Tag comcast sucks

This weekend was pretty textbook by most measures.  I did the weeding Friday night to make Saturday slightly less laborious.  On Saturday my main chore was mowing the grass.  This was the first time mowing since I replaced the blades and defective blade spindle so I was hopeful there would be no issues.  The new parts seemed to hold up well to almost two hours of mowing, I noticed the new blades made a visible difference in the quality of the cut, as they should.

Saturday night we watched “Who Killed the Electric Car” , a documentary from years ago regarding the Chevrolet EV1 and how it was cut at the knees from various angles.  The sources of attack ranged from oil/gas companies, hydrogen fuel cell companies, and the federal government itself.   The EV1 era was in the late 90’s to early 2000’s.  The most ridiculous piece of information that I got out of the film, which tells you all you need to know is this.  Back then the federal government offered you a $4000 tax break for an electric car.  If you bought a Hummer which was acquired by GM, you could get upwards of a $100000 tax break.  Now that is not a typo.  The federal government was incentivizing people to buy Hummers to an incredulous degree.

I found the documentary interesting.  It also made perfect sense why a brand new car company like Tesla was the fulcrum needed to launch a real electric car demand.  All of the traditional car manufacturers were content to wander along with ancient ICE power plants because it was the most financially expedient thing to do.  Only once Tesla started rattling chains did the rest of the auto industry decide to start moving towards EVs in a serious manner. Thank goodness for Elon.

Sunday morning Cindy and I went for a ride at the Greenway.  It was a fun time as usual but also melt your sneakers hot.  The second you stopped moving it felt like your skin was melting.  I was testing a new set up for audio where I have an external lavalier microphone attached to the GoPro.  It definitely does a better job of delivering clean audio but the downside is being hardwired to the camera is a bit clumsy and inconvenient.

Sunday afternoon we went over to Katie and Daniel’s new place to help unload a new tractor they bought.  Daniel push mowed the yard one time before deciding it was too much work which was funny.  I have a pair of ramps we used to get the tractor off the back of the Ram.  I gave Daniel, who never used a lawn tractor before a brief how to lesson.  The Craftsman mower they bought is a manual transmission, as compared to the automatic hydrostatic transmission I have in my tractor.  My first tractor I ever bought was a manual transmission and I didn’t like it all.  It didn’t take long for me to upgrade.  However for the kids this should get the job done.  Daniel also bought a weed whacker which I helped him assemble but he didn’t have any gas/oil mixture on hand to fire it up.

Late afternoon I worked on washing the Tesla and Tacoma.  As I was drying the Tesla it started to rain so I quickly pulled it into the garage and dried it a second time.  Car washing has become a much more regular thing since I acquired the Tesla.  It’s such a good looking and fun car that I just want to try to keep it clean as much as possible.

As I did my bills on Sunday I went through my credit card statement.  During that process I saw that Comcast AGAIN has raised it’s monthly charges, something it seems to do without notification on nearly a monthly basis.  The new bill was $239 which is utterly ridiculous.  I plan on calling them today to get my plan changed and to be put on a promo rate.  How in the world can Comcast complain about it’s eroding customer base when it insists on charging insane amounts for services that can be streamed elsewhere for much less.  Idiots.

This past weekend was supposed to be a Randall visit which typically is filled with all sorts of sillyness.  Randall rescheduled for a few weeks in the future, leaving me with a more or less wide open weekend.

Saturday was a stark contrast to the weekend before that was filled with tons and tons of ass busting labor.  This Saturday may have been the most laid back weekend day I have had in a year.  Other than doing the normal weed pulling/garden tending, the day was almost totally void of chores thanks to Cindy knocking out most of it during her day off Friday. It felt weird not buzzing around like normal but the overcast and rainy skies made it feel almost appropriate to just hang out.

One of the things I did was start watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series of movies. (not the American Daniel Craig version)  Cindy had recommended this awhile back but I sort of disregarded it when she told me it was actually a foreign film with subtitles.  Reading a movie just was not something that interested me.  Well for whatever reason on Saturday I was more willing to give it a try.

As I expected, watching a film where everyone was speaking Swedish was pretty annoying at first.  Scanning between the subtitle and the movie seemed unnatural.  However Cindy had told me that after awhile it becomes less obtrusive. ( I didn’t believe her) It turns out she was right.  Eventually my brain adjusted to the format and I was able to take in what was going on without much difficulty.

The films are very dark but compelling.  The version on Netflix are the extended cuts, each movie is broken into two 90 minute sections which means in total I spent about 6 hours watching the first two movies.  I never thought I would give a subtitled film an A- rating but here it is.

On Sunday morning Cindy and I did the 30+ mile Ave Maria ride we had planned to do with Randall.  The weather was not as dreary as Saturday and the temps in the high 60’s when we started felt refreshing.  The ride went pretty well.  When we do it we switch off the lead every 5 miles or so to allow the other to benefit from a wind breaker.

Cindy actually struggled during part of the ride, her legs were tired from running 8 miles on the treadmill (while I played Haerthstone) the day before.  Several times when I was ahead I looked back and had lost her which is very rare since she is normally a stronger cyclist than I am.  However she had the last 5 mile lead segment, during which, she was averaging 21+ mph for the majority of it so maybe she was just playing possum to make me feel better.

I had ideas of knocking out half of the pressure washing jobs that are looming over me, the pool area and sheds.  I thought possibly after biking I would have time to do this before the Eagles game.  However after grabbing gas for the cans and running errands I didn’t get back home until after 11:30, too late to get it done. Plus it was abnormally warm yesterday which helped melt away any motivation to do the work. Instead I quickly planted the additional crops we bought for the garden, a tray of kale plants and some stevia.

Wow that Eagles game was truly a tale of two cities.  For basically three quarters the Eagles confirmed that they are truly a much improved team, pushing the Redskins around to build a dominating 24-0 lead.  Then, in the span of 15 minutes they erased that perception.

The Eagles completely imploded, allowing the Redskins to score two touchdowns AND convert two 2 point conversions while doing absolutely nothing on offense themselves.  I guess last weeks 9 minute plus drive to close out the Packer game was just a fluke.

When the defense allowed the Redskins to convert a 3rd and 25 during the final drive I felt sure that they were going to find a way to somehow lose the game which would have been one of the biggest collapses in recent NFL history.  I could feel the anger and rage boiling up inside me as the Skins drove down the field, only 20 yards from scoring a ridiculous third touchdown in the quarter.  Thank goodness RG III made a boneheaded throw which Boykin picked off in the end zone to save the game.  Not only did he save the game, he saved me from looking like a raving lunatic in front of Cindy.

It’s hard to feel great about a game such as this.  Despite the great start, the horrible finish was a sobering pull back into reality.  I will do my best to look at the bright spots like the Eagles being in first place  despite a thoroughly mediocre 6-5 record.  Or perhaps we can all celebrate the Eagles winning their first game at the Linc in over 400 days.  Yes a win is a win is a win.  I can only hope they learn from the black hole they stepped into in the 4th quarter and do a much better job of closing out teams consistently.

Sunday night we watched Bullet to the Head, my latest Netflix rental.  Cindy never heard of the movie and was skeptical that Stallone could pull off a solo action movie himself nowadays.  Her questions were answered, he still can.  Despite being in his mid-60’s I found the movie a quite satisfying rental.  It had everything a brainless action movie should have, good fight scenes, strong one liners, hot chicks and a revenge plot. It get’s a B+ all day long.

There were several high quality Vines produced this weekend.  I will leave it up to you to find them.  However ironically, the funniest one of all may have been produced by Jeremy.

So when I was doing my bills yesterday I noticed my Comcast bill was magically $20 higher than the month before.  I fired up Comcast chat and started ranting.  Evidently the promo I did in April where they gave me basic cable tv service, that I don’t use, and internet for 49.99 had expired.  I was on a new “step” promo where they ONLY raise the price 40% until April of next year and then I get smacked with another 5 bucks which is the full rate.

Argh I am so sick of doing this song and dance with Comcast.  I fired off my normal “I’d like to cancel my service” deal starter but was told only their phone reps in the “Customer Loyalty Department” could offer me any new deals.    In the past I have been able to secure better deals via Comcast online reps.  I angrily clicked the CLOSE CHAT button.

Obviously I need high speed internet service since a large portion of my tv entertainment is delivered down Comcast pipes however paying $70 for that service and throw away, crappy tv service (not even HD) annoys the hell out of me.  I may need to look closer at what high speed DSL can do for me nowadays.

Last night on the way home I stopped to grab the dogs.  They will be with me for a few days while Ali is out of town.  Even though we got home as daylight was starting to fade both of them hung outside for a good half hour.  Lately I have been propping open the lanai screen door so they can come in and out as they please.

Taking the dogs to daycare is a weird thing.  Nicki acts like she no longer likes going there.  When I park the vehicle she will just stay planted, acting like the last thing she feels like doing is going in there with all of the noise and activity.  Lately I have had to take Sadie in first and then come back out and physically lift Nicki out.  Supposedly once Nicki is at the dog daycare she acts fine during the day.  Of course I wouldn’t expect them to tell me she hates it either.

I really would like to be able to just let the dogs stay at the house by themselves like they did for years.  The only reason daycare started was because of Nicki’s issue with holding it for a full day anymore.  At the house they can relax indoors or out.  After 10 years I have become pretty in tune with Nicki’s body language.  It clearly tells me “Dad I’d really rather just stay home”

So yesterday I get this form letter from Comcast stating that they are making “adjustments” to customers that only have internet service, such as I have for the last couple years or so.  The rate starts at $40 a month for gimped service and scales up to $115 (before taxes) for their top tier level.

I currently have the Blast package which according to the letter would pull more than $75 a month  out of my pocket JUST FOR INTERNET SERVICE.  Now, I just negotiated the promo package for tv and Blast internet for $49.99 for 6 months last week, so this SHOULD not apply to me.  However I would not be surprised at all if Comcast somehow f’s up and starts billing me at the higher rate which will initiate a very swift and vocal response from me.

I forgot to mention that I do indeed have Comcast tv service piped into the bedroom now.  As I suggested from the get go, removing the filter from my line fixed the problem.  Of course the convertor box they gave me doesn’t even have a HDMI output, meaning the picture quality is non-hd.  I really don’t know when I will have occasion to use the service except trying to catch a MNF game on ESPN, and maybe using the On Demand rarely.  Otherwise I just don’t need it.

So I read yesterday the Senate voted down the bi-partisan gun bill.  Obviously the very deep pockets of the NRA lobbyists once again were successful in overruling what to me, is basic common sense.

I have never owned or even fired an actual gun, my $35 air rifle is the closest thing I have to a firearm in the house.  However my disinterest in guns doesn’t mean I think individuals should not be able to own a weapon, after all it is a constitutional right.  However as is the case with my position on many things, I like to apply logic to situations.

I do think there is something wrong with owning assault weapons.  I can not see a legitimate reason for an individual to carry a weapon intended to kill people by the dozens, in seconds.

As far as limiting the size of an ammo clip, 30 rounds isn’t enough?  Is it because you like to have longer bursts of Rambo moments or just because your arm starts to hurt after slapping in clip after clip?

However the biggest thing that annoys me is the NRA being so resistant to the universal registration of gun ownership.  You can not convince me there is a downside to this.  Own 100 guns if you want to, to me, asking you to simply register their ownership is a very small price to pay in my book.

You will hear gun nuts say that registering their weapons is a conduit for the government to come and take their guns down the road.  Please, if things would someday get to the point where the government would try to take away registered guns from individuals we would have much larger problems to deal with.

Others will cry “big brother” or it is an invasion of privacy.  Again, I would ask these people to step into the reality of 2013 and the Patriot Act.  You have no real privacy, if you think you do you are living in the Matrix.  Asking gun owners to register their weapons is a blip on the screen in terms of what the government already knows about you.

So anyway, I find it very disappointing but not surprising that once again doing the right thing, taking a small step towards curbing gun violence, was scuttled thanks to the cancerous tumor in our legislative system, aka. lobbyists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROrpKx3aIjA

The fertilizer plant explosion is just incredible.

I’ve railed for awhile about how ridiculous Comcast rates are.  I currently pay $120 a month for basic digital tv service and internet which is like legalized financial rape in my opinion.

Cell phone carriers are cut from the same cloth, they overcharge customers to a ridiculous degree adding a fee here, a surcharge there until you wind up paying close to $100 a month for a stupid cell phone. It’s maddening.  ATT evidently can’t stuff enough dollars into their exploding pockets so they are coming up with yet another way to screw customers. 

Instead of using some of the billions of dollars that they have generated from their Iphone monopoly to expand the performance of their wireless network, they decided to take the easy route and gimp their data plan instead.  They are doing away with their unlimited data plan and instead offering two capped plans, one with a 200 meg limit and one with a 2 gig limit.  If you don’t monitor your usage closely you will be dinged very happily with surcharges for extra usage. 

It’s an obvious money grab attempt by ATT as well as a way to lessen future usage on their already poorly performing wireless network.  More and more content, specifically streaming content is available on the internet everyday.  ATT obviously knows that putting in ceiling on data usage will translate into huge dollars down the line as the amount of that bandwidth chewing content continues to increase. 

Now supposedly, ATT is grandfathering in existing ATT customers, saying they will be allowed to maintain their unlimited data plans.  The changes only will apply to new customers.  Yea, let’s see how long that promise holds.

AT&T sucks.

Friday afternoon I left work early so I could head directly out to Jeremy’s place.  Prior to leaving Jeremy and I had gone back and forth about various plans for dinner with nothing being decided upon concretely.  As I was reentering civilization on the other side of Alligator Alley he called me and asked if I would mind stopping to pick up a pizza order.  Jeremy said the place was easy to find.

Well I was navigating via GPS.  Jeremy gave me directions via phone that I tried to scribble with one hand on a napkin which proved to be impossible.  Instead I had to try to rely on memory.  Surprisingly I managed to find the place without getting lost even with my mistaking “Powerline” for “Caroline” and swapping “Olive Garden” with “Carrabas”.  I was surprised when I was handed a medium pizza with meatballs and peppers.  As I did the math I figured that was pretty tight for three adults and a little kid. Oh well I figured I would make up the calorie deficit with beer.

I arrived at their house a few seconds before Jeremy who ran out to get materials needed to hang his set of gymnastic rings in his garage.  Jeremy’s wife Mandy and their little boy Connor were outside playing.  I handed off the pizza and unloaded my crap from the van. 

I had never been to his place before.  It’s a big house with incredibly high vaulted ceilings, they have to be at least 15 feet high at their peak.  Jeremy gave me a quick mini-tour of the place and then we sat down to eat the pizza. Prior to eating I finally gave Mandy that much talked about hug without prior notice.  It really wasn’t as big of a deal as I made it out to be.  I’m sure she was glad it was finally out of the way.

After chowing down we didn’t waste much time before digging into a project.  We had a list of things we wanted to do during my short visit, the first of which was getting the rings up on the ceiling.  Jeremy knows I have a decent amount of experience in little projects like this so he let me take the lead for the install after we picked an ideal spot to mount the rings.

I stood at the top step of a ladder and stretched up into the attic to measure the distance between the roof trusses. After determining they were spaced two feet apart I measured out where they should be on the drywall side.  Luckily my measurements were close enough that we hit the truss with all six 4″ wood screws that were used to attach the 2×4 to the ceiling.   After the wood was attached all that was left to turn in two long eye hooks into the 2×4 and attach the rings to them.

Both Jeremy and I tested the rings for strength.  Jeremy had fears of pulling down the ceiling.  Luckily the install felt rock solid and should easily be able to support his 160 odd pounds of body weight. 

After the install was done we wanted to do a bit of a workout.  Of course I came prepared with my camcorder. We did a one rep max bench press test, some power cleans and finally some work on the newly installed rings.  Despite consuming around a six pack of beer during the process I dominated all of the strength events which was expected.

The one thing that wasn’t expected was the result of the ring competition.  Neither Jeremy or I could do a conventional muscle up on the rings.  Instead we raised the height of them and tried to do jumping muscle ups.  At first I questioned if either of us would be able to do them, however after Jeremy went first and was able to barely squeeze one out I knew I could do it, which I did pretty easily.

The funny thing was after his initial success, Jeremy failed on all subsequent attempts to duplicate the move while I continued to do it easily.  I did it easily enough that I started adding weight and doing it.  At the end I successfully performed the move with 20 pounds of weight from one of the weight vests stuffed in my pants.

I could tell Jeremy, who regularly boasts of his superior vertical leap, was annoyed that he failed repeatedly at the jumping muscle up.  Luckily for him, he finally got to taste some success playing Wii Tennis. 

I fancy myself as a pretty strong Wii Tennis player although I haven’t played the game for at least 6 months.  Well after 6 or 7 consecutive losses to my gloating opponent I was quite frustrated.  Losing didn’t frustrate me as much as the way I was losing.  Repeatedly I would hit shots that hit the top of the net and then carried out of bounds, giving Jeremy easy point after point.  I hit the ball OB in this manner at least 25-30 times, it was maddening.  I was never able to quite figure out what I was doing wrong because I never had this issue in the past.

After the tennis loss Jeremy put in this disturbing title.  You could tell it was the sort of game that the Japanese adore.  It was basically just an endless amount of these silly mini-games.  Each game took no more than 5 seconds.  I can’t really describe just how annoying it was yet, Jeremy seemed to really like it.  To me it seemed like a game whose sole purpose is to trigger epileptic seizures.  Repeatedly I indicated to Jeremy I had enough and repeatedly he would hand me the controller to play yet another ridiculous mini-game.

Finally around 11:45 I managed to pry him away from the madness.  I was quite sweaty from doing our open air ring install / power lifting session so I took a shower before bed.  My sleeping arrangements were in a day bed.  I just barely fit inside the frame, only having a couple inches clearance.  I set up a 6:15 alarm and my white noise app on my Iphone and fell asleep rather quickly.  The odd thing is I actually had a solid, uninterrupted block of sleep until the alarm went off, the type of sleep I haven’t gotten at home in ages, weird.

When I woke up I noticed that I must have not set my white noise app correctly, it appeared to be on all night.  As a result my battery was low.  I didn’t bring a phone charger with, dumb.  An Iphone owner needs to have a charger available at every moment of the day, I know better.

I brought my own Pop Tarts for breakfast. Mandy was nice enough to get up and make eggs and bacon.  Randall arrived early so he could partake in the breakfast as well.  We piled all of our equipment into the party van and headed south to Fort Lauderdale.

There was a strong turnout for the tournament, the biggest one I have seen in Florida for years.  Evidently the promise of old school rules was a nice draw for players, I know it was for me.  They had four nets of BB.  The most I had seen in the prior 5 years was probably two. (outside of the Rumble)  We had a lot of gear to unload.

Jeremy was unable to find a partner to play so he decided he would be our coach/documentary provider.  His high end camera also shoots high quality video.

I recognized one person on our net, everyone else was a new face.  It felt good to be back on the beach.  The last time out with Randall was miserable, we didn’t win a single game.  I was really ready to erase that bad memory with the assistance of old school rules and a bigger court.  It didn’t happen.

Once again it was very windy on the beach.  You have to expect wind when you play on the beach.  Unfortunately when you play as little as I do anymore, strong wind really wreaks havoc doing even some of the basic skills required to play the game.

Our first match was a mismatch.  We played two German guys, Markus and Fabian.  Based on appearance alone you would have thought they could be formidable.  Fabian looked like a lean quick player and Markus was a tall guy with a case of the skinny fats, but we assumed he could play. Well they couldn’t.  I served for 9 points in a row.  We destroyed them 11-1 without even breathing heavy.  The easy win against over matched opponents may have given us a false sense of confidence which was quickly destroyed the next match.

We were playing one of my hated combinations, an older skilled player and a young kid whom I assume was not old enough to drive.  The adult on the team was not very likable, he seemed like an a-hole. Well he was the first to serve in the match.  All of a sudden we were the hapless Germans.  In the span of a few minutes we were down 9-0 without even serving once.  It was ridiculous.  We were shut out in short order 11-0.  I can’t quite verbalize how disappointed I was in the effort so I figured it was best to not say much at all.

Our next match was a must win.  There were two teams on our net that were B level and two that had decent skills.  Since we epically failed to beat the kid team we HAD to win this game.  This team had the one guy I sort of knew.  They were a solid team but nothing spectacular.  In my prime, it’s a team that we would have rolled through. 

This game at least was competitive and at one point we had a lead late in the game.  However once again, mostly unforced errors doomed us and we lost the game 11-9.  Our last meaningless match was against the other low skill team.  I was so not into the match.  We actually let them get us to 8-8 before we scratched out the last couple points, it was pretty pathetic.

The day went nothing like I expected.  Typically side out scoring results in longer games since you only score points when you are serving.  Instead the first four matches on our net were all 11-0 or 11-1, taking less time than a normal rally scoring game.  For brief periods I used the big court and wind to my advantage in serving but nearly as much as I hoped. 

I just have very little confidence any more on the court.  I go into situations afraid to make mistakes instead of aggressively trying to make plays.  It’s a surefire way to fail.  Of course the remedy to this problem is to play more.  The problem is I don’t have the motivation to invest heavily in resurrecting my vball hobby.  Nowadays I get more enjoyment and satisfaction from self challenging activities like running, biking and lifting.   For several years I was able to get away with not playing vball much and still be able to put a respectable showing on the court.  Evidently those days have now passed.

After the match during my interview with Jeremy I announced my official volleyball retirement although I did leave a Brett Farve style loophole in the event I somehow find the motivation to step back on the court.

After we were done playing there was talk of playing some pick up games.  I bowed out of the activity partly because my left knee was feeling a bit flaky but more because I just had all motivation to play sucked out of my body after our performance, it felt that bad.

Randall and Jeremy played three King of the Hill format games with a guy and some young girl while I hung out with Suly, who was nice enough to stop by and watch our lackluster performance for a bit.  After the impromptu games finished we packed up and headed out for a lunch at another new place for me, Five Guys.

I had heard a lot of Five Guys praise from my buddy at work that goes there a lot, he loves their burgers.  I ordered a standard burger, fries and soda.  The burger was good, very similar in style and taste to what I get at Steak N Shake only more of it.  I actually prefer the shoestring style fries at SnS a bit more. I had a close call as we were walking out of the place. Luckily I realized that my pockets were missing my wallet.  I fast stepped back inside and found my wallet open on the floor, whew. 

We headed back to Jeremy’s place where we unloaded and said our goodbyes.  I had everything of mine packed up except for the 50 pound weight vest that Jeremy bought as a pair off of CraigsList.  I said goodbye to Randall, thanked Mandy and Jeremy for their hospitality and got a goodbye fist bump and hug from Connor. I hurried back across the alley just in time to enjoy a late pizza and Tivo date with Ali.

Ali was gone a good portion of Sunday, first running with her girlfriends and then going shopping with my mom.  I was left for a list of small chores to do and very little motivation to do them.  I came up with a brilliantly stupid idea to make the chores even more annoying, do them while wearing a 50 pound weight vest.

Initially the 50 pounds doesn’t feel that bad however that changes quickly.  Having 50 pounds pulling down on your shoulders gets annoying first, painful soon after.  I found that I needed to be doing movements that shifted the focus of the weight on my body off the shoulders.  I did laundry, watered plants, pool maintenance, stripped the bed, cleaned the counters and more in the vest.  In total I probably had it on for close to two hours.  By the time I took it off I was sweated through my shirt.  Lugging around an extra 50 pounds made each and every movement significantly tougher.

After lunch I found myself feeling super tired.  I actually laid down for a planned one hour nap.  After the alarm went off I wound up staying in bed another half hour, I just felt spent.  By the time Ali got home all of the chores I planned to do were done.  I was going to replace the MAF sensor in the Tacoma but strong afternoon storms washed those plans away.

For some reason I decided Sunday afternoon would be a good time to try to get my cable bill reduced. Earlier in the day I called and inquired about the costs involved with getting a cable card for the incoming new Tivo.  I was extremely annoyed to hear that having the card would add another $11-$12 to my already ridiculously expensive $119 monthly bill.  On top of that they wanted to charge me $40 to have an installer install the card, something that I could easily do myself but Comcast won’t allow it.

  I initiated an online chat with a representative and told them I needed to reduce my bill. I mentioned I have seen various competitive offers from Century Link that were significantly less expensive.  Surprisingly, the rep on the other side seemed genuinely interested in lowering my bill as much as possible.  She spent a lot of time looking into my options.  In the end the only thing she came up with was a bundle they had where you could get internet, phone and tv service for $99 for a period of time.  Well I don’t need the phone service, and I knew that after the promotional period was up you had to agree to keep the phone service for a period of time.

I pointed out to the rep it made no sense that I could get all three of those services for $99 but to only get two of the three I was paying 20% more.  The rep said that my best avenue would be to call the customer loyalty department and tell them I needed to reduce my bill.  She indicated they have the ability to offer better deals than she did.  Before I ended the session my rep WAS able to get me a break on the second CableCard.  It supposedly will only cost me $1.50 extra a month and she got the install fee reduces to $24.99, a small victory at least.

Once the new Tivo is installed I plan to call that customer loyalty department up and see what I can do about getting the price hacked down.  It is just ridiculous to me to be paying $120 a month plus for cable service and internet with no premium channels.  It also is an absolute rip off that providers are still treating HDTV as a premium service that they bill extra for.  EVERYTHING is going HD, at what point to do they stop treating it like it is HBO?

The rest of my Sunday was low key.  Ali made another quiche which I was happy to chow down on.  I am becoming a big quiche fan.    I also took a few minutes to sign up for a NetFlix free trial.  NetFlix integrates nicely with an HD Tivo but I never checked it out.

Setting up an account was easy and within a couple minutes I was on the site rating movies so it could get an idea of what I liked.  Netflix still offers the dvd by mail service that they got famous for, however I was more interested in their streaming service that allows me to instantly dump content to my Tivo via broadband.

As I was impressed with how slick the Netflix site is. It’s extremely well thought out and really geared to find out exactly what type of movies you like and make recommendations based on that research.  They seemed to have almost anything you can imagine available.  The only negative is the majority of it was not available for streaming.  If I used the service it would be for streaming, I really don’t want to have to shuffle dvd’s anymore.  I assume they are trying to make more content available for streaming.  At this point I doubt I will extend my trial into a real subscription based on the lack of streamable content but I definitely would consider picking it up again as more stuff is available digitally over the wire.

I got the replacement hard drive for mom’s laptop on Monday and I reloaded her system on Tuesday.  At this point I have redone her laptop enough that I am pretty efficient at it.  After work I stopped by at mom’s place and got her set back up.  She also had a visit from Comcast earlier to turn on her “expanded” basic cable. 

Comcast really pisses me off.  They charged something like $30 to INSTALL the additional channels which involved just removing a filter on the line, a 10 second procedure.   Plus, what they charge monthly is incredible, for my mom to have extended basic cable it costs something like $65 a month.  This is with no premium channels at all.  Our bill at home with the same extended basic cable and internet service clocks in at around $119 a month!!  Our bill has gone up approximately %20 in the last year or so.  Imagine my anger when mom told me that she heard Comcast had plans to raise their rates further?!

The worst part is there are not a lot of viable options to their thievery.   I could go satellite/DSL but there are some big disadvantages, the biggest of which is my HD Tivo will not work with the satellite which would be a deal breaker. To get DSL at speed levels close to cable you are spending almost the same money. It’s frustrating.  You just should not have to spend $120 a month for cable/internet.

Anyway mom’s computer is back up and running, this time with a brand new 160 gig hard drive.  She should be good to go for awhile.  I had a pork and sauerkraut dinner with mom before I headed home, something that will never be on the dinner table under our roof.

I am considering doing a 300 today. It feels like a good day to beat the hell out of myself.  I haven’t done one since joining Retro Fitness.