We’re set for the holidays here… got the tree up. This year we down scaled on the tree just a bit, although there was no savings to be found from opting for a smaller tree.

We went up to the tree farm some of our friends have and choose a wonderfully shaped tree and cut it; $35. We went around to the shop and chose a wreath for the front door; $35. Not to bad! The we proceeded to head down the mountain… hit one rock, flattened two tires; $500. Had to hike multiple miles on a brisk winter day on that mountain to find a cell signal to call for a flat bed wreaker to tow us to town; $100.

The good news being we got the tree, the wreath, and it was about timie to start thinking about new tires! This year, we’re riding around on our Christmas Present to ourselves!!

It occurred to me this morning as I was going through my morning routines… the sunrise isn’t until 6:30. As I walked the dog I took note that the phlox has finished blooming and all the shrubs have finished their summer show. The only things left in full glory are the nettle, silky dogwood, and goldenrod.

This week we’ve noticed quite a dynamic shift into cooler temperatures… although we may approach 80 degrees a few more time prior to the winds of fall blowing out the warm glow of summer for the final time.

We have fallen into that typical summertime pattern of rain every afternoon. Quite frankly the pattern is more of a deluge of rain every afternoon!

The good news, and best news from this is we should be almost out of drought conditions here in the mountains! With the position of El Nino out in the Pacific, I suspect we shall also see a bit more normal winter weather this year too!! I do so look forward to the potential of some good fluffy snow falls!

As for business… the rain doesn’t help, but with any luck it is setting us up for a splendid fall with dynamic color and lots and lots of tourists this fall!

I’ve mentioned previously that our shop’s name is Christopher’s Wine and Cheese. I’ve also mentioned that the most common question I get is “Do you have cheese too?”

Well, with warm weather I prop the back door open and people happen through the shop…passing the cheese refrigerator to come to where I’ve positioned myself to ask me if I sell cheese. I decided to alter my greeting to a generic form of “Hello, is there anything I can help you find today?” as people walk in giving the opportunity to ask for the cheese location, typically yielding a “No, we’re just looking.”

My response to the browsing declaration typically is “Make yourselves at home and find the wine and art throughout our entire shop and the cheeses int he cooler at the very back of the shop.” I thought that was pretty obvious…until today.

The couple walks in and I realize there is no sale going to happen as they will not even acknowledge my presence when I greet them. I proceed with my normal level of enthusiasm and explain where the wine, art AND cheese is located. They as expected leave and go next door and as they pass the door on their way by the man looks at my sign and asks his wife if she saw any cheese as he didn’t.

I think there is a certain snobbery that causes people like him to pay no attention to the rest of the world and other people along with a certain self-induced indulgence that allows them to never realize how much of life they simply miss because they can’t get their head out of their ass.

Hopefully, most of us tend to regard others with  more esteem than that andtreat others as human, and pay attention to the world and value for what it has to offer. Now all I want to do is go home and play in a  mud puddle after a nap!

I took Bella out for a walk the other morning as the rains had slowed to a mild trickle and rather than total saturation, I would just be misted. In all reality as we walked to the end o the road it seemed that the rain was letting up entirely. A few brave birds were out and about, the chipmunks and squirrels were at full speed collecting anything their greedy little jaws could snatch.

One of the issues with the propertied we’re at is the lack of maintenance on the road; potholes the size of a small lake bed. After the heavy rains of the night they were all filled to the brim and the water was amazingly clear with a layer of silt over laying stones and rocks that glistened like treasured jewels as the light danced in these mini-lakes.

In the background the sounds of rushing water around the bend of the river drowned out the noise of the modern world and gave respite to a brief moment of introspection.

Of course, bella being the beast among canines that she desires to be decided those mini-lakes were the perfect size to run through; wetting her peds and splashing water up to stun me back into the reality that another day was just ahead.

I think I’m going to try something different for a while. In my attempt to get back into writing as I should, I’m going to try to post shorter thoughts and blurbs from the day for a while. Hopefully, it’ll be a good exercise and get me back into the mose of thinking and writing.

This afternoon a lady walks into the shop flustered, rushes to the back of the shop and returns to the front where I am at. She exclaims (to me of course) “I’m trying to find my husband have you seen him?”

I reply that I”m not sure as I do not know her husband, nor what he looks like.” She describes her husband, what he is wearing and her young daughter that is with him. I tell her I’ve not seen any one with a young child as she describes. She bustles to the back of the shop again and returns exclaiming, “He’s really not here; where would he be?!”

I need a drink.

Needless to say it appears that the main vacation I’ve taken is one from taking care of this blog. I realize it is somewhat sad to neglect something as therapeutic as writing from one’s mind and heart, but alas…. I am guilty of that.

However, to sorta give you the short run down …We escaped in March to a gathering of innkeepers up in Massachusetts. It was a short, but much needed escape as it is among the dead time of our tourism market here in the high mountains of NC. While there, we closed the wine shop, and forwarded our phones to the cell phones. We’ve neglected replacement of our dilapidated laptops and instead opted for the iPhones as they are computer capable it seems. Well, while at this gathering, a phone call comes in for a very healthy wine order… of which there was no way to  price out without being in the shop.

Hence, upon our return to the sleepy little village of Blowing Rock I emailed the gentleman the pricing and shipping information. He readily replied for an order well into the thousands of dollars with his credit card information inclusive of that little three digit code on the back of the card. I went ahead and ran the card; and as I hit that little “OK” button on our system both Scott and I had a gut wrenching feeling that something was simply wrong. I called my merchant bank and had the transaction “frozen” until I could call “VISA” and verify the card.

If you’re one of those who think our bailing the banking system out as taxpayers was a good idea; please keep reading. The guy at the “VISA Hotline” scoffed at me that if I ran the card and it went through there was no issue and I should not be calling them. I hung up and thought, “They ought to know!” Yet, the gut instinct was still there and I called back and asked first up for a supervisor who also spoke to me, as a merchant, as though I were an idiot for calling. At this point I asked for the head of their little toll-free card verification hot line. This lady actually asked me for the”account” (card) number and the street address, the zip code, cvcc number, and the name given for the card…. none of which matched.

RATS

She then transferred me over to the “fraud investigation officer” for the bank where the card was issued. OMG — f-’ing idiot bitch! She actually would not call the rightful cardholder to let them know their card was being used by a thief! Her idea of an investigation was:

1)Have the merchant, me, go to the police department and file a report;

2)Go to a notary public and have the report notarized;

3)Fax her the report on a fax machine that I don’t have and no she wouldn’t take an emailed PDF file,  & yes I did ask;

4)She then would fax a “request for investigation form” back to me on that imaginary fax machine;

5)I would then have to fill that form out, go back to the notary and get it notarized;

and 6) Then fax that form back to her on my imaginary fax machine.

I did some quick math and figured I would spend close to six hours doing that just to get her to call the rightful card owner… mind you that’s six hours I would have to lock the doors and close up my shop guaranteeing no legitimate sales!

I politely told her what I really thought of her bank and that process and declined to participate in such hypocrisy. I then called my merchant bank back and relayed the aforementioned story; they graciously reverted the card charges and did not charge me the standard fees for the transaction and refund!

However, it did take about 4-5 weeks to get things straightened out and receive normal deposits from the merchant bank. I was ok with that as they had covered my ass ina really bad situation. However, my local bank decided to take up to a week to deposit the transfers of cash from my merchant bank as there had been such an issue with the stolen credit card. they are still taking up to 3-4 days to post my deposits. It has been a mess.

My vacation from blogging has been filled with the realization that when dealing with utilities, banks, and such there is one definite rule of thumb that works, “Use short sentences, and small words… usually about four letters.”

Overall, we survived the winter and spring without severe injury. Just the school of hard knocks for a few lessons we should have already known.

Part two of Vacations will soon follow —– I promise!
Shalom (from a Baptist kid!)

I used to find the Farside cartoons very delightful and humorous. However, these days I’m discovering they are a bit more frightful than funny.

Among my favorite was the one where a kid was trying to enter the door for the school building for the gifted students; pushing with all his might to open a door labeled “pull”.

This is one of the most clear and decisive reasons that cartoons now scares me. I sit in my shop and watch untold numbers of people that try to push the door open. Most of them push and push and push till they’re frustrated and then they stick their greasy nose on the clean glass to look inside, when they see me inside they start pounding on the door to get my attention. You know, it must be locked as they can’t figure out how to open it… although the door knob is unlatching as they’re trying to push a pull door open.

The most amazing part about these people being that when I do get to the door to open it for them… it’s nearly impossible as they won’t move out of the way and block the door from swinging open more than about two inches and are rather put out that I won’t let them in still.

People, you can’t live with them and you can’t (legally) shoot them.

Well, the laptop is “sort of” almost kinda fixed; except it’s still not working really. In the end, I can power it up, manage to get online, but have to re-install all the programs.

It’s defunct and will sooner than later be in need of replacement. In the meantime, I’ve to find all my disks and hopefully, all the certification keys to re-install programs that I can actually function somewhat more than I can at the moment… In the meantime it’s mostly work and organization with whatever means  can muster.

I suppose the good news is the cell phone just had to get replaced too… decided to opt for the iPhone. it makes me feel much less hostage to the laptop for our internet business affairs.

Well, I’m off to the land of the junked up front bedroom to see if I can discover the lost discs of office, photoshop, etal.

Well, it’s not too shocking that it occurred again. My machine is having technical difficulties and has crashed. I’m trying to re-load programs back so I can get back up to speed; in the meantime, I’m taking a technology holiday I suppose.

Soon I’ll return with my typical vengeance!

-C