UGGS....AND MORE UGGS

Many years ago, 6 or 8 I think, I decided I wanted a pair of UGG boots. I'd seen lots of them & heard how comfortable they were. I asked Lou to get me a pair for either Christmas or my birthday - can't remember which. I found a website that had better prices & gave Lou the info with the type & color I wanted.

Well, it turned out that they were knock offs. The size 8s were too small & although they looked like the real thing they just didn't feel good. After much research we realized that there are tons of phony UGG boots out there. After trying to return them to no avail, Lou ultimately got his money back from the credit card company & I gave them to someone with smaller feet.

I then went to Nordstrom's & bought a full price pair of UGGS that were shorter & not the color I really wanted but they were cheaper than the pair I originally wanted which were basically the top of the line. Over the years I've worn them a bunch & they are so damn comfortable that I have almost worn them out. I am an UGG fanatic for sure!

That's the background. Now here in 2020, my father-in-law equivalent gave me a generous check for Christmas & I decided to buy the pair of UGGS that I wanted all those years ago. Being skeptical of knock offs, I went directly to the UGGS site to purchase them. It was great! They had the size & style I wanted. This time I was not going to compromise & ordered the exact pair I coveted.

I've learned there aren't deals or sales on UGGS. I did get free expedited shipping which was suppose to have them arrive January 9 on my doorstep. January 9 came & went & the 10th with no boots & no available tracking info. I waited through the weekend & called them on Monday, January 13.

The representative was pleasant but I was not happy with her explanation. My "ticket" was listed as an inactive order. WTF? If she put it through again it would be at least 10 working days before they got to it since "they were backed up from the holidays" She offered to refund my money which I decided to do. But that would take at least ten days, too. They charged my credit card the day I ordered them but they couldn't refund it in a timely manner. I was not a happy camper but said just give me my money back.

I gave UGG a bad review & explained why. Then for some reason I checked Amazon (we have Prime with the two day shipping) & found that they had them for the same price. I wanted the damn boots so I ordered them from Amazon. I figured Amazon would have the real thing, not a knock off. Yesterday I received an email from UGG that my order had processed. What?

This morning my Amazon UGGS arrived - they fit perfectly, felt great & I loved them! This afternoon my second pair of the same UGGS arrived from UGG. Remember, on Monday I was told that it would be "at least ten working days" until anything was done by UGG. They arrived today, on Thursday (well, yesterday since it is after midnight) three days after I cancelled the order.

Now, I have two pairs of the exact same expensive UGGS in my living room. One will have to be returned. I'm torn since it is easy to return the Amazon pair. Amazon has a simple, easy return policy BUT they did everything right delivering them in two days. UGG however has screwed everything up from the time I ordered them & then cancelled them. My thoughts are that it will be a long time before I can get my money refunded & send the boots back to them.

Do I go with the principle of it & make UGG fix this or do I just say, screw it, return them to Amazon, justifying that Amazon gets lots of my money over the years? I'm still wrestling with as I decide which to do.

With the whole ordering online thing & timely shipping I can foresee problems creeping up since the sheer volume of packages seems overwhelming. Twice during the Christmas season my packages were delayed but did arrive in the knick of time. Last week we toured the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Sacramento. It was fascinating & I'll do a post on that soon. But I really don't think that me returning a pair of UGGS will even register as a blip on their radar screen. I may well take the easy way out.

In the meantime, I love my UGGS!

I'M LOVIN' NETFLIX

Once again I am getting into the latest technology when it is no longer the latest technology. I discovered Netflix several months ago & I'm loving it like it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Yeah, I know that's a stupid old saying & I have no idea what it really means. But I'm discovering how much fun it is to watch a show whenever I want & then I can watch six more if I want to - right then, all in a row. I get "binge watching" now.

I grew up in an age where TVs were black & white with a 19" screen & if you were really cool you had a huge antenna on top of your house for better reception. There were about 5 or 6 stations. You had to walk up to the set & turn the knob to change the channel. Now with 65" flat screens, surround sound & around 200 channels in the average package - not to mention all the streaming options - it is a whole new world.

But I digress. Initially I decided to subscribe to Netflix for two reasons. A couple years ago, a friend had told me about Grace & Frankie. It stars Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin as two women whose husbands are law partners. The first episode explains that the husbands, played by Martin Sheen & Sam Waterston, are gay & madly in love. Their wives are forced to deal with their impending divorces & end up living together in the beach house the couples shared.

Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin were on lots of talk shows promoting their show & I had to watch it. I purchased the first season of Grace & Frankie on DVD but it was pretty expensive. However, I loved the premise, laughed like crazy & the show was amazingly entertaining. When I found out that I could get Netflix on my iPad for only $8.99 a month, I decided to give it a try. I watched the remaining seasons in a bit of a marathon over several evenings. I am anxiously awaiting the next season due to be released this week!

The second reason I subscribed was so that my Charley could watch all of her shows when I visited her in New Mexico. The house that Darrin rents doesn't have a TV so the three of us snuggle up on the couch with my iPad perched on a small table in front of us to watch Spiderman: Into the Spider Verse or Toy Story or Octonauts. Lots of fun!

As I mentioned being a child of the 50s & 60s, TV shows were on at a set day & time each week for that season. We couldn't choose when to watch, record it, pause it or back it up if we missed something. All of these choices are now at my fingertips. I can watch what I want, when I want.

Once I was finished with Grace & Frankie, I moved on to The Kominsky Method starring Michael Douglas & Alan Arkin as an acting teacher & agent, respectively. Both of these series feature complex story lines & irresistible characters that you will fall in love with. At the same time I watched a few of Dolly Parton's Heartstrings movies, but be warned you will need lots of Kleenex, they are real tearjerkers.

After finishing two seasons of The Kominsky Method, I decided to start watching Dead To Me. It stars Christina Applegate as a woman whose husband is killed by a hit & run driver. I won't give away any more of the plot in case you plan to watch it. These ten episodes gripped me like none of the other shows so far. Each show ended with another twist that I didn't see coming. The other night I couldn't help myself & watched the remaining five episodes of season one. It was compelling, intense & a little unnerving at times, but well worth my time.

There are numerous other shows, movies, specials & series to watch. I learned that Netflix shows garnered the most Golden Globe nominations of any network or streaming service this year. I am really impressed with the quality of programming compared to network TV. And being someone who speaks French fluently (if you get my drift), it is refreshing to hear people talk like me without being bleeped constantly.

If you are tired of all the cop & hospital shows on network television, I highly recommend Netflix & its original programming. It took me awhile to accept that streaming is the future of entertainment but I'm a convert for sure. It's good to know that at almost 70 years of age, I can still embrace the next best thing in the world of technology. Better late than never!

DEJA VU, ALL OVER AGAIN

Several years ago our DirecTV Satellite service & NBC, channel 3, got into a snit with each other which resulted in NBC being pulled off the air. After a few days, I was getting into quite a snit myself. My thoughts were, & still are, get your shit together, figure this out, give us the services we are paying for & should be watching.

I did some research & discovered that an over-the-air antenna could be purchased for about $15 that would allow us to watch local channels without our satellite service. One of my favorite late night delights is watching The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. BUT Jimmy Fallon is on NBC so I was without my nightly guilty pleasure.

Heading down to Fry's Electronics, I purchased one of these little devices. It was quite different than the old rabbit ears we used back in the day - raising them, rotating them, occasionally crossing them or adding a wad of tin foil to get the best reception. This one is a flat sheet of something that you tape to the window then connect to the TV & satellite box with cables. I planned to install it on our office TV where I normally watch Jimmy Fallon.

Come hell or high water my desire to see my favorite late night host was so great that I figured out the numerous steps to change from satellite TV to over the air. I wrote down the instructions since the process was fairly involved. I was quite pleased when it worked to perfection! Plus there was a certain degree of satisfaction having beaten DirecTV at its own game. You can pull all the crap you want but I'm still watching my show.

Now, fast forward 3 or 4 years to today. Starting a few days before New Year's we began to get the scrolling message that DirecTV would no longer carry NBC as of December 31. DirecTV blames NBC, NBC blames DirecTV. I don't care whose fault it is, get your shit together & provide the programming we pay to see. But December 31 came & went with NBC still on the TV. We assumed they settled their differences.

Tonight about 10 PM, Lou says, "Guess what? NBC is off the air." I emphatically replied, "Damn, it! I hope I can remember how to make that over-the-air antenna work." We started digging around behind the TV & discovered the flat antenna sheet had fallen off the window awhile ago. While Lou was retrieving it, he found the box it came in with the instructions which I had apparently stashed behind the TV! Hooray!

Even better he found my step-by-step note of how to access it over-the-air. Lou grabbed the tape & reattached the antenna to the window. It was still hooked up to the TV & the satellite box. I guess in my infinite wisdom I had assumed that DirecTV would do this again & just left everything in place.

I read from my note as Lou followed the instructions:

Turn off TV & box with DirecTV remote

Turn on power with TV remote

Change from HDMI to TV using "input"

Push menu - scroll to "channel"

Move down to "TV source"

Move right to "air"

Low & behold, we had accessed channel 3 within minutes! Lou looked at me & asked, "You figured all this out before?" Apparently I did. Hey, don't mess with my Jimmy Fallon. He is on TV as I type this, even though it is a rerun since he is still on Christmas break. But next week when they are new again, I can watch it. And hopefully we can see the Seattle Seahawks lose this weekend since they are on NBC!