Weirdness

[altivo]

I've had a lot of strange e-mail, but today was the first one from "beyond the grave". My younger brother writes to tell me he has been dead nine days. My sister-in-law apparently received an e-mail from a monument company telling her that they were VA approved and offering to produce a custom headstone for him. Of course, she immediately called him up to tell him he was dead and he'd better stop walking around like that. The cause of the error? Someone 25 years older, with the same first and last name but a different middle initial and living in the same state, had indeed passed away. They laughed about it at first, but now she says flowers and condolences are arriving and she's having to turn them away too. I hope Social Security doesn't get confused and mark him down as dead too. I understand it is really hard to convince them you are still alive once that happens.

In other news, still no replacement tire for my car. This "just in time" inventory stuff is really stupid crap, that's all I can say. They aren't even sure they can have it tomorrow. I took the car back and am driving it on the spare, which I don't like but it's not practical for me to get to and from work without it.

The young kid who drove the car across town from the dealership to the library to return it to me mentioned his surprise that I had a manual transmission. He didn't know you could get an Escape that way. I told him you just had to ask for it. "No, seriously," he said. "I didn't know they even made them that way." More weirdness. When I calculate my gas mileage, though, I'm sure glad I have the stick shift. Now that the weather has moderated, I'm back up to 29+ mpg.

Comments

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I would love this type of clerical error to happen to me, even if entirely for the privilege of answering the phone with a long, low, drawn-out "Braaaaaiiinssss...."

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snickers and shakes his head*

[mymaimary.livejournal.com]

What a weird hiccup in the computer system. That's a little frightening. It's sad for the family that lost their loved one that they now have to go through the system to correct this as well as all the other responsabilities that come with dealing with a loved-ones death.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hopefully the error doesn't extend to anything really serious, just to people using phone books and such without paying attention to details like the county of residence or the middle initial. Probably the man who died was unlisted or lived in a situation where he had no listing in his own name.

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

After one accident at work, my file was marked deceased. It took a while to return from the grave.
The best part was walking in on the secretary that handled my case. She looked like she seen a ghost.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I dunno about keeping company with zombies. Wolves are fine, I like them, but zombies make me nervous. ;p

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

I got better.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

29mpg?
The official specs say that it gets 28mpg, but these are always inflated higher than what you could expect to actually get.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're right, but I'm also telling the truth. Those EPA figures are always subject to a YMMV. I'm a very conservative driver, and I typically get somewhat better mileage than the EPA test predicts. After all, there has to be someone at either end of the curve, right?

It dipped as low as 25.5 mpg in the depths of the winter, but now I'm back up to 29 or more.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Go high mileage Escapes!

^_^

I think that instead of thinking its weird, you and your bro
and your SIL should get a stage show going.

He's /officially/ dead!

Then he can start an AIM chat with you on the huge overhead
screen asking for money and...

Okay, John Edwards and Jimmy Swaggart are rolling over in
their yet to be graves.

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Umm, that television campaign stuff is pretty much incomprehensible to me. Maybe he should run for President in '08 though? He could be the first dead man elected to that office.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Service departments tend never to really make money so they have to save money wherever they can and usually it means not having a huge store of parts on hand to take up large amounts of room.

I'm sorry that your younger brother is a zombie, he'll probably grow out of it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I understand the limited local inventory and why it exists. I still think it doesn't work very well. They've known since Saturday morning that they need a tire for my car. It's a current model, their own brand, and they still haven't got the tire in? What if it needed something more exotic, like an oil pump or something? I don't feel this bodes well.

Oddly, I used to take my Jeep to them for service. They always managed to get anything they needed overnight, including some pretty far out stuff like windshield washer pumps, and it wasn't even their brand of vehicle so must have been outside their normal line of supply.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Wellll possibly because its really a Mazda Tribute under the skin, perhaps its not made in the US? Although you'd think they'd have tyres as that'd be a common part.

Hell I could even get Grey import toyota parts in the same day most of the time for a Toyota dealer ^.^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Nope. I checked on that before I bought it. The car was made in the US, and if I remember correctly, somewhere near St. Louis so not even that far from me. In any case, the tires are not foreign made nor are they a particularly odd size. I suspect that had I taken it to a tire dealer, they'd have had it up and fixed within a day. It's a problem with Ford's supply system, I'm sure.