Category: Uncategorized

Defective Flip-Flop

Subject: Defective Flip-Flop – Request for Assistance

Dear Reebok Customer Service,

I am writing to express my disappointment with a recent purchase I made from your brand. On June 18th, I bought a pair of Reebok flip-flops, which I was looking forward to using throughout the summer. Unfortunately, I have encountered an issue with the product.

Just a few weeks after purchase, the toe strap on the right flip-flop broke, rendering the footwear unusable. Given Reebok’s reputation for quality, I was quite surprised and disappointed by this defect, especially considering the minimal use they have seen.

I will let you decide how to make this right.

I’m less concerned with the outcome about my flip-flop complaint than I am in making a statement of dissatisfaction regarding the decline in quality I’m seeing in your products and those of other brands. If this statement falls on deaf ears with you, I have hope that it may have a small impact via social media, where I post the letters I write to companies.

I don’t find it acceptable to make an inferior product knowing that it will fall apart and assuming that the consumer will just buy another. I’m not doing that. Now I will throw these flips away and the machine will have to turn, making another pair and contributing further to the decline in the habitability of our planet. But it won’t be me who purchases them this time.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Jay Larson
3219 370th St
Stratford, IA 50249
jay@jaylarson.com
515-709-3114

Food Delivery Service Dilemmas

Every once in a while we all get tired of cooking and cleaning up afterwards and want to eat food prepared for us in containers that can be discarded. And many times after a long day, the thought of getting dressed and going to a restaurant isn’t so appealing either. Food Delivery services like Uber Eats and Door Dash have been a nice alternative and especially handy when traveling.

For those in urban areas, this is a great way to get a nice hot meal delivered fast. When in a remote area, a recent experience has left me with the conclusion that perhaps it isn’t such a good idea to even offer it.

I’m staying at a campground in South Central Georgia. The nearest town is 10 miles away with a very limited choice of eats. About 35 minutes away is a city of decent size with choices that Uber Eats indicated would deliver to me.

My choices were Dairy Queen, Red Lobster, Wendy’s or Subway. I wasn’t in the mood for fast food, but I don’t eat fish. I ended up going with Red Lobster and choosing their sirloin steak, some garlic linguini, a caesar salad and a chocolate cake for desert.

When I ordered at 630, the estimated time of arrival was 7:25. At 6:45 it had jumped to 7:35. Then I got a notification that it was delayed and would be there at 7:55, almost an hour and a half from when I ordered. I wasn’t too upset, knowing the distance between the campground and the restaurant.

The food ended up arriving at 7:45. The food was horrible. The fries were soggy and cold. The meat was not cooked properly and was cold. The cake lacked the ice cream described in the description. The pasta had shrimp in it which wasn’t indicated when I ordered.

I paid about $50 for this meal and was left with a bad impression of Uber Eats and Red Lobster. What should change here? Should I as a consumer expect less having a delivery a log ways away from the restaurant expecting that it be substandard? Should the restaurant or Uber Eats invest in technology to keep the food hot and fresh? Or should this service just not be offered when the distance is so great? Not sure of the answer here, but I’m not a customer of the service any longer.

5 Simple Rules to Un-Fuck Congress

Rule #1: Term Limits.Representatives and Senators should have a limit of 2 terms and then give up the seat for someone to have their voice heard.

Rule #2: Congress men/women get paid the median salary in their state. If they want to make more money, then they can work to raise the median salary in their state. This would make them understand the people of their state.

Rule #3: No more travel to DC or oversees travel. There is no fucking reason everyone has to be in the same room in this day and age. We have the technology to do this remotely. These people are representatives of their state, they should be staying in their fucking state rather than traveling to Paris with the taxpayer footing the bill.

Rule #4: All bills voted on should be single issue bills. If a bill can’t pass on its own merit, then it shouldn’t pass.

Rule #5: Anytime a member of Congress speaks in the media to the American people, it should be assumed that they are under oath, and can be charged with perjury for lying to the American people.

These 5 rules would un-fuck congress.

Hideaway

I’m definitely liking my new strategy of staying in one place for a longer period of time rather than jumping around each week.

After Lake Meadows in Missouri, I spent two weeks in Canon, Georgia at a campground called In the Woods. It’s a private, membership based campground that sits deep in the woods in the mountains of North Eastern Georgia. The road to get the campground was narrow (single vehicle), dirt and covered by trees and bushes. A bit intimidating for me but I made it in and out.

The coyotes howled each night and boy they were loud and close. The campground was a mix of short term, medium term and long term campers and there was a definite sense of community there. Very helpful and friendly folks and nice surroundings.

I think I’ll be back.

After Canon, I headed south to Collins, GA – again pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I had previously reserved a spot at the Hideaway and of course arrived late. They kept the office. open for me and once again I set up in the dark. Getting pretty good at that.

Like the campground in northeastern Georgia, this one too has great community. It is run by a guy and his mother, and they have really made a nice spot. There are several areas with RV sites, tent sites, and big motorhomes, and they also have several cabins and a bunk house that can be rented. There is a pool, a hot tub, a community club that opens as a bar on the weekends (more on this later), laundry facilities and several showers.

There are residents here that started out as campers but didn’t want to leave so many people are here full time. They have a bunch of activities that they put on (just got back from a pot luck today) and damn Georgia likes to decorate for Christmas. There are more lights here than Vegas, I swear. It’s pretty set up. Liking it so much that I booked an extra month here which will have me here from October

Interesting fun fact: The county I’m staying in doesn’t have any bars. Well, except for one. And it’s in the campground that I’m staying at. Evidently the laws just don’t exist yet for serving alcohol here yet – It can be sold (but only in packaging stores) but it can’t be served. Unless it’s a private event/party/location, which this is but they can’t charge. So when the bar is open here, it’s free. Evidently the campground owner has been working with county officials for years to figure out how this could work and it’s in the works, but has been a long process. In the meantime, I’ll drink for free!

(as a side note, I can’t believe it took me so long to figure out this county had no bars!)

Northern Georgia

So I’ve spend the last two weeks at a campsite in Northeast Georgia. This one’s a bit more rustic than the others – it’s in the middle of the woods in the middle of the mountains right next to nowhere. It’s very relaxing. The campground has a pool, a club house, walking trails and some really nice people. Very peaceful. I’ll be back.

Tomorrow I leave for Southeast Georgia where I will set up camp until December 23rd, at least. It’a about a 3 1/2 hour drive so it will be an easy day. The weather is supposed to be really nice (like 70s) so I’m looking forward to a drive without the rain.

The weather here has been amazing – 60s and 70s the whole time. It rained a couple of days but it hasn’t been real cold.

I had a coffee incident a couple of days ago. I was reorganizing the kitchen and I dropped my coffee maker on the floor. Oh the drama without coffee! I quickly replaced it, got the same on that I broke, it’s this Keurig single cup model in red. I love this thing – so compact and efficient (unless you drop it).

My Propane supply is lasting pretty well – I replaced both cannisters when I got here and am still on the same one. I’ve used the heat some nights, and cooked with it but it seems to be lasting longer than before. Not sure why.

I used to worry that my refrigerator wasn’t getting cold enough but the opposite is true: It has been freezing everything. After doing some research I found out that there is a little slide next to the condensors in the back that is supposed to control the temperature. Moving it around doesn’t seem to be helping. I’m defrosting the freezer today in the hopes that it will help but I”m tired of eating frozen lettuce. Aargh.