My husband was in michigan this week and that was one of the flights he thought about taking on thursday night. He flies a lot and it just hit close to home. Clarence is not far from where we live. We are a little more out in the country. Big sigh of relief. When the news came on at 10pm they announced at the end of the broadcast that a plane had crashed by the airport, but they didn't know anything yet. By the time the 11pm news came on, it was not until after the weather that their news crews made it to the neighborhood and they announced it was a commercial plane. WIVB broadcast without commercial break until I went to bed at 2am. When my husband called to say he was alright i was so grateful. (wipes tears and sniffles) Fran, Could i have the blanket flower, please? BTW, DS#3 watered my keyboard once, its still a little iffy. We set it in from of the blower on the woodstove for a week. Just FYI those of you sowing in the keys LOL! Thank all of you for the prayers. Families here are esp. close knit and things like this are difficult for anyone. Praying for your FIL, too Nichol. Fleethart

I don't have problem paying for services I USE. I DO have problem paying for services I do NOT use, OR, services "not rendered" - (a whole different story), When we were moving into this house, I called to have phone service turned on. We finally got moved in, but no phone service! I kept calling, (from another phone), telling them I STILL don't have phone service. "THEY" kept telling me I DID! Well, I didn't. "They" said they would send someone out (btwn 8am-5pm). I was up early EVERY MORNING - sitting at dining table - waiting...all day long every day. Nobody ever showed. I kept calling - daily. They kept insisting I HAD phone service. I kept insisting I did NOT! Then I got my phone bill! I blew my lid! I STILL had no phone service, and I'm getting billed for it?!!! Took almost two months. Someone FINALLY showed up. He checked the lines, and guess what? There was no line connected to the house! Just about two minutes (literally) after the PHYSICAL phone tech told us the problem and said he connected a line to the house, the guy (whom I'd been speaking with that past couple weeks) who PROMISED someone would be out - about two days prior (which never happened) - called on MY phone to tell me the phone repair guy was running late! Well, needless to say, I had a LOT of stuff to say to HIM! And (besides all the carp I told him), I told him that the guy is NOT running late, as he's standing right here next to me and just NOW got my phone connected - and he was "just now in process" of calling the company to report the "problem". (The repair guy was literally on his phone right beside me calling into office about it). I passed the phone on so the tech could talk to the dingbat on the other end. I figured from beginning, that they are relying on a computer or something. The phone I wanted connected to begin with was an existing line to the house, and I KNEW it worked, 'cuz during escrow, we came to check some things out, and the previous owner rec'd a 'landline' phone call while we were there. I DID get charges reversed for "non-service". Now, this past week, DH called to have some "x-tra" services REMOVED from HIS phone service with this company (since he no longer has need for those), and they call back and say they can't... AMAZING...they will bend over backwards to "sell" their services (yes, we STILL get junk from them every week), but they can't do a simple thing to "REMOVE" services. DH "thought" he would just cancel ALL service and go with another company...the CABLE TV COMPANY I'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR ALMOST THREE YEARS NOW! Guess what? I blew it AGAIN! Told him he's crazy, and if he does THAT, I will certainly TOTALLY divorce him! LOLOL! I could NOT believe he even pondered that one - as I complain about it almost daily. Whatever...If HE wants to deal with THAT headache, I told him "If you go 'there', DON'T complain to ME, as I'm totally against it!" Funny thing is, all the phone company needs to do is send a truck out to switch 2 wires - and mission accomplished. But they don't want to do that. ================================= I've decided I'm not going to mess with phone cards or get a cell phone. (Altho, I'm still wondering why the "dial-around" didn't show ANYTHING on this last bill...did I get dropped? I donno...) I'm just going to make a point to call ex-hubby, or have son call every month on our landline LD. Which, BTW, I'm guessing it's time to call him this weekend! (Good thing we are still friends even tho divorced! haha)

We switched to satellite (ATT) a year or so ago because they offered fiber-optic internet, and we wanted that. It is not bundled with phone, but the bill for internet and TV is $126.00 a month. I've considered getting rid of the TV part, but that would only save me $35.00 a month - I got the barest minimum channels and made sure that it has NO extra sports channels on it. If I upgrade my TV at all, all the sports channels get added in, plus a $15.00 a month payment to some football sports organization, and I do not want to give them a penny. We also have antennae that look like sheets of paper, and with those, we can get 127 local channels, about one third of which are in English. We get seven or eight local Armenian channels, not to mention Korean, Thai, Taiwanese, Philippine, Russian, Spanish, etc. We do want a lot of TV on the local channels, as they are not included in the cable. My brother pays the cell phone bills, and so I don't know what that is, but he said it only cost $10 a month to add me to his plan. We have pretty much no problems with the satellite, as our weather tends to be clear. We no longer have a landline. We only used it when our parents were alive. I will probably cancel satellite when my two year contract is up. However, I do like the DVR that comes with it, and that's what I use the most.

I spend about an hour in the morning catching up on the news, my Etsy shop, here, a jewelry community of which I'm a member and moderator and checking my email. After that's done, it's breakfast, whatever household chores need to be done and I usually spend several hours a day in my studio. I'm too busy during the day to spend much time on the internet. If I take a break from whatever it is I'm doing, I'll get online for a few minutes. In the evenings, after dinner and clean-up is done, is my relaxing time and I usually watch tv and do things on the internet at the same time. My attitude is much like Marilyn C's in that I have a lot to do and enjoy spending time by myself. For a long time, we didn't have television, so the internet was the only way we had to keep up with the news as well as being a main source of evening entertainment. I don't have a smart phone, so my phone is for making and receiving calls only. When we go on trips, we take our laptops with us and spend time in the mornings and evenings catching up with online things. The rest of the time we are out seeing the sights and sometimes we end up on places where internet connections aren't very reliable which means we're "unplugged" whether we like it or not. I remember being in a hotel in Aruba a few years ago before we had laptops (just desk tops at home) and the only source of internet was a computer in the hotel bar. I used it every few days to check the local news which is how I found out our home was in the path of a forest fire. Having that knowledge prompted me to contact our neighbors for updates so we were in the loop. However, I'm not sure what good it did us because there was nothing we could do it about it from such a difference and knowing about fire being so close just caused worry and stress. I find it disturbing and kind of sad to see families sitting together at a restaurant but none of them talking to each other because they are all glued to their phones. Or, not fully experiencing an event or attraction because they are paying more attention to their phone than what is going on around them. But, that is their loss (or perhaps they don't consider it such), and none of my business, so I try not to concern myself with such things. Technology can and does enrich our lives as long as we are in control of the technology and not the other way around.