Wednesday, September 21, 2011

One Bag At A Time

Today we had all the supplies delivered for the fence. I am finally going to finish putting a fence along the back of the yard. However, everything came on a skid and they wouldn't bring it around to where I wanted it put behind the garage, so instead they offloaded everything on the side of the driveway. And it was all still in boxes, so all the panels and posts needed to be taken out in order to move them all. That actually didn't take too long, only about 15 minutes.

What took forever though was moving the bags of concrete; 40 bags, 50 pounds each. Because I didn't want them sitting on the ground until I got the post holes dug and everything lined up so I could set the posts, I had to unload the skid, take the skid into the backyard, and then move the bags one at a time back to the skid and restack them. Actually I was able to move four bags at a time in my wheelbarrow, but I still had to load it up and then unload it again. This took me a little time, to do and I actually finished in the dark. I will end up having to bust up the skids later and just leaned them up against the side of the garage. Hopefully no one will walk by and have them fall on their head until I get them busted up.

Fixing a Tooth

I went to have a tooth semi-fixed today. For about the last 6 or 8 months it had been bothering me, but there was nothing showing up in the x-rays and the dentist didn't see a cavity. The last time I was there he sort of ground it down just a bit as there was a high spot and he thought that may be what was causing the trouble. Well it was still bugging me so I went back a couple of weeks ago. I saw the other dentist in the partnership (actually the one I prefer) and he too said he didn't see anything but he scheduled me to have a temporary crown put on. He was thinking that I may have a small crack in the tooth and that was the cause of the pain I was having.

It seems to have done the trick (the temporary crown) because the sensitivity to hot & cold etc. is gone. There is still some discomfort, but I think that may be from the shots I got to numb things. I think that it'll take some time to fully evaluate it, but if this works it'll eliminate the need for a root canal, which is a good thing. The next step will be going back, hopefully in about a month, to have a permanent crown put on.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Insurance Company

In case you weren't aware, insurance companies suck. NO really, they SUCK!

It is almost time for our insurance to renew, so we have been shopping around, getting quotes. We were having State Farm give us a quote and they told us there was a claim against me for almost $700 from back when I got in my accident in February. So I ended up calling to find out what the deal was, since I had canceled the claim I was making and just took care of the repairs to the Lancer out of my pocket.

I came to discover, the lady that hit me filed a claim for repairs to her car. This after she decided there was no damage to her car and left before the cop showed up. I didn't get a ticket, so I ask, how is this my fault, especially when she claimed there was nothing wrong with her car. Now aside from that, I wanted to know how this happened and I wasn't aware of it at all. Had there been anything wrong with her car, I should have expected that someone at Traveler's Insurance should have at least contacted me and let me know that this was happening. I mean I should at least know what is going onto my record, and not get a surprise.

So this left a very bad taste in my mouth. Usually we hadn't had that much trouble with Travelers, but the attitude I got from the adjuster I was talking to about this was the last straw. We are going to be switching insurance companies. We'll pay a little more per year, but there is something to be said for good service.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Technical Support

My replacement DVR box showed up on Friday. I happened to take it out of the box and plugged it in right away. After it was all hooked up and not working, I looked at the packing slip... DO NOT install your new equipment prior to 8:00 on 9/6/11. OOPS! I tried calling AT & T to see if there was something they could do. I mean, what is the use of having the thing sit here for four days before I can use it? Well the tech support guy (Orlando) was nice enough, and he explained that there really wasn't anything he, or the technical support department could do, so I guess I just have to wait. Man, what a drag!

At least the old DVR is working for now and I can at least record a thing or two until the new box becomes operational.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Hole In One

I had been promising to take the girls mini golfing for a while so today I finally get things done around here so that we had a little free time to go. We went early (right after lunch), and there was practically no one there. Unfortunately, as soon as we walked up, a group of people came out of the clubhouse by the driving range and walked over to the mini golf shack. There were nine people, and there were three little kids with them. When I say little, I mean about 7 years old or less. This really put a crimp in our day as we had to wait for these people at just about every hole. The polite thing would have been to let us play through, but of course, I say it would have been the POLITE thing to do. If you would have seen these people, you would know how absurd it would be to use the word polite with respect to them.

So anyway, we trudged though, which allowed me to actually give Alison a little help. Sarah was way too cool to accept help from her dad. In the end, Sarah beat Alison by three strokes, and all because Ali was rushing her shots on the final hole, and she ended up taking a 9. Sarah took a 3. Game over. I hate to brag but I smoked them both, though even I ended up 4 over par.

One last thing to note... At the end, there is a hole where you shoot your ball up a ramp and over a water hazard onto an island. Getting a hole in one wins a free game. Well, I ended up dropping it in the hole. it really was a thing of beauty. I'll end up letting one of the girls use it. Maybe I'll take them again this weekend after Sarah's football game. This time I'll just observe I think.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Dead Box

Our DVR box has been having problems. Last week it reset itself, just out of the blue and I couldn't get it working again for about an hour. Today, just as we were getting ready to take Alison to school it did it again. I left it figuring I would try resetting it again when we got home. Then Kris told me that it had happened a couple of days earlier as well, for a total of three times in a week.

When we got home from running around at about 1:00, I turned it on, and it still wasn't working, so I did the unthinkable, I called technical support. Ultimately it turns out there are "hardware problems" with the box and it will need to be replaced. AT & T will be sending me one but in teh mean time I will need to make due.

I switched boxes with the one in the basement, and everything seems fine. And wouldn't you know, as soon as I plugged the DVR box in downstairs, it started working again. The only thing is that it wiped out everything we had saved. I guess it is no big loss, most everything was "kid TV".

They told me that it would take two business days to get here, which means probably by Monday it'll be here. I hope it makes it through the long weekend.