Things, Stuff & Such

This is our busy season at the office.  We start collecting taxes November 1 and it is busy usually until Christmas.   The people in the Property Tax department work twelve hour days (8am-8pm) because there is so much work.  Someone from my department has to stay with them in case there are any network or hardware issues plus to do backups after everyone leaves.  Yesterday I had to work until a little after 9p.m. because the guy who usually does it called in sick.  Not a big deal, it is part of the job.  It was a busy day for me besides having to do the other guy’s work so when I got home I was dead tired.  I had a little something to eat and went to bed.  I was planning to set up some more Christmas lights I got Sunday night.  I had gone to Wal-mart to return the polar bear and picked up a three foot tall tinsel snowman, some lights to put in the front window and some lights to put next to the walkway.  I was home a little after 9:30 so it was to dark to be putting up lights.  Tomorrow, I thought to myself.

This morning my boss tells me the guy was still sick so I would have to do the backups again.  She did say I could take some extra time at lunch to run errands if I wanted to.  She is good about things like that.  Very fair and appreciative of good work.  I may run to Wal-mart near the office and see what Christmas decorations they have.  I could also pick up “Superman Returns” on DVD while I’m there.

This morning, driving to work, there was another accident by the High School.  Once again, it looked like three cars involved.  They had rear ended each other just after the traffic light.  I was going to snap a picture with my treo but it took me to long to grab it and activate the camera.  By the time I was ready I had gone by the scene.  Maybe I could have moved faster but I didn’t want to cause my own accident.  If I did that I couldn’t make fun of the kids.   I’m sure I will have several more chances before the school year is out.

My Thanksgiving weekend was pretty laid back. My parents went to St. Pete to spend the weekend with my brother and his family so I stayed behind to watch the dogs. I liked having the time to myself. My plan was to take it easy Thursday and pick up some Outback Steak House take-out for dinner. I had $40 worth of gift cards that I got last Christmas and wanted to use them up.

I moved the HD DVR from the big screen tv to my 30″ widescreen Sony in my room to see just how good the HD picture would be on my tv. I have to say it is pretty nice. I watched some of the Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC’s HD channel. The HD really made the parade come alive on the screen. I played around with the DVR setup to compare it to my Tivo. I watched the move “Layer Cake” that I had recorded a couple of days earlier off one of the HD movie channels. It was a decent movie. The lead actor is the same guy who is now the new James Bond. I think he will do well in the role and look forward to seeing “Casino Royal” when it hits DVD. Comparing the Comcast DVR to the Tivo is like comparint apples to less impressive apples. It’s nice to be able to record in High Def but the Comcast DVR lacks the features and finish of Tivo. Both user interfaces are easy to use but I like the way Tivo presents the tv guide and lets you search for titles, actors, directors, or genres. They both let you record an entire series but the Tivo lets me set up recordings over the internet (I’ve used this feature more than you would think). I had thought I may give up the Tivo for the HD DVR when I decided to order HD service but, now there is no way I’m loosing the Tivo – it’s just too perfect.

I had called the boys Wednesday night to wish them a happy Thanksgiving early. I knew they were going to be at Syria’s boyfriends house and wanted to make sure I got my season’s greeting in. I wasn’t sure what time they were leaving. I called again Thrusday morning to say happy Thanksgiving once again and tell them I hope they enjoy the Holiday. We talked for a little bit – sometimes they like to talk to me on the phone and sometimes there is something more interesting to be done. I take what I can get and always tell them I love them before hanging up.

Thursday’s weather was great. Sunshine and a cool breeze. Around 1 O’clock I decided to take a drive and see what’s open so I dropped the ragtop and headed out for a quick drive. I hit CVS for some smokes and to look at their Christmas stuff. Traditionally, this is the weekend I put up the Christmas lights. I spied a nice looking all white tinsel outdoor tree that I thought would look nice in front of the house. I made a mental note of it. I knew once I got out last years lights I would need to make the usual trip to purchase yet another set of lights to replace whatever stopped working since last year. How is it that a set of lights that were shinning bright the night before I took them down die while resting in a steamer trunk in the garage?

Back at home I give the dogs a walk and plan to grab a book I have been working on for to long, Dan Brown’s “Angles and Demons”. It is the book he wrote before the famous “DaVinci Code”. A friend at work gave it to me and I am really enjoying it. It is Robert Langdon’s first adventure and I think it may be better than DaVinci. I could see it being a better movie, at least. Anyway, while I was walking the dogs I saw my neighbor putting up his Christmas lights. They always have a nice setup and this year he gets the ‘early bird’ award. I planned to start on lights tomorrow but seeing my neighbor hard at work I felt I was being lazy. After all, I was going to read a book. I decided I couldn’t let it go so I grabbed a red light bulb and some lighted garland and decorated our mailbox. “There!” I thought to myself. Now our house won’t be dark tonight and I can read my book; conscience clear. Besides, tomorrow I will pull out the lights and get down to it.

Now it was about time for my Thanksgiving take-out. I called Outback, gift cards in hand. No answer. Oh, crap. Was I wrong? Are they closed? I knew a few places were open for Thanksgiving and thought I had heard Outback was one of them. Well I called a few times over about thirty minutes before I gave up. That stinks. This was my big Thanksgiving Day plan and I screwed it up by not checking first. I went over my options in my head. Perkins? They have good pies. Where else? I had some frozen hamburgers I could cook on the grill. I ended up opening a can of Chef Boy R Dee. It doesn’t matter much when it’s just you.

Friday I had agreed to help another friend at the office move to a new house. He as asked a couple of us at work to help him with the heavy stuff. It didn’t take very long, just a few hours. The PIA part was that he had a few things that were upstairs. That is always the worst part of a move. The worst of it was a big sleeper sofa. It was almost exactly a year since I helped anyone move. Last year I helped my friend Tracey move a few times. It was hard work but I got it done without hurting myself. I knew that I was going to have a harder time that the other two guys as I am out of shape and they both work out daily. My only worry was that I would embarass myself buy being sweaty and out of breath early on. Well, it was actually worse than I feared. I am officially in the worst shape of my entire life. I was huffing and sweating almost after the first item. I’ve got to atleast start walking again. Quitting smoking would be a big leap in the right direction also – I have tried and failed several times.

Needless to say, I did not start putting up the lights Friday afternoon. My back was feeling tight so I decided to leave it for Saturday. After a nice warm shower I did pull down the steamer trunk that holds our lights to get an inventory of what I needed to buy. I waited until early evening and hit Wal-mart for lights. I was also playing with the idea of adding some sort of blow-up decoration to the mix this year. I was actually hoping to get something in the way of a polar bear. I don’t know, I am just into polar bears this season. I’ve always liked the Coke polar bear holiday displays. In Wal-mart I make a bee line for the Christmas stuff. First thing I see is a three foot tall inflateable polar bear on display. Bingo! I look all over for one in a box I can buy. No luck. I ask an employee for help and she said she would find someone who worked in this department. That was the last I saw of her. After digging thru several layers of boxes on shelves I found one of two remaining polar bears for sale. In the interum I had grabbed a couple boxes of net lights. I knew we needed them. We always needed atleast one new box a year. After my polar bear score I hit the checkout. I was officially excited to be putting up the lights.

I get home and am ready to open my new purchase. One thing I was wondering was how the bear would stay in place so, I look at the box. Then I see it… “For Indoor Use Only”. Arg! I didn’t even think about… ANYTHING! I just saw and bought. Oh well. Return time. But not tonight.

Saturday. Light day. I am up early with the dogs. They are used to being fed around 5a.m. but they are lucky I am up at 6:30a.m. for them. And they really don’t complain. Food and a walk then it’s my turn. Microwave pancakes and a glass of chocolate soy milk. On to the lights. It is a cool morning but not at all cold. Perfect weather for working outside.

I put extension cords where I know I will be needing them – three places. All the lights are in their own Publix grocery bag. The first few bags I pull out are net lights.

I test them and string them.

Next I pull out icicle lights. These go over the garage which requires the ladder so I save them for a bit.

Next are two big red bowes to hang over the outside house lights.

More net lights. Test and hang over bushes.

All this is being done at a lesiurely pace. There is no rush, I have all day.

I am about 33 minutes from starting my Thanksgiving weekend and watching the clock.  The last three days have been buys at work but this week seemed to take forever.  I was just talking to my friend in front of his office and noted that the last part of this day was dragging.  Just as I said that my department Director walked by.  I know she heard me but she blew it off.  I was a little embarassed – I didn’t mean to sound like I was bored at work.

I did put some Christmas ‘decorations’ on my desk today.  Almost everyone does something in their office or work area each year but I started early.  Don’t know why, just felt like it.  One of more geek-tacular Christmas items is my new SnowBot I purchased from Thinkgeek.com.  You can see a quick video of it here SnowBot

I will be home by my self for Thanksgiving day but I am looking forward to it.  My parents are going to St. Pete to spend the weekend with my brother and his family.  Usually what I do for the Thanksgiving weekend is, while they are gone, put up our Christmas lights.  I like doing it by myself and it kind of gets me in the Holiday spirit.  This weekend I will be helping a friend move on Friday so I will either put up the lights Thursday or Saturday. 

Last Thanksgiving Scott and Aaron went with their mother and served food to the homeless at a shelter.  This year their mother had told me they were going to do it again, but it seems she has changed her mind and will be taking the boys to have Thanksgiving dinner with her boyfriends family.  Scott told me the last time we talked that he liked what they did last year and wanted to do it again.  He is such a good kid – sincere and caring.  They both are.

I turned on the news Friday moring, as is part of my morning ritual, to a mob of people fighting infront of a store.  There were police pulling people apart and guys swinging at other guys.  It looked like so many riot scenes you see on the news; people upset about an injustice.  Then I saw the scroll at the bottom of the screen.  These people were waiting in line for a PlayStation 3!

WTF?!

Mayhem over a game console?

I heard someone was shot in line?  I guess being robbed.  I had not even thought about the danger of being outside a store long after closing with a group of people who are known to be holding enough to cover $599 + tax.

I have seen people camping out in front of a store for a night or two to be the first to get their hands on the latest and greatest consoles.  It happened with xbox 360.  I can almost understand it.  It could be an interesting adventure.  Certainly a good story to tell your friends and great blog material.  I had a thought that if I had had that much free time I would have camped out and done a blog every hour until I got the prize.  I would have done it for the experience more than the console.  But I do not have large block of free time or the desire to pay $600 for a PS3 (as cool as it is).

I’m sure in a couple of years I will own one.  But by then they will cost less and my life won’t be put in danger.

Saturday I went to Best Buy to get some ink for my printer.  While I was there I checked out the Wii display they had.  You couldn’t play it – just for show.  They had a sign next to the display that said Best Buy employees will be handing out vouchers for a Wii one hour before the store opens on Sunday.  There were two adults already in front of the Wii display.  They didn’t know each other but they were talking about how they were going to be at the store early to get a voucher.  They asked the sales associate how may were available and she said eight.  Geeze, only eight for the whole store.  In the few minutes I was standing in front of the Wii more than eight people had come by, looked and moved on.  I wondered how many would be lined up the next morning.  There didn’t seem to be the same fervor  over the Wii as I saw for the PS3.  I assume it is because the Wii is geared towards younger players…  the kind that need their parents to buy a Wii for them.

Well, the hub bub is over now.  The only excitement is to watch the seriously stupid pay $1600.00 on ebay for a PS3.

As for me, tonight I may stream a movie to my ‘old’ xbox and then maybe play a little SWBF II.

Last Wednesday was my father’s last day at work.  He retired from the company he worked at for the last twelve years.  They had a party for him and hired a musician from the Naples Philharmonic. He played “Happy Days Are Here Again”.

Last night the service tech showed up to replace my ‘faulty’ DVR box. His name was Rob and he was a very nice guy. I told him what had been going on since Monday night and that I was told I needed a new DVR. He said, “I think I know what’s going on” and he got on his phone and talked to another Comcast tech for a few minutes. When he got off he said, “Good news and bad news.” The problem was that Comcast did not have my high definition DVR set in their system as a HD box – that is why it would not allow me to see HD channels. After Rob’s call they fixed that part but needed to send a reset signal to my box for eveything to work correctly. The ‘bad news’ was that they were backed up and they would not be able to send the reset signal for a couple of hours. Right on par for Comcast.

Rob told me to give him a call in a couple of hours if it still was not working. Finally,l I had someone who was willing to work to solve my problem instead of passing me on. This guy was 180 degrees from anyone I had dealt with at Comcast. Up to now, all the people I had talked to were very polite but ineffective. Now I had someone on the case who wanted to see it resolved. My faith was renewed (okay, over exagerated).

Two hours later and guess what? Still nothing. So, I call Rob and tell him. He says he will call the office again for me.

About an hour after that Rob calls me agian to see if my service had been fixed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. He said to give it over night and if it wasn’t working in the morning to give him a call and he would get into it at the office.

I was pretty pissed at Comcast’s inability to complete what I would think is the simple task of upgrading my service. After all, they run tons of adds telling you how much happier you would be with the upgraded service. That seems to imply they know how to do it. But I wasn’t happy. It has been four days and counting to get this stupid box to do what they told me it would do if I was willing to pay for it. I got on the Comcast websit and fired off an angry email. It did make me feel a little better because I had spoken up and not let them run over me. Well, at least not run me over quietly. I did note in the email that Rob was very helpful. He deserves credit for working as hard as he did.
Before I left for work this morning I turned on the tv and low and behold, it was fixed! Don’t know when it happened. It could have been shortly after I went to bed or five minutes before I turned the tv on but I didn’t care. It was finaly working. I’m not happy about it, more glad the phone calls and false promise’s are over.

I did get a responce from Comcast to my email:

Dear John,

Thank you for contacting Comcast. My name is Chris and I appreciate your taking the time to contact us.

I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with your installation. I assure you that Comcast is dedicated to providing quality service and we will diligently work to resolve all issues in a timely manner.

I have forwarded your message to your local Comcast office for assistance in resolving this matter. Please be assured we will follow-up with this Department to ensure your concerns have been addressed and resolved to your satisfaction.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we address your concerns. If you have any more questions feel free to reply to this e-mail.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Chris
Comcast Customer Care Specialist

I’m not impressed.

I always tell the boys that if they ever need help with homework to call me.  I like to help them with it.  I never liked doing my own homework when I was in school but, I like helping the boys with theirs.

Tonight Scott called me with questions from his sex ed class.  It wasn’t that he didn’t understand something, these were questions that he was told to ask his parents.  While a bit awkward, I answered all the questions to the best of my ability.  I took the oportunity to tell Scott that I was glad he was asking me these questions and I asked him if he was thinking about having sex.  He said no.  I told him that I hoped he would talk to me before he considered doing anything.  It turned out to be a good little talk.  I’m glad neither of us were not too embarassed to talk about sex.  I could have easily ended it with just answering the questions.  Glad I didn’t.

I am a little fed up with Comcast (our local cable and internet provider). Last night I had a tech come in and ‘install’ a High Def DVR. Basically, he plugged it into the wall and tv. For this he gets $42.37. Once he was gone I began tunning to every HD channel I could find. The picture is pretty incredible. About 45 minutes into it I switched channels again to an HD channel and got the “Not Authorized” message that I had always gotten before I stepped up to the HD service. “That’s not right” I thought to myself. I AM authorized! I just paid a dude to be authorized. I have a receipt and everything. Damn. I knew what was coming next. I had to place a call to Comcast and explain what was going on. Hopefully, it would just be something simple, like my account wasn’t updated properly, and it would be fixed.

If only wishing made it so.

I called the 888 number on my non-high-def-allowing screen. I was greated by the ubiquitous automated service. “Please press ’1′ for English…” How about please press 1 for any language BESIDES English because we are going to contine on this line in English! It bugs me, but I’ll save that for another time.

I am on hold for 22 minutes before I get to speak to a human. I explain my situation and we do some troubleshooting. She asks me to read the serial number off the box and verify how the box is connected to the tv. She sends a signal to the box. Nothing happens. She puts me on hold a couple of times. Nothing happens. She suggests that the ticket may not have been closed on my account and that’s why my HD box thinks I shouldn’t be allowed to see HD content. Okay. I’m ready to try whatever may work. “I’ll have to transfer you to the sales department so they can close the ticket” she says.

That would have been okay… if she actually transfered me to sales. I am put on hold for another while. I don’t know how long exactly because according to the Physics of Telephone Customer Service time passes more slowly on my end of the phone than it does on the other. When a woman answers I explain my situation to her and she tells me that I am in the wrong department. I tell her I was supposed to be forwarded to the sales department and she agrees. She tells me I will be put on hold and forwarded to sales.

I am, again, forced to give up another small block of my life waiting for someone with the ability to help me.

Just over fourteen minutes of bad hold music that is so low I wonder if I have been disconnected later I am greeted by another automated routing system. I realize I am not in the sales department but in a queue for people who are moving their cable service to a new address. This is not right! I don’t want service at a different address! I want it HERE!… and I want it in high definition!

After a couple of attempts to get the automated system to route my to someone who won’t try to change my address I hang up. Defeated.

By this time the dogs need to be walked so I take a break and let my ear cool off. I could actually feel my outer ear relaxing as it recovered from well over an hour of suffering a phone pressed against it.

I’m not a quitter. I don’t believe in quitting or giving up. Unless, of course, something is to hard, takes to long, or ceases to hold my interest.

Spirit renewed I dial Comcast, ready for anything. My plan is to get to a human, recount what has transpired up to this point, give them one shot to fix it and then request a new box. I begin by spending the next twenty minutes on hold. Finally, I get someone. I give he the scoop. She does her thing, I do mine. We decide to get me a knew box.

No, believe it or not, this is the part that annoyed me:

“The earliest open appointment I have is for Thursday.”

Not only did I just pay a guy to bring me a defective box (not his fault – it worked when he left) but now I have to wait again. I would have expected and appology and a next day appointment. Or even send the guy back that night. It was a little past 9:00pm and I know they work to 9:00 because my appointment window was 5-9pm.

On a side note, when the install guys came in they brought the DVR and it’s remote and cables in a box. They set the box on my couch to take the DVR and cables out. They hooked up the DVR and I took out the remote to look at it. After everything was done I signed the work order and paid them. Then they walked out the door and left the empty box on my couch.

I’ve done many computer installs, upgrades and setups in people’s houses. Most times I am bringing in components in boxes. When I install the components I am left with empty boxes. I always cleaned up after myself. It’s basic customer service.

Atleast I think so.

Yesterday the boys’ mother called me to let me know our newly thirteen year old son had come across a Playboy magazine and wanted to discuss what we should do about it. Apparently, Scott came across the magazine at Syria’s boyfriend’s house. Not a big deal – he’s of age and has the means to pay for it. When Scott found the magazine apparently George asked Scott if he wanted to have it. Scott said yes. I would have preferred he said “No, thank you. I am not allowed to have those.” But, maybe he didn’t because it was his mother’s boyfriend. From a kid’s point of view, you should be able to trust your mother’s boyfriend’s judgement, right? Syria’s first reaction, and the appropriate one IMO, was to take the magazine away from Scott. I don’t know how she did it or if Scott was even holding the magazine at the time but it was now “… in my possession”, as she said. I asked her if that meant she had it on her or if she gave it back to George (she was calling me from the car). She would not elaborate, only repeating “It is in my possession.” Okay, let’s move on.

It was suggested to her by George that Scott should be allowed to look at the magazine. He reasoned that it would be better for him to see naked women in a magazine than to try and put the moves on a girl.

I’ve heard this argument made before.

I disagree.

Neither one is appropriate for a thirteen year old. Giving into one in the hopes of averting the other is not responsible parenting. Boundries must be set for children by their parents. These boundries are used to develope and guide the childs morals so they grow to become responsible and healthy adults. Ultimately, Syria and I agreed and Scott will not be given free access to adult material.

I explained to Scott that his mother and I do not think it is appropriate for him to see Playboy at his age. I told him I was glad we could talk about the Playboy openly and honestly and that he could always come to me and talk about anything at any time. I told him once he was 18 he would be free to buy the magazine when ever he wanted. He seemed to be more glad the situation was over than disappointed he didn’t get his own copy of Playboy.

You want disappointment? Wait until I explain to him about air brushing .

One thing I do appreciate is, even though we argue alot, Syria is good at keeping me informed about what is going on with the boys.   If it were left to Scott and Aaron to keep me informed all I would know is that school is boring.

I had a really great time with the boys this weekend and their mother and I got along pretty well too.  Over all I’d say it was a success.  It was nice of Syria to drive the boys and I around for the weekend.  She also let me use her car a couple of times.  She spend the nights with her boyfriend giveing me time alone with the boys (and their friends a couple of the nights).  I was worried how things would work out with me staying in her house but it turned out fine.  We got along very well and I think we may be on a track to getting along much better.  We even had a good talk that I think was productive.
I was picked up at the airport by Scott and his mother.  Aaron had decided to spend the night at his friend Alex’s house.  Aaron and Alex are best friends and spend a lot of their free time together which is great for Aaron.  I am glad he has made a friend like that.  I was a bit sad that he didn’t want to come to meet me at the airport but, I understood.  It is a boring drive and wait when picking someone up at the airport.  Plus my flight didn’t get in until 11:30 at night.  I knew I’d see him in the morning anyway.  When we all got back to Syria’s house everyone was pretty tired so we all crashed.

Friday we went to a place they call “The Plaza” which is a shopping district near Kansas City.  It was a pretty cool area.  Syria showed me where Scott had taken a computer graphics class one day a week for about six weeks.  It was put on by the local college.  Right next to the school was where we went shopping.  Our first stop was in a Sharper Image store.  Aaron immediately found a miniature pool table that he wanted.  I told them I would buy them each something for thier birthdays.  Aaron locked on the pool table.  Scott looked at several things but had already decided he wanted some Nintendo DS games for his gift.  When we were ready to move on I told Aaron I would get him the table but wanted to wait until we were ready to go home to purchase it so we didn’t have to lug it all over the place.  I also wanted to give him time to see if he would come across something else he may want more.

Our next stop was Barnes and Nobel.  I told the boys I would buy them what ever book they wanted.  Scott had three he wanted and was having trouble which to choose.  I told him I would be happy to buy him all three.  I told him I am always willing to buy books for them.  Aaron didn’t come up with any books but he did hit on a little Atari joystick that played two old Atari games.  He wanted it.  I recognized  it from the internet.  I had thought about getting it for the boys but wasn’t sure that they would like it.  Now I knew.  And it was in hand.  So I bought it.  Unfortunately, once we got it home it didn’t work.  Bummer.  After B&N we hit Game Stop for Scott’s present choice.  He couldn’t find what he wanted so we departed and went for lunch.  Lunch was good – all of us together and having fun.  It felt nice.

The big event of the weekend was paintball.  I still have not gone thru the pictures I have taken so I have none to post right now.  Maybe tomorrow after work.  Syria had set this up and paid for all the kids.  I had to pay my way and it was the best $25 I spend on myself in a while.  I was egar to try it but not sure if I would really enjoy it.  One cool thing about the paintball area was that it is in an old mine.  Everything undergound.