Cajun Red *ss Over Telemarketers.... gRRRRRRR

Mornin, Mornin... I am not someone that you want to step on my last nerve... I have the patience of Job in most cases, but even I have my limits... One of the few benefits we have noticed since the bundling of stuff with Time Warner is caller ID on the phone... And after almost breaking my neck several times to catch the phone, I have just about had it with the telemarketers!

In March, some of the calls started with, "Hello, this is Janey and President Obama's..."... I dutifully listened to the end to see if there was a 'press 1 to remove yourself from our list' and there wasn't... Eventually I would wait until the end then leave a hateful message on their system, telling them I wanted OFF their automated calling system... 

Then I realized if I said a curse word in my message, it immediately disconnected... If someone had me on video, running for the phone from the backyard after turning off the hose, picking up the phone and saying "*&$% +&^", it might not be that lady-like but probably humorous to see (except I didn't think it was very funny)... 

This morning I opened caller ID and wrote down all the names, phone numbers and dates of calls since 3/11... Then I used phoneowner.info to see if others had complained (and added a few of my own too!)...

We've been on the 'Do Not Call' list since it was announced years ago... So the more I read this morning, the more annoyed I got... 

Took some time out of my day, but I spent the time to file complaints on all of the telemarketers that have been calling us since the middle of March (when we switched over to Time Warner incidentally!... Ironic, huh?.... )... You can file complaints online at the Federal Communications Commission website HERE...

Needless to say, I have the sheet of the phone call numbers I have logged and printed out my complaints from the FCC... Just what I need... Another piece of paper and file folder... Geesh!

Switching gears somewhat - right around my birthday in February, Paul and I switched out duties... He's been paying the bills and I've done the year-end taxes which has been a MAJOR PITA for a few years now... 

How he does things and how I do them (paperwork wise is as different as water and ice)... Every tax time has been at least a week of questions, irritation, annoyances and discord... So this year I suggested I take over paying the bills and he take over a few of my 'mundane chores'... Namely, laundry of the 'flats' (blankees from adoption), mowing the yard and picking up the doggie poop... At the time, I figured it was a pretty fair exchange... 

And so did Paul... Until he started doing just the flats laundry... Forget about the other two... Even though it is 'not my job,' if I see something is falling behind, I'll get some of it done just so it is not piled up on someone else...

So for about 6 weeks now, I've been handling the incoming mail, paying the bills, balancing bank statements (OMG - what a concept!), etc... And I have a small, crappy shredder by my desk... When we redid Paul's office, he got a new shredder that stands on the floor... And because he makes me paranoid about identity theft, I have been trucking back to his office several times a day, shredding up paper and mail... 

Two days ago, I started going through a stack of papers that had been sitting in a box and realized most of them could now be shredded up... After a few trips to his shredder, I said "Forget this" and rolled his shredder into the kitchen where I shredded (and emptied the bin 6 times!!!)... 

I asked Paul that night why he had such a big and nice shredder when he no longer handles all of this incoming paper and I have such a crappy one... He said there wasn't any specific reason and that if I wanted to swap out, it was OK with him - that I could keep the new one... LOL... I don't think he expected me to immediately agree from the look on his face... Normally everyone around here is used to me just 'making do' with things, but once he offered, it didn't take me but a second to warm up to the idea!... ... He might need to start thinking before he speaks now... Who knows what else I might ask for!

I'm still in my 'spring clean-up and out' mode... Every day I hammer away at getting rid of this and that... Cleaning stuff out, organizing it, throwing crap away, etc... Sans the dead apricot tree from last Sunday (which is totally coming down this Sunday come heck or high water!)... I keep chipping away at stuff... Where does it all come from?... Just not the daily incoming paper and mail, but all of the rest of the crap?...

For a few weeks now I have seriously been considering going and getting a document scanner and start moving this paper and files into digital storage... We have a 4-drawer lateral file that I have to clean out periodically and with the rescue now, it seems that paper and files are like bunnies - they keep breeding more of themselves!

So much for the paperless environment the computer people promised us, huh?...

Yeah, right....


As Always,
The Lady