My Life Blog

I have long realized that most every post on this blog tends to be negative or whiny in nature.  I think its really just therapeutic for me to write about things to get them off my chest.  If you want to read something pleasant, go here. 

So here we go with another episode.

I’m using Quicken for Windows as emulated on my MacIntosh.  The Mac version of Quicken is still feature-poor at this point, so I have to go to great extents to continue to use the Windows version.  I meticulously maintain my financial records and have been using online billpay for years.  With the new marriage, things changed.  So I’ve added a new bank into the mix…Compass.

In a bizarre twist of irony, Compass can’t seem to find their ass in a mirrored room.  It goes like this.  Two weeks or more ago, I lost the ability to download transactions and upload bills.  I also experienced sporadic service on their website.  This is troubling to me as I do not write checks.  The checkbook for my main account still has 19__ on it, if that gives you any idea.

So last week I called their technical support to get the problem worked out.  Amazingly, their technical support staff seemed to be hosted within the U.S., so no complaints there.  However, their troubleshooting process involved me changing my password to something else and thereby retiring my current password.  Once you use one, you can’t use it ever again.  After 10 minutes on the phone, I was able to download transactions, so all seemed to be okay.

A few minutes after the phone call, I entered a bill and repeated the connecting process.  Unfortunately, it failed.  I was too whipped to go through the call process.  It seems it takes 30-45 minutes to work through the wait and the eventual help.  So I deferred the payment until the weekend.

On Saturday, Quicken and Compass failed me again.  Since the bill was due relatively soon, I decided I’d pay the bill from the site.  However, the site had a message saying it was down.  I just figured that it was scheduled downtime, though weekends aren’t the best time for downtime for such a service.  I resumed my attempt to tonight and was still unsuccessful. 

So I called yet again.  This time, I was made to reset my password yet again.  So now I’m on my third password.  Unfortunately, after 15 minutes that still didn’t work.  The final suggestion was that I remove all pending and recurring payments and deactivate and reactivate my account.  I refused on principle.  I’m pretty sure I’ve done nothing to cause whatever the problem is.  I’m college-educated and even work with computers for a living, so I don’t think its me. 

So though it probably makes no sense, I’ll be looking for a new bank this weekend.  I’m sure it will take me longer to set up a new account than to work through their suggestion, but I just can’t reward that type of disrespect for my time.

So Compass, find a clue…

• You attend 3 1/2 hours of meeting in the first half of the day and management wonders why deadlines aren’t being met.

• You are asked to build an application, but provided no requirements or testing community.  And technical resources who know the application are largely unavailable.  Not to whine, but see above point as a glorious side-effect.

• You have a desktop computer, but aren’t provided admin rights necessary to install additional programs or even create folders.  And the request for those rights has to go through formal channels with over a one week response time.  Ridiculous.

I have things I wonder about and mean to post, but always seems to forget them.  Here are two:

• Why does my printer (HP OfficeJet v40) print pages from first to last?  The result of this is that the first page is at the bottom of the stack and I then have to reorder them manually.  As I’ve been printing off sizable PDFs lately, this has become very annoying.  To be fair to HP, I’m running the Gimp printer driver / adapter on my Mac, so that could be the reason for this.

• There are a series of speed bumps in the long driveway leading to my office’s employee parking garage.  Invariably I get behind a large RAM-tough truck or a Toyota Tundra or some kind of large vehicle and they take these bumps as if they are hauling a truckload of unsecured glass.  What gives?  In the commercials, these trucks eat speed bumps.  And me?  I get more air than the Flying Tomato as I race over these bumps. 

More of these as I recall them…

I had a strange car trouble episode today.  It started as I arrived at work today at 8am.  Like always, I got out of my car and used my keyless remote to lock the car.  But as I did so, the auto theft alarm went off.  Since this is not a regular event for me, I fumbled with the remote trying to disengage the alarm.  But it went on and on.

Just imagine my embarrassment as my fellow co-workers all were getting out of their cars and looking over to me to make sense of the chaotic noise.  I was trying everything.  I pressed the button inside the car which turned off the alarm.  I pressed the keyless remote button repeatedly.  I even drove the car forward and backward.  Nothing worked.

And then something did work, but I did not know what.  Thinking maybe it had been an anomoly, I pressed the lock button on the keyless remote once again.  Unfortunately, the pattern repeated.  I finally drove home where I could work out the problem with less of an audience.  Once there, I briefly researched on the Internet before conceeding that I needed professional help.

So I took my car into my new favorite shop.  After a couple of hours, they had worked out the problem.  Turns out that Saturday’s errand which involved picking up a new sink packed in an over-sized box was the catalyst.  It was raining on Saturday and in my haste to complete the errand, I elected to simply wedge the box into the trunk of my small car and tie it off.  It took me 15 minutes to get home.  Little did I know the side effect of my decision.

Apparently the moisture from the rain that made its way inside the trunk mucked up the electronics which runs my lock and alarm system.  The solution was to blow-dry it and hope for the best.  It cost me $173 and I was at work by 11:45am.  However, when I arrived back in the parking garage after work was over, the alarm was going off.  So, I guess we’ll see what happens. 

So note to anyone driving Mercedes:  Curiously, the trunk may not be the best place for your potentially wet cargo.  So think about this the next time you load a cooler or purchase that party ice.

After going to Kauai for the last two years, Suzanne and I were wondering what a dream existence would be like on Kauai.  Would it be possible for a couple of mainlanders two make the transition? 

Well, some weeks ago we discovered the Great Hikes blog which originates from Kauai.  The author is a former mainlander who has made that transition.  So I decided to write to him to get his story. 

Imagine my surprise as he replied publicly on his blog.  It was a great and insightful post, but it more or less burst the balloon.  It turns out that there are a lot of issues…and not all of them have to do with money as you might expect. 

All that said, the blog is worth adding to your list if you like to see the occasional tropical picture.  He has started to post lots of pictures and its wonderful to sit in the office and have a portal to Kauai.

On a related note, we go again in mid-May.  We’re not very original with our travels, it seems, but I don’t feel terribly guilty about it.

With the marriage now approaching the completion of its sixth month, we’ve been busy nesting.  In doing so, we’ve been adding to the kitchen.  We contracted with Home Depot to install an island.  And now we’re contracting with Lowe’s to install new counter tops.  However, we’ve experienced much frustration with each company.

In regards to the island, I think your Home Depot experience varies greatly depending upon the employees you are able to work with.  In our case, we found that the Home Depot people were light on product knowledge and weren’t very competent with the CAD software that they were apparently forced to use.  It was excruciating to watch our assigned representative try to represent our design in that software.  At one point, I almost suggested that we just use pencil and paper.  We made no less than four weekend trips to work through the simple design.  Thereafter, we had to work with their inflexible contractors who could only work on certain days and at certain hours of those days.  It was far from a great customer experience.

And here we go again…this time with Lowe’s.  We’re using Lowe’s because we hated Home Depot.  Its early in the process, but I found out yesterday that the counter top installers would be unable to turn off the water or gas and that I might have to do that myself.  Apparently, its a liability issue.  So even while we’re paying several thousand for this job, we can’t get them to throw in this expertise to make this a total turnkey job.  As a customer, this pisses me off since I must now school myself on each of these items that they cannot do.  When I complained, the Lowe’s rep said, "You’re a handy guy, aren’t you?"  My reply: "For the money I’m paying you for this, I didn’t have to be handy."

But alas, there is a solution.  For a cool $160, they’ll arrange for a company to come out to take care of both the water and the gas.  In my opinion, that’s a line item I shouldn’t see.  Just throw that in!

So given all this, I don’t know whether to root for Tony Stewart (the 20 car) or Jimmy Johnson (the 48 car).  But at least now I see where some of my money is going.