Window Shopper

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We live in a rural area of the Ozarks in Arkansas. Because of that, there are three ways to receive a television signal. First, there is the outdoor antenna. You can find them at electronics supply places. We have a couple here. The ones that would work in a rural area are those that reach for the sky, in other words, very tall. Those are pretty much going to cost about $150 and up. Anything shorter and you have nothing.

Second possibility is a satellite dish. Not bad there. They aren’t that expensive, get a lot of channels…depending on your package and so on. Not bad. I am not talking about them tonight.

Third, you can get cable. In our area, cable is available and we have a subscription to it. With cable service, you do not have to put your financial info out there for all to see and if you are strapped for cash, this is the way to go. We have plenty of channels and pay a bit to see them all but our service has been really great. In fact, we have had the satellite service before and every time it snowed or rained, we got service interruptions. We do not get that with our cable company. I believe that we have had the service interrupted a couple of times since 2005 when we got it.

However, we have had a problem with our current company, Charter Communications. In the beginning of our service, we received what appeared to be an older receiver box and remote that the installer said was new. When my husband asked for a manual on the box and remote, he laughed and walked out the door. Sigh. But the one thing we did see was that the channels came in clearly and steadily.

For these years of service, we are pleased…except for one thing. When we started with Charter, the programming guide on the screen was extremely helpful. It showed us almost 4 days ahead with what was on. We loved that. During the years since, the guide slowly shrunk to about 2 days of programming but that was just fine. We were very happy with that too. Quite recently, they put in a new programming guide. We waited with anticipation because of the promises of better service and quicker loading.

Hmmm, things did not pan out quite the way they promised. Our guide never went any farther than about 2-4 hours on any day. You could not get the thing to go past about 5 hours, even with the “to be announced” announcement. This was aggravating, to say the least. So, what do we do now?

My husband chose to call the customer service repair line. He did get someone who was willing to track down the problem but he worked on the weekend and we needed someone during the week to help us. When he called back during the week, he talked with someone who pretty much refused to work with him in any way. My husband then asked for a supervisor who essentially told him that since the guide only showed 2-4 hours, that’s what ya get….get over it and live with it.

Uh no. We chose not to live with it. My husband was mad so he blogged about it. After he published the post, he received a comment from someone who works at Charter Communications and gave a phone number to contact them. WOW!!! He did that. The next day, a man called and asked what the problem was. My husband told him and this man agreed that the current situation was not acceptable. He scheduled a trouble shooter to come to our house and fix the problem.

Today, the man came and replaced the box, which he said was 25 years old, with a much younger model!!!! He told us that the guide should show about 2 days ahead. At this time, it is showing much farther than the other one did. We can expect the guide to fill in for a day or so more. Oh yes, the original caller from Charter Communications called back to be sure the guy showed and that he was able to help us. We gladly told him that things were better. He then told us that if we had any other problems or if that one is still not resolved…to call him!!!

The result here is that you do not want to assume that each employee of the company is willing to be nice and work with you. Some are definitely not. But if you keep talking, most companies do care about their services and are willing to work out some arrangement to your satisfaction.

Kudos to Charter Communications for their help in solving this problem pretty quickly!!! YAH!!!Thanks, Charter!!!

UPDATE: The onscreen guide now goes for about 4 days and is quite thorough. We are pleased. We would like to thank the gentleman at Charter Communications in St. Louis who took the time to look into this problem for us. We also would like to thank the lady who first saw my husband’s blog and contacted him to give him the phone number for St. Louis which is the corporate office of Charter Communications. Every penny we paid them these years has been worth it! Thank you!!

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I just love contests and this one is a great contest. What you are aiming for is a $25 Bed Bath and Beyond gift card! Hooyah! In order to get in on this wonderful contest, all you have to do is go to the blog sponsoring the contest, post a comment about this and you are in the contest. If you like, you can blog about it for a second entry.

There are a couple of things. First, you must be a U.S. citizen. Second, the contest runs from now until January 18th at 8pm est. That’s a Friday. The next day, the names will be put into a bowl and drawn and a video will be on the blog that day with the winner’s name! You must provide a valid email address in order to win. And if you are not a blogger but still want to enter, simply put a comment with email address on the contest post. That’s all there is to it.

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I do not think I want to know what’s next simply because I have trouble enough with the ones I have already named in the title. Whew! Okay, we do work on our diet….sometimes. Most of the time, we do look at our weight and want to lose the pounds. The problem here is that we aren’t as motivated as we should be, I suppose. And what would get us motivated? Certainly NOT a McWhopper! LOL!

Nope, we need to find something that will help us be motivated enough to do the exercise and get the fitness we should be enjoying in our more senior years. SENIOR??? ACK!! I do really hate that word. In high school, I loved it because we were the big cheeses then but now…cheese is not what I would call what we are now. It’s bulky, overweight, breathless, out of shape older adults who want to seek their youth again. Yeah right. Like that’s going to happen!

What we really need is some fitness equipment to help us along. See, we do have a stationary bike but the seat is not…er um, seat friendly, if you know what I mean. Harrump. Then, we also have a treadmill which has, in the past, been a good thing but it is getting up in years and so are we. It is not as reliable as it once was. So, now we could use something more modern, more useful, more…….willing to get us up off our duffs and get moving!! Is there such a machine, do you think? YES! Ice Cream Maker! I knew we could find something.

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I dream of having this amazing office to work in so that we can feel “officey” at home (Is officey a word???). Of course, we already have a computer desk that has a cubby with a door on it and several shelves as well. The tower and monitor fit nicely. And then we also have a metal desk for another computer with assorted drawers in it. Very good.

But I really want something a lot classier that those desks. There is just something about an executive desk that really gets to me. They look really classy and…well….executive, don’t they. I like that. When I used to be a trucker, the dashboard would sort of wrap around me so that anything I needed was right there at hand. That type of desk is what I want in the office. Everything is so handy that way. You can turn and touch everything on your desk without any effort at all. And believe me, there are days when that needs to be that way in our house.

Yep, I want one of those desks. But for now, we are staying with the ones we have because they’re familiar and homey and that makes up for what we don’t have right now. But I can dream.

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Years ago, movies were made to simply inspire, give a person a warm plus fuzzy feeling and just be enjoyable. This is one such movie. Imagine one wealthy Grandma who simply will not be stopped from getting what she wants.

Starring Loretta Young, Trevor Howard and Ron Leibman; this is a classic story. Grandmother is ill and needing her family around her but circumstances caused them to be scattered to all parts of the country. She struggles to find a way to bring her grown grandchildren back to see her for Christmas. Sometimes frustrated, she is determined to see them all while she is able to do so.

Not available on DVD, this heartwarming story only exists on VHS, is a collector’s item and very rare to find. If you do find it, cherish every moment because it is a one-of-a-kind.

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What do you do when it’s time to watch movies at home? We usually put in the DVD, get out the popcorn, pop it and then we find our seats to settle down. Of course, we do not have any of that home theater seating but we do get comfy. Frankly, I wish we did have those seats because it gets pretty hard to sit as long as we tend to do. Then we watch the movie or movies of the hour or hours, in the case of the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. Wow! Talk about your long movies. Those things are at least 3 hrs. and 15 mins. each. EACH! But we have had a time when we watched all three on the same day. I think we decided not to watch movies for a while after that though.

So, we come up with Finding Nemo, Freaky Friday, Monsters Inc., Murphy’s Romance and a whole lot more. Well, my husband did get that new Transformers movie for Christmas and the Spiderman III. We are interested in a large variety of movies but the chick flicks do win out quite a bit. Yes, my husband is that rare breed of man who likes chick flicks too!!! And I loved the Transformers movie so I guess we are a matched set, don’t you?

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I was thinking about all those times when we bought batteries and more batteries. You know, I think we spent a lot of money on batteries for the longest time until we finally decided that although the rechargeable batteries are a lot more expensive to start with than those that are always on sale at or near the cash register they were going to save us money in the end.

How? Well, for one thing, they are rechargeable. Guess you didn’t see that coming? Of course, they do expire some day but while you have them, they sure do a lot more than the usual batteries that I have had experiences with. For instance, I used to work at a place where the best way to entertain yourself while you work (it was sort of mindless stuff), you could bring your own music with you. I had a tape player with earphones. It took four batteries that ran out about half way into the day. I could not use those batteries for very long. That got tiring quickly, I can tell you. When I discovered rechargeable batteries, I was really happy. My husband took his tape player to work as well. Those batteries simply needed to be changed out with the others that he had run out that day. Yes!!!

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Several of the teen or young adult movie stars are having problems coping with their lifestyles, apparently. See, I love the movies that some of them are in. For instance, Lindsay Lohan has some good movies out that I love to watch. As long as the teens can tell the difference between the star and the role, things should be all right. But that is not the case.

Teens idolize many of these stars. The latest fall from grace appears to be a tie between Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. This is truly sad. Both Britney and Lindsay have been in and out of drug rehab many times but because they go back to their already damaging lifestyles, not much changes. The fact that they are in the news so much shows how much the media focuses on them, a mistake in my opinion. I believe if the media would not report all of this, perhaps the young adults and teens would look elsewhere for their idols instead of focusing on those who cannot handle the heat but cannot get out of the kitchen without disappointing their fans.

See, to me, that’s a lot of pressure on those people. I do not condone the fact that they cannot seem to stay sober long enough to make it though a month. Yet, they have private lives themselves but the media does not appear to want them to have it.

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Have you looked out in the stratosphere and checked out the after Christmas sales? I have to admit that I am a tad ignorant about it but from what I have seen, there really are not that many, at least in our area. Of course, we live in outer nowhere at all, so it’s probably just where we live.

Frankly, I am getting a bit tired of the things we miss because of where we live. It is a trade off for us. We get the more tranquil rural setting but we do not get great educational systems. We have the big Wally but the other store in the area is pretty lame too. Yes, Wally is really lame where we live. Talk about preferential treatment. We do not get it here. For instance, if you like some new product, don’t expect to see it for long. BAH!!

So, are there any really good sales going on anywhere? I would love to know about them. If there are, are they online? What’s the url? Yes, I am nosy. LOL!

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Have you watched Finding Nemo? That is a great movie. I happen to like cartoons anyway but this one has a great story. Now, I will tell you a bit about it but I do not remember everything except a cute little blue fish named Dory who has a memory problem. She cannot remember beyond about 3 seconds. It bothers her when she remembers that fact.

Nemo is a kid. His Dad is looking for him because he got picked up by a diver from Sidney, Australia. You will simply have to find out how his Dad, Marlin who is a clown fish, knew that. *grin* Marlin, in his quest to find Nemo, comes across Dory. She wants to show him the way to the boat she saw but after a few seconds cannot remember that he is following her or why. She gets worried about the weird fish following.

They meet up with sharks, turtles, gulls, a pelican and other notable swimmers. And for those who do not know what the title of this post means, it was a line by Dory in the movie.

Happy Shopping!

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