The Review

 Well it Wednesday and that means rain, or maybe I should say that rain is in the forecast.  Wonderful rain, just like we had yesterday, and like we're expected to get tomorrow.  And, for those of you not paying to the national weather, Hurricane Helene is going to hit the Florida panhandle tomorrow and move almost directly north for a few days before it's remnants bring more rain to Central PA.  Temperatures are predicted to stay in the 70s (F) for the foreseeable future.  I'm fine with that.  Why turn on the heat when it isn't necessary.

There's something wrong with my Garmin Fenix 6 watch.  It frequently disconnects and then reconnects with my phone.  I'm going to do a factory restart, see if that helps.  It's 5 years old, and the normal life expectancy is between 5 and 7 years, so a new watch may be in the offing.

For many years, one of my duties with the large, orange home improvement retailer was to review customer opinion surveys.  I still do, from time to time, when my curiosity gets the better of me.  This means I also don't mind filling them out when they get emailed to me.  When I got the survey from Explore, I responded rather quickly.  Yesterday, my curiosity again got the better of me and I went to the Explore website to see if any of the others in my group had responded.  Three had filled out the survey, which, being nearly 50%,was not bad, myself and Bill provided our names and there was an anonymous response.  I've always felt that anonymous responses demonstrate a lack of character (Tim).  All 3 reviews were glowing, though 2 of them had gripes saying that the hikes were a bit to rigorous (I found them challenging).  Their complaints prove that they never read the first page detailing the tour where it states:  Pace - Full On.  Full On does not mean a casual stroll through the ruins.  To give you an idea, here's a pic of me after a more than strenuous hike to the lighthouse on the tip of Cape Tenaro, the path we took is behind me, up a bit from the shoreline. (I really have to thank my photographer for this great shot.)

And from what I've heard, yesterday, Georgia, Trump turned into a mini-Evangelist by praying on stage.  This man is desperate.  I'd say he's worried about losing the Evangelical vote since there are now Evangelicals for Harris groups forming in a number of places.  The Hard-liners will stick with him, to do otherwise would mean their hearts lied to them and that's something they'll never be able to accept.  That's why their Republicans, they can never, ever be wrong.

Review Time

That's right, it's Review Time, and I've 6 that need to be written.  I hate writing reviews, especially for associates who's performance is... lacking, mostly because I need to put a positive spin their lack of capabilities.
One of them is a fifty-something woman who, by profession, is a painter.  Houses, you know?  And she thinks she's perfection, and she isn't.  Every time she mentions her "profession" to customers I cringe, conflict of interest, you know?  She's been warned about it, but... you know, once a professional always a professional.  This "professional" cost me over $320 in markdowns this past weekend, and $190 the week before.  Oh, and even though she's living with a man who is a little younger then she, that doesn't stop her from trolling younger, male customers.  And she a professional, you know?  And she's already be warned about giving out her phone number... for jobs, that is, painting jobs.

Then there's the retired gentleman who was hired because he's bilingual, Spanish and English.  He has health issues, he claims, which require him to have minor surgeries over holidays, like Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July.  You know, those busy times of the year when we run paint sales and everybody has to work?  He spends a lot of time in the aisles, not helping customers, just fluffing things up.  You know, making them pretty?  Sometimes he disappears.  Sometimes he actually mixes paint... very, very slowly.  He's a part-time associate so he doesn't work a regular schedule.  Four weeks ago, after being off for three days, he came back to work claiming to have pulled a muscle in his back the last day he'd worked.  A few days later he told one of my associates he was going to stop working as soon as he could get disability.  Last week he came to work wearing a back brace.  I don't think he will be working for us much longer.

The Unreview

One of the things that went through my mind while I was making the arrangements for Gertie's cremation was the need to by an urn.  This was in spite of the fact that an urn was part of the cremation package.  What can I say?  Sometimes we don't think clearly.  Anyway, what I did was to go to Amazon and look at pet urns.  After some time I chose an Egyptian Coptic urn.  It looked nice in the pictures.  However, when I picked up Gertie's ashes they were already in a very nice cedar chest, much nicer then I was expecting.  So, that's where they'll probably end up staying.  This means I have an extra urn on my hands, which is still in the box.  I joked around with an associate saying I could always use it as a cookie jar.  There would be nothing wrong with that, would there?

Anyway, not more then a day after it was delivered I began receiving emails from the seller asking me to leave a review...  And these emails showed up daily.

Still in the box

Anyway, after 4 days of emails I went into Amazon and left a 3 star review which read:

"I haven't actually looked at it yet.  I'm still dealing with the fact that my 5 and a half year old Boxer died in my arms because of a blood clot.  I do think sellers need to understand that not all buyers can pop in a review the minute their product arrives."  Normally with Amazon you receive either one or two responses when you leave a review, either it's been published, or they can publish it because of problems with the review.  On this review I received nothing.  Nor have I received any more emails from Sharon at the Misty Moor.  I suspect this was not the response she was expecting.  At some time down the road I will most likely change my comments.  For the time being, however, all they're going to get is an "unreview."