Hi! I'm Still Alive!

Just barely.

Sorry for not blogging more. I certainly intended to blog.

But this sinus infection that's been going on for more than a year now was treated with a new antibiotic. The doctor said this one was much stronger, and, judging by the results, it was. It's been a bumpy ride.

First of all, the infection had really become systemic, with aches all over, sort of like flu. The antibiotic got rid of a lot of symptoms that I hadn't even connected with the infection. My bones ached all the time, but worse after some walking or other exercise. When I got near the end of the antibiotics, all that went away! Of course, it also caused digestive problems, which to some extent, I expected, but what I didn't expect was the stomachache, and more, that lasted a few days. I know my digestive system has problems, but this stuck me more as something I might have expected from drinking Draino.

I went to the library, and then over to Safeway yesterday, and I was surprised how weak I felt, and was shaking from fatigue and overwork by the time I got to the library, which is not really very far away.

And now that I'm (mostly) recovered from the antibiotic, most of my symptoms from the infection are back!

I hate this!

On to more pleasant things!

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Vogue Knitting has published a preview of their Fall issue! You can see it here.

I love the hood (scroll down) shown in red! I think I'd like to make it with a seam instead of the buttons, but then I can't seem to ever just make anything the way the pattern is written. I'd change some of the cable design, too. And it's so loose around the neck that I'd want a scarf to go with it, too. And, of course some mitts, and I'm thinking of writing a pattern for short mittens to go over my already existing mitts pattern, and that seems like a good addition to the set.

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We're halfway through the first week of Pennsic at this point. This is the "lounge around and have a vacation" portion of the festivities. This weekend and the upcoming week will be the part devoted to actuall events that affect the war score, and also University classes.

In the spirit of the University classes, I'm going to try to put up a fiber-related how-to on most days of the week. Theoretically, that should start no later than Saturday, but Holly and I will be going out to see (finally) the second half of Deathly Hallows, and I don't really expect to get anything up then. I'll also be busy the rest of this week, and it's unlikely that I'll get to do much with the blog. Sorry! In the meantime, I'm going to try to repost the most interesting stuff from Twitter about Pennsic, so it'll show up in the sidebar, and you can get an instant update even if I don't post something.

Which leads me to my next topic:

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My TiVo (remember, the thing that malfunctioned badly, and left me without for almost a month?) is malfunctioning badly!

If you'll remember, I got a Comcast DVR to replace it temporalily, and returned it. They replaced it, and now, less than six weeks later, I'm having another problem all over again.

This time, it decides it needs to be restarted, and proceeds to do that. It kept restarting all day Monday, but by Tuesday, it would begin to restart, and then try to restart again, and effectively turn itself off.

I just tried to watch the Doctor Who episode, The Doctor's Daughter, starting at 5:00. It turned itself off at 5:02, 5:14, 5:33, 5:38, 5:50, and 5:54. Since the start-up sequence takes 5 minutes to complete, I didn't really get to see much of Doctor Who!

All the programs I wanted to see last night wound up as collections of program parts in their own separate folders, some in as many as four or five pieces!

This is really not acceptable! I've spent a lot of Monday, Tuesday, and today on the phone with TiVo support, and they don't seem to be able to do anything about the problem. I wasn't really enthused with the idea that the TiVo they sent me didn't even last a year, but I'm even less enthralled with it not lasting even two months!

So, this is part of what's going to keep me so busy for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, I'm going to go over to Comcast (a 2 to 4 hour trip each way, and a full day of time-wasting) and get a DVR so that I can at least watch TV. Then, I still have to take the TiVo over to UPS on Friday, which is not quite as long a trip, but still a lot after the exertion of the day before.

When a TiVo box is working, it's a dream! I really love TiVo boxes!

But customer service is a nightmare with them, and the hardware seems to be very undependable! So the question is: Is it worth all the aggravation and the extra expense?

That's a question I'm having a hard time answering at the moment.

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Back on the topic of health, I found this internet article interesting. There doesn't seem to be a reliable test for Lyme Disease, so the state government of New Hampshire has voted in a law that frees doctors from having to rely heavily on tests to diagnose Lyme Disease. This has a lot of legal implications, some of which are quite interesting about how they affect the way other diseases are treated. I'm glad to see a state taking an interest in the health and welfare of it's citizens, and I wish more states would follow New Hampshire's example!

I'm wiped out, and have to go.

Have a wonderful remainder of the week!

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Murphy's Law Tuesday

Today is the culmination of a few horrible weeks.

I've already detailed most of it, but the additional badness started yesterday, when I tried to deal with the TiVo people.

The TiVo people are going to do what they plan to do, and you can't talk them out of it.

Which would have been OK if they had told me what they intended to do. But they didn't, and trying to get them to do what they said they would do is like trying to talk to a brick wall.

I spent two hours on the phone to them yesterday, and they absolutely refuse to do anything useful.

They charged me at a time when I didn't expect them to (twice) and overdrew my checking account. I'm getting the feeling that they feel like since I have service, they can just help themselves to my money. Since it was through a VISA debit card, I plan to explain to my bank (and probably the local police) that the charges were fraudulent, since they were not what TiVo said they would do. Largely because I don't trust them to refund my money. They say they will, but they've said a lot of other things that they then refused to do.

So, I woke up  today feeling bad again in spite of the antibiotics, slightly dizzy again, a bit sick to my stomach, hungry, but not wanting to eat. And, because of the antibiotics, I immediately ran to the bathroom.

The toilet was running nonstop, and wouldn't flush. I opened the tank, and discovered that the flapper had broken, and was so old that not only had one side of it broken, but it was in a serious state of decomposition.

I got dressed and went downstairs to fill out a service request. They have very strict rules about everything around here. And they keep printing them up and sending them to all the tenants. One of them is that if you want something fixed, you have to appear in person at the front desk, properly dressed, and fill out one of their forms.

So, when I got down there, I was told that I didn't really have to fill out a form. I explained that it was an imminent disaster, and was told it was OK, they'd handle it.

It's not about 2 hours after normal repair hours, and nobody has shown up yet.

So, I'm left with diarrehea and a toilet that has to be hand operated and is about to break completely. Oh, joy!

In the meantime, even though I feel terrible, I now have to pack up the new TiVo and send it back. I expect the packing up to happen today, and the sending back to happen tomorrow. Then on Thursday, since TiVo hasn't really done anything they said they would, and I don't expect them to really refund the money they extorted from me, I'm going to have to deal with the bank, and possibly the police to get VISA to refund the money they took under false pretenses, probably on Thursday, and if there's enough time then, I'll file a complaint with the FTC. That may not happen until Friday, though.

I was going to make this a hilariously funny account of all the things that have happened, but I'm too sick, and too fed up with modern life to be able to muster the energy to do it, let alone get through today, tomorrow, Thursday and Friday with a sense of humor that's intact.

I hope you're having a better day than I am.

Watson!

In case you missed Jeopardy the last two days (and in case you're lucky enough to read this while there's still time), they've had a computer named Watson as a contestant on Jeopardy the past two days, and will have it play a whole, continuous game today! So if you're reading this before 7:30, go tell your DVR or TiVo to record it, or go watch it on TV!

Speaking of all this, I wanted to watch it yesterday, but was foiled by my TiVo. I spent a lot of yesterday on my new TiVo.

The TiVo people had what sounded like a fabulous offer for people who have a TiVo HD (or who don't have a TiVo) to upgrade to a TiVo Premiere. It sounded like a fabulous offer, anyway.

The person I ordered it from on the phone drastically misrepresented it.

It turns out that I was not ordering continuous service, as she led me to believe, but a whole new service with a whole new contract, and the responsibility to keep on paying for service on the old box, which I quite clearly stated that I didn't intend to use.

The advertising clearly stated that I could return it within 30 days free. I was told on the phone that returning it would be free, but when I called them to return it, they said I'd have to return it at my expense.

I called them and tried to straighten all this out, but they refused to budge on any issue!

Apparently, if you're a victim of their false and misleading advertising and statements on the phone, the only recourse you have is to ask them about returning it. My advice to consumers is that if they don't live up to their end of the bargain immediately, just tell them you want to return it. Otherwise they'll politely treat you like dirt.

The result of my inquiry into sending it back was that they gave in and gave me everything i had fought for on the phone earlier with no success, which was what they had promised in the first place. Although they've always been polite on the phone, this is the first time during this fiasco that they treated me like a customer rather than as a punching bag.

At least, at this point, they say they're going to give it to me. But they've said that before and not done it. I'll believe it when I see it.

As for the fun yesterday, it took at least two and a half hours to install it. This was not because I had a problem installing it. The installation was fairly simple. I transferred the cables from the old box to the new one with no problems. I also transferred the cable card.

And, I should mention that if you're transferring a cable card from one TiVo box to another, you have to call the cable company and give a tech the cable card number plus the number of the box it's now in. Comcast techs were busy, and it took me a while to do this. Which was not their fault. Probably the first problem I've had with Comcast which wasn't their fault!

Doesn't sound all that time-consuming, does it? Well, it's not.

When started, the box said that it needed to update some programming, and that it could take up to an hour, but probably less. So, I did that, and it took a little more than a half hour. So far, so good.

Then it came up with a little sign that said that it had to install all the programming it had just downloaded, and that would take at least an hour, possibly more! And you don't have a choice at that point.

I really wanted to watch Jeopardy, but was stuck.

I finally got everything up and running just in time to see Watson bomb on the last question.

So, I'm going to stop writing now so you can go watch, but I'll write more about this soon.

I Hate Comcast! (Again)

At this point in time, it's been about two weeks since my computer, cell phone, and phone started going wonky.

The phone is doing something that the phone, by itself is incapable of doing. At random, it starts making a loud beeping noise on my end. Sometimes, it is inaudible on the other end of the line. Sometimes everything is inaudible on the other end. If I ignore the beeping and try to explain to the person on the other end that my phone is malfunctioning, after a few seconds, the beeping starts going more quickly, and the volume escalates to the point that (even with my hearing problems) it sounds air-raid-siren loud when held at arms' length! It has caused me to levitate at least two feet straight up in the air, even when I'm expecting it!

The phone just does not generate those kinds of beeping noises. It's not constructed that way. It can't! The sound is coming from something that's not working right over my internet connection.

The cell phone (which I was using via WiFi) and the computer have precisely the same problem. They work fine if I'm not using the internet, but go wonky in the precise same way when on the internet. For instance, when I read an email and then hit "delete" usually, nothing happens.

I'm sure you're as surprised as I was when I realized that all three devices are connected to the internet, and Occam's razor says that it's the internet that's the problem. In other words, it's less likely that three devices malfunctioned at the same time (two of them in exactly the same way) than it is that something that was already malfunctioning (my internet connection) went further wrong.

I've spent most of my time on Monday, Tuesday and today trying to get this fixed, with no success so far.

When I called Comcast to alert them to the problem, I got their usual idiotic type of response. A perky, cheerful woman on the other end of the line asked me for my identifying information, and then chirped, "Well, your modem is working perfectly, and you're getting a great signal, so it must be your router!" Seconds later, I found myself talking to the manufacturer of my router.

Well, she might be right about the modem working well. It seemed to be working fine to me. Her assertion that I'm getting a good signal is a little more iffy. There have been at least 16 service calls trying to fix TV and cable, and about half of the repairmen have mentioned that I'm barely getting any signal at all in my apartment. So, I feel it's more accurate to say that they may be sending out a "great signal," but it's not arriving here.

Comcast had some people come out today to talk to the people who live in my apartment building. In spite of the fact that everyone in the building is having the same kind of problem, they really weren't here to help with that. They weren't here to help the last two times, either. They were here to sell us more "service!"

I did speak to someone about the problems of all the people who live here. They responded the way my mom would have.

If you gave my mom a problem, her policy was to give you two problems back! And they did that very well!

They wanted a phone number that they could use to talk to me about this. I explained that my phone isn't working because of the problem they caused, and they said they'd call the manager of the apartment building and get her to get in touch with me!

They didn't feel the need to contact me when they caused this problem. And believe me, they should have felt that need. During a one-year period, they had NO service for a total of enough hours to equal a month!

At this point, I'm seriously considering just having my service turned off as a cure.

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On top of all this, I got an email from TiVo yesterday, saying that I could get a premier TiVo box from them for $7 extra per month with a two year commitment. It sounded like a really good deal, and I ordered it.

Well, the woman I spoke to on the phone didn't really tell me anything that was not true on the phone (that I know of, anyway), but she did leave out a lot of information. A lot of information that turns the great deal that she made it sound like into something that I can't possibly do, and can't afford.

In spite of the fact that I mentioned to her that I only have one TV, and that I asked her about disconnecting the box I have and connecting the new one in it's place, and that I asked her about possibly using the old box at sometime in the future, when I might have a second TV. She neglected to mention that she was opening up a whole new line of service for me, but not canceling the old line of service. So, now I discover that I have a choice of either paying for TiVo service twice each month, or paying a $65 early termination fee! When I called to ask something, they explained it to me, after they'd already sent out the new box! They said that the person I spoke to should have told me that.

So, they've already charged me $21, and I'll also have to pay about $30 (the guy on the phone said) to return it. They'll refund my money (eventually), but I still have to put out the money up front.

Which has made me more angry than I would usually get due to all the other problems Comcast has been giving me.

I want to crawl into bed and sleep for the next week! I want to sit down and cry for a few days! I want to call Comcast on the phone and just cancel my internet access completely! I want to get a batch of donuts and eat them all! I want to go down to the local Comcast office and throw a screaming net fit! I didn't know it was possible to be this angry and also want to cry!

I'm so upset that I'm even considering getting Verizon DSL. I fully expect the service to be as bad as Comcast, but at least they're going to charge me $10 less per month for the bad service.

I'm also considering just cutting off internet service completely.

Forever!

And, as if all that weren't enough, there's nothing worth even bothering to turn on the TV to watch tonight.

I really hope you're having a better week than I am!