Spectrum

I really disliked being a Time Warner Cable customer for the past 15 years. The company charged far too much for far too few services, and customer service was not their forte. I complained annually about my always increasing service bill, which seemed to have a full column of "add-on" service charges over which I had no control. I'd see the ads for basic services at $29.99/mo, but I never was able to actually receive any services for anything close to that amount. My monthly bill, prior to Spectrum taking over, had settled in at $165.00, which is my highest utility bill -- including both water and electricity!

When I hit $165/month with only 1 working TV in the house and constant issues with poor service to the home, I decided that if TWC couldn't fix it, I was going to go cold turkey. It was nice when into this same timeframe, Spectrum arrived. The words "Time Warner is now Spectrum" gave me hope that I would be able to have some service issues dealt with and I could again enjoy watching TV.

Spectrum is great! I had a list of issues I wanted handled, including receiving TV on the small set in my bedroom, making the start/stop/freeze frame/pixilation issues go away on the livingroom set, learn how to use On Demand without having to pay even more money to the cable company -- and stop my bill from steadily climbing to higher and higher peaks.

Adam, my Spectrum service rep, showed up cleanly dressed and professional. He introduced himself and asked me why I had called for an in-home service call. I gave him my list and he said we'd start in the living room with replacing the DVR box, then move on to checking the service in general, from outside line to outlets in the house. Thus, Adam found the problem with the bedroom TV: in spite of the fact that there was cable in the bedroom, that cable wasn't activated with actual hook-up to the service for the house. Adam solved that problem and voila! I had cable on the bedroom TV. He also did all the replacement hookups for the livingroom, then checked the outside lines and determined that the cable from the pole to the house needs to be replaced too.

And all of this at no service charge and no upping my monthly payment. It's just part of the Spectrum service. Really.

He also showed me how to use the new cable box in the livingroom, including OnDemand, which is free. He also assured me that I could call Canada without paying an additional fee, so I am now able to communicate more freely with my son who lives there. I know how to delete a series I chose to record, but then didn't like once I watched it. And I feel free to contact Spectrum if I have other service questions without feeling like an idiot.

I'm rooting for Spectrum to take over and run Time Warner Cable out of business!! I'm so glad to be free from TWCable's monopoly of bad service.

Manchester by the Sea

With all the buzz Manchester by the Sea has been getting, I decided to go see for myself what this film is all about. I lasted about 20 minutes before I left and got my money back.

It's very slow to start, very slow, and has lots of use of the "f" word, lots and lots. Casey Affleck is so ... laid back? ... that he's almost catatonic. And not much of the story is revealed in the opening of the film.

My film buddy stayed for the entire film and said it got better, but she can't see what all the hype is about, so I'm saying this movie is one to skip. Despite the hype.

What If Today is THE Day?

A friend and I went to a funeral mass for a dear friend who passed away at age 85 and, as it often happens, we looked at all the snow white-haired people attending with us. I remarked to her, "What if today is my day to die? I don't know if I'm ready yet as I have lots of closet cleaning to do."

We giggled just a bit and then turned serious as the mass began. I didn't understand too many of the priests' words as English is probably his 3rd language, and most definitely not his first tongue. I also am not Catholic, so I didn't know all the rituals and the responses one should give at key moments of the service. As the priest prattled on about Sue and her equally departed husband Jim, one of the grey-haired men we had been talking about, Larry, fell off his feet and onto the pew.

Larry's wife went into immediate panic, bursting into tears and trying to get her husband to respond to her. One of the men who had been sitting across the aisle jumped up and came over to see what was amiss. Larry was unconscious, 9-1-1 was called, and the wife kept trying to get her husband to come around and respond, which he ultimately did. The paramedics arrived and got him onto a gurney and then off to the hospital.

As my friend and I were sitting there -- and the rest of the congregation was congregated around poor Larry's prostrate form, I said, "Let's depart. There is nothing we can do to help and no reason to sit here and see what comes next." She agreed and we left the church.

Over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie at the local Denny's, I recalled my somewhat prophetic words, "What if today were my last day?" Am I be ready? No, I'm not--but ready or not, each one's day comes. I'm sure it's not Larry's last day, but it is a wake-up for all of us elderly people to cherish each day and not put off what needs to be done today.

Pinterest Adds Unwanted Spice to My Life

Ah, man! I went onto Pinterest looking for some crochet patterns and had to sign up to use the patterns I found. That was yesterday; today, I have 27 spam emails to deal with in my message box! Most of them are “dirty” spam, offering sex and kinky sex and dirty sex and more and more sex. Plus, there’s always a Viagra message to go along with the emails.

In addition, I have far too many messages from Pinterest telling me they have added this 'n that to my Pinterest board -- in case I haven't seen any of it yet. Which I haven't because I JUST signed up and don't even know if I'm going to like being a Pinterest Person!!

Now I regret signing up for Pinterest, even though I thought it would be a good place to look for patterns. Of course, I’m not sure how to undo the do, so will have to live with this and daily empty my email box.

Thanks, Pinterest, for adding yet another irritant to my daily life.