Mark’s Bloomin’ Journal

In this case, with this woman, it was length that was the issue. Lack of it to be quite pointed. Same old story, right ! Lack of length on my end of things was accompanied by an abusive harangue with more than a touch of entitlement from the shorted party. Poor wee thing, laboring under the impression that a verbal assault leads to improved performance. A cheap victory maybe, but that is all.

This phone call that almost queered an other wise good day had an interesting provenance, stemming from a generously discounted bunch of Casa Blaca Lilies some weeks ago. In the many changes we make on a daily basis to the dynamic pages on Flowerbud it had escaped all our attentions that the estimation of size for Casa Blanca was in fact an image dating back to inception and therefore had not, or rather could not keep up…with updates. It also harkened back to the days that we shipped a far longer box than can be afforded on FedEx these days thus leading to a longer stem at times. One should note here that overly long stems have a propensity to droop, especially on large budded varieties such as Casa Blanca.

In this time and space we inhabit as a company the oversight left me wide open to those that would take advantage. As it turns out there was just the one in what must have been years (It is fully rectified now) but was she ever sour at being “shorted” the all important couple of inches. Naturally you understand that the missing inches automatically led to a host of other nit picking complaints ranging from dirt to small buds at the stem ends. However it was plain to deduce that the flowers had been enjoyed regardless. Nothing like kicking the dog when he’s down.

Customer service at Flowerbud had already been dealt a tongue lashing from My Lady Frustrated and I was caught flat footed when the call came to roost with me, one normally equiped with reasonable coping skills. Faced with such vitriol and cheap skate virtues I came up short…again, when faced at the very climax of the discussion with my scofflaw self, violating the trades description act, false advertising and all other manner of sordid and nefarious activities stemming from running Flowerbud.

The end result ,to my chagrin was that with tail semi tucked between legs and a refund instituted I could not wait to get off the phone to try and reclaim some of the day by talking to someone more pleasant. It doesn’t even take the fingers of one hand to count my losses to people that are little more than cheats. This one got me though and got to me at the same time. I still am thinking of what better to do when faced with missing inches … as a refund merely satisfies the one party.

The following comes from a June 14th advertisement published in The Hill of Washington, a congressional newspaper that publishes daily when Congress is in session, and has a special focus on business, lobbying, and political campaigns.

I think it might better be taken in the context that it is coming from what might be viewed as a leftist regime that is quick to condemn the US as it rather quickly moves towards a Cuban-and Venezuelan- style tyranny. While we most likely want to help Ecuador’s private sector we must understand that Rafael Correa is likely to emulate Chavez and trash it anyway. While Correa is demanding access to the worlds greatest market he refuses to give the US much access to the Ecuadorian market. I am sure that the US oil interests represented by Occidental have their own spin on all this as they witnessed the seizure of their operations under the guise of their being viewed as “yanqui imperialism”. Mr Correa seems to want it every which way but equitable as he trys to salvage billions in trade and 350,000 of his countrymen’s jobs. Even if the trade pact might ultimately fail the US will still end up with imports…other than either roses or cocain…Illegal immigrants, voting with their feet.

A rose is a rose, except when it is all that stands between the US and the illegal drug trade.Thanks to the Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), Ecuador is the only country in the region with zero coca cultivation. That is because Ecuadoreans enjoy something that most poor countries lack—jobs.

Since 1991, ATPDEA in Ecuador alone has created 350,000 jobs in thousands of local businesses that export legal agricultural products like vegetables and, yes, roses to the US, benefiting not just the local economy but the more than 100 American companies that work and invest in Ecuador.

Without ATPDEA, these rural workers could be forced into a far less savory enterprise—coca farming—rolling back the advances against drug-trafficking. ATPDEA is the most effective weapon in the war on drugs. It’s a big deal to Ecuador and a good deal for the United States. We urge Congress to move quickly to extend this Act.

ATPDEA. Good for us. Good for the US .