Monday, May 24, 2010

Tattoos and Scars


No, I'm not talking about the album by Montgomery Gentry...I'm talking about real tattoos and real scars. As it's getting to be warmer and warmer out, I've been noticing more and more tattoos out there. We live near a small town, a farming town, where you wave to strangers as they drive by, and as it gets warmer out, people wear less clothing so you can see more skin. The tattoos I'm noticing are not on the men, though, they're on the women...small-town moms, farmer's wives, waitresses at the local diner, and young women getting their hair cut at the salons.

I remember when I got my tattoo (at age 30--for my birthday)--it was scandalous! And that wasn't even that long ago. But today, they are much more accepted.
Here's why I'm writing about them. Ladies, make sure you take care of your tattoos! Keep them out of the sun if you can. Moisturize with something that goes deep into the skin, like Emu Oil or Shea Butter. Our Emu Moisturizing Butter is perfect for keeping the beautiful color on your tattoo.

What happens if you don't? Well, you know those old guys that maybe used to be in the military that hang around that one local diner? (Every town has one of those diners.) Look at their tattoos. Can you tell what it used to be? Yes, today's tattoo technology is much better, but they still fade with time until eventually it will look like a cartoon stretched out with Silly Putty.

My tattoo is of a female tiger surrounded by flowers. Her intense green eyes aren't so intense anymore, they've softened with age around the edges. I just wish someone would have told me years ago to moisturize my tiger. I do now...hopefully it's not too late.
As for scars? That same Emu Moisturizing Butter, or even straight Emu Oil, works on scars burns, wrinkles, and stretchmarks. Emu Oil also works for issues associated with arthritis. Try it, you just might find that it works on yours!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

What Happened to Good Ol' Customer Service?

I am not a complainer. Having said that, I'm going to complain. It takes a lot for me to do this, but it's been on my mind for days and it's driving me crazy, so I'm putting it out there. What happened to good ol' customer service?

I've been in some form of customer service most of my life. I know what good service is, I can tell when someone goes out of their way to be nice, do something extra, etc., and I try to acknowledge it whenever possible. If something goes wrong, my order isn't quite right, I accept that we're all human and move on. However....

We recently had a building renovated. I've never been involved with something like this, so it's been a new experience for me. I was on-site every day, just checking in, in case there were any questions or problems. I even made the guys cookies, and I never do that! Everyone did a very good job, they were polite, even made suggestions for a few extras we hadn't thought of, and then did those extras in a timely manner.

We had spray foam insulation put in upstairs to insulate the new duct work. The unfinished upstairs was being used as the storage area for all the furniture and stuff from the main level, which was being totally remodeled. We were told to put everything in the middle of the room, as the ducts run down both sides of the room. We did this.

Here's my beef: At no time did ANYONE ever say "You might want to cover all your stuff with a tarp or plastic sheet so it doesn't get ruined from the overspray". We were on-site when they were there. They talked to us. The other contractors talked to us. NOT ONE PERSON mentioned how horrible the overspray is to clean up.

I don't blame MN Spray Foam and Insulation, their guys did the job. However, I am extremely disappointed in their lack of customer service on this issue. I know it's difficult to hire people that actually care about their jobs--been there on both sides. But come on, guys!

I have spent hours and hours cleaning and scraping that overspray off my furniture and things. I have things that are ruined and I can't get clean. I have used rolls of paper towels, spray cleaner, cloth towels, water, my hands are so rough from it all and I feel I have wasted hours of my life because no one thought to mention this one teeny tiny little thing. True, I never thought to ask either, but then I shouldn't have to. I paid them a ton of money, I'm the customer, and in this case, I think a little extra customer service would have gone a long way. Actually, it's not even an "extra", it's part of the job.

All in all, I'm happy with the way the building turned out and I can't wait to show it off. Now...back to scraping and cleaning that darn overspray....