Three Random Things

[hrj]

#1: You'd think it would be a relatively simple thing to get a replacement recycing bin from the company that hauls away the recycling (a different company than the garbage company, although they come on the same day). I have been regularly phoning to request a replacement bin since back in October (when, as you may recall, my old recycling bin was used by the burglar to haul away my safe). For at least the last three iterations, I've spoken to the exact same person at the recycling company: same voice, same phrasings and wordings, same assurances that she "gets requests out to the delivery truck within a couple of days of receiving them". Today, when I asked her what else I might do to follow up on the matter, she said she'd check the delivery log for the last couple months. She actually has no record that I've ever put in any previous request. Certainly not one that has ever been passed on to the folks who deliver the bins. When I eventually got off the phone, my co-workers expressed awe at my lack of profanity. She was completely unable to supply any means by which I could receive my bin other than to continue putting in requests every couple of weeks then waiting to see if anything was delivered. Yes, I could slip my recycling into the neighbors' bins, but I shouldn't have to.

#2: Something or other I was reading recently, for an only tangential reason, got me thinking about frosted windows. No, not the etched-glass sort of frosted windows, but the freezing of ice crystals in fabulous patterns on the inside of a window when it's cold outside. The iconic example in my memory is the window of the ski lodge at Pec pod Sněžkou (I think it was Pec ... or was Pec the one where I sprained my knee? ... anyway it was the non-knee-spraining ski trip that year). I remember the windows all covered with fractally crystals. And then, during this recent bout of frost-nostalgia, I realized that frosted windows are completely incompatible with properly insulating double-glazing. And that makes me sad. In that having-the-luxury-of-not-paying-the-heating-bill sort of way.

#3: I never did manage to watch all the episodes of Blood Ties when it was showing on tv -- and of course, I wouldn't have had the chance to watch the last two eps which were never broadcast in the first place. So I've been waiting patiently for the whole thing to come out on dvd, at which point I'd dither about whether I wanted to spend that kind of money just to finish watching a tv series that I did, in fact, see at least half of. Even if it is by one of my favorite fantasy authors. So last night, while wandering around in the iTunes store, I discovered that I can buy the entire set of episodes (including the last two un-aired ones) from iTunes for two bucks an ep. Now I can dither about whether I want to spend that kind of money just to finish watching a tv series that I did, in fact, see at least half of (but of course I'm not about to buy only the episodes I didn't see previously, because one must watch them in order, after all). But at least I know that they can be mine for the having.

Comments

[theiadora.livejournal.com]

Next time its time for your trash to be picked up, Tape a sign to the top of the Trash can. Request in English and in Spanish that you get another recycle bin. Mention you asked the office. One will show up. Put your address on the note.
They have to get out of the truck to find out why it didnt come off when they dumped it.
Worked here in Gilroy.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Garbage and recycling are two different companies in my part of Oakland -- which it took me a couple phone calls to figure. (The first time I called the garbage company, assuming it was all one. No one bothered to disabuse me of that idea until the second call ... which explains why the first call did no good, but not why the second, third, fourth, and fifth have done no good.)