Incomming Call

Just received a phone call with no caller ID information. All it was saying was "incoming call". It was from the chiropractor office i went to earlier. But this is another story. They left a message. But now i'm not sure it was from them. I'm not sure the woman who called still works there. I was earlier in the office and there was a different receptionist.

A local call from a business, no way it could have been blocked. Or even if it has been blocked, it would have shown blocked or private. But this one was marked "incoming call".

So i went to CenturyLink site and found a form and filled it out. After all i'm paying 10 dollar a month just for the caller ID. This for the daily 1800 soliciting calls i'm getting and don't want to answer.

Can't remember what form. But i received a confirmation email from CenturyLink. I am saved. This one should show what i was complaining about. Oops... It doesn't say anything, just saying they received my email. And a statement about their goals.

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On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Qwest.Com Customer Support <Qwest.Support@centurylink.com> wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to contact CenturyLink by email.   We have
received your message.  It will be reviewed as soon as possible by a
member of our Customer Care team.  Our specialists are available and
respond to requests Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 AM
and 6:00 PM Central Standard Time.

Our goal is to respond to all customer concerns within 24 hours.
Please note that emails sent after 6:00 CST or during weekend hours may
require additional response time.

If you need immediate assistance, click the link below to find our
customer service and repair telephone numbers. http://qwest.centurylink.com/customerservice/index.html

Again, thank you for contacting CenturyLink.
"

About two month ago, they cut my phone service for 24 hours, with no explanation.  A CenturyLink van was here near the box, my wife saw it, then the phone was cut out. I spent one day calling them, bought a new phone, then finally another guy with a pickup marked CenturyLink came and it was fixed.

This is the way they deal with things around here. When you are trying to fix a problem (initial problem was inexplicable back pain in the morning, not in the evening), i got into a myriad of other problems. They create new problems so they cover the old ones. This is proof that i'm dealing with only one entity everywhere i go.

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This ticket has a date of the future, see below date ticket created. The ticket was opened today, before this email was sent. Please check the date of the email.

George Ion

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 6:49 PM, CenturyLink <Online.Repair@centurylink.com> wrote:

MyAccount Customer Service Special Offers Explore Products Account Review

Thank you for submitting your repair ticket centurylink.com. Below are the details of your request. Repair Ticket Number: 5036755086 Date Ticket Created: 12-06-12 Number to be Repaired: 5036755086 Contact Number: 9712697402 Contact type cell The problem should be resolved by 12-06-12 06:00 PM. You can check the status of your repair online from the Manage My Repairs page. Thank you for using centurylink.com This was sent from an automated email server. Please do not reply to this message. Instead, please use the contact options on the customer service page. Copyright © 2011 CenturyLink, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Centurylink values your business and respects your privacy. For more information on how we use information we collect online, please read our Privacy Policy.

"

Pulitzer Prize-Winning, With Typo

In this 2001 Pulitzer winning article from the Oregonian by Julia Sullivan-Springhetti, published December 2000, there is a typo, one occurrence only, yeras instead of years.

There used to be a direct link at the Pulitzer site to this article but they made it impossible to link to it. Down in this page you can search for this title and click on it.

"Congressional acts move the INS, sometimes: Pressure on the agency from elected officials often helps immigrant families through the system, but it doesn't ensure success"

http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/6932

Needless to say. John Pulitzer was Hungarian and Pulitzer prize is worth 10000 dollars and is given to many journalists every year.

Lodge Climbing, 1979

Summer 1979. End of High School. During vacation before college (actually before the mandatory nine month military stage before college) i was working at the local furniture factory across the street from where i was living in Câmpulung, Suceava. 7 November St, now they changed it to Calea Transilvaniei, don't know why.

I was spending all my evenings at the Mancaş family, half mile down the street. Mother and three daughters. Mrs.Mancaş (born Gătej) was from Câmpulung and owned that piece of property with a cottage, across the street from where Liviu Strugariu, my ex grade school class mate lived. In fact, he introduced me to them. Daughters, Elena, Tatiana and Gabi. Tatiana, the cutest, "had to give up ballet because of a heart murmur". Tatiana and Elena "just got admitted to college", as myself.
(Years later Gabi told me Tatiana became a physics teacher and married in Piatra Neamţ).

One day my three Tehnoton HS ex class mates, Mareş Mirel of Buhuşi, now Montreal, Canada, Valentin Gheorghiţă of Focşani, Romania, Gabriel Ringhiliescu of Iaşi, Ştefăneşti - Botoşani, France, came with Gabi's brand new car, (Dacia) for a trip to Ardeal. My father didn't want me to leave the job so they went alone. In a couple of weeks they came back and we went on a Saturday on a trip to Rarău, a blessed place on the face of the Earth. (No i don't believe anymore he is the guy on the right).

Mareş Mirel, left, Valentin Gheorghiţă, right, Gabi Ringhilescu, next to him. Click to enlarge.

I went to Mancaş sisters which i visited all summer and they agreed to come with us. We bought some food and a bottle of 1 litre of brandy. Mirel, V.Gheorghiţă and myself went by foot, some 9 miles, and the rest with Gabi in the car.

We raised a tent and rain came. We used the pump from the mat to blow in a fire. Made a trip around the lodge. Weather and angle of view of the lodge from where we had the tent was similar to this one.

Click to enlarge

Night came. The six of them slept in the tent. There was not enough room in the tent and i was left to sleep in the parked car but couldn't sleep and played with car's radio's dial on the short waves. I think i drank, alone, most of the brandy. I caught some music at Free Europe. I remember they were playing ABBA's song Give me Give me Give Me a Man at the Midnight. (Now i know that song was officially released months later, don't know). And i was singing along replacing the word man with girl. And then something really weird happened. I saw through the windshield a guy coming down the lodge from the roof using a climbing rope. Dressed in a completely black suite, tight on the body, like for divers. He went inside on a window.

I was too drunk to think. I thought maybe he was playing a prank to somebody. I don't know.

The next day i think i told them the story but nobody paid attention. We went back to Câmpulung the same way we came. Sun came up. Beautiful day. I had a hangover. Monday went back to work.

From time to time i remember the episode. Don't know what to think anymore. Could it have been...a ninja?