Kudos to Verizon

This evening within 5 minutes I received two unwanted text messages - one advertising Bud Light, and another written in Italian. I talked to a tech at Verizon who blocked all text, photo, and animated messages, plus put me on the Do-Not-Call list. I asked if I could avoid the charges for the two unwanted messages and he said he would reverse them. Those 2 messages alone amounted to over $19!

Although I don't like the hassles of having and using a cell phone, I will say that Verizon tries to make it a decent experience, and I have never called them about a problem that I wasn't satisfied with their service. I was ready to cancel my phone altogether and pay a huge penalty, and to tell the truth I had decided I would get a jitterbug phone - not many options (which I don't need or use anyway), easy keyboard, and no external keys to get pushed by mistake or camera to get activated my mistake. I guess I'm stuck with the Verizon until approx. Oct of 2012.

Hey, that's just about 2 months short of the end of the Mayan calendar! I promise myself when this contract is up I am will get a land line phone and a basic pay-as-you go phone. In fact, if I rent another apartment or small house I will probably get a land line anyway. But for now, Verizon is as good as it gets.

I have been a recluse the past week or so, and I wish I had TV sometimes. I know if I had it I'd be either bored to death with the programming and commercials, or glued to the screen from morning til night. And no, I can't watch programs on my computer because I'm stuck with the 5GB bandwidth per month. I listen to Pandora Radio via the computer however, and the best part is that I can select the type of music I want to listen to and create a radio station for it. I have about 6 or 7 stations now with all types of music, but I still have to keep watch on the bandwidth being used.

Thanks to a comment from Judilyn, I downloaded Equinox and got it to work fairly well. Unfortunately the night skies have been somewhat cloudy the past few nights and about all I can see is the moon and Jupiter. I look forward to being on the road one of these days and not having so much light pollution.

I'm turning my telescope over to son, Steve, who lives a block or so away from the Pacific ocean now, and the stars seem to be more brilliant over the water. I hope he gets some good use out of it. I was concerned about finding the instructions for assembling it, but then had to laugh to myself - he will look at it and know instinctively how it goes. I was the same way when I was his age, although you'd never know it now.

I also want to thank Sandra for the link to FreeCell for the Mac. It works and I'm enjoying it, although I think Microsoft does the best board games. Also thanks to all who sent links and suggestions for skywatch software as well as games.

Six more wake-ups to go until the next step in my life is determined.