What a day!

Seagull waiting for food at Conneaut, Lake Erie

Northeast Ohio's high speed cable connection is having serious problems. One particular technician named Todd (was too afraid to give me his last name) is especially having problems tonight. A few other techs gave me their last name. They have nothing to fear. I am pretty sure that Todd has had his life threatened before. I really, really hope that my high speed Internet provider records their customer calls and that they actually play them back. Hope, hope, hope I do. I called Todd a difficult a$$hole. He asked me to please refrain from using that type of language with him. Which I did, but I still called him the most difficult technician I have ever worked with. He hung up on me. I told my daughter that I had bit my tongue no less than eight times before I finally laid into him about his rudeness to me.

Oh, there was a lot more to the situation. Which I am way too upset to go into here. It happened five hours ago and I am still fired up about it. I called Customer Service. Okay, it took me four times (I repeat - four times) and almost an hour to get the customer complaint made against Todd, but I did it. Two calls ended up in dead air when the technician tried to transfer me to Customer Service and I had to hang up and try again. I am not completely satisfied, but that is all I can do. They make it so difficult to get around the bizarre automated phone system. I am persistent if I am anything.

One support technician gave me an 800 number for Customer Service, it ended up being disconnected and I got a recording giving me another toll free number, which just so happened to be the number I had been dialing in the first place. Four times to get through to somebody who would lodge a complaint about Todd the technician who had studied networking. He never said he passed any certifications, he just kept saying that he had studied networking so he knew what he was talking about. Well, maybe he did, but I don't tolerate condescending and rude.

So, I figure their Customer Service department is their technical support department and vise versa. I am still really fired up. Two technicians did apologize for Todd's rude behavior (the women) and I thanked them.

Anyway, while dialing the toll free number, I finally get the message that my high speed Internet provider is experiencing difficulties in my area of Ohio because of the recent storms and flooding.

This was one sour post today. If I offended anyone I am sorry, but it feels great to punch the keys on this keyboard and just lay it all out. I am seriously getting depressed about the state of things I see on a daily basis and I am getting sick and tired of it. So, do I take the easy way out and ask my doctor for nerve pills so I can settle down? Or can I do something about it? I want to write a letter to the editor of the newspaper for starters. Yeah, that would go over like a lead zeppelin.

Oh, bother. Well, for all you pet lovers out there you will be happy to know that my daughter "forced" me to bring home two kittens we found outside a small diner this evening. We were returning my sister's dog to her and stopped for a quick bite and there they were. Clean, friendly, older kittens. We have them quarantined in the back room until I can get them to the vet's office. Sigh. Please, no lectures. I can't take it. I'll try to find homes for them, but I know that is unrealistic.

Oh, and I locked myself out of the house today. I was so upset dealing with that technician today that I grabbed my laptop out of my car to do some troubleshooting and took it down to the basement. In an absent minded moment, I threw my keys on the table with it. We took off and "wham" out the door I am. I have an extra car key in my purse and I called my sister (the one we were meeting to take the dog back to) and told her to bring our extra house key. She brought me a hand full of keys, and said she hoped one of them was it. My daughter picked it out first try and we got back into the house, which was a blessing because the two new kittens were trying their best to get out of the box that the diner gave us to carry them in.

I'll get pictures of them tomorrow. For now, I want them to relax and settle down and I want to settle down, too. Grrrr. Then this evening we are sitting at the school for my daughter's orientation and she informs me that tonight is Wednesday. I thought to myself, "Oh no! I missed an appointment at 5:00 p.m.! How in the world did I tell my sister I would meet her tonight when I knew that I had an appointment?!" Of course, I was just sick about it and it was well into ruining my evening when a friend told me that "No, this is Tuesday evening." Cripes. I just want the day to be over with.