Cat Updates!

After telling you what is wrong with my life right now, it's time to show you what is RIGHT in my life right now.  I've already shown you pictures of me with the Busters, so it's time for MY little loves, my cats!

There's been a lot to tell.  I've had issues with my poor Penelope.  She really hates Benny and I'm not so sure any more that Benny is thrilled with her either.  Penelope had gotten very sick one day about four or five months back.  Ron was actually worried enough about Penelope that he called me at work and I rushed home to get her to the vet.  She ended up spending a night in the animal hospital and that about killed me.  

The one vet thought her stomach distress (she had thrown up all over the house!) was due to her eating a bug, probably a spider.  Benny hunts spiders and bugs so I would believe HE'D get sick over a bug, but I've never seen Penelope go after any.  But, what do I know.

She was sent home from the hospital with a diet of special cat food that cost me $45 for a TEN pound bag!  With cats, they eat out of whichever bowl is closer.  So I made sure the new food was ok to feed Benny and I had to put both cats on it.  What one eats, the other eats.

A few days later, Penelope was not much better.  I took her back to the vet explaining she's still throwing up a lot.   This time I saw Dr. Wood.  By the way, I had fired my old vet quite awhile ago.  That's a whole other story.  So, I have had both cats at Dr. Wood's practice on Oberlin and Tower Boulevard.  I really love Dr. Wood.  Anyway, Dr. Wood went over all of the test results for Penelope and gave her a good look over and said he felt her problem was stress.  Especially after I told him that Benny gave her little to no peace.

Dr. Wood explained that cats need four things to be happy.  They are, in no particular order:

1. Their own food bowls.  Yep, got that.
2. Their own litter boxes.  Yep, got that too.
3. Their own window to look out at the world through.  Yep, had that covered.
4. The ability to sleep or rest without being accosted.  Um, is three out of four good??

Penelope liked and still likes to sleep on the recliner in the living room.  Whenever Benny would walk by her, he'd jump up on the chair and start to fight with her.  I would separate them when I could, but I couldn't be there all the time.

Dr. Wood suggested separating them at night to give her at least that much peace to have some NO BENNY time.  I tried to put her back in the basement for the night but she wasn't having any of it.  She started her life with us in the basement and I think she just didn't want to go back there.  So, I borrowed two baby gates from Linda and Larry and I put them at the top of the stairs.  We kept Benny upstairs over night and Penelope would have the run of the downstairs all night long.  I thought we could make this work.


Here were the baby gates.  Night one, all went well.  Benny slept in the office and had a food bowl and a litter box in the bathroom.  Penelope was downstairs with a litter box in the mud room and a food bowl in the dining room.  Good to go.

That lasted one night.  Night two?  At four in the morning, we had Penelope on her side of the baby gate meowing to beat the band.  She did NOT like being kept out of part of the house, even if that part of the house had Benny in it!


That's her on the top step.  Four in the morning, waking me up!  I tried to explain that I was doing this for HER not me!  She didn't care.  I took the gates down and they never went back up.

Dr. Wood did give her a shot that was supposed to help calm her down and would last for six weeks.  She was a little more mellow but I'm not thrilled with keeping her drugged.  So we let that run out of her system in the six weeks and I didn't take her back for another dose.  Dr. Wood felt they would be fine, once Benny got out of kitten hood.  Based on their best guess counting back the months, we figured Benny was born last August.  My goal is to hang in there until August until he got to be a year old.  Well, my baby is now one, but he's still got some kitten in him!

I think he's a bit calmer.  I think he and Penelope get along better than they did.  I just hope I see the day that Dr. Wood promised where the two of them would be laying together and grooming each other.  Yeah, I can only hope.

To show how far Benny has come, here is one of the first pictures I ever took of Benny.  We brought him in on a Friday night and this was Sunday afternoon.  All one pound, 11 ounces of him.


And then, a few months ago, we tried to recreate the same picture.  Unfortunately, Benny's only still when he's sleeping!  But you get the idea now that he's about 10 pounds.


He still likes to watch some TV with Ron though!   It's a guy thing!


The kitten in him is still alive and well.  He likes to get into everything!  He'd watch the fish for a long time, trying to catch them through the glass.  Then he learned that he could climb up on the fish tank and drink from the filter.  I started counting the fish when he'd get down because I wasn't sure if he was getting good at fishing!




We've taken the fish tank down now and he misses it.  He still gets up on that case he's on above and looks at the empty space like with the heck!

And then there is my five year old female, Penelope.  I absolutely love her!  She is a lover girl who loves kisses and to be petted and to be left alone by Benny.  One of her favorite spots to lay is on the boot rug in the kitchen.  I usually put the boots away after winter, but she loves to lay against them and she defends this spot from Benny, so I don't want to take away the boots.  Oh well, I guess we're just ready early for next winter!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my little girl.  Penelope is  not much of a climber, she prefers to stay closer to the ground.  Her place on the floor or on the recliner.  When she needs to get away from Benny, she does like to jump up on the counter in the mudroom.  Benny has jumped higher than that before but for some reason, he respects the counter.  He will lay under neath her on the floor, but he won't jump up there after her.  Anyway, I got one good picture of her up here.

She is beautiful!  She must have known I was talking about her because I just had to take a break from typing because she came for a little visit with me.  She was curled up in my lap enjoying a little ear scratching.  Yeah, that can make you forget a lot of problems.


Here, Penelope is taking a little nap on the window seat in the office.  You know, a cat may show you their belly, but they do NOT want you touching it.  Yeah, learned that the hard way.  This picture is my desk top at work.  Every day I look at her and just say "aww"!

Penelope does like to climb on me.  I do spend a lot of time on the couch and if I go down during the night, more times than not, she comes up to join me.  A couple of weekends ago I was just laying there watching TV and luckily Ron had the camera! Me and Penelope, enjoying some girl time!

So these are my inside cats.  They are both waiting at the door when I come home from work.  I love that part of my day!  Then, I have more cats outside that I feed.  I have different relationships with each of them and if I had the money, the five outside would be inside with me.  I'm getting worried about the winter already!

First, we have Hemingway.  Hemingway has been coming around for a couple of years now.  He comes running when I call him for breakfast and he is waiting on the porch for me when I come home from work.   He's definitely got my heart!





The pictures don't do him justice.  He is a beautiful little boy.  This summer, I think he fathered three female kittens.  I don't know where Mom is, but he has been bringing three kittens to the feeding bowls since early summer.  When one of the girls is there to eat, Hemingway will always back up until they've had their share.  The kittens are all gray but they have stripes like Hemingway does.  I am just guessing about the paternity thing, but I don't know why else he'd be taking such good care of these kittens.

I have one picture of one of the kittens.  This is Copa and she's still a little shy.

Her sisters, Lola and Cabana are also gorgeous!  Then, we have a new kitten that's just been coming by for a month or so.  She a tiny little thing so I'm guessing she was born about August like Benny was.  Her name is Tinker!  I'll try to get more pictures.

Some things don't change.  I'm still allergic to the damn cats, and some days, this happens to me.

But you know what?  I can live with this.

These cats have really changed my life.  I love them and like I said, if I had the money, ok and the patience, I'd bring them all in.  Integrating new cats is NOT an easy thing to do. 


No matter how bad my day is, these guys all make it better.  Pulling into the driveway after work, there will be Hemingway on the porch, meowing at me as soon as he sees me.   The three older kittens used to be here twice a day but I've only seen Copa lately.  She's usually waiting on the porch for me after work too.  My little Tinker kitty is a morning girl.  I hear her out on the porch yelling at me when she's ready for breakfast!  It's good to be needed!

There you go, the good in my life right now.  My babies!

Dr. Mengele Is Alive And Well In Ohio

Yes, that is bad sarcasm, but I truly feel like I had an appointment with Dr. Mengele yesterday.

It's no secret that I have back problems.  I fixed my lower back problem (I thought) back in 2002 with surgery.  Then, my car accident in 2008 messed up my mid back.  I did everything the medical community threw at me.  I did therapy, I did a spinal block, I did exercises, I even did acupuncture.  For whatever reason, I wasn't a surgical candidate so I was left with living with it.  I am in pain 24/7.  Whatever.  I live with it.

Then, some time over the winter, both of my feet went numb.  I went to my doctor and he prescribed some anti-inflammatory meds and said if it didn't go away, I might need to go for an EMG. The drugs did not help at all and in fact, my feet are still numb and now I have constant pain down my right leg.  I'm not even going to talk about my right arm and hand going numb or the shooting, burning pains I get down my leg when I try to lower my head.  I'm just not going to talk about it.

But, I couldn't deny any longer that something was wrong and should be looked at.  I went back to  the doctor so we could schedule an EMG and nerve conduction test, whatever that was.  He said I needed four extremities done since I had the numbness in my legs and in my arm.  The insurance company will automatically approve two extremities, but for four I had to get prior approval I was told.

I spent two weeks going back and forth with the insurance company and my doctor's office and canceling and rescheduling an appointment since this wasn't settled, to finally be told that I don't need prior approval.  Fine.  Whatever.

Yesterday was the day.  I had no special instructions for my appointment and was told I would not need a ride home.  So I put my big girl panties on and thought I would just go have this done before work and then head to work.  Um, I should have had someone there with me.

I got there and I was told that they would NOT do all four extremities since that would be "too much on me".  Uh oh.  That doesn't sound good.

By the way, here is the Wikipedia link for an EMG.  In case you don't want to read all that, here is a cut portion of that article.

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles.^[1] EMG is performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated by muscle cells^[2] when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. The signals can be analyzed to detect medical abnormalities, activation level, recruitment order or to analyze the biomechanics of human or animal movement.

An even better quote from the article is:

Some patients can find the procedure somewhat painful, whereas others experience only a small amount of discomfort when the needle is inserted. The muscle or muscles being tested may be slightly sore for a day or two after the procedure.

Yeah, this patient found this to be extremely painful.

I really didn't know what to expect.  With my jeans, socks and shoes off, and a gown on, I laid on a flat wooden table.  If you have back problems, you know that alone is not an easy thing to do.  Laying on my back, I feel him taping something to different parts of my feet.  He'd tape a few leads (I think) to my foot, then he'd use this instrument that would make me feel like an electric shock that would shoot down into my foot where the leads were.  He'd move the leads, and do the same thing again.

I couldn't see the instrument he was using, so I'm not sure if that was inserting needles into me to send the electricity into me or if it was just like a small taser that shot the jolts into me.  What ever it was, it hurt like hell!  What did the Dr. Mengele wanna-be say to me?  "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."  Really.

I thought I was holding up very well.  He kept asking me if I was ok and what the hell are you going to say?  I kept telling him I was ok, just let's get this over with!  I was doing ok until he couldn't find one of the nerves in my left foot.  I swear, if he zapped me with that f-ing thing one more time I was going to kick him.  He said I needed to tell him when I felt that in my foot.  After about 30 times, he finally found it.  Ok, I didn't do so good during that part.

He finally called the girl in to come and hold my hand.  What, you never seen a grown woman cry before?  I have a feeling he's seen that a LOT.

I told the girl I didn't need my hand held and to please just get ON with this.  Finally, he put the torture device down and I took a deep breath.  I thought good, I made it through.  That's when this idiot tells me that NOW the hard part starts.  Honest to Pete, it took everything in me not to run.  But, in for a penny, in for a pound, let's get this over with.

Man, he wasn't kidding.  NOW he took the big needles and went at me.  Up until now, all of the testing was done below the knee.  Now he was digging into my thighs.  He gave me a count down for the first needle jab and that was it.  Three, two, one JAB.  Once it was in he had to dig around while telling me how to move my leg which I'm guessing was to move the muscle the way he wanted it.  I had to push my knee down onto the table, or lift my leg, or press it against his hand.   He did this to both thighs with me laying on my back, my front, and on my side. Finally, he tells me one more needle and we're done.  By now I was laying on my side and he says the last needle goes into my back.  Are you kidding me?  That's when he finally notices the scar on my back from the surgery.  He said to me "oh, I see you've had surgery.  Well, then I won't touch that."  Gee, thanks.

He tells me now that this is why they only do two extremities at a time as that's all people can take.  I told him baloney.  Keep going and let's get my arms done because I am NOT coming back.  But, he refused to go on.  I am keeping my word on this one.  I will NOT going back for another round.

People, this is 2011!  Is THIS the best that modern medicine has to offer?  I don't think I'm a candy ass when it comes to pain.  Like I said, I live with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.  I think I can take more than most people.  This test absolutely brought me to my knees.  I was ready to tell him anything he wanted.  You want my PIN number?  You got it.  Bank account numbers, here ya go.  The title to my car?  Where do I sign?

Finally, it was over.  The greatest insult was before he left the room, I sat up on the table.  That's when I saw all the blood on the table.  Blood.  A lot of it.  WTF.  He saw me looking at it, he grabbed a couple of 4x4s, wet them down, and handed them to me.  He told me I needed to clean myself up a little since I was still bleeding.  You have to be kidding me.

So, he walked out, I cleaned myself up, and was putting my jeans on when the girl came back in the room.  She tried to tell me how she knew how I felt, and how terrible it must be to be in pain to begin with and have to endure this test.  I know I'm not usually shy but it was the Dr. Mengele clone that I should have been bitching at, not her.  This was absolutely BARBARIC.  Again, 2011.  You'd think we would have painless solutions to our problems!  I can't wait until I get the bill for this. Something tells me I'm going to have to pay dearly to be abused like this.

I don't have the results from the doctor yet but at this point, I am calling UNCLE.  I give up.  After the accident, I endured the most painful spinal block (I have had three others before this one so I know what they SHOULD feel like) for nothing.  And now this?  I'm done.

Ask me how I'm doing.  I'm going to tell you I'm cured.  It's a miracle!  After everything I've been through with my back, I am NOT going to submit to another procedure, another test.  I can't do it any more.  I will continue to take my Aleve by the handful and keep up with the working, cooking, cleaning, shopping, shoveling and whatever else life is going to throw at me.

See?  I'm fine.  I'm cured.  I'm done. 

Visting the Busters!

Huge thanks to the Busters' Mom and Dad (Lisa and Chuck!) for letting me play with their dogs over the weekend.  Yes, people, I said dogs!

Originally, Ron and I were headed over to see how the two puppies were coming along.  Not that I know too much about dogs, but these are BIG puppies!!  So, I got some puppy love but when the adult dogs were let out into the yard, I quickly went to the other side of the fence leaving poor Ron to fend for himself.

Well, perhaps not "poor Ron"!  Dogs seem to love him.  The adults came out, happy to see Mom, Dad AND Ron in the yard.  Once again, Leeloo came right to me at the fence and wanted petted.  Lisa was good enough to stand right there by me so that I felt I could reach over the give Leeloo a little scratch.  That was as much as I wanted to do, though.

Then, something came over me and I wanted to try to walk INTO the yard, yes, where there were FIVE dogs.  A huge thank you to the Lisa, Chuck and Ron for helping me to accomplish this feat!  They really were wonderful at making sure I was ok in the midst of a whole lot of dogs and teeth!

Personally, I think Sadie enjoyed my visit the most.  Does this dog not look like she's enjoying some Ree love??

Then, Buster stopped by to see me.  If you notice, I did not move at all.  My feet were so planted into the ground.  But, the dogs all came up to me in an orderly fashion for a little Ree love.  Gotta love well behaved dogs!

Then it was Leeloo's turn and Sadie got back in on the action as well.  Yes, that is ME in there petting huge dogs.  I swear, if I wasn't there, I wouldn't believe it.

Even one of the puppies, Gizmo, is coming back for more. 

It was a great day!  I had a little panic attack when the dogs first walked up to me but again, with the help of my friends and of course Ron, who never left my side, I did what I thought was impossible.  This was a very empowering moment!  I'm not saying my fear of dogs is gone, but it is an unbelievable feeling that I was able to at least overcome part of it and actually stand there in the midst of not one but FIVE of them.  I never thought I'd get passed just being by the puppies.

I expect great things from me and my new four legged friends! 

Another Sign Of Great Work

Only in Lorain!

If you're traveling north on Oakdale, there is a sign at the intersection of 28th Street.  The orange sign detours you east on 28th Street.  

However, once you try to make that turn, this is what you see.

Only in Lorain.

When the new detour sign was placed on 28th Street to prevent any east bound traffic, didn't someone see the orange sign and think "hmm, maybe I should take that down?"  Obviously not. 

Travel through Lorain at your own risk.

Who Can I Thank For This?

I always like to acknowledge people for the jobs they do.  I'm not sure who should get the credit for this piece of crap though.

This shout out either goes to my buddies at Smith Paving of Norwalk Ohio or to the great city of Lorain Ohio themselves.  I use sarcasm when talking about Smith Paving of Norwalk Ohio because of how I felt they started this job.  You can read all about my butt crack guy starting work at 6:30 in the freakin' morning right here.  For the record, I did call Nancy Greer, Clerk of Council, about the noise at that time of the day.  I know you're gonna be surprised at this, but here is another city official that wouldn't return a phone call.  Go figure.

But, I digress.

After the construction, either Smith Paving or the City of Lorain have to put your property back in the state it used to be in.  I guess close enough works though.  The grass was replanted, or rather weeds were replanted.  I just took pictures at my house, but drive up and down Oakdale and look at where the new curbs are.  Right next to the brand new curbs are weed infested patches of dirt.  You think I'm lying, here are some examples.

 











Aren't you jealous?  Don't you just want your property to look like this?  I'm tellin' ya.

Now, this one I can blame directly on Smith Paving of Norwalk Ohio.  They left a pile of molten crap right on the tree line.  This isn't the only pile that was left, this is just the one in front of my house.

This is what it looks like after Ron put some work into it.  This pile of crap was raised up quite a bit but Ron scraped and scraped and he was able to haul away enough of it so that we can get the lawn mower to go over it.  Yeah, it was so high, I would have had to hand mow around it.  Thanks, Smith Paving!  Quality work over here.



As long as I'm complaining about the grass, I have one more to add to the list.

Last fall, someone came and dug up two places on the tree lawn.  It was just before winter and it happened while I was at work, so I have no idea which agency was responsible for the dig.  In the spring, again, I came home from work one day and it looked like grass was planted because these two spots were now covered with straw.

I was happy that someone came back and planted grass!  That is until the grass came in.  I don't know much about different kinds of grass, but this is SO different from what's already in the yard, it sticks out like a sore thumb.  The rest of the grass in this entire neighborhood is a medium colored green.  Now I have two light green patches in the tree lawn!  Well, one light green patch and one light green and weed patch.

Does this look like the City of Lorain cares about the homeowners of this town?  Or it is just this neighborhood that they don't care about?  Who do I thank for this?

I'm A Tattletale!

And darn proud of it!

But first, a let's back up a little.

I've posted before that every year we like to go to the St. Elias Festival in Brooklyn Ohio.  The food is fabulous, the dice-on-the-wheel game is exciting, and the time spent with friends is priceless.

My friend Edna came home from San Diego for the festival and for her Mom's birthday.  Since her Mom and Dad (Sally and Nick) had adopted me, I was all about celebrating her Mom's birthday too!  We get together with Nick and Sally every year for this festival.  It was an added bonus that Edna made it in this year to play our reindeer games.

We usually hit the festival on Friday night for dinner and then the music.  The temps were in the 90s Friday night with the humidity not far behind.  I could not deal with that.  We all decided that it was just too hot to go to the festival, so we instead chose plan "B" which was dinner at Nick and Sally's house.  That is always a great plan "B"!  We got to eat, joke, talk and just catch up.  We still planned on festival fun, but we were playing it day by day to see if the weather broke.

Sunday was our day.  The temps fell but the threat of rain was there.  We decided to chance it anyway!  I am so glad we did!

We all met up at the festival in the tent with the food and the dice-on-the-wheel game.  It's a big wheel that every space has three dice faces on it.  It could be a 1 - 2 - 6 or a 3 - 4 - 5 or a 2 - 6 - 6 or any and every combination.  On the tables around this wheel are corresponding dice faces numbered 1 through 6.  You put a dollar on the number you want to come up on the wheel, the wheel is spun and if the wheel stops on your number, you're a winner!  It's a one to one ratio, so if I bet 6 (which was my number!) and three 6s came up, I'd win three dollars.  One 6 comes up, I win one dollar.  No 6s, I lose!

I'm really not a big gambler, but I'm telling you, we have so much fun at this game!  Part of it is I love to yell out SIX SIX SIX SIX while the wheel is spinning.  Most of the time, I can get the crowd to join me in the reindeer games until everyone around the wheel is yelling out their favorite number!  Our first time at the wheel that night, the woman calling the game was a hoot.  She'd have these funny diddies that she'd say as the wheel was spinning that would just crack me up!  My favorite one was "I spin, you win"!  Ok, I had to run with that one!  "C'mon!  Spin it so I could win it!!!"  We were having so much fun!

You have to understand that this is a fund raiser for a Church.  That's almost always a good cause.  So, I take my money there and plan on leaving it there for the Church.  My hope is that I have a lot of fun losing my money.  If I have fun, I'm jiggy with the donation!

Between screaming "SIX" and "you spin it so I can win it!" I had a whoop load of fun!  Until some kids came up next to me.

I'm old, and the older I get, the younger everyone else looks.  I'm guessing these kids were in high school or about there.  By now there are a lot of people around the table, so the people working the table have their hands full trying to watch everyone and be fair.  I'm laying my money on the six of course, and these kids have $2 on 2 and $2 on 3.  Two 2s came up on the wheel.  While the workers were going around the table trying to pay out or collect the money, these kids reached out and moved their $2 bet on #3 to the #2 spot.  C'mon, really?

I thought the guy working the table saw that, but he must have missed it as he was paying the kid out $8 on what he thought was a $4 bet.  So me and my big mouth entered the fun.

I chastised the kid right there.  I said something to the effect of "really?  You're going to cheat the CHURCH?  You know all of this money goes to the CHURCH and you're cheating?  You know that's just wrong, don't you?"  The kid and I did a little back and forth where he tried to talk his way out of it and I wouldn't let him. So he stayed and bet until the money was gone, with me and the worker watching him like a hawk.

I believe there is a special kind of hell for people that rip off the Church and this kid was just way too young to be going down that path.  I did tattle on him and hopefully he felt bad enough to turn his little ass around.

Other than this little hiccup, the festival was awesome.  After playing the wheel for awhile, we all put the feed bag on.  I really don't know the name of much of this stuff. All I can tell you is that we had some of the regular food, like the stuffed grape leaves and the kibbie and the little pie filled with spinach (I can't remember the name of this one right now) and Ron and I tried a couple of new sandwiches.  I got a chicken shawarma and Ron got the kafka which was made with beef.  Both very good sandwiches, hard to tell which was better.  Like I said, great food at this festival!  All that with no pictures!  Ugh!  I am such a slacker!

After dinner, we went back to the wheel for a little more gambling, then over to the music tent.  I'm not sure if it was the same band from last year, but again, a three piece band playing the Middle Eastern music.  You know, I don't have a clue what they're saying, but I LOVE this music!  My feet were tapping, I was clapping along and cheering when everyone else did.  Once again, I chickened out of getting up to dance, but maybe next year.  The music is addictive, I didn't want it to stop!

Unfortunately, when we were on our second turn at the wheel, it started to pour.  And I mean pour.  It was one of those rains that you'd swear if you'd just wait a minute, it would HAVE to slow down!  It never did!  O M G!  We were soaked by the end of the night as there was no other alternative in getting to the music tent than walking out in the rain.  Then, we parked a whoop away from the festivities so Ron and I were drenched by the time we got to the car afterwards.

I was cold, tired, but fed well, my ears still full of good music, and happy.  It's always great to spend time with friends.

I had no voice today, and answering the phone at work was a challenge!  Most everyone was compassionate about my lost voice and were patient with me while I tried to get what I was saying across.  I think some tea with honey is on my schedule for tonight!

I really don't feel too badly, I just don't have a voice.  Hmm, maybe that was what I got for tattling on the cheating kid!  Well, if so, it was worth it. 

Does This Make My Ass Look Big?

Well, my ass IS big, so it should LOOK big!  But, I digress.

Friday I was at work when some guy came to the front door.  Our usual visitors to the front door are FedEx and UPS.  This guy definitely did not work for either of them.

He was looking for a woman that does not work in this building.  I have heard her name, but I do not know which building she works in.  I told him what I knew which was next to nothing.  He said he needed a number to get a hold of her.  Yeah, can't help you.  What part of I don't know was confusing?

Then, the big insult.  He asks me if I have any coffee.  I said yes, I have my cup on my desk.  He then handed me a business card with a phone number written on the back.  He actually gave me directions on how to call his number.  Please, I'm a woman.  Telephone 101 is in my DNA.  Anyway, he said that he also is somehow involved in selling this amazing product.  He asked if I'd believe that coffee could make me lose weight!  WHAT?  I said no, I don't believe that!  He said it's true and if I'd only call that number, I'd learn all about it.

Yeah, I think not.  He went on to tell me that they also sell creamers and sweeteners that believe it or not, will make you lose weight!  He said again, "can you believe it".  To which I plainly said "no".  Whatever.

He gave me his card and I threw it in the garbage!  Yeah, I'll get right on that call!  But for real, I know I have a big ass.  It's not up to a total stranger to let me know I have a big ass though.  Next thing he's gonna tell me is I'm old.  No kidding.  Tell me something I don't know.

# 800

Welcome to my 800th blog post!  800 blogs of me rambling about mostly nothing!

In honor of my 800th post, I have changed the look of my blog.  I'm not sure if this is the one I really want to go with, but at least it's something different.

Thanks for stopping by!  Here's hoping for another 800 posts!

Gas Prices

Can you believe this??? This isn't a sight you get to see too often! I LIKE it!! I need to see it more!

I gassed up my car Tuesday night at Get-Go. I had so many fuel perks saved up that I actually got a free tank of gas! Here is my price per gallon!


And, when I was done, here was the total bill!


I'm just mad at myself since I forgot to take the gas cans with me that morning. For free gas, I SHOULD have gotten all I could. But, I have a 17 gallon gas tank and I was trying to guesstimate how far I could go. After all the running around I did on Tuesday, I really thought I was closer than this to empty. I didn't think I had enough gas to go all the way home to get the cans and then back to the closest Get-Go. My darn outta-gas light comes on when I have four gallons left which is about 110 miles or so with all in town driving. I still had about 28 miles to go on this tank!

Oh well, I'm happy with what I did get. Free gas! Go me!!

That's Just Wrong, Page 25

Oh my goodness, if only I could write fiction this good. Some times the idiots in this world are put in jobs where they have to interact with the public. I can't make this stuff up!

I pay way too much for cable TV every month. I know it, but it's one of my few luxuries left. We have three DVR boxes in the house and if you've never had one or TiVo or something like that, you don't know what you are missing. It's one thing to be able to tape so much bad TV but one of my favorite parts is that I can get up and pee or go to the kitchen or answer the phone and put the TV on pause. Yes, even live TV! That was one of the best things ever invented!

Now a new addition to Time Warner Cable has been the remote DVR Manager. This is where I can log in at work (shh! Don't tell Mike!), and tape Big Brother so I don't get involved with something at home and forget to run upstairs and tape it. It's the coolest thing!

I know I could do this at home on the actual cable box the night before but whatever. The ability to do this remotely is awesome.

Until the time comes that you have to deal with Time Warner and all of the warm fuzzies you've been feeling about the remote DVR manager just disappear.

I went to log on yesterday to tape Big Brother (yes, I have a reality TV addiction. I've covered that here before. Let's move on.) and I couldn't log in. I got a page of gibberish whenever I tried yesterday to log in. It said to try back later, so I didn't think much about it. But, we did go the extra mile and try to log in on Ron's computer and his APad with the same results. Nothing.

Well, today I tried again since Big Brother is on yet again! Still gibberish. I was going to look for a number to call them to see if it's me or if it's their system. That's when I saw that they have live customer service chat available. I am usually a huge fan of live customer service chat! That way, I can get my issue solved in real time and ask any and all the questions I have as they come to me.

I logged in. I'm gonna tell you right now that I've changed the names of the two geniuses I chatted with today. I figured that was the least I could do for their families.

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:35:28 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable. At the end of our chat you will be given the option of taking a brief survey. My name is Clueless # 1. Please give me a moment while I access your account.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:35:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

hello!

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:38:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I understand you are unable to to access DVR manager, am I correct?

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:38:01 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

correct

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:39:11 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I will surely assist you to access DVR online manager.

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:39:53 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

May I know your billing address of the account.

I'll edit this part out of copying and pasting this conversation for my own safety!

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:40:13 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Thank you for the information.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:40:09 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

that is also the service address

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:40:14 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i have two accounts

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:40:30 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Yes.

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:40:37 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I will refresh the signal to your cable box to resolve this issue. This normally take a few minutes, I am with you. Please confirm when the box is up and if the issue has resolved. Please switch on the box when you see the clock on the box

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:40:54 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i am not at home

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:41:04 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i am trying to access the remote dvr manager

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:41:30 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Okay.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:42:02 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

it's the remote dvr manager that will not work. i get a page of gibberish.

There was silence for a good couple of minutes. Finally, I asked if he was still there!

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:45:40 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

are you there?

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:45:54 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Yes.

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:46:33 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I have checked the DVR now.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:46:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

which one?

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:46:46 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

It is switched off now.

Now I really had a sinking feeling that he was not listening to me, or else he was just going off of a script that they have where the first instruction, regardless of what is wrong, is to reboot the DVR box.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:48:37 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

did you understand my problem? the REMOTE dvr manager is not working. i cannot access this through the computer.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:49:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

you switched off a DVR, but i have THREE of them at this location. which one did you shut off and how is that helping?

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:49:52 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I have not switched off the DVR manager.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:50:07 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:46:46 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

It is switched off now.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:50:12 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

what is switched off?

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:50:43 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

The DVR cable box is in offline mode so you are unable to access it.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:51:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

are all of them offline???

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:52:13 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

hello??

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:52:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Let me check all the DVr cable box now.

Remember, I have three DVR boxes, so which one is he talking about? I was getting so frustrated! Maybe it's me and I couldn't convey my thoughts to this guy. I decided to escalate this to a supervisor.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:53:05 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

is there a supervisor that i may speak with?

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:53:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Yes.

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:54:35 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I will transfer the chat to the Supervisor now.

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:54:44 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Please wait till I transfer your chat now.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:54:47 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

thank you

Clueless # 1(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:55:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Please wait, while the problem is escalated to another analyst

Analyst has entered room

Analyst Supervisor, Clueless # 2 has entered room

Analyst has left room

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:55:50 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Hello!

Analyst Clueless # 1 has left room

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:55:52 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

hello! are you a supervisor?

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:55:57 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

This is Clueless # 2, the supervisor on floor.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:55:56 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

thank you

I was actually at this moment confident that something was going to happen now! Alas, I was wrong.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:56:17 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i am trying to access the dvr manager remotely through a computer. for the last two days this is not working.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:56:30 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i get a page of gibberish when i try to log into the remote dvr manager.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:56:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i've tried now from three different computers

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:58:47 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I sincerely apologize for all the inconvenience caused to you.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 14:59:20 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

can you fix it

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:00:10 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I regret to inform you that we are experiencing an technical issue with the website.

REALLY???? Ok, now I've kinda lost my cool here.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:00:43 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

if Mr. Clueless # 1 would have said that instead of rebooting one of the cable boxes, this issue would not have escalated to you.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:00:50 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

thank you

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:01:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

any time frame on when this will be corrected?

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:02:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Sorry about it.

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:02:48 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I'd suggest you to check with your friends or neighbors if they are able to get it.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:03:12 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

serious?

Mr. Supervisor, Clueless # 2, or whoever was playing him, just sat there for the longest time. I think he was hoping I'd just go away.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:03:35 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

and how will that information help me?

Still nothing.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:04:45 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

if my three computers can't get in, you can't tell if it's my account or your system that's the problem?

He just sat here, I still think hoping I was going to just go away. Suddenly, it hit me! This is going in the blog!! I thought I better warn him and sure enough, he answered me right away!

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:05:16 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

this conversation can end up in my blog, so please think about your answers!

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:05:54 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

You are right. I'd have felt the same if I were you.

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:06:22 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

However, we are still receiving similar complaints from your area.

Now I just felt that this was some schmuck sitting there, with a whole list of answers to cut and paste into the chat window, regardless of what was being asked of them.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:06:40 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

are you a real person?

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:07:28 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Yes.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:08:48 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

then your answer remains that i should check with my neighbors and friends to see if they have the same problem that supposedly is being reported in my area.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:08:51 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

do i have that right?

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:09:47 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

Yes, also I'd like to inform you that we are aware of this issue and our team is working on it.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:09:52 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

i will note that.

Ree(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:09:59 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

thank you

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:10:14 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

You are welcome.

Supervisor, Clueless # 2(Thu Sep 01 2011 15:10:26 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>

I appreciate your cooperation and understanding in this matter.

I couldn't beat that dead horse any more.

With unemployment running rampant, is THIS what Time Warner hires? THESE guys are good representatives for your company? For real?

I wish I had the guts to just shut it all off. Get rid of the cable, the TVs, wow. Just think about how much I could get done in a day.

As for Time Warner live chat support however, that's just wrong!