I Feel For You, But Just Cannot Reach You

Here we go again. It’s the biannual jousting match with the St. Louis County Assessor’s office. Yesterday, an assessor was by when we were not home and left his card. Reason for assessment? “Increase of more than 15% in a property’s appraised value.” What? In this market? I found out they want to increase my appraised value by 20 percent. TWENTY PERCENT?

In 2003, 2005, and 2007 I have successfully appealed hikes in my assessment through of the Board of Equalization. The problem is there are few, if any, really comparable sales for the assessors to look at. So they seem to punt each and every time. I have a house that is over 30 years old in a neighborhood where most houses are 10-15 years old. Lots of nearby McMansions. I have a property that is a combination of residential and agricultural. Not many of those left around within the 5,000 foot radius the county uses for comparables. I could go on, but the conclusion is they always over-appraise my property.

So, in the above-mentioned years, I have amassed evidence to support my case and have gone through the full appeal process. Usually this means meeting with a member of the assessor’s office who tells you their appraisal is correct, then a mediator who either comes to some agreement with you and the assessor’s office or pushes you on to the third stage: a hearing in front of the Board of Equalization. This whole process takes a couple of hours, but it takes me several days to get together my appeal.

Today I spent about a half hour on the phone with a very understanding and helpful member of the assessor’s office. He spent quite a bit of time looking through my files and agreed with me that there was a problem. He saw that last time the Board of Equalization had agreed to lower the appraisal they had made by 24 percent. That’s TWENTY-FOUR PERCENT. And the person from the assessor’s office I had in 2007 during the appeal said that how they appraised my property was faulty. As she said (and I have said for many years), there are few, if any, comparable sales to judge what my property is worth. Unfortunately, she is no longer with the assessor’s office.

You’d think they might revise how they appraise properties like mine based on 2003, 2005, and 2007 lowering of their appraisals by the Board of Equalization. Nope. Seems like they’re locked into an algorithm and cannot vary from it. While the man on the phone sympathized with me and saw how their methods seem to miss the mark, both he and his supervisor said my only recourse was to go through the entire appeal process like I had the last three times.

So, once again I will be busy combing through recent real estate sales and trying to come up with an array of houses and properties to show the problem. The man at the assessor’s office said I should bring in the successful appeals I’ve had before and ask that somehow this not be repeated in 2011. Hmmmm. Did that in 2007. Sure had significant results, huh?

Please Forward to Everyone on Your Email List

The sender of this email and all who forward it in the future are idiots. We always forward emails no matter what their content as long as someone tells us to share them with everyone we know. We include names and email addresses not only of those to whom we are forwarding a message, but also all those that are a part of the forwarded forwarded messages we forward. We never use BCC for our recipients and always use TO. We like to pass along virus warnings even though they are old hoaxes. We rarely use discretion or verify supposed facts or allegations before forwarding. And we love to pass along chain letters promising riches or miraculous cures if only the chain letter is sent out to everyone you know.

Please, warn all your friends by forwarding this message to everyone in your email address book and ask them to forward it to all in their email address book with the message to forward it to all in their email address book.

Rewards Come to Those Who Email

This past week, I went online to make a reservation at a Marriott property for a family celebration in another state. Earlier in the week, I had gotten an email from Marriott that asked me to join their rewards program. I looked at their offer, but went no further since we don’t stay at motels very often. However, when I decided I wanted to reserve one of their rooms, I rethought the idea.

So, I tried to open a rewards account, not thinking I had ever had one. I put in my name, the usual email address I use for all online stuff, etc. A message came back that told me there might be another account in my name and to contact customer support. There was no way online to get around this. I tried, but to no avail. I even tried the “forgot your password?” route, but hit a dead end.

So, I called the 800 number. The recording told me it would be 37 minutes before a representative could talk to me. I hung up. Next, I sent an email in which I told them that I needed to clarify things so I could log on.

Their email response was: “Thank you for contacting the Marriott Rewards office. We have located an account registered in the name of Maurice Hirsch at the address provided. However, there is no suffix on the account whereas, you have listed the sender name on your e-mail as Maurice L. Hirsch "Jr". Does Maurice Hirsch Sr. live at the same address provided? Thank you for your assistance with this matter. I look forward to your reply.”

I emailed back: “My dad was Maurice L. Hirsch and I am Maurice L. Hirsch, Jr. Dad has been dead for over 20 years. I'm still Maurice L. Hirsch, Jr. So, what do I do?”

They responded: “Thank you for your reply. I would be happy to enroll you in the program if you could provide me with the following information …” Information was all the name, address, phone, etc. stuff you’d need for an account.

My response: “Glad to do all this, but wonder about account I might already have per your company's earlier email. Please see trail of emails below. Why can't we work with what seems like an existing account and clear up the suffix vs. no suffix problem? Here's my information, but you'll find it on the account that is referred to by one of your customer service agents below.”

They wrote back: “Thank you again for your reply. Since it has been determined that the original account found in the system was registered to your father, I have enrolled you with your own personal account as Marriott Rewards does not have joint accounts.” It went on from there about my new account number, how to access it, etc. They ended the email with: “Welcome to the Marriott Rewards program!”

I wrote back: “Arggggh. No, my father never had an account. He never lived at this address. He has been dead since 1986. That was my whole point in trying to just get the old account clarified so I could use it. Please note that I said the following (which is shown below): ‘My dad was Maurice L. Hirsch and I am Maurice L. Hirsch, Jr. Dad has been dead for over 20 years. I'm still Maurice L. Hirsch, Jr. So, what do I do?’ To eliminate further confusion in this matter, please purge the old account that you say was my father's even though he never had such an account, never used the Internet, and has been dead for 23 years now. I will use the new account you have provided me with. HOWEVER, if I have accumulated any points on that other account (which is mine and not my dead father's), I want them switched over to this new account. Please confirm all of this. My thanks for your cooperation. P.S., Oh, one more thing. For the last twenty years of my father’s life, he lived in Florida and had no Missouri address at all.”

Hmmm. Wonder what the new response will be.

MobileMe Strikes Out

I got a notice from Apple today regarding the web services it has under what is now called MobileMe. It’s cutting out my ability to use one of the best parts of the service for which I pay $99 a year.

When I first got a Mac, I could take my photographs directly from Mac’s iPhoto program onto nicely formatted pages at a .Mac site where the photos with their titles could be seen by anyone. There was a nice hierarchy to allow viewers to move from one set of pictures to another. However, this has gone downhill. In more recent versions of iPhoto, there was no link to upload to the .Mac site. Apple wanted you to move to some newer programs (iWeb and MobileMe Gallery) and not use the old interface. The newer programs have their own benefits, but they have some serious drawbacks. iWeb chews up a chunk of disk space on your computer and any changes mean a lengthy “publishing” process that misfires about half the time. MobileMe Gallery is just a picture gallery of albums whose biggest drawback is having to keep those picture files live on your computer. If you archive them to, say, a DVD and remove them from iPhoto, the gallery you had posted goes away.

I had figured out a work around for using the old structure. It was clumsy, but I could do it. But I did see the writing on the wall, so to speak. Thus, I began putting all my new pictures onto Flickr. I now use iWeb as nothing more than a skeleton web page where you can click on links that take you to other sites.

So, when I got the message from Apple today that it was no longer allowing changes to stuff I have on HomePage (the old and robust site) as of July, I was not surprised, but was disappointed. I find myself in a position that I need to have MobileMe since I am an iPhone user and want to sync my addresses and calendar, do sometimes use other parts of the service, but I feel like I’m being robbed to have to pay $99 a year for the privilege.

So, if you’re a Mac user and have the same feelings about how Apple seems to be dumbing things down and about the elimination of new use of HomePage (what’s next?), how about writing Apple a nasty or two?

And What About Death?

Recently, a relative came into town for a family occasion. She had just read/reread my newest book of poems, Taking Stock. She told me that either I was really depressed and in need of medication or that I used my poems to work things out. Another friend told me this book is more introspective, melancholy, sadder than the first two. Finally, a high school classmate told me: “At times I had to put the book down because your emphasis on dying was so strong. I enjoyed the last poem because you ended the collection on a positive note.”

Whew. I went into the book and 28 of the 75 poems deal directly or indirectly with death. Hmmm. Guess there was an underlying theme oozing out of my subconscious. I don’t see this as morbid, though. And in some ways, I have thought I’m drifting away from understanding death.

When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001, while I sure wanted to live, the idea of death was clear to me, not scary, just there in, perhaps, the not-too-distant future. During the years that followed, I was fearful each three months when I had a new PSA test. I was afraid of the cancer metastasizing, of the pain if it went into my bone marrow. But death itself was clear, not scary, just there.

As the years have gone on and my tests have moved to each six months, I have grown a bit nonchalant about the whole thing. In years past I called within days of each blood test, heart pounding, to hear whether my PSA was still zero. I find I am forgetting to call now, and, when I remember, don’t.

Recently, I’ve struggled with what to call myself. It’s more than I had cancer. It’s more than I was operated on for cancer. Somehow, cancer survivor seems odd to me. I settled on ex-cancer patient, which seems to place me correctly in time and uncertainty.

I listened to NPR the other day and heard a NY Times reporter talk about his prostate cancer and treatment and how he had shaved his head, changed his normal clothing choices as a way to say he’s different now and always will be.

It got me in touch with the apparent normalcy in which I lead my life. You could say that’s okay, one shouldn’t live in the shadow of illness, conjure the closeness of death. Yes, true. On the other hand, besides the dampening of the fear of death that came with cancer, I was lucid about everything around me. I wonder what I have gained in these eight years and what I have lost, which gets back to where this all started: poems that are about death.

I still write them. There are some more in the pile that one day might make its way into another poetry book. Perhaps I am still in tune with my 2001 grounding, but it’s moved from an everyday presence to something parked in my brain that comes out now and again and, hopefully, again.

I’m working on a poem now …