Honey..Did we get back our deposit?

We haven't had a landline for a few months but for some reason I asked my wife if we ever got back our initial deposit. She laughed and said that was over 40 years ago and I said" why should that matter?" I knew all along that it was another one of those things we take for granted. I have never gotten back my deposit from any utility company or people I have rented from. I remember renting an office where the landlord refused to apply my deposit to another office he owned. A friend of mine, who owns a 4-plex, told me that today's landlords hold all the trump cards and it's a "take it or leave" business.

I am wondering if the May Day protesters will make a difference. It seems like all my life, I've had to accommodate businesses instead of the other way around. I heard that Starbucks is changing their policy because it's not productive to argue with customers. They have instructed all the teenagers they hire to give the complaining customer a free cup of coffee, hoping it will defuse the situation and retain customers. It sounds a little condescending to me because it doesn't teach the workers how to get to the root of the problem. I know, what problems can you have at Starbucks -which a free cup of coffee won't cure? That's not to say that I haven't had a customer satisfaction during the years but it should be routine. It's like local politics; go to any forum and they all sound like the next Abraham Lincoln but as soon as they get in office they will start on their agenda.

Do you still get that birthday greeting from the salesman of the first car you ever bought? I do, even though he's now selling funeral arrangements and burial plots. My wife and I laugh every anniversary because like an accurate time piece, we have been getting his greeting for over 20 years. I have to admit it works because whenever I think of funeral arrangements, I think of him even though I may not purchased from him. I'm sure for him it's gone from the index cards to a computerized alarm system but the sentiment is the same. I bet if I walked up to him at a grocery store, he wouldn't remember me.

I see the world evolving where we have gone from paying a little bit more but having better service, to a system where we won't ever see a sales person like at Amazon. The person we talk to at customer service will likely talk with an accent and they are only able to give us generic information but we accept that because we saved 20 bucks.

I love my cell phone but I hope it keeps working because I hate going to AT&T more than seeing my dentist and I get a nervous twitch every time we get high winds because it means I will have to try to get a hold of Dish Network.

This is not a gripe session because I have become immune to life's daily ups and downs. At least we're not like in the AMC series "Mad Men" where every character lights up a cigarette every 15 minutes.