Saturday, April 21, 2012

Day 858

What a busy weekend it's going to be. After breakfast this morning, we met some other volunteers to set up the gaming tables for tonight's Casino Party fundraiser. Since Dalmatian Rescue hasn't done one of these events in a while, I'd forgotten how heavy the tables are. Actually, the tables seem to get heavier with each passing year. Luckily, we still have enough volunteers to lug everything around to events. Casino Parties have been a good source of revenue for the group over the years.

I went over to my storage warehouse after we set up the tables to dispute a recent bill. They had charged me twice last month. I took my credit card statement to show them the mistake and all they did was show me their own records showing that I had only been charged once. "But it's right here on my bill," I said. "Two charges on the same day from you guys that are identical to the penny." "We'll look into it," was all the manager said.  Things like this are happening with increasing frequency. I used to get one mistake on my credit card bill every five years. Now I get them virtually every month. I think people just don't care anymore. They just run whatever you're buying under the scanner that reads the bar code and they're done. Same thing for running your card through the credit card reader. I remember running my card through twice at the storage warehouse last month, because the manager said my first try didn't go through. Obviously, it did go through since two transactions made within minutes of each other are on my bill.

This is once of the things I hate about modern life.  You car gets repaired wrong. Your mail gets delivered to the wrong house. Erroneous charges wind up on your credit card bills, and still nobody really cares. When you talk to someone about all these annoying little problems, you can tell they wish you would just go away. Nobody wants to deal with your little problems, because they're tired, want to go home, and all have bigger problems of their own to deal with.

When I took Dot and Dash on their evening walk, crews were still disassembling all the tents, banners and porta-potties from this mornings big March of Dimes race in the park. These charity runs and walk-a-thons have become big business. I'm amazed at how complex it has become to stage one of these events. Even though the charities that have these large fundraisers are non-profits, there are a ton of small businesses that actually do make a profit from helping the event run smoothly. That's one thing about Dalmatian Rescue. Our charity events are simple. Just a few volunteers trying to save one dog at a time.
Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day