What we got Friday night and Saturday morning was a mix of snow and sleet — soft snow under a crust of ice. Me and the boys went out a few times Saturday and Sunday to play in the mess, and though I was pretty bored, pretty quick, they loved it.

Poor little Calgrit5 doesn’t have any gloves suitable for playing in the snow. He has a pair of knit gloves that are great for keeping his little hands warm in our normal winter climate. But as soon as he dug into the show, they were covered in ice that just wouldn’t come off. It was like his little hands were encased in a block of ice.

We ended up shifting gloves — Calfgrit5 wore Calfgrit9’s gloves, Calfgrit9 wore his mom’s gloves. But this wasn’t a good thing for either of them. Neither could do much with their hands wearing gloves too big for them.

We have an old turtle sandbox that the boys used to play in when they were younger. Calfgrit5 had the idea of taking the top of the turtle, turning it over, and using it as a round sled. Clever idea for a 5 year old.

They took the lid to a nearby hill (maybe 10 feet tall) and I pushed them down it a few times. I also pulled them around our cul de sac in the lid a few times. Our cul de sac looked like a ice rink with thin layer of powder on it.

By this morning, most of the major roads in our area had been plowed, or at least sanded. Driving is okay if you take your time and go slow. Although, I got up to 55 on the beltline — it was pretty clear of ice. The secondary roads haven’t been thoroughly plowed or sanded, and so still have big patches or lanes of ice. The tertiary roads, (like in neighborhoods), are just big, bumpy accident makers.

Schools are closed today, so the boys are staying home. But I went into work this morning, and I plan on still going to my game night with the guys, tonight. Traveling in this just takes care, attention, and patience. Some things, sadly, that too many people driving on the roads just don’t have.

I’ve got pictures, but I haven’t been able to get them posted for here, yet. Maybe I can get them up for tomorrow.

Bullgrit

The news on TV and radio all day yesterday was warning of a big snow storm making its way to our area. Everyone braced for its arrival. Then it started last night about 7:00.

Calfgrit5 woke up this morning at 4:30 all excited. Calfgrit9 woke up shortly after.

The outside world is covered in white, and the stuff is still falling. I can hear sleet hitting the windows as I write this.

It’s gonna be an exciting day for the boys. (And an exhausting day for us parents.)

Bullgrit

We have two cell phones, and two different service providers. Well, we did until this week. Now we have two phones and one service.

We originally signed up with Alltel back around 2000, and then, about a year ago, they were changed over to Verizon. We had been pleased with Alltel through the years, but Verizon got worse and worse through the last several months.

Our Verizon bill kept going up and up. According to our bills, this was due to using more minutes. I thought maybe this was due to us living with my mother-in-law, and not having our own land line. We must have been using our cell phones more. But after a while, I started doubting the numbers shown in the monthly bill.

And then once we got in our new house, and the latest bill came in — at 3 times our plan base cost — I was sure Verizon was screwing us. So I started shopping around, starting with our other service provider, AT&T.

The store manager at the nearby AT&T shop offered us a fantastic deal: two lines for just $10 more than we were already paying for one line. I got the deal in writing, and we compared it with other options. A few days later, we went in and signed up with AT&T.

Before leaving the house with our boys in tow, we let them pick out several toys to bring. We told them what we were going to be doing, and that they would need to sit over in the corner of the store and play quietly for a few minutes. They brought Bakugan balls and cards, and Star Wars Legos figures.

Fortunately, the store was empty of other customers. Our boys sat down in a corner of the store, and apparently had a great time while their mom and dad talked business with the store manager.

Unfortunately, what we expected to maybe last 15 minutes turned out to be very nearly 60 minutes.

Verizon is some dumb shits. A good chunk of our time was trying to get our old number transferred to our new service. The AT&T store manager had two people from Verizon on the phone, trying to get everything worked out. The Verizon people couldn’t find our account in their system. They couldn’t find our phone number in a database search.

Our cell phone service company couldn’t find our phone number in their freakin’ computers! How screwed up is a company’s database if they can’t find the phone number they set up and provided and charge us for? Makes me think about those questionable bills we’d gotten lately.

At last, they found our account in their system. And we got the old number transferred to our new service.

During the last 10 minutes or so of this ordeal, our boys started getting a bit antsy. They’d been good and mostly quiet for about 40 minutes sitting in the small store, playing with their toys. But then they were getting tired, bored, and fidgety. (No other customers had come in the store since we got there, so it was just us and the store manager this whole time.)

At one point they started going around picking up some of the display phones around the store. We asked the store manager if it was alright if they looked at the phones, and she said they were all just display models — “It’s fine. They can’t hurt anything,” she said.

We instructed the boys to not have more than one phone at a time, and we kept an eye on them to make sure they were playing gently. Though they were excited by the gadgets, they did stay calm and gentle.

Calfgrit5 came over to us one time with a slider phone open, saying, “This looks like a DS.”

I don’t know where he has ever heard of a Nintendo DS, much less actually seen one.

A few minutes later, he had another phone up to his ear, pretending to talk to someone on the other end. “Hey, how are you doing? . . . Everything’s good here. . . . Really? Oh my gosh! . . .” He carried on this conversation for a couple minutes. This was totally adorable, but I would love to know who he was supposedly talking to. “OK, bye,” he said, and he closed the phone.

Shortly after, we had completed our business with the store. We directed the boys in collecting up their toys scattered about the corner of the store, and then we left with a new cell phone and a new service plan.

Immediately, Calfgrit9 wanted to know if he could have our old phone. He was disappointed when we explained that it didn’t have any service connected with it. He actually thought we might give him, a 3rd grader, his own cell phone.

“Who would you even call?” we asked him. “None of your friends have a cell phone.”

“I’d send text messages,” he answered.

“Who would you text?”

“You. And Nana. And Granddaddy.”

That’s really sweet. But still. “When you get old enough to need a cell phone, we’ll see about it.”

“Okay,” he said.

Now, at what age does a kid need a cell phone in the 21st century?

Bullgrit

I mentioned last week about getting our first utility bills now that we’re in our new house. Our Time Warner Cable bill was one of the most confusing ones. When I called and ordered our services back in early December, I just set up digital cable TV and internet. I was quoted a price I was satisfied with.

At that time, I talked at length with the customer service woman on the phone about exactly what we were getting, how much each service would be, and how much the total monthly bill would be — including taxes and the initial set up fee. With all the exact numbers, I got the woman’s name, and I had everything written down.

A few days later, we decided to add digital telephone service to our package (is cheaper than going through the telephone company). I called TWC again. I had to give the telephone number associated with our account, our names, our address, and the last four digits of my social security number. I understand this bit of verification, as it prevents someone from screwing up my account.

After talking out the order, I asked what the final price would be with all the services. The monthly bill she quoted me didn’t add up to be the previously quoted monthly rate plus this new service. Digging deeper, our services were not as I had set them up previously. Our Internet service was bumped up to the next higher service, and we were charged for something the other customer service rep had said was free of charge.

The woman I was talking to couldn’t give me the prices I was earlier quoted, so I got transferred to someone else. When the new guy took my call, he asked for all my verifying information again. But after many minutes with this guy, I still couldn’t get the prices I had been quoted in the original call.

Then I ran out of time. I had expected the phone call to add one service to our package to take less than 10 minutes, and already I had been dealing with this for half an hour. I told them to just not change anything with my services. “Leave them as they are right now, and I’ll call back later when I have more time.”

The next day, I called TWC back. I had more time to get this crap straightend out this round. I gave all my verifying information again. Then, before even mentioning wanting to add a service, I asked this guy to tell me what I was currently signed up for, and what the monthly bill would be.

Lo and behold, everything was completely correct according to my original information and notes. What. The. Hell? I explained to this guy what had happened the last time I called, and he had no idea why I was told what I was told. Everything he was seeing and telling me, was right. So I had him add the digital telephone service to our package. And all the numbers added up properly. I was satisfied.

Then, a month later, we get our first bill. The monthly charge showing on the bill is about $15 more than I had agreed to. What. The. Hell, part 2. So I called TWC, yet again.

I had to give my verifying info, again. This time, my Internet service had been bumped up to the next level, for $15 more a month. The woman I was talking with couldn’t fix this error, so she forwarded me to someone else.

I had to give my verifying info, again. Talking with this second woman, she just tried to explain to me the pricing structures for the different services. “I understand the better plans are more expensive. I didn’t sign up for this level plan. I signed up for the lower plan, for the lower amount.” This woman couldn’t make the change I was insisting on. So she forwarded me to someone else.

I had to give my verifying info, yet again. I actually cut off her questions with my answers, having learned the drill by this point. “This is the third time in this one call that I’ve had to give this information,” I said. This woman was apologetic, and very nice with me, (they had all been polite), but the situation she was telling me was ridiculous.

The service she saw on my account was a level above what I had ordered. And the level I had ordered was now $5 more per month than what I was quoted at set up — the price had increased between my signing up for it, and my getting the first bill for it. She tried to explain the different levels of service, and asked me questions to help her determine which I needed, but this just served to annoy me. “I did my research before signing up, originally. So I just want what I signed up for, at the price I signed up for.”

She offered a lower service for lower money. What. The. Hell, trilogy! I was calm and polite, but firm and clear. “I want the level of service I originally signed up for, at the monthly rate I was originally quoted.”

She looked into if she could get me a deal. She came back with my original service at only $2 more than the original quote. Though I was calm, and still polite, I guess she could tell I wasn’t satisfied with that option. So she looked into another deal.

She came back with my original service at $8 less than I originally agreed to. What. The. Hell, rerun. Really? Really? I asked her, to double-check, that this is my original service level. It is. Great. Set it.

Very strange. All I was asking for was my original service level at my original price. After all this rigmarole, trying to get me upgraded, they end up giving me a better deal than I was asking for? I was stunned by the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

“Anything else I can do for you,” she asked.

Well, since my bill was almost due, and I was already on the phone with them, I asked her to connect me with their bill pay department. She was very polite and nice — all the TWC people I dealt with on the phone were very polite and nice, though confused and/or useless — and wished me a good day and forwarded me on to the bill pay department.

Glory! I didn’t have to regive my verifying info this time. But as we began setting up the transaction to pay my bill, she warned me that doing this through a representative, I would be charged an extra $5. What. The. Hell, syndication. She could connect me with the automated system to do it myself, and that would be free.

“Well, connect me. I’m not going to pay you an extra five bucks so I can pay you for my bill.”

Soon the automated voice prompted me for my verifying info. Really. I verified. Then the computer system told me my balance due: the same damn amount — no change for getting all this corrected.

You gotta be freakin’ kidding me. I hung up.

Bullgrit