Issues

It has been one set back after another lately.  Hate to write negative posts but as you know this blog also serves as my cyber journal and I need to document several issues while they are still fresh on my mind.

Just when I thought that eye technician/surgery coordinator could not be any more incompetent...he proves me wrong!

Before I continue to relay the facts I need to make a clarification...you will see why later.  My mother has a plain Jane landline telephone.  She has no call waiting, call forwarding or long distance service on her line.

Before I dumped Time Warner Cable, we used Magicjack to make long distance calls.  I truly loved that service and would highly recommend it to anyone.  Then I made the mistake of switching to DISH as our TV and Internet provider.  MagicJack requires a high speed line and DISH speeds...at least in my area are equivalent to dial-up...so I had to cancel my subscription.

In reality we have never needed to make many long distance calls.  Our relatives, friends and acquaintances call us.  Three years ago when my mother had back surgery in San Angelo, the need for a cell phone became evident.  At the suggestion of one of my readers I purchased a no frills Tracfone, the type that you add talking time when you run out of minutes and you are not tied to a monthly bill or a two year contract.

As nice as it is to have this little telephone for use in case of an emergency...it does not work well from home because we live outside of the city limits and there are no cell phone towers in the vicinity.  My neighbors come out into their yards to get a better signal and they have a lot of dropped calls, no matter the carrier.  Their phones work great once you enter the city limits of Del Rio.

Now back to the incompetent eye technician/surgery coordinator.  I decided to read all the fine print he had mother sign.  I did not like that it stated that the surgery could be performed by an "alternate doctor".  Her surgery is supposed to take place at 4:30 p.m. which depending on how many patients he is operating on might make the "alternate doctor" a very real possibility. I had another question regarding her arrival time, why did she have to arrive at 4:30 p.m. when her surgery is scheduled at that time...shouldn't she arrive sooner?

Now how do I contact him when we have no long distance service, the cell wont work out here in the county and he wont answer my e-mails?  Skype!

Called him on Tuesday July 19th to make sure he had received the medical clearance from her doctor that was faxed to him on Friday July 15th.  He stated that he had and while it was filled out, it was not signed. Where was he supposed to sign it, when the form is so badly designed?  It only said nurse or doctor's initials and told him so.  Contacted her former Uvalde doctor and got that taken care of.

Never heard back from him so I called him on Friday. To my surprise he answered and we could both hear each other perfectly.  That is until he told me that she was scheduled for surgery at 11:00 a.m.  I was furious...just when was he planning on letting me know?  Inexplicably...he couldn't hear me anymore!

According to him, he changed it because I had request it!  I never requested anything, I just wanted clarification of the arrival time and the possibility that the surgery would be performed by another doctor.  For the second time I asked him why he did not contact me about the change...you guess it...he again could not hear me!  This dude is an incompetent fool and needs to be fired!!!

I was very surprised to receive a call from him on Monday morning.  He was inquiring if I had started the drops that need to be administered to the eye that will be operated.  Told him I had started them on Sunday but her eye was red and irritated.  Was told to discontinue them and he would send the pharmacy a prescription for some other drops.

Yesterday the internet went down just before noon and I lost my only form of communication.  As much as I hate to, I might have to break down and actually buy me a telephone that works out here in southern Val Verde county.

Early this morning at 12:25 a.m. I was watching TV when the electricity went out.  Thank goodness for my solar lights that I place in the hallway and the bathroom.  Most people were asleep but I am sure many woke up when their air conditioners quit working.  It was 91 degrees and it was after midnight.  I woke up at 3:30 a.m. when the cold air hit me and I once again covered myself with a sheet.

Only good thing about the power outage is that it fixed the internet issues, even though I had disconnected the modem several times in my attempt to remedy the problem.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

SLAMMED....again!!!

Every two or three years we inevitably get slammed by some unethical telecom company.  This time it was by New Century Telecom out of Alpharetta, Georgia. Called Verizon our monopoly telephone company in Del Rio and was told they only bill on their behalf.

I explained to her that we never contracted with this company or any other to be our long distance carrier because we don't use long distance.  Further explained that the last time we were slammed they had placed a notation to that effect on our file.  Was told they never had that option!!!  The hell they didn't....grrrrr!!!!  I even have a note to that effect in my Houston telephone where I used to get slammed as well.

Called those crooks at New Century Telecom and was told by a lady with a terrible Asian accent that she did not show mother's telephone as being a part of their network and that I would have to fax or mail them a copy of the telephone bill in order to issue a credit. That made hot under the collar, does she really think I have time to be mailing stuff and writing letters?  I gave her an ear full.

Remembered seeing a Time Warner Cable commercial where they had a bundle package special and gave them a call. As usual TWC only has these offers for NEW customer and the hell with the ones that have been with them as my parents have for 45 years.

The customer service lady was nice and civil and said that for $10.00 more than we are paying which is $75.97 a month we could add a telephone line with free long distance in the USA as well as free calls to Mexico.  Told her I would get back with her after I spoke to my mother about it.

Learned one thing though...do not turn off your home phone because it has to be active in order to be able to port it.

Have been on the telephone all day confirming appointments and reservations...but on my wonderful MagicJack Plus phone that I can use to call all over the continental US and Canada for a very small yearly fee and with great sound quality.  Who the heck needs Verizon or TWC!!

In case you are wondering...NO, mother's worthless plumber has not shown up yet. The ground is fairly saturated and is now ponding.  Been looking at YouTube videos and I think I can shut off the water at the meter before we leave for San Angelo.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

No telephone service

It has been a cloudy, gray and rainy day..perfect sleeping weather if only I could  sleep!  Needed to run several errands but alas this gal does not drive in the rain...so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Thus far today we have only received  .82 of an inch but for some reason the electricity was out for a little more than an hour and now our home phone is out.  It is days like this that I am so glad I purchased my MagicJack Plus...I simply plug it into my modem and as long as the internet does not go down I have telephone service.

The one item I purchased a couple of months back and regret is the WakaWaka solar lamp. Besides being overpriced  ($48.42 including tax and shipping) it has never lived up to the 80 hours of operating time on its lowest setting...heck I am lucky if  it even lasts thru the night...grrrrr!!!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Now that that's over with...

Now that that's over with...remind me to NEVER go four months and nine days without going home to Houston!

Needed to have stayed a lot longer, there is no way I could have squeezed into a week what I did not do in four months.  More on that on a future blog.

Thanks for your advice and comments on the prior post but I guess I did not make it clear that when I dropped Cricket Communications (had an air card) that pretty much did away with my Internet connection in Houston or any other city where they have a presence.

Guess I could have gone to McDonald's but besides having nothing on the menu to my liking...there is the issue of little children throwing temper tantrums and screaming at the top of their lungs...that is just too much at least for this girl to handle.  Makes me want to go up to the parents and slap them around so they will teach their kids some manners!

One thing I am very happy with has been the purchase of my Magic Jack Plus which along with Road Runner (our new ISP) helped me stay in touch with mother for free.  She would call me from Del Rio and if I needed to talk to her I called her from Houston.  Neither one of us has long distance service on our respective landlines.  I set up my Magic Jack Plus as a Houston telephone number so I just dialed it as a local number.  I seldom recommend anything but if you want  phone service with a number and area code of your choosing along with unlimited long distance service and without having to have your computer on 24/7 this is the way to go.

Both yesterday and today have been rather physically and mentally taxing but that is for a future blog as well.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

My MagicJack Plus

Since Santa forgot about me again this year...I decided to get me my own Christmas present, that being a MagicJack Plus.  I already had a regular MagicJack but it did not work too well with my prior ISP and worthless broadband connection.

One good thing about our Road Runner service is that I can now use this device to call my friends back home since we do not have long distance service on our regular landline phone either in Del Rio or in my house in Houston.

With the MagicJack Plus you do not have to have your computer on to make calls. You just plug it to your modem or router and then plug a corded or cordless phone and you have a stand alone telephone to make and receive calls 24/7.

I slept like a baby literally after downing some NyQuil...woke up at 2:30 p.m. but did not actually get out of bed till 2:45 p.m.  Been a long time since I had done that, guess my body needed the shut eye.

There has been a flurry of activity by Walter's corral.  In the past couple of days I have seen his owner swinging a pick ax and clearing some brush. My mother told me he was at it since this morning and it appears he cleared a lot of brush on his side of our fence line.

I also saw him putting hay inside the corral...wonder what gives?  Did Santa grant my first wish but instead of giving him a new owner made this one more compassionate?  Nah...I don't think so either...shucks!

Wanted to welcome John and Ellen to the blog roll.  They have a very nice blog full of beautiful pictures. Check them out at http://connectedtothevinephotography.blogspot.com/

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.