And Coming...

This time, I waited until after 8:30 AM to call Brighthouse (so the service call list would be right at hand). I explained the situation, she apologized profusely and said the next available service call would be on Tuesday. I groaned and once again stressed that I need a phone for emergencies. She said she would talk to her supervisor but she needed a work number in the system. So, I had her pencil me in for Tuesday. She said she'd call me back (heard that one before...).

I've been playing phone tag with a local lawn service since Thursday. This was my friend B___'s idea (and a damn good one). Since the lawn in the back, except for that first past last weekend, hasn't been cut in over two weeks and we have gotten some heavy rain, the grass is like 8-10 inches tall. I am starting to panic that I won't be able to even get the mower through it.

So, B___ suggested biting the bullet and paying someone to cut it once (or maybe even twice). That will buy me a week to take my time and get the mower fixed right. She couldn't give me an estimate over the phone, but I said whatever's fair. She said they'd try and squeeze it in today if the rain holds off. The office is closed next Monday, so I said I'd be in on Tuesday and settle up.

Brighthouse called back (I apologize for my thoughts) and asked if I would be available between 5-6:00 PM today. I said, "Bless you, yes!"

Next Problem:

I had to run a brief, two mile errand in the afternoon. On the way back to work, I stopped at a light and noticed steam coming from under the hood! WTF? This car has never overheated since I bought it. I checked the temperature gauge and sure enough, it was slowly climbing upward.

So, instead of driving back to work, I drove home and parked in the driveway. I opened the hood and steam and greenish goop was bubbling out of the radiator recovery tank. I poured a couple of buckets of water on the radiator and then carefully opened the tank, using a towel (always use a towel; you can scald yourself in a heartbeat). The greenish goop continued to percolate up (please God, don't let that be oil). When it finally settled down, I filled it back up with water, put the cap back on and drove back to work.

I will have to deal with this, of course, but not now and not this weekend. I can only take one tragedy at a time...

I left work at 4:30 PM (so as not to miss the Brighthouse guy) and found the one bright spot of the day. They had come and cut the lawn! It was cut, trimmed, edged and blown. I took a quick trip out back and everything was perfect! This is the best I think I've ever seen my lawn look!!

The Brighthouse guy showed up just after 5:00 PM. He said he would try and reboot the old modem first. I said no, I've done it twice and your guy did it once. It will look like its working and then fail. I want a new modem!

So, that's what he did. He did say, "Wow! This really is an old modem." The new one really doesn't look anything like it, BTW. There is a LOT of calling and registering the numbers when they install a new modem (which is probably why they try and avoid it). But, by 5:30 PM, he was gone and everything was working again.

I changed my clothes and lay down on the bed to watch the news (The news!!!) Then I started watching other shows and eventually fell asleep.

Lu called about 7:30 PM and woke me up. She was just leaving her Mother's and said she'd be there around 8:00. We visited for a while and then at 9:30 PM, I went back to bed to read. I fell asleep within the hour. I woke up around 1:30 AM, went to the bathroom, shut the light off and went to bed.