Some of My Heros (family excepted)

Since this is public and could be used against me in a court of law, I will cut to the chase.

Not all of my heros are popular for various reasons.

1.  The Lone Ranger - my first hero ever.  I didn't go to kindergarten because of family hardships.  When I was in the 1st grade The Lone Ranger TV show came on at 3pm.  I got out of school at 3:10pm.  I would run home (about 2 blocks) to see the last half of all the shows.  Some days I would be crying.

2.  Willie Nelson - I have loved Willie since 1976.  Wish he could have been in my family instead of the step-dad I had.  Willie has given away millions of more dollars than I will ever make.  I am also proud of his efforts for Farm Aid.

3.  Bernie Sanders - I was raised to vote for the man, not a political party.  (That's the way my Mom was.)  For most of my life I've been a registared Independant.  A few times I've been a Republican or a Libertarian.  I changed to Democrat last voting season so I could vote for Bernie in Kansas.  Enough about politics.

4.  Jim Rockford - The outside of his house looks a lot like mine, but the inside is safe and warm.

5.  Roy Rogers - Made me always want to be a cowboy.

6.  Dave Whipple - Been to Alaska way more than me.  I'd be jealous, but I'm happy for him.  I've been to Alaska, too.  I loved every minute of it, even with the bad times.  Once I dropped my brother's new expensive fishing pole in a fast moving river  on a float trip.  Once we stripped down to our underwear to dive and swim across a narrow river.  I forgot my glasses...they went somewhere down the river.  I got bucked off my sister-in laws big black horse and had to walk her back home because I couldn't get back on her.

David and Brooke Whipple have 2 websites.  Bushradical.com and GirlintheWoods.com  They are both top notch people with great websites.  If you like Alaska or just good people, they are for you.  I have so many Alaskan memories thanks to them.  They'd be the first to tell you I have bugged them too much.  Sorry guys.

Hum...who else...the late Freddy Powers.  Great songwriter and performer.  He worked a lot with Willie and Merle.  He has some youtube videos you can find.  Whenever I'm feeling blue, his stuff somehow cheers me up.

That's it for now. 

Ps: Dave and Brooke are most likely the only people that can spell sovereighnbohemian.  It came to me m a dream.  Just use sovbo like I do.  Peace  

My favorite music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAiPsZRZNOI

Waylon,Willie, Johnny, and Kris

Happy Father's Day

This is my first post in years.  I tried to call my older brother, Randy, to say Happy Father's Day.

I didn't get him on the phone, so I thought who else could I call ( I'd been up since 5:40am and it was 8:45am).  Things then got weird.  I went down the list of my best friends.  No Dads, no Fathers, only guys that help me from going crazy because I am a father.

I was going to call Dave;  nope.  I was going to call Dan;  nope.  Tim;  nope, Lynn; nope, Gary;  nope.  Made me think twice about my life choices.  I have no regrets.

Happy Father's Day to some internet people I know are fathers:  Brian Brushwood, Joshua Brown, Evan Ewing, Randy Linderman, Travis Wilson, the happy rabbit in my back yard (well, not really).

The Josh Brown Chronicles...Part 3

My site has finally been a newer, healthery, ....oh what the hell...my site isn't anything healthier than it was in 1976.  I don't know Josh Brown, never met him.  He is called The Reformed Broker.  (I am sure you can find him on the internet.) 

Josh Brown took a vacation in 2013...oh, no!  Enjoy your time off, Josh.  Thank you sincerely, Josh.  I am wealthier now than when I met you online 4 years ago.  Or 3 years ago.  I am getting old, so I don't worry about it.

Sovbo

Verizon saves my bacon

I've had a Verizon Prepaid Wireless account for several years.  I got it to satisfy a former employer's requirement that I be on call 24/7.  Otherwise, I was happy being untethered and cell phoneless.  The good part was I was being paid $720 per year to cover my cell phone costs ($60 per month).

Not ever having a cell phone before, I studied all the companies and all the plans.  I decided to go with a prepaid phone to start with.  I was mainly concerned with coverage here in northeast Kansas.  At the time, Alltel fit the bill.  I could get a year of service for $100 which included more minutes than I would ever need for work.   I paid 15 cents per minute.  My service renewed on Valentine's Day.

My prepaid account grew more each year.  Did I mention untethered?  Hold on, I thought you were going to talk about Verizon.  OK, here's the scoop.

Verizon bought Alltel a few years ago.  I am now a Verizon customer.  Each year I renew my account at Valentine's Day with another $100 for another year of service.  This year my account had a balance of $417 worth of unused minutes.  Guess what.  What?  I was late with my renewal which meant my account was closed and all unused minutes were lost.  Talk about a bad Valentine's Day.  I'm still not sure why that was the day my account started either.

After being sick to my stomach all night for waiting until the last minute, and then being at work until Midnight, I felt like a perverted Cinderella.  I slopped my dripper (any Archie Campbell fans?).  Anyway, I got online, logged in to my account, and submitted an email with my delema. I renewed my account the next day knowing I would be starting over with $100 worth of minutes.  Then I waited, and waited.  After 2 weeks, I figured I had been blown off.

I finally logged back into my account.  I was already feeling stupid, but I thought I'd try one more time to contact customer support.  I was ready to get the run around or just plain "you screwed up".  I got on their online chat.  I had to wait about 5 minutes to chat with Charlotte.  But it was worth the wait.  I explained things again and she gave me an 888 number for somebody to talk to to.  She made no promises, but thought something could be done.  Thanks, Charlotte, whoever you are.

I called the 888 # and got even more help.  I talked to Matthew.  I explained things again.  Matthew put me on hold twice while he tried to help me with my problem.  Matthew deserves kudos from my experience.  He couldn't have been more patient or more nice.  He submitted a credit for me, and said a decision would be made within 72 hours.  I said I'd check my account in 72 hours and thanked him for his help.  He said 72 hours is the longest time, hopefully  I should know before then.

The first day, nothing.  The second day, boom, I am credited $415, boom, da boom, boom, boom.  Thanks Verizon!  You didn't have to do it.  But, a big thanks, and especially Matthew for not trying to make me be on the defensive.  I can see being a Verizon customer for life.  My late New Year's Resolution is to put my Verizon account on autopay.  I don't like Autopay because it is sometimes hard to stop the withdrawals.  But Verizon saved my bacon.  Thanks Matthew.

And thanks to the unnamed supervisor that gave me back my minutes.  I'm now sitting on $500 worth of minutes.  It feels good.