New Year's Resolutions
I never make them... well, not officially. I make them in my head and don't tell anyone so if I don't stick to them, no one will be the wiser. Smart, eh?
Internet at home has been FUBAR for nearly two weeks now. When Jonathan was home, he experienced frequent outages at hours I would never have had occasion to know the status of our connection, like 1:00 AM. For the past two weeks service has been sporadic. I have called and complained five times now, three in the past two days. I have had NO connection whatsoever for three days. Since I rely on that connection for blogging and working from home, I have been a less-than-happy camper. I have relentlessly lodged my complaints and frustrations, have provided the cable provider with my cell phone number so they could reach me wherever or whenever. Do you think they've called? Of course not. Now, this is a small town. The gal who manages the local cable office knows me. She knows I know a LOT of people. I thought she'd have called me by now. She hasn't. So, I called her this morning. She was very nice, just like the people I talked to at the 800 number when I reported my outages. All very nice, all very apologetic. The local gal told me they were experiencing "trouble with a distribution line" in my neighborhood and that others were out as well. Well, gee whiz, why didn't someone tell me that??? I have been wondering if the problem was mine alone, was my cable modem, was my "box" outside... wondering. If someone had told me that they know there is a problem, that it isn't just me, that they are working on it, I would have been a lot less frustrated the past few days. For crying out loud, they have all my phone numbers! Why not a call or a message saying "we realize you're having problems, we're working on it" instead of just ignoring me? Very poor customer service. I told the local gal as much. I was nice, but explained that not letting a customer who has called repeatedly about a problem that things are being worked on is poor customer service. Supposedly, I will have internet when I get home today. We'll see. In the meantime, I am going to write a letter to someone at Northland Cable telling them they need to work on their communication of outages to their customers. I just need to figure out who that person is.
It's snowing, finally. Not a lot, but it will help the ski areas. Unfortunately, tomorrow Tom and I have to leave Sandpoint at 5:30 AM for a trip to Spokane where he will undergo surgery to remove the atypical fibroxanthoma melanoma on his left upper cheek. It is outpatient surgery, so he should be ready to go home by noon. I hope he doesn't get sick from the anesthesia. The doctor's office did call the hospital here to find out what anesthesia combo he was given when he had a tonsil removed last year because it was the first time he had been anesthetized that he didn't get violently ill. They will, hopefully, use the same concoction and he will be fine when he wakes up. It won't be a fun day, regardless.
Jonathan is taking snowboarding and Internet Applications for his Jan Term classes. He goes 3 hours a day (9-12) Monday-Friday to Internet Apps and then Wed/Fri from 12:30-6:00 for snowboarding. The term is 3 weeks long. He had his first snowboarding class yesterday. The snow is pretty pathetic at Mt. Spokane, but it was acceptable. He was in a lesson pretty much the entire time, which did not thrill him. He has been boarding for 8 years and figures he knows all he needs to know since he doesn't plan to race. He has likely picked up some bad habits, which I'm sure the instructor is trying to correct, to his chagrin. He was pretty tired when he got home. Internet apps is a different story. They are going to learn an awful lot in a very short period of time. I hope he learns some stuff he can use to help me with the web sites I maintain. It could be really great!
I have tried to work on my novel, but work is too busy. I just fall into an exhausted heap when I get home. I have just finished setting up 20 new computers on the main floor. I have 9 to go (not counting mine). The remaining 9 are for staff so they will require a lot more work as I will have to transfer settings and files, reinstall apps, etc. I'm kind of dreading it. Speaking of that, I should get cracking. One of my resolutions - be more productive at work.
I did start working out regularly. I have not been going in the early AM, preferring to blog or write, so I decided I'd go when Tom takes his break. That means I leave work about 3 or 4 and go workout, then come back to work for an hour or two or three. So far, so good. Now, get the diet under control and I may reach my goal of losing 20 pounds by my 50th birthday on March 8. I am not going to be fat and fifty!!! My new mantra!
Back to work...
