Saturday, March 05, 2016

Still February in March

It was -7 yesterday morning, -2 today.  I hate to complain, but this is getting a bit tiresome.  Right now it's sunny an 26, which seems appropriate.  Those morning temps do NOT seem appropriate, but then I remind myself that this is what March is like, so buck up, sweetie.  And so I do.  Buck up.

I had massive technology problems this week.  First one wasn't a problem, I installed a new receiver for my satellite dish (maybe I already reported this)(I think I did).  Anyway that went well and now I have very few recorded programs to watch.  That is OK, I have Roku, Netflix, and HBO and so many other things to watch.

Day before yesterday my Internet connection quit.  We have no choice in carriers or ISP here, it's Frontier all the way.  How can that be OK?  Anyway, Frontier is notoriously crappy in so many ways.  I called tech support and got a horse's ass of a man who finally decided he didn't want to deal with me so he told me there was an outage in my area and hung up.  I waited 4 hours and called again, got a wonderful woman who identified the problem (which was NOT an outage in the area: "No, I don't see any report of an outage").  She arranged for a technician to come on Friday.  He came and did some work even though I wasn't there--maybe there was a problem with the outside connection.  He left me a nice note and a new modem.  I installed the new modem...almost.  It worked when the computer was hard-wired to the modem, but the wireless didn't connect.  OMG I talked to the worst ever techie woman, who made me feel feeble and deaf.  Finally, after an hour we got it all set but boy if they ask me how Anne-Marie is as a customer service rep they will get an earful.  Now I know what it's like to be deaf and try to talk on the phone. I kept asking her to speak into the mouthpiece, which she would do.  once.  Oh well, all in the past now.  But wait, my printer doesn't work with the new modem so I have to uninstall and reinstall that.  It turns out that it takes a long time to uninstall something. 

What did I want to print?  The manual for my new Garmin toy.  I decided I would like to have a Garmin for my April trip.  It's a nifty but noisy toy but I don't know how to use it.  I got it hooked up to the car, to the computer, and it seems to be OK but I haven't tried it since I downloaded the stuff from online.  I feel like a feeble fool who lives in the '90's and is just learning DOS.  Well, hell, if it were all about DOS I'd do just fine.

Other than struggle with toys I haven't been up to much.  I worried that, without hearing from me for 2 days some people would worry if I were OK.  No, they weren't concerned.  Hmmm.  I do have a deal with Linda that, if she doesn't receive any email from me for a few days she is to worry.  And call me.  And call Pat.  I used to be covered that way when I worked--if I didn't show up at work by 10 they would call the state troopers to check on me.  Except that the time I didn't show up because I had a doctor's appointment they didn't remember that I had the appointment, then they did but they felt they had to call the doctor's office to make sure I showed up for the appointment.  Oh no, not too embarrassing.

I had lunch with Barb on Friday and that was really nice.  I delivered the baskets I made for her 2 new grandchildren's Easter.  The baskets turned out well, as I know I have reported.  It was good to get them out of my house, that's certain.

Today I went to AuSable to pay with my Garmin and get money from that bank.  I'm still wrangling with bank accounts in retirement.  I hate to switch everything over from the Plattsburgh bank I've been doing business with for 30 years, even though people assure me that the bank won't care that I've been sending money through them all those decades, loyalty apparently doesn't count for much in finance.  We all know how complicated it is to change banks.  I got as far as opening 2 accounts in the AuSable bank, which is also in Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.  A better bet for me but as I say, I hate to switch everything over.  Especially since I just proved that I can barely manage a modem.

I went to Lake Placid the other day, needed to UPS something and it's the closest place for that.  Of course I saw someone who knew me--my ex-husband's old girlfriend.  UGH.  I would have ignored her but she said hello to me and asked what I was doing there.  "You don't live here, do you?"  Well pardon me for not knowing there's a residency requirement to do business in that town.  I said hello and pretty much left it at that.  She probably wanted to talk about what a toad Jamie is but I don't.

The dogs have been fine except for throwing hair all over the house.  The bedspread is covered with fur and the floors in all rooms have big bundles of hair.  STOP IT.  They're shedding because of the change in daylight.  I'll be in RI when we switch to Daylight Saving next weekend.  Then it will be even darker when I get up, but light later, which matters not to me much at all.

I'm slowly getting organized for my RI trip.  I leave Weds., will drop the dogs off at the kennel at 8 so can't leave any earlier than that.  Should be an easy trip, I think it's supposed to rain.  That will rinse off my extremely dirty car.  Oh boy!  I can use my Garmin!  It will be like having someone else in the car!


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