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02:46 - 14.03.08
Bullies
On Monday my youngest and I decided to try the tax preparation service, despite our misgivings about the verity of the information given by the tax office. Nothing to lose except the phone calls from creditors, right? The young man we had was obviously new to the job. He offered up some information about deductions and eligibility requirements, but said that he had to see my son's actual tax form issued for this year, rather than just the last pay stub from 2007. The tax office had said it wouldn't be necessary if we brought in the 2006 return, because it would provide proof of identity. That had been their only concern, the possibility of identity theft. The young man noted we could file on-line instead. Yes we could if the internet had been reconnected, which it hadn't.

Called the internet provider at around 6 pm and spoke with Kevin. He assured me that he saw my name in the queue for reconnection, but that the system had just been repaired and that there were thousands of accounts that were in that list as well. It would likely be either late in the evening or even the next morning before mine would be reactiviated. He sounded exhausted so I just thanked him for his time. Don't need to badger the people who have no control anyway. Went back to reading my novel and doing those yoga exercises after the cats and I chased each other up and down the stairs during the news hour. Burnt off some of the restlessness anyway.

Tuesday morning was slipping away when I called our internet provider to ask for an update about the state of their system. It was up and working, but "I see no record of your name in the system", stated agent Theresa flatly. Steam was starting to come out of my ears, as I mentioned the name of the agent I had spoken with and what he had told me the night before. I again pointed out the length of time I had been a loyal customer, despite their less than stellar connectivity and internet services over the past decade - ever since the company was privatized. It had been a great company prior to that time, but rapidly deteriorated in terms of service, while the fees skyrocketed. The company says they are struggling to retain their clients, but that doesn't add up when they leave someone who uses their service to earn a living without any access for going on five days. I was worried about missing emails from places that I had sent resumes to now, as well as still not being able to file my son's and my taxes on-line. What if the interruption went on long enough that it cost me a job interview. All of a sudden Theresa said that she had missed finding my account and that, yes indeed, it was in the queue. Still no estimate of when - what day even - it would be reactivated.

Just after hanging up from that call another came in from my grandchildren's school's vice principal. She was trying to track down my son to apologize for not being able to meet with him the evening before. Apparently my grandson had been bullied seriously enough the day before so that action needed to be taken immediately with the perpetrator - another boy in my grandson's grade. My son wanted a no contact guarantee set up with the offending child as well as his parents, you see. Apparently the child copies his behaviour problems from his parents. The vice principal really impressed me - and where educators are concerned I have had enough experience as a parent to know a good one when I talk with them. She was obviously very concerned about both my grandson's welfare and the sense of safety that my son and his partner should have with respect to allowing their two children attend that school.

I promised to try and track down my son right away. As it turned out, I ended up talking with his partner first about it. She was feeling very frustrated, because there have already been a number of incidents documented with that particular bully. They thought a resolution had been found, but obviously it wasn't sufficient to stop the harrassment. I've had that experience years ago with a couple of my sons when they were attending school too. When my son's partner explained what had happened the afternoon before, I recalled similar types of bullying that I had had to deal with and explained what had finally worked for me in negotiating with the school authorities in terms of dealing with that personality type. The staff are fairly restricted by regulations with respect to what they can and cannot do, you see. My daughter-in-law seemed to calm down as I told her stories about what my son, her partner, had experienced and what had finally happened to the children who had engaged in the same behaviours. Maybe she realized my son would be able to empathize with my grandson in a way that would help him deal proactively with the distress the problem was causing.

Hung up the phone in time to pick up the return call from my son. He had been visiting his banker and had had his cell phone shut off, hence the reason for the call to me from the school as the emergency contact. We basically chewed over the same information and possible solutions as those I had just discussed with my daughter-in-law, then continued on to discuss my woes with my internet provider. My son wanting to come over to use the service, you see. He was almost as incensed with the poor service I had received as he was with the problems his son was encountering at school. He offered to pay the difference that it would cost me to switch to another provider. We discussed options for a while as he travelled back toward home, but until my financial situation becomes stable again I really don't want to introduce any more variables into the mix. Especially not any that require another monthly payment. My daughter-in-law called back later in the day to let me know that things seemed to be resolved for my grandson and that they had decided this new vice principal was as good as I first thought she was. All good.

Just as I was signing off with my son I looked up from the phone and realized I was receiving my email. 752 individual messages. About half were spam - something that the service is supposed to filter out but doesn't. As you can guess, I spent the balance of the day going through the 300 plus messages that had piled up on the server, in addition to checking all the email arriving from that day's regular posting as well. Added the two posts that were for you to enjoy dear diary and responded to the correspondence that was the most critical at that point in time. It was about 3 in the am Wednesday when I finally finished all that and went to bed. It's after 3 in the am now so good night for now dear diary. I'll talk with you tomorrow.

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