Dependable Erection

Thursday, July 08, 2010

That's a long way to walk

One of Steven Wright's jokes is that anyplace is walking distance if you have enough time. Timothy Scott's got 4 months, and he's walking from Virginia Beach to California.

I saw him yesterday evening in Durham, wearing a green safety vest and pulling a small, homemade trailer, but i didn't think too much of it. When i saw him again this morning on Highway 70 outside of Hillsborough, i had to learn his story.

Turns out, through a series of unfortunate happenstances, that his wife and kids are stuck in Mexico, he's lost his job, and there's little chance of everyone getting back together for a happy ending. So he's doing what anyone else would do under the circumstances, and that's walk to California, and then into Mexico, to try to raise enough money to reunite his family.

Yes, it's a bit Quixotic. But there's a reason why, 400 years after its publication, we still read about Don Quixote de la Mancha's adventures.


Timothy's got a FaceBook page, and he's working on getting a PayPal account set up so he doesn't have to carry everything around in cash. I wish him the best and hope he runs into some more bloggers and reporters on the way so we can keep track of him. He's figuring on hitting the California-Mexico border sometime in November. I don't know if there are any windmills between here and there.

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Friday, May 23, 2008

Bridges


It ain't as classy as that one in Brooklyn that turns 125 years old tomorrow, but my backyard now has a new bridge. Now, all i need is a troll.

Oh, wait.

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Monday, December 24, 2007

Really good customer service

At the risk of damaging my reputation as a world class whiner, i want to call attention to a company that lived up to its promises.

I bought a pepper mill and salt shaker earlier this year at Costco. Just when i was getting ready to refill the mill, it broke. The grinding mechanism completely fell apart. I went to Olde Thompson's website:
What is the guarantee policy?
If, at any time, your Olde Thompson grinding mechanism fails to give complete grinding satisfaction, simply mail the mill with your name and address to our customer Service Department,and it will be repaired or replaced without charge. Damage to body or finish caused by accident or improper use is not covered.

So i sent the mill back with my return address a couple of weeks ago. On Saturday, a replacement mill arrived. With a matching salt shaker. Both of them filled. No questions asked.

Just good timely customer service, over and above what was promised.

That really shouldn't seem so strange, should it?

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