The good, bad, and the ugly when it comes to “customer service” which is almost certainly going to kill me before cancer ever has a chance!
Having abandoned any hope of getting an appointment in a timely fashion before Katie's eligibility certificate expires, we now need to figure out where we're going to turn up and wait our turn in the queue to hopefully get the REAL ID applications sorted. With that in mind, we stopped by the DMV licence office on New Bern Avenue on Monday afternoon after Katie's lacrosse training to see just how bad the crowds were and…
We're going to start our journey down the DMV's variation on the River Styx with what is arguably the ugliest part of the experience: trying to actually secure an appointment through the online system that is supposed to make visiting the DMV driver licence office easier with less waiting. Because the first REAL ID application must be made in person due to having to present additional identifying documents which are physically scanned into the ID…
With Katie having recently completed her behind-the-wheel training and after a couple of weeks of waiting on what her school laughingly calls "Student Services" to finally cough up her Driving Eligibility Certificate (which is the school essentially blessing her grades and attendance at school), what remained for us to do was complete what is arguably the most harrowing task of them all: getting her REAL ID-compliant Level 1 Limited Learner Permit from the NC DMV.…
This afternoon, I quickly ducked into the Nerdery to blast 531 photos I'd taken at the hockey rink the right before up to Google Drive before ducking back out for another errand. I'd known that the Google Fibre upload speed was going to be much faster than I'd ever experienced with Spectrum's cable internet service. But seeing 5.67 GB of edited photo files take a little less than 5 minutes to finish uploading to the…
(It helps to imagine the title screamed in Steve Dangle's voice when he's yelling "if you're a goaltender, TEND THE GOAL!" :) ) Yesterday evening, Katie met with one of her friends from middle school who now attends Sanderson High School who were the latest to demolish Enloe's footy team in the Sanderson stadium. It's all good...you generally don't go to footy games when Enloe is one of the sides that's playing for the quality…
With the massive wall of water coming at us courtesy of Hurricane Ian and knowing the 771 signal loss that would inevitably come with it, it's about time I finally get off my duff and reject yet another price increase from DirecTV satellite service and also give the vastly faster fibre network connection a little more to do. Do keep in mind that I actually liked DirecTV's service and had it for many years and…
Today will mark the first day since I moved back to Raleigh after graduating from university that Time-Warner Cable and their successors will no longer be part of my life and I can assure you that I will not miss them in the slightest. To be fair, the actual broadband cable internet service was generally rock-solid and it was a very rare outage that couldn't be cured by resetting the cable modem and letting it…
I'm still rather in shock that it looks like it's finally going to be happening...the long dreamt of upgrade in the Internet connectivity to Google Fibre is finally happening here at the Nerdery in East Raleigh. I've been waiting for about seven years from the first time I signed up for the EMAIL notification when they'd finally pushed their install out to my neighbourhood. Seven years! Since then, AT&T came through a couple of years…
It feels kind of weird going through the Chick Fil-A bereft of free bird thanks to the Carolina Hurricanes home win promotion (which I wholeheartedly hope stays in play this coming season!). But after a chilly trip to the Knightdale YMCA pool with Katie and Alex and Katie actually having some free bird on her app today, we are visiting the Knightdale location that inspired the Chick Fil-Audits series of posts with a 37 minute…
Another day, another sandwich thanks to the Hurricanes staying perfect in the playoffs at home. Now, if only they could win on the road... ;) This trip through the queues from hell takes us to the Knightdale location which often features the longest queues and wait times. Interestingly enough, this would be the second straight trip through the drive-through where Karma will make an appearance. This location has what appears to be a single-file queue…
A quick run to Clayton and it's time to head through the White Oak Chick Fil-A so Katie and I can redeem our free sandwiches thanks to the Hurricanes winning at home at PNC Arena! Katie needed to make a quick run into Target for a birthday gift which is why we were approaching the conga line from that direction rather than the more usual approach from the main entrance near McDonald's. The reason for…
Quite a while ago, I found myself having to find a new home for the corporate bank accounts after my current credit union refused to accept for deposit a check written to my corporation. For the first time in over ten years! And whilst that made me rather unpleased at the time, I ended up finding a lovely home for the business accounts thanks to USAA not offering business account services and my father being…
After celebrating Nicholas' birthday at Tupelo Honey in the Village District, we ducked through the drive-through at the Chick Fil-A just down the way to redeem our free bird courtesy of another Carolina Hurricanes win! This location is one of the more unusual designs I've ever seen. The building itself looks normal enough but it's the drive through queue that has this weird look like the building was previously a bank. Here we go! 2031…
Katie and I visit the Garner store on Timber Drive at US-70 to redeem our free sandwiches from the Hurricanes win in Game 2. I'd already visited Chick Fil-A with Julia earlier in the day but this excursion is after school and a trip to Sam's to get some materials for tacos that Katie had requested for dinner this evening. I know, I know...tacos on Cinco de Mayo. Gringo move! But she asked for them…
Julia was my co-pilot for this trip through the queues at White Oak for her free Lord's Bird thanks to the Hurricanes taking a 2-nil lead in their series with the Boston Bruins. I'll have a more standard Chick Fil-Audit for later in the day but now it's a quick trip to redeem her free sandwich and then get her back home so she can rest. 1136 - Mobile order placed via the app for…
First game of the playoffs is in the books between the Hurricanes and Bruins and it's a 5-1 win for the good guys and time to go grab that Lord's Bird! Katie had some homework and Alex was training on the track so I figured I'd take a shot at redeeming the reward at the Knightdale store which is not usually my favourite in terms of time or quality. Will I make it through the…
The Hurricanes put a bow on the 2022 regular season by beating the NJ Devils after having topped the Metropolitan Division with the added bonus of Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta winning the franchise's first Jennings trophy for fewest goals allowed by a goaltending tandem playing a minimum of 25 games in the season. Yes...more free bird! :) Given the time of day and the traffic, it's back to White Oak to see if they…
Decisions, decisions! Which way will I go to redeem the free Chick Fil-A sandwich courtesy of the Hurricanes winning another game at home? The two nearest choices from the house are Knightdale which is decidedly closer but the queue and the bird are usually abominable or the store on Capital Blvd in front of Sam's which is much farther away but the experience is usually much better. Seeing as I'd like to be back before…
We're back to the Garner location to get some free Lord's bird thanks to the Hurricanes winning one at home. Their form of late hasn't been the greatest but hopefully they'll leave their problems behind in the playoffs! Today is getting a late lunch with Mistletoe on board and then we're off to a pair of dog parks for a picnic and letting Mistletoe run round like mad. We're also throwing them a curve ball…
A quick run to Clayton with Katie and Alex after school and a free Chick Fil-A sandwich in the app thanks to the Hurricanes means I'm going to take my chances with the White Oak location's drive through which has usually been more miss than hit through the years. Is it the lady or the tiger? Let's find out! :) 1453 - Order placed via the mobile app. 1509 - Arrive at White Oak to…
Katie had a late lacrosse match at the Athens Drive HS stadium against Cardinal Gibbons where Katie made her debut in goal and will be just as happy to not do that again anytime soon! She's never really been a fan of the position when she played football and apparently lacrosse isn't much more enjoyable between the pipes for her but she held her hand up when the team asked for volunteers and was rewarded…
You know the drill...another Carolina Hurricanes home win, another free Chick Fil-A sandwich complete with a run through the conga line! That makes their home record 25-5-4 through the end of March and I think I've only missed two of the free sandwiches...one from not being able to muster the energy to endure the queue and the other I forgot to log into the app by midnight. Time to do some maths, shall we? The…
So here's the quandary: after a long day that included a trip to Fayetteville and back whilst the kids were at school, do I really feel like enduring the queues for the free Chick Fil-A chicken sandwich thanks to the Hurricanes winning at home on Saturday night? The initial answer was the strongest refusal known to the language of diplomacy..."we shall make every endeavour but some things just may not not be possible". That'd be…
Last night, the Hurricanes got a bit of revenge upon the Seattle Kraken and kind of spoiled long-time TV play-by-play voice of the Carolina Hurricanes John Forslund's return to PNC Arena with a 3-2 victory in regulation. And you know what that means? Yet another free chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A assuming they unlock the promotion in a timely fashion so that you have until midnight to open up the app and claim the reward. Mind…
After briefly wondering if I was going to be at ground zero of the poultry insurrection at the Sam's Club, my next mission once I was free of their big box confines was to go for some of the Lord's Bird at the Chick Fil-A just across the car parks near Capital Blvd. Certainly the Carolina Hurricanes have been doing their part to encourage these trips to Chick Fil-A (probably much to Chick-Fil-A's chagrin) by…
