RANT: Customer Service is a euphemism for ‘please just go away’!

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Dear Lowes and Angi and cloudflare:
 
*** begin quote ***
 
Your email says “connect with my installer” (forwards to Angi) and “view booking details” (forwards to Lowes)
 
BOTH angi and lowes web access blocked by cloudflare
 
email “the site owner” who? @angi, @lowes, @Cloudflare
   With Cloudflare Ray ID: a30afb02fcf02c27 • Your IP: 37.221.112.214 •
 
Angi doesn’t allow an alternative keyboard
 
No angi email
 
Lowes doesn’t allow an alternative keyboard
 
No lowes email
 
Find Lowes install number  … … 
 … … 888-516-1010
 
Call Lowes  … …
<<AI>> — who are you … Customer
<<AI>>– about cabinet?  … NO!
<<AI>>– wait for a real person … Argh!
<<<short wait  —  minute or so>>>
 
<<LOWES PERSON>>– I’m xxx on a recorded line yada yada training purposes
 
<<LOWES PERSON>>– What’s your name … Sigh!  Me Llamo se … <<just joking; they didn’t say press 1 for engrish>>.
 
<<LOWES PERSON>> — What’s your phone number
 
 … … thinking what no caller id? Sigh!
<<ME>> Uno, dos, tres,  … … 
 
<<LOWES PERSON>> —  What’s your problem 
 
… … thinking other than lowes, inflation, fiat money, the warfare / welfare state .. Nothing serious!
<<ME>> I go into my description
 … … install scheduled on 8/26 @ 10
  … … somehow it became 8/26 @ 6
 
 <<LOWES PERSON>>… … “no idea how that happened>. Argh!
 … … let me call installer … Brief hold?  
 
<<ME>>Sure Argh!
 
 … … << some number of minutes later >>
 
<<LOWES PERSON>> … … installer says scheduled on 8/26 @6
 
<<ME>> so who or what changed it?
 
<<LOWES PERSON>> … … when would you like it done 
 
<<ME>> … On 8/26@10am as originally scheduled
 
 <<LOWES PERSON>>… … let me call installer … Brief hold?  
 
 <<ME>>Sure Argh!
 
 … … << some number of minutes later >>
 
 <<LOWES PERSON>>… … installer says can’t do that; when is “convenient” for you?
 
<<ME>>  … …  … …  On 8/26@10am as originally scheduled
 … …  … … I have to coordinate with other people.
 
<<LOWES PERSON>>… … let me call installer … Brief hold?  Sure Argh!
 
 … … << some number of minutes later >>
 
 <<LOWES PERSON>>… … installer says “earliest possible is Friday 8/28 at 10AM”
 
<<ME>>  … …  … … I say “fine. What choice do I have”
 
<<LOWES PERSON>>… … let me call installer … Brief hold?  
 
<<ME>>  … … Sure Argh!
 
<<LOWES PERSON>>… … confirmed and apologizes
 
<<ME>> Why should you appologize? You didn’t screw it and us up.  Thanks. Bye
 
Argh! Argh! Argh!
 
*** end quote ***
 
Doesn’t address all the fun problems getting to this basically unsatisfactory solution.
 
Sigh!
 
— 30 —
 
 
 
 
 
 

On Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 9:47 PM reinkefj via gmail <reinkefj@gmail.com> wrote:
 
WTH!!!

Ferdinand J. Reinke
16436 ADMIRALS COVE LN WINTER GARDEN FL 34787
571-218-6647
reinkefj@gmail.com

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Angi + Lowe’s <lowes@book.angi.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 18:04
Subject: Reminder | Your next assembly booking is coming up on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 6:00pm!
To: <>
Please Note: Your Lowe’s booking emails will come from Angi.
Angi Walmart
Hi Ferdinand,
Your assembly booking is coming up soon.
We’re excited to get your project started.
Get in touch with your pro.
Connect with your pro →
 
Patio Set Assembly (4 – 6 pieces)
Booking ID #27220869
address 16436 ADMIRALS COVE LN, Winter Garden, FL 34787
 
date Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 6:00pm
Item hasn’t arrived yet? You can easily reschedule your booking here. Please note: you may reschedule or cancel any appointment 24 hours in advance for free.
View Bookings CTA
FAQs
How do I login to my Angi + Lowe’s account?
 
What are my login credentials?
 
Who is responsible for tools and materials?
 
How do I contact my pro?
 
How do I update my booking?
 
What should I do if something is damaged or missing?
Happiness Guarantee Your project is backed by our Happiness Guarantee, and is covered up to the full purchase price plus limited additional damage protection.

Have more questions?

Your Lowe’s assembly service is powered by Angi. If you have any questions, just visit our help center for FAQs or live chat with our agents 24/7 by clicking the chat icon on the bottom right of the page.

Have questions? Chat with us!

By submitting a service request or otherwise using Angi’s services, you agree to Angi’s Terms and Conditions.

You may reschedule or cancel any appointment 24 hours in advance for free. However, since bookings cannot be cancelled or rescheduled once a pro is almost on the move, we can only provide refunds for bookings that are cancelled at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment time.Please note that any cancellation of this booking will be refunded to your original method of payment within 5-7 business days.

Privacy Policy

© 2026 Angi | 130 E. Washington St. | Indianapolis, IN 46204

 

—

from my mac osx desktop
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
 
“You know me, I’ve got Irish Alzheimer’s, I forget everything but a grudge,” — Pat Fitzmaurice Chicago Fire Department
 
 —  
Ferdinand J. Reinke

16436 ADMIRALS COVE LN
WINTER GARDEN, FL 34787
Phone 571-218-6647

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HEROIC: Hannie Schaft, a resistance fighter

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Aug 17, 2026, 4:17 AM

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DaZaTKbmp/?mibextid=wwXIfr.

*** begin quote ***

In March 1945, Nazi soldiers stopped a young woman on a bicycle at a checkpoint in Haarlem, Holland. She wore thick glasses, and her hair was dyed black. In her bag were copies of a banned newspaper a quiet cover for something far more dangerous hidden underneath.

They took her in and questioned her for hours. When she gave them nothing, they moved to something harsher: solitary confinement, interrogation, and torture. Still, she said nothing about the people she worked with.

But bodies don’t lie the way people can choose to. As the weeks passed in that cell, her roots grew out. Underneath the black dye, her hair was unmistakably red.

The Nazis had spent nearly three years hunting a resistance fighter they knew only by that detail. Wanted posters across the occupied Netherlands described her the exact same way, over and over: the girl with the red hair. Now, she was sitting right in front of them.

Her name was Hannie Schaft.

*** end quote ***

As I have often said this young lady had huevos muchos grande.  Much larger than I would have had.  Hard to imagine being that “cool under fire”.   While her dying words, “I shoot better than that” can’t be authenticated, it not had to imagine that being said.

Dona Nobis Pacem

— 30 —

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Posted by reinkefj

AI: Here’s the input to Yesterday’s blog post

Monday, August 24, 2026

Here’s what I put in.

*** begin quote ***

CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT — Reinke Faces Life Blog Post Drafting
Date: 2026-08-21

—

USER: https://nypost.com/2026/08/20/real-estate/a-joke-about-dodging-the-pied-a-terre-tax-just-might-go-legit/. Draft a blog post for Reinke Faces Life that points out that the joke could become reality and poke fun at the Gooferment tax they plan.

CLAUDE: [Researched the story via web search since the NY Post link was blocked; drafted a blog post titled “Comedy Writes the Tax Code: Aura Investments and the Pied-à-Terre Punchline That Might Come True” in the Reinke Faces Life voice, covering comedian Madison Walser’s Aura Investments satire-turned-real venture matching artists with pied-à-terre owners to dodge NYC’s non-primary-residence surcharge, the botched rollout (960,000 property notices, Scott Galloway “doxxing” complaint, burdensome appeals process), and closed with commentary on the GOVEROTRAGEOUS pattern.]

USER: Adjust sarcasm higher

CLAUDE: [Rewrote the post with sharper, more biting sarcasm throughout — same structure and facts, harsher tone including lines like “Big Brother, but make it property tax” and “Somewhere, Bastiat is laughing. Everyone else is just filling out the forms.”]

USER: Add a footnote about the ai assist and a link to claudeai

CLAUDE: [Added footnote: “¹ Drafted with AI assistance via Claude (https://claude.ai).”]

USER: Add the nypost link at the top with the headline and without same. Save result in an appropriately named text file in CLAUDIA/BLOGS directory.

CLAUDE: [Checked memory for existing folder structure; searched Google Drive for an existing BLOGS folder under claudia — none found. Asked user whether to create a new BLOGS subfolder or save in the main claudia folder.]

USER: Q: No BLOGS subfolder exists yet under claudia — how should I handle it?
A: Create

CLAUDE: [Created new “BLOGS” subfolder (ID: 1HfdkB0gw11firsWGDSHvd5uRAcunsoeA) under the claudia folder. Created text file “2026-08-Aug21-blog-pied-a-terre-tax-aura-investments” in that folder containing the source URL/headline at top, followed by the sarcastic blog post draft and AI-assist footnote. Updated the claudia-file-organization memory file to record the new BLOGS subfolder.]

USER: can you suggest some tags for it and also put them in a single sentence separated by commas.

CLAUDE: Suggested tags: pied-a-terre tax, NYC real estate, Mamdani, Gooferment, property tax, tax avoidance, Aura Investments, satire, New York City, government overreach

USER: More

CLAUDE: More options: municipal taxation, wealth tax, second homes, real estate loopholes, Zohran Mamdani, tax policy, government surveillance, comedy, satire gone real, homeowner rights, bureaucracy, big government, NYC housing market, tax database, doxxing, unintended consequences, libertarian commentary

USER: Capture this conversation in a text file and put in my google drive CLAUDIA / DIALOGUE folder.

CLAUDE: [This transcript, saved to claudia/DIALOGUES folder.]

—

*** end quote ***

****** AND ******

*** begin quote ***

CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT — Blog Post Tag Suggestions
Date: 2026-08-23

—

USER: [Uploaded file: 2026-08-Aug21-blog-pied-a-terre-tax-aura-investments — a blog post titled “Comedy Writes the Tax Code: Aura Investments and the Pied-à-Terre Punchline That Might Come True,” sourced from a New York Post article about a comedian’s satirical “Aura Investments” concept and NYC’s pied-à-terre tax rollout.] Here’s a blog post can you suggest some tags for it and also put them in a single sentence separated by commas.

CLAUDE: Suggested tags: Pied-à-Terre Tax, NYC Real Estate, Property Tax Overreach, Gooferment, Government Surveillance, Housing Policy Satire, Aura Investments, Scott Galloway, Bastiat, Unintended Consequences.

Also provided as a single comma-separated sentence per the request.

USER: Capture this conversation in a text file and put in my google drive CLAUDIA / DIALOGUES folder.

CLAUDE: [This transcript, saved to claudia/DIALOGUES folder.]

*** end quote ***

Like the movie, “The Wizard Of Oz”, says: “Pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain.”

I really like how it turned out a finished product in a few minutes.  Before I ran out of free “credits”.

I’ll keep looking for things it does well as well as what  it can’t do.

— 30 —

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ENCOURAGING: A joke transforms into both a tax revolt trigger AND a legit profit making web service

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/08/20/real-estate/a-joke-about-dodging-the-pied-a-terre-tax-just-might-go-legit/
Headline: A joke about dodging the pied-a-terre tax just might go legit

—

Comedy Writes the Tax Code: Aura Investments and the Pied-à-Terre Punchline That Might Come True

Big news out of the Gooferment’s favorite laboratory, New York City: a stand-up comedian has now out-designed the Department of Finance’s flagship tax policy, and she did it as a bit.

Madison Walser launched Aura Investments as pure satire — a fake matchmaking service pairing starving artists with guilt-ridden pied-à-terre owners who’d like to keep their money, thanks. The premise: stash an artist in your empty condo, watch it magically become your “primary residence,” and watch the city’s shiny new surcharge evaporate. Ha ha, very funny, purely theoretical, nobody would actually — oh wait. The response was so overwhelming that Walser is now lawyering up to make the joke real. When your parody generates a functioning business model faster than the actual policy generated actual compliance, maybe it’s time to admit the satire was just… accurate.

But really, who’s surprised? This is the same rollout where the geniuses at City Hall solved “how do we identify non-primary residences” by mailing threat letters to nearly a million property owners — the overwhelming majority of whom are not offshore oligarchs but regular people whose co-op happens to be worth seven figures, because it’s Manhattan and a seven-figure co-op is what a normal apartment costs there now. Then, in a stroke of civic transparency so bold only a socialist mayor could think it was a good idea, they published the whole list — names, addresses, everything — as a searchable database. Scott Galloway, a man who voted for this administration, got to experience the thrill of calling himself doxxed on his own podcast. Nothing like watching your own supporters get mugged by the policy they cheered for.

And the appeals process? A masterpiece. Homeowners burning three hours of their lives uploading proof they live where they live, only to have the portal quietly discard it overnight, Kafka by way of Squarespace. A jury summons, a utility bill, thirty years at the same address — apparently none of it counts as evidence in a system built on the premise that you’re guilty of owning your own home until you can prove otherwise to a website that doesn’t save files. And when the backlash rolled in, City Hall’s fix wasn’t “maybe streamline this” — it was a promise to cross-reference your E-ZPass and cell tower pings to make sure you’re not lying about sleeping in your own bed. Big Brother, but make it property tax.

This is the GOVEROTRAGEOUS playbook, executed flawlessly as always: announce a tax on 31,000 imaginary billionaires, quietly widen the net to a million actual homeowners, then act shocked — shocked! — when the peasantry finds a workaround before the ink is dry. The tax was sold as a shakedown of absentee millionaires. Instead it’s about to become a government-subsidized artist residency program, run out of empty condos, engineered by a comedian, because the professionals in charge of writing tax law got outmaneuvered by a bit.

Somewhere, Bastiat is laughing. Everyone else is just filling out the forms.

—
¹ Drafted with AI assistance via Claude (https://claude.ai).

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: For this, I paid extra! Argh!

Saturday, August 22, 2026

<<FROM Lowe’s >>
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-08Aug-19>>

*** begin quote ***

*** end quote ***

Delivery is scheduled for today.

The rep said on the phone <<with I assume a straight face>> “put it out of your way for a couple of days and the installer will call you within two business days to schedule installing it”.  (For this, I paid extra! Argh!)

Not the not the way I’d like it to be done, but I guess now we know. Sigh!

I was ASSUMING (Yeah, I know ASS-out_of_U-and-ME! I forgot again.) that it would be delivered by the installer who would deliver it and go away.  (Hopefully, taking all residue debris away or, at least, flattening any cardboard and bagging up everything else.  I guess cleaning up wold be exceptional and even I, the curmudgeonly cheapskate, would tip the installer for going the extra mile.)

<<<Please, test that assumption and take notes of the results! — Robert W. Malone substack 2026>>>

<<To be continued after the install.>>

# – # – # – # – # 2026-Aug-19 @ 11:20

— 30 —

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HISTORICAL: To go back to a simpler time when “baseball” was fun and relaxing

Friday, August 21, 2026

*** begin quote ***

On Aug 19, 2026, at 5:24 AM, reinkefj via gmail wrote to LUDDITE:

Brewers match modern-era record with 22-0 beatdown of Mariners https://nypost.com/2026/08/18/sports/brewers-match-modern-era-record-with-22-0-beatdown-of-mariners/

No mercy rule??? Pity the poor losing team’s fans!

*** end quote ***

On Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 8:00 AM LUDDITE wrote:

*** begin quote ***

Laugh mercy rules are for kids, like participation trophies! They just have to suck it up!

Sent from my iPad

*** end quote ***

I guess that when they went from the “boys of summer” to MP4Bs [MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”], they lost the “mercy rule” from their playbook.

In the old old days, I remember when if a team “embarrassed” an opponent, the next time they met (ever) the lead off batter would get a deliberate “wild pitch”.

If the manager was Casey Stengel or Billy Martin, and they were really <synonym for having produced lots of urine output>, the lead off batter would get a “head shot”. Or even maybe other batters sprinkled through out the line up so no one knew when or what was coming.

“Come backs” from BIG leads (I think it was like 6 runs) were rare because both teams fiollowed the “unwritten rules” of baseball etiquette. Everything is different now that Big Bucks are in play.

Argh! To go back to a simpler time when “baseball” was fun and relaxing and not a “money grab”?

— 30 —

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HEALTH: Shingles is one of the most under-discussed adult health threats

Thursday, August 20, 2026

https://mailchi.mp/nutritionfacts/upcoming-how-not-to-die-book-club-2194463?e=f60fe40cd7

# – # – # – # – #

Look what showed up in my email. This is the doctor that pushes a plant based diet. (I try but I fail all the time.) I’ve had his books around. (Lent out, forgot to who, never returned, Argh!) I think he is really excellent since he cites his references for the advice he gives (i.e., his gold standard is double-blind placebo-controlled trials; all the way down the scale to case reports). If I was KING, I’d make him Health Secrtary. (But then, I’d have put Judge Judy and Judge Napolitano on SCOTUS too.). I plan to listen to what he has to say. He’s the reason I got the Shingles Vax way back when based on his recommendation. (It’s also the reason I ignore the Flu vaxes!)

YMMV

FAIWWYPFI (Free Advice Is Worth What You Pay For It! ?zero?)

*** begin quote ***

Dear Friend,

 

Shingles is one of the most under-discussed adult health threats—despite a lifetime risk approaching one in three. It can cause blindness, trigger strokes, and result in a debilitating nerve pain (postherpetic neuralgia) that can linger for years. What does the evidence say about this painful condition? In this 1.5-hour live webinar starting at 2:00pm ET on Thursday, August 27, 2026, I’ll cover preventing shingles, treating an active outbreak, and using diet and natural topical treatments to relieve postherpetic neuralgia and long-term nerve pain in general. Highlights include a discussion of how Big Pharma misleads the public about vaccine efficacy and step-by-step instructions to make my B-CALM Oil recipe for neuropathic pain.

Everyone registered for the webinar will receive a recording.

*** end quote ***

— 30 —

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Guess they haven’t head of Amaon Prime or Walmart+ or “free delivery”

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

*** begin quote ***

On Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 4:12 AM reinkefj via gmail wrote:

Kirkland Signature Organic Summit Roast Coffee, Medium Roast, Keurig K-Cup Pods, 120 ct | Costco https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/p/-/kirkland-signature-organic-summit-roast-coffee-medium-roast-keurig-k-cup-pods-120-ct/2001139222

*** end quote ***

Went to order and then <BAMM!> slapped in the face.

NOT ordered. They want a 25$ delivery charge. Guess they haven’t head of Amaon Prime or Walmart+ or “free delivery”. What a way to lose and a stream of future orders. Don’t want my business; fine. Argh!

— 30 —

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DISCOURAGING: All too true about NYC

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

<<FROM TWITTER / now X (but it’ll always be twitter to me)>>
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-08-18>>

*** begin quote ***

Josh Barzon
@JoshuaBarzon
Aug 17

You could move to New York City.

Rent an 852-square-foot apartment for $5,503 a month.

Blow $500 on three “first dates” a week and somehow remain single for six years.

Finally meet someone you like, then discover they’re “not really looking for anything serious right now.”

Get a master’s degree so you can qualify for an internship.

Apply to 147 jobs, get 93 automated rejections, and finally find an “entry-level” position requiring five years of experience.

Eventually land a six-figure job and still need a roommate to make rent.

Pay federal income tax, New York State income tax, AND New York City income tax because apparently living there is a three-level subscription.

Learn that a “quiet neighborhood” means the sirens only come by every 20 minutes.

Pay $27 every day for a sandwich (no sides) because the place has exposed brick and a handwritten menu.

Take the subway to work every morning and develop the useful skill of pretending not to notice absolutely anything happening around you.

Spend 45 minutes traveling three miles.

Carry your groceries home six blocks because parking near your apartment is more of a philosophical concept than an actual possibility.

Have “owning a washer and dryer” become one of your primary measures of generational wealth.

Walk past a mountain of trash bags on your way to a restaurant with a Michelin star.

Tell your friends back home you don’t need a car while spending $46 on an Uber because the subway is delayed again.

Go to Central Park when you want to remember what trees look like.

Spend your twenties telling everyone you could NEVER live anywhere else.

Then one day you visit your cousin in Iowa.

He has a house with four bedrooms, a garage, a yard, two cars, four kids, and somehow pays less than you do for the apartment where your refrigerator touches your couch.

But hey.

The NYC bagels are incredible.

*** end quote ***

Having grown up in Manhattan I can certainly agree with what he has written.

I’d say it’s “funny”. BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), it’s not “funny” like “HA! HA!”.  More like “funny” peculiar.  Like schadenfreude!

— 30 —

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TECHNOLOGY: Need a connector from TEXTEXPANDER to GBOARD on an iphone

Monday, August 17, 2026

I’m using TextExpander on an iPhone and would like to use Google’s voice typing (Gboard) together with the TextExpander keyboard. As I understand it, iOS only allows one third-party keyboard to be active at a time, so I currently have to switch keyboards via the globe icon to dictate with Gboard and then switch back to TextExpander to get snippet expansion.

Is there a supported way to use Gboard voice typing directly within the TextExpander keyboard, or any recommended workflow to reduce the back-and-forth switching? I’ve attached a transcript of a related conversation for context.

*** begin quote ***

onversation transcript ? Claude chat
Date: 2026-08-17

User: is there a way to use the Google voice typing with the TextExpander keyboard?

Assistant: iOS only allows one active keyboard at a time, so TextExpander's keyboard and Gboard voice typing can't run simultaneously as a combined keyboard ? but you can switch between them:
- Install both TextExpander and Gboard as keyboards (Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard).
- While typing, tap the globe icon (bottom-left of keyboard) to cycle to Gboard, use its mic for voice typing, then tap the globe again to switch back to TextExpander for snippet expansions.

Simpler alternative: Apple's built-in dictation (mic icon on the standard keyboard) works underneath TextExpander without switching keyboards ? dictated text still passes through TextExpander's expansion engine while in the TextExpander keyboard. This isn't Google's voice typing specifically, but avoids the keyboard-switch friction.

User: cxxgd

Assistant: Anytime ? let me know if you need anything else.

User: capture this conversation in a text file and put in the google drive claudia folder

*** end quote ***

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