Never thought retirement would be like this

Found a picture on the internet of a great uncle, named George (1829-1916). Looks like a real character. :) The family in that branch didn't have much imagination picking names. Seems like half the relatives are named either George or Nancy. :shrug:

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Georgia 10; Auburn 7, @ Half
 

Thanks Treeguy for the information....I worked for a Commercial General Contractor for over 30 years and have looked at many Insurance Certificates and had to verify many!
 

Got my outside Christmas lights put up today (was nice semi-warm weather). Got the tree put up and let the grandkids put the decorations on it after school. It's not perfect where they placed them but I don't care, they had fun. They did enjoy me telling them about the ornaments that were their mother's and uncle when they were little. Seems the older I get, all this decorating for the holidays has become a chore. And then it's take it all down and pack it up again in three weeks! UGH Does anyone else feel like this?
 
maggiemae said:
Got my outside Christmas lights put up today (was nice semi-warm weather). Got the tree put up and let the grandkids put the decorations on it after school. It's not perfect where they placed them but I don't care, they had fun. They did enjoy me telling them about the ornaments that were their mother's and uncle when they were little. Seems the older I get, all this decorating for the holidays has become a chore. And then it's take it all down and pack it up again in three weeks! UGH Does anyone else feel like this?
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I think it's worth it if you've got children to see them. Nice that they enjoyed hearing your stories about the ornaments. I've got a few boxes that are at least 60 years old. I'm afraid to touch them, they are so fragile looking. Also have a strand or two of the big clunky lights. I just used new lights, no ornaments, no tinsel, on the tree last time I did the tree.

I've already missed getting outside lights up before most everyone leaves town here. May decide on the spur of the moment to do something later. Actually when I had some new light sets draped over the stairway last year, to untangle and stretch them out, that was enough decorations for me inside the house. I may just scatter some on the stairs again this year. LOL!

Repost (was on Photobucket)

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Tuesday morning I could only connect to secure websites (URLs beginning with https:, but not http: ). Same problem with Chrome, IE11 and Edge, connected by ethernet, or WiFi through the gateway.

Except for Senior Forums, all you had to do was add the 's' and any site I had bookmarked, and most all others, eventually got redirected and resolved. Of course that is just a work around, but at least it allowed you to function normally while trying to troubleshoot. Right now I'm using the cellphone as a WiFi hotspot, again, just to get on here, and everything is hunky-dory.

Different people have had different things that they claimed were the problem. Everything from malware hijacking browsers, firewalls, corrupted files, to delinquent payments on internet bill. Don't see a pattern. I've tried just about everything, even calling and chatting with AT&T, and a system restore before the Windows 1709 update.

Anyway Tuesday afternoon I just took the day off and checked on Rusty. Poured two cups of coffee in a jar with a lid, walked to the barn and sat for an hour. He tolerates my presence, and eats my gingersnaps. Tiny little tree next to my chair. About the only red one you see around here.

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I'm not a superstitious person, but it seems like the cyberspace spirits are trying to tell me something. The last drastic thing I'm going to try, I'll try after I log out here. :wave:

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No one will believe this. The problem was the very first thing I tried, and the one I thought was stupidest---delinquent bill!!!

IF (you don't want details) GO TO 10

I had already called AT&T Tuesday, and they assured me my bill was paid up to date. I've been on autopay for years. This made no sense anyway. Why would I get partial service?

Found all this out by accident when I called AT&T TECHNICAL SUPPORT this afternoon. This time a nasty prerecorded message said, 'You have an upaid balance of $XXX, would you like to pay this right now by credit card or a bank draft? Please answer "YES" or "NO". If the answer is "No" please hang up!'

So uncool. :lol:

Called back to BILL PAY Support. After they convinced me it wasn't a mistake I paid it, and as soon as I hung up the phone, everything was working fine!

They called back this evening to explain what happened and how they were going to fix it. Turns out when I changed over from DSL to fiber optics, 4+ months ago, they created another separate account with just $40/month for the AT&T internet service (Uverse). They were supposed to modify and transfer the old billing account (DSL, house phone and Direct TV) over to that new account, but didn't. I was unaware of this new account, so did not put it on autopay (or ever pay it), and they have been charging me for the old DSL all along.

They are going to send a $255 refund check, reduce the $40 to $30 (permanent), and lower the house phone bill from $38 to $19. :shrug:

Except for that nasty message from TECHNICAL SUPPORT, I thought they were very nice.

This is mostly my fault. So much mail comes from AT&T, I've quit opening the stuff, and hate checking bills online. Checking bills just keeps you upset all the time, and makes you cranky.

10 CONTINUE

Meanwhile the heater went out on the truck this afternoon. Not the fan, just the heat---intermittent hot and cold. Only 24 days left in this year. I'm going to force myself to crawl over the finish line to 2018. One shot of Old Crow, straight, and now I'm ready for the next little challenge.

Bring it on!

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Looks like a Sugar Maple. Are they talking about snow in your area tomorrow? Just suppose to be a dusting here. The roads are still too warm to cause any problems. Glad I don't have to venture out anymore. I remember the days at work worrying about the 28 mile drive north to get home and the roads were getting worse by the minutes! Let It Snow!

We are with Comcast for our internet service and Norton Security is included. It scans daily and will "pop-up" and let us know they blocked an insecure site. Hope you get your problems resolved. Just saw you got it fixed. We also get so much "junk mail" everyday! I pay everything online! Back in the summer I sent a check to a doctor's office through the mail and someone (I still think it was someone at the accounts receivable dept. at the doctor's office) washed our check and paid almost $400 rent payment to someone in Alabama and used the account number for purchases at a Target in Atlanta. We had to close our account and reopen a new one. What a pain having to go online and change the banking info on the accounts. I also check our bank accounts online every day. That is how I caught the fraud on our account so quickly. The girl at the bank said you would be surprised how many people never check their accounts until they are wiped out by fraud.
 
Could be a sweet gum. They look a lot alike. It's supposed to get down below freezing Saturday night, but the rain should be gone by then. I remember driving on icy roads in Ohio. Winters were way too long there. Freezing rain is the only thing that worries me here. Power lines come down.

Yeah, I should at least check banking and credit card records. I do occasionally but not every month. They just sent me a new credit card and I have to change the expiration date on every site that I use it for autopay. :p

By the way, I so wanted UGA to get a chance to play Ohio State. They always look down their noses at the SEC. I don't know anything about it really, but it's fun to talk about it. LOL!
 
All weekend, and this morning, I've been getting emails, robo calls, and text messages from AT&T saying ... "the equipment you ordered has been shipped and should arrive by 8pm Monday via USPS." .. What!??? ​... Maybe computer generated messages sent out automatically, when a new account is created? Or the refund check? :shrug:

I like to speculate on what might happen, rather than wait and see, so I can have my plan of attack ready. :)

Also I've been invaded by stinkbugs. Every once in a while one shows up on the lampshade near my computer and I zap it with bug spray. Occasionally I must disturb them and the stink happens. How do they get in the house? Will this cold snap stop them?

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Finally, when the cabin sits untouched for months, and no one enters, there is no dust. Downstairs in the guest bedroom there was no dust, until I started sleeping there. Is the dust following me around. :rolleyes:

So many unanswered questions. :playful:
 
Meanderer said:
Ode To The Stink Bug
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:lol:

Fished a dead stink bug out of the trash and for sure it is the brown marmorated stink bug. "Brown marmorated stink bugs are an invasive species from Asia that arrived in Pennsylvania in 1996." But regular old stink bugs have been around for decades. I remember seeing them as a kid, and our dog coming home smelling like them. At least I'm not alone.

They're Baacckk!

"Creepy-crawly stink bugs are currently infesting homes across the country, expelling pungent fumes whenever anyone inadvertently squashes the aptly named pests. The fall marks their annual migration into rural houses where they seek warm shelter, but the insects are now appearing in larger droves than ever before. ..." - September, 2017
 
Pappy said:
Haven’t seen a stink bug in Florida yet, but have found a couple of these in the bathroom. Wanna trade?
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Pappy, I don't need to trade. I got those already. Everyone below the Mason-Dixon line has those.
:notfair:

l
l
I wonder if there's an Ode to the Cockroach. LOL!
 
[h=1]Jessica Garcia[/h]
[h=2]Ode to the Cockroach[/h]
O Beautiful Pestilence
Despoiler of peace and quiet,
Your unseen presence causes fear and chaos.
Scattering, scuttling across countertops,
Twitching antennae detecting delicacies left by generous hosts.
You hold court over the kitchen.
Fleeing that “Shoe from the Sky”, and
The death knell of Raid© . . .
Nothing can stop you.
Not the shrieks of distressed maidens,
Nor even nuclear winter.
How is it that you, such a small
And seemingly insignificant insect
Has managed to outlive much larger Masters of Terror?
​
 
The equipment I ordered (not) from AT&T arrived. It was just a set of papers explaining how to set up a new DIGITAL house phone service through the fiber optics cable. This explains why the fee would go down from $38/mo to $19/mo. I have 5 days to set it up, and call in to have it switched over.

It looks like I would have only two choices:

1. Only one house phone hard wired to the gateway
2. Connect a cordless base phone unit to the gateway and put handsets wherever else I want service in the house

I hate to lose my old fashioned wall phone. It is in one central location in the hallway upstairs, and I hardly ever use any other one. I'd have to string a phone line across the hallway to get to it.

But this could be a good thing in the long run. I already have a cordless base unit with a few handsets. Not sure if I have any choice anyway. The rep who was explaining the new charges didn't even ask if I wanted this option. It's clear they are discouraging use of old phone lines. If anything ever goes wrong, they probably won't be happy to service it. It might be best just to go with the flow and make the switch to the 21st century.

Still thinking.... More later ... maybe ...
 
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That's exactly like my wall phone except it is push button. I like it, not because it's old, I found it at Radio Shack just a few years ago, but because the receiver doesn't fall off the hook every time you pass by it. The new wall phones, without the hook don't work well on the wall.

Thanks for another ode. The last few lines are perfect:

"I miss those days. I love these days. Don’t get me wrong. I love them for different reasons, for finding my niche ... .... Remembering where he came from, he is blind to where he goes."
 
Umm, are you talking about getting rid of your landline and going with AT&T through their cable line? We have phone service through comcast and every time I call them to discuss getting rid of the phone service because we get so many unknown callers, they talk me out of it. I get most wanted calls through my cell phone. Our power and cable was off for almost three days this weekend because of the snow here and it sure was nice not getting those annoying unwanted calls on the "home" phone. I have one of those phones with a base and then two handsets. But it is still is annoying to run to a phone when it is ringing and look at the "caller ID" and realize it is an "unknown caller" and not pick up!
 
maggiemae, I've been thinking about getting rid of the landline because of those telemarketer calls, then got a device that has blocked most of them. I get one ring only on most calls. They have gotten clever and use the same area code and exchange as my number, so it's tricky to block all of them. For those I just wait to see if they leave a message (after 5 rings). None of them have. That device may still work. Haven't got that far yet. I prefer it to the cell phone for making calls out.

This will be on fiber optics cable, same as the internet service. Just like DSL except on this new cable. They did run the new cable on the electric poles here, so it's still vulnerable to trees going down, but not to all the troubles the old copper lines had. Maybe they will bury it in the future, I don't know. I think it's worth a try anyway. The cost is $19/month. Tomorrow is the first day I can activate it. We'll see....

So how much snow did you get? We got zero here. Just on the edge of it. Nice not to think about having to go to work, isn't it? :)
 
I was sitting in a lawn chair, drinking coffee, and Rusty decided to get right up in my face for a minute or two, then ignored me for the rest of the afternoon. He just doesn't like people. His twin sister was the same way. It wasn't so obvious before, because he was just doing what the other goats did. The four deer were back.

 

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