Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Goodbye, Trust Market

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, AT&T won some legal wrangling against Verizon. In the end, the government ordered some groups of Verizon's customers to be taken over by AT&T. These people were termed "The Trust Market" and I was among them.

What this meant was that AT&T was to take over our service, was to replace all our phones and my MiFi with AT&T things and then they were going to be our provider. In the meantime, and this was nearly two years, I could not just go into a Verizon store and get answers about my account. No one had any access to it, because we were *The Trust Market.*

Well, this did not amuse me. I have not been a Verizon customer because they are a giant and they forced me to be with them. I've been a Verizon customer since they were a "whoozzat" company. I have stayed with them for many years, because I like their service.

So, after numerous postponements, The Day finally arrived. This was the day that AT&T's devices were to be activated. That Day .. was today.

I awoke curious, so I tried to call Jack on my Verizon phone and got a message that my phone no longer had service. So I tried the AT&T phone and was told that IT didn't have service.

So this afternoon, Jack and I went hopefully to our friendly Verizon man. He is Roy at the Pantano/Broadway Verizon store. He was helpful in listening to our situation and in getting me on the phone with a guy from Verizon who knew another guy from Verizon who might be able to help. Manuel from the WinBack Department (yes, really!) was my guy.

It took the better part of 30 minutes, I'm guessing, to get it all squared away, but the offshoot is that I am again a Verizon customer, I am no longer part of a Trust Market, I have the same plan, the same devices, and they all WORK! Thank you, Manuel! Thank you, Roy! And thank you, Verizon! Here's to another bazillion years of working together! 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Photos of the New Cottage!

Slowly, but steadily, we're making progress on the projects around my new cottage. Jack got some concrete blocks cemented in today, and I got another carload of stuff loaded up at 206, driven here, and offloaded. Most of it is put away now.

I got the Fit serviced this morning. Its "oil life" indicator was down to 15%, and that means that it's time to get it changed. It takes awhile for it to get that low, too. Last oil change was in Big Rapids, and so that was September or before. When I first arrived here, I took it to my dealer, and they told me that I needed to wait for that 15%.

Ok! Here we are. New photos of the new digs!

Here is the delivery guy unwrapping the front. The doors are not even on yet!


Notice .. no flooring yet, and all the building stuff everywhere. I was NOT living here yet!






Fast-forward to today. Here's Jack working on the concrete footer for the deck:



And here are some interior photos, with explanations. You have to click the pic to see the explanations. :)









Sunday, April 10, 2011

Busted

Yep... my sister finally busted me for not writing in this blog more. And she's right. I will repent. I will blog more. My camera is still at my old house, so I can't take pics tonight, but I'll go and get it tomorrow!

I love this cottage more every day. Change is difficult, and moving is difficult on so many levels, but this is a very nice move for me. The little loft bedroom is working out great. With the windows open, I get this amazing air blowing just right, and so, even on the nearly 100 degree days that we've had, it's nice and cool at night.

The kitchen is smaller than the one I had at 206, but I am really enjoying it. The peninsula takes the place of the island I no longer have, and it gives me plenty of counter space. While I have not yet baked a pie in this kitchen, I hold out hopes that it'll serve nicely for that.

Jack got the footers for the deck front poured on Friday, just in time for our big cooldown. On Saturday, we awoke to rain and 47 degrees -- perfect for going to the Home Show! We spent several hours there, perusing the aisles. Big show with many, many booths. It's not the Indy show, however, with its actual custom home built on the premises!

After the show, we came back to my cottage and got our feet up in the recliners, TV on... and the doorbell rang. John and Carlene, friends of ours from Big Rapids, were here with Smania's (other friends from BR who winter in our park). John and Carlene winter in Phoenix area, so this was just the 2nd time that we saw them this season. We all went out to Mimi's for a delicious dinner and some fun conversation and catching up.

Today it was a bit warmer and we got to see the snow left on the Catalinas and Rincons after this cold & rain down here. Church was good. Pastor Bruce is leaving our church to pursue a new venture in California. While I'm sure that it'll be fine for our church and that Bruce and his family will be happy there, I'm still bummed about that.

My voice lessons and practicing continue to be lots of fun. I am up to 12 different exercises now, and I get a new song every week. While sometimes it sounds like I'm hollering or shrieking, mostly I sound ok... to me! LOL! Marcia swears that she's going to make me a star.