Toilet Rolls & Paper Towels

It is very strange the things that people get worked up about. One thing, the toilet seat positioning, I wrote about before. And remaining in the toilet, there is the paper roll replacement issue, though the paper towel roll replacement in the kitchen could come under the same heading.



I bring this up because I am guilty of feeling hard done by when I find just an empty cardboard roll and I feel that I am the only person who replaces it. I do feel strongly that to use the last of either roll and just walk away without replacing it is just plain inconsiderate.


Then there is the 'almost' replaced roll. The empty cardboard roll hangs on the holder, but someone has found sufficient energy to place a new roll on top of it, just couldn't quite muster up that extra effort to put it on the roller - or, they manage to get that far, but can't quite figure out how to dispose of the empty roll - goodness knows the Internet is cluttered up with whole websites dedicated to things to do with empty toilet rolls. Pinterest has 1001 ways to use them!

I know for a fact that I am not the only person who replaces either roll. I have actually seen my husband replace the paper towel in the kitchen, and I frequently find fresh, untouched toilet paper in one or other of our bathrooms, leading me to believe that someone other than myself, replaced it.

But yet people do complain when they have to replace a toilet roll, mind you, once replaced that opens up another can of worms - was it replaced correctly? There is a wiki dedicated to toilet paper orientation.

In our house, there is a right way and a wrong way to replace the paper towel in the kitchen also. Of course you probably read my blog entry on how to stack a dishwasher? There are numerous other everyday tasks that have a 'right way' and a 'wrong way' to complete. My husband blames this on the fact that we were both born in September, and everyone knows that Virgos are perfectionists - he says this in almost the same breath as declaring that astrology is something that he does not believe in.

On the left is the correct way to do it, on the right is incorrect.

One of the other things about toilet paper that I find strange is the folds that hotel cleaners put on the roll - our cleaning service does it too and I always feel a bit mean tearing their careful fold off, in fact I sometimes think perhaps I should refold it when I am done? I wonder what they would do if all of our toilet rolls had little folded points on before they even started cleaning, would it ruin their day?


A quick google search turned up some interesting methods suggested to combat the empty toilet roll issue. Personally, I think it is a losing battle and I don't care to waste time fighting against the inevitable - so I resolve in the future to just replace the roll and get on with more importing issues.

But the irritants don't end with paper rolls. There is the habit some have of putting empty containers back in the fridge or on the pantry shelf. Leaving cabinet doors open, putting just one too many pieces of trash in the bin and still not emptying it, so many others I am sure.

Sages & Pundits

I was explaining to a colleague why I was sitting at my desk chatting with him, at 5 a.m. CST (my time in Texas) which was 3.30 p.m. in his location, Bangalore.

I start work between 4.30 and 5 a.m by choice, because I wake naturally around 3 a.m. every morning, frequently a little earlier. Starting early also means I can finish up early, most days, and I get to miss most of the traffic.

It has been years since I heard an alarm clock and while I will try to sleep in until 4 or 4.30 a.m. at the weekends, if I can - I will always wake around 3. Even when daylight savings time hits us, twice a year, my internal clock doesn't skip a beat and I wake at 3 by the clock, irrespective of the adjustment. Fortunately I absolutely love those early morning hours when my world is quite.

Most Westerners tease me about this peculiar behavior and accuse me of keeping 'Irish time' no matter where in the world I happen to be located - and it is true that when I am in Ireland, I tend to wake at about 3 a.m. CST, rather than GMT and I have very little difficulty adjusting to time differences when I travel.

My Eastern friend declared with delight that I must be a sage or a pundit. Now, I thought I knew the meaning of the term 'sage' but the term pundit in Western circles appears to have lost it more mystical and acceptable meaning. To me a pundit was someone who was somewhat sleazy - being more a political or even bookies tipster, so I looked up the true meaning of both words and felt somewhat complimented- I will interpret 2. below 'a learned man' - to be referencing 'mankind' as a whole rather than specifying gender in this instance. Particularly as one of my most revered people, Gandhi is quoted as saying:

“To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?"

Having searched for a more Eastern definition of sage or pundit, I came across this site which has a wealth of information on Hinduism: "... sages had understanding of things and places which normal people like you and I could never even imagine..." and "... had complete understanding of everything in this world and the heaven..."


I started my quest feeling somewhat complimented, and while my quest to find more information on Hinduism will continue, I find myself feeling very highly complimented. That is praise indeed even if that praise is not entirely deserved.

Company Culture

I have worked in a number of different companies, in London (England), Dublin (Ireland), Ontario (Canada) the Bay Area in California and in Austin Texas. In each, the company culture was completely different. Naturally, between countries there are differences, and needless to say, my working life has spanned quite a number of years and during that time so much has changed.

When I started working, no executive would dream of typing up his own documentation, memos, letters - and there was no such thing as email. I started my working life as an invoice clerk, and, as dusk settles on my career I am a Quality Assurance Engineer, testing software - well, I am hopeful dusk will settle as retirement begins to look very enticing - right now my working life has the appearance of a mid summer evening in Ireland when the sun refuses to set. In between I had a myriad of different jobs and a number of years hiatus as a stay at home mom. Some of the companies I worked for were in the following areas: Pharmaceutical, Retail, Travel, Finance, Industrial Development, Banking, Mechanical Engineering, Petrochemical, Recruiting, Education, Electrical Manufacturing, Food Manufacturing, Logistics, Software and Horse Livery - not necessarily in that order.

One thing I am certain of, a company, no matter its size, has a culture which is essentially the personality of the company, and is a direct reflection of the personality of the head honcho. Depending on the size of the company, this personality may or may not be watered down, or bolstered up, by the personalities of the executive team.


A very fitting definition, considering how different companies are, when it comes to their culture and the importance, or lack thereof, that the company executives place on the nurturing of this. Almost exclusively, I have left jobs because of a negative or repressive culture, and stayed in positions because of a supportive and positive culture despite other aspects of the job being less than ideal. Where some cultures have been manifestations of human intellectual achievement, others have been a cultivation of bacterial growth and not the good kind.

Experts estimate it costs more than twice an employee’s salary to find and train a replacement. And churn can damage morale among remaining employees, plus those who leave frequently take the best with them. I have started job searches whenever there has been churning of staff and once they have departed and settled comfortably in their new digs, then the poaching starts.

According to Frances Frei and Anne Morriss at Harvard Business Review:

“Culture guides discretionary behavior and it picks up where the employee handbook leaves off. Culture tells us how to respond to an unprecedented service request. It tells us whether to risk telling our bosses about our new ideas, and whether to surface or hide problems. Employees make hundreds of decisions on their own every day, and culture is our guide. Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room, which is of course most of the time.”

I left one job, after many years, because what had once been a fun, supportive and enjoyable place to work, with reasonable remuneration and good benefits deteriorated over a fairly short period of time, into a very unpleasant, unsupportive workplace. The benefits were slashed to save cost to the company while at the same time money was spent on things that in no way improved the working environment for the majority. The laughter and lightheartedness in the corridors and kitchen was replaced by whispered, disgruntled conversations in the restrooms and cubicle areas. And worst of all, staff who made the effort and misplaced their trust by speaking to executives about the unwelcome changes, deeply regretted their naiveté. What was significant about the culture at this company is that it changed from being a boring lack lustre environment, into an exciting, challenging and very enjoyable one, and then quickly fell into the disgruntled unhappy place I finally left. Each change in the culture, coincided closely to a change in the CEO. Coincidence? I don't think so.

It is no surprise that many of the reviews of the GlassDoor.com Top 50 Best Places to Work are centered around the culture. As an aside, I am proud to note that a Texas company, HEB are placed 7th in the list.

All of this is very obvious so is it greed or stupidity that results in a less than acceptable culture? Or perhaps a bit of both. Definitely it indicates someone at the top who is in it for the short term.

Lefties

I come from a generation where writing left handed was frowned upon, and corrected usually with detrimental effects. When my youngest brother started writing with his left hand at school, he was forced to use his right hand. The good thing about that is that he can now write with either hand, the bad thing is no matter which hand he uses, his writing is almost illegible.

My husband is left handed and what got me on this particular train of thought was the discovery that there is a 'left handed' and 'right handed' way of hanging clothes on a coat hanger. My husband retired recently in order to be take care of his mother who lives with us, while she is still perfectly capable of taking care of herself, due to failing eyesight and good sound common sense, she has chosen to quit driving. As her eyesight is expected to continue to deteriorate, eventually we expect she will need more than just a driver.

Meanwhile, because he is no longer working, my husband has taken over many of the household chores, in particular the laundry. I still do the ironing early on Sunday morning but no longer have to wash, dry or hang the clothes.

That was when I noticed this phenomenon. It got me thinking about being left handed in what is essentially a right handed world. When we remove clothes from the dryer, we hang them immediately, that minimizes the chore of ironing them. I had never noticed before that there is a right and left way to put a shirt on a hanger. I, right handed, hold the hanger in my right hand with the hook turned to the left, insert the hanger into the right shoulder of the shirt, (on the left facing me) then into the left shoulder (on the right facing me). Now, with my right hand I can easily hang this up.

A left handed person, at least my husband, does completely the opposite, holds the hanger in his left hand, hook to the right, inserts it first in the left side of the shirt (which is facing him so on his right) then in the other shoulder, now it is ready for him to hang easily with his left hand.

What intrigued me most about this is that when I went to remove the shirt to iron it, I felt totally turned around, the natural way - or at least natural for me, wast to remove from the side to my right first, but it felt wrong because the hook was facing in the 'wrong' direction. Of course, this was just a very minor discomfort and not difficult to adjust to, there are many other things that pose greater difficulties.

My first car in the US was a stick shift, and I had been driving a stick all my life, but changing to a car with the driver side on the left, that put the gear shift on the right, it was my first real experience of how difficult things must be for people who are left handed. So many things are designed for those who are right handed. Door handles and locks all placed on the right side. And, while left handed scissors are available, they are not easy to come by, manually operated can openers, and a computer mouse can be configured for left or right handed people and some kitchen knives are very obviously designed with the right-handed user in mind.

Many people say that left handed people are smarter, my belief is that is because they are forced to use more of their brain, the right side naturally because they are left handed, but they have to use the left side just to live in a right handed world. My husband is most definitely smarter than average, as are the other members of my family who are lefties, my highly intelligent grandson and my beautiful and very talented niece.

Fortunately these days it is much more accepted and children are allowed to develop according to their genes - because researchers have located a gene responsible for right- or left-handedness, according to a 2013 study published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

Apart from the forced right handed writing, I couldn't find any references to forcing left handed people to do anything else with the right hand. But what is very interesting is that my husband, who I mentioned before writes with his left hand, and I might add his hand writing is a lot better than mine and I am and always was right handed. However, he bowls with his right hand, and apparently always has (incidentally he also does that better than I do), as you can see from the photo, my grandson bowls with his left hand.

Here are some very interesting things research has come up with about left handedness.

• Make up between 7% and 10% of the population
• More likely to have allergies
• More prone to migraines
• More likely to be insomniacs
• Use the right side of the brain the most
• Three times more likely to become alcoholics – the right side of the brain has a lower tolerance to alcohol!
• More likely to be on extreme poles of the intelligence scale
• Tend to reach puberty 4 to 5 months later than right handers
• More likely to suffer stuttering and dyslexia
• Twice as likely to be a man
• There is also a left hand day, and a left handers club. See here for more information. 

According to this article regarding left handed US Presidents, Daniel Geschwind, a professor of human genetics at UCLA says : "Six out of the past 12 presidents is statistically significant, and probably means something,"

Rain

I am no stranger to the rain. I grew up in Ireland. When I first moved to Central Texas, and for a number of years after, I did not join in the local excitement when it rained, neither did I understand their reluctance to go anywhere in the rain. Of course, bearing in mind the driving style of Texans (see my blog here) and their determination to ignore changes to road conditions and refusal to adjust their driving accordingly, it is somewhat understandable. If the Irish waited for the rain to stop before doing anything, they would do nothing at all, and my firm belief is that if I didn't dissolve before, I surely won't at this stage in my life.

However, in the last 5 years my attitude has changed, don't get me wrong, I still don't allow the rain to stop me from carrying on my daily life, and I still don't dissolve when I get wet, but I do get very excited when it rains, and the more it rains, the happier I am. That is because I have finally realized what the results of prolonged drought will do to a country.

Central Texas has the most amazing landscape, and a large number of lakes although all of them are man made, the only natural lake in all of this giant sized state is Caddo Lake in East Texas. As with everything else in Texas, when it rains, it rains BIG. Flooding, in particular, flash flooding, is a very real hazard. The lakes are mainly for flood control but they are also the only source of drinking water for the majority of people living in a very wide area surrounding them. They are also a great recreational resource.

The Highland Lakes on the Colorado river, which flows through Austin, were formed by a series of dams. There are seven lakes in all. One of the more popular is Lake Travis, it is our favorite and we have gone boating and fishing on Lake Travis for years. Plus, it is the source of all of our water supply. The last three years of drought have seriously depleted the levels of all of our lakes and Lake Travis looks very sad indeed.

In this photo the levels are down very slightly

In the photo to the right, you can see just how bad things have become. This is almost exactly the same view, the island showing above the surface to the left of the picture is known as Sometimes Island, as it only sometimes appears. However, in the past three years it has not only been visible, it has developed a lush growth and has turned from an island into a archipelago, and then into a peninsula.

This website has some very interesting information on the lakes, including the chart below, which is interactive on the website. 

As you can see, at the time of writing, because we have had a few weeks of healthy rainfall, the level is rising, but we are still seriously below normal:










What truly amazes me is that people who have lived in this area all their lives, and have seen serious flooding - flash flooding, and severe drought, still waste water at an alarming rate, and with every flood event, there will be deaths and frequent rescues as people ignore the warnings, and the road closed signs and still drive, or attempt to drive across low water crossings.




Most homeowners and businesses in Texas have sprinkler systems to water their lawns and green areas, and the water they use is coming from the same source as the water we drink, the sadly depleted lakes. It is one of the more painful sights in Central Texas to see a sprinkler system running, often during the hottest part of the day, and the precious water is flowing across sidewalks and down the street.






Just slightly less painful is to see a sprinkler system running during a heavy rainfall. Less painful because at least it is raining.

And I have finally learned to welcome the rain.

How to deal with the difficult or crazy people in your life

...and everyone has at least one, if not more, difficult people they are obliged to deal with.

Buddha never said this, but had he been Irish he might have

I got started thinking on this topic when a friend posted a link on Facebook to an extremely good Forbes article on the subject:

I thought it was too good to not share, and what a good subject to blog about. However the more I researched the subject, the more I found that people way more qualified than I had already written really interesting articles and I would better serve you, my readers, by letting you read these yourselves.



I was interested to read in one article a suggestion to do something I have observed my mother in law do - very effectively - she will wait quietly for a natural pause in a conversation she does not want to engage in, and then say something totally unrelated - always managing to pick a topic that will be guaranteed to distract the speaker - and it always works. As soon as I realized that was what she was doing, I wait for it to happen and observe mesmerized. It is like watching a little old lady redirect a flow of lava.

Here are links to some of the better articles I found.

WebMD
Psychology Today
Think Simple Now

However I couldn't resist posting some of my old and new favorite quotes on the subject. This first one was extremely familiar to me - I wonder if this is where she got the idea.

"...When dealing with someone difficult, interrupt the pattern by asking a question completely off-topic..." — Paramhansa Yogananda

"You cannot control other people. You can only control how you respond to them.
You must change how you react to people before you can change how you interact with them,”
— Rick Kirschner, N.D., coauthor of Dealing with People You Can’t Stand.

“Most of the time, difficult people just want something different than we do,
— Ronna Lichtenberg, author of Work Would Be Great If It Weren’t for the People.

"To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee"
— William H. Walton 

"Hating people is like burning your own house down to get rid of a rat."
— Henry Emerson Fosdick, American author (1878-1969)

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”
 ― Wayne W. Dyer

Please! It is Paddy's Day!

Or, St Paddy's Day, or St Patrick's Day .. or just Patrick's day.  But never, ever Patty's day.

I am normally a very mild mannered person. There are only a few things that will spur me into an argument. Obviously, if anyone hurts one of my children in any way, shape or form, I will assume the perfectly normal protective mother lion pose. But I am not talking about that here.



I mean those debates people appear to enjoy, political, religious or otherwise, I don't get involved. It isn't that I don't have an opinion, or that I don't care; I do, and I do. But I do not care to debate, argue, bicker or discuss. However, when I hear someone say Patty's Day I can't keep my mouth shut. I respond as to whistling. I hate whistling! (read my blog entry here).

This time of year, I hear it a lot and I have not been able to prevent myself from explaining to the offenders - St Patrick was a man - what man in his right mind would admit to being call Patty, even if he was?

This blog explains it better than I ever could, so in future I will just refer everyone here - and I will be doing them a favor because it is a blog well worth reading.

Are you happy?

My 5 year old grandson has appointed himself the 'barometer' for the level of happiness all around him, and he takes his responsibilities very seriously. If you spend any time in his company, you will be asked 'Are you happy?' and he will expect an answer. I don't know what he would do if the answer was no, but I am fairly sure he would do all in his power to rectify the situation because he genuinely cares about other people and their state of mind and general well being.

I mention this because my mind was on the theme of happiness, recently my son said that he hoped that I was happy, and indeed I am, but the question sent me down the rabbit hole, thinking about happiness and how different the definition is for each person.

Like the song said '.. different things to different people...' And it is most certainly relative to your last experience. If you have been going through hell and misery, then any level of improvement can be described as happy.

What I believe is, if you are not happy then you are doing something wrong and you need to change your direction. Your happiness is not only your responsibility, it is something that only you can control, it is something you should control. I not only believe this, I do try to live by it. And, as always, I refer you to my book. I also think that helping out those less fortunate generates a sense of happiness and well being.


I love to read The Good News Network, just reading about the things people do simple because it is the right thing to do, or because they feel a need to help out someone less fortunate - that makes me happy and it certainly balances out the constant flow of bad news that media believes is all we want to hear.

Some Quotes on Happiness:

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
―  Gandhi

"Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness."
―  William E. Gladstone

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
―  Lincoln

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others...By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley

"Happiness is not the absence of problems, it's the ability to deal with them.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Some thoughts on travel

I have been lucky enough to have traveled a lot, lucky because I enjoy it and because much of my travel, at least within the US, was for work, so cost me nothing. My international travel is entirely personal, costs quite a lot but is so worth it.

For at least 15 years after moving the the US from Ireland, I returned to visit at least twice year, at first visiting both Ireland and France in the same trip, then alternating. My sons lived in Ireland and my daughter lived in France. In the last few years my visits have reduced to just once a year, partly due to the cost, but also because I can't stand another winter visit to Europe. I have become too spoiled by the constantly heated homes in the US, in Europe the cost of home heating is so high that no matter what form of heating you have, it is only run for short periods of time, such as early morning and late evening. If you live like that all the time, you do grow used to it. I am no longer used to it.

When I was traveling for work, naturally I had to use the cheapest, or the company recommended carriers. As a result I have had the misfortune to have experienced just about every US domestic carrier. I have spent long hours hanging around airports, and occasionally unexpected overnights due to missed connections and canceled flights. When I have a choice, I fly Delta. I chose Delta originally because they fly directly into Dublin from Atlanta, and flying from Austin to Atlanta is an easy trip, and if you have to spend any time waiting in an airport, Atlanta is a good place to do it. I continued to fly Delta because I started to amass a considerable amount of frequent flier miles, but also because I have had a better experience with them than with any other carrier, and taking in to account the fact that I have flow way more times, and way more miles with Delta, that is a fairly good recommendation.

I used to have a yearly membership to the Delta Sky Club - as much as I was traveling, it was worth it. But now that my travel is reduced, I will just buy a day pass if I am going to have a long lay over, that is if it is 3 hours or more, which it frequently is with International Travel. The comfort and facilities in the Sky Club make it well worth the cost.

I stress - not just about travel, I stress about everything. However, with travel it is very easy to find things to stress about, missed flights, lost luggage, luggage overweight - the list goes on, things I do to reduce the stress of travel:

• I always book flights with lengthy lay over times, I prefer to hang around the Sky Club than make a mad dash for a tight connection, or worse, risk missing a connection altogether.
• Pack all my liquids in my check in bags - no plastic bags to worry about at security
• If I am traveling with carry on only, I do so without liquids - I have actually been known to mail the minimum makeup needs to my daughter, ahead of my travel, so that all I need is there when I arrive. Every woman has bottles, tubes or jars of makeup with just a little in the end, these are what I send ahead and leave behind. My granddaughter has great fun with them after I am gone.
• I carefully weight my packed check in to ensure it is not over weight, just a couple of extra pounds can cost $100. If I have to check more than the allowed weight, two smaller bags, each within the allowed weight, is cheaper than one large, overweight bag.
• I take a photo of my packed bags - I know, this sounds really OCD but if you have ever lost your luggage and, after an 8 hour flight and 1 hour search for bags in a very large baggage claim area, then had to describe in detail the lost bags - you would also start doing this.
• I always bring my Kindle, with an extended battery pack, loaded with a number of books and a couple of movies and my favorite music.
• My carry on consists of a backpack which contains my laptop, kindle and one change of clothes - in the event my check in luggage does go astray, or I get stranded overnight, at least I do have one change of clothes and generally lost luggage is rounded up within 24 hours
• I also purchase comfort seating, early boarding reduces stress for no apparent reason because I do know the flight will not go without me so long as I have checked in and I am at the gate on time, and I do know I have a seat and will get on eventually, but comfort seating is also .. comfortable, not that I really need the extra space, but early boarding and early deplaning is definitely less stressful
• And finally, I have my Global Entry TSA Pre Clearance (see below).
• When ever possible, my European port of departure when returning to the US is Dublin, Ireland. There you clear both US Customs and US Immigration before boarding your flight. So arrival in the US is as easy as domestic travel within the US. This is particularly useful when making a connection once you land - tired, jet lagged and disorientated, just get off that plane and head for your connection.

I have to say, I have no issues with TSA, if they are doing their job right, they are keeping me safe, who can argue with that? But Global Entry Pre Clearance is a real luxury.

This allows me to by pass most of the queues at security and I don't have to remove my shoes nor unpack my laptop.


Anyone else got any good tips?

Osmiroids

Osmiroid nibs

When I was at school, which was a long time ago, and not for very long. Chapter 4 of my book describes that short episode in my life, and my Peeling The Onion Facebook page illustrates it. As I was saying, when I was at school, one of the items on our school list was an Osmiroid fountain pen, with an italic nib. These pens came in an assortment of colors, so although everyone had exactly the same pen, they were not all identical. The nibs were, or they were supposed to be.

Because this was in the 1950s and cartridges had not yet been invented for fountain pens, we all had to carry bottles of ink in our school bags in order to refill the pen. Most of us had ink stains in the bottom of our school bags, and across many of our books, from leaking bottles of ink. And we always had ink stains on our hands - not just from the messy job of filling the pens, but because they frequently leaked while in use.

This is how we were expected to write, and most did.

This is my butcher boy hand writing

We had handwriting classes, and we were all expected to write in exactly the same italic script. I guess I just had a different drum beat in my head, because while all the other girls were practicing writing in exactly the same way, I didn't see the point.


I really don't think that I was a rebel, because I wasn't trying to stand out, nor was I trying to be difficult, I just didn't see the point in changing my writing, and writing the same as everyone else, so I didn't. At one point I remember a very frustrated Scottish nun look at my exercise book with absolute disdain, she told me with disgust that I wrote like a butcher boy. Apparently part of what disgusted her about my handwriting was the presence of loops.

To be honest, I really didn't care. I hated school, and it wasn't long before I figured out the system and avoided going altogether.

Naturally I regretted it later and (read my book) I did manage to do some catch up, but looking back, I think I probably ended up with a better education that most of my peers from that era, even if it took me a lot longer and my handwriting is not as good.

I still wonder from time to time, how Mother George knew what a butcher boy's writing looked like, and did she believe they too were all forced to write in exactly the same way?

I found this blog about Osmiroid Pens, apparently they have quite a cult following, and not just nuns.

Customer Service

See here for more info on this

I am always delighted when I receive good customer service, and, when you stop to think about it, anything else just doesn't make sense for a company that wants to succeed. Yet, amazingly, there are so many companies where absolutely no effort is put into ensuring customers concerns are taken care of with the least amount of delay and that the customer is not left with a bad taste in their mouth.



I know that I will not only become a loyal repeat customer when I receive good customer service, I will also be free advertising, in person and on social media, and here on my blog, for that company. Of course, the corollary is true. I will make as much noise, if not more, when I receive bad customer service, and I will never return to that company again.  Repeat business is, or should be, very important to any company.

Definition:

A situation that arises when a customer returns again and again to purchase a good or service from a business. Offering repeat business is the hallmark of a steady customer that is usually highly valued by businesses that they patronize since they typically require minimal additional marketing efforts to retain.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/repeat-business.html#ixzz3SlK1YJ2m

And this excerpt sums it up:

According to our analysis, 25% to 40% of the total revenues of the most stable businesses in the SumAll network come from returning customers. Even better, steady customers help businesses weather lean economic times; businesses with 40% repeat customers generated nearly 50% more revenue than similar businesses with only a 10% repeat customers. 

Read more: http://blog.sumall.com/journal/the-importance-of-repeat-customers-2.html#ixzz3SlL3IUV7

And one of the driving forces that is improving customer service across the board is Social Media, more specifically Facebook. Whenever anyone feels they have not received the service they believe they should, it only takes a second to find that company's Facebook page and express your disappointment - believe me, that brings a very speedy response. I would suggest that everyone does try to go back and update the page with any positive feedback should it exist.  Using the Pavlova's dog theory perhaps we can all be instrumental in encouraging improvement in this area.

The companies where good service has confirmed me as a repeat customer include Michael's (see my blog here), Amazon, Zappos and Philips - that is Philips Appliances.  To illustrate my point, my experience with Philips was almost a lifetime ago in Ireland - in the mid 1970's. A time and a place where customer service had not yet been invented. Philips replaced a fridge freezer without question, when ice started to form on the back of the unit - on the outside. This in itself was unusual (both the ice and the replacement) but the appliance was just outside it's warranty period and so, replacing it - free of charge - was unheard of!

Everyone knows about the legendary customer service both Amazon and Zappos are so rightfully proud of.  Check on this article about Zappos customer service.

Guess no one in AT&T or Suddenlink read those reports.

I have had some bad customer experiences, but AT&T has got to have been the very worst, after 18 years I still won't entertain ever using any of their services again, and have no hesitation in advising family and friends to avoid them.

What on earth did they do to me to deserve that? Well, a few things, but I guess the crunch was having a customer service representative hang up on me. Now, if you knew me, you would know that I am a very mild mannered person, I am certainly not aggressive nor prone to being abusive, so I assure you I did not deserve that! Actually no customer does, even if they are abusive.

It started with a $500 phone bill.  I had cell phone, two land lines (one for a modem) and my Internet service from AT&T - I am sure I would have had UVerse too if it had been available 1995.  My phone plan was optimized for international calling as that was pretty much all I did back then and my monthly bill was always around $130. I was horrified to get a $500 bill and when I called customer service I was told I had changed my plan.  No I didn't! why would I? The representative I was unfortunate enough to get was rude from the start - and it took about 20 minutes of hold time to get him. He was very unhelpful, so I asked to speak to a supervisor - that was when he hung up on me.

See here for the full story

I called back and another 30 minutes of hold time I got another representative and asked to speak to a supervisor immediately. I was told the only way to do that was call an automated system, leave my number and request a call back from a supervisor. I did this, and the message I left was that if I did not receive a call back within 30 minutes I was canceling all my services and moving to MCI - the immediate competitor at that time - 30 minutes later, with no hold time, I was speaking to MCI and within 10 minutes had moved all my services to them. It was another 20 minutes before the AT&T callback. I told them it was too late I had moved to MCI - the supervisor confirmed for me that it was the correct move, as she very rudely told me I should have waited for my callback.

And most recently, Suddenlink amazed me by showing that they really didn't care what their customers thought. They are our Internet and TV provider, and they also supplied our home security system which is wireless, and up to recently we were very happy with them - the technical support has always been first class and the service has been reliable.  However, a couple of months ago our alarm system started to cause problems, we had issues with the backup battery system, and eventually they told us that the 4 year old phone system needed to be upgraded. They also insisted that the existing system had to be replaced with a new one as it was not possible to upgrade the unit we currently had.

How many customers fell for that one? Fortunately my husband has worked in technology for years, and not only is he very smart, he is also very frugal - he loves nothing better than to scour the Internet for days finding a better deal, and he had already sourced another supplier that was cheaper than Suddenlink and had good reviews. When we told Suddenlink's representative that we knew it could be upgraded and if they wouldn't do it we would switch to a company who would they didn't care. He called Smith Thompson and they confirmed that the system we had could certainly be upgraded and yes, they would be happy to upgrade it for us. So, for very little cost we got a better system, and reduced our monthly bill.

Suddenlink had already dropped a number of channels from their TV package and increased the cost, and for that they appear to have lost a number of their TV customers as there are alternatives and it is not difficult to find the rumblings of unhappy customers on the Internet.

Here is a very interesting site, though I question the results because it think it is a known fact that the majority of people only voice their opinion when that opinion is bad.

Tax Preparation

This year, like every other year since I came to the US, I started preparing my taxes the first week of February, using Turbo Tax DeLuxe (TT), and for the last 4 years I have used the same program to help my mother in law to prepare her taxes. TT is easy to use and efiling is a wonderful invention. However this year, due to some serious mistakes by Intuit and the designers of TT, some functionality was excluded from the installed DeLuxe version, and, in order to get these extras users were required to pay more. H&R Block (HRB) used this as an opportunity to expand their customer base. They offered their tax software free to anyone who had purchased Turbo Tax DeLuxe.


I had no reason to be dissatisfied with TT - I didn't need the extra funtionality, but I also saw no reason to not try out HRB, especially as it was going for free. So, I followed the instructions and sent off an email. Within two days I had the software installed on my computer alongside the already installed Turbo Tax.


I then set out to complete our taxes for 2014 in both programs to see if there was much difference between them. Both came up with identical results, however I had one small complication, a slight overpayment into my 401K which HRB resolved for me without any fuss, whereas TT advised that I needed to request a payment from my 401K and the associated 1099-R and some other form I would need to complete. HRB handled the overpayment as income, a solution I found much easier. And while I suspect somewhere in the future that small overpayment may be double taxed when the time comes to take distributions from my 401K, it is still a better solution for me.

I found a Consumer Reports comparison of these two tax programs online, see it here. Overall I agree with them, however I felt that TT interface was somewhat slicker, but HRB offers free In-Person Audit Support, whereas you do have to pay TT for this. The other big difference appeared when I was assisting my mother in law with her taxes. TT showed her owing over $500 in taxes, HRB on the other hand came up with a figure of less than $30 owed. I input the data three times in each program, same result each time. So, I printed out the two 1040s and compared them. The error in TT was immediately obvious.

I did one last complete run through on both returns and filed through HRB and I am afraid that TT has lost another customer, as I am sure I am not the only one who took HRB's offer and discovered the software to be as good, if not better, and cheaper overall. Too late Intuit back peddled and announced that they will roll back their greedy changes. HRB got some extremely inexpensive and very effective advertising handed to them on a plate by Intuit.

For many years I have been an advocate for TT - now I will be lauding HRB to anyone who cares to listen, while at the same time wondering if there were other years where errors in the software had caused differences in the final results. I will never know, because one thing is for sure, I am not revisiting my tax preparation for previous years, once is difficult enough! I absolutely hate doing tax returns, which is why I tackle them at the earliest possible moment.

So glad that is over for another year!

What about our elderly?

While helping my mother in law to do her taxes, I was horrified at how little income she had, or more correctly, how little she would have had if he late husband had not been a very hard working and frugal man. He spent much of his life working three jobs and carefully saving all he could towards their old age.

My mother in law has lived with us for 4 years now, ever since my father in law went into a nursing home for Alzheimer's. But, were she not living with us, she would be living in poverty without their savings, with those savings she would be fast eating away at her capital just to survive. She would have had mortgage payments and/or property taxes or rent, insurance, utilities, medical expenses and food and certainly her tiny pension would never cover that no matter how carefully she managed it.

What most amazes me is the fact that on this paltry income, she is still expected to pay taxes. Her social security is equivalent to minimum wage, the required distribution she gets from the money they so carefully saved is less than half of that - and is taxed and the small pension she gets paid from her late husband's contributory pension plan is also taxable. When we completed her taxes she still owed the IRS over $500! I don't understand how it is that people who are filthy rich pay less taxes than everyone else while so many of our elderly live in poverty? How can that possibly be equitable!? If we can't increase the minimum wage in Texas, currently $7.25 per hour, at least don't tax it! Currently a single person earning $15,600 per year (and tell me how can anyone live on that?) will pay 10% tax on the first $9,075 and 15% on the balance. Lucky married couple with only one working, will pay 10% on the lot - leaving them $14,000 approximately for two people to live on - again I ask how do they do it?

For the elderly on Social Security (pension) so long as you are getting less than $12,000 per year, you do not get taxed, however if you were wise enough to save for your retirement, you will pay taxes on income from those savings - and over a certain age (currently 70.5 years old) you are forced to take a minimum distribution, if this brings your total income over $15,000 per year, you will be taxed at 10% - that is so long as it remains below $19,050 - after that princely sum, your tax bracket is 15% rising to 25% if you managed to make more than $35,243.

According to these facts, and I could be wrong, if you manage to save for retirement, but don't save a huge sum of money, you will actually be worse off than with no savings - because a small amount will push you into the taxable income bracket without being enough to cover taxes and still have sufficient to live comfortably.

Something is seriously wrong when there are a small percentage of people with so much money, paying so little in taxes, while so many elderly people are living and dying in poverty - and so many children starving in this country, a country that prides itself on being the leaders of the free world and used to be known as the land of opportunity.

 

My mother in law is one of the lucky ones, she does not have to pay out for property taxes, mortgage, rent, utilities or even food. But it made me think of all of those elderly people who do not have family to care for them, and who never had the opportunity to save for retirement. What sort of a life do they have. It horrifies me.

According to research, US poverty rates are highest for people 65 and older, with 10.5% living in poverty, a large number of these are single or widowed women.

There are also sharp racial differences in the data: the rates are at least 3 times higher for Hispanics and African-Americans ages 65+ than for whites 65+.

I came to this country 20 years ago, following a divorce and the financial devastation that causes, and while I have been saving diligently ever since, I know that there is no way I can ever consider retiring. I must work for as long as someone is prepared to employ me, because the alternative is to quickly reduce to living in poverty. 20 years is not long enough to accrue sufficient finds to retire on. And on that note, I might add that I am horrified when I hear of young people who are not putting money into 401K or other retirement accounts.

Hang on, I am also elderly come to think of it - however I am lucky that I am still gainfully employed with the prospect of being so for the foreseeable future.

And now I have to go look for a definition for that ridiculous statement. Foreseeable future? that is very much a subjective thing I am sure.

Here is what Macmillan Dictionary describes it as:

• at a future time that is not very distant, and that can be at least partly guessed from present conditions
• for as far in the future as can be determined, based on what is known now

1099-MISC

Quite a significant event occurred today. I received a 1099-MISC from Amazon Digital Services - for royalties paid to me during the past tax year on sales of my book - I am guessing this is for the Kindle sales, and no doubt I will receive a second one for the royalties paid on sales of the paperback version. There is absolutely no risk that either of these forms will in any way complicate my income tax returns this year, but nonetheless I couldn't be more excited.

I didn't write the book to be a best seller nor in the hopes it would be made into a movie, actually I didn't really intend it to be a book - a fact that will become obvious if you read it, it really is more a series of essays. I wrote it because I couldn't stop myself. It had to come out - and it was most definitely a very therapeutic exercise.

None of the milestones since I published it, gave me greater satisfaction than actually putting those words on paper. Of course I was excited when I received the first package of paperback books with my name on the cover I had designed. I was extremely excited when a few people actually purchased the book. Very grateful for the reviews some people went to the trouble of writing on Amazon, and taken aback by the nice things they said about the book. I was more amused than excited when I received my first royalty payment. But none of this can compare to the emotional benefits I received from putting those words on paper. Just as physically emptying a stomach of poison makes a body feel better, emptying the mind of all the unpleasant and traumatic memories allows it to heal. And to actually receive a few dollars (because I promise you, it is just a few) is most gratifying.

Drivers

As I watched a car drive across three lanes of traffic on the freeway, onto the exit ramp and out of sight, doing approximately 20 miles per hour above the speed limit and without displaying any signal I mused on the different styles of driving I had observed in various parts of the US.

Of course, it is hard to generalize as so many Americans move from state to state, but I think many quickly adapt to the local driving style, and I believe that there is a local driving style.

For instance, when I first moved from Dublin to Austin Texas, I was charmed by what I thought was good manners and patience, for I never heard a horn honk no matter what the traffic situation. Then I was told that no sensible person in Texas honks their horn for fear of being shot!

My opinion is that Texans all drive like they believe they are in a NASCAR race. In fact probably more like those drivers who were the originators of NASCAR - bootleggers. Driving fast, showing no lights and lightening changes of direction with minimum indication of intention, and no consideration for other drivers. In fact, I have long believed that the drivers in Texas take the attitude that if you ignore it, then it is not there. They do this with other drivers, snow, ice, rain, you name it, they ignore it. Except of course, for slower drivers in front of them, then they herd them out of the way like the cowboys they are, getting as close as they can without actually pushing the slower vehicle off the road, though I have no doubt that is what they would like to do.






New York drivers and Dublin drivers are very similar - I guess in part because Dublin traffic and New York traffic problems are similar, but also perhaps, because there are so many Irish in New York? Lots of honking, yelling and hand gestures but very little movement.




In the San Francisco Bay Area, where drivers are subjected to long lines of slow crawling traffic, a gap wide enough to change lanes is very rare, they appear to have developed the uncontrollable need to change lanes if that gab does appear, I swear they do it because they can, irrespective of whether or not they need to be in that lane. Perhaps they think that a gap in the traffic means movement and any movement is better than none, even if the are only moving sideways and not necessarily in the direction they want to go.

I used to ride a motorbike in the Bay Area, where it is legal for motorbikes to drive between the lanes of traffic, and useful because these lanes are usually stationary. More specifically, I rode my bike across the San Mateo Bridge, which is usually at a standstill during rush hours. However I did learn very early on to be aware of this sidewards movement. As I drove, I watched for gaps and slowed down because it was inevitable some driver would dart sideways into the space.



In Seattle everyone is so incredibly polite! Drivers stop for pedestrians of all sorts, from hurrying commuters, old ladies, homeless people pushing carts, mothers pushing buggies, dogs, cats, squirrels, the WA drivers stop, smile, wave and wait patiently. No one has to wait very long to move into traffic or change lanes, they all signal their intention, and everyone stops and waves, most of the time taken to maneuver in traffic is the time it takes to demonstrate gratitude.

Next time I am traveling I must make a note of driving styles.

Restless Leg Syndrome

I thought I suffered from Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) before it was discovered, but actually research shows it was discovered way back in the 1600s. But I did suffer from it before the medical profession paid any real attention to it - or maybe that is before the pharmaceutical companies realized there was money to be made from it? Definitely I only started hearing about it when various magical cures were being advertised on TV in the '90s. It was kind of a relief to discover that it was not my imagination and the condition actually has a name.

As a teenager, if I got really tired, my legs started feeling awful - it was like an itch deep in the bone almost. Back then I was OK once I went to sleep. But as I got older it got worse. By the time I was in my late 40s it started to invade my sleep. Once I woke up with my legs twitching, I usually had to get up and walk around to stop it, then of course, I was awake and sometimes it took me over an hour to get back to sleep. Occasionally if it is not too bad, just sticking my legs outside the covers so they get cold will work. Later I started waking intermittently during the night despite the fact that my lets were quiet. It wasn't a big problem as I was able to fall back to sleep almost immediately.

Then I was put on medication to help prevent bone loss - a drug called Evista - I wasn't aware of the fact that RLS was a known side effect, in fact the only way I found out was my RLS got much worse and I was getting only 5 hours of broken sleep every night, frequently having to get up and walk it off more than once every night. Then, on a trip home to Dublin, when I was sleeping for 8 hours, if still somewhat broken sleep I was not suffering from RLS at all, I got to thinking about it, apart from being in Ireland, the main difference was that I had forgotten my medication and didn't take any Evista the entire trip. I stopped taking that medication and started sleeping better.

I was still having the occasional bout of RLS but not nearly as frequently as before, and of course I was still waking 4 or 5 time during the night - and still do.

It was only when I started reading up on RLS for this blog that I think I figured it out. RLS is just one symptom of a disease that interferes with sleep.

According to Healthline.com RLS was initially documented in the early 1600s by Thomas Willis :

...Willis’ description of RLS: “Leaping and contractions of the tendons and so great a restlessness and tossing of the members ensure that the diseased are no more able to sleep than if they were in the place of the greatest torture.” Ironically, Willis thought the cure for RLS was bloodletting, which was used for everything from rashes to cancer in those times. However, today we know that low iron levels contribute to RLS and bloodletting was the worst possible treatment...

A study in 1996 showed that after patients sought medical help, diagnosis took 10 years or more. An international study in 2004 found that only 8 percent of patients were diagnosed properly. This article also confirmed something I had already figured out for myself, any medication that eases the symptoms only does so for a limited time especially if taken regularly. I found an over the counter drug called Legatrin which did help for little while, but soon it stopped working. I now only take it once a week, generally Friday or Saturday night, when I know that I don't have to get up in the morning. I don't sleep in, I haven't done so for as long as I can remember, but I live in hope and I do get at least one good night's sleep most weeks.

The fact that RLS is a symptom fascinated me. This report from Johns Hopkins was the one that I found most fascinating as it pinpoints higher levels of glutamate in the brains of people who suffer from RLS - glutamate, the report explains, is a neurotransmitter involved in arousal - that is not referring to sexual arousal, it refers to arousal from sleep - to be awake. Suffers of RLS get less sleep, suffer from broken sleep and tend to not be overly tired during the day despite that.

Now.. I have read a number of articles that tie lack of sleep to difficulty losing weight, or even to weight gain.

According to the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal, a study conducted by the University of Chicago Sleep Research Laboratory concluded:

Sleep curtailment decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55% (1.4 vs. 0.6 kg with 8.5 vs. 5.5 hours of sleep opportunity, respectively; P = 0.043) and increased the loss of fat-free body mass by 60% (1.5 vs. 2.4 kg; P = 0.002). This was accompanied by markers of enhanced neuroendocrine adaptation to caloric restriction, increased hunger, and a shift in relative substrate utilization toward oxidation of less fat.

The amount of human sleep contributes to the maintenance of fat-free body mass at times of decreased energy intake. Lack of sufficient sleep may compromise the efficacy of typical dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction.

I am overweight despite my efforts to diet and exercise, I have RLS and I sleep very little, and I sleep badly as I said, waking frequently throughout the night, because I higher levels of glutamate!

Fascinating, but I am still fat, my legs still twitch and I still don't get enough sleep, however, somehow I feel a little bit better about it all.