Civilization....partially redeemed
After yesterday's sermonette concerning the state of service today, and lest the readership think that I am some old passé naysayer, negative, misanthropic and living in the past, let me state this. You're right, I am. But let me also outline some things that are good about the modern age and some things that, thanks to computers and new ways of service, do make life more convenient.
Fresh in my mind is Amazon.Com. They've never disappointed me. They send out emails telling me my order is received. Emails telling me my order has been shipped, and emails asking me if I got the order. We are going to Fredericksburg Texas this weekend to see my friend, author Joe Galloway and Julie didn't have a hardbound copy of his book, We Were Soldiers, for he and others to sign. Well, no problem, get on Amazon Monday afternoon, order the book, pay a little something extra for fast shipment and guess what happens. Amazon tells me within three minutes that they have the order, they tell me Tuesday that they've shipped it and Amazon gets it to me safe and sound at noon today. This is one reason they are a Dot.Com that has survived. The other two that come to mind are Ebay.com [though I've never used them] and PayPal.com [I use them a lot]. They provide a useful convenient service, are accesible, and they do what they say they will...and they keep you informed.
Now to my much maligned bank. Their personal service still eats bad things, but I have to give credit [or rather debit] where credit [debit] is due to certain aspects of modern convenience that they handle very well. Because of the "debit" card, I have no use for "credit" cards..don't own one. With the debit card I can pay for anything anywhere in the country, and because of the computer age I can keep track of all outgo/income to the account on the computer. This is very good for me...an MBA who never got in the practice of recording his checks in the checkbook, and God forbid ever balanced it. With the computer and debit card, I can anytime, anywhere check to see how much is sitting on the bottom line.
And even though I fix my telephone equipment with a leaf blower, I am a person hooked to life by computers. I have met some very good friends through websites and email, Joe Galloway, one of my great personal friends being one of them. I keep up with old friends thru email and almost instantaneous photos of our goings on. I have two websites on which I've made some money selling maps and photos and the oil business is a natural for sending or acquiring data via the Internet.
So now, I'm off to the chic Targét store to exchange some jeans. Perhaps the teenagers there will be thrilled to see me, call me by my first name, and flutter around me waiting to answer my every question. And then perhaps when I get home, there will be a very apologetic email from the young saps in Santa Fe, begging my forgiveness for not being more intune with my Bed and Breakfast needs. These would be nice, but frankly between you and me, I'm not counting on it.
After yesterday's sermonette concerning the state of service today, and lest the readership think that I am some old passé naysayer, negative, misanthropic and living in the past, let me state this. You're right, I am. But let me also outline some things that are good about the modern age and some things that, thanks to computers and new ways of service, do make life more convenient.
Fresh in my mind is Amazon.Com. They've never disappointed me. They send out emails telling me my order is received. Emails telling me my order has been shipped, and emails asking me if I got the order. We are going to Fredericksburg Texas this weekend to see my friend, author Joe Galloway and Julie didn't have a hardbound copy of his book, We Were Soldiers, for he and others to sign. Well, no problem, get on Amazon Monday afternoon, order the book, pay a little something extra for fast shipment and guess what happens. Amazon tells me within three minutes that they have the order, they tell me Tuesday that they've shipped it and Amazon gets it to me safe and sound at noon today. This is one reason they are a Dot.Com that has survived. The other two that come to mind are Ebay.com [though I've never used them] and PayPal.com [I use them a lot]. They provide a useful convenient service, are accesible, and they do what they say they will...and they keep you informed.
Now to my much maligned bank. Their personal service still eats bad things, but I have to give credit [or rather debit] where credit [debit] is due to certain aspects of modern convenience that they handle very well. Because of the "debit" card, I have no use for "credit" cards..don't own one. With the debit card I can pay for anything anywhere in the country, and because of the computer age I can keep track of all outgo/income to the account on the computer. This is very good for me...an MBA who never got in the practice of recording his checks in the checkbook, and God forbid ever balanced it. With the computer and debit card, I can anytime, anywhere check to see how much is sitting on the bottom line.
And even though I fix my telephone equipment with a leaf blower, I am a person hooked to life by computers. I have met some very good friends through websites and email, Joe Galloway, one of my great personal friends being one of them. I keep up with old friends thru email and almost instantaneous photos of our goings on. I have two websites on which I've made some money selling maps and photos and the oil business is a natural for sending or acquiring data via the Internet.
So now, I'm off to the chic Targét store to exchange some jeans. Perhaps the teenagers there will be thrilled to see me, call me by my first name, and flutter around me waiting to answer my every question. And then perhaps when I get home, there will be a very apologetic email from the young saps in Santa Fe, begging my forgiveness for not being more intune with my Bed and Breakfast needs. These would be nice, but frankly between you and me, I'm not counting on it.
