The Lights Are Off, But Somebody is Home

May 19, 2011 10:35

At long last, the Christmas lights are off of the house! I had an Indiana Jones moment after pulling down the first strand of icicle lights. A black snake I hadn't noticed when I set up the ladder was curled up in between some of the bushes. I hate it when that happens. I chased it off and proceeded to remove the rest of the lights and packed them up. Yay! It might not be of any importance to anyone else, but it certainly made me feel better.

I was almost done when I noticed a sedan pull up in front of the neighbors' house and two guys hopped out. Oh crap. I'm stuck at the top of my ladder and here come the annoying door-to-door prosteletyzers. Oh, yeah. Saturday the world ends, right? I should have expected this. I hurried along, trying not to make eye contact. One guy heads for the neighbors' house and the other proceeds down the easement. He calls out to me asking where the other house is. There are three mailboxes but only two houses are visible, so I send him on his way, breathing a small sigh of relief that I might be able to finish my work and hide inside the house.

No such luck. The neighbors send the first guy back out to the street, and as I'm winding up extention cords, drives over and steps into our yard. All of a sudden he notices Whoa! That's a bunch of wires you got there! What'cha doin'? Instead of sarcastically replying Wiring the door to deal with solicitors, I tell him Cleaning up. I get a disappointed Oh.

It turns out the two guys are AT&T door-to-door solicitors trying to sucker convince people into buying into the U-verse program. I find this slightly more annoying than the wandering SoulWinnerWannabes. Did ya' get our flyers?

Um. Yeah. The ones you send every darn week? I firmly reply Sorry. Not interested. We cut our cable over two years ago.

I get another disappointed Oh. But at least we haven't wasted much of either of our time. I am rather annoyed by the door-to-door solicitations. I don't respond to the junk mail flyers. I don't click on or respond to the email spam. Why on earth do you believe that I would warmly welcome someone coming to my house to sell me a service I don't want? I should send AT&T a bill for my time. I charge a minimum of one hour using my company's standard hourly rate.

Slashy Fu

AElfgifu was mean last night. I guess ealdthryth was in her spot, and our grumpy tortie climbed across my sweetie, she managed to give ealdthryth a nasty slash on her arm. My poor sweetie! Her villiany achieved, AElf' proceeded to curl up on the pillows between us and start purring contentedly. Now that her teeth are gone and don't hurt any more, AElfgifu is getting fat and sassy. I am not pleased with her tortitude no matter how cute and plush she is. No! No! Bad kitty!....That was definitely UN-cute!

For My Next Trick

Cooler weather. The house is settling into its new normality. Now would be a great time to put insulation in the attic--before the heat cranks up again.... ealdthryth doesn't have to work late any more this week, so I'm thinking this is a good time to deal with that long-delayed home improvement task.

You Know You Are In The SCA When....

The last time we had a rental truck at the house, we were loading it to take a bunch of gear to Pennsic. Our neighbors figured that with the Y'allHaul parked at the house this week, we were planning another SCA trip. Chuckle

So, today's YKYAITSCAW is: YKYAITSCAW your neighbors see a 17' moving truck in your driveway and assume you are heading to Pennsic.

The Internet is Becoming an Echo Chamber

Interesting article from CNN about how the Internet is becoming an echo chamber. It is a very interesting and somewhat stinging rebuke from someone who was using the Internet as a political tool.

My synopsis is: essentially, the companies offering content are trying to tailor your Internet experience to match the things they've figured out you like or are going to gravitate to. Great for helping the consumer find stuff they want, extremely bad for the democratic process because you get served only the claptrap and propaganda you want to see/hear.

rant, sca, politics, news, cats, amused, technology, house

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