Have you ever had to fit more in a space than fits? Yes, I know – that is what is organizer is about, not having to do this, but sometimes…
Back in the normal times before Covid husband and I would go to the movies just about every week. There was (is?) an independent theater in a nearby community that we would go to. While it had become a multiscreen theater it had not changed over to the terrible lounge seats – still had old style movie theater seats (same type as in school auditoriums, Broadway theaters, etc) and having once sat in lounge seats at movie theater, we vowed never to do so again. It is currently still “temporarily closed”. We went to “late showings” - which at this theater means the movie starts 9:30 to 10:30 pm, as opposed to when we used to go to midnight movies in the old days. While it has some theaters which are rather small, it does have just about full size theaters. And it was reasonably priced (even for so for seniors) and had a very nice staff.
This is something we have missed – last time we went to a movie was in late February/early March 2020. We have instead been having our movie night at home watching movies on TV – which is not the same, not only due to small screen, but missing in the atmosphere of a movie theater.
Husband has recently got into his head to buy a large screen TV for our living room. I was shocked. Husband spent a good deal of time decorating our living room in – more or less – colonial style – which is why I was shocked that he would put a big screen TV in it. (The TV which is in there – not digital – is in a period looking piece of furniture to hide it. It does not have a cable hookup as we tend to only watch TV in the living room while putting up and taking down our Christmas tree - when we watch specific Christmas DVDs and New Year's Eve – when, most years we watch “the ball drop” in NYC through Roku – though one year we watched Animal Crossing's New Year Party instead – I actually liked that better. )
Between this and the price, the idea of a big screen TV in our living room to watch Saturday night movies shocked me. This discussion has been going on for about a month or so. He has decided that the theater we used to go to will never reopen and we are too uncomfortable in the lounger seats in other theaters. (Though we have found one other theater with “real theater seats”, but it is not near us.)
He has been going back and forth with ideas on what to do – then deciding they are no good, then a new idea and then back again. Just when I thought he had given up – it is becoming reality. He has bought one for his birthday which is coming up in a while.
In doing this we had to figure out a lot of things. His first idea was to have the TV hung on the wall. Only wall possible was where the TV set furniture is now. BUT – that is too close to the heat, would have to be hung off center on the wall, and he found out that one has to help the installer hang the TV – if we could do that, we would not need the installer.
His second idea was to stand it on something. An obvious choice to me was a large wooden chest he built – it looks like a hope chest – top lifts, lock on front – but on this one, the key in front is the handle to pull down the front and drawers come out with DVDs in it – so the top is stationary and can have (and does have) things put on it. That is too low for what he wants – he want to “look up at the TV like one looks up at the movie screen in a theater”. He went looking for a stand to put the TV on – either one that stands on the floor or one that stands on a piece of furniture.
He found a stand that he liked how it held the TV at a chain computer store's website. Problem is that the dimensions are obviously wrong – how could something 4 inches tall hold a TV which is so much longer than that? We drove to the local location of the store – none on display. We asked a manager about the dimensions – he went to his computer and looked it up – on their website and read the numbers off to husband. Husband, a bit impatient, pointed out that he had read the same on his computer and how could the stand be 4 inches tall? Manager agreed that had to be wrong (both he and husband decided it had to be the shipping box dimensions) – but when husband if the boxes “in the back” could be checked for the dimensions – he was told no, “It is a brown box with no writing on it” - then how do they know which item is in the box. We left.
He started thinking again – the TV comes with feet, if we got the smaller size than he was looking at (65 inch instead of 70) and we could figure out what to put over the chest of DVDs to make it longer for the feet – it should work.
We looked at an assortment of ideas of what we could put the TV on. (In this entire process since it started we have, in our minds, rearranged the furniture in the living room end wall to end wall, side wall to side wall, end wall to side wall and so on.)
He finally had an idea and in his words “went back to works” - Ikea. We bought today a table from Ikea. It should fit over and around the chest of DVDs – box stays in place and is usable. Table is extremely modern in design, of course – but if it makes him happy…
We then drove to Costco to buy the TV and have it delivered – believe me, he has done extensive research on where to buy the TV, warranties, service contracts, setup etc. Problem is that one cannot buy it at the store and have it delivered – it can only be delivered if it is bought online – we hate to order things and have them delivered, but that is what we had to do – after wasting about an hour and a half driving there and home – even worse these days – the gasoline that was used for the drive there and back! He has ordered the TV. The table will sit in our van until early next week when we bring it in and assemble it.
In addition to this mess we had a “discussion” with our cable company over a 20% increase in price (which they lowered for us), the cold water started dripping in our downstairs bathroom sink – after an hour and a half on hold – they could not help us as they no record of our faucet model and were the Canadian office of the company (reached through the US 800 number) and transferred me to their US office – I hung up as I did not have another hour to wait. And it is tax season and getting closer to when I have to finish returns for clients – and us.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Doing anything today has become hard to do – nothing seems to be easy to do any longer and not just do to Covid and limitations arising from it. Who ever thought buying a TV would take weeks – maybe even months – of planning, needing to change the plan several times including buying the TV?
Showing posts with label cable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cable. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2022
TRYING TO FIT THINGS INTO SMALL SPACES OR LITTLE TIME
Thursday, August 13, 2020
COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS
First a couple of updates on my last two posts -
In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”. (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.) I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out – I could not take them not being there. I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them. Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”. It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year. My brain started whirring. I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there? I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it. YES!! The missing bears. See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored! Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them. Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.
In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area. I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening. Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity. Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday. I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back. In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas. (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water. We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.) Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet. The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting. Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous. One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so! And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy! I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.
Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick. This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it. Problem was it was dated 2017! We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either. In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick. My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same. I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it. While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back. I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet. I found we have more sugar than we thought. Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally). Part of a bottle of vinegar. Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of). I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are. Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to. Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it. When one thing after another hits us - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it. We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.
I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
COVID 19 #9 PATIENCE WITH ERRORS AND DELAYS
I hope that all and their loved ones continue to be well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
ELECTRONICS CAN HELP YOU BE ORGANIZED OR PLUNGE YOU INTO HELL
Well, here I am. In our little RV on a little trip - going to a quilt show (quilting supplies and exhibitions of quilts) tomorrow and then on Friday go to a fiber show (wool and related items for sale) which we have never been to before.
Well, that’s where I am suppose to be, but I am not. While I use electronics - computer, cell phone, old cell phone as a PDA - to help keep me organized (even weekly reminders to write and post to this blog - along with every other day “make pudding” for snack, daily time to stop and “make dinner” and other reminders in addition to normal appointments to keep organized, sometimes something goes blooey and stops it all.
We were debating whether or not to go on this 3 day trip. It is nice to have something different as a diversion, but it is a lot of money (for us) in terms of tolls, RV park, and admission to the quilt show (fiber show is free) and dinner runs a bit more than dinner out normally does for us.
So, we were unsure what to do. We filled the RV tanks with water and decided to decide at the last minute. I packed up the snacks and related that we would need (including medications) and put them in the cloth supermarket shopping bags we use for same - one has blue handle - anything for the fridge goes in same, so I know to pull same and put it in the fridge in the RV right away when we start the trip. (Why blue handle? Well, 2 bags have beige handles and one has a blue handle so the blue handle is the odd “handle”out and easy to spot.) Clothing is taken out to the RV in laundry bags, so to toss same in the laundry bags and throw the clothing and non-refrigerator bags in the RV and unpack them when settled in is not a big a deal.
We were leaning towards going as of when we returned home from running errands yesterday. Then the electronics crashed.
Husband goes online - on his computer - when he gets up for the day and then we both go online - on our computers - after we go out and run our errands for the day. Yesterday he had no trouble in the morning. When we returned I tried to download my email accounts to see the new emails and I could not connect to the Internet. I tried going online - same thing. Husband came up and with the usual “really, you can’t connect to the Internet - what did you do wrong” attitude, tried to connect his computer to the Internet. No Internet.
We tried everything we knew - we rebooted the modem. The lights on same went on and off in an odd assortment and would then start again - searching for the Internet over and over. We tried reaching the wifi from our cable co. (While the cable co. insists this is impossible, we get their wifi in our house - according to them it only exists in the street - and when there is a black out that is how we get wifi for the laptops.) No luck. Finally we gave up and called the cable co - knowing exactly the conversation which would occur. We had the same conversation a week ago when our TV service went out. “Unplug the modem.” We did that already. “Do it again.” Then a discussion follows on our wiring and splitters. Our house was wired - by the cable co.’s private contractor - and I have to explain that our wiring is odd and splits on the outside of the house not inside the house. (Each room with cable has its own line coming into it from outside.) Finally - “We have to make an appointment for someone to come there.” We asked if exchanging the modem might help and it was agreed that we would do that. We remembered that we have two “drops” (we have 2 lines from the cable co.’s line into our house - each serves half the small house as they did not have enough signal coming through when the house was wired by them originally). We take the modem to a line coming in on the other drop and try it there - it does not work there either. This says to us that this is something beyond the wiring to our house. Logic would say that other people should be complaining, but in today’s world no one else on our street might have service through the cable co.
Husband who before was not sure if we should go away, now is disappointed. It is decided that we will get up early (well, early for us) and exchange the box and if this corrected the problem, we would then go on the trip.
Now we were each looking for something to do so that our time was not wasted. Husband started playing with a wifi dongle in his computer to see if he could use the wifi in the street. Problems with the dongle. He tried using his laptop - wifi from the street was very intermittent. I did various things I needed to catch up on - bank reconciliations and such - which did not need Internet access. Then again, every other thing I thought of doing needed the Internet. Remember I still need to get contact information into my new cell phone - what a great time to do it.... Oh, I need to be on the Internet to do that. And so on.
By the way, we would have been able to do much less if we used “the cloud” (aka a cloud server) as we would not be able to access data and possibly even software (apps) as we had no Internet access. Remember this if you are someone who is very gung ho about using the cloud - you could loss access to your data and/or software if you have no Internet access.
After dinner I figured I would use this laptop to check a few of my email accounts - family, reenacting unit, embroidery chapter, and accounting email accounts - the ones with possible important emails. I tried signing into the first account using the wifi from the street. In just connecting and seeing that there was no email in the account (and again in each successive one of the four accounts) it took 3 or 4 attempts to get into the account and open the email “in box”. No new emails. I gave up trying to do anything else on the Internet and played solitaire until it was time to have snack and go to bed.
Today we went to the cable co.’s “store” and exchanged the modem. Husband told the employee that last time we exchanged the modem, and got the one we are returning, when we were given the box it was not “registered” and it was several days and an employee visit to our house for several hours to find out that when the modem was given to us it was not registered to our account first. She told us that we have to register it when it starts and we should see the instructions on installing the modem and registering it on page 10 in the instructions. We took the modem package and the instruction package and went home.
The instructions turned out to be of no value as they were for a router not a modem. Of course, setting up the modem is not hard - plug it into the electric, plug in the incoming cable line, and plug in the outgoing Internet cable. It started right up - doing the same as it did before. Lights went on and off in the same pattern as last night on the old modem and then started over. Husband turned on his computer just in case it was waiting for him to do something. No connection.
I called the cable co again. The employee said that she would try to register it from her end. She could not as there was no return signal. We would need - a visit from a service tech. First appointment is Friday - No Internet from Tuesday night to Friday morning - if they can get it working then. Oh, and if the problem is in the house - in the cable wires which the cable company originally installed or in the modem, which we just exchanged or anything else in the house, there is an $80 fee.
The trip is of course, off at this point as we have to be here on Friday morning.
Now, we have noticed something odd about our cable company. We call up with a problem. We go through the hoops they want us to go through - which we have already done, not being stupid to try to resolve the problem without calling them. (By the way, while on hold there was actually a recording saying that if one is having a problem with their cable box remote - check that the batteries do not need changing. Really? People are too stupid to think of this on their own?) We are then told that we need to exchange equipment or have a service tech come to work at the house. We agree to exchange the equipment. Within a half hour later - by magic - the problem resolves itself. (We thought we would have Internet this morning based on this “magic”.)
So as we are sitting there upset at no Internet until Friday - don’t forget husband does counseling online so he is not able to work until this is resolved nor can we deal with orders which might come in for our handcrafted gifts business, husband notices that suddenly there is a window on his computer to register the new modem. We put in the information and voilà, we have Internet again! What happened? Did they send the service appointment in to the repair department and someone look and realize a switch was off? Magic? Why does this always happen?
Just to be on the safe side we are not calling and canceling the appointment for the service tech until tomorrow - a day before they are due to come, but a chance to make sure that the service does not disappear again.
It was too late by then to go on the trip, so here we are. I did have a chance to transfer all the contact information for my embroidery group to the new mobile phone, as well as get a start on transferring the remaining contacts which were not “critical” to transfer. Oh yeah, the cable company phone number had not been transferred yet - I had to find it in my old cell phone to call the cable co. - during the various calls, it was transferred in.
I guess you knew that we got our Internet back - didn’t you? How else could I have posted this?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-
If you must use “the cloud” have the information (data) you store in the cloud available to you on your computer, tablet etc. or in hard copy also. This way when you have no access to the Internet, you still have the information to work with.
Imagine if my checking and savings information only existed in the cloud and I had planned to write checks yesterday - I would not have known how much money I had to spend nor how much I could transfer to help cover checks. This could have been a major problem - especially if the service really had been out until Friday - no access to information in the cloud for 3 days!
(And never forget - the cloud is not mysterious - it is only someone else’s hard drive - why not keep your information on your own hard drive or a flash drive.)
Well, that’s where I am suppose to be, but I am not. While I use electronics - computer, cell phone, old cell phone as a PDA - to help keep me organized (even weekly reminders to write and post to this blog - along with every other day “make pudding” for snack, daily time to stop and “make dinner” and other reminders in addition to normal appointments to keep organized, sometimes something goes blooey and stops it all.
We were debating whether or not to go on this 3 day trip. It is nice to have something different as a diversion, but it is a lot of money (for us) in terms of tolls, RV park, and admission to the quilt show (fiber show is free) and dinner runs a bit more than dinner out normally does for us.
So, we were unsure what to do. We filled the RV tanks with water and decided to decide at the last minute. I packed up the snacks and related that we would need (including medications) and put them in the cloth supermarket shopping bags we use for same - one has blue handle - anything for the fridge goes in same, so I know to pull same and put it in the fridge in the RV right away when we start the trip. (Why blue handle? Well, 2 bags have beige handles and one has a blue handle so the blue handle is the odd “handle”out and easy to spot.) Clothing is taken out to the RV in laundry bags, so to toss same in the laundry bags and throw the clothing and non-refrigerator bags in the RV and unpack them when settled in is not a big a deal.
We were leaning towards going as of when we returned home from running errands yesterday. Then the electronics crashed.
Husband goes online - on his computer - when he gets up for the day and then we both go online - on our computers - after we go out and run our errands for the day. Yesterday he had no trouble in the morning. When we returned I tried to download my email accounts to see the new emails and I could not connect to the Internet. I tried going online - same thing. Husband came up and with the usual “really, you can’t connect to the Internet - what did you do wrong” attitude, tried to connect his computer to the Internet. No Internet.
We tried everything we knew - we rebooted the modem. The lights on same went on and off in an odd assortment and would then start again - searching for the Internet over and over. We tried reaching the wifi from our cable co. (While the cable co. insists this is impossible, we get their wifi in our house - according to them it only exists in the street - and when there is a black out that is how we get wifi for the laptops.) No luck. Finally we gave up and called the cable co - knowing exactly the conversation which would occur. We had the same conversation a week ago when our TV service went out. “Unplug the modem.” We did that already. “Do it again.” Then a discussion follows on our wiring and splitters. Our house was wired - by the cable co.’s private contractor - and I have to explain that our wiring is odd and splits on the outside of the house not inside the house. (Each room with cable has its own line coming into it from outside.) Finally - “We have to make an appointment for someone to come there.” We asked if exchanging the modem might help and it was agreed that we would do that. We remembered that we have two “drops” (we have 2 lines from the cable co.’s line into our house - each serves half the small house as they did not have enough signal coming through when the house was wired by them originally). We take the modem to a line coming in on the other drop and try it there - it does not work there either. This says to us that this is something beyond the wiring to our house. Logic would say that other people should be complaining, but in today’s world no one else on our street might have service through the cable co.
Husband who before was not sure if we should go away, now is disappointed. It is decided that we will get up early (well, early for us) and exchange the box and if this corrected the problem, we would then go on the trip.
Now we were each looking for something to do so that our time was not wasted. Husband started playing with a wifi dongle in his computer to see if he could use the wifi in the street. Problems with the dongle. He tried using his laptop - wifi from the street was very intermittent. I did various things I needed to catch up on - bank reconciliations and such - which did not need Internet access. Then again, every other thing I thought of doing needed the Internet. Remember I still need to get contact information into my new cell phone - what a great time to do it.... Oh, I need to be on the Internet to do that. And so on.
By the way, we would have been able to do much less if we used “the cloud” (aka a cloud server) as we would not be able to access data and possibly even software (apps) as we had no Internet access. Remember this if you are someone who is very gung ho about using the cloud - you could loss access to your data and/or software if you have no Internet access.
After dinner I figured I would use this laptop to check a few of my email accounts - family, reenacting unit, embroidery chapter, and accounting email accounts - the ones with possible important emails. I tried signing into the first account using the wifi from the street. In just connecting and seeing that there was no email in the account (and again in each successive one of the four accounts) it took 3 or 4 attempts to get into the account and open the email “in box”. No new emails. I gave up trying to do anything else on the Internet and played solitaire until it was time to have snack and go to bed.
Today we went to the cable co.’s “store” and exchanged the modem. Husband told the employee that last time we exchanged the modem, and got the one we are returning, when we were given the box it was not “registered” and it was several days and an employee visit to our house for several hours to find out that when the modem was given to us it was not registered to our account first. She told us that we have to register it when it starts and we should see the instructions on installing the modem and registering it on page 10 in the instructions. We took the modem package and the instruction package and went home.
The instructions turned out to be of no value as they were for a router not a modem. Of course, setting up the modem is not hard - plug it into the electric, plug in the incoming cable line, and plug in the outgoing Internet cable. It started right up - doing the same as it did before. Lights went on and off in the same pattern as last night on the old modem and then started over. Husband turned on his computer just in case it was waiting for him to do something. No connection.
I called the cable co again. The employee said that she would try to register it from her end. She could not as there was no return signal. We would need - a visit from a service tech. First appointment is Friday - No Internet from Tuesday night to Friday morning - if they can get it working then. Oh, and if the problem is in the house - in the cable wires which the cable company originally installed or in the modem, which we just exchanged or anything else in the house, there is an $80 fee.
The trip is of course, off at this point as we have to be here on Friday morning.
Now, we have noticed something odd about our cable company. We call up with a problem. We go through the hoops they want us to go through - which we have already done, not being stupid to try to resolve the problem without calling them. (By the way, while on hold there was actually a recording saying that if one is having a problem with their cable box remote - check that the batteries do not need changing. Really? People are too stupid to think of this on their own?) We are then told that we need to exchange equipment or have a service tech come to work at the house. We agree to exchange the equipment. Within a half hour later - by magic - the problem resolves itself. (We thought we would have Internet this morning based on this “magic”.)
So as we are sitting there upset at no Internet until Friday - don’t forget husband does counseling online so he is not able to work until this is resolved nor can we deal with orders which might come in for our handcrafted gifts business, husband notices that suddenly there is a window on his computer to register the new modem. We put in the information and voilà, we have Internet again! What happened? Did they send the service appointment in to the repair department and someone look and realize a switch was off? Magic? Why does this always happen?
Just to be on the safe side we are not calling and canceling the appointment for the service tech until tomorrow - a day before they are due to come, but a chance to make sure that the service does not disappear again.
It was too late by then to go on the trip, so here we are. I did have a chance to transfer all the contact information for my embroidery group to the new mobile phone, as well as get a start on transferring the remaining contacts which were not “critical” to transfer. Oh yeah, the cable company phone number had not been transferred yet - I had to find it in my old cell phone to call the cable co. - during the various calls, it was transferred in.
I guess you knew that we got our Internet back - didn’t you? How else could I have posted this?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-
If you must use “the cloud” have the information (data) you store in the cloud available to you on your computer, tablet etc. or in hard copy also. This way when you have no access to the Internet, you still have the information to work with.
Imagine if my checking and savings information only existed in the cloud and I had planned to write checks yesterday - I would not have known how much money I had to spend nor how much I could transfer to help cover checks. This could have been a major problem - especially if the service really had been out until Friday - no access to information in the cloud for 3 days!
(And never forget - the cloud is not mysterious - it is only someone else’s hard drive - why not keep your information on your own hard drive or a flash drive.)
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