Tuesday, November 14, 2017

I'm smart and I want respect!



I know that I'm not a genius. Without spell-check and the internet I'd look like a complete moron. When I was a kid, I did horrible in school. I never understood English grammar, I still don't. I just write what sounds right to my ear. Math was confounding to me. And algebra, what the hell? To this day I cannot understand how you do math with the alphabet. One thing that I was taught in high school, was how to think for myself. Every day in Miss Green's class, each one of us got our own copy of the Chicago Sun-Times. She then taught us how to read the paper. How to recognize the difference between editorial content and news content. Before our regular lesson we would have a short discussion of what was on the front page. Miss Green was a good teacher. So with all that said, I can also say that I am not stupid. There are things that I do know. Somehow I managed to work twenty five years in the computer industry. Somehow I kept myself employed and earning a decent wage since high school. I have common sense. For instance, I know that you should never, ever, buy something from a door to door salesman. Not religion, not cosmetics, not a vacuum cleaner, don't buy anything that way because you will be sorry. So how come I let some sweaty young man with a clipboard sell me electricity?

A few months ago this kid came ringing my doorbell and I answered it. He assured me that if I signed up with.... let's call them Energy Indirect (Not their real name), I would save money. It was hot that day as we sat on the front porch and the young man assured me that it was the right thing to do. So I signed up. As I watched him walk slowly down the street I immediately knew I had done the wrong thing. Yesterday I got my first electric and gas bills since signing that contract. It turns out that I am not saving money, not breaking even. The cost of my gas and electric went up considerably. That young man who I gave a glass of ice water to and I let sit inside for a bit to cool off, lied to me.

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