A Spectrum of Issues

     TV problems culminating in February with service call. Most serious was Channel 6 audio distortions. Also, unwanted switch to Spanish language on certain channels along with narrative for visually impaired, and at times lack of audio on Channel 13 and then those silent Spectrum ads, only  disturbing as a sign of some malfunction somewhere. The tech switched out the box and made other adjustments related to splitters et al.  Improvement resulted, though sounds still seemed somewhat distorted to me. Suggestions from family members were to buy a new TV set, as it may contain a problem and  for me to get my hearing checked for much the same reason. New TV set arrived and my hearing passed inspection, so all continued on for a while. (There had never been a problem with the picture.

    But then in April, all went awry again. Seriously muffled audio on Channel 6. The tech who responded said he'd never heard the variable sounds within a program, said it definitely was not my hearing. He switched out the box and made other changes as well, said we did not need the splitter another tech had installed in basement. When I told him we had just had a new box installed 2 months ago, he said no, it was not a new box and neither was this one he was presently installing. All are refurbished, he said. 

   All was okay for a while, but in a few weeks the former malfunctions resurfaced. Yesterday the audio on Channel 6 was distorted, and the audio on Channel 8 non-existent, Spanish was infiltrating some audio, and Ch. 13 displayed a silent Spectrum ad. 

   Today when a different tech arrived, the issues were not apparent. He said he couldn't say for certain they would be corrected as he couldn't compare the before and after. so he diligently went through all the possible causes and corrected what he saw as contributors to the problems. He switched out the box to a different type, a little larger and new. When I told him it had recently been replaced, he asked if it could be the same box just removed at the previous visit. He said if a tech is to replace a box and he doesn't have one in his truck, it is known that some will just bring the original box back inside. Deceptive, I said. So he did some other work and left to sit in his truck for the 10 minutes required to check in  with the company.

R. had called when the tech had arrived. I told her I would call her back when he left. I went to call and there was no dial tone. I brought the phone to the tech still in the driveway. He thought it unusual, but then the dial tone returned and I made the call to R. The call broke off, She thought her phone might be to blame. The tech drove off.  I went to use the computer and found it unusable. Troubleshooter said the connection between the access point and modem and internet was BROKEN. My cell phone also read no connection. I drove to Madigan's to report the outage and the rep said someone would call me back. There were 3 calls from Spectrum but they  broke off before any resolution or even explanation on my part.

  There was no dial tone on my phone, except that  every half hour or so, I could make or receive calls for about 20 seconds before they dropped off. I used one of those moments and asked Joe T. to call Spectrum and report the problem. He called me back and said Service Call was scheduled for tomorrow, 8-9 a.m.  OK, I'll have to wait. But a few minutes before 5p.m., Spectrum called to say tech was enroute. The same tech showed up a few minutes later, and fairly quickly diagnosed that the computer modem had died. 

He replaced it, and all seems well. But what a remarkable coincidence that perfectly working phone and internet died in exactly the same time period that the television was revived. 

  ***Spectrum rates are exorbitant, and I won't deny that. But at the same time the service is unique in that the customer does not have to pay for the repair calls or for most of the stuff they replace, like boxes and modems and cables and splitters. Rejoice!

DRIVE, crash

      I didn't get my driver's license until the age of 22. My father never had any car that was suitable for beginning drivers, so First I got a job and then bought a car, my first car a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. I bought it from Colarusso's in Troy, the owner being John Colarusso's father. 

   I don't drive very much any more, but I used to rack up quite a bit of mileage. For a time I drove to work every day in Troy and Delmar and Albany. I drove to  SUNY Albany to complete my Master's Degree; for the final credits, I would drive from my job in Cambridge straight to the Albany campus. I drove on  trips to Cape Cod, Lake Placid, Lake George and other sites. And for 15 years, I scoured the countryside in Cambridge, Salem, Greenwich, Hebron, Argyle and even throughout Rensselaer County, as well as driving to the annual conventions in Syracuse and meetings in Herkimer. And, when single, I drove to places of entertainment at least weekly. And besides ordinary travel for personal and medical care, I drove for a complete year for extensive treatments in less than ideal physical condition. 

   The point is I have driven a lot, in quite a few directions and areas, and I have had only two collisions with me driving.  Oddly enough, both occurred in Stillwater. Neither collision resulted in any physical damage. The cars were the only victims. 

   Accident #1----It was late evening and I was driving my sister to a doctor in Stillwater. She wasn't feeling well so I offered to drive. Unfortunately, the office was closed, so we started home. I stopped at the stop sign at the end of the street before intending to turn right onto Lake Avenue. A large luxury-looking  car came speeding  down the hill. I stopped, and he smacked into my driver's side front fender, kind of a glancing encounter, before stopping his car in the road. We were pretty far back in the side street, so not near his car. I recall he was an attorney returning from some event in Saratoga. We perceived him as both wealthy and inebriated. Neighbors called the police, and while they were standing in the road near his car doing what cops do, another vehicle approached headed up Lake Avenue. That driver, seeing the car stopped in the road, slowed down, but then barreled straight into the front of the car, at a slow but steady rate of speed, and pushed the accident car a distance up the road, police and bystanders and driver all caught by surprise. When that driver emerged from his car, he was visibly intoxicated; he may have been another attorney. I was not issued any citation.  I don't know how it was ever determined which collision caused more damage. I know the Lohnes brothers worked out the details, as they always did,  I was able to drive my car home though it needed parts for sure.

   Accident #2-----Occurred not far from #1.  I had finished a final paper for a summer course, and had driven it to SUNY in my convertible. Mary and Dorothy B. , youngsters at the time, had accompanied me. The radio was playing and we were enjoying the music, until we rounded a small curve which was partially obscured by a large tree. A car was stopped in the middle of the road. I applied the brake, but smacked into the rear of the car. The occupants were a young couple from out of the area who were not sure where they were and were trying to decide which way they wanted to go. She was sitting snuggled next to the driver, as girls did back then, and hit her knee on one of the controls. Dick Lohnes, later dealing with that accident, maintained that if she had been sitting in her own seat, that would not have happened. Anyway, The cop issued me a ticket for "following too close."  That was just a few months after our wedding, and Dave wanted to challenge the ticket. He was successful. It seems the Stillwater Town Justice was quite intrigued by Dave. He agreed the car should not have been stopped on the highway and that the tree would have obscured their car from being seen from a following vehicle. The last I knew, Dick Lohnes was also in debate with the other insurance company.

   

   

Good news, I guess.

    Dr. F. on the status of my vision:  if it were a glass of water, he would say the glass is 5% empty  and 95% full.  Really.

New Scam Approach?

   Twice in the last few days, I have answered the phone to hear, "I see you called my number" and "Did someone call me from your number?'   No and No. Could be a new approach or else someone is using my number to call others. I don't ask the circumstances. I are way too smart.

Bear at the Fair

    Some years ago, there was a year-round menagerie at the Schaghticoke Fair Grounds. A  row of enclosures along the left side of the grounds held several families of raccoons and another held some pheasants. Another pen was home to several deer. I remember one rare breed deer escaped, and  made it to Johnsonville where it was shot and killed. There were for a time a couple of bears and maybe even a baby bear who lived in a separate enclosure. We used to visit there with children who were in my parents' house. Fortunately no bears escaped. 

Celebrity Encounter

    If you want to call it that. I slept under the same roof as Marilyn Manson. We used to have an annual fall conference at the Hotel Syracuse. One year rumor had it that Marilyn Manson and band were staying there. Because my knees were retro at the time, I frequently took the elevator, even for one floor. One day on  entering the elevator, several members  of his entourage were in the elevator, though not M. Manson. They acted normal during the brief encounter, though they looked exactly as one might expect. A day later, we saw from our hotel window the bus, prominently labeled as the Marilyn Manson Tour,  pull up in front of the hotel. I went down to watch them board. One of our fellow members was aghast at that. She thought no attention should be paid. 

Math in the History of A House

 3+1+1=5

5-1-1-1=2

2-1=1