CATS

The cats anxiously awaited the running of the Belmont Stakes yesterday.  Here they are on the sofa in front of the TV, eagerly watching for the race to start.

Well, maybe anxious and eager aren't quite the right words. The boy cat is asleep, and the girl cat seems to be heading that way, too.

As it happens, the girl cat left just as the race was about to begin. I guess she knew what the outcome was going to be: no Triple Crown winner this year. She must not have wanted to hear the moaning afterward.

The boy cat slept through the whole thing. Maybe it was for the best. I think he had bets on other horses.

LIFE WITHOUT TELEVISION

Our television went out last Friday. Just as we were getting ready to watch the race qualifying. It was old, but it could have lasted a little longer. Like till the house closes and we get moved in.

Anyway, over the years we've gotten pretty resigned about accepting the way things you don't want to happen, happen. So we shopped at Wally World Saturday. The TV we came to buy, the one they had on sale, was not in stock. Rather than end up with something we didn't want (read that, 'something that my guy didn't want' since he's the one who reads up on stuff like TVs, phones, electronics, etc.), we held off and went down to the nearest Best Buy Sunday.

Best Buy didn't have the TV my guy wanted, but they had another one on sale that caught his eye. After much hemming and hawing, we bought it and brought it home. He got it hooked up that night. Not in time to see the race, but it came on. And did I say hooked up? I should have said plugged up.

To make a long story short, after fiddling a couple of days, the remote for the cable finally controls the TV. Except for the on/off part. We have to use the TV remote for that still.

But my guy's working on it and will get it figured out soon, I'm sure. Thank goodness, he's around to do techie stuff like that. I'd have no idea where to start.

Now, to get that old TV out of the house...

INTERNET WOES

Up at the lake house, AT&T personnel were rude to us when we tried to talk to them about cell coverage (none) and what we could do (they said nothing; I complained and we got a microcell...after a lot of hassle...and it worked just fine) Miffed with them, we went to Comcast's internet and TV up at the lake house for a year. No problems.

So now we're down at the coast. We go with Comcast for TV and cable (feeling guilty since the AT&T people down here have always been great to work with). Monday the internet was down. Called several numbers for Comcast. Found one that worked. After some punching of buttons, got to a disinterested rep. Rep sets up an appointment for a tech to come out. On Thursday afternoon. Arghhh!

We don't have a contract with Comcast; it's a month to month thing. So Tuesday we go over to the mainland and talk to the people at AT&T (and find they're still the nicest, most helpful sales people we've dealt with in a long while; totally unlike the AT&T up in N GA). They're due this morning to connect us up to internet and TV. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, our internet came back up yesterday afternoon. Too late.

Technology is grand when it works.

BUNDLES

So when we moved, we bundled. You know: TV, telephone, internet. No cells.

We went with the other big one so we couldn't do cellphones, but it's okay. We still came out ahead because this guy in Best Buy gave us a great deal. At least for a year. Then we'll see.

So far we like it. A couple of small problems getting adjusted. Learning to use the box and the internal message center on the phone. Stuff like that.

Except for one thing we can't figure out. Every once in a while we'll be watching TV and this big blue - yes BLUE - screen comes on and says YOU ARE NOT AN AUTHORIZED USER and refuses to show the picture despite our protests that yes, indeed, we are authorized users and we have the receipts to prove it.

I discovered early on that flipping to another channel and then flipping right back clears it up quite nicely, thank you very much. But my guy gets totally frustrated.

And now football season's here. This can't be good.