Chamber of Commerce | My Blog

Billing Cluster-****’s and lots of wind

Posted on December 19, 2008 by

I’ve had my fill of idiots. Especially if they have anything at all to do with phones. For 4 months I fought with Qwest to straighten out my phone bill and service. No bills, wrong bills, wrong service, you name it, they screwed it up. Today I went to check and see if any of the credits I was told I would have had come through. Nope, and on top of that, nothing I asked to be canceled had been canceled. Keep in mind that I haven’t had DSL service since the end of October and no phone with Qwest since mid November. Shut off because I didn’t pay although I didn’t get any bills, or the billings I got were wrong. They even admitted that they were wrong!

So, I called. After the third person and 40 minutes on the phone, I discovered a few things:

I couldn’t cancel my phone while it was in suspended service.
I needed to pay $19.63 to have my phone turned back on so that 24 hours after I had service reinstated, I COULD CANCEL my phone.
I still owed $78 in phone charges
I have $122 in CREDIT coming to me.
I could not get the credit until I have the phone on, and they cycle it through billing.

So, I paid the $19.63. My phone service will be turned on and on Saturday or maybe Friday afternoon, I can cancel my service. I will pay off the $78 by January and at some point, I will get a check or multiple checks adding up to $122. I told the guy at one point that at least Qwest wasn’t as messed up as Sprint. Truth!

For the last month, I have also been arguing with Sprint via email, phone and finally in person at one point. In July, I called and told them that due to the fact that I was broke, I wanted to turn off my phone, cancel my service and pay off my contract. No problem I was told. (you can start laughing, I really won’t mind) Fast forward to August. I go to make a payment and find that my account has been sealed. No access. Hmm…. No access to my account, paperless billing…. hard to pay. I email tech support. No answer. Try again. Got told to go to my nearest Sprint store and pay.

When I cooled off, I explained that I live 60 miles one way from my nearest Sprint store. They did a “sorry, but not our problem, would you like to make a payment over the phone?” When I asked for an accounting and a paper receipt, I got told that wasn’t possible, I’d have to check that online. (What???) I said no thank you, I don’t like to make payments on the phone unless I have a paper bill to back it or an online bill I can check. Back to Customer Service.

Now I’m getting calls from a collection agent. One of them got Very Nasty. Called me a liar and a deadbeat and told me that I “just didn’t want to own up to the fact that I’d screwed up my account and didn’t want to pay”. I explained my views on payments online, especially to third partycollection agents. Reason is, I just got everything straightened out because of a small bit of identity theft. One of the things that they tell you is Don’t make payments over phones if you don’t have a bill in your hand, etc. It might not be the real collection agent, etc. So,… no bill, no payment. This collection agent told me again that I was lying! grrrrrrrrrr!

I did get to Pueblo and made a payment in person. I asked to be switched to paper billing so that I could pay my bill and keep track of my payments. This is after a 15 minute explanation of what had gone on. The guy tried. Guess what! Sprint can’t take you back from online billing back to paperless billing. He apologized.

Fast forward to this week. I finally got someone to listen to what I was saying and then got told that they had lost my payment I’d made in Pueblo. I about thumped my head on the computer. However, I talked to a real person on the phone and got the collection agency off my back until they find my payment! gads!

In town, the weather has been either bitterly cold or just around 45 degrees. Not bad unless you add in the fact that the average wind lately has been around 20mph. BRRRR! Even the dogs didn’t want to go out the one day. Maybe it was because their water bowl froze!

This week at the chamber has been busy. Meetings no one came to, City Ordinances that look like they were written by Chinese Fire Drill and people running in at the last minute to sign up for the lighting contest.

I think I am really glad to be going to Pueblo tomorrow to finish my Yule shopping! Aieeeeeeeee!!!

Snow pups and Chamber hiccups

Posted on December 10, 2008 by

The last week has been busy. Between trying to teach Blanca how to be a housedog, changing weather, plumbing foul-ups and Chamber events, I haven’t had much time to post. Oh, and it snowed.

Not just a dusting like we’ve been having ever 3-4 days since Thanksgiving, but an honest to goodness snowstorm. More on that later.

Middle of last week, the laundry room sink clogged. No way to fix it, so John started to undo the U-neck under the sink. 40 gallons of water later, he pulled a clog of lint/cat hair and OMG’S gunge out of the pipe. Only problem, the plastic was so cold it shattered at one end and we couldn’t put the pipe back together. Dan and I would have to do that the next day. Not a problem.

Next morning, I hear water running. We thought Beth was in the shower. She thought that one of us was in the shower. John went to look. Next thing I hear is “OH Shit!” and the sound of the water being shut off. It had been a VERY cold night, and my first thought was that the pipes had frozen. Burst pipes, etc. No, some idiot had walked into our back yard and turned on the outside tap. Water ran for about 15 minutes, but that was enough to flood the basement and the kids room with about 2 inches of water. Ice cold water. ARgh! While the kids cleaned up, Dan and I fixed the laundry room sink.

Last week we also had the on-off-on again Chamber of Commerce Christmas Party. On Tuesday, no one had sold any tickets. So, we canceled it. Then they changed their minds and on Wednesday, they got it up and going again. So, by Friday they had about 30 people coming. Oh, and me. I hadn’t planned to go. Couldn’t afford the ticket. However, they decided that being the Chamber Rep, I aught to be there. So, they paid for my ticket. Chris gave Dan his ticket at the last minute, so off we went. It was at the La Plaza Inn which is a very nice B&B in town. Marty made roast beef. Lovely. After dinner, Larry Patrick ran the present auction. Everyone brought a gift and then it was auctioned off. Now Larry plays dirty tricks, so if you scratch your nose, you bid. If you blink loud, you bid. Lots of laughter ensued. We raised about $650. Dan got a bag of kids toys and one person got a traveling trophy. A plaster deer head. It now lives in the Chamber office.

Sunday was a really warm day, so Dan and Matt started digging a trench for the electric line from the house to the guest house at 520. I had to help for a while when Matt had to run home. Gods we were tired by the end of the day.

Monday Dan was suppose to help me at the chamber after he got the pipe at the local lumber yard. It was 4 times the cost, so he headed to Pueblo. The weather was getting bad, and by the time that he got home it was raining. Dan and Matt put the pipe in the ground and covered up the trench as fast as they could. They were soaked.

However, it was a good thing that they got it done. The rain turned to snow, and when we woke up on Tuesday, we had nearly 9 inches of the stuff in places. Brrrr!!!

It was a very cold day and even colder night. Today I concentrated on keeping warm. At the Chamber, the heater circut blew again and so the boiler didn’t go on until nearly noon. The dogs are not enchanted with the snow either. Brrrr!!!

Sunday, Puppy Sunday!

Posted on December 3, 2008 by

Ok, I know it is Tuesday, but the latest episode in my life that makes things go “Kersplat!” happened on Sunday.

Daniel came over to visit. He was here at 520 for a few minutes and then left. He came back with my “late birthday, early Yule prezzie”. I should have been afraid, very afraid. My prezzie was…. drumroll…. a puppy. Not a little puppy, but a 4-6th month old puppy. Not a little puppy, but a 40 pound puppy. Lab, chow, husky and goodness knows what. Feet the size of soup can bottoms. Oh, and white. Brown eyes and black nose. So, I named her Blanca.

Keep in mind that while Blanca is 4-6 months old, Brandy is as year old. Blanca is going to be a big dog! She is a very sweet natured dog which is a good thing. Oh, and clumsy too! Does not know what to do with her feet.

It is going to be a very interesting few months.

Work has been interesting this week too. We had to cancel the Christmas party as no one had bought tickets. I think that the economics are just against things like expensive parties. Plus, La Veta was having their party the same day at no cost to attendees. Ours was $20 a person. So, we are going to have our regular meeting on the 11th, with refreshments. Or, in other words, a small party that doesn’t cost $20 a head.Chris Galvan and I are going to make some savories and hopefully, someone else will bring some sweets. I am planning to make the cheese sticks that I made for Thanksgiving. If I can keep Dan out of the dough! Gads! He is addicted to them. (teeheehee)

Tomorrow I’m going shopping in Pueblo with John. Wheeee…. We are having to borrow Erin’s car to do the shopping. My poor little car still has issues. Oh well.

Turkey Day and Parades

Posted on November 28, 2008 by

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Dan was sick. He never really got over his cold, and it zapped him again. He stayed in bed while the rest of us cooked dinner. I did the ham, one kind of bread rolls and cheese sticks. I made green chile relish and pecan pie the day before. It smelled so good that I was ready to the the pie right then and there.

Work went fairly fast. Monday was a little hectic. Tuesday was Oh-My-Gods!!! hectic. Dan and I did ads for the newspapers in about 3 hours. Hectic because most of the papers were “going to press” by noon or 2pm. We got ads in the Trinidad Chronicle, Huerfano County World, Huerfano Journal, and the Pueblo Chieftain. We missed the Signature. (argh….) Once we got the ads done, I had to get the ballots for the Chamber election done. What an ordeal! Very labor intensive. Even with Dan’s help, it took about 5 hours.

Wednesday, I mailed the ballots and had a fairly busy day at work with compiling a list of businesses not on the Chamber roster. Dan worked on the brochure and my Dad found a big mistake! They’d dropped the Chamber # off the map!!! Oh gods!

Now back to turkey day… Beth did turkey, roasted brussel sprouts, baked pumpkin, cous-cous, stuffing, pumpkin cheese cake, a pumpkin pound cake, fig cake, green beans, two types of taquitos and gravy. The kids helped her a lot as did John. We ate dinner around 5pm which was fine by me. I ate more than I should have, but then again, it was Thanksgiving.

It snowed too. brrrrrr!

Today was cold, and while the snow melted fairly quickly, I think we are going to get more. It is very cold and the clouds are rolling in again. Work was slow. No one came in at all. I kept busy, and then picked Dan up. He is feeling better, but not totally over his cold. He promised Brian Orr that he’d take pictures of the parade.

The Parade of Lights starts in about an hour. Bill Downey still hasn’t come down to show me what to set up for the treats. Fun…..

Best find the keys to the lock on the one door too.

More later!

Have you seen a week floating around here?

Posted on November 1, 2008 by

I’m missing one. I know that one went on, as it is over seven days since I last posted, but… where did the time go? Gads. Somewhere along the lines, I have:

Sent Matt to join El Fandango-a dance class/troupe/cultural thingy run by my cousin Gretchen
Been to parent teacher conferences with Morgan
Gone to work for at least 4 hours a day, M-F.
Totally rearranged the Workforce office and my storage area at work
Dealt with volunteers/board members/tourists
printed, collated, folded, stuffed, labeled and mailed 80+ renewal packets for the chamber
Gone to Pueblo for car parts for Divot
Cleaned out the guest house for a workspace
went through 2 years of microfilm searching for stories
seen my parents
sewn curtains, Yule prezzies and knitted
and did the whole Halloween thing last night.

Yesterday was fun. I dressed up for work. Or should that be dressed normally…??? Long black velvet dress, B&W striped socks, black shoes, pointy witch hat, pentacle and my hair going any way it wanted. I even had candy at the chamber to hand out.

After work, I had lots of errands to run. I didn’t bother to change, so I went to the bank, post office, San Isabel Electrics, Edla’s and Mountain Harmony (the local health food shop) in costume.

After I got home, I took off the hat and added my reading glasses as I was working on the computer. big surprise! We had treats waiting for the trick or treaters. Not too many at first, and then there was a rush around 7:30pm that went on for at least an hour. One little girl, probably about 3 came up to the door all dressed as a witch. I answered the door, and said Happy Halloween. She looked up… and then looked me up and down really well. Then looked at her own costume and then back at me. I smiled at her, gave her the candy and said bye! She was still giving me “the look”, with her eyes wide. Her mom, who has noticed none of this says “lets go” and starts to move the little girl down the stairs. The little girl is still giving me “the look” that says “she’s a real witch” the whole time. Steps down a step, looks back, steps, looks back all the way down the stairs. Mom still hasn’t noticed, and is nudging her down the stairs. I wave, close the door and start giggling. Dan asked me what I was giggling about and I explained. Dan started lauging and said, “No, she wasn’t expecting Aunt Jet to hand out candy.” I laughed. It’s true.

Today has been very warm. I think it was nearly 70! I ran around in a teeshirt and jeans most of the day. Beautiful Indian Summer weather.

I’d love to sleep in tomorrow, but I hope that we will be going to Pueblo for some grocery shopping. John is suppose to borrow Erin’s car as mine are still out of commission. sigh…

C-C-C-C-Cold!

Posted on October 22, 2008 by

Last night, it was a balmy 48 or so. This morning, I woke up to ice and snow. Brrrr…. It has snowed on and off all day. Not much accumulation, but the temperature just keeps dropping.

Probably a good thing we got the windows in the guest house done yesterday too. With all that new glass, we are going to have a few feral cats get a rude awakening when they go to jump through what they think are “open” windows. It took 18 panes of glass to repair everything. Most of them were little 6×7 inch window bits. Only one was 15×15.

Dan harvested all the old glass he could first to repair the windows. We still had to buy 8 panes. It also took him nearly all day to repair everything. However, the guest house is better sealed than it has been in nearly two years.

Dan and Matt also hauled tons of garbage out of the guest house and garage. I think that there were 12 old dynamite boxes full of trash. Amazingly, the trash men took everything except the rug. Only reason they didn’t is because they were too full. Said they’d get it next week. Yahhh!!! Guess I’d better pay them!

We are driving this week. Jolene is in hospital again. More surgery on her leg where the break didn’t heal. ewwwww! So, we drive twice this week and twice next week.

At work, I’m starting the packets for chambership renewals. Wheee…. Finally got over to Mike so that he could read through what I wrote up. I did a lot of editing on the Chamber packet info. It needed it! The rest of this week and most of next will probably be spent printing packets, stuffing envelopes and dumping stuff off at the post office.

Oh, and tomorrow evening, we have parent teacher conferences. Dan, Morgan, Beth and I are going. Here’s hoping Divot behaves.

Snow, Trains and Volleyball games.

Posted on October 16, 2008 by

Sunday was cold.

Monday was cool.

Tuesday I woke up at 6:30am to see huge fat snow flakes outside. Brrrr! Since our vehicles are still down, I walked to work. It felt really funky to be so bundled up when the day before had been warm enough for no jacket.

Of course, the snow meant that I had very few people at the Chamber. I got a bit of work done, and by the time I was ready to go home, my mom decided to pick me up! Wheee!!!!

Wednesday was cold, but by mid afternoon, it was warm enough to carry my coat home. I even hung laundry outside! Today was warm too. You have to love Colorado weather. Or, just go crazy.We also got my car Divot up and running well enough to drive around town. Wheeee!!!

Considering the people I have had in the Chamber/Visitor Center this week, it must be Train Spotter month or something. I have had more people in asking about the station, and trains than anything else. In case I have forgotten to mention it, the Chamber is housed in the old train station in Walsenburg. It makes phone conversations really fun as the tracks are less than 20 feet from my office. My desk is right behind the left middle window in the picture below.

My problem is that I don’t know enough about the history of the train station and always feel bad when I have to say I don’t know. Oh, and we must have a beacon on top of the station saying, “train spotter here! No Trains Today!”. Why? Well, on average, we have 40 trains a day pull through town. However, whenever I have a train spotter walk in, I have NO Trains go by. Like today. Quiet all morning, and this gentleman comes in asking about the station. I tell him what I know, including the train stats and the suspicion that there is some sort of consipiracy to keep people like him waiting to see trains. He laughs and goes off to have lunch. Right about 1pm, when all the locals are trying to get back to work after lunch, here comes a train. One of the long ones. I wondered if the train guy had seen it. Sure enough, he came in about 10 minutes later with a big grin on his face. He’d gotten lots of pictures and was very happy. He also told me that the station had been built for the Rio Grande Railroad, which was something I hadn’t know.

Tonight, we had to get to Gardner for Morgan’s Volleyball award dinner. We borrowed Jolene’s SUV and drove up. First though was the Mom-Daughter Volleyball game. Of course, we cheated. Dan played as well. We did pretty good. The first game was close. 25-24, and the girls won. Second game was 25-16. The girls were over the moon that they beat us twice. Afterwards, we had pizza for dinner and awards. Morgan got the most improved beginner on the team. All the girls got medals and certificates. It was a fun evening.

Tomorrow we are going to work on Blue, the old pick up truck, finish up the ‘winterizing’ of the guest house at 520 and then collapse for at least 10 minutes.

Foggy, foggy Tuesday

Posted on September 9, 2008 by

This morning, the clouds were at the 6000ft level. Walsenburg is at the 6185ft level. So, we were fogged in! Not that cold damp kind of fog, but the cotton candy whispy stuff. The sun was trying to peep through the clouds with rose coloured rays. It was a very pleasant drive taking Munchkin Morgan to the bus stop. Keep in mind that this is a rural Colorado bus stop. Morgan goes to school up in Gardner, Colorado because the school is very very good. So, we have a 16 mile trip out to the bus stop.

These photos were taken last October, and the place is a little greener due to all the rains this last couple of weeks.

However, as we drove into the bus stop, there were tendrils of fog everywhere. What light came through was rose tinted. My trip home was not as beautiful as the sun had begun to burn off the clouds.

Today was also my second day of work at the Huerfano Chamber of Commerce. I got hired as the secretary on Monday. It’s partime work at the moment. However, I worked there as a volunteer 11 years ago. It is going to be very interesting. It also pays $9 an hour!!!! Wheee!!!