Where to begin? But first....a thought to ponder for me, and you: Am I getting to old to handle a bit of stress, of things not going as easily as planned, or as I thought they would?? Too Old????
Ok.....awakening around 6:30 I knew that I had a full plate for today and that I would be exceedingly lucky if everything would merge and come together as I wanted them to do. And......so after the morning rituals, after a couple of cups of French Roast coffee(do you really think I would use any other kind??), I began to read my emails and a couple of newspapers when the phone rang and I was asked if I could go ahead and have the installer for the satellite tv come a bit early. Of course....why not? So, in less than three minutes, he was here.....a young man in his late 20's...that's a guesstimate.....and so I showed him around the house, where the two tellies were located, how to access the snake pit full of cables/cords/etc in the cabinet inside the garage behind my built-in-to-the-wall plasma and the recessed pidgeon squares for the receivers and cable boxes....and where the Charter cable wires came into the house. And then I left him to "go at it".
About that time, Dave Hanner came over to work with me to move the section of cabinets in the kitchen up one inch so that we can get the new refrig into place on Monday when it is delievered....I HOPE!! Well, we began.....and very, very quickly discovered that neither one of us could individually hold up that cabinet while the other one unscrewed and re-screwed the screws out and into the wall. Sooo, we decided to move the old fridge out of the way, but discovered we had nothing of substance to protect the new hardwood floor in the kitchen.
We began to slowly roll it out....and thought it was going well. Getting it out of the way and as far away as the fresh water plastic tube for the ice machine would allow, we then noticed that the rolling wheels/casters had left some very obvious marks on the new floor......DAMN, DAMN!!!
Then we found out we needed more help......so Dave called his brother who lives about a block down my street and within 10 minutes he was Danny-to-the-rescue. And so, after about an hour and a half with the three of us.......we had the cabinet taken off the wall, moved upward one inch and then re-attached to the wall. UGH!!! Danny then went back down to his house to get some cardboard pieces and we then moved the fridge back into his proper place for a couple more days. But......the floor,....well, I suppose we will get used to the marred places.....not any cuts or deep scratches....just more like a messed up finish on the wood......we have no stain, just a clear coat over the sanded wood. Oh well..........
Well, the two brothers left.....and then the satellite installer was still working....and after four hours he finally finished. He got it going, called it in to the office of DirectTV, and then moved on out and on to another project. OK....it was time to play with it..........
I worked with the color, the sharpness, the contrast, etc., etc.......and each time I would return to the HD channels, I became more frustrated with the not-so-clear picture......NOT to mention the non-HD channels. In fact.......I became almost ill at what I was seeing on not only the plasma, but it was even worse on the regular non-HD tellie in the den. There was NO clarity on either tv.....and the it was so bad that on some of the scrolling/rolling words and letters they looked just smudged!!!! No definition at all.......in fact, the tellie in the RV using only the antenna looked better than they did!
Well.....still had not had lunch......and it was 3pm....and soon Mike Goldsmith arrived for a discussion on piano performance,......and I dug out some old music that I have, and he selected a piece to work on for an audition/interview that he has coming up in the next couple of weeks. We also some coffee.....and discussed many of the topics of the day, PLUS he checked out the picture on each of the tellies and agreed 100% that SOMETHING was not right!!
After he left......around 4:45pm, I called Heartland Satellite here in F'town where I made the arrangements for the installation........I complained rather strongly...and the owner/operator said he would by and check it out. About 5:30.....still had not had lunch......he arrived and looked at both of the tellies.....and didn't see anything that looked bad to him......or at least, so he said......and told me that that is the way his looks. Well......I just quite frankly told him that I felt sorry for him that he had to watch a tv with a picture like that!!! I told him that I would rather have my Charter with only about 5 HD stations than to have to watch this foggy picture either one of my tv's. Sooooo, he said he would call Direct....and then get back with me. I told him that unless something could be done, they could just come and un-stall it, re-install the Charter receivers and cables, and take the Direct equipment in the morning!
Around 6pm, he called and told me that I would have to cancel with Direct...that he couldn't do it. Soooo, I called Direct, complained and told them to come and get all of the equipment. Then......the man I was talking with said perhaps that I needed a Direct technician to come out and check it out first! After some frank discussion, I said OK.....but I would not pay one cent for the service, nor for not having the equipment removed tomorrow......as they could not send someone until Tuesday. I did get his employee number and told him that there had better not be any charges for these three days until they could get here.....and he assured me I would not be charged anything, even though the original 24 hours would have expired. DAMN!!!!
Soooo, that conversation was not even finished when the doorbell rang and it was my former student and very, very good friend, Andrew Gipson, from Edwardsville, IL came in to visit and discuss for awhile, before he left to go to his family's cabin south of here for a weekend of deer hunting. Again.....no lunch yet, nor no supper! I fixed myself some cheese/bologna and crackers.....I had not had time to go to the market for bread, etc., etc.......and so we sat and talked for an hour or so trying to catch up on sooooo many issues and topics.
And then........by 8pm, my day seemed to settle down and peace again returned to TheHowserHouse....I think. The weather..........COLD!!!!! And, getting colder for tonight. As David Letterman said last night: "It was so cold today, I was shaking like Sarah Palin taking a geography test."
And even though this was a day from Hell...........I still have to say that even with all of these unplanned events which popped up today....a day I thought I had planned soooo well.........
LIFE IS REALLY, REALLY GREAT!!!!!!......And, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!
About 6pm, he called me and told me I wol
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