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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 13 of 13. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by toph on December 18, 2008, at 15:37:05
When I was young, I remember we got a letter that was addressed to my father and not knowing our address the sender just put down the name of our town. It got there. Yesterday, a couple of Christmas cards were returned because a new post office opening caused the zip code to change even though the US Postal Service knew exactly where I was trying to mail my cards. I just got off the phone with AT&T after waiting 45 minutes to speak with a pleasant enough young woman in India who I asked for my password so that I could access my account. She asked for my mother's maiden name which I supplied only to be told that I was incorrect. There was no pusuading her otherwise, she knew my mother's maiden name and I did not. This made me think of visiting my grandmother in Connecticut as a young boy. When the phone rang invariably several neighbors would answer simulaniously and after an exchange of pleasantries it would be determined who the intended recepient of the call was. Having your own phone line, while progressive and certainly more confidential, seemed somehow impersonal and isolating to me. OKay, so I sound like an old man... well, maybe I am. But I'm not so old that I don't remember my mother's maiden name for crying out loud.
Posted by fayeroe on December 18, 2008, at 17:16:58
In reply to Progress, posted by toph on December 18, 2008, at 15:37:05
Much to my surprise, I called an internet "technician" a bad name last week. He WOULD not listen while reading off of the screen. He also refused to give me a second tier technician, insisting that he knew more than the more experienced workers did. He was in India and the second tier technician is in San Francisco.
Am I biased? Yes. It burns me up that these jobs have been outsourced and Americans have lost their income because of companies like AT&T. I've found a phone service that works through the computer and I am switching to it. I'll still have to keep AT&T for internet. :-( My neighbor has it and he loves it. It is "MagicJack". It is nothing at all like Skype.
Topher, the argument with the first "technician" started over my password. I am "old" and I remember the name of my best dog very well. I ended up screaming at the guy.
Progress? Yup.....Progressing me into a mental hospital soon.
Posted by Kath on December 18, 2008, at 21:36:11
In reply to Progress, posted by toph on December 18, 2008, at 15:37:05
Jeez Louise!!! And after waiting 45 minutes!!
HOW frustrating!
What's that word? umm beaurocracy!
Nice to hear from you.
Hugs, Kath
Posted by Tabitha on December 19, 2008, at 1:49:20
In reply to Progress, posted by toph on December 18, 2008, at 15:37:05
I hate those stupid account security questions where it's things like "Your favorite movie" or "your first pet" or "Your favorite author". And they make you answer two of them. Sometimes I can't even find one question that I think I'd ever be able to remember the answer to. I mean, how many people have an answer to "your favorite movie" that would be true for a lifetime? I just dread ever having to remember what I might have answered to those stupid questions.
At least I have a chance of remembering my mother's maiden name :)
But it sounds like that didn't do you too much good, Toph.
Posted by Bobby on December 19, 2008, at 10:11:57
In reply to Progress, posted by toph on December 18, 2008, at 15:37:05
I am forced by common sense and civility not to discuss the various reasons that the experts used to coerce us all to "join the Global Ecocomy or get left behind." However, it would be interesting to see just who is reaping the financial benefits. Let's not get in to that. The main, and most important, reason that I am responding is this---It's really cool to see you back on your feet and contributing here on Babble.
Posted by Phillipa on December 19, 2008, at 12:58:46
In reply to Progress, posted by toph on December 18, 2008, at 15:37:05
Toph born and raised in CT til age 40 Fairfield county how bout you? Westport, wilton, weston line, norwalk sound familiar? Small World. Love Phillipa
Posted by Toph on December 19, 2008, at 17:03:38
In reply to Re: Progress » toph, posted by Phillipa on December 19, 2008, at 12:58:46
Makes me blush when people say they recognize me and don't want to punch me or something.
Good to see I'm not the only one who has frustrations with the techno age.I visited my grandparents who lived on a farm called Gunstock because they (not my granparents, the original owners) fashioned stocks out of hardwood there during the revolutionary war. The farm had stone walls surrounding its perimeter a testiment to the difficulty those early farmers faced in plowing glacial fields. We played by the hour in the nearby creek building forts among the massive granite boulders and construcing dams like beavers, well, because it seemed the best thing to do at the time. My great, great, great grandfather bought the farm and tried to make a living out of selling mantle clocks something that was kind of popular in New England at the time. He had some success using an innovative sales technique whereby he would leave a clock to try with a family on his journey into the South. Then on his way back the family had become so attached to the rythmic sounds and chimes that they would be unable to part with it. His profits however were sqaundered on distillates but unfortunately not the varnish he used to finish his clocks. His son, my great, great grandfather became famous. He was a carpenter with a knack for trigonometry who went to college having not much formal training. The same age as his professor, he ended up marrying her after she evidently became enamored with his mathmatical prowess. They moved to the University of Michigan where he studied under a famous astronomer who was impressed with his precise observations and accurate calculations. Eventually he got a commission at the Naval Observatory in Washington where he got to use one of the largest refracting telescopes in the world. Legend has it the Abraham Lincoln troubled by the deadly conflict would interrupt Asaph late at night to observe distant galaxies. Ultimately Asaph descovered the moons of Mars - no small feat at the time - which catapulted him to rock star status among his peers internationally and ended up in his acceptance into the National Academy of Sciences among numerous other accolades.
Oh yeah, Goshen, Connecticut. I love that place.
And if I can be identified with this information, so be it.
Posted by Kath on December 19, 2008, at 19:07:55
In reply to Re: Progress, posted by Toph on December 19, 2008, at 17:03:38
YO!!! WELCOME BACK :-)))))
Thanks for that lovely story. I just love hearing stories about people's families going way back.
I'm really glad you're back & I don't feel like hitting you - just hugging you!
I really love that story & the (what my daughter & I call) 'water engineering'. Daughter & I LOVE diverting water. We haven't had much of an opportunity to use rocks to do so. Our most memorable water engineering involves dirt & mud & one time was instrumental in saving our tents from being waterlogged from the floor upwards during a torrential rainfall when we were camping & only once it was raining, realized that our WONDERFUL in-view-of-the-water-campsite was also at a curve in the road & at the bottom of a gradual 3-foot elevation...in other words, the water was pouring down onto our whole campsite! [that sentence was about 77 words!]
I love the story about the clocks. What a very clever marketing idea. Sounds like you had some smart cookies in your family!
hugs, Kath
> And if I can be identified with this information, so be it.
Posted by Phillipa on December 19, 2008, at 20:26:04
In reply to Re: Progress, posted by Toph on December 19, 2008, at 17:03:38
Goshen such a small state and don't know where that is must be inland or wait a minute sounds familiar it's on Sound side right and further up state past Hartford. I could care less if anyone figures out who I am. Love Phillipa gotta google a map and see. Must have Alzheimers for sure.
Posted by Phillipa on December 19, 2008, at 20:40:55
In reply to Re: Progress, posted by Toph on December 19, 2008, at 17:03:38
Toph sure it's not Groton???? I just remembered. Love Phillipa
Posted by Toph on December 20, 2008, at 9:33:11
In reply to Re: Progress » Toph, posted by Phillipa on December 19, 2008, at 20:40:55
> Toph sure it's not Groton???? I just remembered. Love Phillipa
Pretty sure. Actually is is in the thriving metropolis of North Goshen, in Hall Hallow near Torrington. I haven't been back in decades. I'm sure they no longer have party lines. It would make me sick if they stuck a cell tower on top of Ivy Mountain.
I spoke of my great, great grandfather. But like most great men he wouldn't have amounted for much had it not been for the aid and persistence of his wife Angeline. She was kind of feisty for her day.
Posted by Kath on December 20, 2008, at 18:02:37
In reply to Re: Progress, posted by Toph on December 20, 2008, at 9:33:11
>However Mr. Hall drew the line when Mrs. Hall demanded a man's wage while she assisted her husband in his computations, when he refused her, she refused to continue that work.
~ ~ WHAT an interesting article!! Thanks Toph. What a very feisty lady! What interesting ancestors.
:-) Kath
Posted by Phillipa on December 20, 2008, at 20:45:18
In reply to Re: Progress, posted by Toph on December 20, 2008, at 9:33:11
Ahhh Torrington inland and further up toward Massachusetts. Love Phillipa google anneke Jan Bogardus named after her ick. annieke mayb e correct. Not sure.
This is the end of the thread.
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