Automated System

I write every morning in a Gratitude Journal. When I first started this practice years ago it was 5 things I would write down and thank GOD for. Not that I did not thank and send him a woohoo all the time for things such as a front row parking spot after a long tiring day, or not being on the road 5 minutes earlier and thus avoiding the accident that is now slowing traffic, which by the way is better than being the car in the accident.  But this is taking the time to write it down. After getting in the habit of 5 and realizing that I could on some days jot down 7 or 8 I decided to write 10. I have noticed that on some days 10 is easy. They just flow from my head and heart to paper. On other days I struggle to even get to 5. When things are easy in my life and I have no cares, Orcs are not making camp in my front yard I can whip out 10 in moments. These past few months it has been hard. I have to, like Frodo, get over sharp jagged rocks and smelly bogs to pause a moment to ponder my own “Elven bread”.  I have been writing the same things down for weeks. But these are things I am truly grateful for. Believe it or not each of you have had your name written down because of some response you have sent me back in reply to one of these, my Breakfast letters. You send me smiles. I know we all get those forwarded around the world 1.7 million times, smile at someone  and make their day, with the cute fat cherubs holding lambs emails. They tell us that one smile can change a moment, a day, a life. Your responses to my letters bring to me a smile. Even (Jim) when they are critical. So Thank you. I am grateful for each of you.

However, I am NOT grateful for automated answering systems. If I wanted to not deal with a human I would pay the bloody bill online freaks!!!!! I am calling because I have an issue and a bloody machine can NOT help me!!! I was attempting to pay my electric bill. They were trying to not want my payment. Odd? But true. They could not take my payment without my account number which I do not have because I pay online but due to the bank putting a hold on two checks the funds were unavailable for me to do that. So I call and after 5 transfers I have a human who will give me my account number and the process starts again. Then in the middle of being able to make the payment the bloody automated system asks me if it is ok to add $2.50 to the bill for a convenience fee! For those of you who know me well, are going to know this went over with a big bang. No I say No it is not convenient for me to pay you to take my bloody payment. I am already paying you. It may be convenient for you but that is not so with me! I have now gotten louder and very aggressive with the machine (it humors me to do so). (oh yeah and ickie…..I do not care if this bugs you or not…,really……maybe I do it to bug you…..LOL…..)There listening in was the motherly woman who was helping me get through this. She jumps back on line and asks me if I wish to continue to make the payment. “Yes I wish to continue but not pay you people to pay you”. She jumps on script…..this really gets me fired up!  “Continue with the payment process because you people will just turn off my electricity and blame me for my refusal to accept your fee. But know this….. if I had the ability, like with a phone to choose my provider it would be GVEC! And another thing…. Do you remember the Terminator movie? This world is coming to that! You will be ruled by machines and you will not function without them and they will destroy you! 80% of adults poled like automated systems…. Were the adults of a biological or mechanical life form? Just wondering….

I may be offline for a few days I am packing up some things and gathering weapons and heading for Mexico or maybe western Canada to await the arrival the “Rage of the Machines”.