Victory!

It was a hard-fought campaign, many lost hours on both sides of the brawl, but Natog has emerged victorious!

I have been fighting a running battle with my old cell phone company for the last 6 weeks. I had switched from Helio (aka Sprint) in disgust of their poor cell coverage in my area, and they double charged my account when I made a payment online. Then they took 4 days to get the money back to me.

The trick in dealing with the situation was to have excellent notes. I jotted down everyone's name and ID number I spoke with, dates and times, and highlights of the conversation to jog my memory. As with all cell phone companies their customer service is abysmal. This is intentional, as they don't want to cough up a nickle unless they had to. After 10+ hours on the phone, I have no early cancellation fee, and my account is retroactively canceled to when I ported my number out.

Without good notes, I would have been screwed, with my only recourse to not pay them and then have to deal with a credit agency going after me.

So anytime you have an issue with any company, or the Fedz for that matter.
1) Take good notes. Get ID #'s of the people you talk to with dates and times.
2) Establish your expectations clearly, then don't budge an inch.
3) Persistence.
4) DO NOT YELL. Explain to them you are very upset with their company, but you don't yell and scream. Tell them you are furious, but it's not their fault so yelling at them will not make anything better. You want the rep to be on your side.
5) If they cannot help you bump up to their supervisor.

Another Prowler

If you don't have dogs, go buy some now. Last night about 9pm I was playing some games on the computer and watching my beloved Patriots whup Denver's ass when my dogs went bonkers outside. Now for those of you who don't own dogs, they make different barks for different occasions. I know of four different patterns of barking depending on what's going on. There is your "ZOMG a Squirrel" bark, the "OMG there is another dog" bark, the "Someone's jogging by the house" bark, and finally the "I'm going to eat your balls for breakfast" bark.

Hearing the latter, I grabbed my Sig, tucked it in my pants in the small of my back, grabbed a flashlight and went outside. Sure enough, my dogs were eyeballing a pile of forsythia bushes. It's 1/4 on my property and 3/4 on the neighbors. (The neighbor is cool, and his wife likes it a lot, so I just trim back my side, instead of killing it.) I talked the dogs into calming down, when I heard the distinctive snap of something big breaking a stick in the brush. Something bigger than a dog, raccoon, skunk or squirrel.

I shined the flashlight in there, and didn't see anything. Although I was armed, there was no sense in drawing and scaring some kid who was running through the neighborhood. There is no way any adult would fit in there without making a huge dent in it, which is what I was looking for when shining my light in there.

So I backed up so they wouldn't see the Sig, and went back in the house. Whoever was in there hauled ass, because the dogs didn't bark any more. The thought of someone crawling through that mess of thick brush makes me laugh. Oh, I forgot to mention there is an assload of bull briars in the middle, the real nasty ones.

Practicing with my firearm with an empty clip was very helpful. I grabbed the gun and mag from the safe, and had it loaded and ready to go in seconds without looking at it, while moving rapidly through the house. It's easy to practice, put a empty clip in your front off hand pocket, another in your off hand butt pocket, and the empty firearm in the other. draw the weapon with your primary hand and the clip with the off hand. As you bring the weapon up, slap the mag in and cycle the action. At the end of the motion you should be in a two handed stance, ready to shoot. I drop the clip with the release, and grab and slap a second empty mag in the weapon, thumbing the release. I then drop the second mag, check to make sure the weapon is empty(can never be too safe), and reset for the next exercises.

I've done this at least 1000 times. Now I practice in my hallway kneeling or prone. I practice drawing from my pocket, my holster or from the small of my back. I practice one handed as if one arm is injured, and the same with the off hand. I practice reloading while moving.

It's cheap, and I usually do it while cooking dinner. 10-15 minutes a night is all it takes. It is no replacement for formal training, but it's better than standing there in a incident fiddle-fucking with your magazine. It's all about muscle memory, knowing in your mind what to do is one thing, pre-programming your muscles so you don't have to think about it is a million times better.

Mixing with the animals.

So I can't even go out and see a movie without some nitwit acting up. On Saturday I figured I'd escape the heat some, and go see The Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton and Liv Tyler. Movie was pretty good, I'll rent it when it comes out on DVD to see it again.

During the movie, I had this nitwit a few seats over screwing around with his cellphone. It was a really bright one, with the whole case made of pink and purple lights. After the 6th time he was screwing around with it I got his attention, and whispered, "Hey, could you knock it off with the cellphone?"
He looks over, face twisted in anger, and in a rough tone of voice, "The lights come on when I open the fucking phone."
"So what? I'm not dicking around with my phone."
He gives me a dirty look, and I turn back and say "Thank you" before he could be more of a dick.

The world is sorely lacking in common fucking courtesy. He's there with his wife and 2 young kids and gets argumentative with me? Gee, Sorry Billy, your Dad's going to the hospital to have his teeth put back in.

So the movie ends and I'm waiting for the credits to roll by because they have been putting cool stuff after them, like in Iron Man. His family stands up, and starts to head out and he's looking down at me a few feet away. I'm watching him with peripheral vision, ready to beat the fuck out of him if he takes one step towards me. I figure I have 125+ lbs on him, so in a grapple I could take anyone that small no problem. He thinks better of it and heads off with his wife and kids.
So nothing after the credits, I go to hit the head, and sure enough he's in there, on his way out. The dumb bastard barely come up to my chin! He's like 5'4" He moves to block my path in, and I look him square in the eye and shake my head. He wisely steps aside and collects up his two boys and leaves. I wash may hands to make sure he's not dumb enough to come back in.

If I was 5 years younger I would have beat the fuck out of him as soon as he talked to me in that tone of voice. Guess I'm wiser, and I do NOT want to jeopardize my class A application.

I hate people, I mean I am REALLY starting to hate people. I avoid stores like wally-world, target, etc like the plague. The mass of stupid humanity concentrated in such a small area makes me dumber by contact. I don't usually see movies opening night, I prefer to escape the heat during the weekends and catch the really important ones on the weekends during the day.

AAR: (After action report)
1) I kept my cool, and kept my tongue.
2) I refused to be intimidated, although if he was 6'4 I think my BP would have gone up a bit.
3) I was smart in waiting to make sure he didn't come back in while I was talking a (much needed) leak.

Any critiques of my behavior is appreciated. I tried to relay the event as impartially as possible.