Friday, March 26, 2010

Friday!

I've been playing around with the layout of this blog, inspired by Hilary over at the Smitten Image! The changes also seem to have had an effect in unexpected areas (like the "compose new post" section) so this may take some getting used to!

In other news, I've decided to drop the third person writing in this blog, at least, for this particular post! It was getting a little tiresome. I may switch back and forth a bit, because old habits are hard to break!

It's been another busy week in my life. We have been suffering through some colder weather, with lots of snow falling. In fact, it's snowing again right now. Most of March was warm and mild, until spring officially arrived, when winter hit again. Sigh. The forecast is for warmer weather to move in over the weekend, though, so perhaps we'll catch up with the rest of the world soon. I have to confess, I'm looking forward to seeing some green grass and flowers!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

More Wildlife

The Bag Lady happened to glance out the window the other day and caught sight of a coyote in her front yard. She grabbed the camera and tried to take a few pictures, but the coyote was a little too far away, and the resolution isn't very good.



The coyote was attempting to hunt mice, but the snow had a solid crust on top from the recent warm weather. He hovered, front feet in the air, then pounced! Then was forced to pounce again. The Bag Lady tried to take pictures of the pouncing, but wasn't very successful. The coyote, on the other hand, was eventually successful and managed to punch through the crust and snag a mouse!



As the Bag Lady watched, another coyote came along and inspected the first coyote's catch, then continued on it's way.



The first coyote continued hunting in the Bag Lady's yard and managed to catch at least one more mouse before moving on to another location.



The Bag Lady apologizes for the poor quality of the photos, and wishes she had managed to capture some video of the coyote hunting, but, sadly, she didn't.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Hello, Kitty!

Last winter, the Bag Lady happened to meet up with one of her neighbours, and stopped to chat. The neighbour told her about a visitor she had in her yard. Apparently, she looked out her basement window one evening and something was looking back at her! After the woman recovered her wits, she had the presence of mind to run and get the camera.




The next morning, the cougar was back. It wandered around in the yard, then headed up the driveway.


And back under the deck!




The Bag Lady recently ran into her neighbour again, and the neighbour kindly offered to loan these pictures to her so she could share them with you.

As far as the Bag Lady understands it, the cougar had a companion (mate? almost-adult offspring?) and her neighbour saw them several times. They seemed to enjoy the cave-like atmosphere under the deck. Eventually, the cougars were *ahem* encouraged to re-locate.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Finally!

The Bag Lady can do laundry again!

She picked up the part for her washing machine on Tuesday afternoon and called the repair company to set up an appointment. They told her the repairman would call her on Thursday morning between 9 am and noon to advise her when he would be coming to her house.

Naturally, as soon as the clock struck 9 am, her phone started ringing..... and did not stop! Between friends and relations and ranch business and museum business, and even a fax (which uses the same phone line), her phone was busy until 11:30!! Fortunately, the repairman was persistent and he eventually got through.

He arrived on her doorstep a short time later and immediately went to work replacing the latch. Then, because the door still didn't seem to be closing properly, he replaced the hinge. Voila, the door closes perfectly, and latches properly. The hinge was slightly bent, causing the door to close improperly.

The Bag Lady waited over 48 days for a 20-minute appointment, but she can finally do laundry to her heart's content.

In other news, the Bag Lady purchased a camera for the museum, so spent a little time on Wednesday getting acquainted with it. She took this photo of her yard:



When she awoke on Thursday morning, her yard looked like this:



The Bag Lady thinks the camera takes pretty good pictures, and is impressed because when you click to enlarge these pictures, they aren't grainy. (go ahead, click. she'll wait.)

Hope you all have a great weekend and aren't missing her too much! She'll pop back in soon.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hiatus

The Bag Lady is going to take a little vacation from blogging.......

Of course, now that she's said that, she'll probably think of a million things to blog about and be right back in no time.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Washer Woes

What a week! It was busy at work, busy at home.

The Bag Lady thinks she may (finally) have a resolution regarding her washing machine. She received the unwelcome news from the repair company that the part they needed was still unavailable and they wouldn't have it until APRIL 4th!! The Bag Lady called them and complained, but they said it was the fault of the manufacturer. So the Bag Lady called the manufacturer, who told her that they did, indeed, have the part in stock, but that the repair company had not ordered it from them. Apparently, the technician ordered the part from a company called Reliable. Which, in the Bag Lady's humble opinion, isn't very!

The Bag Lady told the manufacturer that April was not acceptable, and asked the pleasant woman she was talking to for suggestions. The woman put her on hold and finally came back to tell her that the company was willing to send the part directly to the Bag Lady. Then she could call the repair company and they would send the technician out to install the new part. So the Bag Lady will (hopefully) have the part by the beginning of next week, and she sincerely hopes the technician will be available to complete the repair at that time.

Oh, and the Bag Lady finally asked the pleasant, helpful woman where their call centre was located, and was told they are in Tennessee. Lovely people, those Tennesseeans!

In other news, the Bag Lady had a nice surprise the other day when she stopped to check her lottery tickets. She won a whopping $80.90! Enough to buy another couple tickets and splurge on a nice lunch for herself and the Rancher.

Have a great weekend!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Well, I Never......

The Bag Lady has managed to piss away another weekend. She had planned on doing a few things around the house, but the best laid plans.....

The weather has been really mild for the past several weeks, and a lot of snow has melted. There is a crust on the remaining snow that allows the Princess dog to scamper around, exploring places she hasn't been able to access since the snow got too deep.

Saturday morning, the Princess did her customary dance to the door, scarcely allowing it to open all the way before she was running and barking. She does this every morning - almost as though she needs to announce to the rest of the world that she's awake and on the job. (The Bag Lady thinks that perhaps this has more to do with the dog being afraid of the dark than anything else...) Ahem.
The Bag Lady went through her morning routine, pouring hot coffee in her eyes and drinking her contact lens solution... err... something like that, anyway... She had propped herself up in front of the computer and was getting caught up on reading blogs when she realized that the dog was still barking, and it was her "there really IS something going on out there" bark - the one that says she is serious and isn't anyone coming outside to back her up?

The Bag Lady knows better than to open the door when the Princess is in that mode because the Princess thinks you will be right behind her and she runs out to where the danger is, so the Bag Lady peered out the window to try to determine what had the Princess so riled up. She finally spotted a deer. Then she saw another deer. They were in the pasture on the other side of the fence, and the Princess was on the lawn close to the house. THEN the Bag Lady saw a coyote. Then she saw another coyote! And then she witnessed something she had never seen before. The two coyotes were attacking the deer! The deer were defending themselves quite admirably. One coyote would take a run at the deer while the other snuck around behind, but the deer were smart enough to stand side by side, facing opposite directions. When one coyote would take a run at them, one of the deer would kick at it!

The Bag Lady is not sure who the Princess was rooting for, but she certainly was making her displeasure known! The coyotes finally gave up and left the deer alone. And the Princess trotted back to the house, pleased with herself for restoring peace to her domain.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Rose-tinted Rant

Times have certainly changed.

Does anyone else remember the "good old days" when, if you had a problem with something you purchased, you could call the store where you bought it and they would either send a repairman, or ask you to bring it back to them to be either fixed or replaced?

The good old days when, if you made a purchase of a major appliance, it would sometimes outlast YOU? The days when customer service actually meant something, rather than was just given lip-service by someone four thousand miles away, stuck in a little cubicle or at a long row of desks with a telephone console, a computer and a headset?

The days when, if you went down to the local general store, or appliance store, or hardware store, you actually KNEW the person behind the counter, and he had a reputation to uphold. He CARED about whether or not you were happy with the product he sold you, whether it was a washing machine, a car, or even a head of lettuce! It wasn't just about the money. Sure, he was trying to make a living, just like everyone else, but if he got a reputation for selling crap, or not following through on his promises of service, he would lose business. It MATTERED to his bottom line if he lost customers.

The Bag Lady is obviously not a happy person this day. She has been waiting since the end of January for a repairman to come and fix the latch on her front-loading washing machine. This is the third time she has cleaned her house and made sure everything was hunky-dory for the repairman (this company insists that the walk be clear of snow and all animals in the house be locked up..... if the Bag Lady doesn't get her washing machine fixed soon, the dog isn't the only one who is going to have to be locked away to keep from attacking..... oops, guess that shouldn't be broadcast, should it?), only to receive a phone call telling her that he isn't coming. This time, all but one of the parts that he ordered are here (last time, none of them had come) The Bag Lady doesn't even know what this repairman looks like, because he hasn't darkened her door. The company she purchased the machine from prides themselves on having the repair done within a week. Well, it's been over a month and the Bag Lady is still unable to use her freakin' washing machine!! She is beginning to believe that she has made a mistake purchasing this particular machine. Of course, almost all of the major appliances are made by essentially the same company nowadays, so it would probably be the same story regardless of the brand of machine.

The Bag Lady realizes that she is probably looking at the "good old days" through rose-tinted glasses, but fer cryin' out loud, talking to someone who lives on the other side of the country (or the world) about her problem just doesn't give the same sense of satisfaction as being able to look the owner in the eye and tell him/her you are unhappy with the service they have provided. The Bag Lady suspects that the person she spoke to this morning doesn't even live in the same country as the Bag Lady! (To be honest, the woman had such a thick Southern US accent, the Bag Lady started craving crawfish and mint juleps!)

The upshot of all this ranting is that the Bag Lady is resigned to waiting at least another week before she can use her washing machine. Sigh.

And if mint juleps actually tasted as good as they sound, she'd be sipping one right now.