Signs change over time. The nature of a business might change, or maybe not, but the signs always seem to change. Of course we’re talking about a pretty broad time window, but I’ll provide an example. Last week I’d finished my marketing and was leaving the local Trader Joe’s Market. Now I’ve lived in my […]

Many, many, years ago no one had Personal Computers. Actually, for a while even those people who had computers at home didn’t have Personal Computers. Before IBM introduced the PC Apple made things that it called Home Computers. I’m sure that IBM spent a fortune in man hours determining that ‘Home Computers’ wouldn’t be taken […]

The typewriter store is gone. Actually, the typewriter store has been gone for a long time, but one can now truly say that the business that used to be the typewriter store is gone. Many, many (many) years ago someone asked me to fix their typewriter. They didn’t want me to fix it personally. Just […]

Well, much to my surprise, my much-detoured IRS check has finally arrived. Let me recap; 1.) I have lived at the same address for a very long time. 2.) My original IRS refund was decreed ‘Undeliverable’ by the Post Office, and returned to the IRS. 3.) The only way the IRS could think of contacting […]

Please refer to Episode I if this topic is new to the reader. Well, today I received a second letter from the IRS. It came to me at my imaginary home address of 1234 Elm Street, Hollywood, USA. (For an explanation of the imaginary address again please see Episode I.) This second, computer generated, letter […]

Or perhaps ‘Post Office of the Brain Dead,’ or ‘IRS of the Brain Dead.’ But read on and compose your own appropriate title. My mailing address is not; 1234 Elm St. Hollywood USA 56789. It’s not, but let’s just pretend that it is. Yesterday I received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service. The letter […]

Programmers always have stories about end users and passwords. Mostly these center on the hilarious misunderstanding of the nature of passwords. Hilarious is a relative term, programmers tend to be pretty dull people. Every business has at least one employee who listens politely while the representative from I.T. explains about why everyone has their own […]

Time has passed, and it appears that the staff at my local Subway Sandwich shop is once again composed of completely new, enthusiastic, but inexperienced employees. Upon noticing this I surmised that I would thus be destined to repeat all of my previous sandwich adventures, with a new supporting cast. However, I was wrong. There […]

Not as bad as “The Bank of the Brain Dead,” but still rather surprising. Last week I was in a branch of the DWP (Department of Water and Power) credit union. I am not, nor have I ever been a member of the DWP or its credit union. However, this organization provides me with the […]

Or perhaps user error. Last week I was at FedEx mailing letters to a client so that they could then mail them out to the recipients. But that’s not the story. I waited in line, held up the material I wished to mail, and said, “I want to FedEx this to someone.??? I was sent […]