what's cooking?

Anyone who knows Steve and I also knows that we are not spenders, we rarely buy even something off of our grocery list on a whim and we only want what we're entitled too in life.

That said, here's this week's rant:


Steve bought himself a new smartphone around Thanksgiving.  It had a lot of promos, etc. that went with it.  Headsets, covers, gift cards, discounts-you get the drift.  Most of these items were done separately between the phone manufacturer, the store he bought it through and a promotion company.

Three weeks later, he finally received one of the 3 promotions.  He had tried numerous times to get this one company to update him on the other two submissions status.  Only once did someone e-mail him and let him know that so many people did this purchase that they were over-whelmed with trying to put through all of these e-cards/codes.

The problem?  The only time you could use these were between 12/15-12/31/15.  That and that no one has ever updated him (despite that the website says they will be giving weekly reports), returned an e-mail (save the 1st one) or answered a phone.  The store says that they have nothing to do with it, the manufacturer's message center is so full that the phone just hangs up and the "prize" company is ignoring everyone, evidently.

My feeling is this, we have all become so attached to our electronic toys that all of the sellers, makers and promo companies feel we should be over the moon if they actually go through with what they have offered to get us to buy the latest and greatest version of what we had.

As much as I use my phone-sometimes I just love to put it out of sight and go totally old school.  Yes, rather than help Steve type out yet another request to find out where his packet of stuff is, hold on to the phone waiting for someone to answer or type out this rant, I prefer going to the library and getting a book to read, go to the magazine section and pick out a new crossword puzzle magazine or just go sit out on the patio and watch Lucky sniff every paver in the yard.

It takes less time, it's less stressful and in the end my day is far more pleasant. 

Many people suggest a day to "unplug"-personally, I'm all for it.  I don't need to know every little move everyone makes, the latest rumor going around or even what's bugging the heck out of everyone else.

So there.