March 31, 2009
My wife and I had just a bit of chaos to deal with tonight. Okay, “chaos” is a strong word, but I guess I see anything that interferes with my writing routine as “chaos.” What happened was, we had trouble with the garbage disposal in the kitchen. The disposal backed up, the water in the sink wouldn’t drain, and we had a real mess on our hands. I tried hitting the reset button on the bottom of the disposal, to no effect. Got my hand in the disposal to make sure there was no blockage, plus turned the blades manually in case they were jammed…still nothing. Called tech support in India, and they told me to use an Allen wrench inserted in a hole on the bottom of the disposal to free the blades. That didn’t work, either. Finally got a correct diagnosis on our second call to India: the sink was clogged, and we needed to plunge it. Whatta ya know, it worked! But by then, we had crap everywhere, plus the filthy toilet plunger was in our kitchen sink (remind me to buy a plunger just for the kitchen!), plus I lost about an hour of writing time. But it all worked out. I still managed to get my Daily Grand, so that’s all right.
And it reinforced my appreciation of Indian tech support people. No, really! Sometimes, there’s a language barrier…make that an accent barrier. But it has been my experience on almost every occasion that Indian tech support people are unfailingly courteous and patient to a fault. Even tonight, when I mouthed off to the second service rep (“So it’s my sink, huh? I guess your equipment never breaks down, does it?”), I didn’t hear a single cross word over the phone line. I don’t know why they’re like that, but I’m grateful. We could take a lesson from them, and I mean that sincerely!
Now for today’s photo. This one’s from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in August, 1998. Wish I were at the beach right now, in fact. Is Spring ever going to get here? See you tomorrow!
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 1998
