Category: Just sayin’

My two cents

Rant – Twenty Minutes – The ‘Un’ -Kindness of Strangers

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I went out for a measly twenty minutes. This is what ensued.

 

Hub and I were just about ready to venture out north to our old neighborhood pharmacy where our prescriptions still remain because of the most helpful pharmacy girls and pharmacist whose advice is invaluable. Anyhoo, I digress. When I was finally ready, hubby wasn’t having a good day physically, so I told him I’ll go north and pick up his pills and do whatever else was on the list. He insisted we’ll go together tomorrow. But in the meantime, I was dressed and masked and ready to go so I thought I’d take the opportunity to run out myself to the fancy supermarket a few blocks away, to pick up some nice steaks I’d noticed on sale when we were there only three days prior, but walked by them because we don’t typically eat a lot of meat. But we were having company on the weekend. And it was a special occasion since our good friends were coming for dinner – the friends we usually always got together with once a month pre-Covid, and now haven’t seen for 8 months.

So, I crossed that stopover off my list of stops for the next day and drove to the fancy supermarket. I didn’t take a shopping cart on the way in, because of course, I only went in for one thing – the steaks. The rest of my grocery shopping would be done the next day at the big grocery chain store.

I headed straight for the meat department and was grateful to find the lovely steaks still on sale. Then I remembered hubby asked for some nectarines, which were located at the complete opposite end to the meat department. This of course meant I was to pass many other aisles on my way to the nectarines. Did I mention I had no cart?

I doubled back when I realized I’d passed, first, a beautiful shrimp ring also on sale and a package of turkey bacon. I picked up one of each and piled them onto the four-pack of steaks.

As I was scrolling over a mental list in my head thinking about my menu for my gathering, I was nearing the butternut squash, just the soup I had in mind to make for an appetizer. So I picked up two boxes of already peeled and cut cubes (yes, I cheat, I hate dealing with whole butternut squash) and placed them on top of the shrimp ring. And while I was at it, right in front of me were some beautiful vine tomatoes. I managed to be able to pick up a cluster of four.

Last, and certainly not least, I made it to the nectarines. By this time, my two forearms were balancing my Jenga pile of food. My right hand cupped, shielding the pile from falling, which left my left hand free to grab a plastic bag, then transfer it to my right hand to hold while I leaned over to pick out some nectarines and placed them in the bag.

I put in however many my two fingers grasping the bag could hold and just as my mission was complete, I turned to leave and my purse hanging over my shoulder, knocked over one lone nectarine onto the floor. I stood there looking at it on the ground for a moment, all the while calculating how I could pick it up and restack my tower of food again. A woman standing barely three feet away from me had been watching me, as though she was waiting for something to fall. I stood there and sighed after the fallen nectarine, locked eyes with the woman looking at me as though I was mentally signaling her to offer a hand, but she made zero effort to offer to pick it up. I glanced again at the fruit on the floor then once more at the woman, shook my head at her and walked away.

The woman called to me as though she was the store warden, “Aren’t you going to pick that up?” .

I turned to her, now two aisles past her and shouted, “I can’t believe you’re such an uncourteous bitch!”

I was stunned. I’m the kind of gal who puts myself in other’s shoes. I could not have stood and watched a woman with her arms overflowing holding a stack of groceries, right beside me dropping a fruit and me not automatically reaching down to grab it for someone as a human kindness. You know, kind of like someone holding a door open for the person immediately behind them?

After checkout, I spotted the lottery booth had no lineup and thought it was a good opportunity to buy a ticket for the big pot. I approached the plexi-glassed desk and stood for about a minute to see how long it would take for the girl to lift her head from her cell phone and acknowledge the presence of a customer. But she didn’t. So I left.

I was pulling out of the small plaza up the last row of a dozen, closest to the exit. I braked to check for cars coming in and out before making my right turn onto the exit, then was about to proceed with my turn when a car booted up the drive , didn’t stop or care that I’d not yet completed my turn yet, but she proceeded to attempt to complete her turn into my lane with nowhere for her to fit her car and blocking me from being able to complete my turn because clearly, there was nowhere for her to go until I turned. That was it for me.

I opened my window and screamed out to the woman and let her know how #$#$@#@ ignorant she was, and told her to back up and let me get out before she could turn in. I also added there were a dozen other rows she could have turned into but had to try and fit in the lane by cutting someone off. I’m tired of these lawless people on the roads and parking lots any and everytime I go somewhere in the car. There are scary drivers on our roads, and I don’t know how many of them ever got their license.

I was going to run a return parcel over to the post office but I’d had enough for one day. One half hour.

I reminded myself just how comfortable I am living in my bubble at home. Maybe too much.

How was your day?

 

©DGKaye2020

bitmo live laugh love

 

What happened?

Just Another Rant – The Pant Rant

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Today’s post is another call for fairness for consumers. As someone who is a very organized and expertised shopper, I want to say something here to online businesses who oversell their stock, just like the airlines do with over-selling seats.

Wouldn’t it seem simple that when ordering an item from an online store and your order is confirmed that you should expect the delivery of your product? Ya, so did I. Wouldn’t it seem simple that when there are ‘x’ amount of items in stock that as each person orders one, the number available would go down by one in their system? Ya, that’s what I thought. But apparently, that’s not how they do things at TSC, our Canadian home shopping network.

Let me preface this by saying, I practically have a mortgage with this company. I’ve ordered from them for over 20 years, and although I’ve had my share of discrepancies with them over the years, this one just bites!

Over 3 weeks ago, one of my favorite clothing lines came on TSC. I’d found the perfect evening legging to complete an outfit I intended to wear last weekend.But I still never received them. I’d sent 4 intermittent emails to customer support inquiring as to where the hell my pants were – to no avail. Because, as usual, NO REPLY. When I went into my account to check on the status of the order, beside the item number was the word ‘backordered’. Backordered? WTF? As a seasoned shopper on that channel, I know full well the items that go first on airings. The pants I’d ordered were a popular item. I ordered those damned pants on the very first airing to lock in my order – OR SO I THOUGHT.

I placed my order, along with some other items, a few days later I received the other items – no pants! The receipt said ‘pants to follow’. This does happen occasionally that they will send a partial order and follow up a few days later with the balance. But no, not this time. I placed my order and immediately got notification, ‘thank you for shopping TSC your order has been placed.’ After a week had passed and no pants, I got suspicious. After checking my account order status and seeing backordered, I sent customer support an email. In fact over the course of another week I’d sent them 4 emails but AS USUAL they never replied.

Yesterday I started to get really concerned because I was counting on those pants to go with a jacket I’d purchased to wear to next weekend’s family Christmas party. Since I had no email reply, I went onto their Facebook page and messaged through there with my inquiry. The response was about as helpful as anything I’d received so far. So, I knew it was time to place a call.

After the usual 100 button pushing and waiting on hold for half an hour I finally spoke with a rep to ask where the hell my pants were. Yes, I admit, I wasn’t feeling very friendly. I received the typical ‘Oh, so sorry, the pants are sold out’. I lost it. And that’s when my rant began.

I asked her how a giant company like Rogers who owns half of Canada it seems, including our home shopping channel, doesn’t have an ordering system that serves the consumer. How on earth could my pants be sold out when I ordered in first airing and the pants remained on other airings as available for 2 days that followed? The hosts on that show display an ‘items left’ when they feature an item. On day 2 there were still ‘items left’ but somehow my friggin pants are SOLD OUT! The rep kept coming up with lame excuses amid her apologies, telling me that they were probably sold out before the airing. LOL I replied, are you kidding me, those pants were available for 2 days because I kept checking myself as I saw them as I was eyeing some other items.

“You oversold the item, just like the airlines do with seats!” I replied in a huff. How can such a big company run a business like this where people order an item and it’s not counted as sold automatically? How can a giant corporation like Rogers who owns them, have such a lame shipping system? She continued on trying to pacify me, apologizing that the item was no longer available and no more would be coming in stock. I was livid, and asked to speak to a supervisor. She told me there was no point because there were no items left and the item shouldn’t be showing in my cart. Oh really, and wouldn’t it have been nice IF I WAS INFORMED IT WAS OUT OF STOCK? More apologies, again for not receiving an email!

I told her I want to speak to a supervisor because I want to let them know that you can’t treat consumers like this. Eventually, I spoke to the higher up who again apologized profusely and tried  to tell me the same excuses the rep did. I set the record straight with her, letting her know this isn’t how to do business, their support is terrible, and stop telling me bullshit stories about stock. She retorted by telling me they send emails out when something is out of stock. I reminded her, just one more incompetent thing on them because I NEVER RECEIVED ANY EMAILS, other than when MY ORDER WAS CONFIRMED!

I’m a seasoned shopper there, I know how it all works.”You guys failed to deliver my product ordered first airing and those stragglers a day or two later who ordered received their pants and I didn’t.” I told her again how bad their stock strategy was and as a courtesy to the public I will be writing an article about this. That was when I got offered a credit on my account. But that was not enough to stop me from sharing this rant!

I am soooooooooo tired of big corporations. I’m tired of taking whatever is dished out from companies because our hands are tied and there’s nothing we can do when business isn’t done properly. No, my complaint didn’t magically make them come up with my pants, but I had hoped to instill some sort message to upper management that may miraculously be passed on to the powers that be. Yes, I got a credit, big deal, that didn’t give me my pants and that doesn’t justify their shit business policy and sorely lacking customer service. Just sayin’.

I know I’m not going to change the world single-handedly. But by speaking up, we have to let these companies know when they’re in the wrong. If nobody speaks up, nothing will ever change! We must keep them accountable!

Have any of you been chumped by bogus protocol with online ordering?

 

Copyright
© D.G. Kaye and DGKayewriter.com, 2014 – 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to D.G. Kaye

 

 

Fed up

People Not Doing Their Jobs – Pitfalls of Ordering Online

Published on by 34 Comments

Yup, this is going to be a rant. When I’ve had my fill of incompetence, I’m going step up here on my soapbox and call out those who just don’t give a shit about their jobs.

We only have one department store left in Canada – The Hudson’s Bay, and I need more than two hands to count on how many errors and run-ins I’ve had with them. And my latest encounter was a double whammy once Purolator got involved.

 

Because I pretty much live attached to my computer, I don’t get out often, so I rely a lot on delivery service. It’s not difficult to see that artificial intelligence is taking over in so many ways, but AI isn’t human and when glitches and errors occur, it’s usually the customer who gets caught up in the time-consuming crossroads of trying to figure out where their orders are. And this isn’t my first rodeo with such issues with both companies.

I frequently order from The Bay, and every so often, when orders get screwed up, it’s because of misinformation, and quite frankly – laziness. On a good day, my order is normally delivered the next day or two days max. But this time I ordered some items, now two weeks ago, which I’ve yet to receive! I began checking on my order Aug 27th when I hadn’t received any notification of the progress of my package. But all it said beside my order was ‘in process’. I let it ride for the rest of the week being a long weekend coming, and expected my package at least by the day after Labor Day – to no avail.

I called up The Bay, got put on hold twenty minutes, only to get my call picked up by an incompetent person who I could barely understand, and was told, they would look into the order, send an email to head office and get back to me. I hung up the phone on her, dialed the number again, placed the phone down for almost another half hour until someone picked up, and then chewed off their ear.

After laying into the agent for their incompetence, he apologized saying that ‘someone’ must have forgot to put the order through. Are you kidding me? I told him, the items are now further reduced on sale, so here’s an idea – CANCEL THE ORDER and redo it now at the lower price. And he did. Then he proceeded to tell me I’ll have it by next week. I retorted with ‘I’m not waiting another week’ because of their screw-up. He then did whatever he did on his computer and informed me, I’d have it by Friday Sept. 5th. I usually get an email telling me my package is on its way stating my package will be delivered by the end of the day from Canada Post. But no notifications came.

On Friday, I went down to my mailbox and found no package. On a hunch, I walked into the lobby of my building and noticed a Purolator notice taped to the door flapping around. Yup, it had my name on it, stating, ‘line was busy’, leaving a pick-up address at about ten miles from where I live. I blew a gasket.

I called Purolator and pitied whomever was going to take my call.

After placing me on hold for another half an hour, I finally got to chew someone out. First, I informed the woman on the other end that NOBODY buzzed up, and NOBODY who lives in the complex hardly ever goes through the lobby, as tenants come in from the underground parking. I proceeded to inform her about the numerous Purolator tags floating around in the lobby as an ongoing event because they’re too damned lazy to deliver a package. They are notoriously the worst for deliveries. The lobby door had even been kept open for several days because of some ongoing repairs. I asked her how the hell are people supposed to know they have a package when they aren’t notified by any means other than a sticky note left randomly in the lobby entrance. She replied that’s their protocol. I replied that they are the worst delivery system next to UPS, and asked her to re-deliver that package and have them bring it up to my door and if I don’t answer to leave it there. She put me on hold another few minutes to inquire on her end if they’re allowed to do that. I told her to just do it!

I’m so sick and tired of incompetence by big corporations hiring incompetent people for jobs, most likely not being paid enough to give a shit about their jobs, and certainly not enough people in these jobs. And I’m sick of having to do the leg work to follow up on missing deliveries due to their incompetence. We are at their mercy because nothing ever changes.

I remember an old saying ‘the customer comes first’, but that is an old saying for sure because it no longer applies. I even asked the Purolator rep if she has any idea how many packages are left unclaimed because of their poor delivery procedures. Of course, she had no idea.

Companies have no qualms sending us a bombardment of emails asking us to complete surveys asking us to tell them how they’re doing, please write a review for your new product etc. and bla bla bla. But when you need to get hold of them for support, good luck! So please, stop invading my inbox with your fake goodwill and do your damned jobs!

And this just in as I get ready to schedule this post. . .it’s now Monday night and still no delivery. Fuming at full steam I called them again.This time I waited 55 minutes for an agent, only to find my parcel was still sitting in some dumpy warehouse because NOBODY BOTHERED SENDING THROUGH THE MESSAGE from last Friday that the lying agent told me was sent. I finally got through to an agent, and as I write this, I’ve now been on hold a total of TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!! “So sorry Debby, but I now have to wait for a supervisor to send the email to the warehouse to release the box.” Many swear words were expelled from my mouth. I HAVE NO FRIGGIN’ WORDS LEFT!!!!!!!!!

 

incompetent

 

Thanks for listening. I feel so much better now. 🙂

Anyone here have an incompetence beef you’d like to share here? Please be my guest.

 

Copyright
© D.G. Kaye and DGKayewriter.com, 2014 – 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to D.G. Kaye

 

 

Fun Wow!

A Day in the Life of this Retrograde

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Seriously, you can’t make this shyte up. I just had to share the craziness of how Mercury remains well at work in my life.

 

This is an episode of yesterday’s visit to the dentist. It demonstrates how communications get misconstrued, change comes suddenly, and the usual surprise of something that is going to cost money. I’ll give a little backstory to the lead up.

 

Me and my husband have gone to the same dentist for twenty years. When we first found Dr. B, it was while we were living in our condo and Dr. B was newly opening up shop a mere 5 minutes from our home. She’d sent out flyers to the neighborhood to promote herself and gather new business. This worked out great for me as my long-time dentist had recently announced he was retiring, and hub had a dentist far away he didn’t care for. Through the years we moved several times and some of our homes had us living a good 45 minute drive from Dr. B’s cozy office, but we kept the same dentist. When we moved to where we live now, we were back to a 5 minute convenient drive.

Throughout the years I’ve made friends with new hygenists coming and going as well as receptionists. But Marcy was a constant throughout the years, Marcy was always part-time, Saturdays, and very efficient. Going to the dentist for me was a social event chatting with the girls, including Dr. B and often staying way longer after my appointment finished, for chats.

We go to the dentist every 3-4 months, and at my previous appointment I booked for the next appointment which was to be for June. Nancy was the receptionist there for years and very efficient at reminder calls and rescheduling and so forth. But two weeks before my booked appointment in June, it wasn’t Nancy, but part-time Marcy who called midweek to inform me that Dr. B. was moving her office in July, so she was calling to tell me about the relocation. Apparently, the kerfuffle began a month after my previous appointment in March. So in April Dr.B was informed by her lessor that the medical complex had been sold so everyone in the plaza was getting booted with 3 months notice.

Me and Neem (my hygenist and friend) surmise Dr. B knew it was coming because conveniently she’d bought herself her own building over a year ago and built a new very mode dentist practice, knowing the boot would eventually happen because real estate in Toronto here is very precious and stores and plazas are being torn down left and right to put up more condos. Condos, condos, condos!

But I digress, so anyhoo, Marcy gave me the scoop and I questioned why she was there during the week instead of Nancy, and apparently there was some unpleasantries taken place between Nancy and Dr. B about the relocating notice. Marcy told me she was now working a few days a week plus her standard Saturdays. And so I asked her where the new place was located.

I will mention that Nancy and Marcy both live close enough to walk to work. Marcy gave me the address of the new location, which I knew the area well because it was 2 minutes from my dad’s old family business. But I also knew the area was an industrial area and across from the University so it was a traffic cored area. Not thrilled to say the least after being so conveniently located for years, I weighed out the facts, remembering she’s a great dentist and the girls who work there are always great, so decided we’d try it out and see how we felt about the new location, so I made the appointment, a double for both hub and myself since it was no longer conveniently located, which previously permitted us to go separately when it best fit our own calendar, plus I knew hub would definitely get lost going their on his own the first time. So Marcy booked hub with Neem and Dr. B would clean my teeth at the same time. But, that’s not how it all actually turned out.

A day after I make the new appointments with Marcy, I get a letter in the mail announcing Dr. B is closing the office because the building has been sold, and asking that we let her know if we want our dentistry records sent to another recommended dentist office with 4 dentists right in the plaza of the condo we first lived in – again a 5 minute drive to where I live now, and virtually, a 2 minute walk from where Nancy and Marcy live, or we should call her new office building for booking future appointments.

Now I knew my June appointment was moved just the day before to the new locale so I didn’t pay the letter any mind till I looked at it again yesterday to get the phone number from to add to my phone because the email I received the day before confirming our appointments from Marcy, left directions, and after the labyrinth we’d go through we were instructed to park in a particular area, and call her, then she’d come outside to give us a parking pass and proceed to show us where we were to park. I will mention, it was 34 degrees celcius, more like 40 with the humidity.

Well, I left hub in the car to meet Marcy halfway, and instead of standing in the heat, proceeded to walk into the office. She was still busy at her desk. A family of 3 walked out as I entered and commented, this set up of parking and coming from afar was not worth it. In that moment I was silently nodding in agreement to myself. While Marcy was finishing up with payment from a patient, Neem came out and grabbed the parking pass and took me outside to show me where to park and where to leave the pass on the dash then we chatted for a few minutes about what the heck is going on with the location, and that it wasn’t convenient for many long-time patients. While we’re chatting I’m watching 2 police officers having a field day writing up tickets for illegal parkers. Neem lets me know that this place is too far for her with a now commute of almost 3 hours a day for a 5 hour shift. She said she’ll stick it out until the snow comes and is pretty sure the winter will help make her decision to leave. We also talked about the letter that I found weird.

Neem proceeds to tell me that the letter was a mistake, it was an option for those who wished to stay in the area, but apparently quite a few were taking that option. So I said I may check out the suggested dentist office as well, and ask a few questions about their services, and maybe I’ll end up going there too. So Neem says, if I go there, would I mention her availability to whomever I speak to because she wouldn’t mind working there too. Then she went inside and I ran back to the car with the pass and drove with hub to the parking lot, and we grabbed a beautiful handicapped spot right facing the front of the office building. We were instructed to place the pass on the dashboard, and return it to Marcy when we were ready to leave.

Pass was in place on the dash and we walked across the street and when we walked in the office Marcy greeted us. We chit chatted, my husband’s phone rang so Marcy and I continued to chat, then Neem came to call me in and stopped to chat with us too. We had a few chuckles of the craziness going on with the move, and I asked where Dr. B was because she was doing my teeth and Neem told me no, Dr. B wasn’t coming in today (as she had her own mercury madness to contend with),  so Neem would be cleaning my teeth and someone else would be cleaning hub’s teeth. My arms flew up as I was a bit disappointed that nobody told me this or I may have booked for another day because as much as I love Neem doing my teeth, I had a few questions for the dentist, and hub was complaining of feeling a lot of sensitivity in one of his teeth – both requiring Dr. B to have a look. But we were there and after all the kerfuffle and having finally parked the car, we stayed.

The dental rooms were partially open concept – 4 rooms with half walls. I could see hub diagonally located across from me. Neem and I are gabbing (as best as I could respond with tools in my mouth) about making plans to get together socially. Then 2 minutes later, while Neem is working on my teeth, I had a revelation and pushed her hand away, and darted out of the chair. I shouted to my husband kitty-corner to me, Did you put the handicapped license on the dashboard?

He replies with garbled words with an instrument in his mouth, “Shit, I forgot.” I knew it! We were so frazzled with the parking pass, and placing it on the dash, we both forgot to pull the handicapped license from the visor and place it on the dashboard to avoid a steeeeeeep ticket for illegally parking in a handicapped spot. It already happened once before, my hub was fined in front of his doctor’s office for not placing the license in a perfect eye level place for a police to see it, which I fought and won, and thought I’d drilled the lesson into him. But, apparently, we both forgot this time, which has never happened, and I had a flash of those cops writing tickets while we were waiting for the parking pass, and I didn’t recall seeing the license on the dash, so I panicked. If those cops were still ticketing, this could be a $500 fine, and this time there’d be nothing to fight because it wasn’t about how the license was positioned, but that it wasn’t there at all.

I jumped out of the chair, ran over to hub to grab the car key and ran like a bat out of hell to the parking lot. And gratefully, no ticket! I opened the door and grabbed the license from the envelope and placed it precisely on the dashboard, smacked the door shut, and ran back to my chair. It was hot.

When I came back, Neem presented me with a lovely gift, a whitening kit. She told me she told Marcy she wanted to give me something in appreciation for how long I’d been with Dr. B and all the crap I went through already. I finished getting my pearly whites cleaned and checked up on hub, and found he has a cracked crown causing his discomfort, which in turn will have us going back soon again when Dr. B is there for hub to get fitted for a new crown. $$$$.

Yup, Mercury Retrograde supposedly ends tomorrow, but I know from experience, it will take its sweet time leaving as it lingers and wanes for another 2 weeks. Till then, I’m lying low!

 

©DGKaye

 

 

Yes or No?

I Don’t Always Wear My Wedding Ring, Do You?

Published on by 54 Comments

I love wearing rings. In fact, whenever I go out it’s common practice for me to be wearing four at a time – two on each of my ring fingers and two on my index fingers. But when at home I don’t wear any.

 

When I go on vacation, I still always wear my signature four rings when out painting the town, albeit, the only diamond I travel with is my wedding ring along with my silver jewelry, but I’d never worn rings out to the pool or beach – that includes my wedding ring.

My husband  is never short of compliments. He always compliments me on how I look or on something I’m wearing, often adding, “I’ve never seen that before.” Seen may denote he may never have noticed me wearing it, or even noticed the latest deliveries as I hastily bring up packages from the mailbox before he gets there so I can avoid being grilled, “What’s in the box?” Lol. But never had he asked me where my wedding ring was while at a pool. That was until our last winter vacation.

After almost twenty years of marriage, we were lying in our lounge chairs at the pool one day when the revelation came over him that I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring. It was like after over 100 vacations together that he only noticed I had no rings on. I remarked to him that I was amazed that he’d only waited till then to ask me where my wedding ring is.

I’ve always had a thing for wearing nothing but earrings and my ankle bracelet (besides my swimming attire) when it comes to sunning and swimming. My first reason is because I don’t like ‘tan lines’ on my fingers, and secondly, I don’t like suntan lotion getting inside the crevices of my rings and dulling the stones every time I apply. I’ve adhered to this practice ever since I can remember back and honestly, I’d never thought anything of it.

Hubby didn’t lecture me, it appeared he asked out of curiosity, but made sure to proclaim that he NEVER takes his wedding ring off. “Okay, I get it,” I replied. I didn’t wish for him to continue harping on the conversation and felt if he felt slighted in some way I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so for the rest of the vacation I wore my wedding ring everywhere, including to the pool.

I have to admit, it felt weird having a ring on my hand in the hot sun and in the water as I found myself always double-checking to make sure the ring was still on. I still didn’t like the idea of lotion re-applying with my ring on and was paranoid of taking it off while doing so in case I’d forget to put it back on, so I’d pop it in my mouth every time I applied lotion, knowing I wouldn’t forget it was in my mouth!

As it turned out, since I began wearing the ring all the time, I didn’t have to worry about tan lines on my finger because it was always covered. Once back up to our condo and taking off my jewelry, I got to used to the ring tan line serving as a good indicator of how nicely my tan was coming along. Hubby was happy too. He no longer felt threatened that his wife was showing as ‘available’.

 

I’d be interested to find out who here never takes off their wedding rings when out in public and why, from both – male and female perspective.

 

 

Blog sharing

Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – #PotLuck – Are We Lost in #Social Oblivion? by D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Published on by 26 Comments

We sometimes forget what nuggets of wisdom we’ve posted in the past as the years go by we continue to write and post and don’t always think about some of the past gems we’ve written. Well, Sally Cronin decided to run a series where she welcomed bloggers to give her the go ahead to dig through our posts and cherry-pick some of our gems collecting dust and giving them new light at her Potluck series at the Smorgasbord. Today I’m sharing one of my older posts on Social Media, which Sally has chosen to share on her blog.

 

Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – #PotLuck – Are We Lost in #Social Oblivion? by D.G. Kaye

 

 

Welcome to the series of Posts from Your Archives, where bloggers put their trust in me. In this series, I dive into a blogger’s archives and select four posts to share here to my audience.

 

If you would like to know how it works here is the original post:

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/smorgasbord-posts-from-your-archives-newseries-pot-luck-and-do-you-trust-me/

 

Here is the fourth of the posts I have selected from the archives of D.G. Kaye, Debby Gies who is a regular contributor to the blog with her travel column and also as a guest comedian…Debby has some terrific posts on blogging and social media… and here is one that I think we can all relate to.

 

Are We Lost in #Social Oblivion? by D.G. Kaye

 

Today I’m going to share my thoughts here on the madness of social media, and book promoting, and our constant battle to keep up with everything social media to stay afloat with our presence.

I’m speaking for myself, but I know my thoughts are shared by many a writer. As writers, we all develop our routines, and although every one of us has our own methods of tackling our ‘to do’ lists, if we’re writing books, much of what we do will involve ways to market our books using social media.

With the explosion of new authors and books in the past few years, there are waves of cries to ‘buy my book’ in order to be heard through a sea of social media blasts. I sometimes feel as though I’m drowning in that sea. But I don’t wish to become one of the ‘hard sell’ authors, and I don’t even spend nearly enough time or dollars doing the amount of marketing I’m urged to do through all the social outlets I follow and with all the subscriptions I read from newsletters telling me about another method to push my books.

Sure I read many articles to stay abreast. I’ll bookmark pertinent information and save it to Evernote for the time I’m ready to tackle it. But with all I read, I still can’t bring myself to become an aggressive marketer. I have my daily routine planned the night before with my list of things to accomplish, and that keeps my plate full as it is. As much as I want to try a million new ideas out, there are only so many hours in a day. So I prioritize with my book writing days and my blog post days. I’ve learned what social media sites I gravitate to most. I’ve built friendships and followers who I can chat with, share with, or just have a simple ‘thank you’ for sharing rapport with for dedicated sharers. I read many blogs, and like and comment where I feel like contributing, and if I enjoyed a post, I’ll share it to my social sites.

This routine I have was never a strategy to gain followers, but somehow it had led me to gathering readers and making some wonderful friends along the way. This is who I am, and I don’t wish to conform to being one of those hounds shouting hashtags to ‘buy my book’.

And what may have prompted me to write this you may be thinking? Continue reading at Sally’s blog . . .

 

 

Source: Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – #PotLuck – Are We Lost in #Social Oblivion? by D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

 

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Sunday Interview – Getting to Know author D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

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I’ve been featured at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord to be part of her ‘Getting to Know You’ series. Sally has given a choice of questions to answer. I find with every interview we read about our writing friends we can find new things about them that we wouldn’t otherwise know about. I enjoyed the images Sally has chosen to highlight my answers. Enjoy my answers.

 

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Sunday Interview – Getting to Know author D.G. Kaye

 

 

You might think that as popular and D.G. Kaye (Debby Gies) is in our community that there was little more to find out about her… I beg to differ as you will find out.

 

Now time to find out which of the five questions Debby has selected to respond to….

Thanks for having me over Sal. I chose these 5 questions because often my personal habits and preferences spill into my writing. As many of my readers know, lots of my life is in my books as I share my stories to enlighten others. My stories of defeat, triumph and overcoming also include some of my shopping peeves, travel stories and overcoming a low self-esteem, and of course, the love for my father, so I’ve chosen the following questions to answer.

 

How would you describe your fashion sense?

My fashion sense began as a small child when I was fascinated by the way my mother dressed – stylish and trendy. I didn’t need to be too old to know that was how I wanted to dress when I got older. But being self-conscious about how I looked since childhood cautioned me as I grew into a teen that not everything that suited others necessarily suited me or my body type. I learned young how to wear things that accentuated my better parts instead of dwelling on the parts I wasn’t happy with.

Eventually, I developed a style of my own that suited me best, yet, was often original and not what everybody else was wearing. I’d have to say that my style is somewhere between eclectic, bohemian, and became bolder as I grew older and into myself. I’m pretty sure I was born with a knack for fashion and tried lots of things until I grew into myself. I’m a big fan of bold prints and colors and I love everything leopard LOL.

I often get complimented for clothes I wear by complete strangers while out and about, often adding that they wouldn’t have the guts to dress like me, but I seem to be able to pull it off because it suits me and my personality. I think many are afraid to step out of their comfort zones when trying out trendier styles and that has a lot to do with self-esteem. I know from myself when I was a teen, I liked more subdued clothing because I was happier blending into a crowd. But after I came out of my shell I became somewhat of a fashionista.

 

If you could get rid of one household chore, what would it be?

Vacuuming! I will be blunt here – I hate vacuuming! It’s hard on the back, never fits in the crevices I need it to, it’s loud, and I don’t like loud. I could probably use a new one, but I keep procrastinating about buying a new one because I hate to spend money on something I hate doing. I’m on the fence about what kind of vacuum I’d buy next and seriously contemplating getting one of the robotic ones that go around the floors by themselves. I’m opened to hearing about anyone who loves their vacuum? Lol.  Please continue reading at Sally’s blog.

 

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Sunday Interview – Getting to Know author D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Duh!

Just Sayin’ – People Who Just Don’t Get It

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Duh!

 

 

It’s been awhile since I posted a rant, and yesterday while in the hospital waiting for my gross and vile barium dose of radiation exam, I couldn’t get over the inconsideration of one person.

 

The patient area in the designated hospital area has people awaiting all sorts of glorious tests from CT scans to Angiograms and ultra sounds, all having patients (like me) eagerly and hungrily awaiting their turn and looking forward to getting our tests over with and having a meal. I’m not a real big foodie or anything, but I think there’s some psychological aspect to the rule of no eating after 10pm, waking early and waiting for 2 hours before it’s our turn that makes us think about food just because we can’t eat – or at least, a nice hot cup of coffee.

As I waited my turn, I kept busy reading on my Kindle when a young man walks into the patient waiting area with his steaming hot bag full of McDonald’s fries and some sort of a giant burger he pulled out and began eating voraciously. As the smell wafted through the area and his constant crinkling of the bag and the numerous wrappings taken off his food and scrunched back into the bag kept annoying my concentration, I shook my head in disbelief. All the other patients were eyeballing him just as puzzled as I was.

I couldn’t help but wonder if people don’t even think. It didn’t appear he was with anyone, or possibly he was waiting for someone to finish their test, but regardless, there is tons of seating throughout the hospital and if he couldn’t wait to eat, what the hell was he doing sitting with the hungry and the grossed out people like me trying to suck back my venomous glass of fake flavored chalk?

I continued to look up at him as he chomped furiously on his ‘happy meal’, and I’m quite sure it was when his eyes finally locked with my ‘death’ stare that he got the hint and scrunched up his noisy bag and took off while still chewing and special sauce dripping down his mouth.

 

No food allowed

 

The man was well into his twenties and should have known better. Have we really come to the point where hospitals need to post ‘no eating’ signs in patient waiting areas for gastrology testing. Really? I should think this would be common sense for anyone to know better not to have a feast in these designated hospital areas, but hey, common sense and courtesy seem to be missing in many places these days.

Time to bring back respect and compassion in more ways than one!

 

Just Sayin'