Rain at last

I was fussing in my last post about the different ways you could look at the percentage of rain chances as put out by the National Weather Service. Well, it turns out that our 30% chance of rain was really 100% chance. We got a good soaking last nigh in West Tennessee. I rained off and on during the night.

Don't get me wrong. We did need the rain. We are expected to get a few more showers over today and tomorrow. That is a good thing. All the crops are in and we need the rain for next year's plantings. It will take a lot of rain however to refill the ponds and lakes. We have all winter for that.

Chance of rain

West Tennessee has been way short of its rain quota for this year. It has been several years since we have done without so much rain. We have a 30% chance of rain today and 40% change tonight. What that really means is that today there is a 70% chance that we will not get any rain. I know, that might make me a pessimist. In actuality that makes me more of a realist.

Juan Williams

I think that Juan Williams is getting an unfair shake from NPR. There are a lot of Americans who feel the way he does about people who wear different cloths. It is something we are generally not used to, especially if you live in a more rural area that does not have a large diverse population. It is quite normal to stare and distrust someone who dresses or acts differently. That is human nature. NPR fired a man for having the same reactions as most, 'normal' people in America.

Our hard working water department

Our cities water department works hard to keep our water running and our commodes flushing. The amount they charge in both maintenance and taxes seems to be worth the cost, especially since they are reasonable. There is one caveat I would like to through in there however...they don't call the people in the neighborhood where they are working. It is possible to get caught in mid-shower with no water.

AT&T Fails at Customer Service

Let me describe what is in this photo. AT&T has a phone line that runs across my property and over my house. During the last wind storm, the line got blown under some of the shingles of my house. It should be a simple thing to call AT&T and tell them what the problem is and they come fix it. Well, it's ain't that easy!

I called AT&T about the phone line. Because of I do not have phone service with AT&T there was nothing they could do. WHAT! It's your property tearing up mine and you can't do anything? Their only help was for me to tell my neighbors and have them call it in. That would be nice if you could get a hold of your neighbors. I tried the Bat Tower in Nashville. I could not find one number for the HUGE AT&T building in Nashville. Now, I was getting mad.

My wife befriended AT&T on Facebook and posted about our problem. We got a message saying that if we sent our contact information they would contact us. Well, 24 hours later, we have not heard from AT&T. We ended up filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Nightwish - The Islander

Another Nightwish.

An Outageous VA visit

Saturday morning, October 16th, I had to make another visit to the VA hospital in Memphis. Much to my surprise, I guess it shouldn't have been, I discovered that you can find cleaner bathrooms along the interstate that the two I saw at the VA! It was clear that the bathrooms had not been cleaned for several hours.

The first bathroom was adjacent to the Emergency Department. There was urine on the seats and the floors were damp. When I reported it to someone, she started giving excuses about how Housekeeping doesn't get around as much as they should. This is a hospital!! The bathrooms are not supposed to be left unattended long enough for urine to dry on the seats! The second bathroom was in similar shape. The floor was wet with urine. Dried urine had yellowed the front of the commode. In addition, the sink had dark gray splotches of some kind of dirt.

This us utterly outrageous!! The first thing for me Monday morning is to call the VAs Inspector Generals office and complain. The VA system was supposed to get better! Is this how America treats it's veterans?