Keeping You Busy

So I am cleaning some paint out of the carpet when my 4 year old comes over and starts getting into something. I ask him not to since I am busy cleaning up a mess by his younger sister. He responds that he needs to make a mess to keep me busy. Turns out he sees his job as keeping me busy. That really explains a lot.

Best Buy Strikes Again

In Best Buy's latest attempt to drive customers away they had a man arrested for using $2 bills.

What happened was a sales rep at Best Buy misinformed a customer (big surprise) about a car stereo's compatibility, when the customer came back in for a different stereo they gave him a free installation to apologize. The next day they threatened to call the police if he didn't pay for his free installation. This irritated him so he decided to pay using a stack of $2 bills that he uses for his tour service. Since no one at Best Buy had seen a $2 bill before they called the police. Guess the officer wasn't up on his currency either since he hauled the guy out in handcuffs and leg irons. He was held until the Secret Service confirmed they were legal tender.

Lesson number one: Always get everything in writing! I have had this bite me a number of times. Both maliciously and accidentally I am sure. Had he gotten the free installation offer in writing he could have avoided this mess.

Lesson number two: Don't shop at Best Buy. Any store that labels some of their customers as daemon or devil customers because they make legal use of rebates is not the kind of store that really cares about customer service. Best Buy groups customers who make heavy use of rebates with those who fraudulently return things after claiming the rebate.

The guy was justified in being irate with Best Buy for charging him for the free installation, and threatening him with calling the police if he didn't pay it. He was also justified in using the $2 bills since they are "legal tender for all debts public and private". Best Buy has the option to not accept his money and give him the install for free.

When I was in school I actually went on a field trip where they gave us $2 bills to buy lunch. I guess it is a really common practice and pretty cool when you are a high school student.

As much as I hate to see frivolous law suite I hope he files one against Best Buy and the Baltimore County police department. Best Buy just keeps moving itself further down my list of places to shop.

Murmurs from the Beyond

I was hauling the trash out to the curb tonight. I may have been imagining it, but I think I may have heard a faint murmur from the bottom of one of the cans. Not sure if there was something still down making noise or if my conscious was reminding me of past events.

Throw Food Out the Window

Do you ever find yourself at the mercy of some strange habit or uncontrollable impulse that makes no logical sense? Whenever I am in the car, and eat something, I have this urge to through the scraps out the window.

I don't litter. If it is "trash" like paper or the like, then it goes in the trash can, but if it is a bit of food, then it must go out the window. Sometimes I can curb this urge, but it can be though.

Apple cores, banana peals, pizza crusts, bits of hamburger buns, bones, etc. All of these must go out the window. Now I don't eat in the car very often, so this hasn't been much of an issue. When I do eat in the car I sometimes worry that the people behind me will think I am throwing trash out, when in fact I am feeding the wildlife. So I often put it in the car trash.

Logically now I know that most food will just sit on the side of the road for a long time. Plus it could attract animals to the road where they might be hit by a car. All this logic is great, but I still want to throw it out the window.

I think this habit originated from a road trip when I was very young. I had eaten piece of fruit, and wanted to throw the peal / core in the trash. Since we were going to be on the road for a while my parents threw it out the window so it wouldn't stink up the car (or that is my theory now. Doubt they remember the event.) I remember suggesting that was littering, but they said the wild life would eat it, or it would break down.

Same for gum. It has to go out the window! Especially if you are on the freeway. I remember my mom telling me that it would "become part of the road". Logically now I know that it would stick to someone's foot, but I still want to throw it out the window.

Interestingly I have a big hang-up about wasting food, so the thought of throwing it out the window is very ironic!

Death of a Toy

So my son decided to clean out his room. Any toys he didn't want would go to charity, except for the broken ones, which would go in the trash. Well, one of the broken ones was a Johnny Apple Bot - which is a robot in the shape of an apple. I never was quite sure of the purpose of it. Anyway, it has a motion sensor and talks to you. Yesterday I went out to throw something in the outside trash cans when I hear this strange noise. At first I wasn't sure what it was, then I thought it sounded like someone talking, then I realized that his Johnny Apple Bot (which I didn't know was thrown away) got activated in the trash can and still had good batteries. It was sitting there going "Hello. . . .Hello. . . .Hello. . . ."

Kind of sad actually. This abandoned toy crying out for someone to play with it. Not willing to give up just because it was buried in the bottom of a trash bag.

"Hello. . . .Hello. . . .Hello. . . ."

I pulled the bag out and he stopped is cries for attention, but it was obvious he was in the bottom of a bag, and I didn't want to dig through the bag of trash to put him out of his misery. I dropped the bag back into the can. His sirens song continued.

"Hello. . . .Hello. . . .Hello. . . ."

My son seemed unaffected by this. He informed me in a matter of fact manner that mom said broken toys went in the trash, and it was broken. So as we spent the greater part of Saturday working outside on various tasks, every time I walked by the side of the house I would hear Johnny's pleas to be saved from the doom that awaited him.

"Hello. . . .Hello. . . .Hello. . . ."

This gave me a number of chances to reflect on how little my kids play with their higher tech toys, but tend to be absorbed by low tech toys and various odds and ends. Little nick-nacks they pilfer from mom and dad's room or the den seem to be some of their favorite toys. I usually wonder if we were to give permission for them to have them if they would immediately loose interest.

"Hello. . . .Hello. . . .Hello. . . ."

Poor Johnny. Should I dig him out and put him out of his misery? Removing his batteries would do the trick, but so might a hammer or a slight rotation in how he sits in the bag. Should I repair him and see if my son, or some other child would be entertained with his high tech talents?

With little ceremony he finally stopped. I asked Dawn and she said she didn't do anything with him. I am left to assume either his batteries finally died, or his little heart gave up. Unable to deal with having his pleas ignored he surrendered to the doom that awaits him.

I would imagine that high tech toys are more often sent the land fill, while low tech toys are more often handed down. Maybe if Johnny wasn't a robot he would have moved on to a new home. He was betrayed by his high tech electronic heart. The very ability that allowed him to make that final plea for help from the trash can beside our house was the very thing that doomed him to his untimely demise in the first place.

UPDATE: I got an email from the designer of the Johnny Applebot.