Something to Skim

I haven't looked outside lately, but I'd swear it was a full moon yesterday. I'd barely gotten my butt in my chair when my phone rang and I was treated to some crazy lady screaming loud enough the client on the other side of my desk could hear her. She was mad about how much she paid to have her taxes done. Last year. My response: "So does that mean you haven't done this year's taxes yet? Would you like to make an appointment?" I never knew you could slam down a cell phone, but she managed. Another happy customer.

Couple hours after that, Loony Tune #2 calls because one of our guys tagged his car with a flier. Now to me, this isn't the greatest form of advertising, and I find it mildly annoying. But we are talking about a literal 4" square Post-it note stuck on the driver's side window. I'm always amused at the people who can't just toss the thing, but have to take the time to call and bitch about how much they "don't appreciate this." Seriously? You have so much time on your hands you don't have anything better to do? Well, this guy must have really had a lot of spare time, because he kept repeating himself, probably because he wasn't getting the reaction he wanted. Some assholes don't consider a day complete unless they get into a screaming match over something completely trivial. Then he pulls out his ace: he's going to call the police, because he is absolutely sure there is a law and I better start shaking in my shoes. (Aside: I have absolutely nothing to do with marketing other than taking verbal abuse on the phone from assholes.) I asked him if he wasn't going to use the coupon on our flier if he would mind passing it along to the cops when they got there and tell them any safety officer (cop, fireman, EMS) gets half off. Once again, a slamming cell phone. I really need to figure out how people do that.

So I go into the main office later in the evening to take care of some issues there and I notice everyone is a little tense, which is odd because one thing that is a priority is to try to keep things light. Dealing with taxes is bad enough without clients having to come into an office that has all the cheer of a funeral parlor. Well, it seems they had their own Loony Tune yelling, slamming doors, threatening to call a lawyer, the local paper, blah, blah, blah. You see, his Refund Anticipation Loan didn't go through because he owes money to the IRS. So of course, it's all our fault because we did his taxes wrong. I'm guessing he owes his drug supplier and needed the money in 24 hours rather than the week it's going to take now.

Anyway, the fun rolls on.

In weather related news, we dodged a huge bullet on Monday. It rained hard all day long; monsoon-type rain, only it lasted for nearly 24 hours. There was water everywhere when I drove home from work. All I kept thinking was, "What if this had been snow?" But it stayed warm, getting into the 50's at one point. Lucky dog, lucky dog; I'm a lucky dog.

Anyway, I have to get ready for another exciting day of watching while people who consider themselves adults act like a six-year-old that has been told, "No more cookies!" So I'll just leave you with a couple cool science-type tidbits:

Bigelow is moving forward with plans to launch a full-sized inflatable space habitat. He has already launched two small-scale versions to test out the concept. This one will be big enough to be usable by people.

And the military continues to refine a human exoskeleton. Seriously cool.

Well, gotta go.