Veseventures

I hate to admit it, but I may have jinxed my daughter's car. There, I said it, but it needed to be said. Better you hear it here first, than from my daughter, though she might have a word or two to say about it. Okay, a little back story here. My daughter, M.H., her husband B., and daughter, G., moved back to the area from Rhode Island last summer. If one is going to be technical about it, M.H. and B. moved back here; G. is moving here for the first time. No matter, they're here. They'd been here for not quite two months when their old car died completely. Nothing like the smell of burning rubber, followed by a loud boom , a large poof of smoke, and a blown engine in the middle of a major intersection to announce its demise. This was followed by the purchase of a scooter so that M.H. could at least get back and forth to work. Cute as the scooter is, as well as good on gas, it is not exactly designed for hauling around a family of three. At least, not all at the same ...

Q: How do you make God laugh? A: Tell Him your plans. Yesterday was one of those days where it seemed nothing was going as planned, or, at least, not much went that way. At this point in my life, I should be used to that. You go and make these great plans - or maybe some mediocre ones, but plans, anyway - and the universe and God laugh. Several of the artists who'd had studios at Salt Creek Artworks were having an open house at their new studios/buildings. Salt Creek Artworks closed last year; it's a rather long story, but the punchline is that the economy didn't help. There were meetings with the city of St. Petersburg in the hopes of finding a place where the core group could stay together in one place. There were several members who, for whatever reason, wouldn't be making the move with the group. One artist moved out of state; another lived in Tampa and, when it became apparent that Salt Creek would close, decided to stay closer to home. The reasons for lea...

Is it just me,or does it seem that customer service is somehow disappearing? I mean, seriously, whatever happened to the customer is always right , or, You want a refund because this isn't working? No problem! Okay, here's where I'm coming from: I bought an external hard drive for my computer. Got it through a company (based out of New York City) that I've done business now for several years. They have great customer service, and are sooo not the problem. They have a 30-day warranty on certain products, which is reasonable, especially if it's from a company that has its own customer service department that should technically pick up on any problems after that 30-day period. I plan to continue to use this particular company, since they are incredibly good. Note: Okay, if you're wondering, it's B And H out of New York City. I highly recommend them. Their website is http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ . And in case you're wondering, no, I am not getting...

There are certain things most of us take for granted. One of those things is that if someone has any kind of medical knowledge, whether it's basic first aid (and I'm including knowing CPR here) or the most knowledgable, skillful doctor, and a person in proximity to that person suddenly needs CPR, the knowledgable person will help out. If, for some reason, he or she can't help, that person will summon help. While waiting for EMS to show up, that knowledgable person will either do CPR and/or get a nearby person to help with it. That is what most of us would hope for. So, what is with the nurse in the California assisted living facility who, last week, allowed an elderly woman to die, rather than start CPR on her? In case you're unfamiliar with what I'm referring to, here is a link to the story from the LA Times ("Nurse refused to give CPR to elderly woman who later died"): http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/nurse-refuses-to-give-cpr-to-elderly...