And on a completely different topic...

Today feels almost like November 3. Weird. Why is that?

Because there wasn't one call from a telemarketer, survey taker or anyone else exempt from the Do Not Call registry. It's like falling into a parallel universe.

These calls have become the bane of existence for many of us. In some cases, they purport to be an independent survey company (Oh yeah? So why do none of them say 'Hi, I'm from Neilsen? Or JD Power? Or Quinnipiac College?' Hmmm?)

That's because they're shilling for somebody looking for a job.

Turn that around for a second. If you were, say, out of work in a lousy economy (that'll never happen in this country!), do you think you could afford to have a bunch of boiler-room refugees or *Honest - Work from home and get paid gazillions!* former day-traders call numbers at random and beg whoever was unlucky enough to answer the phone to hire you? As Yakov Smirnoff used to say, "What a country!"

So why is this so irritating? After all, isn't that what an answering machine is for?

Well, yes. But. Mixed in with calls from Capio Partners at 903-892-7400 and other lost souls, the phone has turned from a tool for my convenience into a weapon for whoever punches in my number.

I hear stories from time to time about landline use falling away. It's gotten so bad Verizon won't be publishing residential numbers any more. Everyone is wired by the Lt. Uhuru device implanted in their ear like some weird jewelry.

Don't believe it. If it were true, these parasites would find another way to annoy us.

Now, why would I pick on Capio Partners? Simple. They keep calling. And calling. Ad nauseum (A little Latin lingo there for you). Funny thing is, they never, ever have left a message. and on the one occasion where out of sheer meanness I answered the phone, fully intending to blast them with a dog whistle that only they could hear, there was nobody there. That really disappointed me.

So I looked them up one one of my best friends -
Who Called Us. This is a great website, because it validates what you've been muttering to yourself. It's filled with people griping about such callers, sometimes using rather interesting combinations of symbols, words missing letters and good old-fashioned profanity. It's not for the faint of heart.

So what do you do? Populate the box with the number that calls you. Most of the time it's an 800 number or some derivative, and the stories are the same: Robo calls, no answers, people selling stuff, collection agencies.

One thing people will sometimes do is drill into a company (they have more time and patience than I do) a find such interesting things as websites and phone numbers. That's how I found the stuff on Capio Partners.

It turns out that Capio Partners is a collection agency based out of Sherman, Texas (home office is in Georgia, though). Sherman is somewhere in the Dallas area, apparently. Capio Partners seem to specialize in medical dunning. Which is fascinating, because I have excellent health care (no thanks to the current knuckleheads) and owe no medical interest a dime.

And Dallas has a neat thing - a Better Business Bureau that takes web-based complaints. So I'm in the midst of finalizing the subject with BBB.

Interestingly, I've had no calls from Capio since the complaint was filed. Weird how that unknown bill must have evaporated.

Now if we could only get the political calls to do the same.