The Nashville Scene just put out their You're So Nashville If... issue today. My success rate for submissions was solid. They put four of mine in there:
You could barely afford it when you got here, and now you can’t afford to leave.
You know it’s just a matter of time until you can buy a Nashville Hot Chicken Goo Goo Cluster.
Hi, Homeowner! We are contacting you to see if you are interested in selling your property located at …
Your team regularly disappoints, but the national anthem never does.
The winner was: You’ve been on the darkweb trying to solicit trash pickup.
So, you know - I'm feeling pretty plugged in to my community.
Also, it's just nice to appear in print, even if it's just a few pithy sentences.
That is, in many ways, the highlight of an otherwise exhausting week. Monday, I was talking to my mother and she mentioned that two men had come to the door offering to put down pine straw in the yard. She told me what she had paid, and it was easily 5x the going rate for what she should have paid.
The same thing happened a year ago (only, she paid 10x what she should have), and so I went on high alert. I called my sister and we decided to stop payment on the check, call the cops and file a police report, and coached Mom on what to do if they come back. We have no problem paying the standard amount for their work, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let these guys bully her out of her limited income.
This pine straw scam is a known issue in my mother's area. In fact, the day after she was scammed, one of her local news outlets ran a story about the very same thing:
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So, for now - crisis averted - at least until the next crisis. She does have a mini crisis that I am dealing with, though, to me it's more inconvenience that crisis. Her cell phone died. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but I do know that this will be her 4th phone in less than 18 months. She lost one during a hospital stay. Number two had to be sunset because of 5G. Her third is the one that just died, so now I need to work on the next one.
I am planning to change carriers along with this acquisition. ATT, my current provider, has gotten pretty pricy, and for as little as she uses her phone, data, etc. - well, I can't pay filet mignon prices for Steak Ums.
Literally, there are 2 reasons she has the phone. 1. Solitaire. 2. Calls. In that order.
But everything takes time, money, effort, planning, patience... and I'm out of a few of those. And running kind of low on the rest.
Thankfully, we have a weekend on the horizon - I can regroup, reassess, and just you know, do my thing.
Like you do.
ae
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