Compensation.....

Just a quick update on the "Amtrak Experience". I was FINALLY (after 3 hours on hold .... not making this up!) able to connect with Amtrak customer relations. They ended up giving us $150 credit for future travel to compensate for the bus experience. I thought that was more sufficient being as the train ticket from Chicago to Grand Rapids was only $25. I guess the rest was for pain and suffering...... :)
Now we'll have to see where else we might want to brave via train.......

In Closing........

Well, I can now put my RitzCamera ordeal to bed. The pending charges on my credit card dropped. Whew! I will now be MUCH more careful with "unknown" companies. It was a good lesson in patience for me. Those of you who know me know that patience is not my strong suit.
So, I guess now it's just hurry up and wait for OneCall to get theirs in again....."sigh".

The "Real" Me......

Ok, I'm honored to be included guys, but this is SO out of character for me..... :) Very few people know the "real" me.
10 things you don't know about me. Hhhhmmm.... Ok, here we go!

1. I sleep with a teddy bear. I always have. I know, FREAK!

2. I can't STAND poor table manners. People who make "noise" while they eat make me crazy. PS. Not only do I not want to hear your food, I don't want to see it either.

3. I didn't see the ocean until I was 19.

4. I don't eat at buffets. Yes, Lyle already knows this. That's just nasty though..... Hello! Some people are shorter than that sneeze guard thing!

5. I have 3 sisters. I'm the "responsible, solid, dependable" one.

6. I have a nice voice, but I'm too self conscious to use it in public.

7. One of my biggest fears in life was always disappointing my father.

8. I was a published photographer at 16. ( I did some product photography and in addition to my wage I got photo credit in a national magazine. No biggie, but at 16 it was pretty exciting.)

9. When I was 7 years old I had a stuffed Cookie Monster that I loved. He got really ratty and lost a "googly eye" and my dad finally made me throw him away. I would go out to visit him in the garbage can outside every day until Dad took the trash to the dump. I can identify with Jude and his "Baba". It's traumatic! :)

10. I am extremely shy and don't like crowds or social gatherings that require petty "small talk".

So, there you have it. Some things you didn't know about me! :)
I think I'll tag Shebly. I know they're out of town, but she can catch up when they get back. :)

"The Lens" continued.......

Well, the saga continues.
When I got home a few minutes ago I checked my email and found another message from Ritz Camera to call and confirm my order. In case you missed yesterday's episode, we've already been through this. So, I called them back and got some guy with an incredibly thick accent who said his name was "John". Last night I got "Daniel". Come on Punjab, you're not fooling anyone here...... I'm not racist by any means but I hate it when companies outsource and then their CS reps tell you, in incredibly broken English, that their name is something like "Matthew" "Brenda" or "Christopher". Like that's going to fool you into thinking that you haven't just gotten some mass call center in India. Yeah, ok....I'm fooled. Whatever. Why can't they just say "My name is Rajib" or whatever it is? Is that a mandate from their company? I kind of feel sorry for them, actually. Anyway, I got "John" and he said that we needed to go through this little song and dance again. I asked if my order had been processed yet and he said "No, it ship tomorrow." This is what "Daniel" told me yesterday. At this point I'm getting a little cranky. I told him that I had been told the same thing yesterday. He just repeated "No, it ship tomorrow." I asked to cancel the order and he said ok. I also requested a cancellation number and he said he didn't have one. Something about just checking the order status on the web site in a few hours. I'm not totally confident that "John" and I communicated, but I'm praying he at least understood "CANCEL" and got it done. I plan to watch that credit card and if I see a charge I'll have to put a stop payment on it I guess. At this point I really don't have any other options.
So, feeling a little better about the whole thing I hopped over to OneCall to buy my lens. Guess what........ON ORDER!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!! NO NO NO!!!! I have to believe it was an error last night on the site that said it was in stock. I'm on their list to receive an email when it comes in and I never heard a peep and now the status is on order again. This sucks!
In the mean time, I checked my credit card online and I see there is a pending transaction for $1800. I called them to stop it and they said I can't do anything until the transaction is processed by the vendor. They said if I canceled the order I should see the pending trans disappear in 2 to 3 days. You can bet I'll be watching that one!!!
I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now........ :(

I think I'm going to vomit.........

Ok. I can't decide if I'm going vomit, cry, scream or just slit my wrists right now and have it over with!!! What led me to this place? A bit of history.......
I've been chasing the Nikon 70-200mm VR 2.8 for 2 weeks now. It's been out of stock EVERYWHERE!!!! I've tried OneCall (my first choice), Adorama, B&H Photo, and The Camera Corral in CDA. On order, on order, on order...... When asking when they would be in stock again, the same answer. "We don't know. They're flying out of here like nothing we've seen." Ok fine. I'll wait and just keep checking. I have checked for them daily for 2 weeks and they're still "on order". I even tried to buy the demo lens at Huppin's but they wouldn't budge. I even offered to buy a D300 body at the same time (seriously, I would have). They still wouldn't budge. This lens is a sweet lens. I mean, I have never seen such a nice lens. The clarity and bokeh are BEAUTIFUL! Not to mention the solid construction. I MUST have this lens. It's not an option anymore. It's become an obsession.
So, last night I was reading some reviews on Ken Rockwell's site. He has a link on his site to Ritz Camera, Adorama and Amazon for this lens. Of course, I already know that Amazon and Adorama don't have one. I clicked on the link for Ritz Camera.........drum roll please! (insert light from heaven and the Hallelujah chorus here).......THEY HAVE IT!!!! It's even the same price as it was at Huppin's. Fantabulous!!!! I'll take one! Usually, I have to agonize over a purchase like this ($1800.00) for days, sometimes weeks before committing. BUT I've done my homework, I know the value and this is the lens for me. So, I bought it. Here's where it starts to slide. This morning I checked my email and I have one from Ritz saying that I need to call their 800 number to confirm my order. Huh??? Didn't I just do that last night? You know, that little button that says "CONFIRM". The one you push after you give them your billing address, your shipping address, your mother's address, your credit card number and 4 or 5 secret codes relating to your credit card, your home phone, work phone, cell phone, neighbor's phone....and on we go. I thought we'd been through this already. So anyway, I called the 800 to see what the deal was. The deal is that they don't speak English. No, I'm sorry, that's not English. If English speaking Americans can't understand you, it doesn't count. So, I muddled through that conversation. What they want is the customer service phone number off the back of your credit card. I've never been asked for this before. So before giving them the number I called my CC company and asked them if that was "normal". They said that for large purchases online some companies call to verify the funds and such. Ok, that's fine. However, in the mean time I'm surfing the web looking for consumer reviews on RitzCamera. Bad idea. Why do I torment myself like this???? It's about 50/50 good and bad, but the bad is pretty bad. But, no one else has this lens and I'm dying for it. So, I press on. I called back to confirm, gave them the cust serv number for my card and checked yet again to be sure it was in stock. Yes, it will ship tomorrow.
So, by the time I got home from work today I had really been stewing about it. What if they're a scammy kind of outfit? What if the lens is damaged? What if it ends up to be a big ordeal? What if what if what if.....? My only saving grace in the whole thing is that no one else has the lens in stock. If I just keep telling myself this it will be ok. Right? WRONG!!!! I came home today and checked OneCall, just to torment myself I guess....... IT'S BACK IN STOCK!!!! I checked last night and it wasn't there. AAAAHHH!!!! What was I thinking????? I should have just waited. So now, I'm hooked up with some unknown, sketchy place with customer service in India. I could have ordered it today from OneCall. I even could have gone down to the store (Huppin's) and talked to Doug, my favorite sales rep, and taken one home tomorrow. WHY? WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYYY?
I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it arrives with no further issue. This is all so out of character for me. I NEVER buy from places I'm not familiar with. Usually, I'll make a small purchase or two to check them out. If all goes well, I'll buy something more significant. I don't know what I was thinking.............just shoot me!!!!
I'll keep you posted.

The Amtrak Experience - Part 2

I must say that the trip home was pretty peaceful with the exception of a few minor issues. Let's get started.......

The commuter train from Grand Rapids to Chicago was quite uneventful. We actually had a few hours to wander around Union Station before boarding in Chicago. The first issue came just outside of Chicago. When we got going we realized that we had trouble. We had a lower berth this time. We THOUGHT that was ok. That is, until the banging began. These closets (see Part 1) have a 2 chairs that face each other that fold down into a bed and then an upper bunk that flips down from the ceiling. The upper bunk is the entire length of the closet. This means that it touches both ends. This also means that if things aren't snug, they bang on the wall by your HEAD!! The bunk in the room behind us was doing just that. If that wasn't annoying enough the door to the end room (on the other side of us) didn't stay closed properly. The occupants didn't latch it and so it would constantly open just enough to rattle against our other wall. Now we have banging on one side and rattling on another. But wait! There's more! There are 2 drunk, obnoxious guys across the hall who are quite loud and in the rattling door room there is someone playing some sort of wind instrument. Remember when you (or a sibling) were in 4th grade and you had those dumb recorder, tonette blowy things for "music class"????? Yeah, you know the ones! You could stand out on your porch (because no parent let their child blow these obnoxious things in the house!) at 6:30pm on a week night in any suburb in America and hear them tweeting away. It was like that. The odd thing was that the people in that room were all over 40 years old. Huh? But no, we're not quite finished yet because someone else in that same room had joined in with a stringed instrument of some variety. Yep, we have a regular gypsy band wailing away now!!!! This just isn't working for me!!!! Pull the call button!

When the car attendant came we asked him if there were any empty rooms above so that we could switch to an upper berth. Of course, we already knew that there were because you should never ask such a question without knowing the answer in advance. I explained the nature of the issue to him and he just glared at me and said, "Ma'am, this is a train. Trains make noise. That's just the way it is. I have nothing else." Excuse me? I'm not a TOTAL cretin! I didn't just fall off the turnip truck! I wanted to look at him and say, "What???? This is a train??? OH NO! OH MY GOSH! I was suppose to be on a plane! How did this happen??????!!!!!!! STOP! STOP!" PLEASE! So, after his incredibly rude outburst he DID make the banging bunk stop. At least that was something.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I'm very easily annoyed.....sounds, smells...little things that most people would probably be ok with. Not, me. I'm thinking....praying really, "Dear God, whatever I did to deserve this, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it.....whatever it was....please, I beg You, have mercy on me!!!!" Moments later the attendant appeared at our door with a whole new attitude. AND AN UPPER BERTH! Hallelujah! We're saved! Once we moved rooms, things got much happier. Until supper...............

They called our reservation so we mosey'd on down to the dining car. I know, you can't really "mosey" on a train. It's really more like stumbling, staggering and careening. At any rate, we arrived. This time, we were seated at a table with a young woman and her brother. Ok, what I THOUGHT was a young woman and her brother. The boy was 11 and the young woman, who I assumed was a sister, looked to be about 15 at first glance. As we sat there it became clear that this was a mother and son. She could have been as much as 30 when you really looked at her. Oh man, I'm getting OLD. People look younger and younger to me every day! So, let me just set the stage..... The mom/sister has limp brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, is wearing a polo shirt and a pair of mens jeans. The boy is 11 with short cropped "summer hair", large ears, a mass of freckles and the hugest bucked teeth you have ever seen. I see major orthodonics in this poor kid's future. Big old Chiklet bucked teeth. We're not talking about a year of braces, we're talkin' the full meal deal here.....4 years of braces, the headgear thing, the massive rubber band treatment........ I know I probably sound like I'm horribly mean, but I'm just trying to give you the full picture here. You know how it is at that age......a kid's features get all weird on their faces and their teeth seem enormous and out of place. My sisters and I affectionately refer to it as the "ugly stage". Some kids have to stay there longer than others. They hit it at about 9 and start normalizing again around 14. Most kids completely grow out of it as they mature. I'm pretty sure this kid will not. If this kid had dirty, bare feet and overalls with no shirt he'd be right at home in Arkansas or the mountains of Tennessee. No offense to those from the south, but you all know the stereo type. We, in Idaho, have been dubbed with shaved heads, no indoor plumbing and swastikas and you have moonshine, overalls and bucked teeth. It's only fair. I'm sorry, that's just the way of it. I didn't create the stereo type, I'm just utilizing it to make a point. :) So, we're sitting at the table with Billy Mack and Ruby Sue and I'm not kidding you, this kid looked at his mom and said, "Mama, do ya think they gots chicken and taters? I want some taters Maw!". Oh Henry!!! These people were fresh off the porch! We're talkin' chicken eatin', banjo pickin', porch sittin' genuine hill folk! Unfortunately, they didn't have "chicken and taters" on the menu. The closest they had was an herb roasted 1/2 game hen with a baked potato and steamed veggie mix. The meals come with a salad which they bring out first. This kid sticks his hand in his bowl and picks out the 2 cherry tomatoes and shoves them in his mouth and just devours them. Then he ate the ones in his mom's/sister's salad. Rodd is allergic to tomatoes so he picked his up with his fork and asked me if I would like it. Billy Mack practically jumped over the table and said, "Aw wunt it!!!". Oh heavens! Has this child NO manners at all? As we soon found out, that was just the case. No manners whatsoever. He then picked up his half a game hen and proceeded to gnaw on it like some sort of mongrel on a bone. It was absolutely disgusting. I have certainly seen my share of ill mannered children in my day, but this kid tops it all. Dear me......is dinner over yet? Get me out of here!!!!

The next day was pretty quiet. We just lounged around, read and hung out in the closet. Things were hum-drum until after dinner that night. Enter, "the aroma". "The aroma" was akin to something you would smell wafting up from an outhouse. Now, I'm not talking about a nice, clean April/May sort of outhouse. Not the kind when the weather is cool and they've been freshly pumped and all is well. No, no....not that kind of outhouse. I'm talking about the OTHER kind of outhouse. Those of us who travel know it well. It's the July/August Forest Service/National Park Service outhouse that's been used all summer and has been baking in the 95 degree heat for the last 2 months. Yep.......the one that's so full it's mounding up out of the hole. I'm not making this up.......... I've actually seen them. It's not a good thing. I've found I can hold it for a REALLY LONG TIME!!!!! The human body is an amazing thing. Anyway, back to "the aroma". It's now filling our entire car..... Where is it coming from? It's not coming directly from the bathrooms because I wandered down there to check it out. Is it seeping from some holding tank? Did someone have a bean and cabbage burrito for supper???? Are the people in the next closet storing dirty diapers in there???? What the????? BUT never fear, we came prepared! Before leaving home we soaked cotton balls with essential oils and put them in plastic bags to haul out on just such an occassion. We also brought a travel sized bottle of Febreeze. Generally I can't stand the stuff, but if the choice is between flowery smelling poop as opposed to just regular poop, I guess the floral kind is slightly less offensive. At first it helped considerably. We had to "fling them" around a bit to release the scent but you do what you have to. After about a half hour the poopy smell had completely overpowered our scented oils. Oh my, how much farther???? All of a sudden this is the never ending ride home! For the rest of the ride home the smell lessened but then would return in full force. We tried to nap off an on by placing the cotton ball on the bed right next to our noses. This was somewhat effective, but not entirely. At least that didn't happen until the last half of the last day.

The moral of the story.......... If you think you might like to take the train, do it. I really enjoyed it and would do it again in spite of the minor disturbances. It was fun and fairly comfortable. Get the closet. It's worth the extra money. Don't go coach. There isn't enough deoderant in the entire world to combat what we encountered there. DO NOT get a lower berth. If you are assigned a lower berth when you receive your tickets, call Amtrak. Request a change. The lower berth rooms on a Superliner are 11-15. DO NOT get the rooms with the private bathroom right in your closet. A.) The can is right by your head when you lay down. I guess if you get the flu and need to both lie down and vomit at the same time, you're in business. Unless you plan on that, skip the private toilet. B.) That area of the car smells like poop ALL the time.... Not just at the end of the trip. ALL THE TIME. Bring something to repel the smell....just in case. You never know. It might not stink at all. Our trip east didn't. It might smell like that August Forest Service outhouse. If it does, you'll thank me while you're inhaling through your orange and clove soaked cotton ball.

So, take the train and enjoy your Amtrak Experience!

The Amtrak Experience - Part 1

It's been a while since I've posted anything........ Life just gets away from you sometimes.

Rodd and I just got back from our first "Amtrak Experience". I had to travel to Michigan on business and we decided it might be fun to take the train. I know, we have warped ideas of fun. Our trip was about 40 hours each way, boarding in Sandpoint, Idaho at 2:30am on Sunday the 18th and ending the eastbound trip in Grand Rapids, Michigan at 10:30pm on Monday night. The eastbound trip was relatively uneventful. We originally had a lower berth but when we boarded they told us that they had needed to move us upstairs. Fine. Whatever. We don't care.
The food was pretty decent although I can't say as much for the service. We had breakfast while skirting Glacier National Park. That was pretty cool, but the waitress was horrifying. She was completely demeaning to the other members of the staff and she was less than friendly to the patrons. Other than her, the dining experience was fine. You share a table with 2 other people, which being the recluse that I am, was not fabulous, but hey......it's the Amtrak Experience.
The "roomette", which will henceforth be referred to as "the closet", is about 3 ft wide and 6 ft long. I was a little concerned about claustrophobia, but it really wasn't bad. The bottom bunk is much less offensive than the top. Remember when you were a kid and you took that summer vacation in the 1960's camper? And you sat up one too many times in that "over the cab" bed? And you thumped a knot on your melon the size of a large lemon????? It's not unlike that..... HOWEVER, I have slept in worse places so I'm not complaining. It was MUCH better than being stuck in coach. What IS that smell........? We'll get to that in a bit.
The route from Idaho to Michigan is a very northern route and much of it is Montana and North Dakota. It's a little brown and drab, but I must say they have some fabulous "junk" photo opps. Of course you can't take advantage of them because you're stuck in the closet flying by at 70mph. There really were literally 100's of old rusty cars from the 20's - 50's along the edges of the fields by the tracks. There was also an oddly large number of appliances....... Appliances??? Hhhhhm. I don't just mean 2 or 3 old stoves. I'm talking, like, a LOT of them.....stoves, fridges, hot water heaters..... Not any houses or towns for miles around but appliances...... I don't get it. How did that happen? I can only imagine..... It must have gone something like this, "Well Henry, it's too bad about that appliance warehouse goin' belly up and all. What do you think we should do with all of these left over appliances? There sure are a lot of em'. I know, maybe we could just haul them out to the back 40,000 and scatter them along the railroad tracks. Nah, that ain't litterin'. No one will even notice if we spread them out a little bit. Yeah, from here to Minnesota would be good." Huh???
When we finally got clear of the plains and into Minnesota a bit we decided it might be fun to check out the observation car. We were traveling along the Mississippi at this point but it was on the opposite side of the car from our closet. The observation car was about 6 cars back from us. On the way back we had to pass through 2 coach cars. I wasn't prepared for the sensory assault that met us there! WHOA!!!! I suppose you have to keep in mind that this train originates in Portland. By the time you hit Minnesota these people have been almost 3 days without a shower.......and these cars must seat at least 50-80 people. AND the windows don't open. You do the math! Wow....hurry through those cars. After braving the stench we didn't even get to see the river anyway because the only available seats in the observation car were on the same side as our closet. Oh well.....back through the stench!
At LaCrosse, Wisconsin we were delayed for track work for about an hour. By the time we reached Chicago for our transfer we were an hour and a half behind schedule. Guess how much time we had to catch our next train? .........that would be negative 10 minutes. Yep, just missed it. BUT never fear, they're calling Greyhound!!!! Oh horrors! Now I've been on a Greyhound bus and have earned the right to say that. If you've "gone Greyhound" you can sympathize. So, they shuffled us off to a little room to wait while they "make arrangements". Whoohoo!! The bus is waiting on the curb! Let's go see what we've got! You know those nice big fancy tour buses that take the elderly tour group to the casino to lose all of their social security check? Yeah? Well.....it wasn't one of those. This one was more like the old hotel shuttle bus that is so dilapidated that the hotel simply can't duct tape it back together anymore. However, they didn't want to pay to have it towed away so they donated it to the inner city youth program because "it's for a good cause". "Oh yeah, you can HAVE it...Yep, for FREE. Just come and get her!!!". This thing made Greyhound look like a luxury line! We're talking black smoke rollin', fenders flappin', windows rattling, funky smelling, steaming pile. AND the driver was missing more teeth than is acceptable. I know, I'm awful, but I'm just trying to paint the picture for you here.
We all (there were probably 18 of us) piled into the "charter bus" where we proceeded to wait for another half hour before we could leave. I haven't a clue what the hold up was. When we got on and sat down I made the mistake of not paying close attention to my seat selection. If I had been paying attention I certainly would not have chosen this particular location. Yes, it had what may have seemed like a redeeming quality at the time. It was next to an emergency window exit so that when this rolling dung heap spontaneously combusted we'd have a means of escape. However, what I didn't realize was that a.) this exit window was loose in the frame and was going to rattle, bang and leak cold air for the next 3 1/2 hours and b.) I picked the hump over the wheel well!!!! AAHHH! How could I have been so careless? I'm a seasoned traveler and generally speaking I'm very cognizant of such things. What an IDIOT!!! So, here I sit...riding "the hump" from Chicago to Grand Rapids...... holding the emergency window closed for fear it might fall out, freezing my patootie off with my knees wrapped up around my ears. Oh God, please make it go by quickly!!!
There was some poor older woman (she said she was 70) sitting in front of us who was also freezing and had to go to the bathroom since leaving Chicago. Rodd graciously loaned her his jacket, but there wasn't much we could do for her on the other "issue". When we finally arrived in Holland, Michigan she mentioned again that she really needed to use the restroom. Rodd had gotten off the bus to stretch his legs a bit while the "Holland" passengers disembarked. He walked away from the bus a few steps and found our semi-toothless driver urinating in the flower beds!!!! How gross!!! What's up with that??? He can't stop so that Granny can use the restroom but he's taking care of business in the tulip bed at the train station!!!!! Amtrak will be hearing from me....... After the driver got back on the bus I asked him if we could make a restroom stop at a gas station for a few minutes. Poor Granny was honestly going to wet herself. He grudgingly conceded, but the lady sitting across the aisle from me absolutely blew a gasket!!! Now, I understand, we're all tired, we're hungry, we're sick of the bus, we're pissed because we missed the train etc. But come on, this poor 70 year old lady needed to use the restroom!!!! It'll take all of about 5 minutes! Anyway, we stopped and the few who were going to take advantage of the restroom went inside. Granny went first and headed back to the bus. Next there was a lady traveling with 2 little boys around 5 and 6 who needed to go. I stayed in the gas station to watch her kids so that she could use the restroom. Back at the bus I'm missing all of the fun. "Blew a Gasket" is growing increasingly pissed off. Granny told Rodd, "If she even says ONE THING I don't like, I'm going to tell her she can mark off a spot and kiss my you know what!!!!" Rodd said that the "blew a gasket" lady started yelling about how long it was taking and hollering for everyone to get their butts back on the bus and blah blah blah. She came off of the bus and headed for the gas station to herd everyone back. Granny was close on her heels telling her she can't talk to people like that. "Blew a gasket" told her, "I'm not even talking to YOU!!!!". Granny said, "No, you're talking to my friends!!!!" (Meaning Rodd and me). They continued to argue until I put my arm around Granny's shoulder and gently steered her back to the bus. She looked up at me and grinned and said, "Isn't that funny how we just became fast friends????" I was laughing my butt off. The rest of the ride to Grand Rapids was fairly uneventful, but Granny hinted that she'd like someone to wait with her while her ride came to pick her up. She was a little scared of "Blew a Gasket" now. Of course, we wouldnt have left her standing at the bus station in the dark / cold at midnight anyway.
We finally settled in to our hotel room at around 2:30am Tuesday morning. Whew! What a day!!!!
Stay tuned for Part 2!