Just Pick One

Another highly trained professional Comcast cable guy was out this morning to fix everything and make it all perfect for me.

Right. At least this one called first, unlike the last one who sat in my driveway and smoked a cigarette. I am allergic to cigarette smoke. I can still smell it in here.

I really want to describe this guy as I saw him, but don't want to insult anyone. Let's say he was confident he was the Man for the Job.

First, he looked at my modem, my router, and my VoIP gizmo. Then, he took all his little tools outside and made some noise out there while I scrubbed and scraped the runoff from the dog dinners I cooked up last night to freeze. What a mess! Does anything smell worse than chicken livers? I cannot believe I touched raw chicken livers. I still gag at the thought of the odors from the chicken livers and the okra I decided to add to the recipe, but the dogs have re-crowned me the Food Goddess.

So, while I am cleaning and scraping he is doing whatever outside and I am not paying any attention to him.

He comes back in, all proud of himself, and tells me my intermittent service (that just started) was caused by the fact that "they" had laid an indoor line outdoors.

I asked him Which one?

This confused him. I had to explain that my condo was originally pre-wired by Comcast for cable. (It's why I cannot switch to another cable company - my condo people gave Comcast an exclusive contract because they wired our condos.) Then, that first highly trained professional told me I had no idea what I was talking about and put a second line through my backyard.

Now I have THREE of them. Too bad, since none of them work and I will soon be dropping all cable services.

Today's highly trained professional cable guy proceeded to work through his little check list.

He interrupted my diligent cleaning to tell me that I have intermittent service because I have a very weak signal. I forgot if he said it was coming that way from the box or from the station. I was too busy wondering how I got the second and third diagnoses.

Why do I have an intermittent signal? I don't know. I still have it. I keep getting kicked offline and then get back on. It's highly annoying.

However, with the change to the intermittent service came some very high speed. I think I was probably supposed to get this speed all along, or perhaps my signal is coming in testosterone-laden spurts?

Who knows? I will never know.

Once I can get things set up, all cable services will be ended. I will switch to dry-DSL. Dry means no landline. It costs more, but it costs less than installing a third phone line here, which I do not need. My VoIP service backs up my cell phone just fine, and with a reputable DSL company here my phone and internet service will probably work all the time.

What a nice change that will be :-)

If I were a guy, I would say some things about what Comcast can do to my boy parts, but that wouldn't be ladylike, would it?

I wonder if any court would agree that if I had only 50% signal and no one realized it until now, I should get 50% of my money back? What about the indoor line outdoors? What about the first highly trained professional who refused to go in the attic because it was too hot, yet managed to get the cover off to the attic and dribbled insulation all over my dry clean clothes? Then he left his tools here and called me and yelled at ME about it? What about the second tech who was highly inappropriate with me regarding trying to spend the night here with me?

Comcast refuses to deal with anything except the first tech. His manager came out here and washed off the filth the tech left on my ceilings from his hands. Was I supposed to get a ladder and reach up 9-11 feet with only one working shoulder and wash off the ceilings in my new condo? I don't think so. I didn't wipe my hands on the ceiling. Or the walls by the outlets. I had only been here a few weeks when he did that.

It took a year, but Comcast did finally have someone from Security call me regarding the second tech. I gave him all the information I could remember, including personal details of the guy's life (he talked all day about himself), a very good description of the guy, and some exact quotes of things he said to me that he should not have said. Surely they can check the records and see that the guy stayed here all afternoon to hook up a pre-wired home with one TV and one computer. I didn't want him here, but I wanted my service hooked up, so I was polite. Barely.

Wow. I was only kicked offline twice while I wrote this, so far.

I will cancel cable TV and cable internet. I will not get any other cable TV, since I cannot. I have no interest in satellite since I don't watch TV anyway. I will get DSL and keep VoIP. This should work for me.

Let's hope so - since all the records showing dates, times, and names of all my calls to Comcast were lost when my old computer crashed.

 

My new computer

Comcast has again given me issues with my connection, so I am afraid to try to write the next chapter about my trip to AZ. Instead, I wish to include pictures of my computer. Keep in mind that I did not see the computer in advance - they didn't have any out on display, and they were hesitant to open a box. I was OK with that - the salesman did show me pictures, but somehow the design on the computer did not sink in until after I had it at home. Here are two views:

Come to your own conclusions as to the intent of the artist, but in my personal opinion, the design looks to me to be a rendition of someone trying to shove an octopus up someone's ass.

Several reviews I read, written by men, exclaimed repeatedly over how much they love the looks of this particular computer.

Uh huh.

 

 

 

Thursday

Maybe next time I should take notes when I am gone - although I had intended to write my entries while still in AZ. I just never got to a wi-fi place. I was able to pick up email, sort of, from my phone. I had told most of my friends to put their name in the subject so I would know who sent them. There was one sent the day I left from home with the title of "no subject" and it got buried under a few hundred incoming emails. (I still get a lot from Molly's online support group for her Addison's disease.) It was from someone in AZ I would have liked to say hi to while I was there. I found it when I got home, and I felt bad about that.

Thursday. That was the day Late and I decided to do girlie stuff. We got up and went for a morning walk, as usual. I did my usual "hang" from the kids' monkey bars. I haven't kept that up since I got home, and I need to do it. My old house had a great tree branch for that sort of thing, but the trees here are still too small to really hold even a bird feeder yet. We had a good walk, just the two of us, and the guys went to a place for breakfast that I am not crazy about. It's up in Oro Valley on Oracle road. We seemed to spend a lot of time in that area.

Late decided we were going to join the boys at that restaurant, even though it was close to lunch time. So off we went, and of course they were just finishing. I asked DS to get up so I could sit down, but the table was such a mess from his breakfast that I wasn't really excited about it. He doesn't like to be on the inside in a booth, so I couldn't just start to sit and shove him over.

DS continued to beg to go with us for the day. I said, "But DS! We are going shopping for ladies' lingerie!" (I figured that would scare off any teenage boy.) He said that was fine with him.Obviously, he did not want to go with his dad that day and would endure any humiliation. We did not save him.

DH hadn't moved over yet for Late either, so I suggested we sit in the (clean) booth across the aisle. Right after we sat down, they left. I wanted to leave too and eat some place else, but we had already started to order. We had lunch there, and it wasn't too bad.

After eating, we took off with Late driving and me navigating. I can read maps, since I spent a few decades in a job that required me to find homes all over three or more counties in my state. That is what I did about half the time - make home calls. You would think that after a while a map wouldn't be needed, but there are always weird little streets, plus I moved offices several times and had all new field areas. Maps I am good with.

I directed us to the mall in Tucson on Broadway where we had been before. I actually could have done it without the map, which made me exceedingly proud. I can get lost in a closet. Even if I have good directions to get some place, I need directions to get home. It's that bad. I am trying very hard to improve my directional skills, but I have little hope. I memorize streets; I can't seem to see a big picture even after staring at a map. I think maybe this is something we are born with or without? Late has incredible directional skills. So did my ex. I do not.

We spent a nice few hours in the mall just walking, talking girl stuff, looking at things, having a Dairy Queen, and generally enjoying time away from the guys. No offense to men, but sometimes I just need time away from them. We had a snack, and then Late decided she wasn't feeling well.

I decided I wasn't looking forward to driving back on the freeway, so we gave her time to feel better. She has lactose intolerance, but I am not sure she had any cheese that day. She has a sensitive system, unlike my cast iron one, and I had no idea what to do for her.

She got some water, we sat for a while, we walked around a bit, we went to the ladies's room a few times. She got a pretzel and ate that. I took a phone call and made plans for the day after I got home. We walked around a bit more. Late is a woman of color, and at that time it was green.

Finally she decided I needed to drive us back. Oh, boy. Last time I did that I refused to get on I-10 and we took a long way around. I got on I-10 and drove us back. I can drive I-10 for almost 100 miles at 80-85 mph through the desert to get up to where Remo and Mombzbe are, but put me in a city freeway system I don't know, and I am not a happy camper. Driver. Whatever.

Meanwhile, the boys were having dinner and we went to join them. I am not sure why we did, since once again they were done when we got there. Late decided we would have dinner at a new brewery, and we left them. When we got in the car, I teased her about having told them where we were going, because they would show up.

We sat down, ordered a beer each, and were still browsing the menu when the boys joined us. They stayed for dinner with us and we all left at the same time.

That was our day without the guys.

What did they do between breakfast and dinner?

They went to Picacho Peak to hike. DH is an avid adventurer, and doesn't like to stop much. Heat doesn't bother him at all, maybe even less than it bothers me, but I will stop and rest and I will take along a lot of water. He doesn't. He pushes himself. (I used to, until once I unbalanced my electrolytes - that feels really nasty.) DS didn't pack his own water. The temperature was about 110 degrees there. Humid. DS may never forgive us for not taking him shopping for lingerie, but he needs dad/son time before he goes off to college. 

I was bummed that I missed Picacho Peak. Maybe next time.

That evening, DH, DS and I stood on the driveway and then took a little walk to watch for the meteor shower. It was a little early, but I saw four, which includes one I saw later on when I went out alone. With shoes on. With a flashlight. With my cell phone in my pocket. Just to go on the driveway.

It's really, really dark there at night. Really dark. Drop something, and it's gone if you don't have a flashlight. DH found that out when DS took apart their flashlight and all the pieces and the batteries flew around and hit the ground. Luckily I had mine.

Friday: Hm, what was Friday? Kitt Peak and Catalina Park.

We went up there:

See the observatory up on top of the mountain? That may be where Frankenstein used to work - the weather we had that day certainly forbode of such tales!

 

 

Wednesday

I know today is Sunday, but I am writing about Wednesday from my trip. This was not a test to see who is sober.

Wednesday we got up and DH decided to join Late and I for our usual morning walk. He had a few things to do, and so we left a little later, hitting the sun higher in the sky. He also kept us out longer than usual. I still didn't have sun block with me for the morning walk, which ended after twelve noon. I was wearing little board shorts and a tank top. The tank top kept slipping lower - I kept pulling it up, but nevertheless, I got burned. I had my hair in another ponytail with a hat on again (they insisted on the damn hat) and my back burned, also. In fact, when we got back, it was a nice, deep shade of purple.

I announced that if they were ready to take off some place for the day to go, but I was going to spend a little time in a cool shower and then with an ice pack on my lower neck/upper back. I have had sun poisoning before and wasn't looking forward to anything like that. I took the shower, read for a while with some ice on my back, and then was ready to go.

No one else was. They all decided to go take a nap. Even their son, DS, was quiet.

Eventually we all packed into the car (with me as usual packing a small cooler full of water and snacks) and we went to Mount Lemon for the day, which is in  the Coronado National Forest, in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, off the Catalina Highway. It was a hot day, (really! In AZ in the summer, it was hot!) maybe 105 degrees or so? But by the time we got up the mountains 9000 feet or so, it was cold. Late and I had sweatshirts with us, but the guys just got cold up there. It was maybe 70 degrees when we hit a little town up there called Summerhaven. There is an observatory there, but we didn't get to it.

It was an interesting ride for me. I had never been up mountains like that in a park. So many huge rock formations, for miles and miles, full of desert life and plants and trees. The higher we got, the greener it was. At least it was summer and there wasn't any ice on the roads.

We constantly parked the car and got out to walk around and take pictures. We took little side hikes, one time up a trail with this sign nearby:

It took me a while to get comfortable scrambling around on those big rocks and getting any where at all near an edge with a drop off. After a while, I lost some of my discomfort with it all and was as brave as my friends were, who had been in mountains many times before. (I have hiked up a mountain trail in TN, that was 2 hours up and two hours down without stops, but there were trees all around, not quite the same concept at all. It was a difficult hike/climb, not a major drive up for an hour into the mountains.) I am so happy they took me - I might never have found an opportunity otherwise for this (and the other) experiences.

Here are some of the views we saw. There is no way to give justice to the majesty of the mountains with a simple snapshot, but I did the best I could with what I had.

Some where down there is a river.Late and I walked down to it.

That is Late, taking her own pictures.

Late again. She wasn't late, but she is Late.

I even let her use my own camera for this. Note the regular t-shirt from the desert museum. I had to cover the burn.

Looking down on Tucson.

DS, Late, and DH

Scampering along - but I needed help getting off that rock, it was too high to jump down.

I felt on top of the world up there! It had an incredible view!

See what I mean?

Eventually we drove up into Summerhaven, had cookies that were so big mine lasted for three days, and then on to dinner that night. That may have been the night we went out to a steak house, and I ordered mine rare. It was cooked through, and not very good. Fortunately, I was too tired to care or to eat very much of it.

Late and I decided to take the next day off. We told the boys they were on their own. DH was all excited to go hiking where Late wasn't willing to go; DS wasn't excited to go hiking at all. It was too hot for him. He wanted to go with us.

Fat chance. We were going shopping and out to lunch in nice, air conditioned places. At that point, Late and I were very happy that I had rented my own car, even though I/we only used it 3 times.

 

 

 

 

 

Insect picture

I found my "bug picture." I had sent it to someone and still had the email. I took this picture in the Catalina Mountains park off Oracle Road, (Myra? Is that Oro Valley?) the day we were there during a thunderstorm. That was the same day we went up to Kitt Peak. No wonder my ears and a few other body parts got crabby! I live at an altitude of approximately 200 feet above sea level, not that we have a sea here besides Lake Superior, which I have heard called an inland sea. I thought seas had salt water?

 

 

 

 

Fubar and tenacity

I promised pictures of my trip, and I am going to stick a few in here from the desert museum. I have 105 pictures, one isn't very good - but I don't want to bore you with too many pictures of mountains. They are a novelty to me; some of you live with views of them every day.

Why the lost time between my last entry and this one? I had a mild case of ennui, I was busy, I was enjoying my rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I read five books one weekend. I was boxing with the child. I helped my friend Cindy locate a new home much closer to [me, I mean to] her current job, I spent a day with a former co-worker who is not feeling at her cheeriest and we had a great time.

And, then, there was the fubar. Wednesday I had a wonderful lunch with a friend of mine. We spent the time discussing normal lunch time topics such as mathematical optimization (charts drawn on the paper napkin), garage storage systems, standard deviations, dog poop, ceiling fans, and the efficient frontier system (for investments). I know now why lawns should only be watered once a week and why ceiling fans should only be used on the lowest setting.

In a good mood, I returned home and went online. I was in the process of answering an email to my niece when - BAM. My computer was fubar.

I first noticed that I could not move the cursor back with the mouse to correct an error. I found I could open some things with the mouse, but could not close them. Knowing I was losing the email, I rebooted. Repeatedly.

Other things began to go wrong, and the computer froze up a few times. Not happy, I decided to do a restore, figuring early the same morning would be a good time to return to.

I rebooted again, and did not see the "recovery" screen during the reboot. I managed to get there anyway, and did not see "restore." By this time, i was in distress along with the computer, and I clicked on "recovery." I couldn't get the computer to do anything else - I had no choice.

I lost everything. All my personal documents and pictures for the last ten years that I had on the computer - gone. Some cannot be replaced. I felt violated.So, soldiering on, I tried to recover use of my computer. No dice. Could not get online no matter what I did.

My VOIP phone rang, so I knew I had cable service and my router was working. While I was on the phone, a cable company guy was in my back yard, ripping wires out of my cable box outside. He growled at me when I asked questions. I stuck my head back inside.

I believe at some point he caused a surge that damaged my computer, but I can't prove it. The cable guy who came out the next day diagnosed me with a fried ethernet card and router. I told him my router was still working when he got there. He said it wasn't.

He did some of the same things I did, then called tech support. (So who was HE?) Tech support told him I had a fried ethernet card, and he agreed. I didn't. He said it happened from our electric company, that they caused a power surge. I bit my tongue.

Both he and I got the same message when we tried to put in the cable disk in my computer to get service back on - it said my ethernet cable wasn't connected. It certainly was! That is why they decided it was the ethernet card.

My computer was 2.5 years old, the keyboard was shot (I had to work hard to get a J, I, or K), and they told me I needed an ethernet card. Not happy, I went shopping.

I packed up my 37-day old router and asked the store if they would give me a new one in exchange, even though their policy is 30 days. I said I would buy a new computer if they did. I walked out with a new router and a new computer, still not happy to have to buy one now. I wanted to go another year, if possible.

I came home, set up the new laptop, and then went to set up the modem and router. Guess what the message was when I tried to hook up to the modem? I know those cables were hooked up, once again! Same message. I turned everything off, left the room, and read a book for a while, then went to bed. It was late.

Day three, I got up and called the cable company. I was loaded for bear but trying my best to be polite, since the tech on the phone didn't blow up my computer or give me a misdiagnosis. Her job was to help me. She was all happy and cheerful and positive, so I let her live. She got me online by resetting my modem. It took her 2 seconds.I thanked her kindly.

This is a long story, isn't it? I got the router going after a few rocky spots and took my wireless laptop to the sofa, put up the recliner for my feet, and got to work.

Luckily I had left my pictures on my media card, otherwise my vacation pictures would be gone. As it is, all I lost of them was my favorite bug picture that I had edited. None of my other pictures are edited yet. So, without another 4000 words, here are a few of my favorites from the Desert Museum. I will also try to pick up the travelogue where I left off, maybe tomorrow.

If anyone still has a copy of that bug picture, please send me a copy back? I would like to post it :-)

 

Yes, that is a tarantula. Cute, yes? He was not in a display for tarantulas. He was hanging out in the rocks with the birds.