I just returned to Los Angeles today after being out off town on business for a bit more than three weeks. My message machine was full, I must have had 30 messages that started with "press one if you would like to continue in English", then the got cut off while waiting for a response. It turns out, I had overlooked paying my cable bill before leaving...a whopping $50.35!

My gripe is not with having to pay the bill, rather it is with having to select "1" to continue in English. Geez, my family has been here for a couple of hundred years....we speak English... shouldn't the message have finished in English, and then offered alternative language options ? This is America, we speak English here, other languages are optional, and are supported out of courtesy, right?

On another note, while riding on the shuttle from LAX to my house, we got stuck in the traffic jam from hell. Well it turns out, there was a nationalization ceremony going on downtown for some 40,000 new citizens. Many of them could not stand the wait and simply parked in the breakdown lanes and walked to the ceremony .......I guess they didn't press "1" to continue in English !

I'm going to have a stiff one, put my feet up and chill until I go fishing tomorrow!

I may sound grouchy, but I'm not even old yet.

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1993 190E 2.6 135k
1989 Ford Thunderbird SC 5 Spd 79K