It's been interesting
Nov. 26th, 2011 06:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jebbypalWell, I tried to post part way through the week, but the amount of time it takes to type by iphone keyboard resulted in the post never being completed. Very much looking forward to returning to civilization ;)
1) flights out were fine. Readjustment to parents no quicker despite short interval since I saw them last
2) note to self: do not fly without noise reducing headphones. It's been a long time since you've endured the high pitch thrumming of planes. Also, those are critical if you even want to attempt to drown out dr Phil when attempting to not look anti-social by retreating to the bedroom (where you can actually still hear the tv as well...*sigh*)
3) Dear AT&T: your customer service sucks. Having your phone that dials your brick and mortar stores direct one to check your websites if no one answers after 5 rings and failing to give any way to get in touch w/ a store flesh and blood person is not helpful. Especially when your national sales reps apparently have no access to a computer system to tell them a) what stores are actually corporate stores, because hint:Talequah is not big enough to have 3 corporate stores; b) what any of those stores actually carry. Also, it looks really bad when one of your reps inside the corporate store in muskogee insists I can get the broadband wireless aircard I want at any of the other authorized dealers or even best buy. Especially, when the entire problem is that you refuse to expand hi-speed cable based internet the extra 2 miles to where my parents live, and dial-up internet just really does not cut it in this day and age. Seriously, you guys should be required to send a free broadband aircard to anyone who is still paying for your dial up internet because it is not functional!
4) After a nice rep in Talequah called around to all the local stores for me, I got to drive to Tulsa to pick up the aircard. Siigh.
5) Said aircard did not work on my parents' desktop machine even though it would work on my laptop. We can only presume that the issue is the amount of EM field or something caused by something in the desktop
7) As a result, I got to go back out on Wednesday night before meeting friends in order to purchase them a new laptop. Because I was not going to be doing that on Black Friday!!! (I'll pay significantly more money for anything to avoid crazy crowds of people)
8) Met up w/ old friends from elementary school (since I was not in the crowd that hung out w/ them during hs.....). Interesting, though if they aren't talking about their kids, they are talking about the 90$ jeans or capris that they bought. Just a tad bit odd. Oh well.
9) Then Friday was drained by having to spend 2 hours w/ grandmother who is quickly becoming as senile as crazy grandma since she refuses to wear her hearing aids in order to interact w/ the world and is mostly blind. Fortunately, my mother didn't start too many fights w/ her. Still, between that and then something in her apartment setting off my allergies, I was getting beyond tired and cranky very early yesterday.
10) Then needed to go back to town that evening to purchase usb port (their laptop only has 2 connectors for usb), wireless mouse (as my mom doesn't need anything to help her knock things over. Thank you best buy for 2 year accident protection in all likelihood), and a small wall surge protector in case my mom starts using the laptop in places other than the office
11) and the day finished off w/ 2 hours of remedial computer training. I swear, it's scary how far my mom's declined. It all started 7-8 years ago w/ the near death experience after the cath incident, but nothing has helped along the way. I was losing my patience more than a little when we were finishing off w/ demonstration of how the flash usb drive worked. But now she's on facebook, so hopefully that will get her interacting w/ people more since she can't really leave the house under her own steam much.
And that's pretty much it. Now to endure 2 flights and decide whether I have the energy to head down to Delaware before driving back home to jersey tonight.
Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving (or week if you are outside US). Look forward to getting back into the swings of things soon.
1) flights out were fine. Readjustment to parents no quicker despite short interval since I saw them last
2) note to self: do not fly without noise reducing headphones. It's been a long time since you've endured the high pitch thrumming of planes. Also, those are critical if you even want to attempt to drown out dr Phil when attempting to not look anti-social by retreating to the bedroom (where you can actually still hear the tv as well...*sigh*)
3) Dear AT&T: your customer service sucks. Having your phone that dials your brick and mortar stores direct one to check your websites if no one answers after 5 rings and failing to give any way to get in touch w/ a store flesh and blood person is not helpful. Especially when your national sales reps apparently have no access to a computer system to tell them a) what stores are actually corporate stores, because hint:Talequah is not big enough to have 3 corporate stores; b) what any of those stores actually carry. Also, it looks really bad when one of your reps inside the corporate store in muskogee insists I can get the broadband wireless aircard I want at any of the other authorized dealers or even best buy. Especially, when the entire problem is that you refuse to expand hi-speed cable based internet the extra 2 miles to where my parents live, and dial-up internet just really does not cut it in this day and age. Seriously, you guys should be required to send a free broadband aircard to anyone who is still paying for your dial up internet because it is not functional!
4) After a nice rep in Talequah called around to all the local stores for me, I got to drive to Tulsa to pick up the aircard. Siigh.
5) Said aircard did not work on my parents' desktop machine even though it would work on my laptop. We can only presume that the issue is the amount of EM field or something caused by something in the desktop
7) As a result, I got to go back out on Wednesday night before meeting friends in order to purchase them a new laptop. Because I was not going to be doing that on Black Friday!!! (I'll pay significantly more money for anything to avoid crazy crowds of people)
8) Met up w/ old friends from elementary school (since I was not in the crowd that hung out w/ them during hs.....). Interesting, though if they aren't talking about their kids, they are talking about the 90$ jeans or capris that they bought. Just a tad bit odd. Oh well.
9) Then Friday was drained by having to spend 2 hours w/ grandmother who is quickly becoming as senile as crazy grandma since she refuses to wear her hearing aids in order to interact w/ the world and is mostly blind. Fortunately, my mother didn't start too many fights w/ her. Still, between that and then something in her apartment setting off my allergies, I was getting beyond tired and cranky very early yesterday.
10) Then needed to go back to town that evening to purchase usb port (their laptop only has 2 connectors for usb), wireless mouse (as my mom doesn't need anything to help her knock things over. Thank you best buy for 2 year accident protection in all likelihood), and a small wall surge protector in case my mom starts using the laptop in places other than the office
11) and the day finished off w/ 2 hours of remedial computer training. I swear, it's scary how far my mom's declined. It all started 7-8 years ago w/ the near death experience after the cath incident, but nothing has helped along the way. I was losing my patience more than a little when we were finishing off w/ demonstration of how the flash usb drive worked. But now she's on facebook, so hopefully that will get her interacting w/ people more since she can't really leave the house under her own steam much.
And that's pretty much it. Now to endure 2 flights and decide whether I have the energy to head down to Delaware before driving back home to jersey tonight.
Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving (or week if you are outside US). Look forward to getting back into the swings of things soon.