SoapZone Community Message Board

for the weekend. Tomorrow, bff and I are going to a (semi) local business to learn how to make our own glass beads. It was one of her Christmas gifts to me. Not sure how interested bff is in the topic but she knows I'm into rolling paper beads and making bracelets, which look even better when non-paper beads are added for contrast. She and I did a glass blowing session once, and she seemed to enjoy that, so this could also be of interest to her. It's at a place I've wanted to check out for a while now: Cleveland Rocks and Beads.

On Saturday, my one remaining friend from my pre-college education years is going to be in town, so we're meeting for a light lunch at Versare, the coffee shop I love so much that's right in town. I drag everyone there at least once <g>. I'm looking forward to catching up with her...and getting her opinion on my favorite coffee shop.

In other news...the Spectrum issue is (more or less) straightened out, and Dad and I are 100% good once again. The Spectrum technician ("ST") was out around 6:15 last night and left at 7:30. As I feared, all the jury-rigging Dad's done over the years (successfully, I might add), had the guy flummoxed; more than once, he muttered "I don't even know what I'm looking at here". True to his word, Dad stayed out of it...mostly. I was grateful that he stuck around long enough to explain our set up, and some time while I was out the night before, he'd taken the time to draw up a rough diagram of the layout of the house and where various cables were at. In simplest terms, our signal strength was weak, and ST provided an amplifier to boost it. In more detail...also more than once, ST expressed dismay that the main cable ran through the dirt floor crawl space under the house and told me repeatedly that "Spectrum doesn't allow its employees to go into crawl spaces anymore because too many people got hurt". He also kept alluding to "not knowing what's under there" and more than once brought up snakes. Um...where we live, there's almost never anything bigger or scarier than a garter snake and given how cold it's been, and how cold it must be under the house, I doubt any snakes down there would be moving all that fast. Actually, in all the years in this house (54 come this August), there's never been anything in the crawlspace...except spiders. Now *those* I would worry about...anyways, ST didn't even bother to check under the house. He checked the strength outside the house (good), removed a few antiquated devices Dad had attached that weren't doing any good, looked at where the cable came up from the floor into the house and declared it "in pretty good shape, so it must be OK in the crawlspace" so he wasn't going down there (scaredy cat*), attached the amplifier, double checked that everything worked and left.

* Actually, he may not have been a scaredy cat as much as he was physically unable to get into the crawlspace. Despite me stressing to the customer service rep I talked to that the line went into a literal crawlspace, so don't send out anyone incapable of bending or, well, crawling, they sent out a guy of considerable weight and creaky knees. ST didn't make a move that wasn't accompanied by either a groan or gasp of air.

Before he left, ST told me multiple times that he was surprised we've not called more, or sooner, and "everything will have to be rewired when the weather is better". I'm not sure how long that will take or how much (or if) it will cost but I told him I was between jobs and as long as everything worked, I wasn't in a hurry to do anything that could possibly cost us either time or money. He was cool with that. I was also a little surprised at myself by how uncomfortable I was just having ST in the house. He seemed like a very nice guy--in fact, he lives just one street past our block--and I never felt threatened or anything. I just didn't like having a stranger in "my space". I told him at one point that as soon as everything was done, he could just...go (I said it nicer than that) and I silently groaned when he told me he wasn't "allowed" to leave until the signal strength was where it should be. Which made me that much more grateful for the amplifier doing its job.