Dorie’s Different Reality

We had an ice storm last night. It’s a balmy 35 degrees now, so things will get better as the day goes on. The trees look nice though. Often the day after a storm, there’s big branches all over the yard- they just “Snap” off at the trunk from the weight.
As Mike left for work, he drove over a cable that fell off the power lines next to the road- not electrical, because he’s still alive and all Apparently a cable TV line, but yay, the Internet is still up. First, I called the local phone company to ask if somebody would drive by and confirm whether it’s cable TV or a phone line.
So, when was the last time, you dialed “Operator”? Did you know there are no humans anymore? I don’t like “press 1 for English”- I think the messages should all be in English and at the beginning have something like “press 2 to hear in Spanish” But Miss Digital answerer wouldn’t even talk to me until I pressed “1″ Hmmmph! I never did get a human.
Bad news for the phone company. That was just enough impetus to get me to sign up for Vonage. We’ll keep our old phone number and don’t even have to call up the phone company to say good riddance. Seriously, Verizon, in our case, is missing the boat. They’re probably losing lots of residential service with cell service being so dependable these days. What our home service has amounted to for the last few years is, for the convenience of having a phone in the house, in case we had to call 911, we get to field phone solicitor calls. What the phone company should have been doing all along is add cell service in a package with existing plans to keep their fees competitive. But, ya snooze, ya lose!

Saint of the Day: Wow, there’s lots of them for February 13. Not Valentine- that’s tomorrow and there are at least 2 different Valentine’s. Today I’m lobbying for the elevation of Blessed John Lantrua of Triora. Born in Italy in 1760. He became a Franciscan priest and volunteered to go to to China. Now understandably, the higher ups in China didn’t like these meddling Europeans. But of course, with millions in poverty and all the famines in China, I wouldn’t call the Chinese nobility humanitarian. If I remember right, the Emperor was a descendant of Mongolians, so not truly Chinese at that. Anyhow, after some success with his mission, John was imprisoned and strangled in 1798. A Martyr. There are many canonized saints that led good lives and founded schools and died of old age. John paid with his life; he should be remembered.

In lighter news: Our local Art Council is having a Peep Show! I love my Peeps! The peep show is a contest, sort of like their annual wreath decorating contest. Simple enough: create something with Peeps: a diorama, collage, etc. I have a couple of ideas. Trouble is I’m not an artist. Just for the love of my puffed sugary friends, I’m thinking about entering. To do what I’m thinking of doing, I’ll need little Peep-sized props. I might have some luck at the party store- all those little favor things. So I just need the glue gun, 40 or 50 different peeps and my props! The judging is a month from now.

Another Reason to love Trader Joe’s  It’s in the news today that as of April 1, they will no longer carry food items from Mainland China. Not even the lychee nuts! They’re doing this because of the many recalls. I’ve been intentionally avoiding Chinese products since the dog food poisonings.  Don’t need them!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under Culture, Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.