The Rage Diaries

I think I may have found a lucrative sideline

I don't recall whether or not I've told youall this already, but our trip to the Big Island that I was all excited about a few months ago ... was cancelled. We had our tickets on Aloha airlines, and while we were in Blacksburg, that's when we learned that Aloha had shut down operations.

In theory, I was supposed to spend this past week marveling at lava flows at Hawai'i Volcano National Park. In practice, I have been reading about the vog that the park is grappling with and fuming at our credit card company. You see, when we learned that Aloha was shutting down, we turned to each other and said, "Hey! One of the good things about using a credit card to purchase goods and services is that when said goods or services fail to materialize, you can call them up and dispute the charge! Credit card companies even tell you this!"

I first contacted the customer service hotline at our credit card company on April 1. We are still negotiating with the company. We have sent them copies of the billing statement where the tickets showed up (copies which -- heh -- they had to send to us first before we could officially send them back), copies of our e-tickets and proof that we tried to resolve this matter with Aloha airlines before asking the credit card company to eliminate the charge for the service that was not delivered. I look forward to seeing what delaying tactic the card company uses with us next.

And by "look forward," I mean "sublimate my irritation by writing cranky consumer letters." In the past month I have:

-- Heavily edited a letter Phil sent to the San Francisco Giants front office after he had a thoroughly unpleasant experience with some peanut-throwing gibbons in the Oracle suites.

-- Sent an email to Martha Stewart Omnimedia after a peel-down Swiffer ad kept me from clicking a hyperlink five times in a row. I'm okay with ads on websites. I am not okay with the ad completely biffing the entire user experience. It is not a good thing.

-- Sent an email to Dairy Queen denouncing this commercial as sexist and revolting.

-- Sent an email to my representative on the EBMUD board of directors pointing out that an across-the-board 19% reduction in water use effectively punishes people who were already conserving and only provides incentive to whoop it up in the fat times so that the next round of cutbacks doesn't hurt.

With the exception of the last letter, I've received quite nice replies. (As I should, since I wrote quite polite letters.) And someday, Phil will tell you how the Giants made everything okay. But here is the weird and guilty thing: I freakin' love writing these letters. It is better than yoga for reducing the tension in my back.

So now, I have only two things to worry about. First, that I really am on the road to becoming one of those cranks who writes everyone about everything. And second, that I'm never getting my money back from the credit card company. Because if that's the case, I'm going to need to do a lot of letter-writing to get the tension out of my back.

I must admit: I did NOT see this coming

[I]n contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation - like a person's race or gender - does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution
properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.

-- The final paragraph of the California Supreme Court ruling overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Read more at SFGate: "State Supreme Court Says Same-Sex Couples Have the Right to Marry"

In related news, you know that Gavin Newsom is busy running in circles around his office, crowing, "Gavin FTW! Gavin FTW!"

Attention, East Bay residents and businesses

EBMUD has introduced mandatory water rationing. I read the press release, and here are the salient points:

Fiscal fitness -- the grocery reckoning

This post is a few days late because I normally leave the grocery receipt in the car, and forgot to bring it in until today. But I did promise youall numbers and a look at what we're spending on food and where.

You stay classy, America

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"

-- "Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause," WaPo, May 13, 08

I didn't even include the elected officials who are convinced Obama is a sleeper agent for "the Muslims" or the vandalism of campaign offices in Indiana. Seriously, what year is this again?

Nogurt

Have you noticed the abundance of yogurt commercials on, say, the DIY Network or Bravo? And how it's always some women yammering on about how they prefer eating a key lime-flavored yogurt to actual, delicious key lime-flavored pie? Then I believe this video will speak to you.

Would you like to know who the yogurt eater in the Schmichaels household is? Hint: it's not the chick.