No escape from the garden

Given the dead of winter here in northern New England, I thought I'd escape gardening.

But no.

For the last several weeks I've been trying to grow some herbs inside the house using the Chia process. You know: "Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!" And I'm doing a bad job and I'm feeling a bit guilty because I thought these Chia plants were a) foolproof and b) indestructible.

Some background:

After going into semi-retirement on June 6 my wife Jane for my birthday a couple of weeks later bought me a shopping bag full of vegetable and herb seeds so that I could create a garden during what she believed to be my boundless idle time.

I was suspicious at the time that she didn't want me to have boundless amounts of idle time -- the whole idle hands are the devil's playground thing.

It turned out OK. Not great, just OK.

I harvested plenty of herbs -- thyme, sweet basil and cilantro. And I harvested a bunch of tomatoes. I think I managed to produce one edible pepper out of six plants. My attempt at growing eggplant was a complete bust.

So when summer turned to fall and late fall finally killed off everything, I turned the ground over thinking that was that, my vain attempt at a green thumb would be over.

But no. As Michael Corleone said in "Godfather III": "Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in."

Jane for Christmas bought me the "Gourmet Chia Herb Garden" kit. My kit included sweet basil, cilantro, parsley and margoram, along with the growing pots and the special Chia potting soil.

I followed all the instructions for their patented growing system, and so far I'm underwhelmed. It's been several weeks and I'm not seeing, for example, the one to two inch leaves on the basil.

The real issue here is that I'm not as idle as my wife thinks I am. There's a lot to do when you're writing for four blogs and doing all the online social networking to market those blogs.

The inside garden requires more attention. At least with the garden out in the yard over the summer, I could depend on the occasional rain storm to water the plants. No such luck inside the house. It's all on me, and that usually means a certain death as far as plants are concerned.

Maybe I'll get a sprig or two of basil to use, but I'm not optimistic. I'll just be standing idly by hoping for the best.

When the help center is no help

When United Airlines announced earlier this month that it was dropping its call center, there was probably some grumbling from customers and consumer advocacy groups.

I thought it was a great idea.

United Airlines is doing its customers a favor, especially older customers like me, because we don't have to talk to anyone in India anymore.

If we have a complaint or even a compliment we have to send a letter or an email. But I'll take that any day over trying to decipher an accented English conversation over the telephone.

Having a customer care center in a country like India is an example of outsourcing, and it's epidemic among American businesses. Companies looking to shed expense transfer the work to a lesser paid contract worker in a foreign country.

It happened at the newspaper where I worked. All calls related to delivery of the newspaper were routed to a call center in the Philippines. And it's been a tough sled for some customers, trying to understand the people in Manila whom we were told would speak unaccented English. It didn't happen.

For me, listening to someone with an accent in person is difficult enough. And like lots of Baby Boomer types I've lost some of my hearing. Face to face conversations are sometimes tough enough. Phone conversations raise the degree of difficulty. Cell phone conversations can raise the difficult exponentially. Now combine a cell phone call with someone speaking with a customer service rep who has an accent and the conversation becomes all but impossible.

Not too long ago, I was on the phone to FedEx to arrange for some shipment. I'm not even sure where it was my toll free call was received ... Klingon, maybe. I couldn't continue the conversation much beyond hello. I hung up and called back, thinking I'd have better luck ... no such luck. I gave up on using FedEx for my shipping needs.

In announcing its decision to get rid of the India call center, a United Airlines spokesperson told the Associated Press, "We did a lot of research, we looked into it, and people who email or write us are more satisfied with our responses."

What she didn't say is that customers are more satisified because those written responses don't have a incomprehensible accent.

Forever stamps forever?

I buy the same stamps all the time.

I go to the post office and I ask for a book of the forever stamps. I've been doing that, well, forever ... or at least as long as the forever stamps have been offered.

It's a typical case of me playing it safe, me being rational, me being pragmatic.

By purchasing forever stamps, I don't have the potential of getting caught with 42 cent stamps when the price increases to 44 cents, which will happen in May. I don't have to worry about having a stamp worth 42 cents then scrounging around trying to find and buying a 1 cent stamp somewhere ... way too much of a hassle.

But, as a result of my caution, my mailed letters are boring, utterly, totally and completely without personality.

I realized this the other day when I went to the post office and purchased my most recent book of forever stamps. The stamp has an image of the Liberty Bell, a significant enough icon to be sure but pedestrian in the overall scheme of things.

I saw on display stamps to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln and the Chinese New Year and Edgar Alan Poe. What fun, I thought, but I wasn't willing to take the financial gamble.

A legitimate question is why bother with stamps at all? I can email more easily than mail, and I can make all my bill payments online. I'd save a few trees, reduce my carbon footprint.

But as much as I love technology I still need the tactile functionality of maintaining a checkbook, writing checks and sending bill payments out by mail, dutifully stamped with my forever stamp. It's a process that, in a way, makes me more careful about my spending. The money isn't automatically deducted or sent away with the click of a mouse. I physically do the math of watching where the dollars and cents go each month.

My hope is that someday, the United States Postal Service will offer of forever stamps in something other than the Liberty Bell.

Maybe the presidents? Or comic book super heroes? Classic cars? Dead rock stars?

Anything, please, anything. My image needs an extreme makeover.

The curious competition for jobs

A curious dynamic will develop this spring -- if it hasn't already -- as the Class of 2009 graduates from colleges and universities throughout the country: Dads and moms will compete against their sons and daughters for jobs.

There is a stunning amount of job loss out there and many of the victims are the Baby Boomer fathers and mothers whose children are still in or are about to graduate from college.

And there's a stunning lack of job opportunities out there. Very, very few companies are growing. In fact, they're looking for every opportunity to shed expense and people are a big expense.

I've looked at and applied for several jobs since being retired from newspapers eight months ago. I've looked at full-time and part-time, none related to the newspaper business. I can tell you it's a dry well.

I wrote a piece this week for Examiner.com about what advice Baby Boomer parents might give their graduating seniors. And I got some great advice from Peter Wallace, associate professor of business at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. He has written "Life 101: Real-World Advice for Graduating College Seniors."

He has four key points:

• Consider graduate school;
• Network;
• Look at temporary employment;
• Volunteer to use your time effectively.

Networking is a big deal in these days of LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg and the rest. Who you know was always an important factor of the job hunt; who you know on Facebook might be as well.

Wallace suggests that the networking be a cooperative effort.

"I recall a story from the recession in the early 2000s, where a father who was out of work, found a good job networking with his daughter’s college roommate’s father," he said. "Networking is the most effective form of job hunting; why not make it a family affair."

My son David will graduate in May with a history major from Boston College. He's smart and motivated, and there's no doubt he'll face some job hunting challenges.

It's not like we'll be competing for the same jobs, but we'll be swimming in the same labor pool, probably giving each other advice on how to swim faster than everyone else.