Oh how I wish I had a long four day weekend in progress. Alas, I only get two. And I guess Tuesday will be a half day at the most. Ximena gets four days off and I must admit I'm a bit envious.

We've spent most of the weekend cleaning and organizing the apartment. Looks good. But between us moving things around and running the vaccuum, and the fireworks banging at the neighbor's place across the street, the cats are traumatized.

Those neighbors have been lighting off fireworks late at night all week. One night at 1:30 am they fired off a bunch of bottlerockets. That sent Ximena across the street to tell them to knock it off. I didn't even realize she was gone until she got back--you see I can wake up and identify the noise and fall right back to sleep. That doesn't stop me from sympathizing with Ximena and everyone else in the apartment building.

We're expecting a lot of noise from them between now and Tuesday night. But it's been quiet now. Too quiet indeed.

We've also been having some trouble with a collection agency that keeps calling and leaving a message on the voice mail for a Robert Harris. We assumed in the beginning that it was a collection agency just by the nature of the message and frequency that they were calling. So I picked up the phone last Saturday morning (around 9 am) and I had just gotten back to bed for a nap after working four very early morning hours. I listened to the same recorded message that had been on our voicemail numerous times and it gave me a menu of options. Press #4 if you're not Robert Harris. Okay. I press #4.

I'm on hold just a second and a guy comes on and says, "Is this Robert Harris?" Ha-ha. Well, this is a collection agency.

Apparently I stuttered a bit in telling them this number does not belong to Robert Harris, so the guy immediately thinks I'm lying. I tell him my name (Rob Vagle) and he finds it a bit of a coincidence that there's another Rob(ert) at this same number as the Robert Harris in his documentation. Oh, I didn't know I had such an uncommon name. I basically end up being interrogated. Ximena could tell I was getting annoyed but I stuck to my guns, I stuck to the truth. This number did not belong to Robert Harris, we've had this number for a year and a half and no we don't know no stinking Robert Harris.

I finally get off the phone and hoped that would be the end of it. Really, I understand collection agencies and I know they have a job to do. I'm sure they encounter a lot of resistance and dare I say it, liars. A look at the latest phone book for the Eugene area would tell them who the phone number belongs to.

They called again on Monday night and this time Ximena answered. She got a gal when she pressed #4 and this gal said the same thing as the last guy, "Is this Robert Harris?" Ximena didn't hold back and told them to stop calling and that this number didn't belong to Robert Harris and the only Robert Harris she knew of was the author of the novels Enigma and Fatherland. She asked who was calling because they've never identified themselves and learned it was NCO Financial Systems. All through Ximena's onslaught the gal would be saying "Are you finished?" And Ximena's reply would be, "Are you going to keep calling?"

It was a wonder to behold. I guess the gal was just rolling with it, even laughing at some of things Ximena was saying. The call ended with the gal saying she'd make a note about this number NOT belonging to Robert Harris. Ximena never did get an interrogation like I did.

After some Internet research we learned NCO Financial Systems is the worst collection agency in America. NCO is in trouble for the way they treat debtors. Their collection tactics are considered illegal and this puts their employee training in question.

Anyhoo, we've been expecting them to call again and they haven't called this week. Looks promising. Perhaps they finally listened?

Fingers crossed.