Tuesday
Today, the inlaws took Logan for the day. We had done this before, but stopped, and now reveived it. One day a week, usually, Wenesdays, I asked them to take Logan for the day. He gets to play and get out of the normal routine for a while, and I get to spend more personalized time with Lance.
Today went very well. The baby and I played more than we usually get to. I didnt have to get up every 3 minutes to find out what Logan was getting into. And when it was naptime, I had the place to myself (and napped as well).
I overheard something worth mentioning on here..... I joined an aikido dojo (see other blog). When we were dressing in the back, 2 of the guys were talking , and one said "That's why Im so glad I dont have kids. I can still go and do whatever I want. " Another 20-30something guy added in "Yeah, no kids for me. I like my freedom." Call me dumb, but I had forgotten that guys still thought like this. Even when I was younger (in my teens and 20's), I KNEW that one day I would be a dad. And I'd try my best to be a great one. Now, I never would have guessed I'd have sacrificed a career to stay at home and be one full time, but I knew that I wanted kids. I wanted to be a dad. Even high school friends said things like "You're sure gonna make a neat father some day".
I've always liked kids. I built a profit making compnay out of my ability to entertain, communicate, and simply amuse them for an hour at a time. Maybe it was all that time connecting to kids on their level that is now paying off with my own kids. I like kids...but I adore my own! WHen a kid says something embarrasing, it's kinda funny. When you know that your genes spawned the little creature that just spouted off those words of ill-timed wisdom, it's priceless. There's just nothing in the world that can beat the feeling insode when I say "That's my boy!!".
COURT: Not only have I go tto deal with the attorneys over the Discover card case, but they have another date scheduled in court regarding another card that did the same thing (but a lot less money involved). TO the visiting dad to my site taht had to deal with the same schmuck lawyers today, please drop me a line and let me knwo how things went with you.
Verizon can kiss my ass. The yellow pages people, that is. For 3 years, they listed my "you get this free ad" with a wrong phone number. An Old phone number that I was assured would be changed over to the new number. Because it was "free" in the first place, they told me "Tough tittie" that it wasn't updated. For 3 years. So in order to not lose business from that category listing, I had to maintain the line for 3 years. Then, they started to offer website hosting. I was ahead of the game and designed, built, managed and got my own compnay site published and hosted, fo rmuch cheaper than Verizon offered. This offended them. WHen I renewed my ad, they told me that I had 2 line if tex that I could use, but I couldn't use my website name. They wanted to charge an extra fee for that. So.....thinking hard, I changed the company name TO the website name. Even got the city issued business license to show it. This pissed them off. Them purposely pooch screwed my ad for the following 5 years. Always something. They mispelled the website...forcing me to register and redirecta different domain name. Luckily, it was avaliable. Mispellings, you name it. They even listed my home address in each ad for 2 years. (Note: You can lose your business license if your neighbors complain that your customers are at your house. You can do business FROM your home, but not AT your home. Putting my address in the paper meant that any moron could stop over my home, at any hour of the day or night, and ask to see my Barney costume. Or Winne the Pooh. And they did! Rather than calling for an appointment, looking online, I had people knock on my door at 8pm at night......at 630am......because they wanted to see some costumes. I finally had enough. When they messed up my ad in 2003, I stopped paying. I tried desperately to get action, but the only way to get anyone to notice me was by not paying the bill. They got mad. The took me off monthly payments , and demanded the whole thing at once. They told me they were sorry for screwing up my ad, and would take 50% off the bill. When the new bill came , they had taken 50% only off of the cheapest of 4 ads. They charged me full price on the other 3 ads (which were also in error). Confused yet....it gets better.
This past year, I made the ads as small and simple as possible. Last years bill is still in dispute. They refuse to send me an itemized statement stating what I oew. They also sent statements saying that it was paid in full (sweeet)! Soo, in order to run the ads in 2004, I had to pay all the money up front. I charged it on my Citibank card, and the ads were in fact accurate (FINALLY!). Now, I get a bill for the amount again. The one I actually paid. They called twice, then sent it off to collections. Now a collection agency is hounding me for an ad that I actually did pay for . In full. WIth no discount for having paid it in full. What assholes. I realized, about a month ago, that they never called me to ask about advertising in next years book. Good thing. THink I will give the new people in town (Yellow Book) a try.
*I should note, that advertising in some major directory really is the only way I get calls. I tried flyers, handing out cards, all that stuff, and nothing got calls. But a small ad in the yellow pages would do the trick. And up until this year, the Verizon Yellow Pages was the only directory in town.
Perhaps, someday , the story of my life will be more than "Yes....but I can explain..."
Today went very well. The baby and I played more than we usually get to. I didnt have to get up every 3 minutes to find out what Logan was getting into. And when it was naptime, I had the place to myself (and napped as well).
I overheard something worth mentioning on here..... I joined an aikido dojo (see other blog). When we were dressing in the back, 2 of the guys were talking , and one said "That's why Im so glad I dont have kids. I can still go and do whatever I want. " Another 20-30something guy added in "Yeah, no kids for me. I like my freedom." Call me dumb, but I had forgotten that guys still thought like this. Even when I was younger (in my teens and 20's), I KNEW that one day I would be a dad. And I'd try my best to be a great one. Now, I never would have guessed I'd have sacrificed a career to stay at home and be one full time, but I knew that I wanted kids. I wanted to be a dad. Even high school friends said things like "You're sure gonna make a neat father some day".
I've always liked kids. I built a profit making compnay out of my ability to entertain, communicate, and simply amuse them for an hour at a time. Maybe it was all that time connecting to kids on their level that is now paying off with my own kids. I like kids...but I adore my own! WHen a kid says something embarrasing, it's kinda funny. When you know that your genes spawned the little creature that just spouted off those words of ill-timed wisdom, it's priceless. There's just nothing in the world that can beat the feeling insode when I say "That's my boy!!".
COURT: Not only have I go tto deal with the attorneys over the Discover card case, but they have another date scheduled in court regarding another card that did the same thing (but a lot less money involved). TO the visiting dad to my site taht had to deal with the same schmuck lawyers today, please drop me a line and let me knwo how things went with you.
Verizon can kiss my ass. The yellow pages people, that is. For 3 years, they listed my "you get this free ad" with a wrong phone number. An Old phone number that I was assured would be changed over to the new number. Because it was "free" in the first place, they told me "Tough tittie" that it wasn't updated. For 3 years. So in order to not lose business from that category listing, I had to maintain the line for 3 years. Then, they started to offer website hosting. I was ahead of the game and designed, built, managed and got my own compnay site published and hosted, fo rmuch cheaper than Verizon offered. This offended them. WHen I renewed my ad, they told me that I had 2 line if tex that I could use, but I couldn't use my website name. They wanted to charge an extra fee for that. So.....thinking hard, I changed the company name TO the website name. Even got the city issued business license to show it. This pissed them off. Them purposely pooch screwed my ad for the following 5 years. Always something. They mispelled the website...forcing me to register and redirecta different domain name. Luckily, it was avaliable. Mispellings, you name it. They even listed my home address in each ad for 2 years. (Note: You can lose your business license if your neighbors complain that your customers are at your house. You can do business FROM your home, but not AT your home. Putting my address in the paper meant that any moron could stop over my home, at any hour of the day or night, and ask to see my Barney costume. Or Winne the Pooh. And they did! Rather than calling for an appointment, looking online, I had people knock on my door at 8pm at night......at 630am......because they wanted to see some costumes. I finally had enough. When they messed up my ad in 2003, I stopped paying. I tried desperately to get action, but the only way to get anyone to notice me was by not paying the bill. They got mad. The took me off monthly payments , and demanded the whole thing at once. They told me they were sorry for screwing up my ad, and would take 50% off the bill. When the new bill came , they had taken 50% only off of the cheapest of 4 ads. They charged me full price on the other 3 ads (which were also in error). Confused yet....it gets better.
This past year, I made the ads as small and simple as possible. Last years bill is still in dispute. They refuse to send me an itemized statement stating what I oew. They also sent statements saying that it was paid in full (sweeet)! Soo, in order to run the ads in 2004, I had to pay all the money up front. I charged it on my Citibank card, and the ads were in fact accurate (FINALLY!). Now, I get a bill for the amount again. The one I actually paid. They called twice, then sent it off to collections. Now a collection agency is hounding me for an ad that I actually did pay for . In full. WIth no discount for having paid it in full. What assholes. I realized, about a month ago, that they never called me to ask about advertising in next years book. Good thing. THink I will give the new people in town (Yellow Book) a try.
*I should note, that advertising in some major directory really is the only way I get calls. I tried flyers, handing out cards, all that stuff, and nothing got calls. But a small ad in the yellow pages would do the trick. And up until this year, the Verizon Yellow Pages was the only directory in town.
Perhaps, someday , the story of my life will be more than "Yes....but I can explain..."
posted by Darth Daddy @ 10/12/2005 12:25:00 AM
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