I know, I know, I can't believe it either: but today I experienced the Best Customer Service Ever, and it came from the most unexpected of places: from a dude in charge of the trash collection in the City of Charlottesville.
Maybe I shouldn't have such low expectations of the City; it is, afterall, the Best City in the World. Or it was. But still thinks it is. Because I can't seem to look anywhere without a preening mention of that designation. Which is now no longer ours to parade. But, anyway, even if we have slipped to number 10: we're Up There, right?
I'm not being generically cynical about government. A few weeks ago, I thought my camera had been stolen at the Dogwood Festival fair. I didn't know who to call, so I called the police, since I'd seen some of them eating cotton candy (just kidding) (I wish I had, though). Turns out the best way to file a report about the missing item was to fill in a web form. I never heard anything about it. And it wasn't just that it was a camera -- it was the priceless photos on it that could not be replaced. Not an email. Nothing.
Much less on my list of priorities, though certainly annoying, is the fact that our trash has not been picked up in two of the last three weeks. Not a bin on the street touched. For no apparent reason. So today I called - I don't know why, really. I certainly did not expect a) my call to reach the right person, b) anyone to care, the right person or not, or c) any response, least of all the problem getting fixed, let alone an acknowledgement.
But no, not an hour after I left my message and I got a call on my cell phone from the trash dude, leaving me HIS DIRECT LINE NUMBER in case it ever happened again, claiming PERSONAL RESPONSIBIILITY, and then, believe it or not, within the next few hours, OUR TRASH WAS PICKED UP!!!
Hallelujah! Unbelievable! I mean, this does not happen. Ever. Not Sprint, not Adelphia, not UPS, not FedEx, not Kinkos, not Amazon.com, no one has ever treated me with such quickness, such professionalism, such speed, such concern, such ownership, such quick reflex to a service problem.
I mean, it gives you hope. It gives you a glimpse of What Life Could Be Like. How easy and simple and NICE it would be to move about this chaotic, logistical nightmare of a world if everyone were as cool as this guy!!
Someone move this guy up to the next level. Like maybe US President or something.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
it's the Little Things: Sunday on 29
Running errands today on the Corridor of MiniHell (29 North):
1) Why, oh why, does Kmart have their in and out doors reversed? It's not a British store, right? I mean, you should go In the Right side and out the left, but they have it the opposite, and everytime I stumble through -- after instinctively heading in the wrong direction and bumping into some poor old person who is better at reading signs than I am -- I just want to go shake somebody.
2) I see that Pet Supplies "Plus" has moved finally. "Plus." You would think that upgrading to a new facility, they would drop the "". Putting quotation marks around the 'plus' is such an old school and troublesome way to draw attention to themselves. ""Plus"" makes it seem like it's not really a plus, it's just what they call themselves - yah, this is Maiaoming "Scooter" Smith - which I don't think is what they mean at all. And the font is so 70s. Grrr. It's like if they called themselves Pet Supplies 2000. Upgrade, people! Why not go all out: "Pet" Supplies Plus. Or Pet "Supplies" Plus. We'd all think they sold drug paraphanelia.
3) When all that new development comes in, this road is going to be way worse. My idea?: get rid of the traffic lights, which are too quick and all-around badly timed anyway. Instead, Traffic Cops! Get some colorfully dressed car-directors out there, and solve several problems of 29 all at once:
a) give people some entertainment to distract them from all the fumes they're inhaling while idling for twenty minutes waiting to get down the road
b) give people someone to yell at and vent to instead of each other; suit the cops up in bullet-proof gear; will limit road rage incidents
c) give the homeless guys who are already hanging out on the median strips something helpful to do while raising funds
I mean, something creative will have to happen if we're not actually doing something constructive or practical to deal with this situation. And thinking back on some of the City's ideas, I kinda think they'd go for it.
1) Why, oh why, does Kmart have their in and out doors reversed? It's not a British store, right? I mean, you should go In the Right side and out the left, but they have it the opposite, and everytime I stumble through -- after instinctively heading in the wrong direction and bumping into some poor old person who is better at reading signs than I am -- I just want to go shake somebody.
2) I see that Pet Supplies "Plus" has moved finally. "Plus." You would think that upgrading to a new facility, they would drop the "". Putting quotation marks around the 'plus' is such an old school and troublesome way to draw attention to themselves. ""Plus"" makes it seem like it's not really a plus, it's just what they call themselves - yah, this is Maiaoming "Scooter" Smith - which I don't think is what they mean at all. And the font is so 70s. Grrr. It's like if they called themselves Pet Supplies 2000. Upgrade, people! Why not go all out: "Pet" Supplies Plus. Or Pet "Supplies" Plus. We'd all think they sold drug paraphanelia.
3) When all that new development comes in, this road is going to be way worse. My idea?: get rid of the traffic lights, which are too quick and all-around badly timed anyway. Instead, Traffic Cops! Get some colorfully dressed car-directors out there, and solve several problems of 29 all at once:
a) give people some entertainment to distract them from all the fumes they're inhaling while idling for twenty minutes waiting to get down the road
b) give people someone to yell at and vent to instead of each other; suit the cops up in bullet-proof gear; will limit road rage incidents
c) give the homeless guys who are already hanging out on the median strips something helpful to do while raising funds
I mean, something creative will have to happen if we're not actually doing something constructive or practical to deal with this situation. And thinking back on some of the City's ideas, I kinda think they'd go for it.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Random Thoughts on the Transitory Nature of Things
I'm surprised Schilling lost. This upsets me. Not just because the Hair is gone. But because I thought we needed him around. Diversity is one of the main rules of survival on this planet, and that goes for all kinds of nature, including the human kind, the political kind.
I always wonder how so many people have dogs, and yet if you try to rent an apartment or house in this town, having a dog makes it almost impossible to do so. How do all these pet owners find places to live?
I can't believe it's May already. I continue to be in awe of people who plant petunias and other annuals. I find them utterly depressing exercises in futility, because there's no hope they'll live past the end of the summer. They are basically pure and utter decoration, just dirtier and harder to keep up than fake plants or streamers or balloons or paintings or knickknacks, which only need to be dusted or crumpled into a waste bin.
I'm really glad about the speech Colbert made the other night. Rah rah.
Whether it's Schilling, a petunia, a pet, or a funny guy at a podium, we are constantly given reminders of how objects of delight are expensive and secretly labeled with an expiration date.
I always wonder how so many people have dogs, and yet if you try to rent an apartment or house in this town, having a dog makes it almost impossible to do so. How do all these pet owners find places to live?
I can't believe it's May already. I continue to be in awe of people who plant petunias and other annuals. I find them utterly depressing exercises in futility, because there's no hope they'll live past the end of the summer. They are basically pure and utter decoration, just dirtier and harder to keep up than fake plants or streamers or balloons or paintings or knickknacks, which only need to be dusted or crumpled into a waste bin.
I'm really glad about the speech Colbert made the other night. Rah rah.
Whether it's Schilling, a petunia, a pet, or a funny guy at a podium, we are constantly given reminders of how objects of delight are expensive and secretly labeled with an expiration date.
Monday, May 01, 2006
new developments
I didn't mean to, but I ended up scouting out the clearing they're doing to make way for the new houses on Cherry Avenue, next to Johnson School and the Army reserve place.
Calling it a 'clearing' sounds too benign, though. My dog, baby, and I absent-mindedly wandered along a trail in the woods, enjoying the seclusion from the streets and houses amid the fresh, raging greenness, only to abruptly stumble into expanse -- a sudden open space covered in felled trees and disturbed redbrown dirt.
What surprised me was how far to my left the devastation expanded. And how sharp the wood smelled.
This used to be someone else's land, and now it will be someone else's.
Sometimes I watch the birds and squirrels quarreling and ferreting and fretting and singing, and it's strange to me that compared to all of us humans boxed in our little cars and rooms and to the dogs yoked with leads, even to the trees shaved and cajoled and trimmed and yanked up and about, they are the only beings left with any real choice left, any say so, in where they go. They are the only self-propelled entities in this territory. They dodge the rest of us and remain merry and fetterless.
Sometimes people say things like 'freedom has to be earned' and others say 'freedom is a state of mind' and still others argue that freedom is our natural, innocent state, to which others argue that true freedom only develops from a mature ability to choose.
We get little doses of freedom, and it goes to our heads.
This is such a painfully beautiful time of the year. It's like a hot quick pinch on the neck by a baby.
I want to say I was horrified, but I was more bewildered and confused by the swath of land cut up for new houses. We build such ugly houses. We live such ugly lives. We have so few patches left of unorganized wilderness; why crop it even smaller?
My dog just wanted to chase the squirrels, and my baby babbled at the leaves. I dragged them along the mounds of earth, knowing we're all complicit in destructive desires. The thing is, we're not going to stop developments, until we stop wanting to each have our own cradled dominions to dominate, and even the best of us want that, because that's our only understanding of freedom, total control over a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath lot enclosed in plastic sheathing with a brand new heat pump.
Calling it a 'clearing' sounds too benign, though. My dog, baby, and I absent-mindedly wandered along a trail in the woods, enjoying the seclusion from the streets and houses amid the fresh, raging greenness, only to abruptly stumble into expanse -- a sudden open space covered in felled trees and disturbed redbrown dirt.
What surprised me was how far to my left the devastation expanded. And how sharp the wood smelled.
This used to be someone else's land, and now it will be someone else's.
Sometimes I watch the birds and squirrels quarreling and ferreting and fretting and singing, and it's strange to me that compared to all of us humans boxed in our little cars and rooms and to the dogs yoked with leads, even to the trees shaved and cajoled and trimmed and yanked up and about, they are the only beings left with any real choice left, any say so, in where they go. They are the only self-propelled entities in this territory. They dodge the rest of us and remain merry and fetterless.
Sometimes people say things like 'freedom has to be earned' and others say 'freedom is a state of mind' and still others argue that freedom is our natural, innocent state, to which others argue that true freedom only develops from a mature ability to choose.
We get little doses of freedom, and it goes to our heads.
This is such a painfully beautiful time of the year. It's like a hot quick pinch on the neck by a baby.
I want to say I was horrified, but I was more bewildered and confused by the swath of land cut up for new houses. We build such ugly houses. We live such ugly lives. We have so few patches left of unorganized wilderness; why crop it even smaller?
My dog just wanted to chase the squirrels, and my baby babbled at the leaves. I dragged them along the mounds of earth, knowing we're all complicit in destructive desires. The thing is, we're not going to stop developments, until we stop wanting to each have our own cradled dominions to dominate, and even the best of us want that, because that's our only understanding of freedom, total control over a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath lot enclosed in plastic sheathing with a brand new heat pump.
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