Isn't responsive customer service great?

The other week my beard trimmer just stopped working out of nowhere, and I couldn't get it to work again no matter what I did: charge it more, let the battery drain and let it charge up again, clean it as best I could of any stray cut hairs trapped anywhere in it...

So, I called up the company on the number listed in my appliance booklet, and within like ten minutes and after a few questions, the guy on the phone took my address and said they'd be shipping me a new one.

It was within the 2 year warranty, and he said that with the price point, it was a judgment call on whether to have me bring it in to a repair shop, so it was just better to ship one out to me, he thought.

Isn't good customer service nice?

Honestly, when is the last time something like this happened to you.

Increased belly fat, and yoga.

I'm finally getting back to doing yoga like I had started doing years ago.

I started stretching out the other week, and I was shocked at how tight my entire neck area was, and how there were kinks in my spine when I went to go iron out my vertebra bone-by-bone, and by how I had practically no give in my inner thigh muscles, when I went to go sit with my feet together and my knees out and I slowly bounced my legs up and down.

I was also shocked by the amount of fat on my belly, when I was kneeling and went to go lean forward.

I'm in pretty good shape from how much I run around every shift at my one resthome job, but I also had had a hunch lately that I have a bit of belly fat more than I used to up on my belly.

After I finished the yoga, I gathered my fat in my hands, and there was more of it and it was farther up on my belly than it used to be; I used to be able to close my hands around it in a ring with my fingers out, but now I couldn't even do that.

What I can't figure out is if it's because I'm eating too much fatty foods, or if I'm aging, or both.

We'll see what's there or what's left after I get into more of an exercise routine than I've been in this past couple years.

Email from a (European) relative.

Last month I got another email in my once-a-year-or-so correspondence with a (European) relative, since my dad still has a first cousin there, the daughter of his mom’s sister, and she has 3 kids, 1 of whom’s a banker and one of whom’s a lawyer and a third who’s married and living in Germany and has kids and who sometimes writes to me.

Anyhow, the one in Germany sent me some pics of the family to show my parents, and she asked about us and how we were doing and she said that I should visit.

And, I had to write her that I’d like to, but that I’d been starting over in my career and I wouldn’t have that kind of money for a few years, that I could barely afford healthcare and stuff and the most I could spend was maybe a trip to New York City this summer to go see a friend who would let me stay in his apartment.

It's a little much, and I said it nicer than that, but it's the truth, and since she already knew I was transitioning careers, I don't see why I should sugarcoat reality for a family member, and who knows, maybe it's a good thing for people in other countries to know what life in the U.S. is getting to for people nowadays.

Anyhow, I haven’t gotten a response back yet, and I said other things in the email too that weren't so serious, but I do wonder what she thinks.

Honestly, the part of my family who stayed in wartorn Central Europe seems to be doing better than the family who moved to the U.S.  They stayed through the War and Communism and the fall of Communism and economic transition all the way until now and even after all of that stuff stuff seems to be going decently for them, whereas me and my brother don’t really have any good jobs to speak of and can’t afford a major healthcare crisis on our own, let alone save for a house or retirement or even a decently major vacation every year or two, though we’ll probably be able to afford some stuff as our remaining older family members gradually die off and we get inheritances that we can eat up on healthcare or a down payment on a house or a condo, from the people in our family who once had good jobs and were able to save some money, once upon a time.

Historically, I wonder what would happen if you went back to the 40’s and told our family how things would develop like that with our kids, when we went our separate ways on the different continents.

A theory of loud talkers.

The other week I had a really obnoxious loud talker on the train on my way to work at the house of my one client with disabilities, this (younger) (cleanly dressed) (black) guy who was talking with his friend on speakerphone like people have been doing lately on the train, and he was talking about who he was going to “hoop” (‘hang out’?) with that night, and something about a party on a boat, and something about some girl him or his friend might have been dating or had tried dating or maybe just wanted to hook up with and so they had only pretended to date her.

Anyway, eventually the guy got off at the subway stop for a better local college, but he was pretty obnoxious for like half of my ride, and the car was too packed for me to get up and move down the car and sit somewhere else so I could read my book without having his conversation intrude on me.

So, I mentioned this to my one client with disabilities and her (lesbian) sister when I got to work, and the sister said she hates stuff like that where people talk on speakerphone, but you can’t ever say anything to someone like that since you just don’t know what they’ll do.

She also said that a person like that isn’t really having a conversation always anyways, but is acting out and establishing a presence, kind of like they’re marking territory or something.

“Parties, girls, a boat,” she was like, “That's what he was talking about, he was trying to prove himself, that’s what people do.”

Reflections of 3 Europeans on life in the U.S.

Last month, I got a chance to hang out with my one (half Sudanese) (half British) friend (the sister of the brother-sister pair), not to mention her one (British) friend from grade school, who was visiting the city for like a week.

And, her one (British) friend was saying how much she’d like to move here when her short-term consulting contract is up, if she can find work.

“There is something about life in the U.S.,” my one (half Sudanese) (half British) friend was like.  “There’s just this motion and this optimism, people think that things can always be better, it’s the American Dream thing.”

And, at that her friend agreed.

Like a week later, too, I met my one (Italaphone) (Swiss) friend for drinks, and when we were talking about the direction of the world, he said that back when he originally came to the U.S., he expected to be here for one, maybe two years, and here he is 7 years later.

He said he’d never stay, though, since if you get cancer you just go broke and die, and that’s no way to live, though he likes being here for now.