Damn Bluetooth!!!

The other day I went to the bathroom, just like I do every day. I noticed a guy in the urinal next to me. One of his hands was resting against the wall int the typical "male holding the wall while he pees" stance. The other hand was gesticulating in the way all Puertorricans do while talking. So obviously I had no reason to believe he was talking on a celphone while I overheard him saying the following:

"You KNOW I love you. You're the greatest thing to happen to me. I love you SO much. You're the most beautiful thing in my life. You mean so much to me." And more words to that effect.

I just mumbled a bit too loudly, "Dude, play with it, don't talk to it"

At which point the guy turns towards me and I notice the damned flashing blue light in his right ear. Yes, he WAS talking on the phone.

Do you remember when, not so long ago, if someone was walking down the street talking to himself, he was considered a nut case? Now with this bluetooth technology, people resemble strange robots with blinking blue ears.

And it's bad enough that these bluetooth addicted people are a safety hazard on the road while driving. But have you ever been plowed into by one of these nutjobs while WALKING down the hallway? Or while shopping in the supermarket? They can't even concentrate on WALKING while they have these blinking blue lights stuck in their ears. It's like they're escapees from a Doctor Who episode.

I know of a concert promoter here in Puerto Rico who's initials are L.S.. The man walks around with a blinkie in his ear and about 4 or 5 celphones on his belt and in his pocket. I often wonder what would happen to him if he had them all set to vibrate and they all went off at once. He'd probably get electrocuted. Either that or his blue blinkie will overload and fry his brain.

Although judging from what I've seen of others like him, the brains are already fried and have been replaced by the blue blinkie. Maybe Bluetooth is the name of some evil alien entity who's trying to take over the world one brain at a time. Doctor Who indeed. Remember the Cybermen?

Hey, you never know.

Credit woes

We all have credit problems of one sort or another. Nowadays, what with the economy the way it is, we're all in debt to some degree. That's why my wife and I signed up for a consolidated credit program 4 years ago. What we didn't quite realize at the time was how much more damage these things can do to your credit. Especially if the consolidators don't post your payments on time. You get hassled by the credit card companies every month and you end up getting a history of late payments.

Uggghhh!

So it's no wonder why my credit is currently a bit wonky.

Last month my wife and I were forced to trade in our clunky Chevy Venture for a more economical and less troublesome car. Problem was, we couldn't trade in the car and buy a new one because of our credit. Frustrating to say the least. We finally managed to get a new Mitsubishi Lancer on lease, but the humiliation of being turned down for loans etc. was still there.

To make matters worse, practically every month for the past 11 years, my father-in-law keeps getting prepaid credit cards in the mail. He also gets loan offers for 10's of thousands of dollars every month due to his perfect credit rating. It's totally frustrating to keep seeing these letters, cresit cards and loan offers appearing every month in our mail box. You can't imagine what it's been like for the past 11 years seeing those letters pour in while we can't even get approved for a $100 loan.

Oh! And did I mention that my father-in-law has been dead for 11 years now?

Talk about unfair....