Spring

I tried to put up a new post yesterday, but got this error message:

Things weren’t back to normal in “a minute,” which is why I am posting today instead of yesterday, but I liked the error message so much that I wasn’t upset about it at all. (Matt might not be so thrilled, but someone has to be the scapegoat.)

This is just an example of how humor can defuse anger, especially in the customer service context. Imagine if anytime something broke – through no fault of yours – instead of having no information on when it would be fixed, or having a short, uninformative message, or worst of all having to spend 45 minutes on the phone with various customer service representatives and STILL [whatever it is] isn’t working, you experienced humor and cheerfulness instead? It doesn’t change anything – the site is still down, the phone is still broken, the internet is still out, whatever – but you feel better about it. And THAT’S good customer service.

I may as well mention here that I spent 16 minutes on the phone with Verizon recently, trying to figure out why I had stopped receiving text messages (and no, it wasn’t because my friends and family had abandoned me). In the more distant past, I spent a significant amount of time on the phone with Comcast customer service, and in the even more distant past, I spent more time on the phone with Time Warner than some people have spent living and breathing on this planet. Can you guess which one of these entities is my least favorite?

© Naturesound.com

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about spring! I did see a robin recently – not the first day of spring, MAYBE BECAUSE IT WAS SNOWING, but the day after that. It wouldn’t hold still for a picture though, so I took this one off the internet. Seeing the robin reminded me of the Calvin & Hobbes strip (which is not readily available on the internet because Bill Watterson is pretty serious about copyright, as well he should be) where Calvin sights a robin and gets all excited, asks his mom to call the newspaper because he saw the first robin of spring, is convinced he is going to win all kinds of rewards and become a millionaire, etc. His mom explains that is not going to happen, Calvin is deflated, and Hobbes says, “Cheer up! Did I tell you I saw a robin yesterday?” (I’m paraphrasing, I don’t have it in front of me right now.)

So, yes, it’s springtime in New England, such as it is. There are crocuses popping up (photos TK) and in general it is more on the warmer side of freezing than it was a few weeks ago.

And I saw the first robin, so I am in for wondrous riches and fame. Call the newspapers!

What I’ve been reading: Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

What I’ve been listening to: Help! and A Hard Day’s Night, The Beatles; Horrorscope, Eve 6; Warm Strangers, Vienna Teng