Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
Before we get started with this, let’s set up a few MOP House/Thread Rules, and there’s really only one or two. First of all I want you to have a good time reading all of this. I promise it’s not about me yelling and screaming at desk clerks the whole way. I have always enjoyed a little ribbing from the board and my track record proves I can defend myself which leads me to the 2nd and more important of the two. Don’t be so offended by things you feel the need to summon a Mod. Most of the really great threads, the Mods are in there/here laughing with the rest of us. When I left here last time, there was no Political Forum if that gives you a timeline, so I would ask for a little leeway from folks around here.
I’d like to enter “Exhibit A” your honor. Swimming in Money!
What is happening right now with how Banks are legally able to operate is mind blowing to me. I thought they already had bullet proof glass around most of the cashier windows and the nonsense of how every time you ask a question you get the “CoronaVirus” as the answer to everything. It’s like all logic has been thrown completely out the window and I’m not oblivious to the CYA angle of everything but I have never heard of someone able to file a lawsuit over catching the flu. And so the good customers that do nothing wrong and just simply want to live their lives and use a little piece of plastic so that we don’t have to tote around a bunch of greenbacks everywhere we go but I am slowly starting to consider just keeping a safe at home for cash so I can grab n go. I used to keep cash in the house and my wife was not comfortable with it so I moved things into a more traditional institution.
We had to make an appointment for like 3 weeks out to take care of a simple 10 minute tops issue, it’s so aggravating. And they are “Swimming in Money” and IMHO should be doing MASS HIRING like they are doing at Grocery Stores like Publix and handing out hefty raises like many other essential verticals. With all that in mind...here is why this is a double feature thread.
So I’m driving up for Father’s Day Weekend and yes this is probably as good a time as any to just politely thank everyone for encouraging me to hang in there and just wait for my time...well that’s not really what all of you said but for the purposes of this story, let’s go with that. So about two and half years ago, about the time I suddenly disappeared for a while again, I was called upon by my son as he was approaching his Senior Year and we were reconnected and in fact it’s just taken on an entire life of its own, I was able to help him navigate a very dark place/moment in his life, something eerily similar to what I experienced at his age and at the same exact moment as I entered my Senior Year, I wasn’t sure I would make it. I will be adding to this story as I tell this other one. You can go ahead and grab your Kleenex now and if you haven’t already, pour a cup of coffee or tea and relax.
First though however, let's talk about Chase!
Wife and I switched to Chase after dealing with Citibank headaches that finally pushed us all the way to Chase where we had already done car loans, credit cards, so we decided to open an account and with so many ATMs and ways to access your money, surely we shouldn’t have any more issues. I want to verbally project with a lot of frustration how irritating it is to be traveling around the State of Florida for a drive of say 3 hours from Palm Beach to St Pete if there’s no traffic, take State Road 70 around Okeechobee, but you leave the house and you go a few miles and suddenly there’s an alert(Citi used to do this) of some kind to the bank that you’re using the card a whopping 200 miles from where you normally are running around and the point is many of these larger banks have restrictions or alerts to “protect” and this NONSENSE that I need to call them to tell them that I’m traveling like I’m some kind of child that needs it’s mommy to give him the OK to wobble into the car and start the engine(HUGE BIRD!)...but Chase says only if it’s International Travel and while that still bugs me, since I don’t routinely travel abroad especially lately, I don’t really give a Rat’s you know what!!! Just as long as when I’m moving about the USA that my account doesn’t lock up on me.
So I pulled a little cash before leaving Jupiter to get on the road(In hindsight I should have pulled out more), I figured with so many branches even in St Pete and Tampa I didn’t need to carry a ton of cash on me plus my Visa/Debit card works everywhere, I’d not had any problems in the past. I gassed along the 70(last place I used my card) was cruising along no problems and then I get to Arcadia on the 70 and as I am leaving that area I eventually end up behind a police officer/police cruiser with his lights streaming and back lights blinking which I interpreted as stay back, it’s a two lane road and I wasn’t about to pass him.
We move along at about 25-35 mph in a 55-65 mph section for about 7-8 miles with frequent stops it seemed maybe longer and I was within maybe 25-30 miles of I-75 to connect up to St Pete/275/Skyway(GORGEOUS!) and you can now tell there has been a Biblical Accident of some kind. They are literally just having cars fill up makeshift parking lots into the fields on the sides of the road, it started to look like Disney or a tailgate party and I just thought it’s going to take forever to get out of here. I finally managed to turn around and start driving back towards Arcadia and somehow found a parallel Road called SR-72 and bottom line it dumped me out around Sarasota and I ended up having to drive 60-90 minutes around and for whatever reason as I would soon find out my Chase Card will no longer work the entire rest of Father’s Day Weekend as I rolled into town Friday Afternoon to meet up with my son.
First it was being denied when I tried to use it at a restaurant for us, then again next spot we stopped and suddenly I was running low on cash to cover the checks so I thought I’ll just hit the ATM and use cash the rest of the way, maybe something was wrong with the system...go to the ATM and get a message that indicates there is a technical difficulty and try again later...that of course is some standard BS message that Chase has come on screen and could be anything, tells me nothing.
OK, fine I go to make a phone call but they are closed now all weekend long due to the CV-19 whereas prior you could call almost anytime and the pandemic seems to be the excuse that every company is using for every bad decision they make typically based on how they can exploit the current environment to their advantage.
Go back and click on that link and see how the Banks are “Swimming in Money!”
MOP does not make these headlines up, but they really hit home after this past weekend. So you cannot get any help to find out why your account which clearly has $$$ liquid, lots of it, plenty of it, enough for a down payment on a house in most major cities and I have to sit here and jerk this ATM to try and get it to spit out a couple bucks from the war chests.
How on Earth can we ask anyone to go back to work and risk their health when the companies or specifically in this case, the Banks decide to exploit the situations and close their branches so that you have a harder time gaining access to why you work so hard in the first place? Chase is not alone on this, other banks are acting similar.
(Back to Father’s Day now)
But this was Father’s Day Weekend and nothing was going to stop the two of us from having an amazing time. My son likes to ride shotgun while dad plays Bass heavy EDM and cruise up and down the beach from Treasure Island down thru Pass a Grille(I showed him my old condo before he was born) I’m just the tour guide but he seems to like my stories or at least plays along. We have epic car rides filled with stories about our lives and where we see ourselves going, from St Pete to Jupiter when I go and pick him up. I moved him from Texas back to Florida. I never stop talking(shocker) and since at the time he was not as skilled in that department, he listened a lot. But then he slowly started to speak and sound like I do. He watched “Austin Powers” films with me and we quote that movie like I did Airplane when I was his age. He came out of his shell more and I truly feel like all I did for him was instill a little bit of confidence even though I was frightened as hell I would screw him up and basically I just cleared out a lot of people in his life who were weighing him down, like an OL getting out in front and getting him into some open space where he could breathe and spread his wings and fly like the Eagle he was born to be.
I could keep bragging about him all day. He is everything I am not and he just doesn’t desire college but he is one of the hardest working individuals I have ever come across. And it’s not just me who thinks that, he wanted to work when he finished High School, I helped a little but he graduated and persevered through some rough waters and to be blunt, he was abused. It doesn’t matter who did that to him, I wasn’t there to protect him. But I get the rest of my life to own it and try to make things right. I don’t talk about any of the other people including his mother and that allowed him to get very close to me. We don’t look back, we go forward and those were his wishes and I try and honor them.
Back to Chase...
My son had switched to Chase last couple weeks and he asked how he could help me, I told him I don’t think there is much he can do. My wife and son communicate a lot(they’re actually pretty close) and they were texting and figured out they might be able to use Venmo and finally thru that portal we sent him the money from our account and used his card at the ATM to get our money basically if you follow all that. But what a PIA
Back in town Monday, Mrs and I went into one of the few branches that were open and when shown the problem they again start shrugging their shoulders and acting like this pandemic is some excuse for poor service. They tell their employees what to say and they wasted no time blaming things like social distancing and the space in their lobby as we both turned and pointed at 5 empty offices and plenty of space to spread out and conduct business while social distancing as I am pointing at “Exhibit A” on my phone which I pulled up that has their Bank on the cover…(In a soft low Baritone voice) they’re mailing us a new card in 1-2 days since it normally takes 4-5 days and we better thank our lucky stars...no reason ever given for why that card failed to begin with and that’s about all we are going to get.
My wife and I have decided to find a couple local smaller banks and at least have one more account similar to the one we have but that way it will take more to stop us when we are traveling. Again I think it’s ridiculous that I have to waste time calling in or letting them know I am leaving my house, it’s none of their business. I understand the fraud and all that but law abiding citizens are again ordered to bend over the desk and if you would stop allowing yourself to be socially conditioned to take any response they give as an excuse when they should be doing a massive hiring not laying off tens of thousands of people. That was one jumbled last sentence but I’m not cleaning it up and you know what I’m saying about hiring vs giving lame excuses why they suddenly come across like a constipated monkey on valium.
It’s time to land the Plane...
And this past Sunday, I put on my Rays 2008 World Series BP Jersey(my son has an identical one I bought him), my Father’s Day Edition Rays cap and was taken to a place called Tripp’s Diner which was great. After we ate, my son wanted to work on the AC on my car so we went to Advanced Auto and popped the hood, Volvo s60 required a little more than we were prepared for but we got a quick youtube video, had to disassemble a few pieces that I could never have done but my son is real handy and not a paper pushing pansy like me. It needed freon and he bought an $8 can and an adapter, I woulda spent $250 at Volvo just to have them look at it, best Father’s Day gift I could get so I shot a quick video to capture what we were doing. If any one of you has had an interruption in your relationship with one of your children, I encourage you to not wait for them and I hope you can learn from my mistakes.
I am one of the most blessed men on this message board and it’s not the first time I have mentioned this. I allowed my immense rage towards his mother to keep me from enjoying my son when he was young and I could have made an even bigger impact. But you can only self flagellate for so long and then at some point you must rise and accept that someone who wants to know more about you is giving you a once in a lifetime opportunity to step forward and be there, all you have to do is just answer the call. Every day is a blessing and I’m lucky to even have had the chance to enter his life although I would frame it more as he SUMMONED me.
He turns 21 next month and has asked me to oversee everything with his birthday.(You bet your ### I'm excited he wants to celebrate with me) He is the youngest manager in his District at Publix(he refused to go to college) and dates the 2nd youngest manager at Publix, they are a powerhouse and I kinda had a hand in helping him get her attention when they were working in the same store. I gave him one simple line...“You make the days go by so much faster in here” and they’ve been dating ever since, he’s bringing her down after we celebrate in St Pete next month to stay at our house in Jupiter. C’mon!!! It doesn’t get any better than that.
I cannot thank all of you enough for going toe to toe with me at times when I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted to speak to all of you in a way that I am comfortable and this seemed like a good opportunity to explain myself a little more. I don't want pats on the back, I get plenty of feel good moments just by being in his life on a daily basis, we talk often on his car rides to and from work, that's where I am able to make the biggest impact. He is working on putting a down payment on a house soon, I've gone full throttle teaching him about RE and he actively purchases Publix Stock, he is in their 401K program already, he loves it. I wanted so badly to share some of this going back to earlier this year but then things got rough for a lot of folks and I didn't think people would want to hear about any of this. However, I see a lot of pain and suffering going on in peoples lives on this board and I hoped that maybe for a few minutes I could help ease some of your pain and maybe put a smile on your face.
Thanks to everyone in the Otis thread including Fred, Krista, Turtle, Cheese, the other Fred, Otis, Raiders, Doc, everyone of you has been an amazing cheerleader as I have been trying to also care for myself so that I can keep up with my son. The physical activity has helped me feel more mentally strong and able to navigate, you can't put a price on that IMO.
-Cheers Everyone!
I’d like to enter “Exhibit A” your honor. Swimming in Money!
What is happening right now with how Banks are legally able to operate is mind blowing to me. I thought they already had bullet proof glass around most of the cashier windows and the nonsense of how every time you ask a question you get the “CoronaVirus” as the answer to everything. It’s like all logic has been thrown completely out the window and I’m not oblivious to the CYA angle of everything but I have never heard of someone able to file a lawsuit over catching the flu. And so the good customers that do nothing wrong and just simply want to live their lives and use a little piece of plastic so that we don’t have to tote around a bunch of greenbacks everywhere we go but I am slowly starting to consider just keeping a safe at home for cash so I can grab n go. I used to keep cash in the house and my wife was not comfortable with it so I moved things into a more traditional institution.
We had to make an appointment for like 3 weeks out to take care of a simple 10 minute tops issue, it’s so aggravating. And they are “Swimming in Money” and IMHO should be doing MASS HIRING like they are doing at Grocery Stores like Publix and handing out hefty raises like many other essential verticals. With all that in mind...here is why this is a double feature thread.
So I’m driving up for Father’s Day Weekend and yes this is probably as good a time as any to just politely thank everyone for encouraging me to hang in there and just wait for my time...well that’s not really what all of you said but for the purposes of this story, let’s go with that. So about two and half years ago, about the time I suddenly disappeared for a while again, I was called upon by my son as he was approaching his Senior Year and we were reconnected and in fact it’s just taken on an entire life of its own, I was able to help him navigate a very dark place/moment in his life, something eerily similar to what I experienced at his age and at the same exact moment as I entered my Senior Year, I wasn’t sure I would make it. I will be adding to this story as I tell this other one. You can go ahead and grab your Kleenex now and if you haven’t already, pour a cup of coffee or tea and relax.
First though however, let's talk about Chase!
Wife and I switched to Chase after dealing with Citibank headaches that finally pushed us all the way to Chase where we had already done car loans, credit cards, so we decided to open an account and with so many ATMs and ways to access your money, surely we shouldn’t have any more issues. I want to verbally project with a lot of frustration how irritating it is to be traveling around the State of Florida for a drive of say 3 hours from Palm Beach to St Pete if there’s no traffic, take State Road 70 around Okeechobee, but you leave the house and you go a few miles and suddenly there’s an alert(Citi used to do this) of some kind to the bank that you’re using the card a whopping 200 miles from where you normally are running around and the point is many of these larger banks have restrictions or alerts to “protect” and this NONSENSE that I need to call them to tell them that I’m traveling like I’m some kind of child that needs it’s mommy to give him the OK to wobble into the car and start the engine(HUGE BIRD!)...but Chase says only if it’s International Travel and while that still bugs me, since I don’t routinely travel abroad especially lately, I don’t really give a Rat’s you know what!!! Just as long as when I’m moving about the USA that my account doesn’t lock up on me.
So I pulled a little cash before leaving Jupiter to get on the road(In hindsight I should have pulled out more), I figured with so many branches even in St Pete and Tampa I didn’t need to carry a ton of cash on me plus my Visa/Debit card works everywhere, I’d not had any problems in the past. I gassed along the 70(last place I used my card) was cruising along no problems and then I get to Arcadia on the 70 and as I am leaving that area I eventually end up behind a police officer/police cruiser with his lights streaming and back lights blinking which I interpreted as stay back, it’s a two lane road and I wasn’t about to pass him.
We move along at about 25-35 mph in a 55-65 mph section for about 7-8 miles with frequent stops it seemed maybe longer and I was within maybe 25-30 miles of I-75 to connect up to St Pete/275/Skyway(GORGEOUS!) and you can now tell there has been a Biblical Accident of some kind. They are literally just having cars fill up makeshift parking lots into the fields on the sides of the road, it started to look like Disney or a tailgate party and I just thought it’s going to take forever to get out of here. I finally managed to turn around and start driving back towards Arcadia and somehow found a parallel Road called SR-72 and bottom line it dumped me out around Sarasota and I ended up having to drive 60-90 minutes around and for whatever reason as I would soon find out my Chase Card will no longer work the entire rest of Father’s Day Weekend as I rolled into town Friday Afternoon to meet up with my son.
First it was being denied when I tried to use it at a restaurant for us, then again next spot we stopped and suddenly I was running low on cash to cover the checks so I thought I’ll just hit the ATM and use cash the rest of the way, maybe something was wrong with the system...go to the ATM and get a message that indicates there is a technical difficulty and try again later...that of course is some standard BS message that Chase has come on screen and could be anything, tells me nothing.
OK, fine I go to make a phone call but they are closed now all weekend long due to the CV-19 whereas prior you could call almost anytime and the pandemic seems to be the excuse that every company is using for every bad decision they make typically based on how they can exploit the current environment to their advantage.
Go back and click on that link and see how the Banks are “Swimming in Money!”
MOP does not make these headlines up, but they really hit home after this past weekend. So you cannot get any help to find out why your account which clearly has $$$ liquid, lots of it, plenty of it, enough for a down payment on a house in most major cities and I have to sit here and jerk this ATM to try and get it to spit out a couple bucks from the war chests.
How on Earth can we ask anyone to go back to work and risk their health when the companies or specifically in this case, the Banks decide to exploit the situations and close their branches so that you have a harder time gaining access to why you work so hard in the first place? Chase is not alone on this, other banks are acting similar.
(Back to Father’s Day now)
But this was Father’s Day Weekend and nothing was going to stop the two of us from having an amazing time. My son likes to ride shotgun while dad plays Bass heavy EDM and cruise up and down the beach from Treasure Island down thru Pass a Grille(I showed him my old condo before he was born) I’m just the tour guide but he seems to like my stories or at least plays along. We have epic car rides filled with stories about our lives and where we see ourselves going, from St Pete to Jupiter when I go and pick him up. I moved him from Texas back to Florida. I never stop talking(shocker) and since at the time he was not as skilled in that department, he listened a lot. But then he slowly started to speak and sound like I do. He watched “Austin Powers” films with me and we quote that movie like I did Airplane when I was his age. He came out of his shell more and I truly feel like all I did for him was instill a little bit of confidence even though I was frightened as hell I would screw him up and basically I just cleared out a lot of people in his life who were weighing him down, like an OL getting out in front and getting him into some open space where he could breathe and spread his wings and fly like the Eagle he was born to be.
I could keep bragging about him all day. He is everything I am not and he just doesn’t desire college but he is one of the hardest working individuals I have ever come across. And it’s not just me who thinks that, he wanted to work when he finished High School, I helped a little but he graduated and persevered through some rough waters and to be blunt, he was abused. It doesn’t matter who did that to him, I wasn’t there to protect him. But I get the rest of my life to own it and try to make things right. I don’t talk about any of the other people including his mother and that allowed him to get very close to me. We don’t look back, we go forward and those were his wishes and I try and honor them.
Back to Chase...
My son had switched to Chase last couple weeks and he asked how he could help me, I told him I don’t think there is much he can do. My wife and son communicate a lot(they’re actually pretty close) and they were texting and figured out they might be able to use Venmo and finally thru that portal we sent him the money from our account and used his card at the ATM to get our money basically if you follow all that. But what a PIA
Back in town Monday, Mrs and I went into one of the few branches that were open and when shown the problem they again start shrugging their shoulders and acting like this pandemic is some excuse for poor service. They tell their employees what to say and they wasted no time blaming things like social distancing and the space in their lobby as we both turned and pointed at 5 empty offices and plenty of space to spread out and conduct business while social distancing as I am pointing at “Exhibit A” on my phone which I pulled up that has their Bank on the cover…(In a soft low Baritone voice) they’re mailing us a new card in 1-2 days since it normally takes 4-5 days and we better thank our lucky stars...no reason ever given for why that card failed to begin with and that’s about all we are going to get.
My wife and I have decided to find a couple local smaller banks and at least have one more account similar to the one we have but that way it will take more to stop us when we are traveling. Again I think it’s ridiculous that I have to waste time calling in or letting them know I am leaving my house, it’s none of their business. I understand the fraud and all that but law abiding citizens are again ordered to bend over the desk and if you would stop allowing yourself to be socially conditioned to take any response they give as an excuse when they should be doing a massive hiring not laying off tens of thousands of people. That was one jumbled last sentence but I’m not cleaning it up and you know what I’m saying about hiring vs giving lame excuses why they suddenly come across like a constipated monkey on valium.
It’s time to land the Plane...
And this past Sunday, I put on my Rays 2008 World Series BP Jersey(my son has an identical one I bought him), my Father’s Day Edition Rays cap and was taken to a place called Tripp’s Diner which was great. After we ate, my son wanted to work on the AC on my car so we went to Advanced Auto and popped the hood, Volvo s60 required a little more than we were prepared for but we got a quick youtube video, had to disassemble a few pieces that I could never have done but my son is real handy and not a paper pushing pansy like me. It needed freon and he bought an $8 can and an adapter, I woulda spent $250 at Volvo just to have them look at it, best Father’s Day gift I could get so I shot a quick video to capture what we were doing. If any one of you has had an interruption in your relationship with one of your children, I encourage you to not wait for them and I hope you can learn from my mistakes.
I am one of the most blessed men on this message board and it’s not the first time I have mentioned this. I allowed my immense rage towards his mother to keep me from enjoying my son when he was young and I could have made an even bigger impact. But you can only self flagellate for so long and then at some point you must rise and accept that someone who wants to know more about you is giving you a once in a lifetime opportunity to step forward and be there, all you have to do is just answer the call. Every day is a blessing and I’m lucky to even have had the chance to enter his life although I would frame it more as he SUMMONED me.
He turns 21 next month and has asked me to oversee everything with his birthday.(You bet your ### I'm excited he wants to celebrate with me) He is the youngest manager in his District at Publix(he refused to go to college) and dates the 2nd youngest manager at Publix, they are a powerhouse and I kinda had a hand in helping him get her attention when they were working in the same store. I gave him one simple line...“You make the days go by so much faster in here” and they’ve been dating ever since, he’s bringing her down after we celebrate in St Pete next month to stay at our house in Jupiter. C’mon!!! It doesn’t get any better than that.
I cannot thank all of you enough for going toe to toe with me at times when I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted to speak to all of you in a way that I am comfortable and this seemed like a good opportunity to explain myself a little more. I don't want pats on the back, I get plenty of feel good moments just by being in his life on a daily basis, we talk often on his car rides to and from work, that's where I am able to make the biggest impact. He is working on putting a down payment on a house soon, I've gone full throttle teaching him about RE and he actively purchases Publix Stock, he is in their 401K program already, he loves it. I wanted so badly to share some of this going back to earlier this year but then things got rough for a lot of folks and I didn't think people would want to hear about any of this. However, I see a lot of pain and suffering going on in peoples lives on this board and I hoped that maybe for a few minutes I could help ease some of your pain and maybe put a smile on your face.
Thanks to everyone in the Otis thread including Fred, Krista, Turtle, Cheese, the other Fred, Otis, Raiders, Doc, everyone of you has been an amazing cheerleader as I have been trying to also care for myself so that I can keep up with my son. The physical activity has helped me feel more mentally strong and able to navigate, you can't put a price on that IMO.
-Cheers Everyone!
ldschoolthumbsup:
