May 17, 1989
Dear Everyone:
You have no idea the drama that’s been going on on my telephone answering machine!
I got home from work a couple of weeks ago, and there was a long, tearful, rambling message from a Mrs. “L” about how her husband was in trouble with his creditors and she needed some advice on what they could do. The situation was desperate, this is an emergency, please call back RIGHT AWAY!
(May 18, 1989: It was at this point yesterday that the entire system went down for all of my lunch break and most of the afternoon. Fortunately, I have Autosave built into my Profile, so I didn’t lose what I’d already input.)
Two things were evident: 1) Mr. And Mrs. “L” were in some serious trouble; 2) Mrs. “L” dialed the wrong number.
So I called her back and explained that she had left her message at the wrong number. I really felt sorry for her. Here the poor lady had been waiting by the phone all day, expecting someone to call and give her the advice she needed, and all the while the message is sitting on the wrong recorder.
Having done my good deed for the day, I promptly forgot all about it.
Last Friday Mrs. “L” left another message on my machine. She had hand-carried (something unintelligible) to the lawyer’s office and left it with the secretary just before the secretary went on her vacation. She wanted the lawyer to send her a written reply, but DON’T send it to her home; send it to the “church address” – addressed to Mrs. “L” c/o Pastor “R”. And also, what can they do about her husband’s landlord has told him to vacate the office because he hasn’t paid the rent, but the landlord hasn’t given him an eviction notice YET. Husband is very upset; Mrs. “L” has been crying again.
Mrs. “L” didn’t leave me her phone number this time. And I hadn’t saved it from the last time because I honestly didn’t expect to hear from her again. Silly of me, I guess. I tried looking it up, but there were too many “L”s and none of the numbers looked familiar.
So I went to the yellow pages. First, I tried looking in Credit, since I know the problems were financial. No luck. But I did learn that while there are lots of companies eager to help you get INTO debt, there are very few that specialize in helping you to get OUT of debt. Not enough money in it I suppose.
Then I went to Attorneys of which there are MANY. I ran through these, focusing on JUST the phone numbers. And I found him. Mr. “M”, telephone number “555”-1550. My number is “555”-1559. Then I went back to Mrs. “L”s message and this time I could make out the lawyer’s name. It was, in fact, Mr. “M”. I called the number, but got no answer. Not surprising that a lawyer’s office would be closed at 7:00 on a Friday night. And Mr. “M” does not utilized an answering machine, a fact that has escaped Mrs. “L”s attention.
So I waited until Monday morning and called Mr. “M”s office. Knowing that his regular secretary was on vacation, I explained everything very carefully to the temporary secretary, spelling each thing out. She wrote it all down and, presumably, Mr. “M” got the message and Mrs. “L” will get taken care of and I hope her husband doesn’t hit the roof when he finds out that she’s been seeing a lawyer behind his back.
In other news…
The local fabric store sent me a “preferred customer” card. Each time you spend $15 or more, they check off a box on your card. When four boxes are checked off, you get $5 off whatever you buy the next time you make a purchase. The logic here is: Spend $60 in order to save $5. In America, it’s not how much you spend that counts, it’s how much you “save”.
On the other hand, they also sent coupons for 25% off all fabrics and 15% off all notions purchased within a two week period. And I had been thinking that it’s about time I made some new suits to wear to work…
So I went out and bought $120.18 worth of stuff. Saved $5.00, too.
On the plus side, this means I will get two suits for about $60 each. Not bad when you remember that these are custom-tailored. On the down side, a suit takes about two weeks and a lot of enthusiasm to get made. I feel a sewing frenzy coming on. My only hope is that I can get the bathrooms cleaned before it hits this weekend.
Not a lot to report about work (that’s as interesting as Mrs. “L” and sewing). “Rowena” and I have been testing some enhancements in Owner History. This is a database that “links” appropriate organizations together. “Holtz” calls it a “rat’s nest”. I call it the blind leading the blind in a search through the coal cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there.
Love, as always,
Pete
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