Thursday This n That

The saga of Brightspeed still lives.   In case you don't remember, we kicked Brightspeed to the curb last July and have since continued to receive information from them.  I've called and called, to no avail.  I finally gave up on them in October.  I figured if they wanted to continue to waste money on me, more power to them.  Well, I gave up on the giving up.  You see, a few days ago, we started getting calls from Brightspeed, giving us updates on the service repair in our area.  After the third time of one of us running across the house to make sure it wasn't family only to see it was Brightspeed, I went to their website, found a complaint email addy, and wrote them a stern missive.  Lo and behold, yesterday afternoon, we got another call about the service repair and I was pissed.  Minutes after that, the phone rang again and it was Brightspeed again.  I picked up with every intention of shouting at the recorded message.  Needless to say, I was shocked to find an actual person on the line.  She was calling about the email I sent.  I explained everything to her, reiterating what was in my email and adding additional info.  She was nice - and American, I might add - and she vowed to get this cleared up.  Fingers crossed it actually happens this time.  No offense to her, but I've heard it before.  :shrug:

I don't know about you, but I get tired of dealing with the same shit every day.  And no, I don't want different shit.  I want a cessation of shit.  Is that too much to ask?

Speaking of dealing with shit, Facebook is intermittently preventing me from reacting to posts.  There's no rhyme or reason to it.  I just can't do it and get a snotty message when I try.  Blerg.

From the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.  Well, yeah, but have you ever seen a sycamore seed?  Those things aren't much bigger than dandelion seeds and from those suckers grows an even mightier sycamore.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of oaks, but sycamores are huge.  (Says the woman who just watched her husband chainsaw a 50 ft sycamore that had fallen on our land.)  For that matter, have you ever seen an elm seed?  They look like tiny frisbees - smaller than a dime - with a lump in the center.  From those grow the majestic elm.  All I'm saying is trees are amazing.

I just started reading Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani.  The first chapter is all about 9/11.  It's a hard thing to read about, but I guess I'm finally ready to revisit that horrible day.  I never realized how close we were to losing Rudy in all that.  I wish he'd run for President in 2008 and beat what we ended up with.  He would've been an amazing President.  I wanted him to run with Connie Rice as his VP.  They would've made an awesome duo for the leadership of this country.  

Okay, well, I think that's enough out of me today.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

Ding dong the witch is dead... to me, at least.  Yesterday, I had the great honor of killing my account with Brightspeed.  Gah, they suck so bad.  Even the last phone contact with them sucked.  The first person I talked to 'Shannon', who was barely understandable as it was, hung up on me accidentally.  I called back and got 'Sergio'.  He was actually harder to understand, but he got the job done and confirmed my account was cancelled effective 7/9.  Then I asked about the 'final bill' and he said it was like $58+, and I was all like 'whoa whoa whoa, wait a second there'.  I explained how we haven't had phone service for WEEKS and that any bill they sent wasn't going to get paid - very nicely, of course - then I said 'please make that go away for me, Sergio' and he did.  $0 bill and the service is dead.  Long live 1-VoiP.  Of course, I don't trust Brightspeed, so I fully expect to see a bill that they will want me to pay, but I have Sergio's confirmation number and a willingness to call and go all screamin' chicken on them.

By the way, it's really nice to pick up the phone and hear a freakin' dial tone for a change.

I also killed DirectTV.  That dude was also hard to understand, but only because he had his mic too close to his mouth and he was speaking too fast.  He tried really hard to get me to stay.  He offered me a discount.  He offered me a giftcard, too.  I finally ended up telling him he couldn't give me any offer that would be less than FREE.  $0 bill there, too, but no refund (per their Terms of Service according to the dude).  I just still have service through the 18th.  (I already took all the stuff down and put it in the spare room, so nah.)  And since my equipment was so old, they didn't want it back.  Yay.

This new Blogger thing where they want to insert links into my blog posts because their AI told them I should is really irritating.  It keeps flashing a dialogue box at me that I have to dismiss.  If I want links in my posts, I'll put them there tyvm.

I found a new-to-me show on Roku - Yorkshire Vet.  It combines two of my loves - Dr. Pol and All Creatures Great and Small.  And I have access to all the episodes, so I can just sit down and watch one when I feel like it.  For free.  Woot!

The bird of the day is actually a two-fer... Rosy-faced Lovebirds.  I'm not a fan of parrots, per se, but these are okay.  Little cuties.  Aww.

It looks like Lumpy lost her fawn.  We hadn't seen it in a while, and a couple of days ago, I noticed that her milk bag is gone.  It wasn't too unexpected.  Lumpy's getting pretty old and that baby was really small - like premie looking.  Still a sad thing.  On a happier note, we have Sissy and her baby (which would be Lumpy's grandbaby) both doing well and we have another doe with twins who's been visiting.

One of my tomato plants has two flowers blooming! I helped the pollination of them along, so fingers crossed.  Most of the other tomato plants have buds, so they should be blooming soon.  Then we'll get some real pollination action going on.  Woot.

Okay, that's probably more than enough out of me.  Have a great day!

Starlink, VoiP, and Roku... WOOT

Monday, I posted this on Facebook, but it's worth repeating here: "My Roku arrived and it's all hooked up.  This may have been the worst idea I ever had.  It has Red Green and Mystery Science Theater 3000 and all the Doc Martin episodes I never got to see because I started watching late in the game.  :swoon:  Oh, man, this could be bad for my productivity."

Turns out it's only bad for my productivity if I let it be.  Last night, I told myself 'you're going to write today', so I left Hubs in the living room watching some show about people building homes in Alaska and sat my ass down.  I cranked out about a thousand words, had a cigarette, then sat down again.  I ended with 2098.  My hands are ouchy this morning, but it was worth it.

Anyway, I'm loving the Roku.  I spent part of yesterday watching The Great British Baking Show and it's spinoff Celebrity British Baking Show.  Then I watched Dr G. Medical Examiner and a little MST3K.  Later, like I said, Hubs found that Alaska show to enjoy while I wrote.  We decided to go slow on the Doc Martin episodes so we don't get burned out.  There are like 18 seasons of that (2004-2022), most of which we haven't seen.  We're reserving it for one night a week, probably Saturday or Sunday.

It hasn't slowed the internet down at all.  Say what you want about Elon Musk, at the start of the year, Starlink saved us from Brightspeed's slow, sometimes non-existent, internet, and now it's saving us from the BS crappy phone - thanks to 1-VoiP - and skyrocketing bills through DirectTV.  

I'm sure at some point we'll run through all the shows we know we like, but there are scads of shows we've never seen that we'll give a try to at that point.  

By the way, going back to Red Green and MST3K, I laughed myself silly watching both of those, but I'll have to do small doses of them, too.  Too much of a good thing causes burnout.  And my face hurts from smiling too much.  We should all have such horrors visited upon us.

So, anyway, if you're like me and dragging your feet to get some of this newer technology, give it a try.  If I can get good service out here in the middle of nowhere, you can probably do fine with it, too.  It does take a little startup scratch, but in the long run, you'll save money.  Our combined phone and internet bill was $147 a month with BS, double that with DTV - so around $300 A MONTH.  Now, $120 for Starlink, $24 for phone, and the Roku is free.  All that for less than our phone/internet alone.  So the initial outgo for $600 Starlink and the $34 for phone and the $57 for Roku will be recovered by the end of the year.  Woot.

(Private thanks to my sister for recommending Roku and my nephew for getting her onto it.  This shit rocks, man.)

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 27

 Okay, we're over halfway through 2025 and so far, I'm of the opinion that this is the best year we've had in a long long time.  Sure, things are still pretty shitty all over, but things are also looking up.  I'm feeling optimistic.  Which is weird for me.  Anyway, let's get into the past week...

I didn't write much, because I was distracted with other things.  Those distractions are over, so I'm feeling good about the week to come.  I did get over 2200 words down and I like where the story is going.  Yay.

I took the week off of marketing.  Guess what?  No sales.  Not a single one.  Not a single page read.  Crickets.  I need to figure out if I'm going to be marketing this week and what, or if I'm just going to let it slide again.  

I read some stuff, but I didn't finish anything.  

This week, I made a batch of blackberry muffins.  Yummers.  And a batch of chicken wet burritos.  Also yummers.  

On the activity front, I did walk three times for a total of 3.6 miles.  That puts me at 41 miles for the year.  Woot.  Weight: 171.4 - also woot.

The big news for the week... I got the VoiP set up.  (That's voice over internet protocol - which allows you to make regular phone calls on a regular phone using your internet, which for me is Starlink.)  There was a little niggle wherein the Starlink only has two ports for devices to plug into and I need three - my computer, Hubs' computer, and the VoiP device.  So I ordered up an ethernet splitter from Amazon and had it overnighted.  And it was defective. So, I went to Walmart yesterday and bought a better thing from a company I trust, and it works like a champ.  Yay.  Today or tomorrow, my regular phone number should be ported over from Brightspeed to 1-VoiP (our new provider out of Edmund, OK... love them) and then I can officially kick Brightspeed to the curb.  (OMG, they suck so bad.)  Next up, ditching DirectTV.  My Roku device is supposed to be here today through Walmart delivery.  Woot.  If it's everything everyone says it is, DerektTV can go away, too.  Woot.

Okay, I should probably wrap this up so I can get my walk in... and pick berries while I'm out there.  (Blackberries growing alongside the road... hence the muffins.)  Have a great day and tell me about what's going on in your life before you go.  =o)

Thursday This n That

 Alligator Alcatraz...  First off, I just saw some liberal chick whining quite incorrectly that it was a wildlife sanctuary and how dare we all celebrate it because it's cruel.  I also saw a cute cartoon of some alligators talking and one says 'did you hear we get to eat them if they escape?'  Which reminded me of this prison just outside Marquette, Michigan.  It's across the street from Lake Superior and it butts up to some of the nastiest, craggy woodlands you'd ever want to see.  Back when I was in college, it had the highest walkaway rate of any prison in Michigan.  But the escapees were rarely ever seen again.  You see, it was filled with criminals from places like Detroit and Flint.  City boys who probably had never taken a survival course in their lives.  The way I figure it, the missing criminals either went into the water and drown, or they went into the woods and died.  Win win, in my book.

Soon, I will be able to kick Brightspeed to the curb.  The VoiP is in place and working smashingly.  I called Mom on it yesterday.  Unfortunately, the Starlink router only has 2 ports, and we have 2 computers to plug in, so I needed a splitter.  It came and after some massaging, it's working, too.  The true test will be calling Mom through the splitter this morning.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I have a temp phone # until my regular # transfers over to the new service, so don't try to call me at this time.

Better internet... check.  Better phone... check.  Next up, replacing the satellite TV with something like Roku.  Woot.

Man, Wallyworld was a zoo yesterday.  Totally spasticness.  

What's with this new crap here on Blogger?  This morning it has a notice at the top - some crap about upgrading something - and it just offered to insert links into my post for me.  Why the hell would I want links inserted into my post?  Wouldn't a link take people away from READING my post?  Derp.  Makes no sense.

My tomatoes might almost be trying to make flowers.  Fingers crossed.

My black walnut tree got root rot and died.  I guess they aren't meant for growing in a pot.  Next time I have to transplant a volunteer walnut, I'll find a place in the woods for it.  =o(

I almost put in -o(... That would be a cyclops, I guess. Rawr.

Okay, that's about all I've got today.  Feel free to drop some this-n-that yourself before you wander off.  Have a great day!

Thursday This n That

Now that I have a phone substitute on its way here, the landline is working.  Like 5 days in a row now, which hasn't happened since like March.  Turds.  I'm waiting until I make sure the new device arrives and works before I cancel the old stuff.

I stopped by the old office yesterday.  They're in the same building as a company that provides us a service, so I stop to pay that bill.  Anyway, I saw one of the guys, which was awesome.  The other guy I wanted to see had the day off.  Bummer.  I spent some time talking to the gal who basically replaced my supervisor.  Nice gal.  I gave her a tip on how to keep the Epson working... it's temperamental and a brat, but it was my baby... and she's going to try that. I also chided her on using after market ink.  That stuff is horrible and can really f-up your printer.  But it wasn't my place to say that.  Not anymore.  Hell, it wasn't my place then.  :shrug:  I have a tendency to take over like the bull I am.  (Taurus, doncha know.)  I spent two years reining the bull in, and now that I don't work there anymore, the bull wants to run through that china shop.  LOL

The roadside blackberries are almost ready.  When I drove by them yesterday, they looked pretty red.  Once they turn black, I can have at them.  As long as no one else gets there first, and the birds leave them alone, and the deer don't find them.  Also, the elderberry plants are about done flowering and they're starting to grow berries.  I'm not sure if I can reach those over the barbed wire fence, but I'm going to try.

Speaking of roadside berries, I belong to a FB page about Missouri backroads and some gal on there was talking about picking roadside blackberries where she lives.  So, see?  I'm not the only weirdo who does that.  ROFL

I did the Wallyworld thing yesterday.  Man, it's hot here and I was all sweaty spaghetti by the time I got home.  But I got everything we needed and some things we didn't need.  My Wallyworld is carrying frozen yogurt, so I picked up one 'half-gallon' of vanilla and one of chocolate.  Yum.  All the yumminess of ice cream with less fat.

Speaking of half-gallons of ice cream... The damn things aren't actually half-gallons anymore and haven't been for a while now, but it still pisses me off when I think about it.  I think Blue Bell still does a full half-gallon, but who can afford that?  Last time I bought Blue Bell, it was like $8 for a half gallon.  Yeowch.  Don't get me started on all the other things that are smaller now but cost more.  Grrrr.

Anyway, it's creeping up on time to call Ma, so I'll leave you with that last thought.  What kinds of thoughts are you having today?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 25

I'm not exactly sure it is Week 25, but it follows last week, and I'm not inclined to go check, so there you are.  

I thought about writing this week.  I really wanted to be able to say that I wrote something when I did my update, but alas, I can't.  I also thought about giving up on writing this week, cuz it's not like I'm actually doing it and haven't done it for a long time.  But I'm a mule, so I guess we'll all just sit here and wait for me to write some stuff.  Or I'll sit here while what few followers I have left wander away.  I need to take a walk and give myself a good talking to all the way around.

Marketing was done.  I'm still hampered in my efforts, which isn't helping with the whole malaise, but I moved 83 books.  And someone somewhere is reading WIOH, so that's $$.  Not sure what this week will bring for sales or marketing.  Stay tunes.

Reading went slow this week.  I finished one book and then started on an omnibus of Hercule Poirot stories.  Not sure why I started this behemoth, but there it is.  I'll probably pause between stories to read something else.

On the activity front, I did stuff 4 out of 7 days - 3 walks for 3.35 miles, cleaning, and weeding.  Then it got hot and I retreated into my shadowy lair.  We won't talk about weight this week.  The heat is making me fluffy.  Yeah, yeah... that's the ticket.

Speaking of hot, no baking this week.  I meant to make cookies or cake or something, but meh.

Big news this week.  After eons of trouble with Brightspeed, I finally took the first steps to kick those assholes to the curb.  I'm going with a VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol - service.  VoIP uses a widget that connects to our Starlink via wifi so we can use our regular phone over the internet to make calls like anyone else.  I researched it and found a company out of Edmund, OK that seems stable.  The device will be shipping to us and once I have it, I'll start the process to port our phone number from BS to our new provider.  Once that's done, I'll call BS and tell them to pound sand.  Woot. Steppin' into the 21st century like a boss.  

Okay, I think I've about updated myself out.  Have a great day wherever you are.  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 18

 Sorry... I overslept.  Now that we're here, though, let's jump right into the weekly update.

I didn't write or edit anything.  Big surprise there, eh?  I did do some marketing for UWC and moved 117 copies of that and a few copies of WIOH.  Not sure what I'll be marketing this week.

I did some reading.  See yesterday's post.

No baking either.  Wait, I take that back.  I made pizza on Sunday.  It was my best pizza yet, so I'm not sure how I could've forgotten it, however briefly.  I'm trying to cut back on baked goods, though, so don't expect to see much about baking for a while.

On the activity front, I've been pretty busy.  I did some cleaning, took a couple walks (for a total of 1.6 miles), reorganized my desk area, got groceries, and did some yard work.  Weight: 173.6

The yard's starting to get back to looking like I give a shit about it.  Things are growing where I want them to grow and things are ceasing to grow where I don't want them.  I spent a chunk of yesterday pulling weeds and making things tidy.  Hubs is helping by mowing the lawn.  It looks nice, if I do say so myself.  

My baby trees are doing well.  Fingers crossed.

Hubs just told me the phone's out again.  It was out last week for a day or so, too.  This is an ongoing battle and I'm this close > < to telling Brightspeed to pound sand and just use my cellphone from here on out.  But I hate talking on my cell phone.  My hand falls asleep and I drop the phone, plus the reception sucks and Mom has a tough time hearing me.  On the upside, every time I call BS, I tell them to take days off my bill.  Pretty soon, they'll owe me.  :snort:

The deer are getting fat pregnant.  Soon, we'll have fawns.  Lumpy is chugging along, but her lump must've burst at some point and she's got nasty stuff hanging off her jaw.  Poor dear.  I don't have great hopes for her or her unborn baby this year.  =o(

I can't think of anything else that happened this week... not anything worth mentioning, anyway... so I'll let you go on about your life.  Have a great day!

Thursday This n That

 Mmm, coffee.

I started writing again yesterday.  A new book.  I know I know I know.... I have scads of unfinished manuscripts weeping from the neglect they've suffered, but when an idea strikes, it's best to just run with it.  Okay, maybe not best, but it's certainly easier.  I'm all about easy.  Anyway, I got about 1300 words down, so I've got that going for me.  We'll see what today brings.  And who knows, maybe I can cobble something I've already written into this.  That'd be good.

My baby tree project is going well.  Out of the scads of seeds I harvested last fall and planted either then or recently, I have 4 dogwoods.  Nothing else came up.  Live and learn for next fall.  On the other hand, I rescued a bunch of volunteer seedlings from around the outside - 4 cedars, 3 redbuds, and 2 oaks.  They're in pots now.  We'll see how they do.  I also have a boatload of volunteer elms that will either have to be dug up and replanted or pulled and thrown out.  They're not in optimal places to have a tree.  

Did you hear the news about the toddler who wandered away from his home in AZ only to be found by a dog 7 miles away?  Yay for the dog.  My suspicious mind wonders, though, how a 2 year old made it seven miles on foot.  Was he snatched and let go?  Was he dumped like a unwanted dog?  Sure, he could've just been a tot on a mission, but like I said, I'm suspicious.

Today, my bird-a-day calendar has a tern feeding its baby a tasty fish.

Earlier I heard a single yip out there in the darkness.  I'm guessing fox.  Coyotes have a tendency to move in a group and when one goes, they all go.  Foxes are more solitary.  On the other hand, neither of them are generally one yip kind of critters.  Since all I have is that one yip to go on, all I can do is guess.

They came and fixed my phone again.  This time, the tech called afterward and it was one I've worked with before.  He said to call him directly next time, and bypass the whole mess that is BS customer support.  And there will be a next time because they can't be bothered to replace what is constantly failing with stuff that actually works.  (He didn't say most of that - only to call him.  I don't want to get him in trouble.)  Anyway, he also said that part of the problem is because someone has been cutting their fiber optic cables.  Most likely they're looking for copper to steal and sell.  Morons.

I'm back to walking more regularly again.  The other night, I saw two rabbits chasing each other around and around.  Bunnies!  So cute.  I mean, they were adults, but still... BUNNIES!  And adult rabbits generally produce even cuter bunnies.  Yay.

No wonder bunnies are associated with Easter.  Spring = Easter. Spring = Rabbits.  Therefore, Easter = Rabbits.  It's simple math.  ;o)

Okay, that's it for me.  I need more coffee and I should probably think about doing something constructive.  Have a great day!

Thursday This n That

:yawn: :stretch:  Good mornin'.  I actually woke up early today, but I couldn't get to sleep last night, so I'm draggin'.  :slurp coffee:

And now Finn wants lots of attentions, so I'm petting and trying to type. With a tail in my way. rofl

Finn's really no small cat by anyone else's standard. He's 13-14 pounds of sleek feline, but next to Sawyer, he's my widdle bebe.  It's not his fault his adopted brother is a moose.

Our phone is out again.  Stupid BS.  Their supposed to be out to fix it again on Friday.  I harangued the phone girl to make sure they actually fix it this time instead of slapping a bandaid on it.  We'll see.  It's going out like every other day.  Then it comes back, then it goes out, then it comes back.  The other day it went out in the middle of a call to Mom.  It's a bit ludicrous that in this day and age we can't get reliable phone service.

Anyway... I saw a news story yesterday about a toddler that had wandered away from his (her?) home in the Grand Canyon area of AZ.  He was found about 7 miles away by a rancher's dog, who led the kid back to its place.  That rancher was out and saw his dog coming home with a kid in tow.  Wild.  Anyway, the tot's fine and the dog is being hailed as a hero.  Not sure how a toddler gets out and wanders 7 miles, but there it is.

I cut my hair yesterday.  Whacked it short because it was irritating me.  I butchered the holy hell out of it.  But I didn't notice until after it dried.  I think I can fix it.  If not, it'll grow out.  Thankfully, I didn't cut it so short it looks like mange.  ROFL

Every morning for the past week or so, I've seen a weird 'star' rising in the east.  When I first saw it, it was about 6am, but it's rising earlier every day.  This morning, I saw it peeking through the trees at 5:27.  I searched online to see if I could figure out what it is, but no luck.  It's not the space station.  It might be like Venus and a couple other planets rising in a line so they look like one big bright light, but that doesn't make sense to my brain.  :shrug:  

Okay, with distractions, it's taken me over 30 minutes to write this and I really need to get my morning marketing done.  Have a great day wherever you are and if you feel inclined, drop a comment about whatever little things are sparking you today.

Friday This n That

 Yeah, yesterday got busy first thing and while I did mean to post, it was later by the time I remembered.  Sorry about that.

One of the things I was busy with was Wallyworld.  Man, was it busy in there yesterday morning.  It's usually pretty quiet on a weekday morning, so not sure what was up with that.  Some old dude clipped my elbow with his cart and didn't even say excuse me or sorry or anything.  As I said on FB, I hope all of his Depends have a manufacturing defect.  Anyway, I loaded my cart with groceries - including all kinds of meat - and made it out of there for just over $200.  I take that as a good sign.  There aren't any specific prices I can point to - other than whole turkey breasts for 97c a pound, which could be due to Easter's approach - to show that things are getting better, but I'm optimistic.

The weather's gotten nice here.  I'm trying to walk every day.  2 days in a row so far.  Woot.

We were without phones again.  On the third day, I finally called the phone company - because apparently no one else does that but me.  They said it wouldn't be fixed until the 14th.  As I was headed out yesterday, I crossed paths with a Brightspeed truck coming into the neighborhood and the phone was fixed by the time I got home.  Dial tone!  Yay.

The birds are being really LOUD this morning.  Looking for love and all that.  It's like a big, avian single's bar out there right now. Bow chicka bow bow.

Speaking of love, Hubs saw a baby squirrel yesterday.  Yep, it's about that time when mama squirrels kick their babies out of the hole.  Which ought to remind one that after bow-chicka-bow-bow comes waa-waa-waa, so if you want the first and not the second, there are things that prevent that from happening.  Use one or several.

DYING EMBERS is still free, but only through the end of today.

And that's it for me today.  What kinds of this n that things are it for you?

Thursday This n That

Still not dead.  

Yesterday, Hubs got the idea to cover the car ahead of the impending ice doom.  We used the boat cover (boat don't need it... it's in the garage with our Jeep).  While we were in the process of putting the cover on Cally Cavalier, a big blue RAV (Rural Assault Vehicle... looked like a little Humvee) pulled into the driveway.  She was looking for her little dog.  I recognized the car as one I'd seen parked in the newly-sold house here, so yay, met the new neighbor.  She seems nice.  Oh, and Hubs had to walk over to turn on the heater in the well house, so he stopped at her house to make sure she found her little dog.  She did.  Happy ending.  Yay.

Not sure yet if we got any ice yet, but we still have power, so yay.  We are as prepped for potential power outages as we can be at this point.  And Cally is about as wrapped against ice as we could make her.  Especially considering she's wearing a camouflage cover designed to be on a 15' boat.  I should take a pic of her in her new outfit.  (Yes, I talk about my car like it's a person.  I've had her longer than Hubs.)  

In the middle of the sleet-pounding we were taking yesterday, I looked out the window to see two deer standing in the woods, covered in white.  Poor babies.  Hubs went out to feed them.  He's such a nice guy.  He put out extra rations for the birds, too.  

Speaking of birds, we had a bunch of them hiding out on our covered porch during the worst of it.  Poor babies.  Winter is hard on animals, especially here where they aren't really used to it.  

Shit's happening in the world and I don't really want to talk about it.  Or think about it.  

I had to make a call to customer service for a nationally known company.  The gal I got barely spoke English.  Like I could understand maybe one in ten words out of her mouth.  I kept asking her to repeat stuff and she'd say it louder, but it was still mostly unintelligible.  It was like talking to a cricket on crack.  Chirp chirpchirpchirp CHIRP! CHIRPCHIRPCHIRPCHIRP.  I had called to ASK what would happen IF I closed my account - like timeframe and billing, etc.  Before I could figure out what she was saying, she closed my account.  I was all like 'NO NO NO', but it was already done.  Just as well, I guess.  I don't want to do business with a company like that anymore anyway.  The next call was to see if I could set up an account with a different company - now on super short notice so I don't have any break in services.  When the gal there answered the phone, I could've wept for joy because she spoke English.  She set me up and there's won't be any break.  Yay.  Would've sucked if she'd told me I had to wait a month.  

You know, I get why companies send their phone trees overseas.  But for pitysakes, find workers who can speak the language your customers use.  You wouldn't hire ME for a customer service line for Mexican customers, would you?  No habla.  (And no, the above cricket wasn't speaking Spanish.  It was just an example.)

I snagged a bucket of cheap ice cream the other day.  Neapolitan.  The last bucket the store had at a price I was willing to pay.  It's pretty tasty... but it has a weird after residue.  Like fat coating the roof of my mouth.  Sorry, that sounds gross.  But it's true.  I'll eat it all, of course, but I won't be buying that brand again.  Ever.

Okay, I should probably wander off to other parts of the web.  Have a great day.  And feel free to leave your this and that if you're so inclined.  

Sunday Update - Week 42

Forty-two weeks in... ten weeks of 2021 left.  Blerg.  Oh, well.  I guess I'll start shifting my hopes that 2022 will be better.

In writerly news, I did start working on those edit notes.  Don't get excited.  I only did two pages so far and it's making me want to rewrite the beginning.  Don't get excited there either because I always feel this way when I start editing and I rarely rewrite the beginning due to it.

 I really should set up some kind of freebie/sale thing for this week, what with Halloween fast approaching and junk.  We'll see.  I'd hate to set up a sale and have my internet be all Mr. Poopyhead on me.

Speaking of internet, it's been fine so far this weekend.  We'll see what it's like tomorrow morning when we really need it.  We're still playing with the idea of satellite internet in place of or in addition to DSL.  

On the reading front, I finally finished the anthology and I also read another book.  So, I'm only like 8 books behind now.  I also picked up a paperback I've been casually looking for when I'm out and about.  It was surprising to find it in the Dollar General book rack, but yay.  I started reading it last night.

I didn't do a whole lot of baking this week.  A thing of baked spaghetti and a batch of granola bars.  

Not much baking because I've been in the woods every day, except yesterday.  Only a couple hours each day, but it kind of makes me not want to do anything else.  We're dragging logs up out of the woods and sawing them into firewood.  Then we stack the wood.  We've got quite a goodly amount after 6 days, which is cool.  When we get a wood stove, we'll have the fuel all ready to go.  And it's awesome exercise.  Nothing quite like getting some productive exercise going on.  I mean, I can walk/bike a hundred miles and go nowhere or I can make firewood and end up with something.  I'd rather have something to show for it when I'm done.

With the internet being a bastard all week, I spent a lot of time watching TV.  Funny since there really isn't anything on - even though we have free movie channels right now, too.  We're debating getting rid of the TV altogether.  Can we do it?  :shrug:  I certainly wouldn't miss the $114 for Direct TV every month.  And I can live without the reruns, which are about all I'm watching these days anyway.  

Ahem... anyway, the deer are fine.  They're getting ready for the rut, so we're not seeing them in large groups right now and they're not eating as much corn.  This is cyclical, so we're not worried or anything.  They'll be back.  They always are.  We are starting to see glimpses of the larger bucks as they wander through looking for the gals to love on.

The chipmunk has moved out of the flower bed and now seems to be inhabiting the wood pile.  We've seen him and another one chasing each other around it.  We're only removing the big logs we can get to easily, so no worries for them in their winter accommodations. 

Oh, before I forget, when I was on the phone with CenturyLink, I got a customer service rep who sounded EXACTLY like Martin Short doing Franck in Father of the Bride (the Steve Martin one).  I about fell out of my chair trying not to laugh.  Seriously.  I was slapping my leg and holding it all in.  I wrote a note so Hubs would know why I was acting so weird.  And then after I hung up, all the laughter came out at once in this sort of weird cackle.  I don't know if the dude actually sounded like that or he was doing the accent to sort of break up his day, but if it was the latter, he did a most excellent job and he stayed in character for the whole conversation.  Goid one, phone dude!  Made a horrible task almost enjoyable for me.

Anyway, that was my week.  How was yours?