I waltzed in and was at least served fairly promptly. Ah, but the test was yet to come. I went to the cash register to pay with my credit card and -- true to form for an Auto Zone -- was asked for my driver's license. The only stores that regularly insult me in this manner are Auto Zone and Home Depot, and so I either try to get acquainted with them or avoid them of course.

I asked very quietly and nicely to speak with whatever manager was around in the hopes of getting acquainted with them and being able to enjoy a civil business relationship in the future. The cashier, of course, loudly yelled several times for a manager and loudly proclaimed what my problem was -- which was fine with me.

The assistant manager lady, obviously not very skilled in the arts of anything at all, gave me the standard answer of "SIR, IT'S FOR YOUR PROTECTION". I could only reply, most quietly, that this was not at all true, at which point she did not even wait for me to proceed, but repeated the same again, loudly. I answered her that the limit of my liability was $50 according to law and that checking my ID was obviously for THEIR protection. While I was about to explain that I would like to become better acquainted with them so that we could forgo such insulting formalities in the future, she interrupted again that this was "STORE POLICY".

I did manage to convey to her that at O'Reilly's, a couple of miles down the road, I was never asked for my ID for one reason or another, and that I would like to enjoy that sort of relationship with their store as it was new and so close to my house. However, the less-than-artful authority figure replied loudly again that it was "STORE POLICY" and that was that.

I suppose you get the jist of it by now. Auto Zone employees are always the least helpful, most mistaken (in my experience), and least intelligent in the auto parts business. I have avoided their stores for so long because of the superior service I've been getting from O'Reilly's. It was certainly a disappointment to try to do business with them again after such a long time.

You might suppose that this outcome was predetermined by a supposed bad attitude I had when entering the store, but I assure you that this was not so. The "Auto Zone difference" is easy to see, and it's a shame that some companies, like some people, seem to get off on the wrong foot and just seem to keep going that way. Oh well, for now I know I can depend on good old O'Reilly Auto Parts, and Advance Auto Parts is now moving into this area in force, so hopefully this will be the last of my dealings with the infamous Auto Zone. They are low class.

Haha, a delightful end note. Advance Auto Parts built a store right next to this Auto Zone, and I have found them to be a most excellent store. :-)

Well, now I can post more. The Texas Atty. General's office has seen to it that LJWS is now run by a court-appointed Receiver. This can only be an improvement, and, in fact, my water bills are now consistent and low. What more could one ask for?

My lawsuit against them was certainly a travesty. It's a shame that your average citizen can't get any justice in the court system. They just about laughed me out of court. Apparently if the prize isn't somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars, then you can't get the lawyers or the court system very interested. Oh well, all's well that ends well, and I'm sure I did my little part to reform LJWS.

These guys were so dismissive that I went to their web site and emailed the company about how uncooperative and uninterested their local office was. I guess it should be no surprise that I never heard from them. However, I did take my business to Royal Metal Buildings of San Benito and found a very helpful team there. I was happy to buy my metal roofing there, and the house is coming along nicely, thank you.

I applied at the Land Bank office in Edinburg and received an appraisal for $70,000. This was strange, as I had just paid $140,000 for the property and buildings, and they're supposed to somewhat take the last purchase price into consideration when doing an appraisal. However, they assured me that after the subdivision in front of me was sold (lot by lot) then the appraisal would certainly go up, so I told them I'd wait a year or so and apply again.

When I did apply again the appraisal came back at... $40,000! I was somewhat irate, needless to say, and asked for an explanation. I was certainly stonewalled, in so many ways, in fact, that it led me to the conclusion that this was a good-old-boys sort of organization that didn't have much use for strangers like me.

Since this is a quasi-governmental entity, I submitted a Freedom Of Information Act request to their federal office in Washington, DC. What I received back was very annoying. They alleged that they "didn't have any records of my first appraisal" and that my second appraisal for was $70,000. There was so much redacting of the few pages that they did supply to me that you would think this was some sort of CIA document.

In case you are not familiar with this sort of thing, agencies are allowed to withhold information for cases which might be in legal proceedings -- such as if I were disputing their appraisals. I was certainly tempted to file a federal lawsuit and at least have a judge have an in-camera look at all of the evidence (he would look at it without revealing it to me), but it has been my experience that (1) judges don't respect plaintiffs without lawyers, and (2) lawyers don't want cases that don't promise big payoffs. Therefore, I just gave up on this whole business -- which is exactly what they wanted me to do, I'm sure -- and found a loan elsewhere.

Ag Credit is another one of those semi-governmental agencies, if I'm not mistaken, and they opened a new office in Weslaco, which is the first I heard of them. http://www.agcreditofsouthtexas.com is the link to this office. I cannot say enough good things about these people.

Russ was very personable and helpful, and absolutely everyone that worked there was very professional and friendly in that country sort of way that seems to be so conspicuously absent in most businesses these days. To make a long story short, these people did a bang-up job of getting me a reasonable appraisal (and handed me a copy of it the day they got it, with no obligation on my part) and putting my loan through. I was a very happy customer of theirs for several years, until I paid that loan off.

Again, I can't say enough good things about these people.

I am unable to get DSL or any other sort of broadband internet, living just a couple of miles away from its reach in our area. Therefore I intend to put up a wireless link to one or two of my several more fortunate friends who live around here, two of whom have cable and one of whom has DSL.

I put an antenna up at the 80' level on my tower and did a site survey. One of the SSIDs I picked up was "Bentsen Palm Village". Someone must be very confident in their system's security! It certainly wasn't very hard to find the place.

I parked my old motorcycle in front of the office and wandered in the door. The place was downright deserted, although I was able to get a good look at the networking equipment. It kinda reminded me how physical security is the first step you take when securing your network. The hacker that can see exactly what kind of equipment you are running by standing at the front desk has a helluva head start. :-)

Not finding anyone inside, I wandered out the front door to have a look around. A 50ish sort of fellow was walking up to the office. Sighting me, he didn't bother to conceal his contempt. I always wonder, myself, why some people start off new relationships with an adversarial attitude.

I told him that I couldn't get DSL and had an antenna up on a tower, and was easily picking up his signal. Rather than hack into it, I figured I'd come over and introduce myself and see if we could make some sort of arrangement. He replied that I couldn't hack into his wireless system. I told him that I wasn't interested in hacking into his system, but rather was just looking for a reliable internet connection, which was why I had showed up to get acquainted in person.

He seemed bent on proving his system's security, and replied to me that I couldn't get into his system, since it required a username and password (um, thanks for the additional security information!) and that it was illegal to gain access to someone's wireless network without authorization (duh). By now I'm figuring that this guy is some sort of techie has-been who is managing this RV park as a last career gasp or something. He seems way too interested in discussing what a superior system he has. He added on that the wireless system was intended for use by the park's residents only, which is reasonable enough, although that's probably the only reasonable thing he uttered.

I was so surprised at what an imbecile this guy was, and how unfriendly he was, that I just started putting on my helmet and climbing on my motorcycle. All the while he was giving me some crap about how he'd hate to see me go to jail because it was illegal to steal wireless signals. Amazing. Anyway, I hopped on the bike and commented to him that he had been quite unfriendly since my arrival, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why. Then I rode slowly away on my old motorcycle. Thinking back, I suppose the guy was drunk or something. What else could explain his aggressiveness, on a Suaturday afternoon at 4pm?

I think that moral of this story is that if you want to stay some place with wireless internet, you can try Bentsen Palm Village. For a much friendlier stay in the Valley, you might try Green Gate up the road. They are super friendly there, and probably even have internet available, without the hassle from the old man to go with it. Sheesh, what a drag some people are.

Inside, they demanded another form of identification and my damned fingerprint on the check. After that they had the gall to charge me $5 for cashing the check.

I have had the same sort of negative experience with Bank of America, although I don't know if they are still charging the $5 to cash a check. Anyway, I talked with the banking regulators and the Texas Attorney General's office, and am sending off complaint forms about this bank. I figure when someone writes you a check, then the bank has the obligation to pay you the amount of the check, not some lesser amount.