Currently juggling all of these. Oh wait, the one in the middle is a journal that I hardly ever write in. The rest are books I am indeed reading.

The new Daniel Silva arrived at the library on Wednesday and, of course, I had to drop everything. It’s early days but I know it will be fabulous because Silva’s books always are.

Most of this morning has been spent reading about the release of Americans being held in Russia and the incredibly complex plan to secure their release – a plan that originally included Alexei Navalny. This plan was successful because of Joe Biden. His positive relationship with our allies, his statecraft, his years spent on foreign relations, and his pure goodness lead to this. I do not mean to exclude our State Department, Vice President Kamala Harris, or any of the players in this detailed plan – I thank them. But it was just – how many weeks ago? – that the media and some Democrats and big money Dem donors were relentlessly questioning Biden’s fitness for office – including the Wall Street Journal, where Evan Gershkovich worked. And, true to form, they have not thanked the President, because that would upset their narrative.

Gee, he seems pretty fit to me. In fact, I’d say he was a master at being President.

The hypocrisy just plain stinks.

Seeing the video of their arrival in the United States brought tears to my eyes. May they find peace with their loved ones.

And bravo to our amazing gymnasts. Each of them – two from the USA, one from Brazil – had to overcome tremendous obstacles to get where they are today. And they did it with determination, grace, and integrity.

Other news: It was an unbelievably humid and dangerously hot day yesterday (and will be today, as well.) I watered twice. We might have storms today and I say, bring them on! Let’s send this front, or whatever you call it, out to sea.

Of course, as per usual on the first Friday of the month so far this summer, there is the threat of bad weather and impossible humidty and Don has another outdoor concert tonight. He’s not playing; he hired the performers. But he has to be there. I hope they move it to an indoor venue because the weather forecast is too dicey. Fingers crossed.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

I have a couple of observations to share with you this week. Today’s involves our alarm company. The ADT alarm system was in place when we bought our house 19 years ago. The other night, during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, it went off – a high pitched and fast pulsing. When I went to the keypad I saw that the system battery was low. Turned off the alarm and called ADT.

Both of the techs that I spoke to were polite and as helpful as they could be, but there was a problem. Usually when a battery is low and needs to replaced – as in a movement sensor, for example – you can put in a code that will stop the alarm until you can replace the battery. It took ages for the tech to finally tell me this, but apparently you can’t do that with the system battery. It was about 10 pm and I had no idea where the transformer was – nor did they. I couldn’t believe they didn’t have some record of where they installed it, but they didn’t. Is it plugged into a socket? No, I said. I would know if a transformer was plugged into one of our sockets. Finally, we figured out it must be in the basement near the circuit breakers and I was not about to go down there late at night. (You remember that we have to enter our basement from outside the house.)

I was not happy that we would have to hear the alarm go off for the several days it would take for a new battery to be delivered. When I asked if we could book a service technician to install it, it also became clear that we were expected to do the work ourselves. And, unlike other visits from the service tech in the past, we would have to pay a lot of money for a visit.

To get to my point: Even though we pay a sizable amount of money to ADT yearly, what would have been a routine, no-charge visit in the past now costs a chunk of money. And now, though I have no idea how to do it, I will have to consult lots of diagrams online to figure out how to install the new battery.

In other words, we  have to do the work. But, as Don says, we don’t work for ADT.

Just like I don’t work for our neighborhood market, or Lowes, or CVS, but I have to do my own checkout.

And one more, I don’t work for Amazon, but in order to return a book, I have to drive 20 miles to a Staples store that takes Amazon returns, instead of putting it in the mail. I did this yesterday and when I got there, I found out their connection to Amazon wasn’t working, so I drove a total of 40 miles for nothing. Need I say it? I don’t work for Amazon, either.

What I would refer to as “routine customer service” is increasingly rare. It’s going the way of the dinosaur. And it really pisses me off.

I made that clear to them on the phone the other night and asked that management call me. They called Don yesterday and said we would soon be getting a small discount on our bills because we’ve been with them almost 20 years. Okay, but it doesn’t address the real problem.

My response will always be: I don’t work for _____ and until I’m on your payroll, service, maintenance, and checkout is your job. Not mine.

But they know that rather than pay them $150.00 to do their job, I will end up installing the battery (which I’m being billed for) myself. And that’s how this crap slowly gets accepted.

Anyway, that’s my mini rant for today. True customer service is rare these days. I miss the days when it was a no-brainer.

Let me add that I worked Customer Service for 7 years when I was just out of college. I know how it is to be on the receiving end of a angry call. I always make sure to let that person know that my complaint isn’t with them, but with the company policy. And, if they have been patient, I always thank them.

To end on a cute note:

Pip and Derek.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Cranky, not-enough-sleep Claudia is writing this brief post. We were up later than usual watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony. But we woke up too early.

It was a stunning ceremony on every level. Using the entire city of Paris as the venue, not just a stadium, was a stroke of genius. It was brave, modern, wonderfully surprising, and glorious. There were so many moments I will remember. In the midst of watching it, I was on the phone with our alarm company in one of the most frustrating conversations I’ve ever had – so I’m ticked off that I missed portions of the ceremony. I won’t detail the call, but we’re not happy. ANYWAY, back to the ceremony: Bravo, Paris! You pulled off one of the best – if not the best – opening ceremonies I’ve ever seen.

The topper of course was the performance of Celine Dion. Having watched the documentary about her battle with Stiff Person Syndrome, we have a sense of her daily battle and the fact that she stood there, at the Eiffel Tower, and sang Edith Piaf’s Hymme à L’amour, full throttle, with complete commitment, daring to sing when her voice has been failing – my heavens, what bravery! And she was glorious. Simply glorious. Cheering erupted in our den!

Brave Paris – you did it!

Brave Olympic Athletes.

Brave Celine Dion.

I look forward to the next 16 days.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.