A Glimpse Into My World
A blog of commentary, stories and events

Last night I watched the 7th and final episode of the HBO Miniseries “John Adams”. While I’ve been intrigued and educated through the entire series, it was the last episode that gave me the most insight into the man himself. I attribute that to the fact that it covers the last years of his life, out of political office, spending time with his family and reflection of the history he helped create.

I know that television and movies cannot present the whole of 60 years of history in a brief 8 hour miniseries, but I have to say that this particular miniseries made a good attempt to pick the more important and insightful points that give the character of the overall. Adam’s relationship with his wife was well explained and the careful line an intelligent woman has to walk was subtly explored. Using quotes from the actual exchanges between Adams and Thomas Jefferson during the last years of their lives gave a brief but true view of their thoughts on what they had accomplished. (Interestingly, both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826 - the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.)

The miniseries also adequately portrayed the stresses of the times. Contrary to the visuals seen in epic movies about the founding of America, in “John Adam” we saw more reality - bad teeth, worse medicine, illness, long delays in communication, long absences, hard work and lots of mud. We also saw the ravages of aging during that period, and in that aspect I think the movie was stellar. One critic I read mentioned the tar-and-feather scene and said it was “gratuitous nudity” because the guy was stripped before being tarred. I don’t think so - it was shown basically the way it happened at the time, which was far more violent and brutal than most things in our lives today.

Life then was hard. Men like John Adams, who risked their lives, family and health to fight for something they believed in, touch me profoundly. It takes courage at a level we rarely see today to stand your ground when only a few agree. Those men didn’t know they were creating a new country that would become the greatest nation on earth .. they didn’t even know if they would be successful or arrested and tried for treason. They just did what they felt they had to do, with honor and integrity. I admire that very much.

I hate tax day. Like many (maybe most) Americans, I seriously resent the time and effort I have to spend to file taxes every year. Filling in the forms has gotten easier over the years with e-File and programs like TurboTax, but even with that I spent over 6 hours putting together my taxes last weekend - and that doesn’t count all the time through the year tracking income, expenses, inventory and the like.

What would it be like track my business and personal finances from a viewpoint of management, not taxes? Easier, no doubt, and probably more financially sound as well.

There is a system that could replace the income tax fairly -A National Retail Sales Tax. It’s simple, the infrastructure for collecting sales tax is already in place in all states except Oregon and New Hampshire. It’s fair, taxing only on the money you spend - not the money you make. Since most people spend a large portion of their income anyway, the tax collected would be in the same range, plus it would tax illegal income (drug money, for example). If you save money, then you don’t get taxed on it. It’s a win-win all the way around.

I don’t mind paying a tax to support the government. Even though I have some issues about what they do with the money, there are plenty of benefits and services provided that are of value. What I don’t like is the intrusion that allows the IRS to look into my personal life. A National Retail Sales tax removes that.

I wonder how much more production we’d have in the country if people could make money without fear of someone looking over their shoulder, and if the we could remove the potential of guilt, sneaking around, lying, afraid-to-be-found-out, and fear of audits from the population as a whole?

I invite you to check out the National Retail Sales Tax, and if it looks fair to you, to support it however you can.

I posted before about my sad experience with United. I wasn’t sure I was going to use the $150 coupon they gave me, but I did. And everything seemed to be fine … for a while.

I made reservations for Jere and I to go to the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild Annual Conference in Burlington, Vermont at the end of April. Of course, since one flight was regular fare it had to be booked on-line and the one with the coupon booked differently. Actually, all that went smoothly.

So there I was, thinking everything would be fine and I got an email notification (two of them, actually, one for Jere and one for me) saying that our schedule had been changed. Fair enough, at least they let me know. BUT, they changed us on to different flights!!

That necessitated a call to United, which went south in a hurry. I ended up spending over 40 minutes on the phone, of that about 20 minutes was on hold. The agent tried to put us on a flight together (the “only flight available”) that would have given us an 8 hour layover in Chicago. No way.

I kept asking and asking for something better. Finally while I was on hold for the 3rd time, I went to United on-line and looked up the possible flights. I found one that would work and then told the agent to book us on that one … which amazingly enough had seats for both of us.

It’s pretty easy to gauge how BAD the United agents are when I, the customer, had to figure out a solution by going online!

The good news is that we DO have flights and, being the glass-is-half-full kind of gal I am, I am hopeful that we will actually arrive reasonably on time. I certainly don’t want to miss the Chinese dinner out we have planned for after we arrive!

In the beginning of June I went to Burlington, Vermont. My trip back, on June 8th was probably the absolutely WORST travel experience I’ve ever had. It wasn’t because my flights were delayed by weather, or because I ended up having to spend the night in the Chicago airport, or even because my luggage was slightly misplaced in Portland. It was my trip from hell because of really, really, REALLY lousy customer service.

I understand weather is sometimes unpredictable and planes can be late because the weather is terrible somewhere else and that screws up the whole system. When that happens, I expect the airlines to be understanding, informative and, if necessary, provide at least blankets and pillows for those who end up stranded in the airport.

However, on this June day, the United Airlines staff were uninformative, unhelpful and apparently didn’t give a damn about the passengers. We were ignored, blatently lied to and treated like cattle. I spent about 4 hours in line, routed from one place to the next, without EVER talking to a customer service person. And when I finally did, I ended up with someone who didn’t know anything at 1:30 in the morning and unable to get back through security … so I slept in baggage claim!

After I got home (very, very pissed off), I submitted a customer service complaint online and wrote a detailed letter (read the full letter ). Tried faxing that to the Customer Service fax number, but it was disconnected. When I called, I spoke to someone in India who gave me a different fax number - also disconnected. So I mailed the letter United’s President and CEO, Vice-President and COO, Senior Vice President, and Customer Service Manager.

In response to my on-line complaint, I received a form letter saying “we are currently experiencing a high volume of emails, so please accept my apology for not being able to respond with a more personalized reply.”

On June 21st I received a letter from “Customer Relations” with a $150 coupon towards a United Flight. I still haven’t decided if I will ever fly on United again … even with the coupon.