Carol ReMarks

Automation Blues and Political Clues

Carol Marks

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT

What if the loudest voices aren't the ones shaping our world? Join us in this unexpected morning bonus episode as we debate the impact of recent political events on society, including Trump's win and the election of the first transgender individual to Congress. We unpack the tension between vocal minorities and the silent majority, reflecting on how these dynamics contribute to the changing political landscape in America. With a mix of humor and candor, we navigate these complex topics, aiming to understand the forces at play in a country grappling with change and acceptance.

Feeling bogged down by endless phone menus and automated messages? You're not alone. We shift gears to tackle the rise of automation in communication, particularly in businesses and healthcare. Sharing our own frustrations and a glimmer of hope from a surprisingly personal online pharmacy experience, we ponder the effectiveness of these systems. As we vent and laugh through our automation woes, we raise intriguing questions about the balance between efficiency and human connection in an increasingly digital world.

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Speaker 1:

Hello, good morning, welcome everyone.

Speaker 2:

Grand day and good morning all. How is the world treating you today?

Speaker 1:

It's Friday and it's bonus content.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Bonus content. You didn't expect to hear my voice this morning, did you? Or, if you listen regularly, you probably did, because we did attempt a little bonus content.

Speaker 1:

We did.

Speaker 2:

So here we are, bonus of the day Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. What's on your mind?

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm still on a high from Trump winning. Not only did he win, but the people have spoken.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And it makes me think that maybe the crazies are just a 1%, a half a percent now.

Speaker 2:

I've been trying to tell you for a while that there are good people out there.

Speaker 1:

I know.

Speaker 2:

And that there are more good people out there than there are the crazies. It doesn't seem that way because they yell and scream in the top of their lungs. But I think people came out of the woodwork and said you know what? This is not right, the way this is going. So I have faith in America.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and you know, a year or so ago people kept saying about the trans ideology. Anyway, People would say, well, it's just a half a percent, it's just one percent, but to me it seemed like a whole lot more.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly right.

Speaker 1:

Because they elected the first trans. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. They elected Delaware, the first man wearing a dress into Congress.

Speaker 2:

That's unbelievable.

Speaker 1:

McBride is his last name. I'm not going to say what he goes by his first name.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going there. What he goes by his first name, I'm not going there.

Speaker 1:

It's going to be interesting, it'll be interesting to see if Marjorie Taylor Greene ever runs into him in the bathroom.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if he still has balls, he won't have it after them. Think about it, those things will get ripped off. All right god bless him.

Speaker 1:

God bless him what do you have on your mind this morning, dear?

Speaker 2:

automation automation automation okay, that's what I have on my mind all right, do tell you know I sit on a fence because of this, because of experiences.

Speaker 2:

But you know, as we grow older we have less patience for certain things and automation for telephoning and calling people and getting things done is just. Sometimes it's just. You know, it's a crawl, especially when you know, in business, when you've got a problem you have to call a company and you get nothing. But you know, well, you know, press one, press two, press three. None of the options are good, so you have to press another one and then it says you know, you, you're 17th in line, the wait time is approximately an hour. You know, and you've got 16 customers in front of you and you're trying to take. You're 17th in line, the wait time is approximately an hour and you've got 16 customers in front of you and you're trying to take. You know, and it's just, it doesn't work and the personal contact with companies and all that stuff is just so far gone. It drives me crazy. You know, I'm going through something with one of my doctors right now where you have the options, you call and you can never talk to anybody. You have to leave messages. Occasionally they'll call you back and say Dr Scott, you better call me back. You know you never get to say anything. You know it's like this is the fourth time y'all have said this or anything like that. You don't get to say anything like that, and that just drives me crazy that we can no longer talk to anybody because they say that this is more efficient. Efficient for who? That's what gets me. Who's it efficient for? I will say there is a company that I'm dealing with. It's a pharmacy online that my doctors prescribed a medication for that's more expensive this way and they recommended to do it that way and it was funny. So I do have a little bit of faith in it. It was funny because the nurse practitioner prescribed this particular medication and before I was out the door, the company was texting me saying you know, we're going to be in contact with you shortly. I got home, they were in contact with me. I was like okay, and you know, I sat down and I'm thinking and I had told this to my nurse practitioner. I said, oh God, that means I got to go online and do all this crap, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I get another email that says you know, here you go, let's go put your information in. Blah, blah, blah, blah done. I'm like, okay, fine. And then four minutes later I got, you know, your shipments in the mail. I'm like what you know? And then the next day it was there. I'm like, holy hell, that was easy.

Speaker 2:

And of course, this week I started worrying about it. I was like, okay, I'm supposed to be due the next. But then, oh, okay, your prescription's ready, just sign in. Okay, they didn't have to sign in or anything, just done. And okay, they have to sign in or anything, just done. And you know they said, all right, it'll be here between then. And that time we're like, oh hell, we're going out of town. We can't do that next thing. I know it was there on time early, like well, what the hell. So in that case it worked. So I sit on the fence to is this a good thing or is this a bad thing?

Speaker 1:

I still think it's a bad thing I know you were proud of our son the other day because I was doing a group text with the kids, telling them something. I forget what it was about and he, instead of texting me back, he called me. He called, he said I just wanted to call because it would be easier for me to call and tell you than to text all this out.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I've been a fan. You know I get that I get so frustrated. It's like 74 questions and I've got to start trying to text this, and I do. I pick up the phone and say I'm not texting you all this crap. I'll talk and we'll talk about it real quick, we'll get everything out and we'll get done and we'll be done with it, instead of sitting there texting back and forth because it's so impersonal. And you know, especially when text you text somebody, they say well, what did you mean by that? It's like you had an attitude texting that. Yeah, I texted, I just it's words on a phone. What do you mean? Added here. Let me tell you attitude, some bitch, you know that's attitude, but just just, hi, how are you? That's not attitude. Anyway, yeah, I like personal contact better. Okay, anything, anything to say about that?

Speaker 1:

no, I don't have anything to say about that agree disagree I do get a little anxious, though, when I have to do stuff like that too and somebody tells me you're gonna have to go to this website, go to this link. They'll text you a link and I just automatically I'm like automatic dread sets in.

Speaker 2:

Me too. Me too, you know. Let me talk to somebody.

Speaker 1:

Remember the good old days when they would just actually write a prescription on a pad. You would take it to the store and they would fill it yeah.

Speaker 2:

And nowadays you know what happened with that People stealing and writing their own prescriptions out, people, they're the worst.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk real quick about Susie Wiles.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that awesome.

Speaker 1:

Ice Maiden or Ice Baby those are her nicknames.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that is phenomenally great. I love it.

Speaker 1:

And I found out her father was Pat Summerall.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yes, if you know Pat Summerall's history, what a man I mean overcoming, being the athlete that he was, overcoming the problems he overcame, and just being a great guy and a super personality. And apparently he raised a hell of a daughter too. So, yeah, if you don't know who Susie Wiles is, go check her out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, go look her up, Google her, read about her. She's been involved with Trump for a while now and was in charge of DeSantis governorship Florida thing too. Trump's put her in charge of that before all this started happening, but she worked with DeSantis in Florida too.

Speaker 2:

I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was one of the Fonda girls, not the Fonda family, but what was her name? Anyway, the movie had where she was ticked up off the streets and turned into an assassin and they had a cleaner that would come in. If something happened bad at a site, they had a cleaner that would come in. If you know a site, something happened bad at a site, they'd have a cleaner that would come in and clean up. So you couldn't. So there wasn't any trace of anything that was going on. You couldn't tell there was a crime that was committed or her body was killed or something you know. The cleaner would come in and take care of it. Well, you know, this hire to me is the first step of our bureaucracy getting cleaned. Here comes Ice and she's going to come in and she's got her suitcase with the Clorox and everything.

Speaker 1:

She has her list.

Speaker 2:

She's going in and going. You know she's cleaning.

Speaker 1:

She also has her list of people.

Speaker 2:

I think it's going to be. I get that picture. I can't remember the name of that movie. It was pretty good but Was it Bridget Fonda? Bridget Fonda. Yeah, bridget Fonda. Yeah, and that was, it was a good movie, but anyway, and you know, at the end of the movie she walks off into the fog and the guy who's her handler, you know, just lets her go when they're not supposed to let them go. They're not supposed to sneak away.

Speaker 1:

I don't remember a movie like that. I don't think I've ever All right.

Speaker 2:

That's the first time I ever heard the name Nina Simone the singer. Oh okay, why Was it in the movie or something yeah she loved that, she loved her, she loved the artist this does sound vaguely familiar she loved the artist and she just she loved the music okay, the cleaner is coming in. Yeah, her name is wiles all right yeah can't wait can't wait.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's move on. Okay, to a new thing that I'm doing on the podcast. Every Friday I'm doing a Yo Carol. Yo Carol and it's a play on Dear Abby, yo Carol, so I want people to write in and it could be totally fictional, made-up stuff if you want. It doesn't have to be real-life things. Please make it Nothing like penthouse form. No, no, I won't read that.

Speaker 2:

I'll read it privately.

Speaker 1:

You won't believe what happened to me today, but I just wanted to keep it light and fun and stuff. All right, here we go. I have one.

Speaker 2:

Here we go, ready, I'm ready.

Speaker 1:

Yo Carol, I'm a 58-year-old man with a wife and three kids. I like to wear secret deodorant which is made for women. Does this mean I'm gay or will be perceived as being gay? Should I bite the bullet and go back to brute? Please advise, thanks, likes to smell pretty from Pittsburgh, oh boy.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to answer this. This is Yo, carol. Then you can say something Yo, okay, well, dear, likes to smell pretty from Pittsburgh. I do have something to say about this. No, you are absolutely not gay, nor will you be perceived as being gay. I like the smell of all deodorants. I don't care if it's a manly smell or a girly smell, and I'm going to tell you the truth. I used to wear men's deodorant all the time because I liked the way it smelled, better than the girly deodorant. Now I have gone back to secret since then, but on occasion I will wear the gents deodorant because I just like that smell. I like smelling him when he wears it. I love it. So I like to wear it myself. So I understand why you want to change it up every once in a while. There's nothing wrong with that. It smells good. Smell it, I mean, wear it. What do you think, the gent? Would you wear a woman's?

Speaker 2:

deodorant. Personally, I say, if you want to wear it, you know, wear it. But in my experience I've really never smelled people's underarms, so I don't know the difference if they're wearing a floral-scented underarm deodorant or a manly, I'll call it scented deodorant or a manly, I'll call it scented deodorant, because I don't think I've ever smelled the deodorant smell that somebody is wearing. So if you want to wear it, go for it. If it makes you feel springtime fresh and energetic, then then you know, have at it. But I'd just keep that to yourself.

Speaker 1:

Well, I also with women's deodorant. They've really started expanding their variety of scents, like they'll have fresh linen, which to me is pretty neutral, yeah, or they'll have coconut, which is my favorite Coconut, and something that's pretty neutral. I love the smell of coconut, which is my favorite Coconut, and something that's pretty neutral. I love the smell of coconut. I know you like the smell of coconut.

Speaker 2:

Well, I do know a couple of things. There's one thing I do like and that's my soap. I like a particular soap that I get that's got a strong odor and of course that makes me smell good and I like that. And I noticed that the same company that makes your soap and my soap the floral scents in it aren't as strong as the ones in the manly soaps. That's true. So therefore, if you're wearing the feminine or the ladies deodorant, I don't think anybody's going to smell it. So just you know, if it does its job, if it keeps you from stinking, wear it.

Speaker 1:

You know and you remember, one of our steady listeners, mr Sean, sent us some soap. We're still using it too. We used we're like well, they're all black soaps, though it's the African. And then he sent us a Sasquatch, one thing which I'm going to use next.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, we need to break out one of those. Yes, they're good soaps.

Speaker 1:

Made my skin feel super soft and it smelled good.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Well, there you go, there's our advice, the Yo Carol.

Speaker 2:

I like that. That was fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

All right, that should promote our listenership. Song for Yo Carol.

Speaker 1:

So do you. I think we'll just end it there.

Speaker 2:

Maybe I'll start doing a Yo Carrie on Thursday hey.

Speaker 1:

Yo Jen.

Speaker 2:

Well, all right, that's very good. The weekend's upon us. We're going to watch some. We're going to definitely watch some football this weekend. Probably have a good dinner tonight and see what happens.

Speaker 1:

All right. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2:

Have a great day, go Dawgs.

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