Reason #2

2. Why am I the One Doing This?
In this section, author Lynne Truss says that in our society, we, as consumers, are required more and more to handle our own problems. I was talking to my brother and sister-in-law about this the other day. In the old days, you could call up the company, talk to a real person, state your problem, "I am calling because you've sent my bill to the wrong address three times now", and that person would apologize, and direct you to someone who would actually help you. I related an incident that happened to me, not too long ago, when I called our district office to speak to someone. I said, "May I speak to Cathy Clover (not her real name) please?" The secretary said, "She's not in today." Period. That was it. Simply, "She's not in today." No offer to take a message, no information regarding whether or not she might be in tomorrow, no nothing. There was not even a perfunctory, "I'm sorry." So then it was up to ME to extract this information from the sealed vault and then decide whether to email, call back, or leave a message. Another example: In lining up to take care of business, you discover you're in the WRONG line-you SHOULD be in the cash only line, or in the credit card only line. Or, you go somewhere to resolve an issue, and you are told that person is only there on the 3rd Tuesday of months which have a "b" in them, only if it is not raining, and, it is up to YOU to remember that. Truss says that in asking customers to perform more and more functions of a business (Online banking anyone? Self-check in? How about pulling your own tooth out?), businesses are actually considering us as "co-op employees". They tell us is for our convenience, but it's actually for theirs.

My primary care physician is in a rather large practice, with probably 15 or 20 other doctors. When you call his office, you wade through a phone menu that first separates the new patients from the existing patients. Then from there, you can select if you want an appointment, or if you want to call your physician-nurse team, or if you need to speak to the business office, etc etc, then from there, you select WHICH physician-nurse team, or WHICH business office, then you get to press whether you have an insurance claim pending or if you have medicare, etc., THEN you get to leave a message on somebody's voice mail. Yeah. This is for MY convenience. I think the ultimate, though, is that the city set up "satellite offices" for you to conduct your car tag/property tax business, with extended hours and actually maybe, close to where you might live or shop. Then they tack on a surcharge for this convenience. You have to PAY for the priviledge of customer service. If you don't choose to pay extra, you can take 1/2 day off work and park with the hundreds of others, wait in what you hope is the right line, and finally reach a station where the stars will have lined up just right and you can transact your business with a minimum of surliness from the clerk who hates her/his job and can't wait to get home to watch "Survivor".

We aren't living in Mayberry anymore. You can't stroll down the street past Floyd's barbershop and go into the sheriff's office to pay a parking ticket Barney gave you last week. (Speaking of paying tickets, you should try to navigate your way through City Hall to conduct buisness. Be sure to again, request at least 1/2 day off work.)

I realize as part of a large school district, that I'm one of those you reach after working your way through a menu of choices on the phone, and that I have inconvenient office hours as I work at three different schools and depending on what school your kid goes to, I may or may not be at your kid's school when you have a question. Believe me, I understand your frustration. But I at least, return calls and apologize for my crazy schedule, dictated by someone bigger than me. That's more than you'll get from AT & T.

Reason #1

In her book, "Talk to the Hand", author Lynne Truss discusses six areas in which the human race is getting more "unpleasant and inhuman" day by day. She defines these areas as six reasons to stay home and bolt the door - perhaps figuratively, perhaps not.

#1. "Was That So Hard To Say?"
Truss deplores the state of manners in our society-and the infrequent use of the words "please" and "thank you". She notes that the rituals that once were in place for showing gratitude are now in sad disrepair. Hold a door open for someone and it's unusual to hear a thank you. However, I think maybe in the midwest, we still do this a lot of the time. And the place that surprises me the most with polite door holding is QuikTrip. Yes, that busy convenience store where people are rushing in for drinks, snacks, or a myriad number of other items - it is not unusual for the person in front of you to hold the door for you as you go out, particularly if you have something in your hands. I'm always amazed at that. And, it's contagious. I always hold the door open for the next guy. Even if the person coming out IS a guy.

Reason #2 next post. Stay tuned.

In other news, I have 3 special education staffings this week. To complicate matters, a long time church member and friend died yesterday, and her funeral is Thursday. I have been asked to provide music, but I'm afraid I will not be able to as one of those special education staffing meetings is the same time as the service. And Friday is another inservice day-I get to hear about suspensions and expulsions for half the day, and review crisis plans at both schools the other half of the day.

Sympathies extend to my daughter, whose faithful companion, Alex, a guinea pig she had for five and a half years died. My daughter, for some reason, has a real affinity for guinea pigs, and has had them in her life ever since we got her first one for her for her birthday when she was in the 3rd grade. She babies them, spoils them rotten, and they want for nothing when they are in her care - in fact, they communicate exceptionally well with her in squeaks, chirps, grunts, and noises that only she can understand. I never did get on good terms with Alex as he bit me once, but he was sure a nice looking tri-color pig, with a personality all his own.

A Civil Civilization

Whatever happened to civility? Kindness? Manners? British author Lynne Truss writes a spot-on account of the trend in our society of uncivilized, rude, and ill-mannered people in, "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World, or, Six Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door." While I was home on Tuesday, I read this book in one day. (You can order it from Amazon for as cheap as 1 cent plus shipping, or check it out of your local public library.) In this laugh out loud and enlightening treatise, she explores reasons why we are in such a state, not only in Britain, but in the USA as well.

I'll be talking about this in blog entries to come, so stay tuned for the six reasons she gives, good reasons I might add, of why we may often feel like staying home and bolting the door. For example, here's her thoughts about one possible cause of our unseeming behavior toward each other: "One hesitates to blame television for all this because that's such an obvious thing to do. But, come on. Just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's not true. People being vulgar and rude to each other...is TV's bread and butter." I agree. The TV show "Survivor" is a good example of betrayal and knife in the back stabbings, however, even it isn't as bad as some reality shows.

So let's discuss civility and human kindness. Whatever happened to please and thank you, to genuine customer service (where you call a number and actually get a human to talk to), where your bank knows your name and the guy you let get in front of you on Kellogg during rush hour waved his gratitude to you? Stay tuned.

Blech

Oh man. This cold, or perhaps allergies, I'm not sure, finally got me. This morning it's been nothing but cough, cough, cough, blow nose, cough, sneeze, concurrently with headache and scratchy throat.

I'm at home today as I didn't want to cough and blow my nose in a 2 hour meeting this morning, and in a 2 one hour meetings this afternoon. You're welcome. If you're sick, stay home! Although I am scrupulous about handwashing and using hand sanitizer, some little germ got through. Little things can topple big things. End of story.

The Sounds of Silence

This week looks like it's shaping up to be a busy one. Tomorrow I'm meeting with a WSU professor in the afternoon. I have several other meetings this week, plus an all day workshop to attend on Friday, so I'll be out of the office all that day.

I'm evaluating a student from another culture-I'd tell you which one but this student is rather unusual and I need to protect his privacy. I'll call this student Maxa. Maxa was born with several physical deformities, plus had an unfortunate accident when he was younger resulting in two broken legs. Maxa's culture is not very tolerant or accepting of children who are less than "perfect", and his mother has reacted to this child's "imperfections" by sheltering him, and by doing for him even those things Maxa could do for himself given the opportunity. He has been coddled throughout his short life, and allowed to do whatever he likes. Consequently, he has behavior which is not acceptable-when told "no", he fights. When playing with other children, he doesn't share, he grabs toys and pencils. He pushes and is a bully. Maxa does not have social or academic English language skills. He has sensory deficits and an unusual deformity of his hands and feet. Evaluating him will be a challenge, but the big hurdle will be to find someone to translate so that my results will make sense to his mother. In discussing her child with her, I really have to be cognizant of the fact that the native culture she grew up in does not allow for children to be "different". Hence, I have a meeting with a WSU professor of this same culture and ethnicity. I'm hoping he can help me understand how I can best communicate to this mother about her son, all the while keeping in mind that I must say what needs to be said, and she must understand what is said.

It is hot and muggy tonight. After a cool day in the 50's yesterday, it got warm today-up in the 90's. And this evening at 10:30, it still hasn't cooled off much.

I wonder what I'd be doing tonight if I didn't live in the city. If I lived outside of town, I bet I'd be sitting on my porch watching the stars come out. Listening to the sounds of the night-and I'm not talking about traffic, horns, sirens, airplanes, and trains. Sometimes my soul aches for peace and quiet. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find it.

"Pilch" vs "Filch"

So, I've revamped the blog. I realized that I have problems writing in this journal because I've always defined myself by my job title. I figured not much else was interesting about me. And I dunno, maybe there isn't. But now that I'm starting my second year on the job, and I'm not in school any more at Wichita State University, maybe there's more that I should discuss on these virtual pages. I take comfort that not too many people read this blog anymore. It doesn't really bother me that I've lost my faithful reader friends who used to check in once in awhile (I miss you guys)! But your lives go on. You have more interesting online activities to pursue than this sometimes boring, sometimes retrospective, sometimes confusing look at life.

So here we are on a Saturday afternoon. This morning was distribution day for Angel Food Ministries at our church and I was the person in charge of making the unpopular decisions. I left about 1:00 with two of my kids who also volunteer (we were the last to walk out the door after clean up) and so I took them to lunch. I really enjoy being with my kids, it seems we are all friends, and can have a good time laughing at our, and others' foibles along the way. (BTW Daniel, "pilch" IS a word meaning: "an infants wrapper worn over a diaper." In the context you used the word in, you meant "filch" i.e., steal, purloin, take, swipe, lift, snaffle, pinch. EX: "Mom, I'm going to FILCH that trash can from that other room and bring it in here", not, "Mom I'm going to "PILCH" that trash can ...etc.)