Teleidoscope

Tue, May 13, 2008

Dead Phone

Posted at 6:45 pm MDT to Technology

Qwest is doing their best to challenge XCel for bureaucratic stupidity. I have two voice lines, one of which also carries the DSL.

The DSL line is permanently hooked to the Dish receiver, which for the past couple of days has been complaining that it couldn't phone home. Today I tested the lines and discovered i have no dial tone on that line, even though DSL has been working with only occasional minor glitches.

I carried my most protable phone around and plugged it into various jacks and determined that the no-dial-tone startsat the network box outside the house.

When I called Qwest tech support, the first technician I spoke to said that I wasn't supposed to have a dial tone on that line, just the DSL. When I insisted that the phone had been working a few days ago, she switched me to customer service, who said that the line is supposed to have a dial tone and switched me back to tech support.

According to the second tech support person I talked to, there is a problem on the line about a mile from the house, and someone will come out tomorrow to fix it. The tech support department still had the wrong address (though I have been telling them about the change of address -- and they have been promising to update it -- a few times a year since 1999) so it isn't just XCel that is incapable of updating its database.

The only surprising thing about this is that it is usually my other line that goes out when the line gets flakey. That's one reason I still pay for dialtone on both lines

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Shivering Lilacs

Posted at 6:38 am MDT to Weather

Today is May 13, and they were predicting that we would have an inch of snow on the ground this morning. It didn't happen: the temperatures here didn't get much below freezing over night, so my yard is just just cold and wet.

I am so tired of this teasing weather with alternating days of 70s and snow. I am ready for spring to actually stay.

My poor lilac bush has lots of buds on it this year, but we have had so many late freezes that I am afraid I will not see many blooms. I looked out this morning and its leaves looked sort of clenched and shivering.

I wonder how the orchards are doing. Last year was a bad year for fruit because the buds froze. This year the winter was warmer, but dry, but the spring has been obnoxious.

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