Experience This!

Okay, seniors, catch up!  To stay current, forget about extreme makeovers, videos, fighting, and enter a new era. We must now experience everything, from "Fivebucks" coffee, to root canals, to the Blue Light Special at KMart.

They said I was a valued customer, now they send me hate mail. 

-Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic

Have you been asked by anyone, lately, "How was your shopping experience?" For Internet shoppers, this is often followed, or prefaced by, "Take our Survey." In fact, forget about you, forget what foolish urge prompted you to access the site, Survey Monkey is already there, blocking the sun. Most of us understand nobody really wants to know how we felt about our shopping experience. 

Just to update you on the Internet experience, if you take the time to tell Amazon.com your experience was perfectly lousy, someone may push the Sorry Button. Never mind sending a reply; it is an automatic "no reply" e-mail. I actually received one of these from the Citizen's Advocate in the Colorado Governor's office. I'd written a two- or three-page rant about my experience with a Colorado State Agency. I also called the "hotline," but the reception was pretty cold ... I received no response on either hotline, after multiple tries.

So, here's my Today's Survey Question, would you rather get a flat, "No, and we don't give a rat's ass," or, "We're sorry you had that experience. We suggest you call the following number. By the way, don't reply."

I'll sign off, for today, hoping you're up for all the experiences to come! One more thought, though; it isn't nice to stick a finger in the air and say, "Experience this!"

If it ain't one thing, it's anotha.

What a year, what a ride it's been so far. Thank you, President Obama, for proposing to talk about poverty in the State of the Union Address. I am grateful someone sees the reduction in the quality of life of so many Americans.

Our landlord in tax credit housing kindly wrote residents, to say Denver's economic recovery is faster and better, than in the rest of the country. Thus the landlord is raising the rent. We wonder whether this is correct and legal, because the rules say our rent is premised on property values in this in this section of Denver, which have not increased.

Because this is  LIHTP, "low income" housing, Denver's fortunate recovery would have little or no impact upon residents here. Nonetheless up goes the rent. No amount of soft soap will soften the blow in this segregated, poorly managed apartment complex. Yep. Livin' the dream in Denver.

My recovery, like that of so many elders, has involved an increase in my Social Security retirement, by 1.7%. Before I had a chance to go on a spending spree, my SNAP (food stamp) benefits were cut in the exact amount of the Cost of Living Adjustment. My Medicare insurer dropped me from my insurance plan, because the State of Colorado declared me no longer eligible for Qualified Medical Beneficiary under Medicaid -- my income is, apparently, too high ... by $44 a month. Of course it will now cost me a $20 to $60 copay, to see a physician and an additional unknown copay for each prescription drug. Until last week I still had SNAP benefits. However I missed a reporting deadline, while trying to access energy assistance. Arriving at the checkout lane in the grocery store, my payment was declined. Once I arrived home on that humiliating day, I got the notice of denial.

As Gilda Radner would say, "I'm depressed, my face broke out, I'm nauseated, I'm constipated, my cheeks swell, my gums are bleeding, my sinuses are clogged, I got heartburn and I got gas."

So ... how's by you?