Tech Support Yeah Right!

Sunday night 12/21/08 We experienced A real cold snap. Temps went down to single digits. After I got home, power cam back up and I found out that I had lost both cable and internet. Called my supplier whom I will leave nameless right now, but not blameless. Hear that RR? Anyway, I digress. Called them up to report loss of cable. Once they determined what account I was speaking of, ( a story in itself) The agreed that there is an outage in my area, and they have A tech ( a, one, singular) working in the area, and will get to it ASAP. Hear that one before have you? Well, was already after 1 AM so i called it a night. next morning, no cable. Go figure!

So, called once again, and of course, all you get is the automated answering service. Press 1 for tech support etc. etc. Once I press 1, the phone disconnects. Tried and tried and tried again with same results. Well, tried cable at around noon, when I got home from errands, and woo hoo, had cable. Alas, still no internet. So, near 2 PM called the dreaded 877 number again, and went to #1 for tech support, and #1 again for automated help where comp talks to you,and you answer after you do what it asks to reboot. Even went as far as being instructed to go thru as far as Command Prompt. I know, Ree, all you hear is Blah Blah Blah, but stick with me. After all that failed, all told about 10 minutes of this, I got a real honest to god person. They went thru the whole script again, word for word with the computer generated one. When that failed, I got switched to the dreaded further "TECH SUPPORT" Now, am connected to a person half way around the world, who has barely passable English.

Now I am in a world of deep doo doo. After repeated failed attempts of them trying to fix it from their end, and with me seeing absolutely no change on my modem, I again remind them that this is the Erie account and not the Ohio account. Oh, Did not see that! Was their response. Sorry Ron, Ree, and Phil if you got interrupted Monday afternoon. 38:53 minutes into the call, eating up the cell minutes, my phone died due to lack of battery power. If I could have reached out to touch someone, I would have throttled them at this point! I gave up for the day just to calm down and regroup.

Bit the bullet once again and made the dreaded call again, and was put on hold for 12 minutes the first time, and hung up with out getting to a live person. Called back again, atleast this was after 9:01 PM so was on free time for the phone. Went thru live operator number 1 again with no positive results, and they said with their syrupy joyful tone thanking me for being a proud customer of their service again, before they transferred me around the world again. After hurdling the language barrier once again, we finally got it up and running. Fingers crossed this never happens again. I am just waiting now for their call back to see how stellar their rr tech service is. They so seem to want to be praised! My personal opinion right now is that they are knuckle draggers. Their arms are so long from patting themselves on the back congratulating themselves on how great their service is, is how I feel they earned the nic of knuckle draggers.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant and raves

Careful In Winter Driving Safety Tips

Here are some things not to do with winter driving. The car on the right was tail gating too closely to a semi. As you can see, he kissed the rear end rather hard. I'll wager he gave a big Homer Simpson, DOH!" when that happened. I'd assume the semi never even knew that it had been kissed from behind. Do not take your eyes off of the road. Pay attention to where you are at all times. Here, someone had crossed the center-line of the road, crossed someones driveway and is now straddling a ditch. Good Idea! Do not drive yourself home. get some one to pick you up. No apparent damage other than the car is ditched. I have been saving these to add on here all at one time. I was going to come up with some witty caption, but I guess the pictures say more than I ever could.

Change Of Seasons, A Comparison

Not much new has been going on with me. Just have had a run of bad luck lately with the weather. It seems as though each time I work I get snowed upon. Last Sunday we had a Lake Effect snow, and I had to dig out my car before I could even get in it. I was off until Thursday, and again a Lake Effect hit us again both on Thursday and Friday. Looking at this snow fall, I went retro in my mind. Looking back at some photos I just took a month ago, It is hard to believe how much change came about in such a small amount of time. Here is a photo I took in October.

For comparison, the next one is one I took on 11/21/08 on my way into work. Both are taken from almost the same spot. All leaves are gone, and snow covers all.





The last will show that even when winter hits, there still can be beauty in White.

First Snowfall

This morning, Thursday was our first real snowfall. Although not much was visible in town, when I went outside to find slush on my windshield. In town, Nothing to speak of on the ground. You had to really look in the grass to see the snow until the sun comes out. I was on the highway all the way into NY state up on I-90, but no snow.

As it go to be time to go to work, and I was travelling West on Robison Rd, there was snow covering the whole grass. I got to work, and it was almost up to 50, and snow was melting, but, I can say that we had snow. This is first claim from my family. I know that Meadville got it worse, but I posted first. lol

First Scraping

This morning 10/19/08 was our first frost in the city. When I went outside at ten minutes to 8 this morning, I saw frost on my windshield. It was listed as 34 degrees. So, I went in and turned on the car, and started the defrosters. It sure is a sign that fall has arrived. The trees are now past thier prime for color changing, and the fish are coming upstream to spawn. Brrr, first clue this morning was inside of house temperature was only 59 degrees. No wonder I was so far under my blankets.

Rather than create another blog, I will just change the subject but still add here. Another era is coming to a close. Since we have had trouble at work with our antenna for broadcasting, we have been on reduced power. We were no longer broadcasting digital, and only were getting our programs out over cable television. Well, the repairs are in progress, and the damage was worse that at first expected. We do have a temporary antenna on our tower, and it is about half way up our mast. Although we are giving it full power, we are not broadcasting at full power. We are below 40%. We are back to digital and cable, but, not analog. The complete repairs will take approx two more months to complete. Since this now brings us so close to February, we have applied with the FCC to allow us to discontinue analog broadcasting.

That means that you will need those digital converter boxes or cable or have a television with digital reception tuners, you will no longer see us with the old TV sets with rabbit ears. We will be shutting down our analog transmitters for the last time sometime next week.

End Of An Era

As of Sept 30, 2008. a local landmark has disappeared. Forever it seems when I was growing up, we could always call a phone number 24 hours a day and 7 days a week Holidays included and get this friendly voice giving us our local time and temperature. It was 452-6311. You always could rely on that voice to give you a sense of security. Even when away, if you got a little homesick, you could call it long distance at the area code 814 and get a taste of home. Now, there is a new automated voice saying that Verizon has canceled this service, but they do give the time and current temp.

It is just not the same, and there is no telling how long even this one will stay. It is no where as friendly. I have to admit, anytime I get a phone call at home, and on the other side of the line I hear a computer generated voice, I do not listen any further than that. I hang up. I do not know how many millions of dollars I may have due me, or what a great deal someone will have for me, I will not listen any further. I just hang up. If you cannot make the time to dial me direct, then you must not really want to talk with me.

Maybe this is just MY HANG UP?

We Question and LearN

At work, we suffered a cut back. On Monday morning, we experienced power problems. Our viewing audience really shrank in numbers. This may not be storm related. Just last week, we started to broadcast digital at 20 KW of power. This was to be our new high limit for viewing. Everything was hunky dorry until Monday morning.

It seems that the best power out put we can establish in analog is only about 10% and 40% for digital. We need an outside consultant team to come in and aid us with this one. They cannot arrive locally until no sooner than Friday morning.

Until then, the only people who can see us are the ones who live under our immediate broadcast umbrella, and those on analog cable systems. Normal digital cable as well as digital receivers are currently kaput. So, total number of people paying attention are in the low hundreds. So much for reaching out to the masses.

Our current situation has also angered a politician. he feels that we are denying him equal time for broadcast. He came up to protest his outrage. Hmm, somehow, I do not think he got the concept of us. No wonder why I would never vote for him anyway. More later as this develops, or gets cured.

911 Police....What Is Your Emergency?

Tonight, Friday had a strange ending. As I was exiting work late, it was just shy of 1 AM, I locked up the building and with alarms set, I departed the building. Mind you, the building is now locked, and alarms are set. I exit the front doors, and the key I was issued unlocks a side door. Anyway, as I was walking to my car, I always do a look around of the lot. Recently, all out door lights have been brought up to working order. Well, I espied a jeep in the lot that should not be there. There is a policy stating that if you are going to leave a vehicle in the lot over night, or for the week, you are supposed to notify the Master Control Operators so they know when they depart the building.

After I climb into my car and start it up, I pull over to this jeep. It is one of those small ones like maybe a CJ-5. As I near, i turn on high beams to be able to look into the vehicle. if it is only teenagers parking, you see the heads pop up, and almost instantly, the car starts up as they fumble around in their seats. This time that is not what had happened. I saw a head pop up facing away from me, and immediately it went down, and would not move even though I was less than 10 feet away from it. I did not feel comfortable about approaching this one. So, I just backed away and started out of the lot.

As many of you know where I work, our driveway is not the easiest to find. Our driveway is 2/10ths of a mile back into the woods. I did not like the idea of a possible confrontation back there where no one would either hear or see any thing. Cowardice is the better part of valor. As I got out to Channel 24's lot, I backed into thier drive and called 911. I said it is not an immediate life or death emergency, but I was not comfortable about rousting this individual. After determining that I was in the jurisdiction of the State Police, I was transferred over to them, and gave my report again. They asked what I was driving, and what the other car was. they asked me for the plate number of the other car, and low and behold, I never checked! What an observant person I am. I saw the jeep, and could describe it, but i never looked at the plate.

Anyway, after about 14 minutes, a State Police cruiser with two troupers in it comes in. They ask me if I want to wait to see what they find out, and i did not want the culprit to see my car again, soI said no. They asked about alternate ways out, and I said there were none, and I gave a diagram of the lots, as well as where they could find them. After that, I was on my way. Hopefully, it was just some homeless person looking for a quiet night, but I must admit, it is hard to find our driveway especially after dark. I have had to visit like Wall Mart and I see cars parked over night there all the time. I just wish they would go there instead of our lot. If there is an update, I will post a follow up.

Safe Arrival....Was There Any Doubt

Yesterday, Saturday, Mr Phil and I arrived in Lorain Ohio at just about the time we imagined we would. it was just after the noon hour. Out day started out crappy. I mean that literally! We had to parallel park in a nose in space because of the trailer. Alas, we were under a tree that all the birds used to roost for the night. It is my belief that they took an inordinate amount in pleasure in bird bomb washing the vehicles. What a mess, and thick too!

Once we got on the road and to a gas station, it took me at least 15 t0 20 minutes just to clear the windshields. No Lie! But, I do have to admit that that was the worst of the troubles that we experienced. Thursday night, we stopped earlier than we originally intended because our destination of South bend Indiana was all booked for a Notre Dame home football game. Even the more expensive rooms going up to the 250 a night range were booked. The above pic was taken on our final morning on the road. We departed for Cleveland about 6:30 a.m.

After about an hour, we had stopped to top off the gas tank and enjoy some breakfast. From there, we were on our final push. We arrived like I said just after noon.

Cruizin' With Mr. Phil

On this mornings adventure, we realized that we had passed the half way mark in our current journey. It may not have been at the Continental Divide which we had crossed the day before, but, it was our midway point none the less. You can tell that the trip is starting to take it's toll. Neither of us wanted to drive this morning so we both said F it. We set the cruise control, and climbed into the back seat to enjoy the view. What a change of scenery from when you arrive in Denver out of the mountains, and enter onto the flat plains. It is so flat and straight that it becomes routine and boring where the scenery doesn't change much. Only way we knew we arrived was when the damned female voice on Mr. Phil's Garmin kept screeching, " Turn left, Turn Left, Recalculating," so many times that we HAD to go back into the front seat to see what was going on. The pic for my caption today shows just where we were. Look at the sign just above the doors into the store.

I think I can, I think I can

Today is the second day of our driving journey heading Eastwards. on our first day, we went approx 550 miles total, with a short stop in Las Vegas. I have to admit, while driving a full sized van, pulling a 12' U-Haul trailer, driving the "strip" wasn't on the books. Besides all the traffic, there was a lot of ongoing construction. we did stop and travel inside North Las Vegas to get some gas, and play some slots. After this, we progressed to Cedar City Utah. There was some mountain climbing involved this day!

On Wednesday, we got a very early breakfast, and were on the road before 7:30 AM. We were on our way thru Utah with a goal of reaching Denver Colorado before nightfall. Well, let me tell you, we did some serious mountain climbing today. There were plenty of times, with the load we had behind us, the van was a little huffing, and puffing. As we slowed down as slow as 30 MPH, I started saying my Mantra, "I think we can, I think we can, I pray we can!" Starting out in the morning, using Phil's Garmin, it showed an approximate arrival time. From the beginning one, we only arrived about an hour later than we had thought. We had stopped for gas, twice, and had climbed to about 11,ooo ft above sea level. So, with a lot of sweat, we did arrive! The worst of the driving should now be over. The monotonous part still faces us. We are two and a half days away from Lorain Ohio! I still say my mantra, " I think we can, I think we can, and am starting on the new verse, I know we can!"

Adapt And Overcome

We had the best intentions with the start of our day! We were to go to The Ronald Reagan memorial Library. I wanted to go see, and walk thru the old Air Force One. It was a Boeing 707 at the time he was president. The current Air Force One is a Boeing 747. It just so happened that the aircraft was put on permanent exhibit at the Library. Actually, you can dine under it. Well, as with all the best laid plans, contingencies to arise. We got up early, and had breakfast, and animals fed for the day, and off we were by around 9 A.M. The Library opens at 10, and we were right on schedule. We left Upper Ojai, and went to Santa Paula, and from there, headed towards Fillmore where we would head over to Simi Valley where the Library is.

Just as we turned to head across the valley, we experienced a real weird noise. It increased as we sped up. In just over a block, we stopped to inspect what was wrong. We lost a tire. we were riding on rims. Not good. Who Ya Gonna Call? AAA That's who. Mind you, this happened on a Sunday. And not only that, it took quite some time for the AAA guy to even show up. It ended up that we needed a new tire. The AAA guy had shown up with just a s-10 sized pick-up. he was equipped to change a tire, but not much else. So, he had to go and get another truck to tow us. Now it is after noon already and the tire place closes at 1 P.M. That, and he can only take up to two passengers. Cathie and I decided to walk. It was approximately a mile or so to the tire place. Mind you, it is already getting pretty warm outside.

The car is dropped off, and they start on the car at around 12:20. Cathie had two tires that were going on the front, and she just decided that as long as we were there, they should replace all four. That job being done, we discussed our latest options. LUNCH! We stopped into IHOP, and had some lunch and thought about what were going to do then with the rest of the day. A call of making a batch of Punch was floored, seconded, and was given unanimous approval. As we got to the grocery store, we saw a movie theater and saw that we had time to see a movie. Tropical Thunder! After that, we gathered groceries, and fixin's, and headed back home. Mixed the batch, and then prepared dinner. After a few samplings to check on Quality Control, dinner was made, served, and devoured. we each took a glass of further quality control before calling it a day.

Who knows what our plans and or circumstances will bring us for tomorrow.

Sunday Will BE A Day Of Rest

Today, Saturday, after taking a day off and just kicking back, was the day that was payback for that. Earlier in the week, the temp never did rise much above the high 70's. Today was packing day. Mr. Phil and I went and picked up the U-haul trailer and went to storage unit and started to pack up "Stuff." We got about half the trailer filled, and the unit empty before noon. Then it was back to the house to finish. This was the killer time. The temp had climbed to high 80's and the humidity was high as well. Unusual for here. Wish I had some gills to help breathe. Just like a sauna. After loading it up to the gills, we headed up to Ojai. Got there just after 4 PM. Not too bad for just the two of us loading it all. Work is done, and we are kicking back for the rest of the day. Whew! For Tuesday, we depart California.

A little side note, as a group, the four of us intend on going to Pres. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library either Sun or Mon. Last little thought, the picture at the top is the view I see from my bedroom window each morning.

Today is another day

I have been here a few days, and have kept busy. Today is my goof off day. I will have pics to share. Today is the first day it really got hot outside. It went up to 97 just after lunch. the rest of the week had been foggy, and cool. No warmer than back at home.

First Edition

This is the first entry for my vacation and elsewhere from there. Hopefully, I will continue with updates and stuff that is going on with me, and also my rants and raves as they happen. Maybe I will get you to think, or smile, or just plain disagree with me. Give feed back, and we will see where it goes from there.