so the good news is, someone from the Apple store called to tell me that he was working on the computer already. it was around dinner time, about 7:15pm or so. that is definitely faster than i expected. they haven't called to tell me that it is done and ready to be picked up. so... why call me to tell me that you have started working on it?

it turns out the bad news is that what he was calling to tell me was that i forgot to initial a checkbox allowing them to charge me one hundred dollars for diagnosing whatever was wrong with my machine.

omfg...

they are trying, really hard, to lose a customer.

let me put this another way.

they called me. during dinner time. to scold me. as though i were an idiot child.

i had to tell the poor guy who i unloaded on not to take it personally. cuz as i told him, "you are the fourth or fifth person i've spoken to about this issue and i'm really pissed off". just so he would understand that the undercurrent of anger on my side of the equation wasn't anything against him in particular. and then i directed him to the place on the form in question where a manager had initialed saying there would be no charge.

hello? anyone? fucking? in there?

his response? he said he was directed by a manager to call me up and inform me that unless i came in and initialed that check box, that they would not be working on my machine.

this is the part where i get surly.

un. fucking. believable. the sheer arrogance is completely astounding.

dear apple store managers, everywhere in the world, and especially in Tampa, Florida.

you do not get to call me up and harass me. ever. you don't get to have your "administrators" (or whatever you call them - geniuses? hahahahaha) call me up and tell me that from now on i will be required to initial that check box. let me fill you in, all you Apple store managers who are undoubtedly completely and blissfully unaware of this blog entry, that relationships with customers are just like all relationships. there is give and take. it is ALWAYS A NEGOTIATION. you don't get to set arbitrary rules, no matter how great your hardware is.

have you got that part? get smarter already. christ on fucking crackers.

i'm pretty sure that by the end of the conversation he'd said he was going to work on the machine. although i'm not 100% certain. i suppose i'll find out eventually.

how much worse can this get? i've been patronized by the good people at the Apple store for the last time. i can tell you that for sure. i'm really not sure at this moment what i'm going to do when i walk into their store to pick up the machine. i may walk out with my money back instead. not sure how i can even use the machine with any semblance of joy after this.

maybe i'm getting old. but it seems as though we keep lowering the bar, and lowering it further and further, and when we've got it lowered that far, we lower it some more. i want to teach people how to start thinking. i want to show them there is a better way to live. maybe that's arrogance on my part? i don't know. but i don't think it is.

last night my daughter read me "a couple of stories". she's doing so great with that. i am continually astounded at how many words she knows, and even words she isn't sure of, she often figures out very quickly. she is truly mastering reading. i'm incredibly proud. can you tell? so in between stories i said to her, hey if you get to read me stories, i get to read you a poem. so i did, and wouldn't you know it, i turned to a Rilke poem that kind of put things in perspective. here is an excerpt from The Man Watching:

What we choose to fight with is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great!

... When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.

my "triumph" over the situation with the computer definitely makes me small. i'm not sure there is even a triumph there. it's such a stupid thing. i ought to be out wrestling with angels instead:

If we would only let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

...whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

anyway. maybe that's the universe or god or whatever you want to call it (myself? or just plain old Rilke) telling me, i've got better things to worry about than this.