February 28

Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

Feb 28. An iconic day in history.

A buddy of mine has a birthday.

A woman I once knew has a birthday -  she once sent me a pager that she was ready to settle down. Apparently not.

On Ancestry.com, my grandparents were married today.

Twenty years ago my divorce was finalized.

Thank you, Tori Amos. 

The Verizon Wireless Fraud Game

Got a bill today charging me for the fraudulent change of my account by a Verizon Wireless employee. Verizon Wireless charged me for a change they made without authorization.

Time to rectify their error - 22 hours and it's still not corrected.

Verizon Fraud Game - change your account, because it will take more of your time to correct than it does to just pay it,

Nuisance Calls Are Not a Customer Inconvenience Claims Verizon

  Day 10, and Verizon Wireless still can't get it's own Customer Service alibi straight.

  The story so far. One telephone number has been nuisance calling my personal cell phone.  I contact Verizon Wireless,  they can't block it from their end - it has to be done through my on line account. Completed.

  The nuisance calls keep coming.

  Telephone Tech Support, they block the number - the calls keep coming.

  Telephone a Tech Coach who claims the block is not present - despite hard evidence on my end. They go to block the telephone number from their end, and the number now "mysteriously" appears as a blocked number that they can't explain - but the calls keep coming.

  Today I telephone Customer Service - who confirm that no block exists, but upon further review, report that the block is on all telephone numbers - except the phone receiving all the calls. I'm calling them out - incompetent, deceitful, and failure to provide the service requested.

  "You haven't been inconvenienced in any way by the nuisance caller," the Customer Service agent claims.

  Ten days, eight calls and eleven hours on the phone to Verizon, broken sleep, and the inability of a cell phone company to fulfill their service agreement apparently is not enough for Verizon Wireless to be considered an inconvenience for their customers.

  Can you hear me now moving to @Sprint.

Verizon Wireless Bait and Switch

  There are entities, who believe that they are so far above reproach, that they do not have to supply the level of service that they bill for. The worst offenders are cell phone carriers,  and Verizon Wireless heads that list.

  I have been receiving nuisance calls from one telephone number.  Incoming calls at 11:30pm at night, 4:30am in the morning, 6:10am on Sunday morning. Inconvenient times. I know my cell phone carrier has been charging for the past 12 years for a block application - I'll call customer service and ask them to activate it.

  "I'm sorry, Verizon Wireless can't activate call blocking without changing your plan." (Which invokes a higher monthly cost.)

  Verizon Wireless Customer Service is unable to commence a call blocking service that I have already been paying for, without charging me a higher rate? (Sounds like extortion.)

  Customer Service reports that they cannot activate the service, but, I can use the on line web page to access my account and start the call blocking service.

  Later that day, I access the on line web page, log into my account and block the incoming call across all cell phone lines.

  Want to guess who calls me the next day at 9.55pm? My blocked caller. I call Verizon Wireless and sit on hold for an hour without an answer before calling it a night. The next morning, my nuisance caller is at at it again at 06:05am and I phone my cell phone carrier straight away.

  "We can't explain why your block caller is able to get through - let me put your through to Technical Support Tier II."

  "You don't have any blocked numbers," Tier II claims. I call them out and print out a copy of the on line account not only showing the blocked cell phone number,  but the expiration date.

  "Oh, well...we can't explain why your blocked caller is getting through."

  That's what I thought. Verizon Wireless can't supply the services that they have been charging me for. Why, am I still paying them?

  Can you hear that? 

National Screenwriters Day

January 5 is National Screenwriters Day.

One day, my children will be watching and recognize themselves.

And they will sit behind while the credits roll up, just so they know.

Happy 75th Birthday, Dad.

My father turns 75 today.

A milestone birthday, and this year, I was away, once again.

What can I say, my father is better Dad than I am

Happy birthday Dad, from Texas.

The Writing Power of the Dark Side

Laying in bed on Thanksgiving Eve this week, I came to the realization that not much writing has been accomplished in the past year.

The major project - not yet completed.

The prequel - title and idea only.

It would appear that I write better from the Dark Side, when there is disharmony in the galaxy.

Apparently, I have not yet understood the Writing Power of the Dark Side.