How Real is Reality TV? 

I like to watch certain reality TV show, mostly about cars (restoring, buying & selling) and home building. I've been quite lucky that I got to meet some of those car builders that I saw on MAX.

The first people I got to meet was Amanda and Joe Martin from "Iron Resurrection". they are based out of the Johnson City, TX outside of Dallas. When I met them, I had just finished watching Season 5, with two more to go. I asked if/when there was going to be another season, and they didn't know yet. They are about as real, and nice as you hoped they would be. I bought a t-shirt, which they signed along with a picture. I wanted to ask a million questions, but with a line of behind me, it was kind of tough.

Next up was Bill Carlton from "Texas Metal." His shop, Ekstensive is located in Houston, TX. Unfortunately, he didn't bring any t-shirts with him, but I did get an autographed photo. I asked him a couple of questions about the show, including when there would be another season. His answer was the same, that things were up in the air at WarnerDiscovery, and he had no idea when there would be another season.

One of my favorite home renovation show was/is "Good Bones." They had 8 seasons, and after looking them up on the internet, it turns out there is some personal turmoil going on. The show starred Mina Starsiak Hawk, and her mother Karen Starsiak. 

For all the seasons, they appeared to be a loving mother and daughter, but the truth is that during the last season, their relationship was strained, and now they don't communicate with each other. In additon, Mina and her half brother Tad also aren't talking, as she implied he was toxic and needed to work on himself.

What about the supporting cast of MJ (the designer), Cory (the project manager) and Auston (the all around construction guy)? 

There is a 3 episode season called "Good Bones, New Beginnings." The first episode is all about Mina closing her retail store, and wanted to sell the business headquarters. She and her husband Steve also bought a new home, and were counting on the money from the sale of the headquarters building to put into the new home. Unfortunately, that sale fell through, and she ended up renting it for 18 months instead.

MJ and Auston appeared in that episode, and no mention was ever made of Karen. I thought this was strange, and looked up was going on. Such family drama!

The next two episodes were all about Karen buying a home in Wilmington, North Carolina. Hmmm, what happened to her  husband Roger? It turns out they are getting divorced. Her intent was to retire there, but her son moved to Indianapolis, and took over her home, and Karen moved into the guest house over the garage.

So she didn't want to miss time with her family, including the new baby her daughter Kelsie has, she decided to split time between the two locations.

Helping her with the Wilmington house were MJ, Cory and Auston! These guys appear to be in the middle of mother and daughter, except for Cory.

So you have to wonder, what happened that was so bad that they are not speaking, and half the cast (Tad and Cory) aren't talking to Mina either?

Having my own problems with my late mother over the years, and losing a lot of time with her, I want to just yell at them to get over it. Doesn't Karen miss Mina's two kids as well?

So how real is reality TV?

Tattoo Life 

I got my first tattoo about 6 years ago for my late cats Domino and Daphne. It was very simple, just black with no colors. I had the heart, "D's" and eyes filled in this past March. There were no problems with it at all.

While I was in Florida for my mothers funeral in September 2023, I found a tattoo shop about 4 blocks from the hotel that had very good reviews. Since Jimmy Buffett died on September 1, and my mother died on September 9, I decided to get a tattoo to commemorate both of them.

Since Buffett fans are called parrott heads, naturally I had to get a parrott, along with a margarita. The bubbles are from his song "Bubbles Up" found on his last album, "Equal Strain on All Parts." I took it a step further, and put Mom, Dad and JB inside the bubbles.

I had that done on a Friday, and got home late Sunday. On Monday, I noticed some swelling, and redness. I got an appointment with a Primary Care Doctor at my regular practice, and lucky me, I had cellulitis. It's a very bad skin infection that can get into the blood and cause sepsis. The doctor gave me Bactrim, a strong antibiotic and it started to work within a couple of days.

In March 2024, I decided to add on to it, and went to a local Long Island tattoo shop. I also got a tattoo for my girls. The angel fish is for my older daughter, and the dolphin is for my younger daughter. They are swimming around a blue moon.

 

I added on the water, fin, beach and the lost shaker of salt. (IYKYK) Lucky me, I got cellulitis yet again, and instead of waiting for an appointment at the office, I did a video visit, and got a very nice lady doctor from an NYU office in NYC. She looked at the redness and agreed that I had it again, and gave me another prescription for Bactrim. It worked yet again, and within a few days it was all cleared up.

The third time's a charm, right? When I saw my regular PCP for my quarterly check up in September, I asked for a prescription of Bactrim, since I was going to get another tattoo in November. I added on the lizard, palm tree and flip flops, and on my left arm I put on a microphone since I was in radio and still do and internet radio show.

(Notice the lizard at the bottom left corner)

(There's the lone palm with flip flops on the bottom right)

(My 3" microphone)

After 2 days, they started to get red and swollen again. I took the Bactrim and had an allergic reaction to it! I got a rash in a couple of places, along with some sensitivity on my chest. I just can't catch a break.

I went to see the PCP who had helped me the first time, and luckily she didn't say "I told you so." She gave me a prescription for Amoxicillin 875 for 10 days.

After 3 days, it wasn't working, or so I thought. So she gave me Clindimycin which is a very powerful antibiotic. After 3 days of that, I woke up at 6:30 AM with a burning pain in my stomach. I drank some water, and woke up a couple of hours later. I took a Zantac and was better in an hour or so. 

I sent her a message telling her what happened, and I was going back on the Amoxicillin, which I still had 7 days worth. As of this writing, the redness and swelling has gone done considerably. If need be, I still have enough Clindimycin to finish it off.

Do you think I've learned my lesson? Yes indeed, no more tattoos for me. I can't go through this again!

 Mice Aren't Really Cute

About 11 years ago, we had a bit of a mouse problem. They seemed to be coming in from somewhere in the kitchen, and we had an exterminator come up, and for $400 he did a thermal scan of the house, and plugged up some holes with steel wool. 

Daphne the cat turned out to be a great mouser, and presented us with her catches. Sometimes we would find them under the bed, ugh.

But she ridded the house of them, and was quite proud of herself for doing that. You could tell how happy she was by the expression on her face.

So here we are again with a mouse problem, but this time they are in the basement. How are they getting in? I have no idea. I did put some steel wool outside under the back door and the side of the new porch to plug up some openings, so hopefully that will help.

My wife says she found droppings on the stove, but I haven't. You would figure with 3 cats, they would have caught some, but that hasn't happened yet.

I have set numerous glue traps in the basement, and they have done their job. I won't go into detail what I have done afterwards.

I just ordered some reusable traps and bait from Amazon, and am going out shortly to get more glue traps. The traps will go outside, and also inside, most likely in the bottom kitchen cabinets.

While I love Mickey Mouse, I hate these little mice that are invading the house.

Student Loans Are Legal Theft

When I was in college all those years ago, my student loan was about $10,000 which I had to pay off in 10 years, and the interest rate wasn't crazy high. I made that monthly payment and did the dance of joy when it was finally over.

These days, the interest rates are crazy, and I call it legal theft because of that. The students that are in debt over $100,000 because they went to medical or law school are working their butts off just to survive, and that debt will follow them for many, many years.

There's a very simple solution to this, and it isn't debt forgiveness by the government.

How about instead of having interest rates that are over 8% and compounding daily, make them low interest loans at around 2% that doesn't compound daily?

That makes paying off the loans much easier, and can end the predatory lending in that section of the banking industry.

My older daughter didn't take out a large loan, but the interest rate is making it seem like she did. 

This is the spot where the government should make changes. Forget about loan forgiveness that will never happen, just pass a law that has a ceiling for interest rates on student loans. 

A simple solution to a ridiculous problem.

 

Going To The Gym

 When I went on Medicare in 2023, (yeah, I'm that old) one of the benefits was a free gym membership through Silver & Fit, so I chose a gym local to me, that my daughter worked at the time.

She put my membership under my non de plume, and instructed me not to tell anyone there that I was her dad. Okay, fine. The only one that knew was the trainer she set me up with for a free introductory session.

When she left a couple of months after that, I let the cat out of the bag and told a couple of other people.

I am a person of habit, and if I keep doing something, I'll stick with it. A former manager once told me that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, and in this case it is true.

My days off for many years were Tuesday and Friday, so I made it a point to go to the gym on those days, and after a while, I started to go on Sunday as well. I like to get there around 11 AM, and work out for at least an hour. I'll get on the stationary bike for 20-30 minutes, and then go over to the weight machines.

I am not 25 anymore, (though my mind thinks I am) so I don't go crazy with the weights. Most machines I'll set to 45-60 pounds, and do 3 sets of 20 reps. There are a couple of machines I can't use, because of what is called "frozen shoulder." Both were affected years ago after my back surgery when I used a walker, then a cane. While I didn't have pain when I was using them, it was soon after that I gave them up that the pain happened.

Physical therapy helped, but I never fully recovered, and my right shoulder will never be at full strength.

About 2 years ago, I got my second shingles shot in my left shoulder, and boy did it hurt! That caused frozen shoulder, and yet more PT. 

So I have to stay away from several machines simply because they hurt to much. There are plenty of machines that I can use and an hour is enough time to get a full workout in.

One thing I have noticed at the gym is that people really don't talk to each other. There are friends working out together, but there's no conversations going on between strangers.

I was hoping to make a friend or two, and find a work out buddy. Unfortunately that hasn't happened, and I don't see it happening anytime soon.

No matter what, I've enjoyed my time there, and hope to keep it going.

The Drivers Wave

 How many times when we're driving do we see someone trying to make a turn into your lane from a street, a gas station, bank, whatever, and you are stopped and wave to them to go in front of you.

Do you expect a thank you wave in return? I certainly do, and when I get it, I wave back. When I don't get it, I say the word "dumbass" out loud in their direction. These days, giving someone the finger or yelling out the window is not the smart thing to do. You never know if that other driver is going to get mad at you and try to do something really stupid.

The wave is a show of courtesy, acknowledging that you did something nice. You also home that since you did something nice, the same thing will happen to you.

You want to get out of the gas station, and the light ahead is red. Don't you want someone to be nice to you and let you in? Do you silently curse the "idiot" that looked right at you and didn't let you go? I'll say "dumbass" again. 

My favorite is when you're trying to get on the highway, and those entrance lanes are fairly short. Your signal is on, and you're running out of roadway, hoping that someone will slow down enough to let you in, or move into the other lane so you can safely enter.

I'll try to move over as opposed to slowing down so another car can get in front of me. That's because the entering car is going slower than me, and then traffic behind me is going to have to slow down as well. With these moves, there's no wave involved.

A while back, as I was in the right lane of a three lane main road, I heard a honk to my left. If was a guy about my age, motioning for me to lower my window. As I did, he leaned over and said, "Have a blessed and wonderful day." I said thank you, and have a great day yourself. Why did he choose me? Was it because it because I was bopping my head to music in the car, or he felt I needed to hear it. Either way, I appreciated it. I don't think I would that, simply because you never know what kind of reaction you're going to get. 

In closing, it doesn't cost anything to give the wave and to be courteous. Try it sometime, you'll be happier for it.

Wither Customer Service?

 What the heck is going on with customer service these days? Is that companies are just hiring bad people, or good people are being little to no training in dealing with customers?

How about good training, but bad attitudes from burnout? Or bad training to good people that also get burnt out?

I just had an experience with a car dealers service center that left a bad taste in my mouth. Everything was good the first time around, almost. I had left a voice mail for the service manager, who never called me back. I finally got a hold of the assistant service manager who apologized, and said his boss was in the garage all day working on cars. Really? He doesn't make time to talk to customers?

So the assistant talked to me, and we made an appointment to bring in the car. The reason I was bringing it in to this dealership was because our regular car dealership claimed they wouldn't be able to diagnose the problem as their technicians were not as experienced. Okay, I can deal with that.

The new service center said the "after market" remote start was causing the problem of the alarm going off at random times, mostly at night. I told them it was installed by the dealer, so why was it considered after market?

Either way, they took it out, and installed some other parts. $757 later, the problem was solved, almost. Why almost do you say? Because sometimes the car wouldn't start. Ugh.

I made yet another appointment, and needed a loaner car. My daughter figured out what was wrong, and how to get around it. As it turns out, the button on the drivers side door handle wasn't working, and either were the buttons on the inside. I left a message for the assistant service manager, and he never called me back, so I didn't bring the car in. 

Hopefully our original dealer can fix it, and if not, I'll ask our regular mechanic.

The point here is why can't businesses deal with their customers in a respectful manner? If you get a voice mail, it should be returned as soon as possible. It's a turn off to NEVER return the phone call, and a great way to lose customers.

In my sales and management career over the years, I always endeavored to give the best service I possibly could each and every time, no matter how nice or annoying the customer may be. 

So I am very sensitive to the type of service I get, be it in a retail store, restaurant, doctors office or a service establishment. It can range from the absolutely fabulous to the downright awful, and I am not afraid to leave true reviews on Google Maps. The good ones usually get a nice reply, while the bad ones don't get a reply at all. Those are the ones that should be addressed first, addressing the problem and asking what could be done to make it right.

Okay, I'm off the soapbox now.