Too Many Emails

I have multiple email accounts. I manage majority of these mail accounts by having one account retrieve them. Well, it seems the main account was having problems retrieving one of the accounts for the past month. I took care of the problem child several nights ago.

The House Knows

First it was the refrigerator. Yep, it decided that it no longer want to be cold. It got replaced and the old one acts as extra space in the garage when I can get it to maintain a freeze for 3-4 months. It seems the oldie wants to be defrosted periodically. One of these days, it will be kicked out the door.

Then the AC unit went. The service guy said he could patch it up and it should last for the rest of the season. As for the next summer, that's a coin toss.

Next the water heater wanted to try to flood my basement. Lucky me, I caught it in time so I only had a wading pool in one corner. A water heater rated to last 10 years served me well for 16 years. Maybe I should have done what my sister did and just replace it before it went. Oh well, I did not think of it soon enough.

Yes, the house knew I was getting close to my last mortgage payment. I now have 100% equity on my place. A place I plan on spending the rest of my life with or possibly part ways when I can no longer deal with the stairs.

The house's gift to me... the AC died. The coin toss was not in my favor. It went on one of the most humid days ever. Thank goodness the next several days were spring like while I went seeking estimates and getting the work done.

Central air is a costly replacement expenditure. However, it's something I've always had since I moved out of New York City over 20 years ago. I guess the mortgage money needs to go somewhere. I just calculated my monthly payment...at least it's a lot smaller than my mortgage.

I get to look forward to more appliances and siding and roof reaching its life expectancy.

Pantyhose Does Not Last Forever

It really doesn't.

I finally decided to tackle a drawer today--the one that holds all my slips and pantyhose. A drawer that I've not opened since business casual became the norm.

Wary of New Technology... You Should Be

Verizon tweeted this article -- Wary of New Technology? I liked the beginning because it gave me more information about something I heard about -- the evolution of phone numbers. However, the end of the article is another thing. It's a marketing article.

Seems to be Pouring

Not the wet kind but things that you just want to stay away or not happen at all. I was going away for a week the next day and one thing after the other just keep happening.

First... My sister brings in the mail and there's a notice that I have to pick up a certified letter.

Oh, my gosh!!!!!

Yes, OMG!!!! I cannot believe that this is my 1st post for 2014. Numero UNO! Definitely a sad state of affairs when I look at my timeline and realized that 2013 only had one post.

It is all FB's and pandas fault. Though you really can't fault those cuddly black and white fluff balls. Watching them actually soothes the soul for the entire day. You just cannot say "awwwww" when watching them. I may also have to blame Explore.org for enabling live cam streaming of all small and big creatures and natures around the world.

Behind the Wheel, Not Today

Someone is telling me I should not be behind the wheel today. Really.

Our zoo had free admission today. I was going to go and take my sister and her kid.

I headed out to go get them. As I was backing out of their driveway, I did not see the car that was coming towards my right. I got a honked, I stopped and watch the car drive around me. I guess I was distracted by my convo with my sister.

We almost got to the zoo. I was in the left turning lane waiting for the light to turn green and watching all the traffic that the free zoo admission was causing. BOOM! I got hit from behind. I think the kid who was sitting in the back felt most of the impact. My back bumper got more scratched than damaged. I guess it adds to all the dings and scratches it has accumulated through its 10 years. The car that ran into me got majority of the damage -- mangled license plate, left headlight hanging out and black plastic pieces on the ground.

As the County Sheriff was on hand to direct all the traffic that the zoo was causing, one of them drove right over without us calling anyone. The Sheriff shoved the hanging headlight back into her car. Bad thing, I got to head into Newark to pick up the police report versus our local police department. I don't like driving to cities where I'm unsure of whether there is parking. I'm not a fan of parallel parking.

As this is the first major accident I was involved in, I didn't do what the insurance company says you need to do. I only took the other person's name and phone number and a couple of pictures (handy to have camera on phone). I guess I'm counting on the Sheriff to have taken everything (insurance and driver info) for the police report. I'll see what my insurance agency says. I can always call the driver. Poor thing was distracted by the zoo traffic and thinking about the wedding she had to go to. Plus, it was her third accident.

We decided not to go to the zoo. It most likely will be crowded as cars were backing up the traffic. I drove sis and the kid home and headed back to my house. As I was waiting at major intersection for the car in front of me to complete his left turn, a car from my left zoom pass me. It ran the red light!

After seeing that, it's safer for me to stay home today. Yep, no more driving for me today.

Jusy, You Slacker!

Wow! It's been over five months since my last post. I guess I did not have anything I wanted to say. Okay, I did, but procrastination reared its pretty head :) I'll try to catch you up.

I've got some photos I need to upload so you can see my latest trips. Yeah, I'll get to that soon.

Last month, I succumbed to "Pin It"-itis. I have 20 boards and 413 pins in my Pinterest account. Some of the boards have things I've tried or am going to try. So, I know two that I need to blog about. I'm feeling good about those.

Stay tune :) but not too close as they'll appear... ummm... sometime this year ;)

Ahhhhh!

One year ago this past Saturday, I was sitting in my home office finishing up the last of my conference calls and office emails. Yep, the last and final ones. No more conference calls. No more office emails. No more rolling out of bed and stroll/crawl into home office. I packed up the office laptop and shipped it back to that big laptop closet in Alpharetta the following week.

I had a list of to-do's for the year. I'm not sorry to say that I don't think I did any of them *LOL* I still have lots of time to do 'em, and the world will not fall apart if they are not done now. I'll get to them, one of these days.

It was a good year. I still made my Disney trips :) I was able to meet friends face-to-face that I've not seen for years! Those were the great times.

Enjoying life :)

New Phone, Current Plan - I WIN :D

I was scared. I thought I had to change my mobile plan.

I took the plunge and got the Droid Incredible. When I was completing the online "paperwork" to switch my phone, it told me I had to add a data plan. No data plan, no phone order. The thing is my current phone plan has the data part in it already. Was the company going to add an additional charge to my current plan. This would mean I would be charge for data access twice. Would it mean I would have to change my current phone plan, too?

The online chat rep came on and asked if "it" could help. I asked it my question and it said "Yes". I would need to change my plan as my current plan is no longer offered. Okay. I want the new phone so I'll change my phone plan, too. The online "paperwork" would not let me change my phone plan and phone at the same time. What numb skull thought of this great idea? I would need to submit two different orders.

Well, whatever numb skull it was, you have my gratitude.

I was going to submit another order to change my phone plan, but I was unsure whether I needed to do it immediately. I still had to wait for the ship of the Droid and my Palm Centro still needed the current plan. If I did submit the order, when would Verizon make the change? I hate bills that contain pro-rate charges.

I decided to wait until I got my new mobile bill. I did not get charged the extra data plan! I still have my current plan! Someone in the back office, or else smart programming, figured out my current plan has the data part in it and did not need another data plan added to my account.

Why am I so happy?

My current plan is cheaper than the new stuff. It would have cost me $10.00 more a month if I switched my plan.

New phone, current plan -- I WIN :D

In the Local News

Something I don't do when I'm home. Away, I watch/listen to the local news in the morning while I'm getting ready to head to work. I mainly watch it for the local weather forecast, but there are some interesting stories. So what have I learned...

There was a good snippet this morning about job hunting. Employers have gone high tech. They look for specific words in your resume. If it's not there, you get push to the bottom of the pile. Employers are also looking up your name in Google, MySpace, FaceBook and any other social networks out there, like LinkedIn. The advice is to be careful what you put on your pages as your prospective employer may be looking at and deciding if you're the right type of person based on your page and your friends. It also advises you to have a "professional" email address, nothing like studmuffin.

TTHMs (total trihalomethanes) is bad for you. You can ingest it by drinking the local water or inhale the steam from your shower. Well, I'm glad I did not listen to a local girl who drinks the water. I'll continue buying my water.

There's a serial killer in the next town over and seems to be slowly moving into my neck of the woods.

Don't piss off the Sheriff or he'll send his deputies after you. Don't worry, they'll figure some charges to get ya. Are you wondering which Sheriff this is? It's the one that built a tent city prison and prisoners have to wear pink.

Public libraries permit youngsters to borrow movies that a movie theatre would stop the kid from seeing. It seems only one town library would actually stop the borrowing while the others didn't.

I like this one -- suspected drunk driver killed a pedestrian but no charges because pedestrian was not in the crosswalk. So I've been making sure I'm in the crosswalk when the cars are around.

And in the travel news... Southwest passenger was cited by police for refusing to get off cell phone while plane was airborne. Poor guy was met by the police when the plane landed. And then there's the guy who is suing JetBlue for $2mill because the pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than 3 hours on a flight from California. The flight attendant did not want to sit in the jumpseat that is used by the crew.