Saturday, June 03, 2006

A Week of Blogging

Carol at She Lives suggested blogging for a week about blogging. We aren't supposed to start until tomorrow, but I thought I would get started today, since it is on my mind.

I love reading other people's blogs. So many different subjects, personalities, ideaas, to say nothing of the designs of their sites. Wow! So many colors, designs, pictures, graphics--it's enough to make me really depressed about my obvious lack of ideas and abilities.

Daughter Jeana at Days to Come helps me when she has time, and she is very gracious about it. But it would be such a pleasure to be able to insert links without wiping out my whole entry, or put a picture in my sidebar. Not to even mention adding a family picture to my header.

Graphics. Oh my. I love graphics. Where do people find all these cool, appropriate, funny, or symbolic graphics?

Bloglines. I have tried about 16 times to do this, and just can not seem to get it right. I really am not a dummy--I have a college degree. I'm a teacher, even. But somehow, most of the fun stuff associated with blogging, other than just writing, is beyond my capabilities.

Sigh.

Where do I go to find the book Blogging for Dummies?

Adventures in T.V. Service

Okay, I admit it. My husband is a t.v. addict. He is also a political junkie. For these reasons, we must have satellite tv service. He turns on the tv when he gets up, and it has a timer to turn it off after he falls asleep at night. Fox News is our most watched channel.


So that is how we got involved in changing our satellite service.

The first thing that happened was that our little magic box went out. So of course we went to Best Buy and got another one.

Then we got an ad from a different service, telling us about all the cool electronic stuff they would give us for changing to them, and at a lower monthly charge than we were already paying. So of course we called to cancel one, and get the other.

Only...the first company said, oh you just got a new magic box, so you automatically got your contract extended for a year, and it is going to cost you megabucks to cancel.

Wick was not happy to hear this. In fact, he was downright ticked off. He said nobody told me that. Where is the signed contract saying that I agreed to that? The co. rep. said well, it's understood. Like a verbal contract. And Wick said,yeah, worth exactlyl the paper it is not written on!

We went ahead with the installation of the new service. The first guy who came out walked into the RV, took one look at all the wiring, boxes, buttons, etc., and started saying, Now what is this?
What is this for? How does this work? He was here about 45 minutes, but accomplished exactly nothing.

I'm thinking well, maybe we are going to have to make nice with our existing service, since this co. is not exactly off to a good start.

Apparently he decided the job was over his head, but instead of saying so, he finally said y'all are going to have to put up a new pole for the new dish. He then made a hurried exit.

Yesterday, a different guy, accompanied by his two young adult sons, showed up. He said no, you don't need a new pole, we can use the same one you have been using, and we will have you in business in no time.

We spent the afternoon pouring glasses of ice water for these New York boys who were sweating profusely on a day that for us Texans seemed mild and pleasant, while they ran wires, pushed buttons, rearranged all our little electronic boxes, and sure enough, about 3 hours later, we had our new service.

This thing not only lets Wick watch Fox News, and the History channel, and the Military channel; it also makes it possible for me to watch something different on the tv in the bedroom.

Remember, we live in our RV. Our bedroom is about the size of a king size bed. Fortunately, we have a queen size bed, so there is actually room to scoot sideways down the side of the bed to get into the bed, instead of having to dive onto the mattress head first from the doorway. Since there is no room for a chair, a stool, or even a floor pillow, reclining on the bed to watch tv is pretty much the only option, unless you like to watch tv standing up. This is not a choice I make very often.

But ifI do want to watch, say, Home & Garden tv, or How to Decorate Small Spaces, I can.

AND.... we now have the equivalent of tivo, so if my darling needs to take a phone call, or go talk to our neighbor Bob about the latest egregious conduct of the far left liberals, he can pause live tv, take care of these important matters, and then take up right where he left off.

After all, we wouldn't want him to miss a single minute of the action on tv.

(He is going to read this, so I will add that he does cook, and has accomplished several little jobs around the place this week, so I am not really complaining about how much tv he watches. :) )

Now, if only he could arrange to have tv service on the boat whilel he fishes.....