So anyway, it was a busy busy Monday this week, and we were triply cursed by the prospects of an annoying TV ad campaign, an annoying mailer campaign, and the fruits of said campaigns: box after box of wretched little snowman ornaments, which of course every 'Shwa and her sister, which is to say every 'Shwa and her mother, which is to say every 'Shwa and her cousin, had to come in and get their webbed fingers all over. The result? Far too many people tramping through the store, and business abounding for me and my fellow front office workers. Anyhow, this situation had the unfortunate side effect of leaving the phones mostly unanswered for the bulk of the day, which meant that at 8:30, half an hour to closing, answering them earned me a deluge of about fifteen messages. Naturally, this could only lead to the following message, whose apparently even shriller and evil twin has been regrettably lost to the seas of time and clumsy fingers (curse you, Macintosh!).

[Begin message: note that a crescendo applies from the rustling sound onwards] "I don't want no...{odd rustling sound ensues, rather like a kitten being chewed upon by a vacuum cleaner} I want someone to call me back NOW, otherwise I'm going down there, this is the worst setup I ever saw! Mailbox this, mailbox that...I left a mailbox message last week and I'm still waiting... and I've spent a lot of good money. {brief pause} In there! {mumbling chew sound, slightly different than previous one. I think this lady must have been dining on her pets} If I don't hear back in the next few minutes, I'm coming down there! [click]

Sigh. If only I'd managed to save the second message from the jaws of doom. Oh, well. Needless to say, the lady hadn't actually shown up in the appointed time, so we gave her a call, and it took all of two minutes to solve her alleged problem. During which time she seemed remarkably calm for someone who, four hours earlier, had been intent upon murdering us all.

Anyhow, that's all for now; however, I did manage to rescue a couple of old complaint letters from being tossed out, so look for another update pretty soon.