the hair on the head
so much was snipped off quickly
wow is all we say
* there it is, my lovely haiku dedicated to my brother John who cut off his bum-long dredlocks! As nephew Matthew says, “he looks good!” Deed he does, just was a little shocking! I now take over the title for longest hair in the family, wa ha ha…
This story is kinda long, but good 
I have had a Griffin PowerMate for a few years now. My dad got it for me one Christmas. A few months ago, the cool blue light on the bottom stopped working. The unit remained functional, but the light was the most geeky, cool-looking part of all, so I was sad. I figured I’d email Griffin’s tech support department to see if they could help.
A lady named Shannon got back to me with some tips on how to fix it, but to no avail. She then wrote me (elipses indicate parts that were taken out of the quote):
With that unfortunately it sounds like it is defective and I would be more than happy to get you set up with a replacement.
Rather than have you send us the defective product, we request taking a digital picture of the defective product destroyed. You can smash, burn or crack open in whatever way you would like, so long as you do so safely. Also, take a digital picture (or scan a copy) of your receipt. If you do not have the receipt, please let me know the timeframe of the purchase.
…
Once I receive the email and verify the photos I will send a replacement to the address that you have provided below.
…
I can then send you out a replacement.Please give me 24 hours before receiving a response due to a heavy amount of e-mails recently.
Thank you and have a good one!
Shannon
Griffin Technology
Technical Support
Such awesome support right from the start! I didn’t even have to send in the old unit, just provide proof that it was broken. My response:
Thanks for the offer to replace it! I don’t have the receipt as it was a gift for Christmas about two years ago.
I do love my Powermate, and wonder how I’d do without it while the other one is in the mail. I use it a lot!
If that’s the only way to get a replacement, I guess I can break my current one… it just seems very sad to totally destroy a working one (even though the light is broken).
I wonder if you can send a new one, and then I can break it then? I know this requires trust, but I’m a trustworthy guy
I honestly didn’t expect Shannon to comply with my offer… she had no reason to, and Griffin was already doing me a huge favor. I had no receipt and had provided no proof of a broken unit. But Shannon wrote back:
Thanks for the photo of the terrified PM, but I do need that photo of it destroyed first.
UNLESS
You can print out this e-mail and incorporate the little mermaid somehow with the PM, then I will send out the new unit first.
If not, then just send that photo and I will get that replacement to you.
ThanksShannon
I didn’t know if Shannon was playing a joke on me or not. Maybe she just wanted a laugh at the office? But I figured I might as well play along, and I like the LIttle Mermaid anyway, so I followed instructions:
Shannon, now apparently convinced I wasn’t trying to scam a new unit out of her, replied with:
Hello
I have set up that order for you. Once it ships out you will receive tracking information to your e-mail address.
Thanks and have a good day!
Shannon
Sure enough, today I received the order confirmation! I was very happy that Griffin decided to give me a replacement unit when I had no receipt and the unit clearly was not under any sort of warranty. Shannon’s fun customer service was a refreshing break from the scripted Indian phone calls with “Bob” I usually have. She was also trusting and emailed the replacement unit with no proof (other than the Mermaid picture) that the old one was even broken. Needless to say I’m very happy with Griffin!
That was about a month ago, since the order confirmation I received said “back ordered”. So I wrote Shannon asking when I could expect my new PM:
Just to let you know, still haven’t received the PowerMate in the mail. I got one that said it was backordered, but nothing since then! Should I just keep waiting? Thanks!
Shannon’s reply from this week:
Hello
We are still processing all the data from our old data system to our new system, and I checked on your order and its still being processed over. I just went ahead and set up that order in the new system and set that to NEXT DAY shipping. That should go out in the next day or two. When you get both orders, just keep both units. Dont worry about sending it back to us or anything.
Sorry for the delay.Thanks
Shannon
Well, by now I’m just shocked. Griffin is now sending me TWO REPLACEMENT UNITS because the first one, that I really didn’t even deserve, was taking too long! Remember that the first unit that broke wasn’t even under warranty and was over two years old! Honestly, if I was Shannon I’d have told me to take a hike after the first silly exchange of emails.
Sure enough, today I received ONE of my shiny new PowerMates:
I plugged it in and it works great! I hope it lasts for many years so I don’t have to bug Shannon anymore True to my word, I have to cut up my old PowerMate and send Shannon proof of it’s demise. I just took these two pictures a few minutes ago:
Thanks Shannon, and thanks Griffin, for my new shiny geeky blue PowerMate. I can’t imagine there’s a company anywhere that provides better customer service. I hope to do more business with you in the future
I haven’t posted in a while, so here’s a brief update.
The last three weeks have been cold (for summer) and rain. In the last three weeks there have been two days of sun. So that’s been minorly depressing. I wait all year for Summer and like it to be about 80 and sunny all the time so I can soak up enough sun to last all winter. Also Jill and I quit karate for the summer so we could play volleyball (local church) and ultimate frisbee (local pick-up league), and we haven’t been able to do either in about a month.
Other than that, we’re enjoying our Summer work schedules, church, and hanging out together a lot. Today we played nerf, picked black rasberries, read, smoked, and ate together. Other days we hack, ride bikes, hike, or play computer games together. I love that Jill only works about 10-15 hours in the Summer!
The other day we did a silly little recording of “Under the Bridge” using vocal transformers in Logic. Jill is the high voice and I’m the low voice. Click here to listen.
For months we’ve been haunted by a spot on our carpet where Ubu peed. I used the Natures Miracle cat spray, but it didn’t eliminate all the odor. Finally, I looked up a recipe online, and *joy* it worked! I must share it with the world. Thank you Cats of Australia for this recipe!
1. Figure out the affected area. You can do the black light trick, but if you don’t want to buy one of those you can use, yes indeed, your nose! I just got down and sniffed around and marked with string the affected area.
2. Solution of half water and half vinegar. I used about a cup of each for a 4×3 foot area. Drizzle it on there so that it gets deep down into the carpet. Let it set for a good while.
3. Sprinkle baking soda over the area.
4. Drizzle on a mix of 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide and a teaspoon of liquid dishwashing soap (liquid kind). I actually used a cup of the h.p. and it came out fine. Grab a glove and brush and get it all worked in there. Allow it to dry and then vacuum!
5. Go celebrate your hard work with a glass of wine – with or without your urine making kitty.
It worked great for me. I did do it twice b/c I didn’t quite get the whole area covered the first time.
Home from a wonderful visit to San Francisco to spend time with family. My nephew Wes a year and a half and just won my heart effortlessly. He is so good, so sweet, and my brother and sister-in-law are such wonderful parents. We spend a lot of time playing, walking, going to the shops on Clement st., looking for motorcycles (Wes’ favorite!). When I got home Ben said I “smelled like California” and indeed, it is very much in my heart. Photos are up on the Photos page.
