Top 5 Reasons I Miss The Kid Who Moved Out

So 6+ months ago, my kid moved out.  I'd say finally but that would imply I was waiting for him to go. Not really.  He was old enough and smart enough and knew how to wash his own clothes, run the vacuum and cook enough different foods to not get hungry when he was 15.  But he finished school, bought a truck and paid off about half his student loan, while finding the "right" room mate. (Who, frankly? I really like..........a lot)

So now that he's gone, I realized why I was never in a rush for him to leave.

1. HUGS - there were baby hugs, boy hugs, teenage "don't let anyone see me doing this hugs" and great hugs from the Man whom my son is now. I happen to love hugs.  I miss them the most!

2. Muscles and height. I'm 5'2" and shrinking, short, fat and out of shape.  He's Not.  He's 5'11.9999" so he can easily reach the top shelf in my kitchen cabinets and closets and frankly, he was quicker than me getting the step ladder and climbing (and less clumsy)

3. Security - really, how much "threat" is a short, fat 5'2" older woman if there are intruders or crazy people on the sidewalk?? He worked out, had muscles and although he's pretty mild-mannered, the deep baritone and his "shadow" are pretty effective deterents for some things.

4. Jokes and pranks...he snuck up on me all the time, and scared the bejesus out of me at least once a week.  So my heart has not been "restarted" since April 1.  He also has a dry sense of humor and had a way  of making my "kitchen disasters" into comedy that I lack.  I make them into sobstories...like the chocolate cake this week. The one that tried to kill me. Seriously, a murderous chocolate cake (a WHOLE other blog post)

5. The cat. He stole one of my cats when he left. Not immediately but about 6 weeks ago, he visited, and left with the cat in his pocket.


Ok, not really. I told him he could have the cat but I hadn't realized how much I'd miss the cat. Boy I hope he brings him to visit soon.         seriously, first the hugs and now the cat.  I might have to go visit for an extended visit.


Disclaimer: Beth's son lives about 20 min away and she drives right past his house regularly. She could certainly go get a hug from the cat at any time. If the cat would just answer the door.

More Takeaways from Ebay on Location - Philadelphia

Social Media session:

Pull not push (meaning stop with the Buy my Shi* Buy My Shi* posts and put soemthing interesting in )

Talk about what the customers want to talk about...

Blogging draws 25 Billion page views per month... (O HOLY COW!)

Twitter has 465 Million users and 33 Billion tweets...

Facebook has 1 BILLION users - 1,000,000,000,  (is that enough zeroes

Pinterest has 23 Million

People are spending equal amounts of time on Facebook and Pinterest... (go figure! ) 405 min..I forget if that's a month, or year or what..

Ok, just factoids but I find them interesting.

Suggestions from the Social Media Whiz Kids and Social Media team:

1 Conversation = Conversion..it's not selling, it's "talking, conversing" in other words...

2. Hone in on Personality

3. Content Rules -  Fresh content rules more..Google likes it and so do your followers/buyers/readers

4. Always consider - why am I doing this and where am I doing it.

5. Get to the point... 3 lines of text = 60 % more reading it than more lines.

6. Content Sets you apart as an expert (Of course, I say, that's if your content is EXPERT level and not kindergarden bullcrap)


Soon - part two... 2 I promise, it's coming soon.

Interesting Factoids from eBayOL-Philly

I know I'm 2 days late and a $1 short with blogging and tweeting about eBay On Location in Philadelphia. I'm blaming Verizon... my phone is carp.  If talking to my husband for 4 min burns the battery out?? WHAT were they thinking when they designed it that way. That is a whole other blog post.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch..err the Marriott in center city .........



These are some interesting facts I learned in various sessions at EOL-Philly
The mobile team leader, Chuck Pletcher, told us that 

• via Mobile eBay sells 93 pcs of clothing EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY!!  
• And $275 worth of merchandise EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY..
• Pictures in the body of the description mess with the readability of the listings on mobile. Has nothing to do with seeing the pictures...just makes the listing too wide to read or pushes everything off the right side of the screen. 
• HTML in the listing, like for a template, does the same thing
• There have been 100,000,000 (one hundred million) DOWNLOADS for the eBay Mobile app. That is 100,000,000 potential buyers, folks... and they’ve signed up 613,000 new buyers via Mobile

Of course, we all loved Rolf from the Moblile team too!  And we loved hearing his phone go CaCHing when he got bids. Now if I can learn to talk on mine, maybe I'll even let. it do the Caching thing once in a while..

BTW, if your sales are slow?? Just leave home for 3 days.  I mean I commuted to this event and the sales just kept happening. Imagine if I had actually gone away.

Ok folks...more tomorrow.  I didn't even touch on the Social Media presentation, the buyer panel, the seller panel or the awesome folks in the exhibit hall. 

How NOT to Treat Your "Customer"

Why are doctors such jerks?? Two recent examples (no names cause I still have to go to these people til I find new ones...which I will shortly)

I have a skin rash that's itchy and red but not poison ivy etc. (it's been around too long to be that..) It might be shingles because I've had those before. But it doesn't look like shingles and it's not really on a nerve line, I don't think.. SO ...what is it??

After 2 weeks of dealing with it and not much improvement I made an appointment with the dermatologist.  The doctor I usually see was booked up so I accepted the "nurse-practitioner" appointment out of desperation.

So if she's the nurse practitioner, why did she have to go get the owner of the practice to look it? Can't she prescribe some cream or pills or something? I guess not. So Dr. Old Fart comes in, (I stopped seeing HIM years ago because he kept trying to prescribe something for my son's acne that it turns out then and now, caused cancer in teens and a bunch of other health problems. HE is not my first choice ever...not even for the cat..)

He doesn't "see" any thing...like the big red blotches on my skin.... he prescribes something and then says but don't use it "here" "there" or "there".  Well ??? WHERE do you think the rash is??  HERE!!

Haven't filled that prescription...won't.

I went back to "OTC" and home remedies...still not working.  Heat and Anxiety both trigger and intensify the itching and the spread of the redness.... it's been hot and anxious lately so now instead of 4 little blotches I have 4 HUGE blotches...and they itch and hurt...and clothes hurt...

So I called the Family Doctor.  Couldn't get in last week so got an appointment for Monday (yesterday).  It conflicted with a counseling session a family member has but I was desperate so I sent them alone.  2 seconds after they left, the doctor's office calls, he's running late.  So I'm switched to afternoon.  (I"M not happy about it but I can deal with it but I could have gone to the counseling session ... )

Family comes homes and we go out to run errands which will end us up at the doctor's office at 3.  We stop home..no messages on the answering machine (what an old fastioned concept in today's mobile world but my cell phone sucks so... ).

I arrive at the doctor's office and guess what?? Yeah, they called the cellphone (which isn't charged and I'm not carrying it while i'm charging it AT HOME!) and left a message that he never showed up.  They did that within 10 minutes of calling me on the house phone... SO WHY THE HELL DIDN:T THEY LEAVE A MESSAGE ON THE ANSWERING MACHINE?? WHAT DID SHE THINK IT WAS FOR???

DUFUS!!

I have another appointment today and I've already warned them to let the doctor that if he's not there in the office, I'm coming to his house.  I need help.    Meanwhile anti-anxiety meds make me not give a sh** about the itching. But I'm still po'd enough about the screw up to write this..


It doesn't matter if you're a doctor, a lawyer or an eBay seller,  neither one of these doctor's has a clue about how to run their business.  One's an old idiot and needs to retire, the other one needs to get a partner or a employee doctor and run his business like a business.  People always need healthcare. And they sure don't want to wait.  


HIRE SOMEONE.... or show up and hire someone to deal with whatever yesterday's emergency was and show up for your customers aka patients. 

In my business? when I'm not  here, someone else has control of the keyboard. THEY print packing slips and shipping labels and box up stuff and put it out for the USPS to pickup. They list things. they answer questions.  When I go to Philly next week for eBay on Location, even though I'll be only 20 miles from home someone else (The Handy Dandy Shipping Manager) will be holding down the fort. 

That "BUSINESS" concept is not that hard to grasp but too many individuals don't get it.  These two "business owners" just lost a long-time return customer.  What about you??  How do you treat your customer??

Flowers and Fruit and Veggies OH MY!

I was discussing "bulbs and flowers" with a friend of mine and we're "swapping" bulbs and ideas.  And it just sort of fits where my mind wants to go today - out in the garden.. so here is the conversation

I got some flower seeds from Jane a while back (while meaning maybe 3-4 years..)...only thing was, that year was the year of a torrential rainy season for about 3 weeks and none of them survived.  Poor little bluebells,  they all washed under the fence to the neighbor's yard and got mowed into oblivion when they presumed to stick their flowery heads above ground.

 

 

I have daffodil and tulip bulbs to plant..bought them last month so I will be fine with just those - for the time being.   But I really love my pink/salmon iris and when I separate them I'll share them with a couple of friends.  I lost most of them a couple of years ago when the oil tank had to be replaced but they are starting to crowd up again. 

 

 I also have the day lilies if you want some. They grow great cause I "stole" them one night on the way home from "work" from a site that was being bull-dozed the next day. Must hae been a hoot to see me in high heels and skirt on the side of the road with my shovel digging up "weeds" in the semi-dark. 

 

 

We're going to visit my son later this week and then to his "co-op" garden place and I'm getting at least 6 tomato plants and 3-4 peppers and whatever else they have that strikes my fancy. He and his girlfriend signed up for a 1/2 membership in the co-op so they get fruit and vegetable distributions from the "city farm" that the coop runs on some vacant grown and from fruit trees in their green house area - once every two weeks a box of fresh fruit from next week til mid-November.   That's my idea of "farming" so next year I might talk my husband into a half membership and we can use that as an excuse to see "the kids" when we're in the area.... wonder if that will work?? Probably not, the son is on to me..

 

This spring my azaleas have been prolific  

 

The big deeper pink bush on the right here is an original planting from when Levitt built Levittown Pa. It's almost 60 years old. The smaller lighter colored bush next to it cost me a whole quarter at a farmer's market plant auction about 10 years ago...

 

See those green wavy spiky things in picture #2 right above this? that's my day liles aka Tiger Lilies or Philadelphia Lilies waiting to explode with some hot sunny weather...

. Next time we can tour the back gardens of my palatial estate...

More Whining about Intelligent Design in Buildings

So you know I don't want to have to walk to the back of any public building to go to the bathroom...............now, having 2x in the last year spent 2-3 days in a hospital, I'm whining again. WHY do you put a busy nurses' station in front of the door to the patient rooms with NO sound proofing??? ??? WELL??? Now obviously the nurses, aids, doctors, etc. have to converse and do paperwork and even eat lunch somewhere. And I have to lay in the room at 3 AM listening to the night shift discussing "whatever" (it was kitchens this week...) WHY?? WHY is there not a sound proof glass/plastic/paper wall between them and me...so they can see me fall out of bed and come help but I don't have to listen to them venting about the new software system, the kitchen contractor who didn't show up on time or the dog who ate their shoes?? I mean COME ON!!! I had surgery, I need to sleep. It's bad enough you come around every 2 hrs to see if I'm alive (don't give me that checking vitals stuff, you're just checking for a pulse so you can make room for the next $75,000 Ortho recovery person..) I do not want to know your kid got kicked off the baseball team or you spent $5000 on a granite counter top. I know you need to "talk" (I work at home alone so I KNOW that compulsion better than you think)...but let's figure this out..there really has to be a compromise...doncha think? SO WHERE are the architects and building design people?? WHAT mountain is their head under?? Let's see some innovation here people. Hospital design hasn't changed much in the last 10 years that I can see...time to get off your butts!

Why are the bathrooms always in the BACK??

Who teaches architecture, layout of public buildings etc?? And who's stupid idea is it that: 1 - the ladies rooms in public buildings, like the Hilton Orland in Florida where eBay had EOL last September (2011), will be in the FARTHEST away corner as distant from the meeting rooms as they can put them??? 2. Once you get there..what Nimrod decided that disabled people should have to walk further?? (walk?? I LIMP!)all the way to the back of the room another 40-50 ft away??? Why wouldn't you put the disable/handicapped stalls right by the door?? so we can make it to the john before we wet your floor? How incredibly insensitive and stupid is that?? (in my not-so-humble opinion it's downright cruel) just saying... I can't walk to start with so put the facilities as far away as you humanly can..unless you make me take a bus. I should just let you suffer the consequences of your own dumbness...and yeah you'd have to clean the carpet every day if I did - multiple times a day. Oh and the AMC movie chain is just as dumb...and a few other places - when I remember who I'll add them to the list of shame..

Sales Tax for Everyone...??? or not!

IF you're an online seller, NOW and HERE is the time to express your opinion... POPVOX

Eventually, we'll all be doing "something" about sales tax in our state and/or other states so GO and voice an opinion - whatever your opinion is..