Category: Just me being me

We purchased a super snazzy new HD TV a couple weeks ago and the aftershocks of that purchase are making me want to forgo technology altogether. Since this was our first HD version of a TV, I had to call Verzion to upgrade our normal set top box to a HD set top box. Okay, sounds easy enough. The new box came and I followed the direction to wire it into place.

It took me about an hour to figure out that since our Tivo is not HD, we cannot see any recorded programs in HD. We could watch TV directly through the new HD set top box, but if we watched a show that Tivo had recorded, it looked like the same old TV we’ve always had.

Yeah, that’s not really going to work for me. We watch about 95% of our TV from the Tivo. I hate live TV and am addicted to fast forwarding through commercials and the boring parts of reality TV. The whole point of this snazzy new TV is so we can actually watch programs in HD. Oh, and so we can fix the problem of every show being shot in widescreen so we miss what’s happening on the edges of the screen. That’s super annoying.

So, back to the point: now I need to upgrade our Tivo box to the new Tivo Premiere box, which supports HD. A bit inconvenient, but not bad so far.

The new Tivo box arrived earlier this week and apparently it does NOT run through a set top box, you need to purchase a cable card instead. Why nobody told me this when ordering the system, I have no idea.

In order to make the new Tivo work, I need to send the Verizon set top box (that I just got) BACK to Verizon and purchase a cable card instead. However, Verizon is currently having issues with strikes so they can’t schedule any technicians at this time. They will not send me the card to install on my own either.

They CAN place an order for a Verizon DVR system though, which will come in two weeks. They will even give me a sweet deal of three months for free, which is pretty nice. Oh, and by the way, the Verizon DVR TAKES THE PLACE of the Verizon set top box. WHAT?! Once again, why on earth did nobody tell me this when I was on the phone with Verizon for my original order? I could have been done by now!

Okay. Deep breaths.*

So now I need to send the Tivo Premiere back and cancel the service. I placed an order for a Verizon DVR, which should arrive in two weeks. When the new DVR gets here, I need to cancel my existing old Tivo. I hook up the Verizon DVR and then I send the Verizon set top box back to Verizon.

Voila**, done! That sounds so easy and seamless.

NOT!***

Are you KIDDING me? This is ridiculous! Why are things so freaking hard? I know that I am not the first person who called Verizon to upgrade my system to HD. Their customer service people should be trained to ask the proper questions at the time of the upgrade. That way, if I ignore them that it’s my fault for being stupid, instead of just uninformed.

Some icing on the cupcake, when I called Tivo to cancel/return my new Premiere box (which I’m allowed to do anytime within 30 days) the rep on the end of the line kept fighting with me! He went on and on and on and ON about how Tivo offers so much more then Verizon does and I’m making a terrible mistake by giving up a great service. The only way I got him to shut up was to tell him that I was keeping my old Tivo. Little does he know, I’m cancelling that in 2 weeks when the new DVR gets here.

ARG! At this point, I wish I would have just kept my old TV. So what if on Glee when two people were singing to each other from each side of the screen there was actually nobody to be seen? I have a pretty good imagination. I know what the characters are supposed to look like, so I can just pretend!

No, I’m going to stick with it. And when our system is finally set up properly on August 25ish, it will be AWESOME. Of course, it will also be about a month after the purchase of our new TV. But who ever thought that dealing with technology upgrades would be easy?

 

*See I’m really working on this stress busting thing!

**Random thought, I totally saw “Voila” misspelled as “Walla” recently and it made me laugh.

***Note to self, must re-watch Wayne’s World next time it runs on Comedy Central…

I feel like Humpty Dumpty – I was thrown off a wall and I’m currently sitting around in a bunch of pieces. However, instead of waiting for someone else to get over here and put me back together again I’m working on doing it myself. Ever the positive thinker (annoyingly so, I admit), I’m using this as an opportunity to figure out what I really want so I can go after it.*

That brings us to the point of today’s blog post: taking a step back and looking at your life.

So many people are blindsided – anything from losing a job, a marriage falling apart, or even a terrible health diagnosis. When you’re right in the middle of the situation, everything feels awful. You can hardly see past the hurt, shock or pain of whatever the world has put on your doorstep. However, so many times you hear people say “I’m so glad that happened, because it lead me to _____.”

Why does it take something so drastic to make you reevaluate your life?

So many people, including myself, just sail along in their lives getting complacent about things that actually make them really unhappy. Change is hard and scary. So, it’s easier to be in a crappy situation than to go through the process of removing yourself from it and finding something better.

Well, I’m done with that. We are here in this world for such a short amount of time and it is up to us to make the best life we can. I don’t want to look back in 5, 10 or 30 years and think, “I should have done this” or “why didn’t I do that.”

So I’m picking up my pieces to see what else I can make with them.

 

*At this point I don’t want to go into what has thrown me off my game, but I will definitely include it in my blog once things are settled. It’s not my relationships; I’m blessed with a strong marriage and wonderful family & friends.

Here’s just a random sampling of what’s been in my head today:

The Cathog
First off, earlier this week I saw a cathog. Yes, that’s right it was like a groundhog and a cat had a baby and it was living on a Columbia exit ramp. It was cute and so wrong all at the same time.

Speaking of exit ramp groundhogs, have you noticed that groundhogs really love to live on exit ramps? Are exit ramps like ‘water front property’ for groundhogs? There are a couple ramps around my house that I can pretty much count on seeing a fat and happy groundhog hanging out every time I drive by.

It’s too Hot to Wear Clothes
Today it was 108 degrees outside according to my truck thermometer. I was running my errands in Under Armour clothes, to keep myself as cool as possible and I was still ready to melt. Apparently, I’m a big wimp though, because I saw about a dozen people wearing jeans today. These weren’t people in a work uniform of some type, they truly woke up today to get dressed and thought that jeans would be the best option to dress for the current heat wave. There was even a guy walking down the sidewalk in Columbia, just chillin’ in his jeans and black t-shirt. It made me hot just looking at him – and not in the oh la la kind of way.

Stupid Drivers
I could go on and on about stupid drivers, but I’m going to just limit this to just the stupidity I saw yesterday and today. Yesterday, on my drive home there was a guy driving with his foot out the window. Not the passenger… the driver. He had his right foot all the way out the window, WHILE DRIVING! Not only is this randomly flexible, but it can’t be safe to have your entire body leaned back to put your foot out the window while still driving a vehicle. He looked really stupid too.

My second bout with stupid drivers was when I stopped by the library earlier today. When I came out I realized that the driver next to me was obviously an idiot. They had pulled into their parking space so crooked, that 1/3 of their minivan was in my space. Yes, over the line into MY space blocking the back part of my truck. So obviously my reaction was to do that thing where you look at the stupidly parked vehicle with incredulous eyes, throw up your hands, stomp around a little and then glare at it some more.

Surprisingly that didn’t change anything, so I then cursed a little bit and considered ramming their vehicle with my FJ Cruiser (google it, it’s awesome). Had my husband bought the bumper wing covers that I asked for (with spikes, please), I would have gunned the motor and slammed their stupid minivan out of my way.

Unfortunately, my bumper wings are still naked and cost too much to replace for something this dumb (I just had to replace one a couple months ago when a partner at my firm accidentally ran into my truck). So, I decided to maneuver my truck up and over a curb so that I could get around their terrible parking job. They should be happy that the heat made me too tired to sit around and wait to yell at them when they came out.

I’m Out of Here
I’m totally procrastinating because I really need to start packing. My awesome friend Lea and I are going down to Ocean City, MD. My plans at the beach include smuggling white wine into Assateague and laying around soaking up rays while soaking up wine. I’m also hoping to meet up with another of my awesome friends while I’m down there and do some bootyshaking at Seacrets. My hubby is also going to come down for a few days, so I really should start throwing some stuff into a laundry basket to take down there…