Friday, June 25, 2010

mrs. BAUMbach, mrs. BAUMbach

dudes !!! yesterday around 3pm there was a huge storm in philly. i didn't think that much of it, because i'm from florida- it lasted about 20 minutes tops with wind and hail and torrential rain but like... again, that happens several times a day every day all summer in florida ! i didn't think it was a huge deal, but when i went outside there were tree branches and fallen trees everywhere on penn's campus ! when i got home, i saw that there was a giant tree bough in our power lines and everyone was outside, which i correctly guessed meant our power was out.

corner
the corner of my street


i talked to my neighbors and heard that the electric company had no estimated repair window, so i called mouse to ask if i could stay over and packed an overnight bag and headed to milk and honey to use their air conditioning and internet until mouse was home. unfortunately, everyone else also had that idea and i ended up sitting in a random table-less chair eating an ice cream cone while a 5 year old stared at me in pure jealousy and contempt as her mom tried to make her eat food that wasn't an ice cream cone.

after that, mouse and i walked over to clark park to check out the devastation. it was pretty crazy- TONS of trees were down, like 100+ year old trees, with random dudes with chainsaws cutting them up for firewood. here's a mixture of pictures mouse and i took (his are the real pictures, mine are the camera phone ones):

tree
people climbing on two downed trees

mouse
mouse trying to pet a dog

boughs
boughs surrounding the world's only charles dickens statue

kids
kids climbing on trees

tree
another downed tree at the 43rd and baltimore entrance of the park


we went over to mouse's afterward and he made spaghetti (i wasn't hungry cause, um, i ate an ice cream cone) and then we ate a ton of watermelon and watched tv. at this point i was getting really cranky because i hateeeee not sleeping at my house, but mouse was being reallllllly accommodating and cool and nice (not that he isn't usually, but he totally doesn't usually put up with my tantrums). we walked back to my house to check if the power was back on, and it totally wasn't, so we went back to his house and went to bed. this was at like, 10pm, which is roughly four hours earlier than i usually go to bed (mouse and i have very different lifestyles, though if i didn't have cable or video games i'd go to bed at like 5pm).

smug bastard
early to bed !


soooooooo at around 2am, the heat in his building started BLASTING. he said that they were hotter than they'd ever been in the winter ! at around 4, it woke mouse up, so he put wet towels and a blanket on top of the radiator. that helped for awhile, but around 5am it became unbearable so i gathered up my stuff and went home. i felt bad leaving him in the disgusting heat, but i had to get out. the power was back on at my house, but our internet and cable were out, so i got bored and came into work super early. now i'm going to leave early because i've been here foreverrrrrr.

comcast (the worst !) is sending a technician to check out my cables since they say the service interruption in my area was fixed. it's obvious that like... a cable is loose somewhere because the picture on the tv/internet/phone service kept flickering in and out, so hopefully they can find the problem without me being there, causeeeee i'm at work.

i have no real plans this weekend. hopefully my internet will be fixed and i can play some video games? other than that, i want to:

- straighten up my room
- do my reading for my history class (it hasn't started yet, but the instructor suggested we do it in advance)
- work on my craft swap scarf (and possibly go pick up 2 more balls of noro kureyon for it at loop)
- hang out with christina if she finishes her paper (my baby's first class is almost over !)

what else? i just got a few cheap summer dresses with an old navy 30% off coupon.

dress
i'm going to remove that belt and wear a wide black belt with it

green dress
also going to wear a wide belt with this


i don't care about clothes still, but i'm trying to dress like a normal person at work. i think most clothing looks weird on me (because all plus size clothing options suck) but wide stretchy belts have really opened a lot of doors for me cause now i can just wear whatever... belted.

okay i'm gonna go do a mild amount of work and complain about my crappy night to coworkers to get sympathy !

4 comments:

  1. That is a huge tree! I am glad to know power is back on but sad to know cable is still out :( Sorry for the trouble. I work for Comcast and if you need any help, let me know.

    Also, you wrote: "Comcast (the worst)" Will you please let me know about your past experiences? I would like to know so we can prevent any recurrence and of course provide a better experience next time.

    Thanks for providing the opportunity to improve our service.

    Mark Casem
    Comcast Corp.
    National Customer Operations
    We_can_help@cable.comcast.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. glad you asked, mark ! my internet service with comcast has been spotty at best for the past year and a half. every time i've contacted customer service about a problem or had a tech visit my house, they are all absolutely baffled as to how comcast products and services work. they also seem to be unable to view any kind of history on my file, so every time i have an issue, i have to explain everything again for the first time.

    i find that your techs and your customer service representatives are poorly trained, uninformed or misinformed, and confused about your products and services. often your techs and reps will say things to me that are absolute gibberish with the obvious hope that i do not understand how computers or cable service works, and are often even more confused when pressed about the veracity of their claims, such as the tech who recently told me that "HDMI cables don't work" when i asked him about the sound cutting out on my DVR box ! or when i had a tech visit me over memorial day weekend when our internet service cut out who told me that there was 'nothing wrong' with our modem/router, only to call again last week and have another rep tell us that our modem was recalled and should be replaced, onnnnnly to have a tech visit us and say that the modem had NOT been recalled, but that "gateways aren't compatible with xfinity." if this last claim were true, it is unethical and sloppy for your company not to inform their customer base in some way that their equipment is outdated and needs to be replaced in order to use the services that they are paying for.

    i am not a difficult customer by any means, but your services are extraordinarily expensive, and i do not feel that i get what i pay for. since you have a monopoly on the cable/cable internet game in philadelphia, many people who are unhappy with your services have few other options but to purchase inferior products and receive poor service from your company.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i didn't have cable for my last five years in chicago (2001-2006) because comcast was our only option and the customer service we received while trying to set up an account was so poor. when i moved to my last apartment there in 2004, on two separate occasions i stayed home from work for an entire day to wait for a comcast tech to get me set up. no one showed up either time, and when i called comcast to see why no one had showed up, BOTH TIMES the operator told me that a tech had come by and no one was home. yes, i was home all day, yes, my doorbell worked, no, i didn't even take a shower for fear of missing the tech. that is some UPS-league BS.

    ReplyDelete
  4. yeah a tech was actually supposed to come to my house today after the first tech that came today didn't fix anything, and no one came or called. i called them and they said the tech called me and i didn't answer.

    they were coming to fix MY PHONE. and were CALLING ME ON THE BROKEN PHONE.

    ReplyDelete