customer service

I switched my cell service from Tello to Mint a few weeks ago. I first tried switching to Boost, but that didn't work out. I had ordered a SIM kit mid-December that shipped to the wrong address then when it did arrive the activation failed. I wound up using all my minutes on the phone with Boost customer service, half of the time on hold waiting to be told they were resubmitting the port request or waiting for some mysterious backend work for which they couldn't provide any status or notification. After a week of back and forth I finally reached out to Tello, who said they never even received a port request. I gave up trying to get Boost to work and settled on Mint instead, which came out less expensive in the end. The new service is even less expensive than what I had with Tello, with more data. I had been making do with 2GB per month, now I'm allotted 35 and got by comfortably with half of that last month. I was able to get my $25 back from Boost and finally, with a little space from their call center induced trauma, to file complaints with the FCC and FTC. During the ordeal I read an article about a "Karens for Hire" business that offers to call customer service lines on your behalf for $65. That was more expensive than I was spending on the service, and leaving a paper trail of outrage is a legacy building activity, so I chose my own adventure this time.

I called American Express on Friday to downgrade my card before this year's renewal. In these Walden times I couldn't justify the expense. I haven't used travel benefits in a few years, and the agent tried selling me on the streaming service credit but I don't use those anymore, either. I might find something with a local impact like tree and bread delivery worthwhile but I feel a motivation to keep what cash I do have in town. That evening I signed up for a Free Library card and poked around the media I could access there. I watched the Pelosi attack video and caught up on the Tyre Nichols story waiting for that video as well. The Memphis PD website was failing around then returning "502 Bad Gateway" if anything. I thought I'd watch Jeopardy while I waited but there was a Philly Auto Show broadcast playing instead. I checked CBS wondering if there was a news update but they were playing a Golf Tournament. Now that I had some bandwidth available I pulled up the TV Guide listings but they only showed "Local Programming" for those slots. I opened the Jeopardy subreddit and there is where I finally found an explanation that the Auto Show was in fact airing live and that it bumped Jeopardy. I'd worried for a minute about a blackout, exacerbated by the end to the printed guide and a seeming policy of no communication from the networks, and the deferral to Some Guy on the Internet felt like a choose your own truth adventure.

I went out for a walking date the next day. I brought the dogs and we spent an hour wandering a park, colder than I expected. We made it back to my place then smoked while making lentils and watched Zoolander. He spent the night and hung out through the afternoon, leaving before the Eagles game. I watched from the couch where I took a late nap before moving to bed. Monday morning a friend texted to invite us for a walk, which we joined. The sun and geese did, too. Tree Tenders training has had me eager for spring gardening so I spent the rest of the day in the yard thinking about what I want to do this year.

I went to an organ recital at a former church yesterday. It snowed a little on the walk there and back, but nothing stuck. I was running low on bread and thought about going to the store after the performance to buy a loaf and decided to bake one instead. I didn't have any yeast on hand so I started a starter that I used to make dough tonight. I did have a little brewing yeast I harvested from a beer I made months ago but that I haven't yet tried brewing with. I had grains and hops so I brewed while baking, preparing a small wort in addition to bulk up the yeast. I haven't pitched it yet, but it does look like it's coming to life. Fortunately there is refrigeration, so the big wort is chilling while the big and little breads do similarly. I warmed up while the snow fizzled out, then we walked.

I called a local venue to attempt to return a gift card this morning. I'd rather not have received the gift to begin with and imagined there was a frictionless way to undo its presence in the living room. After a brief hold the person I was speaking to said they normally wouldn't refund a card but would make an exception on the condition that the purchaser make the request. I thanked him and returned to a reality where I was subject to the friction of a plastic curse, which held me fixed to the couch searching for a force that might overcome it. I finished my coffee and went walking with the dogs. I found in the paper afterwards that today's advice from Carolyn Hax navigated around gift giving issues, which I could have used hours earlier but still benefited from then.

We were out for a little over two hours, circling around the boro then down the Wissahickon and up towards the Merck compound. I forgot my worries, though the card itself is now the victim of inertial indecision, stuck waiting for action. We napped a little then I snuck out for this week's Tree Tenders class. I ran into one of the boro workers I've only met in passing on my way home, and we had an impromptu introductory chat in the parking lot. I walked by a man walking with a dog and peeked into the windows of three bars.

We ended our walk this afternoon cutting back through the park and we passed a dog on the pickleball court barking to us from the other side of the fence. I thought he was alone until I saw a man hiding behind a sign on the gate that said "For Pickleball Use Only", which reminded me of a story I heard long ago that went like this.