1. Calls appearing to go out but not being picked up or going through to the intended caller.
2. Calls repeatedly dropped during a phone call.
3. Texts not being delivered or received in a timely manner.
4. The inability to call out.

I have been an at&t wireless customer since the late 90’s. This means I have seen your company go from at&t wireless to Cingular and back to at&t wireless and have never left your service during these changes. Over this time, I’ve been frustrated but never to this extreme. I would cancel your service in a heartbeat but I’m locked in a contract.

Here’s the plan…. I will retweet this post when these offenses occur. Right now, I estimate this message will get retweeted and reposted to Facebook somewhere between five to seven times daily.

Something I continue to learn is not to keep things bottled up.  Not only does it get me cranky, but it doesn’t do anyone any good.  Maybe there’s a New Year’s resolution in there somewhere.  Hehe.

Hell, just for grins, maybe I’ll start a new category about “anger management”.  Not that I’m angry, I just tend to bottle things up and let them build for a while.  Maybe the category will be filled with stories that seem so ridiculous to be angry about along with things that people should get angry about.  I can see it now that this category could be filled up pretty quickly with stories from the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI.  The PI will be easier since they have a “sound off” section where people tend to get a little heated.

I’m not sure if I’ve written about it (I’ll have to go check). On a near daily basis this guy from Tiles For Less named Terry parks his company truck in the middle of the road here at 1st and Walker and gets his Starbucks fix.  It wouldn’t even be worth writing about if he didn’t take his sweet time (10 to 15 minutes).

The thing is, while he’s parked there, his truck is the cause of at least one to two near misses from street traffic making the turn and suddenly finding a large truck parked in the middle of the street with not much room on either side.  All of us on the team take a little time and gawk at Terry because it is a source of amusement and a good distraction to our day.

Today I thought it would be fun to take things a little further because I spotted one of Seattle’s Finest sitting at an outside table with a direct view.  I walked over, started a small conversation with the officer, and politely inquired what the liability Tiles For Less would incure if Terry’s illegally parked truck were to cause an accident.  Although the officer answered the question with a “not much liability for Tiles For Less”, he did remark the truck was parked illegally.  I thanked him for his time and went back to my cube to watch and wait.

On a side note, I felt it necessary to spark up the conversation with the officer because we’ve all found it very funny that with so many of the SPD camping out there for a much deserved coffee break (sincerely), not one of them has ever noticed the traffic congestion Terry’s truck has caused.  Granted, they most likely have other pressing issues on their minds, but we the people would like to see a “little win” from time to time.

So, back to the story…  The officer slowly finished his beverage and his sandwich.  He then slowly started putting on his riding gear (Harley cop).  When he was all geared up, he did the one of the most appropriate things for the situation.  He walked over to the driver’s side of the cab, opened the unlocked door and removed the keys.

Terry must have noticed the officer making his way to the truck becuase as the officer was walking back Terry was halfway to his illegally parked truck.  The officer didn’t say a word, he let Terry climb in his truck and do that “panicked key search” we’ve all done.  All of us had a good laugh as we watched Terry frantically search for his keys.

It looked like the officer and Terry had a friendly chat.  There wasn’t any citation written.  Let’s see if Terry get’s the message and parks there tomorrow.

Am I selling out?  Or am I buying in?

According to new law that goes into effect July 1, 2008 you will no longer be able to use a cell phone while driving unless you have a ‘hands free’ adapter.

A friend of mine went to Circuit City and they wanted $50 for a headset with a microphone for my cell phone. Having a friend in the cell phone business, I talked with him and was able to come up with an alternative, working through Office Depot.

These kits are compatible with any mobile phone and one size fits all. I paid him $0.08 each because he bought in quantity.

Then we tried it with Motorola, Sprint, Verizon and Nokia units and they worked perfectly.

A photo is attached so scroll down & take a look and let me know if you want one.
Also, forward this to anyone you know, who has a cell phone, and who may want one!

I can hear you laughing. I thought you could use a laugh. WE ALL NEED TO LAUGH MORE……HAVE A GREAT DAY!

UPDATE: Sorry Dustin and Jim, I couldn’t resist…

To follow a great post over at Rain City Guide, a group of people that will be heavily impacted by the new law will be all real estate agents and brokers. In this post, they do run the gauntlet in discussing every conceivable hand set and head set ever made. This post should be a great reference for the rest of us.

I found a solution to our pitching problems. I saw him Friday afternoon Downtown on First Avenue. He was crossing the street from east to west I think on Columbia (give or take a block). He’s a right hander with a mean fastball. I mean, you should have seen the heat coming off of this water bottle there was almost some steam. AND, when that bottle of water bounced off of the silver Tahoe heading northbound I know there had to be one hell of a dent.

He can also hold his own in an argument. I know he could give any ump a run for his money with that vocabulary. You should have heard the choice words he had for the driver of that Tahoe. Who knows, the driver of the Tahoe could have been an ump. He was definitely driving like he was blind.

Anyways, I’ll be sure to keep my eye out for him and tell him he should consider going for a “walk on” spot.

To the Parks and Recs Department and the rest of the City Council:  How can you possibly expect the citizens of Seattle to take anything you say or do seriously?

If anyone would like to express their opinion to the Parks and Recs Department, the Superintendent Timothy A. Gallegher can be laughed at and made fun of at 206.684.8022.

For a fun read, please continue to the Sound-Off section of the Seattle PI.

This being a post for “the suggestion box”, here’s the suggestion to the City of Seattle:  PULL YOUR HEAD OUT!

So here is the suggestion: BE SURE TO YIELD FOR PEDESTRIANS CROSSING THE STREET!

There are always a couple of pros and cons though. The pro: there would be enough cops who would be a witness to me getting hit because they’re all there. The con: they’d probably write two tickets. One to the driver for excessive speed and one to me for jaywalking. Oh well. The city has to get paid.