Things I Do Not Understand

Ahhhh....a nice day for bloggery.

Recently, I received a wonderful letter from my bank offering me a credit card. It had a rate which I could not refuse. And it wasn't a teaser rate. AND they wanted to know what I wanted my limit to be. This is all true and good. So, I transfer (without any fees, high rates, etc.) my other two credit cards with much higher interest rates to this one and attempt to close the accounts. One did, no issues. But Capital One just will not let it go. I've e-mailed, called (and all I got were sales pitches, hung up, tried again, same shit and hung up) and now have written. I keep getting low percent (for 6 months) offers, convenience checks and offers of higher credit limit. Ya know, you should have done these things to keep an 11 year loyal customer happy instead of raiding my billfold every month with your high interest rates. Fine, I'll accept your offer if Jessica Biel personally delivers it to me.

That goes for DirectTV, too. Oh, thanks for the free movie if I buy one. Thanks for the $100 credit if I talk a friend into getting your service. How about a free month of HBO and Cinemax? Or half price NFL Network? The day I figure out how to stream a few shows via Roku or other means to my TV, your ass is gone, too. You think they could come up with something better to reward their long term customers.

Next, I start getting these Home Energy reports from CILCO. First, I don't give a rat's ass what my "efficient" neighbors are spending on energy. Two, I don't give another rat's ass what my inefficient neighbors are spending. Three, I don't care that you want to challenge me to use 5% less energy than last year and I'm failing. And lastly, I REALLY don't give a flying bag of horseshit about a "Community Savings Goal". What the hell is that? Yet, you B-E-G me to go with paperless billing but you send me this stupid report, for which I do not remember requesting, IN THE MAIL!!!! How about knocking a few bucks off of my bill each month instead? Then I might meet my "Community Savings Goal". Blech.

I don't understand gasoline prices. How the hell can mid grade (89 octane) cost $3.29 in Peoria, but $3.14 in Pekin and Manito (which was still $3.04 in Manito until yesterday)? Are taxes so high in Peoria that there is a $.15 difference? And this isn't right now...it has been like this every since gas went over $3.00 a gallon. Well, whomever is responsible for all the taxes in P-town, I buy my gas elsewhere, too, now. So, brainiac tax raisers, follow along if you can. You raise taxes. People look for the cheapest price. You don't have it and they buy elsewhere. So, now you have a big % of 0 sales where you used to have 8% of sales of some number. Now you have LESS money than you did. Got it?

I see that Mike Smith is still running for State Representative...or that is what the big honkin' sign at the corner of Rt. 29 and Pfeiffer Road in Bartonville says. Maybe he is getting a jump on the next election. Maybe all this wind will finally knock the damned thing over.

And finally, I've decided I'm going to change the color of my checks. Apparently they are the wrong color and it offends the Peoria County Collector who tells the street department guy not to have his guys plow my street this winter. I mean, what else could it be?