Tuesday, July 04, 2006
I’ve got to write things down as they occur…
…or I end up missing or confusing some of the finer details that otherwise should be included, so I know that what I wrote actually occurred and was not just some figment of my already overactive and somewhat fatigue induced imagination. Whoa! Is it me or were there a lot of multi-syllable words in that first sentence.
I had to laugh at myself a bit when I read an email from my mom this morning. She said that I always have a good story to tell, but I’m very aware of my verbal capabilities, and so what makes me laugh is that the only stories that I tell that are probably bearable are the ones that I write down. I’ve seen the way faces have glossed over when I speak and know that I’ll never have the delivery of a stand-up comedian unless certain moods hit, my audience is inebriated or a certain mood hits while I’m inebriated. It doesn’t, however, extinguish the passion I have for telling stories. My children are a somewhat attentive audience, at least.
I’ve got a phone now, I may have mentioned. Has that been an ordeal? Uh-huh! Do you get to read about it? Oh, yeah! Am I mad at Shaw? Not really, no. Where U-Haul failed in their customer service and personable departments, Shaw has more than excelled.
Last Tuesday I was supposed have a phone, but when they came to hook it up my downstairs roomy (who’s gone, gone, GONE!) wasn’t there, and apparently the cable installer needed to get into the basement. Of course, when my roomy’s gone the doors are locked. So the cable guy did as much as he could with out getting into the basement which included setting up internet and basic cable. I’d rather have no cable, but I was afraid that the withdrawal symptoms that Michelle would most likely go through would actually kill us both. I’m pretty sure my death would be the more painful of the two. Hey! I like my TV, but I’m pretty sure if Michelle could hook up some sort of IV that fed cable straight into her veins she would get the body stone of a heroine addict.
Once again, I have to state that I’m kidding, or I will probably for go any of the pleasures associated with marriage. All you married guys stop laughing or the previous statement means absolutely nothing.
Back to cable! Shaw actually rescheduled a service call for the following Saturday, and that tells you something about a company that employs people who aren’t barking mad to get out of working on Canada Day of all days. Joe, the representative who came to the house, was a nice young guy who immediately started rearranging the furniture to improve the Feng Shui and started chanting whenever my dog came into the room…Wait! That wasn’t real I think. Probably just a heat induced hallucination. What he really did was try to fish a wire into the existing outside hole through the house and down into the junction box to hook up the phone. He tried, really, he tried. He was there, sweating in the hot sun for two hours with no success. Finally, in the end I had a temporary cable leading from my neighbor’s lawn around my yard into a basement window, Joe had unhooked the existing phone lines and installed the digital phone modem leaving me with no existing phone line other than my cell phone that is still rooted in Victoria. Every call on it right now is a long distance call. That’ll change soon!
Joe had to leave, but he said that the phone may be up in the afternoon, and this wasn’t that great of news because I had promised Rylee that we’d go to Calaway Park again. Suffice to say, I waited and waited and waited until the prospects of going to Calaway Park because less and less likely. I decided to phone them from a pay phone on the way back from Walmart with Kristen, and lo and behold they said they’d call me back in 10 minutes to see if they could rectify the problem. Once again, they said that it would probably be up in an hour or so, and the guy on the other end said he’d call me back after his lunch break to make sure. I was to keep trying the phone intermittently for the next hour, and I was left pondering how a guy could be going for a lunch break when it was already passed 6pm.
This was the only annoying part: he didn’t call me back. Well, I guess I should say the only annoying thing over and above the other annoying things like having no phone. However, when I tried to phone them back the automated voice designed to stress out already stressed out people informed me that there would be a 35 minute wait for the next customer service representative. So they were busy, I guess.
I’m a little hazy on the details because of the passage of time, but I believe the rest goes something like this:
That’s weird that Joe would set everything up without setting everything up, but as a resolution my cordless phone base is plugged into the modem in the basement while we carry the phone throughout the house. The inconvenient part is charging it, but that’ll be resolved, hopefully, tomorrow when they come to bury the temp cable and drill a new hole in the wall.
Speaking of which, I needed to get my landlord’s permission to allow them to drill into the house. Problem is that my landlord lives in the states and won’t be able to fax anything until after Independence Day. I hear it’s a big deal in the States; probably wouldn’t make their Shaw employees work on July the 4th, eh? Anyway, my landlord’s faxing permission the same day that the service call was scheduled for, so I phoned Shaw to reschedule. They said that they’re coming on Wednesday anyway because I said that my landlord was giving me permission. Now, I’m no lawyer or anything, but that’s not exactly my definition of proof. Whatever!
Got my camera and didn’t forget it during our second trip to Calaway (Rylee and I went a third time yesterday) Here are some choice pics and maybe a little video for you guys:
Isn't she beautiful, folks. No, that wasn't a question; it was a statement. She doesn't go for rides like the Scrambler behind her. Her mom and sister are on there at that moment though.
This is the type of ride Kristen likes; it's pretty tame, but when her daddy starts spinning it her and her mom and sister get stuck to the wall. If they were previously soaked they would have dried off. Kristen enjoyed going around fast, though, so I'm slowly trying to get her brave enough to try some of the scarier, um, I mean more mature rides.
Note that in the first picture Rylee has a hat. Notice anything missing in the second picture?
Just before it starts. This ride is like the tea cup dealie you see at Disneyland, but the twist is that occasionally and without warning it tilts up on a pneumatic arm. Wheeee! You actually see it in the second pic, and it may not look like it but we're actually spinning around at a billion miles an hour. Yup! My camera's that good.
You are actually guaranteed to get wet on this ride (Bumper Boats). The second pic is the after shot.
Here Michelle and Rylee are just finishing their ride on the Scrambler.
That's enough! It's was torture trying to put these pics up on Blogger. I thought this thing was user friendly, but every time I tried to upload a photo it would say it's done but there'd be no photo. I end up just uploading them at Flickr and copying over the links one by one. There's got to be an easier way. Until I figure it out, I'm done! Ciao!
I had to laugh at myself a bit when I read an email from my mom this morning. She said that I always have a good story to tell, but I’m very aware of my verbal capabilities, and so what makes me laugh is that the only stories that I tell that are probably bearable are the ones that I write down. I’ve seen the way faces have glossed over when I speak and know that I’ll never have the delivery of a stand-up comedian unless certain moods hit, my audience is inebriated or a certain mood hits while I’m inebriated. It doesn’t, however, extinguish the passion I have for telling stories. My children are a somewhat attentive audience, at least.
I’ve got a phone now, I may have mentioned. Has that been an ordeal? Uh-huh! Do you get to read about it? Oh, yeah! Am I mad at Shaw? Not really, no. Where U-Haul failed in their customer service and personable departments, Shaw has more than excelled.
Last Tuesday I was supposed have a phone, but when they came to hook it up my downstairs roomy (who’s gone, gone, GONE!) wasn’t there, and apparently the cable installer needed to get into the basement. Of course, when my roomy’s gone the doors are locked. So the cable guy did as much as he could with out getting into the basement which included setting up internet and basic cable. I’d rather have no cable, but I was afraid that the withdrawal symptoms that Michelle would most likely go through would actually kill us both. I’m pretty sure my death would be the more painful of the two. Hey! I like my TV, but I’m pretty sure if Michelle could hook up some sort of IV that fed cable straight into her veins she would get the body stone of a heroine addict.
Once again, I have to state that I’m kidding, or I will probably for go any of the pleasures associated with marriage. All you married guys stop laughing or the previous statement means absolutely nothing.
Back to cable! Shaw actually rescheduled a service call for the following Saturday, and that tells you something about a company that employs people who aren’t barking mad to get out of working on Canada Day of all days. Joe, the representative who came to the house, was a nice young guy who immediately started rearranging the furniture to improve the Feng Shui and started chanting whenever my dog came into the room…Wait! That wasn’t real I think. Probably just a heat induced hallucination. What he really did was try to fish a wire into the existing outside hole through the house and down into the junction box to hook up the phone. He tried, really, he tried. He was there, sweating in the hot sun for two hours with no success. Finally, in the end I had a temporary cable leading from my neighbor’s lawn around my yard into a basement window, Joe had unhooked the existing phone lines and installed the digital phone modem leaving me with no existing phone line other than my cell phone that is still rooted in Victoria. Every call on it right now is a long distance call. That’ll change soon!
Joe had to leave, but he said that the phone may be up in the afternoon, and this wasn’t that great of news because I had promised Rylee that we’d go to Calaway Park again. Suffice to say, I waited and waited and waited until the prospects of going to Calaway Park because less and less likely. I decided to phone them from a pay phone on the way back from Walmart with Kristen, and lo and behold they said they’d call me back in 10 minutes to see if they could rectify the problem. Once again, they said that it would probably be up in an hour or so, and the guy on the other end said he’d call me back after his lunch break to make sure. I was to keep trying the phone intermittently for the next hour, and I was left pondering how a guy could be going for a lunch break when it was already passed 6pm.
This was the only annoying part: he didn’t call me back. Well, I guess I should say the only annoying thing over and above the other annoying things like having no phone. However, when I tried to phone them back the automated voice designed to stress out already stressed out people informed me that there would be a 35 minute wait for the next customer service representative. So they were busy, I guess.
I’m a little hazy on the details because of the passage of time, but I believe the rest goes something like this:
- Guy phones me and asks if my phones working
- I say no
- Guy asks me to go downstairs to where the phone modem is located
- I do as he asks
- Guy asks me if there is a phone cable jacked into the modem
- I say no
- Guy informs me that modem is not tied into the house’s phone system
- I say eh?
That’s weird that Joe would set everything up without setting everything up, but as a resolution my cordless phone base is plugged into the modem in the basement while we carry the phone throughout the house. The inconvenient part is charging it, but that’ll be resolved, hopefully, tomorrow when they come to bury the temp cable and drill a new hole in the wall.
Speaking of which, I needed to get my landlord’s permission to allow them to drill into the house. Problem is that my landlord lives in the states and won’t be able to fax anything until after Independence Day. I hear it’s a big deal in the States; probably wouldn’t make their Shaw employees work on July the 4th, eh? Anyway, my landlord’s faxing permission the same day that the service call was scheduled for, so I phoned Shaw to reschedule. They said that they’re coming on Wednesday anyway because I said that my landlord was giving me permission. Now, I’m no lawyer or anything, but that’s not exactly my definition of proof. Whatever!
Got my camera and didn’t forget it during our second trip to Calaway (Rylee and I went a third time yesterday) Here are some choice pics and maybe a little video for you guys:
Isn't she beautiful, folks. No, that wasn't a question; it was a statement. She doesn't go for rides like the Scrambler behind her. Her mom and sister are on there at that moment though.
This is the type of ride Kristen likes; it's pretty tame, but when her daddy starts spinning it her and her mom and sister get stuck to the wall. If they were previously soaked they would have dried off. Kristen enjoyed going around fast, though, so I'm slowly trying to get her brave enough to try some of the scarier, um, I mean more mature rides.
Note that in the first picture Rylee has a hat. Notice anything missing in the second picture?
Just before it starts. This ride is like the tea cup dealie you see at Disneyland, but the twist is that occasionally and without warning it tilts up on a pneumatic arm. Wheeee! You actually see it in the second pic, and it may not look like it but we're actually spinning around at a billion miles an hour. Yup! My camera's that good.
You are actually guaranteed to get wet on this ride (Bumper Boats). The second pic is the after shot.
Here Michelle and Rylee are just finishing their ride on the Scrambler.
That's enough! It's was torture trying to put these pics up on Blogger. I thought this thing was user friendly, but every time I tried to upload a photo it would say it's done but there'd be no photo. I end up just uploading them at Flickr and copying over the links one by one. There's got to be an easier way. Until I figure it out, I'm done! Ciao!
