startfinish
It was never true that “things were better in the good old days,” but in the past it does seem they more often followed the bromide “the customer is always right.”
But for decade after decade, greed grew while the money pot shrank, and now there’re bigger fights over the fewer pennies, with the customer usually picking up the tab.
But sometimes good still wins. Got an upper dental plate through Case Dental School three months ago. Couple weeks ago it cracked for no reason. I was worried I’d be charged hundreds to fix or replace it.
To my delight, they relined my temporary upper for free (normally $71) to make it fit better while they looked at my broken one. Today they gave me back my repaired plate for free. They also relined it for free to make it thicker and stronger, and told me they were making a new upper at no cost to me because this one’s defective. This will leave me with a new upper, an excellent backup upper, and a so-so temporary backup backup upper. . . for once I have the upper hand.
Feather Whether
Memorizing poem
I close my eyes and sing it
open them
lay lyrics in my lap
take off glasses
lay them on lyrics
rub eyes
look down
see small blue feather next to glasses
put glasses on
feather still there
I’m alone
have nether experience nor expectation of feather
especially blue.
Some small critter flying through ether
missing tail feather
surreal whether
no know what to do.
– Smith, 7.8.2014
thataway