April 2025 Leftovers

 

vegetable garden, planted by a squirrel

pay phone in train station
I put a coin in the return slot for someone to find.

The little one I care for is learning to pump!

New mural in the village

July Leftovers

 

Olympic rings in the neighborhood

Funny sign on campus.
Do any students know what a calling card is?

Library contents in mid-July

D.'s picture taken at the LA Arboretum

Jacaranda and firework flowers in our yard 

One Ringy Dingy

A. pointed out that our Mbps, megabits per second, were very, very low. We looked into updating our service and the price different was affordable.

I am not sure if I would say that the third time was the charm,
but after being stood up twice I was thrilled that
someone came to the house for the third appointment.

Not only did the person not show up the first time, when I called to ask about it I was told that the person was at my house at that very moment. Then I was told the person was almost done with the work. When I said I was at my home I was then told that the person had tried to gain access to our home but was unable to. Would I like to reschedule? The next day I talked to a different person who did apologize for the fact that I had been lied to.

The second time I also arranged my schedule so that someone was at the house when I had to leave. Nothing. All day. At least this time they just kept telling me the person was busy, maybe later. Maybe later. Maybe later. Would I like to reschedule?

I felt like I was living in a Lily Tomlin sketch, but more of the type of,
"We Don’t Care. We’re the Phone Company. We Don’t Have To."

Ta da! Someone showed up and on time!
The person seemed to know what to do and everything went smoothly.

We have a new box on the house

and away from the house.

The entire process was a big pain, but now that we are all home and on our computers I can say that I am glad it is done and I am not trying to get an appointment this week!

communication

When we lived in Denmark we had a magicJack, which is a form of Voice Over Internet Protocol.  We paid a fee and had unlimited calls to and from the US through our computer and even got messages when we weren't online to receive the calls (h/t Charles).  With the teenager overseas we have had to learn how to be in touch new ways.

There was a postal strike in Germany and who knows when the backlog will catch up with the paper mail I sent.  I tried facebook messages, email messages, and skype messages.

But then R. asked if I got the imessage.  I looked on the computer and saw nothing.  Later in the day I turned on my iPod to check something and there were the messages!  R. was still awake so we chatted (text, not voice), which was great.

Germany on the left, Poland on the right

Plus pictures could be sent without having to transfer them to the computer.  I feel so modern!

This post motived me to figure out how to change the imessage setting on my computer.  Ta da!  I am pleased, but am also looking forward to being face-to-face!