Au Cochonnet Marin

When a business is uncooperative, don’t hesitate to hit it in the nether regions.

I have found that a customer’s most potent weapon against an uncooperative business is a smart diatribe posted on social media. Assail the company’s image and shame it publicly.

If a firm does not respond to your phone calls or your email, let the public at large know about it. It works amazingly well.

A little while ago, trying to mitigate the medical expenses incurred by my cat, I signed up with a pet insurance company. I started to pay my monthly dues and shortly after my last visit to the vet, I submitted a claim.

Later on, I checked my claim’s status on the company’s website. Nothing seemed to have happened. I called to make sure that they received my request. After having been shuffled through different departments and put on hold indefinitely, I hung up. I then send an email inquiring about my claim.
No response.

La moutarde commença à me monter au nez! My nose started to get tickled by the mustard!

I found its corporate presence on Facebook and I let my anger spill.
Shazam!!

Before long I received an email from the insurance company apologizing for the delay and informing me that my claim was being processed. It follows that if a company ignores you, use social media to prod their thick hide. No insults necessary. Just the facts ma’am.

Social media can be a nuisance but in some cases, it can also be a potent weapon. If a company fails to address your concerns, use the power of the pen to chastise that outfit.
Consequently, you will enjoy some results, I guarantee it.

Alain

To appreciate the light, you must have known the darkness… Mick Deev 

Most of us take ordinary activities for granted. We don’t really appreciate their true value until suddenly deprived of them.

Among the most traumatic deprivations that I can imagine are the lacks of freedom, food or sleep; if deprived of any of those activities you are bound to endure great stress. But there are many other activities that you will equally miss (love, friendship, social interaction, sex) if incapable of fulfilling them.

If you eat steak and lobster every day, you will gradually lose your taste for it. It is only when unable to do so that you will begin to crave it again.
Presuming that you are fortunate enough to draw a large monthly salary, I can guarantee that you won’t appreciate it as much as someone hitting a once in a million jackpot.

The same goes for sex. If you do the nasty twice a day, you won’t get the same gratification as if doing it twice a week. It is the relative rarity of the deed, not the frequency that makes it valuable. You need to hunger for something to properly appreciate it.

Lately due to some reconstructive surgery, I have been unable to walk without assistance, drive and of course play pétanque. All restrictive and frustrating constraints.
Frustration by the way often leads to aggression and I might have been feuding with my feline companion more than usual. When socially engaged, I felt that she did not empathize with me; she just flattened her ears, swished her tail back and forth and stared. She did not show any appreciation for past favors and this is not cool.

My condition is slowly improving and with it the appreciation of what I can now accomplish. While still unable to play pétanque,  I can now walk and drive without too much trouble.
I look forward to showing up on the field and play a few rounds with any you.

The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after you fall. Vince Lombardi

Do not take routine tasks for granted. Clean the cat box and take the garbage out without grumbling because you don’t know how lucky you are to be able to do so.

Alain

Despite appearances, I am no saint. I seldom walk on water and I don’t love everybody. As a matter of fact there is a bunch of people that I actively dislike.

Among those are Hypocrites, dudes pretending to be what they are not, and doing what they tell other people not to do. Regrettably these Tartuffes thrive almost everywhere, especially in the field of politics and in the clergy.

I admit that it is difficult to be a politician without being a hypocrite, but why would you want to be in politics in the first place? To satisfy a burning desire to help your fellow men? Don’t make me laugh I just had surgery… A lust for power and its beguiling perks is the main motivation and has always been!

To get elected a politician needs to be a political chameleon. He has to charm fool as many people as possible, and he has to make good use of “alternative facts”.

“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.”

Fortunately, most of the statements made by a politico are recorded and can (and absolutely should) be used against him.
Beware of people claiming to have higher moral standards than you; they might be the worst offenders..

I would rather vote for somebody who frankly admits his shortcomings than for a lily-white bible thumping hypocrite.

A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation. Adlai E. Stevenson

Hypocrites are more dangerous than liars because they sometimes believe  what they are saying.

Alain