Heiderino

I’m on my deck again, and I suddenly heard some creature behind my house quacking, mooing, barking, meowing… I don’t know just what for sure… But one second after that, I heard our friendly neighborhood owl… (the one who could be more adept at eliminating the rabbits from my front yard)

QUACK

WHOOOOOOO

Quaaaaaaaaack

WHOooOOOOooOOO

QuaaaaaaacCCCCKKKkkkk

Whoo

Quack

Who…

SILENCE.

Another night in the ‘burbs.

BUGS now? Grr!

My front flower bed has taken a serious beating over the past two weeks. Bugs, rabbit - I think even possibly a deer have been annihilating all of the pretty flowers and plants. I’ve tried all kinds of things to deter them, but to no avail.

I’ll have to start putting Decker out front to bark at those flea-ridden masters of destruction.

1- What the plant should look like.

2- what it does look like, thanks to Cottontail or Bambi.

3 - I totally busted two rabbits hard at work on my Asiatic Lily plants. I hit the window and yelled, and they just stared at me without stopping at all. I even tried to hold Decker up to bark at them, but he didn’t seem to even see them.

I am currently irate.

Best Buy sold me a digital camera, and I bought their Best Buy Warranty, for three years.

My Fuji S3100 digital camera produced marvelous pictures for quite some time. Late in summer, the quality of the pictures declined. I took my camera back to Best Buy, confident that the Best Buy Warranty would resolve the issue with little or no problems.

The first time I took my Fuji S3100 in, I was informed that they would have to send it away, for up to four weeks. I wasn’t thrilled with the notion of being camera-less for three weeks, but if Best Buy has a policy to send things away for repairs under the Best Buy Warranty, so be it. The camera came back with a vague description - “checked components.”

It still didn’t work. So I returned to Best Buy, with my Best Buy Warranty paperwork in hand. They sent it away again. It came back again, with the same issues.

I took it back to Best Buy today, and they were going to send it to their Best Buy Certified Repair Center again. I got a voicemail from the Best Buy Geek Squad, however, that they solved the problem. They turned the setting to “Flash always on.” I pointed out to the person that I don’t always WANT the flash on. When I’m outside in daylight with my already pale children, I’d get ghostly images. He told me that, sometimes, the auto setting “messes up” on digital cameras. After going in circles with him about it, I finally asked to speak to a manager.

The manager picked up the phone and started the conversation with me in a very patronizing tone. He told me that they’d walked around the store and taken over 60 perfect photos with my camera. I mentioned that this technique is not the same as taking pictures of my children, in different light settings.

All I know is that I heard “Restored to factory settings,” “Nothing wrong with it,” “Did you READ the warranty?”, “This camera isn’t new - it’s over a year old” (ahem, why I bought the THREE YEAR Best Buy Warranty) and “User error.”

It all blurs together for me - I used this Fuji S3100 with NO PROBLEMS for many months. If, indeed, they meant to return it to factory settings, something didn’t work. This Fuji S3100 used to take great pictures, and now it does not. Period.

I ended the conversation by asking him to send it (once again) to a Best Buy Certified Repair Center. I think they owe me that.

I am VERY disappointed with not only the Best Buy Warranty, but the way in which I was treated by the manager. I feel I have a legitimate issue, and he’s telling me I’m crazy.

What’s next? I don’t know. A call to the local News channel? Call Fox 6’s Katrina Cravy?

At this point, I believe that the Best Buy Warranty is a total sham. I hope Best Buy proves me wrong about this, in which case I will write an apology. But in the meantime I’d advise anyone against paying extra for the Best Buy Warranty.

I just started to use Mozilla Firefox on a somewhat regular basis. I took a look at Heiderino on it, however, and it looks like garbage.

Unfortunately, it took me so long to get it looking even marginal in IE that I’ve come to accept this.

So here it is:

**DISCLAIMER: HEIDERINO LOOKS HORRIBLE IN FIREFOX.**

This has been bothering me for a long time, and I just can’t get over it.

When I bought my digital camera, I bought the warranty they always bug you about at Best Buy. I figured it was insurance in the event something happened to this camera like it did to my previous Olympus. The sliding door that activated the camera broke - the track cracked, about one day after I owned the camera for one year. But enough about the Olympus.

My current Fuji S3100 has been flaking out on me. When it first occurred to me that there were technical problems, I heaved a sigh of relief. I bought that extended warranty at Best Buy. So I took the camera in, and they informed me that they would have to send it to Minnesota for repairs, and that it might be gone for up to four weeks.

Of course, this happened about 3 weeks before my son’s first birthday. I was naturally worried that I wouldn’t be getting my camera back in time, but luckily it did come back. I read the paperwork that accompanied it, and all it really said was that they checked the components. The camera still took bad pictures. The flash only goes off on occasion, and usually not on the really cute photos. As a result, many of my pictures are dark and blurry. When the flash DOES go off, the pictures are so bright that my already pale kids look like ghosts.

We took it back again, and were told that they had to send it away again, for another 2-4 weeks. I asked them how long this madness would go on, and was informed that they must send it away three times before they will replace it. Three times, at up to four weeks a crack? They could potentially have my camera for up to three months!

We were told: “This is all in your policy.” It’s kind of funny how they don’t mention the details or give you any time to read the fine print when they’re pressuring you into buying the warranty in the check-out line, hey? I understand that people might abuse it, but, when the “Certified Repair Center” sends it back with vague language suggesting they didn’t even do anything, I think Best Buy should do more for their customers.

Bah. I’m hoping this thing comes back in working order, when it finally does come back.

Quoter: My Hubby.

I just heard on the news that a second inmate in one month escaped from the same prison in Florida using bed sheets. I cracked a comment to Thor, whose response was:

“Well, maybe they shouldn’t have sheets in that prison.”

Decker

Originally uploaded by Heiderino.

Decker is a Cairn Terrier. His breed is known for their “mousing and ratting” skills. So how do you suppose I felt when he started going crazy outside of our front hall closet - ears perking up, jumping, pouncing… at times BARKING at the closet? Not good. It reminded me of that day when Drue was just about crawling age, and he came into her room with a proudly wagging tail. He put something on the floor and ran out. I couldn’t tell what it was, and thought it was a cricket. It was a petrified baby mouse. (Petrified as in dead for a long period of time - not afraid.)

I promptly called the Orkin Man. He came to the house and inspected our basement. “Well - here are the rest of them…” REST OF THEM? REST OF WHAT? There, under the stairs was a grim portrait… At least 5 dead baby mice (minus one brother!).

That was about 4 years ago. Ever since, on his monthly visits, the Orkin Man (Norm) has declared our home a rodent-free place.

When he came this Saturday, I told him immediately: “Norm - I think we have uninvited guests. Decker has been going CRAZY.” Norm quickly reassured me- it would be very surprising to have a mouse in the front hall closet. He was chatting with me while he inspected, then cut short with “Oh- um, um… Well, this isn’t good.”

Long story short, Norm found “evidence” that we had company in the closet.

So - the moral of the story (I guess) is to trust your dog. Stay tuned - we have traps set and I’m all for the idea of these mice being ELMINATED.

A couple of months ago, I was meeting a friend to discuss a freelance project after work. I arrived at our meeting place before my friend, so I decided to sit out at a picnic table to enjoy the gorgeous weather. Not long after I sat down, I thought I felt someone looking at me. I turned to my left to see a guy standing there, giving me a strange smile and just staring. I turned quickly back to my papers, and saw him approach me out of the corner of my eye. Just as he started to speak, I looked up to see my friend pull in and hop out of his car. Whew! The guy had almost reached me, but saw me wave at my friend and (pretty creepishly) RAN away.

Dan approached the table laughing, and said “I see you made a new friend…” I laughed it off and we started talking, when I saw the guy slowly slinking back in our direction. He walked all the way around the table and came up, then just stood and lurked. Not able to take it any more, I looked up and said “Can I help you?”

Guy: “Um, I was just wondering where I could sit down.”
Me: “Well, there’s this whole table…” (gesturing to the rest of the picnic table)

Now where do you suppose this guy decided to sit? But of course! Right next to yours truly. He started to try to make small talk, and I had to politely interrupt him. “I’m sorry - we’re planning for a meeting…” He apologized and walked away.

For about 2 minutes.

He circled around, came up to me, and started staring at my FEET.

I tried to ignore this for about three minutes until I could ignore it no longer. Once again, I said “Can I help you?”

Guy: “Those are some VERY interesting shoes you have.”
Me: “Thank you.”
Guy: “What kind of shoes ARE those?”
Me: “Um, I don’t know… Sandals, I guess…”
Guy: “What brand are they?”
Me: “Well, would you look at that… It’s worn off… I don’t really know…”
Guy: “Can I see it?”
Me: “What???!!!”
Guy: “Can I hold it?”

At this point, my friend is trying to not have a heart attack or laugh out loud. I’m trying to maintain myself.

Me: “No. I would like to keep my shoes right where they are, thank you.”

The guy extended his hand, said “Thank you. I’m sorry. Thank you…” and walked away for good.

Welcome to a day in the life of Heiderino.

:)