Annoyances.

So. I finally realized that I had comments to moderate. A few days late. Sorry about that. I probably can set it up so I get emailed when that happens. I'll look into it.

So I've been around Calgary the last few days, and a few things have been mildly irritating.

1) Last night. I went to get a new cell phone. Back in the day when I used to spend more time in Canada than I do now I used a *totally* old-school analog bag phone. Imagine the very first car phones in a leather carrying sack. Huge. But analog service had better coverage than digital. For when you were in the boondocks and not a city. But they finally got rid of the analog service which means every place that needs to be - even remote ones - are supposed to be pretty well covered by digital.

So since I'm only going to be here a few months I went with a pay-as-you-go phone, the sort of thing I used to have when I lived in England. Anyway. I bought it in the store, no problem, and I had no problem paying with my Canadian credit card with a US billing address.

Brought it home to activate and - trouble. Got on the phone with the company and had a really nice gal help me through with a whole host of problems that probably don't happen to most people. Then came my ability to recharge my credit. As I'll be in the middle of nowhere I can't just get a top-up card at a 7-11 and need to be able to do it online. So I tried to pre-approve my credit card. Which didn't work because Canadian credit cards with US billing addresses are confusing to computers - I got rejected with two different cards trying both on the phone and on the internet.

So. I had this guy fill out a form on his end to do a manual credit check. And there was some computer error for the phone guy. And he starts telling me how I need to talk to my band - this is after I'd been on the phone with them for something like an hour and a half. And that made no sense and pissed me off - I mean, the phone company is having an issue filling out a phone company form - me talking to AmEx isn't going to help anyone.

So I spoke to a manager who realized that the employee was speaking foolishness and he filled out the form again and finally got it submitted. So hopefully in a few days my card will be approved for use so that I can recharge my pay-as-you-go credit.

2) So the site I'm working at this winter is remote. And as such, there aren't any normal gas stations to go to to fill up. There's a cardlock run by some company, and I need to get a card to be able to get gas there. So a few weeks ago, while I was still in the US, I spoke to this guy and he emailed me some forms and asked me to email them back, filling them out as completely as possible. Which I did promptly.

I get home from taking my last safety class today and have a voicemail from this company - I call them and it turns out that emailing the forms back wasn't sufficient and that they need a signature to run this credit check.

Right. If they had told me this weeks ago, I would've mailed it to them. He told me just to email it back. Which I did. So I start rushing around - like an hour ago - to find a fax machine and fax in this one form. But their fax machine isn't picking up. So I scanned it and emailed it. And I better be able to pick up my card in two days like I need to.

But the point is a) that he specifically told me I could email it, and b) if I couldn't email it and they needed a signature, they should have told me this weeks ago after receiving my paperwork.

Both issues are hopefully resolved, or will be soon. But they taken up loads of time dealing with the past two days and both things should be non-issues.

But it's nothing like getting one's house robbed, so no big deal in the long run.