Windows Closed...

Last night for the first this season, I closed my windows due to the chill.  I'm actually glad we are supposed to warm up a bit & stay in the low 90's for a while.  I want a transition period.  Right now it's chilly & stuffy, not a good combination. I'll probably have to leave a window cracked tonight to let in some fresh air.  Last night the chilled, humid air got pretty thick & unpleasant even with a fan.   

However, this has been good sleeping weather.  Which is always good news.  

Cya

Pissy Utility Companies...

Most of our utilities bills are due around mid month in my area, with the exception the gas bill.  That particular bill is due whenever Little Bunny  Fu-Fu moons the billing department manager at the gas company.  Fu-Fu likes to do his mooning usually between the 8th to the 13th of the month, sometimes as late as the 15th.  But not this month, no Fu-Fu, decided to be a real pain.  He mooned & the bill was due on the 6th.  

Lets take a look at this:

1. Our checks arrive between the 1st & the 3rd
2. The 3rd was Saturday of Labor Day weekend, mail & banks mostly worked a half day at best.
3. The 4th & 5th were the Sunday & Monday of Labor Day weekend, therefore no mail.
4. Tuesday the 6th, the gas bill's due date is the first chance to actually mail the bill after getting in checks.
5. The mail or the electronic option at the bill-pay places in my area would've taken at least 2 days to clear. The bill would have been 2 - 3 days delinquent.
6. The due date cost us 2 days, the holiday costs 2 + days.

Luckily when we were planning our week on Saturday, we noticed the very early due date on the bill & called in the payment.  That was another $4.    The gas company was trying to catch people off guard & get them to screw up their averaging plans, if they were on them.  Many people might not have noticed & kept paying their low late summer gas bills & never known they were no longer averaged until the first big winter bill kicked in & surprised them.

I wold say I was being paranoid, but this isn't the first time the gas company has pulled this crap with us.  A little over a year ago, we posted a bill & cleared one day late.  We weren't notified or issued a late charge.  Instead the next month were issued a bill for $0 & having a slight credit.  They had knocked us off the average plan & never informed us.  My roomie called them & they informed her that we were no longer averaged & if we wished to be back on the plan we'd have to pay the money we would've actually owed them for the month.  We got back on averaging & up til this month we've stayed on top of the gas bill & it's ever changing due date.

This may sound like a little thing, but to have to constantly worry about this bill is frustrating.  I know we could use direct billing.  However, if the due date is before our checks arrive, we'd be out the overdraft money.   I hate my gas  company for this stupid bill date issue of theirs. AOG representatives aren't that easy to deal with either.  When you go to pay a bill via phone, they'll charge you extra just to talk to a person instead of a computer.

Oh well, it's paid.

Cya

Finally, A Chill...

I woke this morning to a chill in the air.  Weird, considering two days ago I had on the AC.  I hope the weather doesn't just hop from hella hot to wickedly cold.  For once I'd like to transition between the seasons.  We haven't had transition periods this year.  It started off frigid, then flooded, then cyclonic, then beyond hot & now nippy.

Oh well, I do gripe a lot about the weather.  But, the weather really messes with my health.  It screws with my sleep & just about every aspect of my life.  When you're +, you try to control the things you can, but there are a lot of things you just have no influence over.

Maybe it will warm back up a bit once, Tropical Storm Lee is done & we can actually get some mellow weather for a while.  

Cya

Being Botted...

On August 29th I did a short post, because my internet provider was being crappy due to some minor bad weather.  A sneeze is enough to knock out my cable internet.  I unfortunately am a Suddenlink user, it's all that's available in my area that isn't DSL.  A person my roomie chats with lives in the path Hurricane Irene took into New Jersey & not once did she lose here internet connection.  The gist of my original post was that her connection stayed on during a hurricane & mine died out due to some thunder.  I cut my post short that day because the net kept flickering in & out.

It's a done deal or so I thought.  Come Friday, September 2nd this comment arrived:

Suddenlink Ashley said...

Hi – my name is Ashley, and I’m with Suddenlink. I’m sorry to hear about your recent issues with your high speed internet. I’d be happy to work with management in your area to resolve. Please feel free to contact me directly at: ashley-AT-suddenlink-DOT-com. Thank you.

At first I thought OK, then it hit me, Suddenlink Ashley isn't one of my followers.   How did she find my post in the first place.  So, I googled  words & concepts from my short post.  I crossed them with the word Suddenlink & still nothing.  I kept searching & then it hit me that I had used another name for my provider in the post, a common put-down from Suddenlink is Suddenstink.  Believe me in my area, the ladder is far more applicable. 

Then I thought, they have people or bots running searches on the word suddenstink & then react to them.   They probably think they're trying to do some damage control, but actually it was just sort of creepy. I may get another comment from Ashley or another Suddenlink searcher, but I won't bother replying to them.

The reason is simple.  I have spent hours over the years talking to Suddenlink's tech people.  This has solved nothing.  If my net goes out & I call them, my town & the surrounding areas are always on the list of affected areas.  However, there are about three other areas that are almost always on that list as well & they are no where near me.  The problem with the cable internet in my area & most likely those other areas is simple.  The cable the net runs on was installed somewhere in the 1980's.  It's 25+ frickin' years old & they won't replace the cable or the outside boxes.  When something screws up, they do some form of patch job on the issue & cross their fingers it holds for more than a week.

Suddenlink's problem is easy, they're too cheap to fix the cables in my area.  These cables have been owned by at least four different cable providers & only the first one installed new cable.  If this company wants my area to be happy with it, then replace the lines.

Hope you guys have a better cable company than I do.

Cya

3/4 Of The Way There...

It is the eighth month anniversary of this blog.  Wow.  I am so surprised I kept this thing going.  I am amazed that it got anything posted to it during all this heat.  Then again, I mostly just griped about the heat.  

This has been a busy week.

• My birthday
• The start of the month
• Bills are arriving
• This blog's anniversary

I'm sure there are other things, but those are the one's that came to mind right at the moment.  The point is this month is off & running.  I am sincerely hoping for my sake & this blogs, that September is kinder than the previous months have been.

Some of you might think acknowledging the little things in your life, like my getting this far in my blog, is a silly thing.  I disagree, if  you don't recognize your accomplishments, then who will?  

Have a great day

Cya

September...

I didn't really welcome the month in appropriately yesterday.  But September is here & hopefully it will bring good things for me like:

• Children being back in school & not at the stores while I shop
• Lower temperatures
• New & Improved TV.  The commercials say it's all better than ever, so who I am I not to buy the hype
• Maybe a little rain
• Better moods due to better weather

September is my birth month & I get along with it much better than my birthday.  September brings the harvest & pre-Halloween goodies like Carnivals & State Fairs.  September brings in my adult favorite season, Fall.  As a kid it was Summer, but that season & I have had a falling out.

I hope September brings good things for you.

Cya

Da Dum...

Today is a day that I am not overly fond of at all.  Today is my birthday.  The reason I dislike this day has nothing to do with my actual age.  I'm not that into arbitrary numbers.

The reason is because I've just never really identified with this day or had it be that identified with me.  Growing up, my birthday was always supplanted by Labor Day weekend activities.  If school was actually in session, it was just beginning & no one would have had time to get into the swing of birthdays at school again.  If someone did acknowledge my birthday as a child, it was in the manner they choose & really had little to do with me.

As I got older things didn't change much in regards to this day.  It was a day of other people's activities & a day when a lot of crap just seemed to go wrong for me.  I may have been born on the first of September, but it certainly was not my day.

I've never been a big fan of holidays, I've gotten better with the other "non-me" ones, but I'm still not a fan of this day.  It's just a reminder that I don't identify with it & maybe I don't relate to the age issue, because I never envision myself as my age & never have.   I've never envisioned myself as the person who is physically in this world at that moment.  I just haven't.

Annoying to bad things happen on or around my birthday.  Tires need replaced, parents go on hiatus, pets pass away, etc...  Even when I try to make the best of the day, it seems to flop.  There isn't anyone around to do anything with, the funds are drastically low or there just isn't anything I want to go do.  I've got enough junk, I don't need or even really want any particular thing.  

I guess the only thing I want, is for this day to go away as fast as possible.  The longer it's here, the worse things are apt to get.   If the days on the calendar had Facebook pages, September the first, would not liked by me.  

Wake when it's the second...

Cya