Out on the fringes.

My trip to Miami was a frigging disaster. It was expensive and we accomplished nothing. As a bonus, I got sick, which was depressing on top of depressing. No wonder I'm depressed.

I bought an airline ticket using my VISA card. I rented a car, a hotel room and a condo for a week with no problem. But when we went to Target, both of my VISA cards were rejected. Chase sent me an email asking me to verify my existence, but it had no effect. It was only after dutiful daughter spent an hour on the phone were we able to get me reinstated as a good corporate citizen.

We went to Walgreens to buy a Tracfone, because nobody has landlines any more and a phone could come in handy. Walgreens didn't have any Tracfones, but they had a Verizon flip phone for $7, which sounds like a deal until you have to buy some airtime and the smallest increment they have is $15, which isn't really enough to actually get your phone turned on. For that you need to spend another $30. So I spent $50 to make maybe two dozen phone calls.

The car rental kiosks are a good mile from the airport terminal. They have carpeted halls, slidewalks and a train. Kind of a pain when you are hauling 200+ pounds of luggage. Yes, we rented a cart for $5. Finally get to the car and they have upgraded us to a full size SUV, a Chevrolet Tahoe. What a beast. It feels like you are encased in six layers of armor, and in between adjacent layers of armor there is a layer of rubber, so every little bump sets up sixteen different harmonic vibrations. It had more jiggles than a go-go dancer.

This week I'm home trying to fix some broken stuff. I order a new Liftmaster wireless keypad for the garage door from Amazon. It's the same brand as the receiver we use, but will the two play together? They will not. What does Liftmaster have to say? Nothing. Sent the keypad back, cost me $7. What happened to free returns? Me thinks Amazon is feeling their oats, don't need to be giving away so much stuff anymore. Went to Lowes, bought a Genie keypad, same brand as the opener, even has the same buzzword: 'Intellicode'. Didn't work. Never mind that the opener is 20 years old, more or less. You use the same buzzword, they two ought to play together. What does Genie have to say? Nothing. They're closed on the weekend. On Monday they promise to call back, but they don't. I send them an email. They may respond someday. I don't care, I'm gonna buy one of them no-name, universal do-ma-flachers, screw these brand name outfits.

Update June 25: I ended up with a Chamberlain KLIK2U Clicker Universal Garage Door Keypad. It works fine.