Monthly Archives: August 2016

The end of an era…and one of those days

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So the last straw came for me around this time last week, when I opened the Kindle app on my phone, planning to read a bit during my lunch at Dairy Queen (healthy, I know).

I was unable to get to my library.

Being bored, I pulled up my email instead, and found a message from Amazon, announcing that they would no longer offer Kindle for Windows Phone, as of the day before.  This came during a week when Microsoft had announced updates to several of their apps for Android and iPhone – but not for Windows Phone, so I was already ticked off.  See, the thing is, Windows Phone is without question – at least to me – the most solid, attractive, easy-to-use, secure, and intuitive phone OS on the market.  And it integrates seamlessly with all of my other devices – my car, my computers, my cloud accounts, everything.

But I still can’t get basic apps for it, like Wemo for my Belkin devices (lights, thermostat, etc.) or Capital One banking or Kroger coupons…on and on and on.  In spite of the phone’s superiority, nobody will write software for it.

So I finally took the plunge and “upgraded” my phone to an Android.  I also got – briefly – a Samsung Gear S2 smart watch with the phone.  Took that back after two days, as it couldn’t hold a candle to my Microsoft Band 2, and I saw no reason to spend an extra $10/month for something that I’d almost never use.

So I’m on android now.  I don’t like it.  I really don’t.  It won’t do simple things, like read me my text messages in the car or notify me when I’ve got new emails.  But at least I can lower the temp in my house when I’m at work and I can keep track of my finances.  And, with enough messing around, I can connect to my Microsoft Office account and be able to view some essential work documents from anywhere (this, by the way, was much easier to do on my Windows Phone).

I continue to hope that, someday, Microsoft will allow any apps to run on top of its phone software – or that businesses will wake up and figure out that the $50K they spend on hiring a Windows developer will pay off when they pick up 5 million new customers.  Until then, though, I guess I’m stuck with using this phone that looks like it was designed by a kindergarten class on meth.

In other news, I’m having a very large tree taken down in my back yard this morning.  Additionally, the crew doing that is cutting down a bunch of privet (the bane of my existence since I bought the house), trimming a large beech tree in the yard, and leveling my deck (which has been slowly tilting over the last several years).  This is not cheap – $2,200 – but it should really open up my back yard, let some grass grow, and maybe encourage me to spend more time sprucing it up and hanging out on the deck.

I had planned to be at the office while all this was taking place, and was on my way there this morning (after going for coffee), when my high-temp idiot light started flashing at me.  Since it had done this very briefly on my way home from a band board meeting last night, I pulled a U-turn and headed to my mechanic, which was about two miles from where I was at the time.

By the time I arrived at the mechanic, every light on my dashboard – and I do mean EVERY light – was either flashing or burning non-stop.  Check Engine.  Hill Climber. Brake. Traction Control.  Heat. Headlamps.  Even the cruise control indicator was flashing at me.

I was, to put it mildly, a bit freaked.  Also a bit ticked off, because, you know, when every light is flashing at you, it’s not going to be a $5 repair.

It’s not.  Need a new radiator and a new thermostat.  For good measure, I also had a nail in one tire and I’m due for an oil change.  When all is said and done, the mechanic will be into me for just over a grand.

That’s on top of the $2,200 for the tree guys.

Happy friggin’ Wednesday.

On the plus side, I had to walk home (a bit over 2 miles) from the mechanic, and I’ll have to walk back this afternoon.  So, in addition to my regular morning walk, I should get 7 miles or so in exercise today.

And, hopefully, I’ll have a cleaned-up backyard.  As I sit on my couch writing this (I took a vacation day to deal with the car), I’m being serenaded by multiple chain saws.

 

What happened?

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The last week was kind of a blur.

Monday and Tuesday were okay, but I had to do an upgrade late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, and then I ran trivia Thursday night.  Between Wednesday morning and Friday night, therefore, I think I got about 6 hours of sleep.  And I’m not as young as I used to be.  Pretty sure I was in bed by 7:00 on Friday and I got another 5-hour nap yesterday afternoon.  Feeling a bit better today.

After literally three years of trying to get the television feeds at the call center fixed/upgraded, I managed to do so some day last week (I’m guessing that it was Thursday, but I honestly don’t remember).  The problem was that the account was setup around 5 years ago by someone who left the company 3 years ago, and nobody knew any of the account information – ergo, we couldn’t get anything done.  As it happened, I was searching through my intranet forums for something (I don’t remember what), and I stumbled across a post I’d made about three years ago with the subject line, “Avalon Ridge U-Verse Account Information.”  Imagine that.  I’d never thought to look in my own notes.

Long story short, I called support, gave the information, and by the next day all of our set-top boxes had been replaced, and we got two new wireless ones to put in the break room.

Maybe people will leave the floor televisions alone now that there are two that they can control.  I’m not hopeful, but that was the plan.

I think I’ve decided not to film the football team this year.  The decision is still somewhat up in the air, but realized that I’m starting to feel the wear and tear after doing it for the last 16 years.  The first game is at Michigan State, and I was kind of dreading quick up-and-back jaunt anyway, but I got swayed to just call it off since Jenny’s going to be out of town and Herb has his hands full with Andi.  It’s kind of a relief to have an excuse not to make the trip, and the more I think about the rest of the games, the less excited I am about getting up every Saturday and driving a minimum of 3 hours to stand in either blistering sun or a downpour.

Not to mention that I lost nearly two grand on equipment rentals last season because everybody and their mother has their own DSLR cameras now, so nobody’s buying my shots.  So yeah… I might just stay home and either watch the games on television (everything’s on ESPN3 these days) or not pay attention at all.

On the vacation front, I’m still planning to take a couple of days off on the week before Labor Day, and I’ve got the first week of October off (going back to Lake Superior), but I have 8.5 days yet to schedule and my boss is leaning on me to get them on the calendar.  I have no idea when I want to take them or what I’ll do.  I’m really kind of comfortable just hanging at the house and I hate taking vacation days to do that.  If I don’t use them, however, they’re lost forever.  So maybe Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks?  No idea.

If you’re reading this and have a suggestion, I’m all ears.

The picture for this entry is of the GBB at the Great American Brass Band Festival (Danville, KY) four or five years ago.  We were invited to play, and we got Brett Baker, trombone player from the world-famous Black Dyke Band, to hang out with us for a week and play some solos.  Great guy, and a good time.