Family pictures. These were done at the Portrait Innovations in Murfreesboro. If you go there, make sure you ask for Kyle. He’s awesome!
No, it’s not what you think.
Those of you who know me well know that I’m a gadget freak. Almost to a fault (but, then again, who’s really going to admit to an excess of anything, right?). So, for Christmas, my present was a GPS unit for the truck. I picked out the Garmin c340, because it is a GPS. I know there are fancier models out there, but really, who needs their GPS unit to show pictures and play mp3s on that tiny crappy speaker? The price was right and I went for it.
Skip ahead to this morning. I found out that the 2009 Map Upgrade was available and I was going to pick it up since we are leaving for out trip on Sunday. I figured, why not have the most current map on the thing since we are about to take our first “road trip” in several years? So, I got online to Garmin’s website to see about ordering it. I went through the process and attempted to place the order and I got a response that told me that my order had not been processed. So, I gave up and decided to find if there was a store in town that had it on DVD and I would just install it that way. It turns out BestBuy had it, so I scurried over there and picked it up.
Then I get home to find out that Garmin Internation has charged my debit card for the amount of the upgrade 15 TIMES!! You read it correctly, my friends. Fifteen friggin’ times they charged my card and I only clicked the submit button once. Total charges equalling over $1,000. So, I got back online to find out what the hell was going on. I logged in to my account on their website and clicked on the link to track my current orders expecting to see 15 orders. The account showed no recent purchase activity on my account.
I called the bank first, to tell them of the error and to hold those charges. They told me there was something about the charges and they would have to wait to be posted to my account and then I would have to get the merchant to reimburse me. Oh, hell no.
I called Garmin. The droid that answered the phone was helpful, but was not very nice about it. If you know me well enough to know that I’m a gadget freak, you also know that I’m very patient - especially with customer service types. I paid my dues by being one of those people all the way through grad school. So, all I did was tell the same story you just read to the lady on the phone very plainly so there would be no confusion. I didn’t condescend to her, lose my temper or make any derogetory remarks of any kind. After telling me to treat her like a human being (oh yeah), she informed me that since there was no order number attached to those charges they would simply disappear from my bank account within 24-48 hours. I asked her what assurance I had that would happen. She replied, “It’s just the way our system works.” I told her that wasn’t good enough and she told me to call my bank if I had any more issues. I informed her that I had already been in touch with my bank and that they told me to call them. I further explained that if those funds cleared my account and the money was actually withdrawn that I would begin the process with the bank to have them labelled as fraudulent and her company could take it up with the FTC. She asked me if there was anything else she could do for me and I laughed - I never do that. Through my laugh I said no and she thanked me for calling and told me to have a nice day.
I called the bank back and informed them of the situation. Bottom line: the charges are incorrect and they must not be allowed to be withdrawn from my account. Period. The young man I spoke with, Braulio, was most helpful. He looked into the issue and verified what the droid at Garmin had said: more than likely the charges would disappear overnight and everything would be okay. No funds withdrawn; no potential for an overdrawn account. I explained that more than likely was not good enough. I asked him to make a note on my account that this was a merchant error and that I should not be charged any overdraft fees in the unlikely event of a further problem. He agreed and asked me to hold for a second. (By this point, I had been on the phone for over an hour, most of the time spent listening to hold music. The longest hold times were Garmin’s, not the bank’s.) When he picked up again, he told me to contact Garmin again and ask them to contact the bank with a magic six digit merchant authorization number and tell them to ask the bank to remove the charges. I thanked him and told him I would do that.
Let me be clear. At no time did I ask for, nor did I expect, Garmin to refund the money to my account. I understood that no transaction had actually occurred yet. I was simply asking them to make sure that no transaction took place at all.
So, I had to wait on hold again with Garmin (minimum hold time with them was 28 minutes) and another droid picked up again. I explained my problem again and she put me on hold to talk to her supervisor. When she came back, she informed me that she would have to get some detailed information from me and forward it on their accounting department. We did that.
Finally, everything was taken care of to my satisfaction, but not without a lot of gnashing of teeth in this household. I’m writing this to pass along this message to the world: Garmin makes some of the best navigation systems in the world. I own two of them. However, they haven’t figured out the world of online commerce yet. DO NOT purchase any Garmin equipment via their website. It is crap. You can log in to access free updates to software and “window shop,” but don’t give them a credit card number via their website. Go to a brick-and-mortar place and buy it there.
So, Bekah and I are finally getting a chance to take a mini-vacation this weekend! We are headed to Gatlinburg, TN otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera. The thing is, we won’t be staying in Gatlinburg. We are actually going to be staying in a log cabin closer to Sevierville, TN. I surprised her with it and the response was everything I had hoped it would be. We can not wait until Saturday when we take the kids down to Granna’s and head back up to Bell Buckle, TN to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the first annual Tennessee Shakespeare Festival! (My friend Lane Davies is both directing and playing Oberon and several of my students at MTSU are in the show.) Then, Sunday it’s off to the Smokies!
For a thousand different reasons, it’s been nearly three-and-a-half years since we’ve been able to go on a vacation, let alone have any time to ourselves away from the house. Sure, they’ve taken a couple of week-long trips to Granna’s in the past, but Bekah and I would just come home and do anything but relax. We’d do the major chores that needed doing or cleaned up the kids’ rooms. Those of you with kids will certainly understand. Those of you without, let that be a warning to you.
Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from the Maples Ridge Cabin Rentals website. These are the shots of the cabin we have rented! By the way, the prices were right and the people were fantastic on the phone!
Be on the lookout late next week. I’ll be posting updates about our experience and some more pictures from our trip (at least, the ones I can).
So, Bekah is prepping for her big scrapbooking weekend with the girls and she was going through our vast collection of family photos to have printed out at Wal-Mart. She completed her order, but there was only one problem. Some of the pictures she sent to be printed were photos that were taken at various photo studios all over the southeast!
When I got to the store to pick them up, they had marked some of the ones that they thought were in need of a copyright release. However, not all of the photos were ones taken by a photographer. They had tagged some of my own shots aside! So, we had to go through the entire batch of pictures and pull out the ones that were “contraband” and I was refunded the money.
When I got to the car, it hit me: Someone thought my snapshots were professional photos! Here’s a sample of some of the shots they thought weren’t mine.
Has this every happened to you?
So, Ian’s got to have his tonsils out. It’s going to happen in about a month. It shouldn’t be that big a deal because we’ve already been through this with Morgan and she was younger than he is now when it happened. Still, there is no feeling worse than the helplessness that parents feel when their child is being wheeled off for surgery. I’ve already had that thought cross my mind about Ian.
I know. I know. It’s not that big of a surgery, so I shouldn’t worry, right? Well, what concerns me is that Ian’s is a little bit different. I’m not as worried about the actual surgery as I am the recovery. Because of his speech delay–or perhaps tied to his speech delay– I’m concerned how he might react to the pain during the initial recovery.
Anyway, it’s all going to be fine.
We are also taking him up to Vanderbilt in the next few months to have his developmental delays tested further at the Center for Child Development. Supposedly, it’s the best in the world. I’m anxious about going, not because I’m afraid of what we’ll hear as a diagnosis, but to have the diagnosis so we can get on with more specialized treatment for him.
He has come so far in the past 9 months with speech & language therapy as well as his occupational therapy he’s getting at preschool. We have seen major developments with him as time has gone by. But, as a parent, there’s always that nagging little voice in the back of my head telling me that we are not doing enough for his development. There’s got to be more we can do to help him catch up. Even though, I know that catching up is a very subjective term. Catch up with what? Statistics?
He’s a great kid and we are going to make sure he’s got everything he needs.
So, we got out of bed this morning and rushed out the door only to realize that we were an HOUR early. Bekah had already rushed out the door and was in her car on the way to work and I was trying to get the kids ready to rush out, too.
Bekah called me to tell me of our (my) error. So, I suggested that we meet somewhere to eat breakfast together. So, we converged on the local Hardees and sat down to a nice breakfast.
As we were wrapping up, a nice elderly lady sat at the table next to us and started talking to our kids. Do we all, as we get older become grandparents to every child that ever existed? Anyway, she sat down and immediately started making paper dolls for both of the kids with the newspaper she was carrying. Another elderly man sat at a table near us and Ian immediately went over and sat next to him and started chatting to him the best that he could. It was an older man who was hard of hearing listening to a young man who is still working on his speech delay. A match made in heaven, right?
These two were apparently two of the Hardees breakfast regulars and they were incredibly nice and I think it made everyone’s day a little brighter.
It just reminded me of why I love to live in the South.
Have a great day.
Okay, the guys over at Stray Dog, must have been some editing fools because that Krystal spot I shot is already on YouTube and I’ve had several people tell me that they’ve seen it on the air.
So, here it is! Look for the construction worker toward the beginning with the red hardhat and sunglasses in the back of the truck. Ton of fun to shoot!
I know what you are thinking. “Why is he posting on Father’s Day?” Answer: Because, I can!
Anyway, it’s been a pretty good weekend thus far. We had a nice, relaxing day and a pleasant dinner with the in-laws. Then, we finished Season One of The Tudors.
Today has been pretty lazy so far, too. Slept late (at least, as late as the kids would let us - in this case 7:45a), ate breakfast, read some in my book, and sat down at the computer for a little while before heading over to the in-laws again for the “official” festivities of the day.
I haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet, but I had a great time on the shoot last Thursday. The highlight of the day had to be meeting Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Not kidding. He was there on the shoot. Dennis Boggs is a nice a guy as you’d ever want to meet and is very enthusiastic and passionate about his duty as a Lincoln impersonator. He shared some snippets of his various programs as he presents them all over the Southeast. I don’t want to take away from some of the other’s I met on the set. Tony Morton and I had a great conversation about the world of teaching theatre both to high school students and college students. I also got to know Amanda Bailey, host of Inside Music Row. She’s a hoot and a real joy to work with.
I’ll post the video of the spot as soon as I get it in my hands!
So, today is the day apparently.
I’m taking just a moment to let you know that I just booked a commercial for Krystals. It’s a regional buyout so, chances are, you’ll see it. From what I know of it so far, it feels like a football season-type commercial. For now, I’m frantically getting ready for my wardrobe fitting which is in about two hours yet nearly an hour’s drive away. Oh yeah, and scrambling for daycare for the shoot tomorrow.
Film at 11…