Let's no Krogering

For several months, the grocery store I use the most has been slipping. I've complained to cashiers, employees and have sent email to the corporate headquarters.

The store has stopped stocking items we need and has been frequently out of stock on items that I consider essentials. Not to mention a dirty store, hard to find carts and aisles blocked due to employees restocking during all hours. I sent an email on Sunday, and was promised a response in 24 hours. I just got this response, over ninety six hours later.

"Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey and providing your feedback on your experience.

I apologize you had multiple issues with product selections, many products being out of stock. I have shared your feedback with a member of the store management for review in correcting these issues and making sure that products are in stock, as long as available from the manufacture.

I hope that you find this information helpful. If I can be of further assistance, please simply respond to this email or call 1-800-XXX-XXX.

Thank you for shopping with us.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX"

Consumer Affairs"

I'm not sure if it's worth the time to respond, but easier to start shopping elsewhere. So is it me, or is the Brewery District Kroger slipping in quality?

Chain gangs, gangsters and gun molls

Courtsey of the Wexner Center we got to see a couple more pre-code movies last night.

The first was Laughter in Hell, a dark little film starring Pat O'Brien who gets married, becomes a railroad engineer who gets married. He finds out his wife is having an affair with one of his childhood enemies then kills them both. He's sentenced to a life of hard labor and his warden is the brother of the man he killed. Yes, great fun. I was pleased to see Merna Kennedy in this film. She played the Girl in Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus." She was only 36 when she died of a heart attack.



Could not find a still from Laughter in Hell with her in it. The movie also included a mass hanging of black prisoners and had a very I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang feel, even if the main character was a honest-to-god double murderer.

The other film we saw was Little Giant, with the amazing Edward G. Robinson as a Chicago gangster who goes straight when prohibition ends. He moves to California to set himself up in what he thinks is high class society. Hijinks ensue when he meets a family whose motives are not entirely genuine. In what was Robinson's first comedy, he chews up and devours the screen with great delight. Mary Astor is quite charming as a real estate agent with a back story



I mean really charming. She had a tough life. A child star who was forced into acting then ripped off by her parents. She had scandals, breakdowns and losing bouts with alcohol. Some say she was too old to play Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. I call bullshit on that.



A fine actress who really did not want to be there, thanks to her parents.

40 years early, he gets one done

My son underwent an endoscopy of his GI tract today to determine if there was anything physically wrong that may be preventing him from wanting to eat. He and I went to the hospital about seven this morning. Got him set up in his hospital gown. Signed the consent form and got the details from his doctor and the anesthesiologist. He hid under the blanket to keep warm while we cuddled on the gurney. Then he was taken to the procedure room, and I was asked to be in there when they put him under.

Comforting your son while he's squirming and crying as he breathes in knockout gas is not recommended. His mother saw it when he had dental surgery a few years ago and was traumatized by the fear in his eyes and now I understand that completely. Not something I ever wish to witness again.

I left the room and was told to wait in the reception area. I was given a pager, like in a restaurant, that would beep and vibrate when my son was, um, done. After about 25 minutes of waiting, it went off and I was taken to a consulting room.

One chair on one side of a small, curtained room. Three chairs on the other. I did not want to think about the other two chairs and thankfully it was just his doctor who came in to tell me he was fine and that the scope showed nothing wrong but the biopsy results would take a few days. He seemed confident there was nothing physically amiss. We talked of his toileting issues and what could be done about them. So much work ahead.

I emailed his mother and she quickly replied back that she was in the hospital, waiting to be brought in to see him. I went to the nurse's station and asked where she was. Had to get one of the nurses to bring her in.

We were taken to recovery where he was groggy and whiny, nothing unexpected. After a few minutes I gave him his iPad and he went under the covers and blasted Dora the Explorer. A few minutes later I took the iPad from him so we could get him dressed and out of there which caused him to have a bit of a meltdown, which also showed us that he was good to go.

I was not sure if his mother would show up or not so I was prepared to take the day off work. I was surprised and grateful to know she planned on watching him the rest of the day. She let me know a couple of hours later that he was back to normal and I have heard nothing to tell me otherwise.

Ok, I only worked half a day, and to destress I went to Pistachia Vera for breakfast.

There is a new lock on the door

I wrote about what happened to my wife a couple of weeks ago, when my son wandered off. Our story had a happier ending. Over the past month, two families have not had the relief we felt when the police brought my son home.

Seven year old Owen Black and Nine year old Mikaela Lynch both wandered off, both were autistic and non-verbal, both were found dead a few days after they wandered off.

I cannot imagine the grief these families are feeling. I join in supporting the Lynch and Black families during this horrible time, and remembering their children.

There is a group called The AWAARE Collaboration that is working to prevent wandering incidents and death in the autism community.

To learn more about the life of Mikaela Lynch, her family has set up a webpage called Mikaela's Village.

Eleven Poems and Done

My feature to help raise funds for the Writers' Block Poetry Slam Team went well yesterday. I'm out of shape on stage as well as off. Tired quickly, did one poem less than I could have.

For record keeping purposes, here's the set list.

If You Can't Say it in Three Minutes, You're Doing it Wrong
What the Guide Dog Smelled
Local Character, Fredonia, New York
Refrigerator, Refrigerator
Children in Cells
David's Rock
They're Looking in the Wrong Place
Jesus at the Wheel (just written in the morning, at my son's swimming lesson)
318 Feet From Home Plate
For My Son on His Tenth Birthday
The Real In-flight Announcement

Busy week ahead as Arts Fest approaches. My son has a medical procedure being done on Wednesday morning so I'll try not to shove a cream pie in anyone's face that day.

Whirlwind of overwhelming

All of the busy, and the sleep deprivation caught up with me at a workshop this morning when a cluster headache decided to throw a party behind my right eye. Ouch. Left work early and slept a couple of hours. I do feel better.

Friday evening I will be a guest of Vernell Bristow on the internet radio show Speaking of Poetry. I'll be talking about all the great things that will be happening on the Word is Art Stage at the Columbus Arts Festival on June 7-9. You can listen live here.

Saturday afternoon I will be doing a half hour feature to raise money for the Writers' Block Poetry Slam team to head to Nationals in Boston this August. It's going to be at Kafe Kerouac form 1:30-2. There will be readings starting on Friday night at 8PM and going all night. You can see the schedule and other information here.

All this and it's not even June yet. More to come.

The real in-flight announcement

We know you have other choices when you fly
but we don’t care
We know we suck
All airlines suck
Twenty five bucks to check in a bag and you fools fork it over
How else you going to get to your destination?
Drive?
We know how soul sucking Pennsylvania highways are
You do not have trains.
We own the skies and your sorry asses when you have
to go on a vacation, on a business trip, to a funeral
So cram your butts in 28 inches of legroom,
enjoy the smells of the person next to you
Take pleasure in the crying baby because that kid
is doing what we know you want to be doing
for the entire flight
Only you do not have room to get in the fetal position
Want a bag of four honey roasted peanuts?
there used to be six,
but our CEO had to have a new wing added to his mansion
Get ready, start flapping your arms
because we’ve cut back on jet fuel
And you, one armed guy in 16c
Get out and pull
This plane has to get out of the gate,
somehow