2007 – Page 4 – THOMnottom

It would make sense to me…

Verizon came by today to repair the fiber that was ripped off the pole. As much of a pain as it was to schedule an appointment and then get any information regarding said appointment, I was assured that they were “committed to having the issue resolved by 4PM Wednesday”. That’s why the trucks showed up at 3:30PM. Fortunately I was smart enough to say screw ’em and just went to work like normal – I would have pissed if I wasted an entire personal day waiting for them.

But what I don’t understand, is why I still don’t have an HDTV cable box or a DVR. Several weeks ago I complained that I got no HDTV service on my brand new, totally awesome Visio. No, I’m not an idiot. I know why I wasn’t getting it, but I also understand that you have to act like an idiot to not get screwed by these companies. Regardless, they insisted that I needed to pay to have a tech come out to drop the new box off and pick up the new one – unless I was willing to swing by one of their service centers.

That trip, unfortunately, ended with me swearing at their voice prompts for 15 minutes and nearly throwing the existing box through the doors of their office that was magically locked with all lights turned out at exactly 6PM. My, what convenient hours you have…

But what I want to know, is why didn’t the techs have a box? Why are these guys not carrying around extra equipment with the idea that they can upsell home customers with better products? If you come to someone’s home to install a service, and then he or she decides to pay you more money for better service, wouldn’t it make sense to not make said homeowner jump through hoops again to go through this exact same process?

Verizon, however, is far from the worst when it comes to dealing with techs in the field. That distinction rests with Comcast. There is a reason why I will never use them again, no matter where I live in the future. When we first moved into this house, I had the usual problem of scheduling a time for cable installation. Why? Because they won’t let you schedule installation until the previous occupant – who has no interest in living without cable for their last few weeks of occupancy – cancels their service.

With the timing of our move, that meant that we would have no TV during the Super Bowl. Why? Because we couldn’t schedule an install for a few weeks since no techs were working weekends. Super Bowl Sunday rolls around and, what do you know? A Comcast truck rolls into the neighborhood. The tech comes to speak to me and asks if I want to sign up for service. I explain that I already have, and was wondering if he was doing the installation early. Nope, he’s here to disconnect me – well, disconnect the previous occupant. And, since I already signed up for service, he couldn’t leave it on. I would have to wait for the previously scheduled appointment…

Please, think about that for a second.

Think about it a little more.

Let me clarify exactly what Comcast did. They were unwilling to pay techs to work on weekends to setup new customers. Instead, they were paying a tech double or triple overtime to go around on Super Bowl Sunday and disconnect customers that were trying to pay them for service… Can you think of anything more anti-consumer than that? Well, aside from suing your customers like the RIAA…

Is this cheating?

I just realized that my last two posts were actually an hour late – damn time changes! So I went back and adjusted the posting times so that they would appear on the correct date. That’s what I get for doing my daily post so late. Good thing I’m knocking the 6th out just past midnight…

I am normally opposed to this

Dressing pets up for Halloween is cruel and unusual. Unless it turns out as adorable as this little guinea pig. I really want that costume for Shadow – how freakin’ cute is it?!?!

Sunday Photo: Moon Over Santa Fe

Welcome to the triumphant return of the Sunday Photo!

This was taken our first morning in Santa Fe. I have to give Lisa inspirational credit, as she pointed out the great photo opportunity with the moon in broad daylight. It took a few shots until I found this framing – I had to squat down in the road to get the moon in the right place. There’s minimal post-processing – just contrast and shadow adjustment. Unfortunately I’m doing this post-processing on my notebook, so the colors might not be quite right.

Someone is trying to stop me

All I can think is that someone out there doesn’t want me to keep up my torrid paste of one useless post per day. While away on vacation, Verizon’s fiber to our house was knocked off the poll. Let me repeat: THE F’ING FIBER WAS RIPPED FROM OUR HOUSE! That means phone, Internet, and TV are all out. What the hell are we expected to do? Read books and talk like some sort of barbarians?! I just can’t live like this.

Verizon won’t even send someone out until Wednesday. I could be brain dead by then. Maybe I can swing a free DVR out of this or something. In the meantime, I am forced to use my neighbor’s open Wi-Fi network like some sort of wild dog whose Internet connection is down. It’s degrading…

TTFN Santa Fe

Despite the explosive diarrhea, I still had fun down here in the Southwest. Now we’re packing up everything to head out of the B-N-B since it’s nearly 11. We still have about 8 hours to tool around town and enjoy the sites before we head to the airport. But before that can happen, I have to write a really lame post to cover this second day of November.

I’d love to write more, but I’ve got nothing much to say right now – and those jerk-offs in the airport won’t give us free Wi-Fi. What? I’m expected to pay $8.95 for half an hour on the ‘net? Yeah right. Anywho, see you back on the East Coast, and expect photos to be posted soon. No, seriously, I want to post them soon. Stop laughing, I’m going to go through them quickly… forget it…

NaBloPoMo

After browsing my archives a couple months ago, I had realized that 5 posts had become my unofficial minimum each month. Outside of my domain move back in December of 2005, I’ve always written at least that much since almost the beginning. Somehow I managed to hit my minimum in September, which gave me great hope for getting back into the swing of things again. Unfortunately, October kicked my ass and I only put together a meager 3 posts. Pathetic.

To help myself out, I’ve decided to join NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) – see, that’s me (real profile to follow). That means I’ve got to write a post EVERY FREAKING DAY! Awesome! So, that means these first couple will be from Santa Fe – but, I’m sitting in bed watching Scrubs – not exactly different from if I was home.

If anyone else wants to join, hop right in. I’m sure no one will mind if you miss the first day or not – I’ll just call you a cheater…

Oops! I Crapped My Pants

Remember that classic SNL skit? Yeah, that was hilarious. Boy do I wish I was going to talk about it. In case you couldn’t guess, this post should be labeled TMI…

Perhaps I should have known this vacation wouldn’t go smoothly with such an auspicious start. Saturday morning, at 7 AM – after multiple u-turns – I found myself standing in half a foot of water that surrounded our car in the off-airport parking lot. Joy! As I commented in the security line, I was the only person happy to take my shoes off for the safety of the nation. Shortly thereafter, my socks found a trash can as strangers watched me try to dry off my shoes in the bathroom. Classy!

Alright, the trip out to Santa Fe went well and so did our first day of activity – more on that when we return. It was Sunday evening that things went South – quite literally. Both The Woman and I felt pretty exhausted after a full trek around the Plaza. A little bit of sunburn and dry lips meant we had been careless in the sun up in these high altitudes. It’s much harder to keep track of when the temperature is a perfect 60+ that never lets you break a sweat. So a nap and lots of fluids were called for with just a mild frustration at how easily this could have been avoided. After an hour or so, The Woman was able to begin bragging that she was feeling better and had obviously begun to beat the dehydration. I was not.

After several trips to the bathroom left me losing fluids faster than I could take them in, The Woman headed out to the store to get me some spinach… I mean electrolytes. But by the time she came back it was obvious that the little bit of Gatorade I could gag down would not be enough. Time for my very first trip to a hospital on vacation! w00t! Heck, this was my first trip to the hospital for myself in over 15 years.

Everybody was very nice at… whatever hospital it was. I almost began to regret wasting their time as I started to feel better. Then, just as they got me all gowned up, I found myself on my knees filling up a bucket with you-know-what. Well, at least we wouldn’t be wasting their time. So, they pumped me full of fluids and anti-nausea medicine until I seemed to be in the clear. It seems that we managed to pick the perfect time to journey down here, as a virus was making the rounds. And, wanting to really indulge myself in the complete Southwestern experience, I signed up for it.

Well, this was supposed to be a vacation to relax and take it easy. Getting violently ill will most definitely force you to do that. I was completely out of commission for two full days – it’s amazing how long you can go without eating and not even feel hungry when sickness is involved. It has been tons easier to deal with thanks to our fantastic hosts here at Casa de la Cuma. At least I’ve been well enough since yesterday evening to begin enjoying things again, and we still have a couple of days to catch any major sites we missed. To make myself feel better about vacation disasters, I even watched Open Water. I think I’ll stick with good ol’ fashioned vomiting and diarrhea for now!

P.S. I won’t admit right now just how true the title is…

Do you know the way to… Santa Fe?

Alright, so those aren’t the lyrics, but that song is amazingly versatile.

The month of October certainly had its ups and downs. Yes, I went out to dinner for Mark’s birthday lo those many days ago and had some fun and barbeque. And, of course, we had a blast at Malina’s wedding the following night (congratulations again!). Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse the next day. That’s when a very important hard drive started making clicky-clicky noises.

I don’t really want to talk about it, as the extent of the losses (be they photographic or monetary) are still not known. I’ll give a full update about the situation when I can. In the meantime, with all of the stress of failing computer equipment, audits at work and baby-making… oh yeah, did I mention that? Anywho, with all of the stress these days we’ve decided to take a vacation. And by we, I mean The Woman told me we were going to take one.

So rather then leave you guys in the lurch even longer (I’m sure you’ve all been hitting refresh constantly waiting with baited breath for another post), here’s a little note before we head to the airport for sunny Santa Fe. Hopefully this will let me recharge and get my muse on…