoking. Well, I smoke two (or did) two to three packs a day minimum. If you figure it that way, based on forty cigarettes a day at $3.50 a pack that’s seven dollars a day, $49 a week, or $2,548 a year. That’s a chunk of change. If I were to turn around and put that into, say my mortgage that’s like making two extra house payments a year.
I did some reading a few years ago on paying off mortgages early. The example given was to pay half your mortgage every two weeks and by doing so you would end up making ONE extra payment a year and pay it off seven years early. How much earlier would I pay it off by making TWO extra payments a year. Not a bad deal at all, particularly considering that the cost of smokes is just going to keep going up and up until they are taxed out of existence by the Federal government.
It’s been a pretty uneventful day here at the Miles Casa. I have a ton of things on my to-do list and haven’t managed to get very many of them done today. I need to pay some bills and start working on my 2007 taxes but somehow just don’t want to.
I did manage to get about ten hours of sleep. Maybe a bit too much but damn I am behind. I need to find a way to balance my sleep/job/stuff at home so that I can get enough rest and spend some time with the family as well. It’s pretty difficult at times.
I am doing so-so quitting smoking. I managed to get down to a pack every couple of days and then quit Monday night when I went to bed. I didn’t smoke at all at work yesterday. Ended up going about 16 hours, which is quite a long time. What I didn’t realize is that I apparently had a pack in my car that I found on the way home from work yesterday afternoon. So much for that. I had thought the wife was going to take them with her this morning but apparently she forgot. It’s almost gone and once it is I will quit once again. I feel like such a darned lightweight.
I have a nice dinner planned. The wife thawed a couple of pork loins so I marinated them in olive oil and rubbed them with a some different spices. They are sitting in the refrigerator now just waiting to go in the oven. I figure around four I will pop them in and decided what else to have with them.
I have mentioned a few times that I really hate the Samsung i760 that I picked up. In theory I like the idea of a pocket PC phone, but in practice I don’t like the implementation. I guess it’s all about what you like. Apparently it’s still pretty popular as far as PDA/phones go. I got a blackberry last week instead and will put the Samsung up on eBay later this afternoon. I have a few reviews I need to get written first.
We are still talking about redoing our bedroom later this spring. I think the wife and I both have different ideas about what we want so I am just going to stay out of it now. Doesn’t really matter anyway as long as the bed is comfortable. I am going to end up putting a TV on the wall and make it into a small home theater. The wife seems to prefer the idea of having it in the room. That’s fine, I can put on in the bedroom and another in the living room. Eventually it would be kind of cool to put some home theater seating down in the basement and set up an HTPC down there, but that may be a while. It’s more of a wish list thing that is down near the bottom.
I think the wife and I have two different viewpoints about what we are going to do for our 20th anniversary next May. She wants to redo the entire bedroom. New furniture, paint, all that good stuff, and I want to spend the money on a trip to the Caribbean. Originally I was thinking Hawaii but just the thought of spending the greater part of the day in a flying coffin makes me want to hurl. Since I am the man in this household what I say goes…
…
As I was saying, we are getting a new bedroom suite for our anniversary next May, and I have looked at around 100+ different web sites and types of furniture trying to decide what I want. Or at least what the wife wants that I can live with.
Home & Bedroom furniture online has all different types of stuff to look at for the bedroom including Hillsdale Furniture. What’s nice is that they have all sorts of discount bedroom furniture and for me, anything that’s on discount is worth looking at.
Regardless of the type of bed that we get I do know that I want a big old armoire for my stuff. I don’t have a ton of things that I really have to hang up aside from my work uniforms and it would be nice to have them all accessible right there together. As far as beds go I have been thinking about a nice big poster bed although Canopy beds are pretty cool as well.
Either way I will bow to she who must be obeyed and just go about my business as usual. It may be that we can do both, go on a nice vacation in the Caribbean AND get a new bedroom suite if I play my cards right and do what I am told…
Only one person hung me today and I have taken her off the rest of the week. Amazingly enough for a Saturday I made it home at a decent time. I even had time to stop and get ice and chips for the party. Right now I am just drinking coffee, although once the Sam Adams Oktoberfest is cold enough I will have to break into that.
Party on…
When I was growing up I remember my parents had this really cool iron candle holder on the wall. I was sort of a triangle shape with flowers and chains that ran down it to each of the arms. I’m still not sure why but that thing just brings back a lot of good memories. All of my life I have loved iron wall art, particularly sconces and other candle holders like this Bonna Wall Candle Holder.
After I found that candle holder I started browsing through the site and found that Wall Decor & and Home Accents has some pretty nice wrought iron decor available besides the candle holder as well as other stuff such as shelves and clocks and other architectural pieces. The old saying about your home being a castle is doubly true when it looks like one 🙂 Perhaps I was just born at the wrong time, but I could sit around and find watching the flames play over this stuff even better than television.
If you’ve had the chance to come to the house you know that I am somewhat concerned about the way the yard looks. I don’t want just a nicely mowed lawn. I love gardens and knickknacks around the yard as well. I have Elephant Ears and Lillies, flowering vines and other neat stuff including two goldfish ponds. That’s one of the reasons I have been so concerned about the dry spell we are in. All of my plants are suffering and since my county is under a complete watering ban there isn’t much I can do. When it rains I open several coolers that I have on the back deck and let them collect the water for later, but that is usually only enough for one watering.
In addition to the plants that I have growing I like flags and plaques and whirlygigs as well. Anything to brighten the yard. If I had them I would probably have pink flamingos and garden gnomes out there as well just to add color. I really want to stick this sundial out there from MailBox And Beyond…
It’s a little over $60 which isn’t bad at all. It also comes in weathered bronze and moss green but I like the verdigris that is shown in the picture. This thing would look great above my upper pond. I really need to do something with the area anyway, at least mulch around it. Unfortunately there isn’t any grass in that area and everytime it rains anything loose gets washed down.
Mailbox And Beyond mainly sells residential mailboxes but they also have quite a bit of stuff like the sundial as well. There are a couple of really nice mailboxes over there as well, but I will have to wait on any of those for a while.