MEADIOCRE

Holy moly – look at the last time our lazy asses posted to this stupid blog – November 2010.  So a good 7 months have passed since we last shared our wisdom with both of our readers.  A lot has happened in those 7 months.  I won’t bore you with the details – I’ll just bore you with the highlights.

• We have since moved from good ole central Georgia up to good ole northern Virginia
• Some parts of Virginia are just as redneck as some parts of Georgia
• The wife is having a hard time finding employment
• We still haven’t sold our house in Georgia
• It’s expensive to live in Virginia
• Handling a mortgage and rent with less household income sucks
• Oh – and most importantly – our oldest boy shit in the woods behind our house

Last week, Jake came running into the house with his pants mostly pulled up – his butt was just hanging out.  He informed us that he just couldn’t make it into the house and had to go behind a bush.  He proceeded to describe in detail how it happened – way too much detail.  He even noted that after the evacuation was complete “a fly landed on it”.  And just in case this blog is still around years from now, here is his picture so that any future girlfriends will know what they are getting into.

Although he did crap in our yard, he’s very talented with some aspects of music.  He doesn’t actually play any instruments – yet – but he’s pretty good with putting loops together.  We’ve had our iMac for over a year now, but just started playing with the Garage Band software.  If you’re not familiar with the program, it has several beats, loops, etc from various instruments that you can arrange to make your own music.  It also lets you record your own instrument, but we haven’t gotten that far yet.  I’ll leave you with the music he made on the first day playing with Garage Band.

Jake’s Song

So I had the fun opportunity of dealing with our electric company today.   Fortunately, it was actually for a good thing – a refund.  However, it brings you down to earth knowing that the ‘refund’ was actually your money to begin with – they just thought it would be nice to overcharge you for several years and then finally give it back to you.  They obviously knew how to spend it better than I did.  Come to think of it, our power company is comprised of a bunch of socialist pigs.  You know, I heard that power companies in 1930s Germany routinely did this sort of thing……ahh, Godwinned in the first paragraph.

Back in June of this year, I received a letter that a refund was in order.  It seems that they accidentally over charged me for the last three years – or so I think.  While discussing the issue with the Energy Service Rep five months ago, I mentioned that I had moved into the house in October 2005 – so why did the refund only go back until June 2007?  I was told that he would look into it – which I doubt he ever did.  Back to the present day – I received another letter from Georgia Power saying that in addition to the refund I received five months ago, I would be receiving an interest payment based on the original refund amount (credit where credit’s due – I tip my hat to Georgia Power for first notifying me about the original refund and secondly applying an interest payment to that refund).  However, this is where things go somewhat south.  The recent letter rekindled my interest in the reason why the refund only went back three years when I had lived at the house for five.   After calling the customer service number printed on the letter, I asked that very question.  I was told that the Georgia Power standard was to only look back three years.  I asked – and was informed – that it was not a law, but rather a company standard.  After mentioning that overcharging someone for five years and only refunding three years was an extremely bad business practice, I received a change in tone from the once friendly customer service supervisor.  She ever-so-charismatically informed me that all of the rate information is public and it is my duty to figure it out.  I understand where she was coming from.   However, if the wrong rate was charged from the day I began the service, then how am I supposed to know that the rate was wrong – to me, that is just the rate I was charged.  If my bill ever skyrocketed, then I would’ve checked the rate and most likely would’ve noticed a difference.  But that’s not what happened.  And the rate table on the Georgia Power website is not that intuitive.  First, there is the base charge.  Then different rates for various blocks of kilowatt-hours – and the rates change depending on the month.  Then there is the ‘Demand Side Management Residential Rider’ and ‘Fuel Cost Recovery’ fees that are added in – and those aren’t listed anywhere that I could find.  So it wasn’t just as simple as working backwards from my bill to calculate my rate.

The bottom line is – be aware.  If you have Georgia Power – and probably any other power company – be aware of your rate.  Call customer service, check the website, just make sure you’re not being overcharged.  If you are, I hope that it started within the last three years or you will be screwed in the bottom.  To paraphrase an entire SNL skit, it won’t be so bad if they ever disconnect my power – I like the lights to be out WHEN SOMEONE IS DOING SEX TO ME!

UPDATE 3 DEC 2010: I recently filed a complaint with the Georgia Public Services department.  They said that the complaint would go to the Georgia Power executive board and they would make a final decision (short of taking it to court).  I don’t quite understand why they would have the final say – but today, after a week and a half, Georgia Power informed me that they will be reimbursing me for the entire 5 years.  Thank you Georgia Power.  It’s unfortunate that it had to come down to this for you to make it right, but in the end it worked out.

VERY NSFW LANGUAGE – F-BOMBS GALORE

One of the greatest videos that I’ve seen in a while.  Real?  Maybe not, but I like to think so.  The first thing to note is that this is supposedly a female.   Shocker, I know.  I thought it was a guy the whole time until it referred to itself as a “her”.  Apparently, the backstory is that it was bullied out of WoW (World of Warcraft for you people that actually get laid).  And now it wants revenge!  Or some pie.

WOW Gangsta Threatens Ex-Guildies – Watch more Funny Videos

So the boys demanded that we go to their school’s talent show last night.  I normally don’t take orders from people that think it’s funny to place their bare testicles on my bed.  However, since all proceeds went to Relay For Life to support the fight against breast cancer, I couldn’t say no.  The cafeteria housing the talent show soon filled with annoying people, most of which apparently think showers are optional luxuries.  But it’s about the kids, right?  Right?  Then why did they have Pre-K students dancing to R. Kelly songs?  Is it only 14-year old girls with a hankering for golden showers that should be worried?   But out of all the blandness that an elementary talent show has to offer, one act stood out.  One girl twirled a hula hoop to music while doing mundane things such as eating Cheez Its , drinking water, and even crocheting.   Not overly entertaining, just very random things all put together into one masterpiece.  Bravo, hula hoop kid. You have a whole lot of meadiocrity (see what I did there) to look forward to in your long and meaningless life.