Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Mike CHS]

I think most of the folks that participate on this forum actively aren't a good example of what is going on the the "news cycle" world or at least they realize that it isn't reality. You didn't insult anyone but most if not all weren't going to cross the line to start name calling since we don't do that. I have been on here a long time and I have seen more people stand up when pushed rather than join in with the pusher.

 

[Bruce]

I know you have Asperger's and you are honest in your thoughts and speech.

Wouldn't it be an interesting world if more people did that (in non attack mode of course!). There might be a lot less misunderstanding in the long run. I very much appreciate Mr. STA's critical thinking and analysis.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I very much appreciate Mr. STA's critical thinking and analysis.

Thank you, Mr. @Bruce!

 

[Finnie]

@Senile_Texas_Aggie , I think you deserve some

For your leather sofa, your Gator, and your concern that you offended your friends.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @Finnie,

Thank you for the encouragement! That means a lot to me!

I hope that he has a good life also. Sad that he has just left altogether.... and some people are just not "animal oriented". That is one of the things that I was trying to impress on @Senile_Texas_Aggie when he said that maybe they ought to get animals for their place. START SMALL and make sure that you really like them......

(from the post located located in the thread My garden)

Thank you, Miss @farmerjan! You have been a fount of wisdom for me, as well as for many others on this forum.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

Not much happening here. Earlier last week my Beautiful Gal and I worked along the edge of the woods east of the driveway when her favorite tool, the pole saw, started causing her trouble. I was driving the tractor and was grabbing brush and limbs with the grapple as she cut them down. She waived for me to stop and come see what was wrong. She said that the pole saw was acting up, that it would run briefly and then stop. The battery level indicator showed about 3/4 charge left. I checked the chain to see if it was bound to the guide bar and it was free to turn. I then swapped out the battery with a fresh one and tried it again. The chain turned briefly and then stopped. Smoke came out from the motor area. Apparently the windings in the motor had failed. Since it was a Kobalt brand, which is a Lowe's private brand, I decided to drive to the nearest Lowe's in Fort Smith ~35 miles away to get a new one.

When I got there, the guy behind the returns desk looked at my receipt and my extended warranty (I bought a 2 year extended warranty at the same time as the pole saw). He told me to go find a replacement pole saw, which I did. When I returned, he was busy with another customer but asked one of his associates to take over. She looked at my paperwork again and said that she could not replace the one that failed with a new one from the store because the model had changed. Instead I would need to call a number which she provided, talk with the folks there, and that they would handle it. I have had another pole saw fail before and then Lowe's didn't give me any hassle, I simply got a new one from the store. But not this time.

The next day I called that number, which was for Lowe's extended warranty, and after waiting the obligatory 20 minutes or so on hold, I finally talked to someone. I provided her with all of the requisite info. She then told me that because the pole saw was still under factory warranty, I needed to contact the vendor. Keep in mind Kobalt is a wholly-owned private brand of Lowe's. It seemed crazy I was having to call another number, but, oh, well. After calling that number and again being placed on hold for over 10 minutes, a recorded voice interrupted the hold music and said that for faster service I could send an email to ascs@lowes.com to file a claim. So I hung up and then sent an email to that address, providing all of the pertinent info.

On Friday around noon I received an email in response saying that that I needed to provide either a scanned copy or a photograph of the receipt. I didn't feel like getting out my scanner, so I simply took a picture of the receipt, attached it to the email and tried to send it. That's when the fun began. Three times I tried to send the email and three times Thunderbird (my email client software) complained that the mail server timed out. Because I sometimes have flakey cell phone service, I thought that may be the cause. But after 3 times trying and failing, I decided to use the web to try to send the email. Logging into the web version of the email, I then composed the same email, attached the picture of my receipt, and hit "send". The mail interface sat for a bit and then responded with the error message "No internet". "Huh? You email server are the internet, or at least a node on it." I then looked into the sent folder and saw 4 copies of the email, the 3 from Thunderbird and the 1 from the web interface, with time/date stamps close together in time. So I don't know if I sent the email to ascs@lowes.com 4 times, or if the email never got sent. I have yet to hear back from Lowe's, but that may be caused by it being late on Friday when I tried to send the email and no one had time to look at the claim prior to the end of the day. I guess I will find out tomorrow.

So I am a bit disappointed that Lowe's simply didn't exchange the inoperable pole saw with a new one. We have owned or still own a total of 6 of these Kobalt pole saws. Most of the ones that have failed did so because of damage we did to them, usually by having them in the back of the Gator and then catching the ends of the saw on a tree as we passed by. Only one other has failed due to pole saw itself failing. Besides the one that failed last week, we have one other functional pole saw where the shaft is bent (where we accidentally ran over the shaft with the Gator and bent it), but it is awkward to hold. And since we put these saws through a lot of work, certainly not the typical suburban homeowner usage, I can hardly complain. But Lowe's making go through this hassle to get a replacement certainly is a disappointment.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

When I was kid growing up in Northeast Texas, we had a rare snowstorm that dropped barely enough snow for me to make a snow man about 2 feet tall. I got a baseball cap and put on top of the snowman, which completely covered the top of the snowman. I then called my mom and two sisters to come out and look at my snowman. When they did, they started laughing at the pitiful sight. I got mad at them. My mom took a picture and she saved it in her photo albums. We always laugh now when we talk about that, but it wasn't funny to me at the time.

I tell the above story because the pictures I am about to show are similar to that snowman. These are pictures of the colors we had recently here in western Arkansas. Compared to the fall colors that Mr. @Bruce had in Vermont, Miss @farmerjan had in the Blue Ridge mountains area, Miss @chickens really had in Alberta, Miss @thistlebloom had in Idaho, and Mr. @Mike CHS had in Tennessee, then they will compare to those colors the way my snowman would to a real honest-to-goodness snow man. Nevertheless, here are a few pictures of the colors we had here in western Arkansas.

Sweetgum trees on our pond dam:

Ridge behind our house:

Sweetgum and sycamore:

Sweetgum:

And this song is just because I am feeling nostalgic:

Senile Texas

 

[farmerjan]

I see nothing wrong with the colors of fall in your area. Different trees different colors.


Love John Denvers' Take me home.....

 

[thistlebloom]

We actually don't get lots of colors right around here. it's mostly pine woods, very little hardwoods except in town where the color trees have been planted. You have lovely land and your trees are pretty as they are.

 

[rachels.haven]

Hey, and it's hard to make a snowman where it doesn't snow much! That probably took MORE work than it would up here. But I bet your temps were more comfortable than they are in the winter up here. Everywhere has its perks and drawbacks.