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“The human soul can always use a new tradition. Sometimes we require them.”

April 4, 2017

The rain is heavy at times. I heard it pounding the roof just as I was involuntarily woken up by the ringing of the doorbell. It was a Comcast technician. It seems that somebody dug without calling Safe Dig, and they snipped my neighbor’s phone line. They were checking with me as I once had an invisible fence and that got snipped as well. The Comcast guy was glad to hear he didn’t have to worry about it. A couple of guys have been outside for close to 3 hours. They look miserable.

I’m supposed to take some comfort in April showers, but I figure May flowers would pop up anyway, and some sun would be a good thing. If it weren’t the crocus and the dafs in my front garden, I’d be wondering where spring is hiding.

The wind is fierce and is blowing all the pine tree limbs. They are stark and winter bare. I could lose more branches or small trees; of course, the yard was just cleared a couple of weeks ago. Isn’t that the way?

Gracie needs a vet appointment. Her back legs slide, and she has trouble keeping control on the tile floor in the kitchen and going down the inside stairs. The treads I ordered for the outside stairs are here, but I may use them inside as that’s where the problems are. I haven’t had a Boxer get this old before so I’m learning how to make life easier for her.

The Red Sox opened the season yesterday with a win over the Pirates. I am so excited that baseball is back for so many reasons, but the best reason is that opening day is the first indicator of summer for me. The countdown to summer has begun.

The second summer indicator is dinner at Captain Frosty’s with my friends. This year Captain Frosty’s opens on April 13th, and we’ll be there on opening day the same as we are every year. I can already see my plate filled with fish and fried clams (with the bellies of course), French fries, and a clam cake. I’ll have onion rings on the side to share. The last and final tradition heralding spring is Easter dinner at the Ocean House. We get dressy, and last year I added a hat. Well, it was not so much a hat as a spring fascinator, and it got lots of smiles. I’ve a new one for this year. Our small pink rabbit comes with us every year. She has a prominent place on the table.

The last and final tradition heralding spring is Easter dinner at the Ocean House. We get dressy, and last year I added a hat. Well, it was not so much a hat as a spring fascinator, and it got lots of smiles. I’ve a new one for this year. Our small pink rabbit comes with us every year and has a prominent place on the table. Dinner is always superb.

I feel happier. It may be cold and rainy, but spring is coming. One down, two more to go!

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“As to Bell’s talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles, and, as a toy it is beautiful; but … its commercial value will be limited. “

July 7, 2015

Summer, I believe, has finally arrived. It has brought beautiful mornings, hot and humid afternoons and tolerable nights for sleeping, at least tolerable so far. Yesterday afternoon, though, the humidity became stifling. No breeze blew to push away the moisture. I turned on the air conditioner, and the house became comfortable. Gracie and I both settled in for an afternoon nap in the coolness of the bedroom.

This morning I turned the AC off and opened all the windows. I didn’t want to miss the smell of morning with its scent of flowers and mowed grass and sometimes even the salt air of the sea. Through the opened windows, I heard the songs of the different birds from trees in the front yard and easily recognized the song of the chickadees, my most frequent visitors, then I heard a metal clank sound which I ignored. When I heard it a second time, I recognized the sound as coming from the half-sized metal barrel where I keep the bird seed. I went on the deck to check it out, and the red spawn scurried away from the barrel and off the deck. The barrel cover was off and was lying beside the barrel. Several sunflower kernels were strewn around the bottom of the barrel. The spawn had found the mother lode. I put the cover back on the barrel and put two bricks on it. I figured that would keep the spawn away unless he platooned his buddies, and they all lent their paws to the effort.

I am waiting for Comcast to come to fix my phone line. During the conversation yesterday with Comcast I wished more times than I can remember that I had the power to put my hand through the receiver and grab the so-called Comcast technician and throttle him. I had opened the conversation with him by explaining that my phone line did not work. I told him I had tested the phone by connecting its line to the modem and the phone worked so I knew the problem was the line. He started to ask questions phrased as if to a five-year old. I interrupted him and said I had explained the problem and didn’t a walk-through from him. He then said he would reset the modem. I slowly explained it wasn’t the modem. It was the line coming from the wall. He then asked a few more questions, all of which had been answered in my first explanation. He then concluded my phone was not working. I told him I was talking to him on that non-working phone. He paused and then told me to remove the line from the modem and reconnect it to the wall. I explained the call would end once I did that. He took my cell number, and when the phone went dead, he called me back on my cell. It was 25 minutes from the start of the call when he said I think there is something wrong with your phone line.

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“Truth is, I wouldn’t know a gigabyte from a snakebite.”

March 26, 2015

I apologize for not writing today. It was way out of my control. I could not get on-line this morning around 10:30. I was on-line earlier so I was perplexed as to what had happened. I waited as sometimes Comcast does a bit of maintenance and shuts down for a while. By 1, I knew it was a problem for me; of course, I called Comcast and spoke to a variety of people. It was person number 4 who gave me a way to check to see if it was the router or the modem. I was rooting for the router (good alliteration) as they would have had to send me a modem. It was the router.

To make an entire afternoon a short story, I went to Radio Shack and bought a router. My MAC would not recognize the start-up disc but I was able to click something to chat with a Linksys tech. He and I chatted and he \gave me two pages of instructions as I had to reconfigure the router. The first time didn’t work, my mistake. The second time did. IT was 4:30.

I was patient and barely cursed during the whole afternoon.

Today has been a foggy day. It was warm, and there is still snow so the fog swirled around the trees and, when coupled with the gray sky, seemed to surround us. It rained in the afternoon, a bit of rain then heavy rain then back to a bit. After the rain the fog returned. Gracie and I were out doing some errands. My company, Francisca, was gone the whole day selling her Bolga baskets and missed a ride by the ocean in the fog, one of the best of all reasons to live on the cape.

Sorry about the rant today and the short post. I promise I’ll do better tomorrow.

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“There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them.”

June 5, 2011

I woke up cold this morning. The sheet, spread and Gracie beside me weren’t enough. The house was 61°. Outside was a bit warmer so I stood in the sun awhile. This time of year is so odd with all sorts of days: hot, cold and once in a while, just right.

Yesterday was a day I’d rather forget. First, I was on the computer just finishing Coffee when I heard a loud bang and a nanosecond later my computer died as did all things electrical. I figured it was a transformer. Having no phone book, I called on my cellphone to my sister for the Nstar number and gave them a call. The woman told me it was a downed lined and would take a few hours to fix. I asked about the bang and the transformer, and she said she had no idea so I knew she had been giving me a line, so to speak. I decided a nap was a good idea. While I was sleeping, the electricity came back, and when I woke up, I went around to correct the time. The VCR always presents a problem as I have to use 3 remotes, and I always forget how to do it. Later, I went upstairs to get something and noticed the clock radio was dead as was the digital readout on my converter box. Everything else still worked. I went down to the cellar to the electrical box and turned the switches labeled general lights. Once there, I noticed the floor was wet and I heard dripping. It was my water heater. I went back upstairs for my cell phone, then back downstairs for the phone number on the heater and I called the company. They had me turn off the hot water which didn’t do anything as it still dripped. They said they’d be here on Tuesday with a new heater. The other was isn’t even two years old so it is under warranty. I then went back up two flights to check the outage in my bedroom. They were still out. I called my friend Shane the electrician who said you never know what is connected to what, and I should turn off and on all the switches, and I did. That worked. I came upstairs to have a cold drink, turned on the baseball game and then the phone rang. I noticed the number didn’t appear on the TV so I called myself from my cell phone. It didn’t appear either. I went to the live chat on line with Comcast and explained the problem. The woman had me to do a couple of things, neither of which worked. She told me that her diagnostic tool showed no problems with my line. I suggested her diagnostic tool was wrong. She kept leaving and coming back so the time on line with her was endless. She made inane comments like, “Great job,” when I told her I had done what she’d asked. I wanted to strangle her. The last thing was I had to disconnect my modem for five minutes then reconnect it. It would take 2-5 hours before we knew if this had solved the problem. If not, I was to get back to Comcast. Lo and behold, when I checked this morning, the problem had been corrected.

Nothing is more frustrating than out of my control stuff needing fixing. Yesterday gave me a headache, and I want a redo, a better yesterday with no drips.

Did I mention the tick on my arm?

Categories: Musings
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