Customer Service for Seniors

Having a parent die is certainly an event that leads to some serious thinking about one's mortality. And thoughts about simply aging keep emerging: prompted by other, much-more-subtle incidents as well.

To wit: I've had another encounter with the whole "senior discount" thing!

As you might recall, a couple of years ago I talked about the kid at the Subway shop who asked if I wanted the senior discount. (I said: no thank you very much.) Then, last year, I had another, similar experience at Noah's Bagels when one of the employees simply rang me up with the senior discount.

Well, this whole issue has been raised again at Noah's.

Last weekend, one of the employees who had been automatically giving me the discount, said that the manager now indicates that they can only do so when the customer asks. I said, "OK." But I knew that I would have a difficult time actually going there. It's one thing to be extended the courtesy. And another entirely to have to ask for it. (Which, of course, is something the management would know.)

Monday morning, I tried it out. Another employee rang me up and, at the end of the transaction, I requested the senior discount. He had rung me up for months without it and, when he raised one eyebrow, I explained, “one of the other folks told me this weekend that I could ask for it.”

First, he rang it up. Then, he said, “could I see your ID please?”

I wasn't entirely sure I had heard him right. I replied, "huh?"

He repeated it. I had heard him correctly. Stunned, I started to reach for my wallet, whereupon he said, "just kidding."

I said, "oh, very funny."

But it wasn't. I was reluctant to do this in the first place. Then, the first time I ask, I am "kiddingly" harassed.

 
I won't be doing that again, anytime soon at least.

So, I guess I'll have to reinstate that portion of my "aging-gracefully" policy which says: tell no one of your "senior" status.

Soundtrack Suggestion

Will it go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky
Will it go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky

("Will It Go Round In Circles" - Billy Preston)

Hack the Debate

Would you like to watch a presidential (or vice-presidential) debate while simultaneously reading what people all over the world are, in the moment, writing about that very debate?

(I’m talking about something entirely different than the graphs provided by CNN  to instantaneously illustrate the reactions of various voting groups…)

Here’s the deal: on the Current cable television network last Friday they tried an entirely new approach to debate-viewing, called “Hack the Debate.” While Obama and McCain went at it, in almost real-time, on the bottom of the screen, the network displayed Twitter posts (discussed in my “Digital Intimacy”  essay of September 15) from folks who were tweeting about the debate. It was a pretty interesting process. A tweet would appear onscreen from someone, somewhere, and then slowly dissolve away while a new one appeared.

I have to admit that, although I found it fascinating, it was also a tad confusing. It was like having subtitles during a movie containing the director’s comments on the significance of the scene. I had a bit of a challenge listening to what Obama and McCain were saying, and how they were saying it, and at the same time reading what everyone else was thinking about what was going on. It was a LOT to pay attention to.

Especially because I was writing comments as well. Yes, I had my laptop in front of me and I was composing my own observations. (As far as I can tell, though, nothing of mine was on the air.) AND, I was monitoring Twitter’s own streaming coverage, with comments very quickly whizzing by at http://election.twitter.com/.

If you want to try a whole new debate-watching experience, catch Biden and Palin (if she’s still the nominee, that is) this week on Current (Comcast channel 107 in Marin). Better yet, get a Twitter account and join in on the fun!

The Latest Crisis

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what is happening here in this country with regard to the economy. Does anybody out there really get it?

Nobody I know does. And even the “experts” are struggling with their sense-making.

Maybe, if anyone saw this disaster coming, then, perhaps, we might have done a better job of heading it off? Of course, then, well, let me think: Bush is still running the country. So I guess there’s no one really minding the store.

I heard on both NPR and MSNBC this week that we came just this close to plunging into The Great Depression II. And, that we’re not out of this yet…despite the massive $700 billion federal bailout, we’re still looking for more businesses to fail, many more workers to lose their jobs.

I have to admit to being scared. In the post-911 era, it took three years for me to lose the last “permanent” job I had. I’ve struggled with my life, in one way or another, ever since. Then, earlier this year, I lost a double-digit percentage of my AIG-invested retirement funds before I made the move to a more conservative investment strategy. The new approach isn’t really earning me money anymore, but the bleeding, thank god, for the time-being, has been stopped.

What happens to me? ….what happens to us? …if we’re not able to work our way out of this crisis.

There’s a lot to think about here…

Flaunting the Law

On January 1 of this year, I posted an entry enthusiastically endorsing a new California law, slated to go into effect on July 1, making it illegal to drive while talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device (and would prohibit the behavior entirely for anyone under 18 years old). I said way to go California!

Well, folks, things haven’t exactly turned out like I imagined. For what I thought would happen was: people would actually obey the law.

HA! Oh, silly me!

Now, I haven’t seen any data, performed any studies, or done anything “scientific” in preparation for making this report, however, what I believe is: this law hasn’t changed shit.

People here are still driving while talking. And driving while texting. They’re endangering themselves and others to just about the same extent they were prior to July 1.

It pisses me off. I wish I could take down the license plate number of every car I’ve seen whose driver is flaunting this law. And, well: do something with it!

I am unable to do that, obviously. It would be a full-time job.

But, just so you know, I’m not doing nothing. Here’s the email exchange I had yesterday with the local police. (The “Twin Cities” referred to here are the towns of Larkspur and Corte Madera , California.)

Message Number 1 (TechnoMonk)

Greetings,

On Saturday, August 30, 2008, at app. 3:50 p.m., I was traveling west on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. from Hwy 101 to the Bon Air Shopping Center. I was following a Twin Cities police car, license plate #1225302. The driver of this vehicle weaved into the other lane about three times during the very short time I was following him. I believe that he was using a cell phone without a hands-free device.

Distressing. I thought we had a law.

Message Number 2 (Captain McDuffee)

Thank you for your email regarding the unsafe driving you witnessed. It doesn’t appear from your email that you actually observed the officer using a cellphone, is that correct? The unsafe driving may be the result of the officer using the Mobile Data Terminal in the patrol car.

In either case, I will speak to the officer about his driving. Once again, thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Message Number 3 (TechnoMonk)

Captain McDuffee,

Thanks for the quick reply.

It was, of course, the weaving that caught my eye.

At that time of day, going that direction, the sun was somewhat in my eyes. However, the driver’s head was tilted slightly to the right. His right arm was held to position his hand near his ear. I didn’t exactly see the cell phone, but it sure was a cell phone pose. The head, hand (and phone?) were in silhouette. I’d put my certainty level at about 90% that it was a cell phone.

Of course, nothing will ever come of this…it just made me feel good!

Being There

Here I am: on vacation. In Oregon. Haunting my old haunts.

This is a vacation?

Yes, actually, the best one I could think of.

Now, I suppose you’re asking: what in the world makes this a good choice for a getaway (rather than someplace new and, perhaps, slightly-more exotic)?

I’ve been mulling this over, and I think that it’s not only my desire, but my compulsion, to find someplace safe for a few days. Now, that may sound a little strange, given my recent observations about the lack of security and support I enjoyed here before I left the state…but I believe that simple familiarity (and the accompanying feeling of) safety is what it comes down to.

I went to the Oregon Country Fair for a few hours yesterday. And I’ll be there for awhile again tomorrow. I seek out this venue despite the fact that I am not (and never have been) an organizer, vendor, helper, or any kind of active participant of the event. I am not part of the Fair’s insider culture. All that I’ve ever done, off and on over the course of nearly thirty years, is look at the public part of the Fair through my lens and record selected microseconds here and there. During nearly all my visits, I have gone alone; I rarely interact for anyone for more than a few seconds or minutes. I am not known, and no one knows me. (I only rarely even see anyone familiar there.) In terms of the life of the Oregon Country Fair, I’m about as anonymous as anyone possibly can be. Yet, the event is part of my life, and carrying around a camera and wandering these now well-known grounds in rural Veneta, Oregon is part of who I am.

Today, right now, I’m in Corvallis. At the downtown Starbucks. For what it’s worth, amazingly, I see no one else with a laptop.

Yes, Corvallis. The city I lived in from 1970 to 1990. I moved here immediately after my graduation from college…a few weeks after the Kent State tragedy, oh those many years ago. I have lived no where longer than the twenty years I spent here. By the time I left (for graduate school in Indiana), I thought there would never be a place I’d call home other than Corvallis. However, the time I spent in Eugene from 1995 to 2004 was highly significant, and it is that place that I now call “home”…having now lived in Portland, Roseburg and Larkspur since.

While Eugene enjoys that place in my heart, Corvallis is very special, and is particularly effective in providing me a sense of safety and security. Largely, these positive feelings are ones I associate with the Oregon State University campus. During the time I lived here in Corvallis, and also during the years when I lived elsewhere in Oregon, whenever I was feeling confused, lost, depressed, or desperate (and I think I’ve had more than my share of those times), it was to the OSU campus I came.

And when I got here: I walked. I sat. I read. I slept on the couches in the MU lounge. For some reason, here, I was able to just be. Like nowhere else on earth.

So today I went to campus again. I finished off a novel I’ve been reading the last few days. I sat on one of the benches at the edge of the quad. I watched a few young people walk by (on a Saturday in the summer, the campus is very quiet).

I tried to still my mind.

My mind needs stilling because this visit has produced a huge, and unexpected, emotional reaction on my part. For, while I have a good job, and people that support me, in my current place in California, I have a long way to go before I’ll be assimilated there. In fact, I’m not sure that going native will ever happen for me in Marin County. I’m not one of them. And, often, I think that I’m not sure I want to be.

It’s Oregon where I belong. It’s here where I’m home. If there’s anywhere in the universe where I “fit” – with the culture and the geography – this would be the place.

My mind needs to be stilled, needing a respite from this longing…a longing that has only been brought more to the surface by this trip.

I look out the window at downtown Corvallis… preparing, as I finish this, to head back to Eugene. And wonder…about the winding path this is that we call life.

What could possibly be next?

Soundtrack Suggestion

I say high, you say low
You say why, and I say I don't know
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello…

(“Hello Goodbye” – The Beatles)