"It's Too Expensive"

I was out with a friend of mine on Saturday after a successful morning of geocaching (yeah, I still do that on Saturdays) when we stopped at Steak and Shake for a quick bite. He owed me lunch so I let him pick the place. We sat down and we gave our drink orders to the server. I ordered sweet tea and my buddy ordered a water. "Why water? Are you on a special diet?", I asked.

"No," he replied "Tea is just too expensive to order when we eat out."

"DW, didn't you just spend $300 on a new iPhone 4 from AT&T?"

"Yes I did."

"And didn't you spend $200 a couple of years earlier on an iPhone 3GS?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Your wife has an iPhone, right?"

"Yes, she does, an iPhone 3GS we bought last year."

"And she also wants an iPad, right?"

"Yes."

"And SWEET TEA is too expensive?"

How High Can We Go?

Every day since our Texas Ice Age started, I have been desiring warmer temps. Every day we get a predicted high and a predicted low presented to us and every day the weather geeks have been wrong. I find that amusing.

It was predicted (as late as yesterday evening) that today's high would be in the low 40's. Well, it looks like this morning view into the crystal ball known as weather forecasting states it will be in the upper 30's. So it looks like the emergence from our frozen shell will not be as soon as hoped. Oh yes, it will be above freezing, but it would be nice to see the main roads clear of ice before summer hits.

The next 10 days or so show slowly warming until midweek when another cold snap comes through. My guess? This mess will be around a while.

LISTEN to me, please!

Time Warner Cable called the other day, offering us a "special" deal on their bundle. We are TWC customers, primarily for the internet service. It ain't cheap, but it is fast and mostly dependable. We also have the absolute minimum analogue cable television service we could get to carry the internet service that we have. We are not big TV people and what we watch we can usually get free or low cost from the web.

Anyhoo, when TWC calls they offered me a "great deal" on their bundle which includes TV, internet and digital phone service for $99.99 a month for a year. While I can appreciate bundles to save money, we have no need for landline phone service...my wife and I both carry mobile phones, plus I have a company provided mobile phone on a separate carrier. We are covered for telecoms without paying $40-50 a month for a dedicated landline.

I tell the kind woman on the phone that while I appreciate her offer, I have no need for landline and she goes through a litany of reasons why I need their service. Each reason I politely but firmly shoot down. I tell her that to be honest, if I could find fast, dependable, cheaper internet service, I would drop TWC in a heartbeat. This scares her and asks me how long I have been a TWC customer. I then have to go into the story of how we signed up for AT&T cable services until Comcast bought them out, then TWC bought out Comcast's interest in this area. So in all we have been cable customers for 10 years. She then offers to get me to a supervisor to cut me a deal to stay with them. I am not really amused, but I give them a shot. A few minutes later, the rep comes back on the line to make me a counter offer, which includes...you guessed it, home phone service.

Was she not listening to me? Does my hillbilly accent confuse her?

Politely, but firmly I explain again that even if the service was offered free, I would not accept it...we have no need for it with three mobile phones in the house.

I ask her if she can make me a deal on internet and TV for a good price, since I am such a loyal customer and all but alas, she is unable. Only bundles with phone service are offered. Gee, I wonder why?

I am not up with current landline pricing but I bet 33.33 is not all that much of a bargain. I know that 4+ years ago, we paid a base of $30 a month for landline service and that included caller ID and 50 minutes of long distance.

I am happy with mobile only service in our home. While it did bother my wife (for a couple of weeks) not having a landline, she does not miss it now at all. I personally cannot see why anyone who does not have kids living at home even bothers with landline service.

Just a wee bit cold

North Central Texas normally has rather mild winters. While we have been known to get some snow in the winter, it normally melts the same day or the day after it arrives. Every now and then we get snow or cold weather that lasts for more than a couple of days, but it is pretty rare.

On Monday evening we started getting some rain. Early Tuesday morning, a frigid cold front moved in and turned the DFW are into an icy wonderland. Anywhere from .5 to 2 inches of ice covered the streets, alleys, sidewalks and cars in the area. The temps got down to about 10 degrees or so and have not gotten above 20 since. It is currently 16 degrees (we are talking Farenheit here, not Celsius) but it is supposed to get up to 26. Still below freezing and the roads are still covered in ice.

Why are the roads still covered in ice? With the lack of severe weather in this area, the county/city does not have the equipment to to treat the roads and since salt is corrosive, they will not put that down to aid in the melting of the ice.

Needless to say I have been working from home all week long and don't plan making it into the office until at least Monday.

Oh, the added twist to all this is that since the grid has been pushed to the limits, we had "rolling bloackouts" yesterday, all day long in this area. We lost power for 15-20 minutes at a time every 60-90 minutes. It made work a tad difficult, especially conference calls that were using "virtual meeting rooms" hosted online. So far we have stayed stable in regards to power. I hope it stays that way.