It’s official. I’ve broken the quarter-million mark. 17 October 2004 was the start date. I passed the quarter million mark 2 Jan 2010. Congratulations to me. And thanks to all of you for putting up with this blog listening to what I have to say and sometimes even commenting on it. And now on with the blog because that’s why both all of you are here reading.
I’ll start with today’s meltdown. My satellite signal had dropped below what was acceptable for continuity of signal and I started losing channels. This happened in November and they blamed the trees. I had them all trimmed at great expense, I might add as some of them are very tall palms that tower over my two storey house. That did, indeed, help a little. It began getting worse and around 18 December so I called again and they said a tech would call me back. That never happened and since I was off to London, it didn’t much concern me. I came back to basically no television at all with many channels not working. (If you have DirecTV can you tell me if you get 366 — they tell me it’s not a valid channel though it’s listed on my receiver and my program guide, but the channel is totally black.)
I called again and they set up an appointment for today. I had to miss work but I need my DirecTV so I decided to tough it out and they gave me the 8 to 10 slot, wherein I requested the first stop of the day. I got a call at 915am from the tech saying he would be here at 1130. Pissed, I went off to do my grocery shopping for the day. I returned, diddled around online, watched BBCA which was still working, and bided my time. At 1130 he called and said he was still at the previous job due to a delay and wasn’t sure when he’d be here. I called in and raised all holy hell, finally telling them to cancel my service. They transferred me to “customer retention” who offered to pay my whole month of service excluding tax. They said the guy was on the way. From Texas apparently, showing up at 12:58. I start work at 7 or 730 so I’ve already wasted a good part of my workday. (I do not fault the tech for this. He’s doing his job.) We trim another branch using his ladder and a hand saw because he’s sure that’s the problem. It’s not. As it turns out, the problem is that the dish bracket has come loose and it won’t stay in one place. He tightens it. We get 98% on three satellites and 70% on two. That’s enough to give me signal and I’m working again (except for 366 — not that I care but it’s just an irritant that one channel doesn’t work.) I leave for work arriving at 205pm. Seriously. We close at 5pm.
I try to get caught up all day to no avail and will be in extra early tomorrow to try and make up for my lost seven hours. We also now have an additional feature on our credit card machine wherein the operator of the machine has to enter a code to run a card. We had one card run twice last month in error. It’s not that big of a deal and we gave the guy his money back as soon as we were made aware of it. But everyone denied doing it, so now everything will have a name associated with it. Speaking of credit cards, it still amazes me that US issued cards don’t have smart chips with PIN numbers.
Speaking of London, there’s this article from Business Travel which lists “Business Travel Innovation of the decade” with on-line check-on winning. I am mystified by one entry on the list (EuroStar) as that started in 1994, but maybe they were confused? Survey respondents also made a list of demands for the future to further enhance their enjoyment of business travel. Top of the list is speed with travellers calling for faster security, check in, and immigration processes. This was followed by the invention of a miracle child silencer, and supersonic aircraft. I am definitely for the miracle child silencer. Fine idea.
Metro ran an article about Joseph Squires. The sole reason I linked to this article is that you rarely get to use the word ‘buggery’ in a legitimate news article. Twice. That is worthy of recognition.
Sad Update To Today’s Entry: A special word of condolences to my longest tenured friend — since I moved to Miami at the start of junior high — Steve Kovacs who lost his father today. Many of you know him and if you need contact details, let me know. The viewing is tomorrow, funeral Friday, In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:
The Marine Corps League
In Memory of Frank J. Kovacs Jr.
14330 Kendale Lakes Drive
Miami, FL 33183