False Advertising

There's nothing I dislike more than false advertising. When someone says they do this and then you find out they don't, it's a huge turn off. The same goes for companies that say they can do something for you, then when you find out they don't-- argh!

A few weeks ago, I was searching online for hatcheries that would let me order less than the minimum 25 chicks. I found a few for "backyard" farmers, but many would not be ready until much later than I wanted. Lo and behold, a flyer came in our local paper advertising chicks coming to their stores. The closest store is about 35 miles away-- I was willing to drive to pick up chicks. Upon checking their website, they said they would have several varieties available, in straight runs or pullets only and the minimum purchase was 6-- perfect!

I had my husband call 3 different times to verify the date when they would have the chicks-- each time was March 28th. Andrew was starting to get a little irritated with me and my obsession with the chicks (sorry, honey!). We got up early Sunday morning because I had every intention of being there when their doors opened so I could get first pick of the chicks. We walked in and I asked Andrew if he could hear peeping and we'd follow the sounds. No peeping. We asked the cashier where the chicks were and she said they'd be here tomorrow, the post office is closed on Sunday. Wtf?!?!?!? We weren't mad at her, but we were mad. I had no words to say and walked out. Andrew said a few things to the cashier about getting their information straight and walked out. What a wasted trip that was.

Monday morning, we woke up early again, but before we left, we called first to make sure the chicks were there. They were. Once we got there, I was disappointed-- there were only ducklings and two breeds of chicks: Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshire Reds, and they were straight run-- not even separated by sex. What happened to all the other breeds?? The White Rocks and the Black Australorps I had my heart set on? The girl there had no answers for me.

With a big sigh, I picked out what I think are 5 each of the Rhode Island and the New Hampshire Reds. I HOPE I'll have more pullets than roosters. I wanted 10 more hens to add to my laying flock, and now I'll probably be lucky if I have 5.

To say I am very disappointed is an understatement. I am happy to have my chicks, but they were not exactly what I wanted. When I called once myself via relay to confirm when the chicks would be there, the guy hung up on me because he thought the relay operator was selling something and he was not allowed to take "those kinds of calls". It is very frustrating as a deaf person to have to rely on someone else to make calls for them, and when there is a service I can use, like the relay service, to help me be independent, it's infuriating when people hang up, not understanding how the relay works. Add to that, incompetent people who are not informed of proper dates or because management isn't communicating the right information, it just all adds up to a very upsetting time.

I have every intention of calling the company's headquarters, but again, I have to rely on Andrew to make the call or risk getting hung up on if I use the relay services.

On the bright side of things, I do have my chicks, even if they aren't exactly what I wanted.
They sure are cute little, fluffy things, aren't they?? My current battle now is fending off 4 little ones that want nothing more but to hug 'em and squeeze 'em and kiss 'em and love 'em and hold 'em and hug 'em some more!

What Are They Saying?

**Edited to add::

I went ahead and watched my copy of the dvd movie UP and it IS captioned AND has English subtitles!! It has no [CC] symbols on the back and no subtitles info, but it IS captioned!! I have heard from various people that the rental versions aren't captioned, dunno what the deal with that is. So my apologies, the plain dvd version of UP is ok for us Deaf people to watch!! Yay!!


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A friend on Facebook posted that the UP dvd movie did not have captions or subtitles. My heart skipped a beat as I ran to go check my copy and sure enough-- no captions or subtitles. There is French and Spanish subtitles, but not English. I went online to the Disney website and did some searching and I found they released 3 versions of the UP movie-- Blu-Ray, Digital, and regular DVD. ONLY the Blu-Ray version has English subtitles for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing viewers.

Why??? First, the Blu-Ray version costs more, and you need the Blu-Ray player. Secondly, why would Disney choose to leave out the captions or subtitles on any version of their movies?? I like watching movies, too! My kids could still watch it, but I won't be able to understand anything. Have you ever tried to lip-read a cartoon??? I'm a good lip-reader, but not that good!

I'm upset about it. I already opened the movie to clip out the proof-of-purchase tabs to redeem a rebate on the movie. I don't know if I'll be able to return it. I did get it for free after the coupons, but it's the principal of the thing-- had I known there were no captions or subtitles on it, I wouldn't have bought it. I hardly ever check for captions or subtitles anymore.. almost all the popular movies released on dvd have captions or subtitles.. it's usually the older copies or lesser-known movies that are hit-or-miss with captions.

I'm going to try and take back the movie, but I think the chances will be slim that they refund my $10 CVS bucks.

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Ba-Ba-Ba!

I like watching Glee on hulu.com. It's a musical comedy show and I've always had a thing for musicals, never mind that I can't hear!

Anyway, on one of their recent episodes, one of the characters sang a shortened version of Neil Diamonds' 'Sweet Caroline'. I remember that song from when I was a kid and since watching that episode last week, I have Sweet Caroline stuck on the broken record player I have in my head, only I can't remember the words, so it's "Sweet Caroline, ba-ba-ba, dah dah dah da da da dah, sweet caroline, ba-ba-ba..." over and over.

I was humming it while making breakfast this morning and Hubby interjected his version of the song, saying I wasn't singing it right and it went "ba-da-da" (or something like that) and we got into this whole debate over who was singing it right. Let's see, deaf girl versus die-hard music lover hearing man? Guess who was right?

I played the clip from Glee because it was captioned and after it was done, Hubby told me to youtube it, so I did and guess what? I was still right! Hah!

We were laughing about it, so it wasn't a fight or anything, just one of those laughing-can't-believe-we're-arguing-about-this kind of debate. Still, though, it felt good to be right. Then, Mom and I were talking about how Neil Diamond was jewish and all, and the Hubby interupted with, "wait, what? He's jewish?" Ah-hahahahaha!! TWO deaf ladies know more about a singer than he did!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my husband. It's SO much fun being married to him and I love that we can laugh over stuff like this. That I can hum and sing a song, even though I know I'm not in tune and probably not singing the right words half the time, and you know what? Hubby will sing right along with me! Wrong words and all!

Now, go youtube it and sing Sweet Caroline! :o)

Something New

Not being able to hear doesn't bother me as much as you'd think. Granted, there are times I wish I could hear my children's conversations to each other while they whisper in their rooms, or hear the birds sing their morning tunes, or even when a song comes on the radio and I want to hear more than just the bass or drum beat. There is so much more to me than not being able to hear-- I can see, I can touch, I can feel, I can smell...

That said, there is one other part of not being able to hear that puts me at a disadvantage: hearing people say different words or sayings. There are some words that I have never heard of before, even as a voracious reader.

The other night, my husband and I were joking around and he said the word 'smegma'. That stopped me in my tracks.

"Smegma? What's that?" I asked.

"You never heard of the word 'smegma' before?" my husband asked me.

"No. What does it mean?"

This resulted in lots of laughter on his part and me not believing him. So I run to the computer and google 'smegma'. Huh. How 'bout that, he was right. Go ahead, read the definition of it here. I'll wait. Learn something new every day, eh?

Don't ask how the conversation led to that word!

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

We are peaceful people, I don't like to rock the boat if it can be avoided. My husband will stand up for himself and his family, but will otherwise walk away if possible. That said, we had to talk to the neighbors for trespassing on our side of the property. Normally we wouldn't be too bothered by that, but it happened in a weird way...

I was taking out our daily scraps and heading to the compost bin in the garden area by the back end of our property. I wasn't paying any mind to the woods around me and I was singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music..." (we were watching it on DVD and the song stuck in my head) pretty loudly. All of a sudden I hear a loud motor sound and it scared me. I looked around, thinking maybe it was by our drive, but I didn't see anything and then when I looked up by the property line, I saw a someone there, with some sort of tractor with yellow flashing lights and smoke. He was burning something. It really startled me to see someone there so close, and I was also kind of embarrassed he probably heard my terrible singing. Then again, he wasn't supposed to be there, so if I broke his eardrums, it's his own fault.

Anyway, I didn't stay to see who it was, though I was pretty sure it was the neighbors, and I hurried back into the house where my kids were watching the movie.

When my husband came home that night, I told him what happened. It was too late to go out and check and the next day we went out to get my mom from out of town. So we didn't get to investigate until Thursday, when there was a lull in my cooking. The neighbor was a good 10 to 15 feet inside our property line, cutting down trees, burning and making a path. I don't know why he was making a path when there is a dirt road just inside his property line. The husband told me that the tractor with the flashing light I saw was probably the bobcat the neighbor owned. Hubby saw him with it before when he went over to talk with him once.

Our lines are clearly marked, so there was no excuse for him to be over on our side. They bought their house about a year after us, and the surveyors left their orange markers and neither they or us, have taken them down. When the husband went over there to ask, the neighbor denied being there and said he saw the smoke and called the fire department. When Hubby asked if he had a bobcat, the neighbor got all shady and said he didn't know what Hubby was talking about. Instead of pointing a finger, my husband said that he was tired of trespassers and he was going to catch them sooner or later, then walked off. He hopes that it was enough of a warning to keep the neighbor away.

Might be time to invest in some fencing materials.

Might also be time to get a dog. A dog would have barked and alerted me to the fact that someone was out there, and I would have known instead of being caught unaware. The more I think about that day, the more I think it would be nice to have a dog around the house, me being deaf and not being able to hear certain things, especially when Hubby is away at work. We would train the dog to bark when someone is at the door or someone is outside. A dog would also be nice to have when the kids are playing outside and we can train the dog to stick around the children at all times.

I've been scanning the web for local shelters for puppies and am keeping an eye out for ads in the local papers. We can't afford a pure-bred and we're looking for a mid-size dog. The prices for shelter dogs have sky-rocketed! We saw one puppy that we liked and found out the adoption fee would be $325, not including the required spay/neuter costs. Ouch! A local shelter down the road asks $125, also not including spay/neuter costs. After we first moved here, we got a dog from the local SPCA for $75, including micro-chip and neutering, but unfortunately, he didn't work out with us and we took him back a few days later. We know we have to start with a puppy and not an older dog, since we have cats and small children and babies.

If anyone local knows of a place that has puppies for a reasonable price, let me know.

Exciting News!

I have an article published in an online magazine! Kiss Fist magazine is a wonderful read-- full of gorgeous photos, bits of quotes and poetry, a few articles and stories. All of the contributors are Deaf and what's even nicer is I know a lot of them from school or other events, and one of the contributors is my cousin!

For my hearing readers, 'kiss fist' is a sign language slang term. You literally kiss your fist stating that you love something. For example, in sign language: I really 'kiss fist' this book I'm reading.

There is a wonderful series of black and white photos that illustrate signs peppered here and there in the magazine. I was so excited to see them and my husband agrees, it's a great way to help someone understand why a word is signed a certain way. On the cover is a photo illustrating the sign for smoking. There is a photo illustrating the sign for high heels. Just go and see for yourself!

I am so excited to be a part of this magazine. It's brand new and this is only their second issue, and I predict they will go far! Are you still here?? Go! Shoo! Then come back and tell me what you think!