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| Anyone who follows me on Twitter hopefully knows by now that tonight is Lancaster Public Library's annual Adopt-a-Book fundraiser. So what is Adopt-a-Book? Basically, it works like this: the library purchases several hundred books that they need for the collection, then you, the public, come and “adopt” those books. You pay for a book, a bookplate with your name is added to the front of the book, and the book is placed in the library's collection. You have now effectively donated that book to the library. nd, because the library is able to purchase books at a discount and you adopt the book for the cover price, the library gets to keep the difference as a monetary donation.
In the past, they have had free beer and hot dogs and nachos, but this year they're classing things up a little and going with wine and cheese. It's a lot of fun and a great way to support your local library. So if you live in Lancaster, get a little dressed up (or don't) and come out to the Lancaster Public Library at 125 North Duke street between 5:30 and 8:00 tonight. I hope to see you there. | | |
| Today at work, I received an official (that is, it came via the corporate customer service phone number) compliment from a customer, and another customer complained about me to the manager.
The compliment arguably means a lot more than the complaint. The compliment was from a customer I see regularly, a customer for whom I have spent a fairly significant amount of time working to solve problems with his prescriptions, insurance, etc. The complaint came from a customer I have never seen before (at least not that I can recall). Where she insisted I was being rude to her, I was merely stating facts. My conduct was vouched for by a pharmacist who overheard the whole conversation. And to top it all off, she didn't even really know what she was talking about; I didn't realize it till later, but the prescription she was concerned about, and insisted was for heart medication, was, in fact, for stomach irritation. Not to mention the fact that the compliment filtered down through the official feedback system and was seen by management all the way up to the regional level, while the the complaint was made directly to the assistant store manager.
Still, guess which one had the greater effect on my mood today.
I hate that.
In other news, there was only one guess on the last round of the Google Maps Game. Bekea guessed the Florida Keys. Bekea was wrong. Any other guesses? | | |
| If you don't know the rules, they can be found in the Round 1 post.
Click to embiggen. | | |
| That's how long it has been since my last post here.
In case you're interested, the car was going to cost too much to fix, so we donated it to WXPN and bought a used 2002 Audi A4 wagon. We have since sunk way more money into the new car (besides the actual cost of the car) than the cost of repairing the transmission in the Ford. Hopefully, though, the Audi will now serve us well for a long time to come. The Ford would not have.
That's all old news though.
These days I work, I sleep (though not enough), and I take care of Ben. Not a whole lot else, really. I do still tweet, though not as much as I used to. So, though I am going to try to pick up writing here again, if you want to keep up with the my day to day, I tell you again, follow me on Twitter. My tweets are protected, but if I know you and you request to follow me, I will approve the request. Unless I work with you.
Mostly, I've decided to take up this blog again because several times in the last couple of weeks, I have thought of something that I wanted to share, or explore in writing (and then share) that simply won't fit into 140 characters. So, we'll see how this goes. I know these meta posts are a bad idea; I always talk about my grand plans, and then I don't follow through. Oh well. No promises, but do start watching this space again. | | |
| On Monday, I made a call to Cottman Transmissions. The man I talked to said that based on my description, the problem could possibly be something fairly minor. I dropped the car off after work and got a call back later that afternoon. I was told that the computer code they got when they ran a check on the car said that the speed sensor wasn't working properly. The man said that fixing that part could fix the whole problem and that doing so would cost about $180 in parts and labor. He also said that if replacing the part didn't fix the problem, they wouldn't charge me for it. I told him to go ahead.
I got another call a couple hours later. The man told me that he had removed the speed sensor and found it gummed up with metal shavings, indicating that something was coming apart inside the transmission. He said that the labor charge for taking about the transmission, diagnosing the problem, installing replacement parts, and, ultimately, putting it all back together would be $450. Cost of parts would be on top of that.
Karin and I made the decision to forgo repairs. We've been pouring money into this car for a couple years now. Since Ben was born, we've had a desire for a newer, bigger, safer car. This development gives us the excuse to start looking for something new (for us; we'll get a used car). Also, we'll hopefully successfully make the trip to the Carrs' this Sunday. | | |
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