The live shipment from an online critter supplier (invertebrates: tank cleaning crew) arrived badly packed and frozen and smelling to high heaven.
The company was not only careless, shipping bags of live critters into the north in nothing but a cardboard box with a hand-warmer pack, they wanted pix of the unfortunate deceased before they would issue a refund.
I was annoyed, to say the least.
So I’m back and forth in e-mails with the suppliers on the dead critters, trying, politely to inform them they’re at fault, and no, the fact that the water containing the microlife caused my skimmer to overflow an hour after dosing it in informs me the microlife was also dead. And no, I’m not a novice. I’ve been at this hobby probably longer than this chap has been alive, I’m a hobbyist technical volunteer on one of the sites he pays to advertise on, though I did not reveal that fact, not wishing to use that status to get better treatment than he gives other customers, and I do know dead sea life when I smell it.
Not only that, when trying to empty the skimmer, I bobbled, and poured very vile-smelling ‘death’ skimmate (dark fluid resulting from the foam this device collects from the tank water) onto my good snow boots and my pants leg. Yecccch. This particular aroma is so bad that the human nose continues to smell it for up to 2 days after the smelly object has been removed.
Every time I tried to get to work there was another e-mail with a problem that had to be solved. Business stuff.
I went to the store (in a clean pair of pants) and got my thyroid prescription filled.
An hour after I got that filled, and got home, I get a letter from the doc with a new prescription. That one worked out ok: the prescription I just had filled is what Jane is taking.
There were several other things that blew up in more e-mails.
Heck no, I didn’t want to photograph those dead stinking things. I put them into the ivy bed in the garden. But when Jane found out why I was ticked, here we are out in the dark in our night shirts in 20 degree weather searching the ivy bed for deceased wildlife. We did find them. And freezing does mitigate the smell.
So I sent the required photos to the company. They will refund, and if they do not, though I haven’t told them so—the internet site aforenamed is going to get an advisement one of our advertisers is being a jerk.
Well, at least I didn’t burn dinner. But eating with the persistent smell is not ‘nice’.
Nothing on telly.
So we finally head for bed.
I’m just about to fall asleep watching murders on the mystery channel, the only thing that’s on, when, zap! The power goes out.
Not a breaker. The power.
I go down the hall in pitch black and advise Jane, who *is* asleep, and we start looking for the flashlight (which we had used in the dead-critter-location in the ivy) and finding a phone book. All our wireless phones are dead because the base unit has no power. My cell is in the process of charging for the first time…fortunately *that* was past the 5-hour initial do-not-interrupt battery initialization…but it isn’t activated yet…the old cell is deader than a mackerel (thank you, AT&T) and Jane can’t find hers. Fortunately we have a hardwired phone (never give those up!) and we can find one phonebook…never throw out your last one!
Now, in Oklahoma, a clever bot operates with the power company to take your phone number, compute your location, and build a picture of the outage so the OG&E guys can fix it. Not so in Spokane. Ours asks you if it’s a street light and if not, you get in queue and wait a quarter of an hour (at this point I asked Jane for the Scotch) until one elderly-sounding lady gets online to take your information.
Yes, our house is dark, our streetlight is out, and houses behind us and across the avenue are all dark. Across the street, no, they’re fine.
The nice lady informs us a guy took out a power pole (which is why the police have been running down the avenue with lights blazing) and they’ll get it fixed by 5 AM. Well, it’s 1 AM now. So the fish can go 8 hours with no pump. We’re ok.
But at this point we’re frazzled. We got out the oil lamps and had a Scotch and shortbread cookie pity party until past 2 AM. Shu investigated a lamp and nearly singed his whiskers. Sei is still snoozing through it all in my room with the door shut. We decided we’d had enough Scotch to calm down, and headed for bed.
Probably about 3 AM the power came back on.
This morning we have headaches. I wonder why.
We’re hoping for a much nicer Dec 14th.
I WAS awake, just trying to convince myself to move. And I do NOT know what’s going on with Avista. I’ve had to call on a power outage before and it was very straightforward. The bot associated the phone number with an address, asked me to verify the address, then said (I paraphrase) “You’re not alone and we’re onto it.” and all was done. For some insane reason, the first question asked is: Does it involve a street light and/or an outdoor light you pay for? And you’re supposed to say “yes” or “no”. Well…shoot. What are my other options? Heck, yeah, it involved everything around us. But saying yes put me in a ten minute queue so I can say “power’s out!” And I had to go piddle! Sheesh!
The other thing you don’t mention is that the power came up RiGHT when we gave up and went back to bed. Literally, as I was pulling the covers up, the airfilter and fan started up.
See? If we’d gone back to bed and hour earlier, we’d have had power an hour earlier. 😀 Oi. what a night. I want to go back to bed….
Sounds like a lazy day with naps is in order.
I just hate having to go through a telephone tree to get to a human…..particularly annoying when said human doesn’t speak much English. Of course the power came on when you went to bed. Glad it wasn’t any longer.
I would have to strongly resist temptation to not only photograph the dead critters but to send some back to their home base.
It’s been snowing half heartedly all day……below 20 F all day. We got everything together in case we do lose power.
I would be *very* tempted to send some back to the supplier, perhaps with the box and warming pack they were sent with, and with photos.
I’ll agree with the landline. It’s been a lifesaver. And AEP (used to be PSO) is the same as OGE. Bots handle the calls automatically.
Sounds like Friday should have had a do-over.
When I was a kid, the power went out all the time. We had two hurricane lamps and numerous candles deployed, and on one occasion, our long-haired cat sauntered by a candle and set a four inch patch of fur on fire. I had just enough time to draw a horrified gasp before it guttered out in blue flame. The cat? Never even noticed. Apparently cat fur isn’t as flammable as one would expect.
On the other hand, wood stoves can still be a danger. We have discovered evidence of mousies, and we would like to deploy the Death Kitty to deal with it, but the dogs do not tolerate the kitty downstairs, and even after they’re corralled, I don’t want to allow the cat downstairs when the stove is still hot. Don’t want any burned puddy paws.
The janitor just came by and informed me a mouse went scuttling by his feet in the work room. This is also where Junior, the long haired, venerable, mostly-Maine-Coon library cat, lives. Obviously Junior is striking for better work conditions: “This vet food you have me on is terrible!”
“Deploy the Death Kitty!” *Snrk*
No cat I’ve ever had has ever liked that vet food (you know, the specially scientifically formulated brand). They’ve been known to go hungry instead.
I went to a special dry food, because it was the only one a previous kitty could tolerate when he got a little older. (Solid Gold Katz-n-flocken. Pricey, but quality, and they always eat it.)
I’ve recently had trouble with moist food with both cats, one of the major brands. They’ll leave it when I know they want food. My local grocery store carries that brand most of the time now, instead of the other brand. So I’m likely to have to order or make a special trip to Petco or Petsmart more often. I’m almost done with the brand they didn’t go for. (I’d noticed before, but this time it’s been an outright strike. “Do not want!” … The kicker was when Goober took one sniff and tried to “bury” it. My kitchen floor is tile, but he got his message across. LOL. No, it wasn’t the “I’ll save this for a snack later” type of thing, it was the “covering the letterbox” mode. Heh. OK, buddy, I get it, you guys don’t like it. Poor guys. Funny, though.)
Advice on moist food would be welcome. I’d prefer to save money, but they have to want to eat it and it needs to be decently healthy for them.
My cat went on a hunger strike with Wellness dry cat food. I had to get more Healthwise after their recall ended. As soon as it arrived, she dove nosefirst into the bowl. As for wet, I just give her tiny portions of Friskies. Readily available, and for two teaspoons a day, it can’t be that unhealthy. I stick to the pates since I’ve had cats develop digestive issues with the chunky fillet type. You’d think a system that could digest a mouse skull could handle a slice of meat, but no.
These two actually like the vet food, although greedy-gut is perfectly willing to eat the crappy stuff cat-the-second came with. Cat-the-second (aka Bitchy-kitty, aka Isis when being formal) actually prefers that fancy scientific vet stuff. They both love the teaspoon of wet Friskies they get before bed, which makes it simple to dose cat-the-second with glucosamine. I’m going to have to drag her into the vet and get what I suspect is arthritis confirmed one of these days… Poor bitchy-kitty. She’s discovered if she pesters me I turn on the space heater so I am on the ‘most favored’ list at the moment!
Of all things, after research, I have determined that Fancy Feast pate is the best of the commercially available moist foods for Zorro. People who buy Blue Buffalo or one of the other gourmet/organic cat foods can sneer, but for the price, it’s pretty good. I get a case of 24 for about $14 on regular order from Amazon. Regarding dry, the Kirkland Maintenance cat food gets as good marks as other specialty dry kibble, and is $19 for a 25 pound bag. If you are feeding multiple kitties, cat food adds up fast!
We’re feeding 2 geriatric kitties and 2 middle aged ones. They all have individual bowls but like to eat out of the other guy’s bowl. Because of the geriatric cases we’re feeding KD to everyone and keep an eye on their kidney functions.
We used to have a calico who had a tendency to develop magnesium crystals in her urine. We fed her CD until her kidney function became poor. At that point we had to make the big decision about her because there wasn’t a cat food that could handle both of her conditions. For a while we (or I, really) was cooking a special diet for her but that wasn’t successful over the long haul. She was a sweet little girl and one of the best birders I’ve ever met. She would bring baby bunnies home to show us as well as the occasional mouse. She really, really hated being made an indoor cat (a neighbour shot her ear with a pellet gun) and let us know about it for a long while.
Thanks, all. I’ve had pretty good luck with Friskies moist, and had stopped getting Fancy Feast, as it seemed like I was paying for more cans than contents. My local grocery store seems to be going toward 9 Lives or else off brands. It was the 9 Lives moist my cats refused. Finally used the last of the 24 pack today.
May have to order online.
My poor regular cabbie’s up to his eyeballs. His wife had a bad heart attack and is now an invalid…on a cabbie’s income…this happened around Thanksgiving. He said there is supposed to be an evaluation this week that may relieve some of the burden if they get state care and/or she’s committed to a care facility.
Hoping to hear back from him for my appt. Thursday, and hoping he’ll have had some help. But if it continues, i don’t know how he’ll hold out, and ffor myself, i may have to find a new cabbie, alternate or regular. Very troubling. He says he’s handling it OK. Keeping them in my thoughts.
“I would have to strongly resist temptation to not only photograph the dead critters but to send some back to their home base.”
Oh, that is a thought.
Uhmmmm, isn’t that cruelty to postal workers? Do you have the name of the person with whom you were communicating?
For years, our town had the unlikely scenario of two electric utility companies competing for business — the city owned Power and Light, and the corporately owned Southwestern Public Service which served a multistate area (my dad worked for them for 20 years, so I always took from them). Because of this, our town has two complete power grids and two sets of generator plants, and switching from one company to the other involved having a lineman physically disconnecting the “war” that went from the other company’s pole to your house and reconnecting it to their pole. A while back, Southwestern was bought out by a much larger company, Xcel Energy. Then about three years ago, Xcel consolidated their holdings and sold off Southwestern’s assets — lines, generators, the lot — to the city. When the changeover happened, you stayed connected to whoever’s grid you were on at the time, so now LP&L has one set of customers on their lines, and another set of customers on the lines they bought from Southwestern. If a power outage happens, usually only one set of customers is affected. When you call in to report an outage, they always ask, “Are the street lights out?” because if they are, then they know they’ve got a problem on LP&L’s lines because that’s the lines the street lights are on. If the street lights are still on, then they know the problem is on Southwestern’s lines. Then they have to figure out where the outage is. I live in a duplex. When the changeover happened, I was on Southwestern, and the other side of the duplex was on LP&L, so there have been times when my lights go out and theirs don’t, and vice versa. Because we have a lot of thunderstorms out here, I have one of those little Maglight flashlights in every room in the house except the kitchen, where I have a big Maglight flashlight. (The kitties hate power outages because then their pet fountain quits fountaining.) Of course, when the power comes back on, then I have to go reset the digital clocks in every room of the house. Fortunately, my atomic clock is battery operated. . .
Here in L.A., we get to worry about power lines blowing down. It’s another wonderful day for the wind, but at least it’s fifteen to 20 degrees warmer than last time.
“they always ask, “Are the street lights out?” because if they are, then they know they’ve got a problem on LP&L’s lines because that’s the lines the street lights are on. If the street lights are still on, then they know the problem is on Southwestern’s lines.”
And they ask us where we get our ideas… 😉
PJ, I think the road could have been slick last night…they were having icy slush 20 miles from us. We were just kind of cold but wet. I hope the guy that hit the pole was only shaken up, not hurt.
On one occasion the power for the street lamps popped a line which lay in the street, which is a 30 mph arterial that heads downtown. No, I am not going to run out and haul it in, even with rubber gloves: but we did call in.
No, people have just gone stark crazy! 🙁 Swear to God, every word is TRUE!
I have half an acre beside the house I do a little UCut business with. Friday I had to shut down at 3:20 to make a Doctor’s appointment, so I put my “Sorry, temporarily closed!” note on the door.
As I get a mile away I’m stopped at a redlight in a line of traffic. There’s a woman driver coming out of a parking on the left side of the road who wants to go into the parking lot on the right side of the road. Everybody’s stopped at the red light! Nobody’s moving. (How much room do you leave behind the car ahead? 2′? 3? Me too!) Cars ahead, cars behind! So she comes charging across the other lane and left turn lane into the parking lot she’s leaving, sticks her nose almost into the gap in front of me and starts waving her hands in a parting motion like she’s Moses parting the Red Sea! And she keeps doing it, like it’s magically going to make something happen right now, while the light is still red! As soon as the guy ahead leaves, she guns it and slips around me.
So after the Doctor’s appt, I go get a few necessities then to Costco to pick up the new prescription.
This morning when my first customer comes and I step outside at the front door, I step on something. Someone stuck a baggie with a few bills and a lot of small change behind the screen door. Total, $12.13. I don’t have any trees for sale at $12.13! Dougs are $20, Grands $30, regular size, regular price. “Anything over 8′, $10” and by that I mean really over 8′, up to 20′, and I don’t care how tall the stump you leave is! (Many are over 4′!) I find where there is a new piece of trimming, it was a Doug. If they had to scrounge up all their small change, they may have been needy, but I think, “You weren’t home, so we took one anyway and left what we could.” is presumptuous.
Then today a young couple came and cut a $20 Doug down, then looked at me and asked, “Do you take plastic?” “No, do you?” 😉 “We’re honest people. We’ll go to the ATM and come back with the cash.” A half hour later they still weren’t back, some woman driving a Cadillac Escalade came, and she wanted a regular Doug for $10. “$15?” “No, $20!” So I got a bright Idea, I sold her the one that was lying on the ground for $10. Of course, the other couple never did come back.
I couldn’t make this up! It’s Looney Tunes season!
Welcome to public service 😀 During the holidays, the butterfly net just tends to spread out a little wider.
Our backwater region of the coast used to have a wonderful arrangement with two main power lines into the area, so if one went down the other could keep us going.
On the same pole for oh, several miles at least.
In an area with serpentine soil.
Yeah, not the most brilliant idea. A few years ago (5 or 6) there was a landslide that took out half a mile of poles, so both feeder lines to town went out. They managed to rig a temporary line that let key places have power, but for most of us it was dark for close to a week. Pretty bad when you go shopping by flashlight to warm up – between trickles of power and generators the grocery stores could run the cold and freezer cases and cash registers but only emergency lighting.
Now the different feeder lines are on different poles, and major power outages are far less common.
If a driver takes out an LP&L pole here, just the power goes out, but if they take out a Southwestern pole, the phone line goes too, because Southwestern used to rent their poles to the phone company. Of course, not that many people have land lines any more . . .
Got the vendor of the dead critters to issue a complete refund including shipping.
Congrats… Pity for you it took a big stink to refund a big stink.