2014 - Day 273/92 - Tuesday...

Okay boys and girls, the world as he knew it is (for the near term at least) still revolving and things just may work out alright.  As you know from yesterdays journal entry, I received my new iPhone via UPS/FedEx (is there any difference?) yesterday.  I had a lengthy meeting scheduled today, and decided to go to the Apple Store to have it activated.  I also needed to buy (consumer, consumer, consumer) some accessories (since I am going from a 4S to a 6Plus), and of course none of the 35 charging cables and things I have a now are compatible.  ANYWAY, I made it to the Apple Store, and there were some challenges with the pone that I was sent from AT&T.  Thankfully, Andrew Genius (that's what his name tag said, and I think that is a Turkish name) was very tolerant and patient, and after six separate telephone calls to AT&T support, I walked out of there with an operable phone.  It will be downloading my old phone info from the cloud for about the next 36 hours, but I can deal with most of that.  The only thing I am certain is not transferred is the (close to) 4,000 photos that are on my iPhone.  Whatever.

Almost done.  When I took the new phone out of the box yesterday, I thought it was almost embarrassingly HUGE, and I continued to feel that way up until the time that I discovered that it actually fit (comfortably) into the pockets that I have been accustomed to carrying the phone in, so I am good with that.  If it works well, I will be happy as a clam, and that is not easy.  Oh, and I just saw a commercial on television, that refers to the iPhone 6Plus as "Bigger than Bigger".  Th
at pretty much sums it all up!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NEW PHONE, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2014 - Day 272/93 - Monday...

A package arrived for me today, and they actually placed it (it doesn't look like they threw it) on the porch.  There is a bad habit of putting packages at the head of the driveway by the road, and two or three days later we are surprised to notice that there is a faded (hardly ever wet) package that has been partially covered up by scratching chickens.  I was, however, alerted to the expectation of this delivery, so I was en garde so to speak, looking for it.  I have not yet opened it, although I expect I will before the night is through, if nothing more than to charge the battery.  My plan is to take the new phone and my old phone to the AT&T store tomorrow afternoon and let them activate it. Since we are on satellite I
nternet out here on the edge of nowhere, I expect the transfer of data could take hours and hours.

Wish me luck!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NEW PHONE, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2014 - Day 271/94 - Sunday...

I was innocently going about my business this morning, looking for something up in the front barn.  What I was not looking for was a snake.  The second thing I was not looking for was a DEAD snake that did not look that dead at the time.  The third thing I was not looking for was a dead rat snake that apparently died from ingesting (although not that well) two of the nest eggs from the chicken nesting boxes.  Yes, I had walked through the front of the barn to the chicken coop and smelled something dead (that was at least a couple weeks ago), but it is really not that unusual to smell dead things out here in the country on the edge of nowhere.  Who knows, it could be a dead mouse up in the rafters or a dead something under the floor of the barn.  Whatever, dead smell is dead smell, live with it.  Anyway, this is what a dead snake looks like after you have chopped it into three pieces and slit it open to retrieve the glass nest eggs.  This is the second rat snakes in so many years to meet its demise as a result of taking the nest eggs.  The first endured (not so well really) a slow and (probably not pleasant) death that included a variety of weapons on my part, including but probably not limited to lopping shears, hoes, hammers and rose bush trimmers.  This latest instance was totally caused by the snake, I had no part of it.  The retrieved nest eggs are now floating in a bucket of water in the barn, hoping to get the digestive tools of the deceased snake cleansed off them.

I hope you have a great week!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, SNAKES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2014 - Day 270/95 - Saturday...

All things considered, it was not a half-bad day.  I did get a couple things done around the house, which included taking a couple bales of hay out to the cattle.  They are not any worse for wear, and they paid attention to the hay bales for a little while, and then it was back to grazing on the green stuff for them.  Orchid and her new calf (Stormy) seem to be doing well.  They (all the cattle) were just lounging around when I took the hay out to them and took this photo.  Very maternal of Orchid if I do say so myself.

And we waited ALL DAY for the satellite upgrade installation folks (whose name I have vowed not to speak for fear of shaming myself again for being critical).  The appointment had a four hour window, sometime between Noon and 4p.m.  We received several automated telephone calls throughout the day confirming that we were on the list, but just in case we needed to cancel, please press 1.  We got a call (from a real person) at 2:55p.m. saying he would be here in about thirty minutes.  He actually did arrive shortly before 4p.m. and about ten minutes later we got another automated call saying they apologized for not making our scheduled appointment, and would we like to set another day and time for the installation.  But the guy was in the attic...should I go up there and tell him he couldn't make it and he needed to reschedule?  I was very confused.

But, as it all worked out, we are done with service and installation appointments for the foreseeable future (I hope).

Deeds, Actions, Changes, APPOINTMENTS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2014 - Day 269/96 - Friday...

We had our monthly office meeting this afternoon, and we ordered in from Mama Fu's, which I have to admit was better than the ONLY ONE time that Jody and I had visited one of their outlets in Georgetown.  It was pretty good, and we all read our fortunes and laughed and laughed and laughed.  Of course, we also all added inappropriate comments to the end of all the fortunes, so that made it more fun and probably liable as defendants of one kind of lawsuit or another.

As you may be aware (if you also follow my mis-adventures on Facebook) our satellite signal chose to become inoperable last night.  I will not name the satellite system here, but the initials are DirecTV.  They were somewhat overwhelmed (both last night and this morning) that they were dealing with someone who could actually use (and understand) words that contained more than three letters.  Basically, last night I spoke with repair people, and made an appointment for a repair person to visit us today between the hours of Noon and 4PM.  This morning I called them back inquiring as to whether (as long as they were here) upgrade the system that has been here for the last six years.  No, as a matter of fact they could not do that.  If I wanted to upgrade the components, I would need to cancel the repair request and then submit a new request for installation of the new stuff, and then another request for a repair.  These, the people who say you can record five programs at once, but you cannot get a repair and upgrade service at the same time.  Oh, and you have to pay two service call fees as well.

I will save you all the pain and agony.  The repair was indeed made this afternoon, the guy who made the repair had all the stuff in his truck to upgrade the equipment, but he could not get permission to do it.  I cannot wait until they send me a customer service survey.  Oh yeah, I am not paying for any service charges and I got a (small) service credit for not having service.  I think it was actually a bribe to get me off the phone. 

I actually recommend that, if you have a bad day, just give DirecTV a call and unload on them.  They are like sitting ducks.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, READ A BOOK?, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2014 - Day 268/97 - Thursday...

And so, here is my take-away for the day.  It really doesn't matter how your day was, it matters how your day ends.  Nothing can change the day, so take a couple minutes and appreciate what cost you nothing.  It is just there.  Go outside and appreciate what you have, make sure you understand that you are a lucky person, and try for just a minute or two to shed the first-world problems that (earlier in the day) took up so much of your time and efforts.  In the grand scheme of things, I will bet that all the stress and commotion was over something that was trivial, inconsequential at best.

Done!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, WHAT'S IMPORTANT?, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2014 - Day 267/98 - Wednesday...

It seems that the chickens and the cat (Barney) have come to an agreement and that co-existing is not really that big of a challenge.  I wish some of my colleagues and others that I deal with on a daily basis could also find some reasonable accommodations that would afford them the ability to coexist while at the same time acknowledging and respecting their inherent and individual differences.  If I were the king of the forest...

It's hump day, and that cannot be a bad thing.  Yesterday and today were busy, busy, busy, and I do not know what karmic circumstance it is that I violated that causes the scheduling of meetings to become "clusters" instead of smooth cycles of events.  But, that is typically the way it happens.  Nothing scheduled for a couple days and then all of a sudden BANG, everything at once.

I did stay in Austin last night, so I had the luxury of sleeping in a little bit later this morning.  Heaven!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, PEACEABLE KINGDOMS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!