Friday, December 23, 2005
Home for the Holidays
What do ya think? Decorating for Christmas for the first time in about 15 years. Sacramento
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Monday, May 23, 2005
A Battle Over Programming at National Public Radio
A Battle Over Programming at National Public Radio
Balanced? As in Fox networks "fair and balanced?" Oh Puleeze. Presenting different views is not presenting truth. In-depth analysis and truth / fact finding is the number one reason I pay attention to NPR, and the mail reason I do not listen to trash radio, which includes Howard Stern as much as it does Rush Limbaugh.
The censorship continues to build. This is almost as scary as the beliefs of many members of the religious right that they have the right, nay, the duty to burn up the earth because it will hasten armeggedon and the end of days.
Balanced? As in Fox networks "fair and balanced?" Oh Puleeze. Presenting different views is not presenting truth. In-depth analysis and truth / fact finding is the number one reason I pay attention to NPR, and the mail reason I do not listen to trash radio, which includes Howard Stern as much as it does Rush Limbaugh.
The censorship continues to build. This is almost as scary as the beliefs of many members of the religious right that they have the right, nay, the duty to burn up the earth because it will hasten armeggedon and the end of days.
Monday, May 16, 2005
AMERICAN HOME SHIELD IS A JOKE
American Home Shield, IS A JOKE.
Well if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. My partner asked me if I was starting to feel like I bought a lemon with this old house. I am starting to wonder it that isn’t true. The same phrase bears repeating, ‘but it’s an old house, things are outdated and always need attending to in an older home.’ I believe it is a tradeoff. I get the charm of an older home, established trees, and lots of windows. The trade is, with the established trees, I get tree roots invading the old terra cotta (or clay) sewer line that the previous owner failed to deal with. I get weird wiring in the electrical panel, like too many things on one circuit. At least the windows are new all around!
Let me get to the title of this “essay.”
AMERICAN HOME SHIELD is a rip – off. If you are buying a house, don’t waster your money. I have dealt with the same company on two different houses and never had a good experience. The first house, sewer issue. It was old, had a clay main sewer line, the standard for the ‘day,’ which in this case, was the 1940’s. I used American Home Shield to come out and clean out the sewer line after living in that old house (the one I left in SF), but any subsequent clean outs were not going to be covered. That means, if I had to call out American Home Shield, they would not cover the cost for the service charge, which, by the way, was quite a lot less than the current charge of $45. The old service charge, if I can remember, was about $30.
After living here, in Sacramento in the house I bought, for two weeks, the sewer line from the shower developed a stoppage. That was it, nothing would drain. My earlier rant about the prior owner knowing about the sewer only touches on my frustration. On top of that, it is the expense. When I bought the house, the prior owner, Nancy Sanchez, and I split the home warranty insurance. That’s about $450.00 each. I called American Home Shield to get service on this problem. First complaint is the phone log-in, it takes forever and you have to deal with a complicated menu. I guess that cuts down on overhead when you don’t have a person to talk to. Ok, so I expect to get a call from a “technician” some time soon. Technician is the new name for a plumber, or an electrician. A plumbing company calls and will send some one in two days. I have to arrange for showering at a friend’s house. When the plumbing company calls my partner is home and, as I had done with American Home Shield, explained that there is a stoppage in the bathroom, specifically, the bathtub will not drain. The plumber shows up and complains that he did not know it was a stoppage problem and he doesn’t have the right equipment. He leaves to get the equipment and comes back about 3 hours later. Not knowing the only problem we specified does not inspire a lot of confidence, we should have asked what he was told to fix.
The plumbing ‘technician’ find a clean-out opening and snaked the sewer line from that point to the street. This was totally outside of the confines of the house. The stoppage did not clear; gee could it be that the stoppage was between the shower drain and the outside sewer line? Why yes, that makes sense, doesn’t it? And what did the technician say? Oh, he can’t snake that, the service is only for the outside sewer line snake. He can’t get on the roof, he can’t send a snake down the exhaust pipe (whatever that thing is on the roof). The technician said that the bathtub is backing up because it is the lowest point and, pretty much, he did all he can do. He recommended calling another plumber with a camera to see where the problem is.
What, call a real plumber? Is that the answer? Apparently so, as my partner had a plumber out in an hour, as I called the city to come and find the street clean out. The very next morning, the real plumber ran a camera down the exhaust on the roof and guess what he found? A stoppage RIGHT AFTER THE SHOWER DRAIN, just where we asked the first plumber to check. That stoppage was cleared, as was another small one beyond that. Unfortunately, there will need to be a sewer replacement in my future and it will be costly.
My conversation with American Home Shield that next night was along the lines of, what the heck do you cover? I got this out of it: American Home Shield’s plumbers will snake out the main sewer line only. There is no replacement of plumbing, outside of the boundaries of the house, covered. Yet the specific stoppage was within the boundaries of the house, the service does not allow for clearing it. That is pretty stupid. You know what that means to me? Just get a “real” plumber whenever you need anything plumbing related, because all you will get is a main sewer line snake-out for $45 with American Home Shield.
Joke number two, and part of my first sentence, if it isn’t one thing it is another, is the electrical outage I experienced on Saturday. Naturally it happened on a weekend, ensuring the maximum of costs to me, the new homeowner. I call a couple of electricians and left messages. I called only the ones that advertised in the yellow pages that they were 24/7 operations. There must be a lot of work for electricians, as everyone was out and would call me back, strange, though, no one did. After about an hour, I remembered this issue might be covered by my American Home Shield warranty. I called and dealt with the electronic recording menu and finally got a phone number for an electrician. It was a 530 area code and the mechanical voice told me that a technician would call on Monday to arrange service. Since I had NO LIGHTS, NO REFRIGERATOR and nothing but a few outlets worked, most of them in the bathroom, this was not a satisfactory service. I had to repeat “operator” over and over at the phone until a real live person at the American Home Shield call center answered. When I said Monday would not do, that I considered my issue more of an emergency, the young man said he would consult his supervisor. I waited on hold for a few minutes, and when the young man came back on line, he said my electrical problem was not an emergency and that I could run an extension cord to an operating outlet for my refrigerator.
I admit this last thing was just too much for my already frustrated and stressed emotional state. Although I did not swear, I said something like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me. You are suggesting I run an extension cord? American Home Shield is a joke. The service for the sewer is just like this electrical problem.’ Then I just hung up before I got into screaming at the kid answering the phone. It isn’t his fault he works for a JOKE. You know what I want? I want my $400 bucks back. Because I have paid $45 for a service call from a plumbing company that only snaked the main sewer (hey, I suppose that was a bargain, it needed doing). I paid $325 for the camera work from a real plumber and $275 for the electrician who came out Saturday evening and took care of my problem.
I guess my karma is running backward for now. I used to say I’ve been living right because I had relatively good luck. This is the bad luck.
Well if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. My partner asked me if I was starting to feel like I bought a lemon with this old house. I am starting to wonder it that isn’t true. The same phrase bears repeating, ‘but it’s an old house, things are outdated and always need attending to in an older home.’ I believe it is a tradeoff. I get the charm of an older home, established trees, and lots of windows. The trade is, with the established trees, I get tree roots invading the old terra cotta (or clay) sewer line that the previous owner failed to deal with. I get weird wiring in the electrical panel, like too many things on one circuit. At least the windows are new all around!
Let me get to the title of this “essay.”
AMERICAN HOME SHIELD is a rip – off. If you are buying a house, don’t waster your money. I have dealt with the same company on two different houses and never had a good experience. The first house, sewer issue. It was old, had a clay main sewer line, the standard for the ‘day,’ which in this case, was the 1940’s. I used American Home Shield to come out and clean out the sewer line after living in that old house (the one I left in SF), but any subsequent clean outs were not going to be covered. That means, if I had to call out American Home Shield, they would not cover the cost for the service charge, which, by the way, was quite a lot less than the current charge of $45. The old service charge, if I can remember, was about $30.
After living here, in Sacramento in the house I bought, for two weeks, the sewer line from the shower developed a stoppage. That was it, nothing would drain. My earlier rant about the prior owner knowing about the sewer only touches on my frustration. On top of that, it is the expense. When I bought the house, the prior owner, Nancy Sanchez, and I split the home warranty insurance. That’s about $450.00 each. I called American Home Shield to get service on this problem. First complaint is the phone log-in, it takes forever and you have to deal with a complicated menu. I guess that cuts down on overhead when you don’t have a person to talk to. Ok, so I expect to get a call from a “technician” some time soon. Technician is the new name for a plumber, or an electrician. A plumbing company calls and will send some one in two days. I have to arrange for showering at a friend’s house. When the plumbing company calls my partner is home and, as I had done with American Home Shield, explained that there is a stoppage in the bathroom, specifically, the bathtub will not drain. The plumber shows up and complains that he did not know it was a stoppage problem and he doesn’t have the right equipment. He leaves to get the equipment and comes back about 3 hours later. Not knowing the only problem we specified does not inspire a lot of confidence, we should have asked what he was told to fix.
The plumbing ‘technician’ find a clean-out opening and snaked the sewer line from that point to the street. This was totally outside of the confines of the house. The stoppage did not clear; gee could it be that the stoppage was between the shower drain and the outside sewer line? Why yes, that makes sense, doesn’t it? And what did the technician say? Oh, he can’t snake that, the service is only for the outside sewer line snake. He can’t get on the roof, he can’t send a snake down the exhaust pipe (whatever that thing is on the roof). The technician said that the bathtub is backing up because it is the lowest point and, pretty much, he did all he can do. He recommended calling another plumber with a camera to see where the problem is.
What, call a real plumber? Is that the answer? Apparently so, as my partner had a plumber out in an hour, as I called the city to come and find the street clean out. The very next morning, the real plumber ran a camera down the exhaust on the roof and guess what he found? A stoppage RIGHT AFTER THE SHOWER DRAIN, just where we asked the first plumber to check. That stoppage was cleared, as was another small one beyond that. Unfortunately, there will need to be a sewer replacement in my future and it will be costly.
My conversation with American Home Shield that next night was along the lines of, what the heck do you cover? I got this out of it: American Home Shield’s plumbers will snake out the main sewer line only. There is no replacement of plumbing, outside of the boundaries of the house, covered. Yet the specific stoppage was within the boundaries of the house, the service does not allow for clearing it. That is pretty stupid. You know what that means to me? Just get a “real” plumber whenever you need anything plumbing related, because all you will get is a main sewer line snake-out for $45 with American Home Shield.
Joke number two, and part of my first sentence, if it isn’t one thing it is another, is the electrical outage I experienced on Saturday. Naturally it happened on a weekend, ensuring the maximum of costs to me, the new homeowner. I call a couple of electricians and left messages. I called only the ones that advertised in the yellow pages that they were 24/7 operations. There must be a lot of work for electricians, as everyone was out and would call me back, strange, though, no one did. After about an hour, I remembered this issue might be covered by my American Home Shield warranty. I called and dealt with the electronic recording menu and finally got a phone number for an electrician. It was a 530 area code and the mechanical voice told me that a technician would call on Monday to arrange service. Since I had NO LIGHTS, NO REFRIGERATOR and nothing but a few outlets worked, most of them in the bathroom, this was not a satisfactory service. I had to repeat “operator” over and over at the phone until a real live person at the American Home Shield call center answered. When I said Monday would not do, that I considered my issue more of an emergency, the young man said he would consult his supervisor. I waited on hold for a few minutes, and when the young man came back on line, he said my electrical problem was not an emergency and that I could run an extension cord to an operating outlet for my refrigerator.
I admit this last thing was just too much for my already frustrated and stressed emotional state. Although I did not swear, I said something like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me. You are suggesting I run an extension cord? American Home Shield is a joke. The service for the sewer is just like this electrical problem.’ Then I just hung up before I got into screaming at the kid answering the phone. It isn’t his fault he works for a JOKE. You know what I want? I want my $400 bucks back. Because I have paid $45 for a service call from a plumbing company that only snaked the main sewer (hey, I suppose that was a bargain, it needed doing). I paid $325 for the camera work from a real plumber and $275 for the electrician who came out Saturday evening and took care of my problem.
I guess my karma is running backward for now. I used to say I’ve been living right because I had relatively good luck. This is the bad luck.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
May 7
Good heavens - playing in the OC, at an "Imperial" function - drag queens everwhere. Never have you seen such tall, ornately dressed 'women' as these men. It is a culture I do not profess to understand.
The good of it would be the charity fundraising they do. The bad of it is, it is just an excuse to party. Raising money for the causes has its value, and I would have to admit, that alone is worth it. But it really is a giant social gossip club.
Not being very associated with the groups, I am easily bored with the affairs. I mean, how many drag shows can one go to? None of these people are my friends, so they don't engage in serious discussions. There is much to much alcohol drinking going on, everyone talking about everyone else, and all fake pretenses about how was a big shot where and when and how important this person is over that person. I don't believe in all that, thinking I am just as important as the next person.
Oh well. I can't even say "at least it is cheap entertainment" because it ain't. I only do it because the one I love does it.
Tomorrow is another day - who said that? Oh, yes, it was Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.
The good of it would be the charity fundraising they do. The bad of it is, it is just an excuse to party. Raising money for the causes has its value, and I would have to admit, that alone is worth it. But it really is a giant social gossip club.
Not being very associated with the groups, I am easily bored with the affairs. I mean, how many drag shows can one go to? None of these people are my friends, so they don't engage in serious discussions. There is much to much alcohol drinking going on, everyone talking about everyone else, and all fake pretenses about how was a big shot where and when and how important this person is over that person. I don't believe in all that, thinking I am just as important as the next person.
Oh well. I can't even say "at least it is cheap entertainment" because it ain't. I only do it because the one I love does it.
Tomorrow is another day - who said that? Oh, yes, it was Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
No title
Still making the move, unpacked boxes, paper that wrapped baubles and the stupid things that we can’t seem to throw away, and the items that don’t seem to belong anywhere, stacking up. Decisions have to be made, where do I put the bottles of half filled olive oil, sesame seed oil, and pepper seed oils? Just how old are these spices? When was the last time I used them, hell, when was the last time I needed to use them? Since when did I think I even remotely liked to cook?
I used to just love my old place, the kitchen, THE VIEW.
I used to just love my old place, the kitchen, THE VIEW.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Home in progress
Well, home from business. Seems like I never leave. The house is starting to feel like mine, instead of the house I walked into a month ago and put an offer on it. Shit, just realized that about 2 hours ago I turned on the front yard sprinklers. That is the second, of two times, I've left the darn water running like FOREVER.
Doing laundry, cooking dinner, unpacking from a trip - not even touching boxes from the move. Hell, I got bills to pay tonight.
Doing laundry, cooking dinner, unpacking from a trip - not even touching boxes from the move. Hell, I got bills to pay tonight.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
business trip
Gee, what is fun about travelling? Can't find anyplace to eat, so we drive and drive and drive. What happened to all the places that should be just down the street from city hall? I mean, this is LA after all!
Drove to west hollywood to find a mall and ate at a food court - how crazy ridiculous is that?
Drove to west hollywood to find a mall and ate at a food court - how crazy ridiculous is that?
A little over 2 weeks
April 19, 2005 - I've been in my "new" house for a little over 2 weeks. I'm not young, and neither is the house. But in 2 weeks I managed to block up the shower/tub to the point that it would not drain. Long story short - the sewer main is busted, submerged, and needs to be replaced. Got an estimate at almost $16K. That is way too much, and the woman who sold me the house, Nancy Sanchez (a police officer and I won't name the agency for now) most likely new of the problem. She only partially disclosed a sewer problem ("sometimes you have to call out a plumber to router the thing") is not a total disclosure of a pre-existing problem. That would have sounded like this: The sewer needs to be replaced. Followed by my saying, ok, but I want $8K off the price to do it.
So far my neighbors are good. Good and strange, in some instances. Young couples across the street are cool. The family in between them are strange.
My sweetheart is moving us in just fine. She has tons of energy and is focused on squaring away the garage. She took care of the kitchen in just a couple of days. I don't know if I can ever thank her enough.
The pool pump needs to drain properly and the sweeper thing (fondly called the sweeper-dude) needs to work better. We have no heated water system for the pool, so bought a cover and a spool gizmo to wheel it up. Last night the wind was strong and blew half of it into the pool. Just glad it didn't sink.
So far my neighbors are good. Good and strange, in some instances. Young couples across the street are cool. The family in between them are strange.
My sweetheart is moving us in just fine. She has tons of energy and is focused on squaring away the garage. She took care of the kitchen in just a couple of days. I don't know if I can ever thank her enough.
The pool pump needs to drain properly and the sweeper thing (fondly called the sweeper-dude) needs to work better. We have no heated water system for the pool, so bought a cover and a spool gizmo to wheel it up. Last night the wind was strong and blew half of it into the pool. Just glad it didn't sink.
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