Tech support

I will gladly commit unnatural acts if it means I never, ever have to call AOL tech support again. It's bad enough that they are obviously not USA citizens, but they are all given American names and taught American idioms which they use out of context. They repeat themselves with such self importance....then the guy tells me that my problem is with Microsoft. I don't think so, but this means I have to call Microsoft tech support. I wish I could let Molly do this. She has way more patience than I do. There is just an additional language barrier, although maybe she can understand them better than I can.

It will probably be another month before I have the whatever it takes built up so I can make the next tech call. Maybe Microsoft won't insult me with an offer of a free computer lesson online with a possibility of winning a free digital camera.

Of course, I am now late for an appointment because the tech support guy kept me on the phone forever, repeating himself and trying to make me look stupid.

In 1998 it worked. Now, I can turn the tables a bit. It was almost worth having to make the call. After all, I have free will. I am not reading off a script.

 

 

VoIP

When I moved, I had no intentions of paying whatever for a cell phone and another $50 for a house land line. I am just not on the phone enough to warrant that kind of expense. I ordered a gizmo from Sun Rocket (gizmo is the technical term).  The cost for phone service with an internet phone (VoIP - voice over internet protocol) from Sun Rocket is $199 a year. That includes the gizmo, includes all taxes, unlimited local and long distance calls to-from the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico. I don't know anyone in PR, but hey, if I meet someone, we can talk on the phone now, right?

Sun Rocket was having a special and gave me 15 months for the price of 12. I think this came out to a phone bill of unlimited calls for $13 a month. I paid for the 15 months all at once, so that is out of the way and off my mind. I just hooked it up since I broke the cell phone, and it took me almost 3 minutes to set things up. It might have been faster, but the outlets aren't exactly where I would like them in the room where I set up the modem, router, gizmo, and base phone so I had to go find a surge protector.

I have since made and received a few calls to check out the quality. No problem. They do have 911 service, although I might have some issue since I brought my area code from my old house all of 6 miles away with me. I have had this phone number for 30 years and don't plan to lose it now. I figure I can pre-program the police and fire into my phone as a back up plan. There may be once or twice that I don't get exactly the same service as I would get from a land line, but I think I can live with it. Really, I just want it as a back up for my cell phone. I am really glad I planned that, now that my cell is currently DOA.

If anyone is interested in getting Sun Rocket, I think if you give them my number as a referral they will give you free wireless, cordless phones. I didn't get that, because I didn't give the number of the person who referred me. Three months free service is OK, too.

I admit, I expected a big hassle when I tried to figure out all the new wires. LANs and WANs and T-1s and CAT-5s, I figured a headache was sure to follow. But no. It was painless.

Perhaps I should keep mycell phone in a waterproof baggie.

 

 

 

Oops

My cell phone got wet and appears to be dead. I took it apart, dried everything off, changed the battery - and nothing. Any suggestions? This is the only phone I have right now. I am expecting company later and asked her to call me before she got here to make sure I am home. She doesn't use her cell phone so I can't send a text message by computer, either.

My phone is brand new and expensive. I did not pay for extended warranty - I asked them to sell me one that works. Is this the moment I change to Verizon? I can't call and ask.

 

Hurry!

The cable company did finally send out someone else who hooked up my cable. However, he tried to also hook up with me. I still need to send a letter to the cable company, but I am still too angry to do it. I have no idea if the television actually works or not. I have had cable on it for a week and haven't touched it yet. Probably paying for that was a mistake.

I am still adjusting to condo life here. I am very adept at cleaning up after my dogs. Any alien landing in my area will assume that dogs run the world, since we follow them around and clean up their poop. No one does that for us, do they?

My shower head is about 20 feet above my head. Maybe it's not really that high, but all I get is a trickle down effect. It makes it hard to rinse my hair. I need to get a new shower head with a hose, and preferably one that can come down a little lower without having to drill holes in the tiles. I need the hose because that makes it much easier to clean the shower and also to clean beagles. I have to stand on the tips of my toes to adjust the current shower head. I would have had it lowered, had I realized it was going to be that high.

My old house is not sold and I still haven't called a new realtor and tried to break my contract. It seems to be one of those things I just don't want to do deal with, so it ends up at the end of my list of things to do. I have to deal with it soon. My pension check just covered my old house. Now I have two sets of utilities, property taxes, and a brand new big mortgage payment. I can't keep this up for too long.

I can't buy anything for the new place while I have these extra bills, so that is frustrating . So far, all I have new is my dining room table. No new chairs yet, but I have a table. No blinds yet, no new bathroom rugs, no towel bars or toilet paper holders, no curtains, no towel bar in the kitchen - the list of things I need goes on and on. I did buy a welcome mat. Some things just are needed, you know? Yesterday I picked up a hose so I could wash my car for the first time in 17 months (seriously) and it has been raining all day today. It's my fault.

What the "hurry" means in the title today is that I was sitting here at the computer, changing my address with the gas company (I haven't even changed my driver's license or told my homeowner's insurance company yet, sigh) and I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the back yard.

My brain registered "horse." I looked up, and saw four white-tailed deer hauling their behinds through my back yard like they were racing. Probably they were. I remember last spring a deer was racing my car early on a Sunday morning.

The deer were beautiful, graceful, and one of the reasons I moved here. I am in a condo complex with many other people, in a brand new home with granite and ceramics and gas fireplaces and city water - with a nature preserve at the end of my short road. I have the best of both worlds.

This condo is now my home and I am happy here. The dogs are happy and adjusted. We took a walk last night and a family made us stop, sent their little boy inside, and he brought out little treats for both dogs. There are five beagles within about 20 condos in this back corner of the complex. Who would have expected that? They get along great. Baby howls when she sees a dog she recognizes and drags me over to visit. We can't take a walk without running into people to chat with. I feel safe and content.

Add my name to the list of people who have downsized and are happy with the decision. I would say I wish I had done it sooner, but I know I wasn't ready before. I do not miss three flights of stairs.

I am also teaching a class now - so be prepared for the usual request for emails sent to my students with pictures in them. I think we will need them this coming week or the week after. I will post an entry and probably also send out emails. It works so well and they love it - meaning they learn faster because they are having fun. I have two coaches - one is a professional IT, and one knows less than some of my students. It has been an interesting class!

 

 

The Cable Guy

We have two cable companies from which we can choose. I decided to go with Comcast, which has On Demand, which means I can decide to watch a movie and don't have to wait for it to come on. It's a dumb reason, since I don't watch TV, but hey, at least I made a decision. They cost more than the other one. The other one is more of a new, upstart company. I had them for the last 5 years or so in the old house.

I figured new house, new cable company. The condos are pre-wired and they imply that only Comcast could be used. So, someone gets a kickback. Who cares?

I called for preliminary info. I priced out the plans and asked how long I would have to wait for service. She said 1-2 days is normal. I thought about it for a couple of days, and tried to call on a Sunday night before midnight. I hung up on Monday morning at 1:20 am, having reached not one human. During that time, I read part of a book, took the dogs out, went to the bathroom, played on the computer using my borrowed signal, and generally did a little housekeeping.

Monday morning I tried again and got a human without even getting 1 minute of voice mail, let alone over 100 minutes. She scheduled me on Friday. I said that wasn't one or two days. She agreed, but said that was the best she could do. I accepted it.

Friday between 12-3 pm. Now, doesn't that just cut up a day? I stayed home all morning, in case they called. This makes no sense since I have only a cell phone. I was hoping he might come early. No. He showed up about 2:50 pm.

He was a big guy with a very heavy southern accent. If I find out which state, I will ship him back home myself.

He came in, with dirty boots, and proceeded to check out my cable access. I repeated to him, as I had to the lady on the phone, that my home is pre-wired. I showed him the access points. He disagreed with me. I should have made him leave then, as I wanted to do.

Noooo, I let him go into my basement. He swore there was no main wire down there. He then rewired me, putting a line all across my back lawn. The lawn service is NOT going to be happy on Thursday. They probably won't even cut my lawn. He went into my attic in my garage. He then asked to go in the attic in my bedroom closet.

He decided that it was too hot in the attic for him and that someone would have to come back and do it during a morning. I repeated to him, for maybe the 10th time, that my condo is pre-wired for cable. He disagreed again. He scheduled me for the 12th of August to be hooked up. I told him I am starting a new class on the 8th where I have to teach computers, and I need a hook up before then, since almost a week had already passed. He took his toys and left.

I thought he did, anyway. I chased him out into the driveway and asked him to replace the cover to the attic in my closet. It's about 9 feet up. Did he expect me to reach up there and do it? I had already told him I don't have a ladder here. Too bad I didn't look DOWN first.

After he was gone, I went to get changed to go out. I found insulation all over the floor in my closet. I had already vacuumed the whole condo, and my shoulder was not happy with me. I bit my tongue and vacuumed the closet, after carrying the vacuum from the laundry room.

Then I went to grab the clothes, and found insulation all over my dry clean clothes that I used to wear for work. All my nice things, full of that crap. I brushed it off the best I could, since I didn't have much time, and of course it went on the floor again. I left it there.

What next? The guy called and asked me if he left his toys here. I said I had no idea, where might they be? He said in the spare bedroom in a corner some place. Sure enough, he did. I told him I would leave them on the porch.

Today I got a call back from the condo people. I am pre-wired. All the necessary wires were right there in the living room, where I showed him.

 

 

Wires and paste and straps, oh my!

For at least 20 years I have avoided a sleep study. I was talked into it about 20 years ago, but I told my doctor then that I was a single mom of a young child, working as a social worker, and had no extra funds for expensive medical tests. I was assured that the costs would be covered by my very good medical insurance.

I trudged off, crabby, to the initial interview with the doctors involved with the study. The field was pretty new, and I had to go to a hospital in downtown Detroit. I again told them that I had very limited funds, and they again assured me that my insurance would cover and I should not worry my pretty little head over something so silly as money.

They did an interview with me, taking a lot of information for at least an hour. I was told that I would be scheduled for the study. I then received a bill for $100, not covered by insurance, for the gab fest. I dropped the whole idea at that time, and never looked back. Whenever a sleep study was mentioned, I just said no. Countless times.

However, I am at a point now where I need to verify my sleep issues. Believe me, I am not making them up. Ask anyone who has slept all night with me. Better yet, take my word for it. I don't sleep much.

My internist referred me happily to his buddy the neurologist when I said I wanted to have studies done regarding my memory. The clever little doc referred me to a neurologist who also does sleep issues. Sigh. I was bagged this time.

As I had mentioned, I went Monday night. The crowning touch was the tech who said he wanted me in bed for 6 hours. How could I turn that down?

The tech turned out to be a very sweet, nice looking first year medical student. I wondered how to hook him up with my daughter, but the opportunity did not present itself. She hopes to attend medical school, so a link would be a good thing. Anyway, he never did tell me his name, unless it's Tech. Tech did say it's a good time for child to apply for med school, as baby boomers are creating a huge need for new doctors. Great, well, I hope she at least gets her BA in the next few years. Things like trips toSouth Beach keep eating up her possibilities of saving tuition money.

I had been told by the neurologist that the study would involve a few electrodes attached to my head and I would have to sleep in the clinic.

He left out a few things. I had 16 or 18 electrodes attached to my face, my head, neck, throat, chest, and leg. One hung down the center of my face. The electrodes had very long, thin wires, which connected into a little box, which then connected to some bigger boxes on the floor beside the bed. I had a belt-like strap around my chest and another around my waist. I had a nose thingie like for oxygen, but I think it was a microphone for snoring. There was a closed circuit camera on the wall, so Tech could observe me all night long. If I needed to pee, I was to wave my arm and he would come unhook me. All attachments took about 45 minutes, with me sitting on the edge of the bed in my jammies. Sitting like that makes my back ache within 5 minutes.

I did not complain to Tech. He could see I wasn't happy, but he said I was a good patient. I tried my best, since what I didn't tell Tech was my fear of being tied down and confined or why.

The wires were wrapped around me. If I tried to move, they pulled. They were attached with big globs of goopy, sticky paste that had to be carefully washed out of my hair after I got home. The straps were tight. The electrode wires on my leg pulled. I could not turn over without feeling them pull, confine me, and totally terrify the crap out of me.

Every time an electrode came loose, he came in the room, woke me up, and re-attached it. Half the time I wasn't asleep anyway. I refused to need to get up.

It was bad enough to be sent to bed at 11 pm. I hadn't even had any dinner yet, since I had to be there at 8:45 pm. The windows were blocked with shades, and don't open. I did convince Tech to open a shade near the bed about 2 feet so I could tell when morning came. He didn't understand, but he did do it. I did not have a clock of any kind. I have no idea when I have fallen asleep and then wake up if 5 minutes have passed or 3 hours. It feels the same to me. It was too dark to read my watch, not that I wanted to move my arm anyway.

Tech "woke me up" at 6:15 am. He had told me he was going to get me up at 5:45 am, so I had pretty much been awake from 4 am on. I had warned him I am not a morning person. By 6:30 am, when I left, I was almost human, though.

I ran to the library and returned books in the overnight bin. I stopped at the Old House and took care of the cat, piled heavy stuff in the car, and pulled weeds and trimmed bushes. While it was very early, I still managed to work up a good sweat, since it was probably already close to 90 degrees outside.

At 8:15 am, I left the house and returned to the doctor's office for an 8:30 am EEG. This involved another slew of electrodes, but the nurse talked to me and I was in a fairly comfortable chair. I didn't really see the electrodes, and she said she didn't need to paste them on. It was not unpleasant. She asked me at one point if my eyes were closed as directed, and I assured her that they were. She said I had a lot of eye movement, whatever that means for the study?

After that, I came home, washed the goopy paste out of my hair, and waited about 3 hours for the child to wake up. She told me loves my condo (her first time here since I started moving in), and is looking forward to med school so she can live free with me for 4 years. She said she slept better here than any place ever, and thought my bedroom is just about perfect for sleeping in. (Neither of us can figure out why, since it's the same furniture, the same bed, and the same bedding, but I find it more easy to sleep here too.)

I told her I am moving to Florida in 4 years. She said I wasn't being sensitive to her educational needs.