Frustration and A Little Success

Yesterday had its irritations and some good things also happened. I
got my haircut at Hair We R. It is a shop right on Main St. in the old
part of Frisco. They lady who owns the shop told me her mother owned
the shop for many years and retired at age 72. Diane, the owner of the
shop, grew up in Frisco. She had many interesting stories about what
it was like when the population was under 2,000. The shop reminded me
of the shop that was in the movie, Steel Magnolias. I liked my haircut
so I made an appointment to go back in four weeks.

I got a hold of my insurance company and they faxed my windstorm
exclusion form to me without problem. I signed it and faxed it back.
Later in the day I was scared when I opened my mail and saw notice of
the cancellation of the homeowners policy on the Beaumont house. I was
afraid the house was without insurance because the way I understood
it, they would not issue the fire policy until they had received the
signed windstorm exclusion form from me. I called to make sure they
received the fax and they would issue the new policy immediately. They
reassured me that the house was covered. They just were not releasing
the policy until they had the form. The representative checked, and
she said they had the form so the policy will be mailed to me.

After the haircut I went to the IKEA store to try their 99 cent
breakfast with free coffee. The breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs,
hash brown potatoes and two strips of bacon. It was really good. I
heard on NPR radio a story about how popular the special breakfast is
in Europe. Senior citizens line up every morning for the breakfast.
The only problem is they do not start serving the breakfast until
9:30. I get up so early that is too late for me. On Friday I have to
fast before going to the doctor's office for blood work at 9 AM. I
think I will go back to the IKEA store and have another breakfast.

When I came back home, an AT&T technician knocked on the door and told
me that the phone and Internet might go off several times during the
day. They were doing permanent repairs to the cut lines. The
previous day the technician had done a temporary repair. This guy was
really nice. He is trying to establish good customer relations in the
neighborhood. He gave me his cell phone number.

Then the trouble started with AT&T. I called to try and find out why I
was not able to call into CallNotes and set up the voice mail. They
played ping pong with me. I was on the phone with them for over an hour
and a half. They finally told me that CallNotes was not available in
my neighborhood. They said I could pay $30 more a month for a metro
line to get CallNotes to work. I told them if it does not work why is
it in the package you are selling to Frisco Lakes residents? They said
they made a mistake. They said they would take it off of my package
and reduce my charge by $2/month. I just know there will be a big
hassle when I see the first bill.

The nice technician came back to the door, and I vented my
frustration. He said he would check into it and see if there was a way
to make CallNotes work in this area. Later in the afternoon he came
back and said at this time it was right that CallNotes would not work.
This area is new territory for them with fiber going direct to each
house. Later in the afternoon he came back and said he had called. He
said the problem is they are lacking some kind of software interface
between the fiber and their switching equipment. He said he thought it
was just a matter of time until the issue is resolved.

AT&T hired a contractor to dig and bury the new lines they were
putting in. They messed up the sprinkler system of the neighbors two
houses down. He is coming up this morning to see if mine is damaged
too. I am glad I have the cell phone number of the technician. I will
give the number to my neighbor. They have not signed up for AT&T
service yet. They are getting by with their cell phones.

Then I noticed that the grandfather clock was not chiming properly.
The quarter hour chimes were 15 minutes out of sync. The hour strikes
at 45 minutes past the hour. The clock has a self correcting feature
on the quarter hour chimes. I have the original instruction manual. I
can temporarily advance the hands, but the self-correcting feature
reverts to 15 minutes off. I called the man who set the clock up. He
said to take notes on just what it is doing and call him back
tonight. He will come out again on Friday.

My next door neighbor came over and invited me to come to their house
for dessert yesterday evening at 6 PM. She also invited the neighbors
on the other side of them. It was good to get out and have a little
human contact. They have their problems too. I got really frightened
when she showed me this awful hole in the kitchen cabinets. Both
couples have the smaller Cambridge model house. I sat there and
wondered if I had an awful place in my cabinets. As soon as I got back
home I checked my cabinets. They did not repeat that mess in the
Walden.

I have decided I am no longer human. I haven't decide whether I am a
guinea pig, laboratory rat or rhesus monkey. All I know is I am some
kind of test animal for Del Webb/Pulte by being in Phase 1 of Frisco
Lakes. We are blazing the trail for future residents, and they should
not have as many problems.

Yesterday was trash day. The City did not pick up. I think the reason
is that their truck cannot get on the streets which are so clogged with
construction vehicles. I started taking my packing paper and flattened
boxes out to the construction trash dumpsters. If you have never had
the packing done by a moving company, it would be impossible for you
to imagine the mountains of unprinted newsprint paper that they use in
the boxes. I am straightening the paper out and stacking it, but still
it is a tremendous volume. I am short and can barely reach up to the
top of the dumpster to drop the paper and flattened boxes in. The
dumpster was getting full. I was afraid if the wind comes up the paper
might fly all over the street. Because of me sprinklers have been
damaged, and now I don't want to paper the neighborhood.

After I came home from the neighbors, I started to work on the boxes
in the kitchen. I emptied all but two. I found my Senseo coffee
machine. I had a cup of coffee this morning in one of my Disneyland
Paris mugs. I brought the mugs with me in the car. I found the manual
for the dishwasher. Meagan did not put it in the drawer with the other
manuals. I also found my gigantic box of Cascade that I bought at Sams
Club. As soon as I read enough of the manual to know the proper way to
add Cascade, I will be running the dishwasher all day. It is good that
I have hot water now.

The packing job of my kitchen equipment was atrocious.. This was the
fourth time I have had professional packing, and it was absolutely the
worst. Always before the top of any bottles were taped to make sure of
no leakage. This idiot did none of that. A bottle of Hoover FloorMate
cleaner leaked. I could smell something as soon as I opened the box. I
knew I had a problem. He packed my Krups coffee maker with the glass
coffee pot still in place without wrapping it. Again he made no
attempt to keep things together. I found kitchen tools that were in
special Rubbermaid drawer organizers all moved around and separated in
different boxes from the way I kept them. I am getting angry just
writing this. This is absolutely my last move.

My neighbors told me they went up to the sales center and signed the
form for the satellite dish approval after the fact. They said they
got immediate approval and the representative was very nice. I have
been dragging my feet on that because I am too fragile right now to
handle any kind of rebuke. My neighbors reassured me that my dish is
really in an unobtrusive location. It is right behind a tree. When the
tree grows, the dish will be concealed from the street. At least the
dish seems to be working. I have not had time to play with the DVR. I
have never had TiVo so this is also something new for me.

It was after midnight when I finally went to bed.