Wednesday, December 17, 2014

One of THOSE Days

On your LEFT, your RIGHT, your LEFT!


I have never had to get my "ducks in a row" as I never did own ducks.  I imagine it is a challenging task.  I also never understood why a meticulous duck farmer would want ducks in a row.  I also know how hard it is to herd cats although I have never attempted it.  This week has been a week where I would rather be herding cats or getting ducks to march in a line than what I have been doing.

I have been trying to find a plan to wean myself off of our cable company which has not increased my service in any way, shape or form, but has increased the price of my service by 144 % in the last 9 years.  If you follow news you will know that cable companies are some of the most hated service companies in America.  I was told by my children and read on the Internet about a Chromecast dongle being used to access cheaper television shows via the Internet.  I bought the $25 Chromecast dongle as a test before cutting the cord.  I did not realize it would be as hard as getting ducks in a row, although I was suspicious, because this is technology, and when has that ever been a cakewalk?

I spent the first 20 minutes realizing my amplifier did not have an HDMI port like my son's did.  My amp weighs a ton and has a gazillion cords in the back!  I spent another 40 minutes finding the HDMI port at the back of my large screen TV which is high and tight against the living room wall.  One ladder, one flashlight and one extension cord later and the thing was successfully plugged in!  I returned to my laptop and Google Chrome walked me through the App and soon I was able to see any screen that was on my laptop on my TV.  While this meant I had some small success it was not the success I needed.  The Utube videos were not a great resolution but the worst part was I never figured out how to get sound!  Good thing I have not yet subscribed to Hulu or Netflix.  (If you have no idea what I am writing about and your eyes are glazing over right now, please go on with your life and come back for another post another day, because you will not get this time back in your life and I am determined to ramble on.)

I pulled the dongle from the back of the screen, and much to my surprise (hardly) I could no longer get my cable box and my amp to talk to my TV.  I fiddled for an hour.  There are about 10 options each on the various remote controls.  Multiply 10X10X10 and you get the idea.  I am exhausted and now have to call someone to come help and it will probably cost as much as my monthly cable bill anyway.

I felt really defeated because this has been one of those days.

I will not even go into the well water issue that has raised its furry head!

Nor will I dwell on the bill coming due from the outboard motor shop due to the diagnosis of the "cough" in that engine this fall.

These are three items, so I am thinking that if trouble really does come in threes I am done for a while.  Right???

10 comments:

  1. When my husband passed away I took a look at what we had access to on cable and decided I really did not need any of it. I called the company and went to local only for $20 per month. Check with the cable company to see if that is a possibility. I really like the news, Wheel of Fortune and a handful of other programs. If I could get a selected number of channels, I would sign up again but I refuse to pay for things I have no interest in.

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  2. This is probably a stupid question, but do you have competing cable companies? If so, you can probably get a better deal from the other.

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  3. Cable only when I lived in the big city. Now in a rural area'
    my trusty antennna gives me
    many stations - and hardly watch television - now to remedy sound
    which is not good - but will need help as I cannot do :)

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  4. Well ... sometimes you get three sets of threes. lol

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  5. We have cable, but in reality we don't spend enough time watching tv to really get our money's worth out of it. I'm thinking of changing, but it's a pain to do that as well. Our internet is also through the cable company.

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  6. I have been wanting netflix streaming but everytime I try to read anything about how to do it, my eyes glaze over. I think streaming is the future but we live so far out in the country that we are lucky finally to get dsl which is fast but maybe not fast enough... and then there would be figuring the rest of it out :(

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  7. You failed the number One rule of modern technology--you should have found a teenage boy to help you with all this electronic stuff. I'm hopeless when it comes to hooking things up.

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  8. No grandkids to press into service?

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  9. Let's hope you are done, and we just don't have a TV. It's easier.

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  10. If you have a house full of cats, all you have to do to group them next to you is open a can of tuna! Then walk where you want them to follow...

    Prob something very easy like the toggle to cable on a remote, or the remote battery is gone.
    Probably your little grandson can fix this... it's happened to me!

    In cases like those (n my cable is known to knock out unexpectedly) Remember the transistor radio! "Coast to coast" has good stuff sometimes.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.