Light snow

I fell asleep today on top of the dog. Ok, so maybe my head was resting on Annie. She was so warm. I had intended to drive to Caribou so that I could hear some acoustic musician, but I slept through it. I ended up driving to the supermarket at midnight for no reason in particular. I took the dogs with me. It's bloody cold outside. They keep talking baseball on WKNR and when I think about how cold it is, I can't help but recall that opening day game that Jimmy and I went to a few years ago. Nothing like watching a baseball game in the snow. It was probably the worst outside thingie that I've ever attended. It's right up there with the time I went to OzzFest and it rained. Nothing like watching drunk/high ozzites fallen down in the mud.

I've been thinking about Debbie's horse. And I'm sad. 28 years is a long time to know someone or have an animal. That was her baby Melissa used to say.

Dog day

Today was just one of Those Days.  It started the second I led the dogs outside, put down my gym bag, and then shut the front door.   Like an idiot, I forgot the car keys inside, so I was locked out!  Fortunately, I had hidden a spare door key in the backyard just a few days ago.  No biggy, right?  An hour later, and 1000 tiny cut on my hands and arm, I had no key.  I had to mangle this huge grass plant THING and not for the life of me figure out what happened to the damn key.  As I paced  the driveway, I saw pieces of the plastic bag that contained the key.  The damn dog(s) found the key and killed it.  I looked everywhere for the key hoping that the Doodle and Mr. Poopy spit it out.  No luck.  So I took a BIG FRIGGIN ROCK and clobbered the front door's window.  PLEXIGLASS!  Fortunately, the window was dislodged enough for me to squeeze my hand and unlock the door.  I had busted these little plastic nubby things that looked like someone's chicklets.  As I grabbed the keys, put the dogs in the Jeep, and walked around the car, I saw something SHINY and SILVERY.  So, I now have a slightly gnawed spare key.   

I stopped at Home Depot to get some plastic nubby things and MY DAMN DEBIT CARD was rejected.  I then remembered that my bank sent a new ATM card for some reason.   I looked at the expiration date and it said 2012 or WHEN THE WORLD ENDS (WHICHEVER IS LATER).  So I drove back home, found the new card, activated it, and then I was good to go.  

Caribou, like many coffee houses, has a trivia question of the day.  Guess the question correctly (or be an official Cool Customer like me) and you save 10 cents on your overpriced cuppa joe.  I freaked out the guys where because no-one has been able to answer today's query:  Shakespeare was born and died on the same day of the year.  Which day was it?  I laughed and said that it was indeed trivia and that it was easy (April 23).  So maybe I've kicked up my status as a coffee house trivia god of minor note.  Most questions are easy which is how it should be, at least if you want to "reward" people with a whopping 10 cent savings.   

But wait, the dog day of February 25 isn't over!   When I got back home, the dogs ran in the backyard like they usually do.  I got a screw driver and reattached the front door window and then I let Annie inside.  I figured that Rocky (Mr. Poopy) was still in the back, so I called him and then walked back.  No Rocky.  My heart literally stopped.  Here I am, in my early 40s and fighting back the prospect that he got out of the yard.  And then it hits me, he might be under the back steps, so I walk over and then hear something.  Suddenly, Rocky's snout pokes out.  HE'S STUCK.  Rocky is a little sausage.   For some reason, he decided that the best thing to do after being locked up in a car for two hours is dive under the stairs like he was going after Charlie.  I was able to pull his sorry butt out.  He was scared and I was just so happy that he was all right.  

I have a weird relationship with pets.  I take care of them and tolerate them even though they chew up things or have accidents in the house.  But the sudden feeling of loss, that Tigerlily has gotten out or Rocky has escaped from Cleveland Guantanamo terrifies me.    I had a friend in college who said  that she didn't ever want kids because she couldn't protect them.  It didn't make sense to me then, and it sort of does now.  I can't even cope with two dogs and two cats, so I'd definitely be challenged with a tiny person to protect.

Finally, as I was typing this a few minutes ago, I smelled something.....burning.  Yours truly was going to make some tea and forgot to add water to the sauce pan.   I rarely do stuff like that.  Maybe I'm just out of sorts today.   

Not a timeless town

I'm an Ella Fitzgerald mood tonight.  Not sure why.  I wish I could listen to these songs (Cole Porter Songbook) on something other than a laptop speaker.  

I cancelled HBO/Starz because, aside from Flight on the Conchords, I really wasn't watching those so-called premium channels, so I save $25.   It's kind of pricey when you think about it.  I have a Netflix subscription and use it even less.  I'm on those people who requests DVD but doesn't find the time to watch them and ends up sending them back.  I think the last movies I watched were Trekkies and Trekkies 2.  My brother is a hulu junkie.  I think I saw 10 minutes of Firefly which is strange since I have the damn DVD box set.

I wonder if Obama's speech will change any of the idiot republicans who are sitting on the fence.  I know that there has to be more than 3 turncoats.  It's hard not to like Jindal even though he's just repeating the GOP mantra that the only one ever needs are tax cuts.  I'd really be surprised if he got the nomination in 2012 because the GOP is really a bunch of old white guys who need to hold the mantle of the, well, old white guys.

Sad tomato

I like to listen to Olbermann and Maddow on my ipod, but I really am missing out because I don't download the video.  Solved!  You don't realize how slow your net connection is until you download a half hour podcast.  Meet the Press, at a full hour, needs a goodly amount of time.  I just wish that it was available by noon time.  To be truthful, I don't always listen to podcasts.  I'm one of those people who, like the whiny girl in Willy Wonka, wants his oompah loompah now.  I don't think anyone's ever called me patient ever.

It's almost 2am and I'm wide awake.  Five hours in a car will do that to you.  Maybe I should take a melatonin.  For once I get to sleep in while my brother gets a motel wake up call at 6am.  I hope he wakes up.  This is the same brother who slept through a stopover in Cleveland and ended up in Kansas City.  I never thought I'd be in one of those movie moments where you pace around in the waiting area oscillating between anger and fear.    

The dogs were good tonight.  Jimmy and I waked them at some rest stop but they slept most of the way to Columbus and back.  I wish I had taken my XM radio with me because the every damn AM station between Mansfield and C-bus was some damn right wing anti-Obama idiot.  I can't believe that people tune in to listen to this Rush wannabes.  You'd think they could keep a low profile until the economy is recovering.  It definitely feels that they want everything and everyone to fail.  I hope that they really are made irrelevant.

Road trip

I hate Sundays.  Sure, the Oscars are tonight, but since I haven't seen any of the nominated movies, I don't have much interest.  Does anyone really care that this movie wins over this other movie?  Besides, the Cavs-Pistons game is on at the same time.  The trivia question over at Caribou was who won last year's best picture Oscar.  I was stumped.   There Will Be Old Men?

I feel cold. I'm usually all right when it comes to being too cold or too warm, but lately I've been cold.  Maybe I'll make some tea.

I started to watch Meet the Press and hearing the broken record known as Bobby Jindal started to grate on me.  He's better than the usual GOP wankers, but the fact that he'd turn down unemployment money from Obama just shows you how out of touch some people are.  If there's any state that need that sort of immediate relief it's Loo-siana.  It's not racist as much as clueless.  But poor people don't vote otherwise all these republican governors who turned down stimulus money would be kicked out of office.   The idiot governor here in Ohio voted against the stimulus.  And he's from Cleveland.  Nothing like the caring conservatives sticking it to everyone who needs help.  I love Rachel Maddow's habit of calling the GOP the "party in exile."  

I have to drive to Columbus tomorrow.  Maybe in the afternoon.  Just me, my brother, and two dogs.

Stickies

It's raining today.  I feel happy(er) for some reason.  I took a couple of boxes to Goodwill and then stopped at Marc's to get some muchy sticks for the dogs.  For some reason. they price those sticks 15 for a 99 cents.  So when the checkout person asks me how many I have, I usually say "three dollars worth."  They never ever trust me, so I have to think in tuples of 15.  I got $3 worth of brown sticks  because I'm good at figuring how many white sticks and brown sticks map to $7.   The old price for these things used to be 18 for 99 cents.  Clearly, a 4th grade teacher manages this store.

I got a call from someone at AT&T who said he'd call back and actually did.  Of course it took about 2 hours.  He said he had to escalate my trouble ticket to two managers and he still didn't know what was up with the Cleveland central office.  Lovely.  I did hear from a friend that phones were out at AT&T or rather, that there was some "disruption."  This is why I really like wifi.   With multiple layers of coverage, you almost always get online.   The two cups + string approach that AT&T/SBC/Ameritech favors can get blow'd up.  

Every day that I walk out and see the For Sale sign, I get mad.  The anger is directed at myself.  Why am I even bothering?  Jimmy suggested something last night whilst we out walking los perros.  Brodie (late of Cleveland and now living in sin in El Centro, California) might be able to come back and watch the house and, just maybe, the dog(s).   Annie the Wonder Doodle is high energy but she's a big baby.   Jimmy would prefer Annie's company in his truck vs. Rocky.  And I know that Brodie likes Rocky.  This might be a good solution and would allow me to find somewhere else, somewhere that's dog and/or cat friendly.   Definitely not something in Cleveland.   We'll see.  Ideas are always a good thing to be tossed around.

Queasy

2/15/2009

Another seemingly unproductive day.  Sunday, no less.  I did stop at the gym but that isn't a big deal.  I saw (ok read the closed captioning) of Burris' "I forgot to mention something" news conference.  For some reason, Fox News is always on one of the overhead televisions.  Which idiot would think that Fox News is anything but "fair and balance."  It's a joke of a new channel.  The media in general is pretty annoying, but I'll take MSNBC or CNN any day of the weak over the muckrakers on Fox.   At least Fox Sports is all right.

It's about 8pm and I'm feeling slightly queasy.  I made Italian meatloaf tonight but it's not sitting well with me.  Not sure what it is.  I just hope I'm not getting sick.

The real estate agent is going to stop over tomorrow.  Haven't met him before and I'm not going to clean up.  I'll give him the 20 second rundown and see what he says.  The house will have to be at least presentable before I let in people.  I do know that few if any visitors are serious and most will want to check out the house.  Maybe I should bake some cookies.  Who is really serious in the Cleveland real estate market?  

Team Xerox

An AT&T Tech came by today.  He was here about a half an an hour before he gave up.  He did provide me with a nifty ticket number and said that someone named Andy would be calling me in 30 minutes.  He never did.  So here it is, Monday night and I'm sans Internet.  The problem is at "their end," that is, the central office. I have a good DSL signal but nothing else.  That nothing else is probably PPPoE.  I can't believe that I've been net-less for over a week.  If these idiots can't do a dryloop "connection" in a couple of days, they shouldn't be offering it.  AT&T is not your grandpappy's AT&T.  It's not even your older cousin's AT&T.  It's just an old name with brand new (crappy) service.

I listed the house today.  I know it's listed because the real estate agent put up a sign.  The house is nowhere near "show-able."  I'm still sorting and boxing up stuff.  I've begun to stick my stuff on the window seat in the dining room.  CDs and books mostly.  I don't have the money to rent some storage place but I think I need to otherwise I'll just move one box from one room to another.  I guess I could put it in the garage but it's the same problem.  My brother is still hobblin' around with a spained ankle.  If he hadn't attempted to drink-and-lambada, he'd be in C-Bus starting a new job.   To be sure, a week doesn't really matter.  I should mention that the prospect of being alone - like this here in Cleveland - is scary.  My brother's being here has helped.  Maybe I should tell him that sometime.

Since I'm net-less, I find myself listening to the podcasts that I normally download.  I stopped at Caribou after the gym.  I don't like this particular Caribou but it's only a mile or so from my gym.  I wanted to see if anyone sent me email about some jobs.  I did get a call from someone in sixburgh today but I didn't have a chance to call him back.  He said he was just "calling to touch base."  Without specifics, that's tantamount to "things are slow here too."  The job pimps are very much pimps.  Their lack of follow up makes me seem like I work in customer service.  I can't tell you the number of people who simply didn't call or email.  I hear about a job and it's painted like the ultimate situation.  Mostly, I don't hear anything after my resume is "presented."  Occasionally, I have the ever-useful phone screening/interview.  Most are painless but a few are so lame.  Asking me arcane technical questions isn't a good measure of my being able to do anything but answer arcane technical questions. Another annoying question I get is "how do you troubleshoot?"  Um...  That's like asking LeBron how he plays or Emeril how he cooks.  Another annoying question is "have you ever had to work with a problem colleague?"  Um...no, because everyone who works in IT is on LSD and therefore loves everyone."   Most of the people I work with are just fine, but I have worked with some real idiots on occasion.  I don't mind the people who have abrasive personalities or lacking in the social skills, this is ostensibly a technical industry, but I've encountered the usual backstabbers and schemers and faux techies.  What's the reason for asking me that sort of question?  Maybe they're looking for someone who never badmouths anyone.  Group hug!

   

Cold turkey

Another boring Friday night.  My brother is out with his friends, so I'm stuck dogsitting.  I spent a couple of hours working on my brother's laptop.  I had to downgrade it from that piece of crap known as Mojave to Windows XP.  The time consuming part was having to reinstall itunes, avg and a slew of other things.  I also had to copy his old songs back from this 160 GB drive that I carry around.  The idiots at AT&T still haven't fixed my DSL.  Nothing like going from an O.G. DSL line (DSL + land line) to a "dry loop" (DSL + nothing) to show how stupid the AT&T provisioning process can be.  It's been a week that I haven't had DSL service. This really bites but there's nothing I can do about it.  I've talked to every freaking department at AT&T and each person tells me something else, such as:

Here's the painful set of events:

Monday (2/2/2009)

-------------------

Called A&T& to cancel the regular phone (i.e., land line).  Was told that the DSL might flake out and that I'd have to re-register.  Given a "dry loop number" and the number for tech support.  And here is a nice "confirmation number."

Sometime last week

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The dial tone died (not that I use it).

Monday (2/9/2009)

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DSL flaked out.  Called tech support and figured I'd be back online in 10 minutes.

Tech support #1: Let the guy run 1001 tests.  Yes, I have three green lights.  The guys said that something was up, so here's a nifty "ticket number "and that someone should be calling back. (No-one did). 

 

Tuesday (2/10/2009)

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Tech support: Don't know what's up.  Let's call the dry loop department. Dry loop department: It's being processed and will be done by 8pm.  Here's the number for the maintenance department "just in case."

Maintenance dept: Your order was cancelled.  Can't tell you why. Let's transfer you to the orders department.

Orders department:  Your order was cancelled.  Do you want to reorder?  If so, we'll need your credit information. (Me: Are you on crack?)

Tech support:  Something was up with your line, but it should be fixed in 48 hours.  Please give it a couple of days.  For your troubles, here is a nifty "case number."

Thursday (2/12/2009)

----------------------

Business dept:  Your call is important to us, so let's punt you over to the broadband customer care department.

Customer care department:  Your order wasn't cancelled but "something" was missing in the order, so we have to escalate it to Team Xerox.  Someone from Team Xerox will call you in 1-8 hours. (No-one called). 

Friday (2/13/2009)

----------------------

Business dept:  I was talking to so-and-so who sent me to customer care and......

Customer care department: Your order was cancelled.  Let's toss you back to the business department.

Customer care department: Had to become Mr. Irate Customer because I really was.  CC rep called a manager who said your order was not cancelled but is almost complete.  Please let us suck up all your cell phone minutes by placing you on hold.

Actual callback from Customer care department: Something is up with your line, but here's another nifty "ticket number."  Since it's Friday, don't hold your breath.

This is very sad.  It's pathetic service and I'm a longtime AT&T customer.  I hate to see how they treat Joe Non-Techie Public.

VHS or Beta

I hate Craigslist.  Ok, I hate the Cleveland Craigslist.  Community areas, such as general and groups, are chock full of those stupid "earn $1200 a week only working part time!" ads.  There's nothing "local" about any of this crap, and if something sounds too good to be true, it always is.

I think Craigslist will soon join this ever-growing list of places that used to be cool.   I'm a misantrope, I admit it, and when I try to go against my nature and look for my fellow C-towner, I end up becoming even more of what I am.  People suck and people don't care.  Ok, maybe Craigslist was never cool; I'm just misremembering that way.

My brother and I took a couple of totes full of VHS tapes.  Goodwill took them, so I guess that's a good thing, right?  I asked the guy working there what they'd do with Christmas stuff.   He said that they put it in storage until it was Christmas-time.  Good answer.  I have about 8 totes full of Christmas stuff that I don't know what to do with.  My brother and I browsed a little at the Goodwill Store and most of what I saw was crap...er...I mean Goodwill stuff.  Almost all of the crap...er. stuff that I've been boxing up is much nicer.  Most looks new and a lot of it really is new.  I wish I knew what to do with this stuff.  Simply tossing away the things inside this house doesn't work.  I didn't have any problem donating all of Melissa's warm clothes to the homeless.  It was nigh zero degrees and the clothes went directly to people; that is, they weren't resold.   I guess that it's important to me, to Melissa, that things go to people who can use (and appreciate) them.  She hated Goodwill  except I don't know where else I can take all this crap...er, stuff.