Nothing done today

I had planned to go out for a few items but scratched that idea and just took it easy all day, sleeping off and on in my recliner. I needed that sort of day!

Ara had problems with her flight to Chicago at 6:00 am, as did a lot of other passengers. She ended up not getting on the flight, so Jeannie was frantic trying to make things right. Together with a helpful customer service agent, she got her scheduled to fly to San Francisco, picking up a direct flight from there to Germany. That is certainly better than a 10 hour layover in Chicago, and will also get her into her destination earlier in the day tomorrow. The flight to S.F. was not on time - they had to wait for the plane to come in from S.F. before they could reload it for the flight back. Of course that time of the morning means FOG in San Francisco, but she was finally able to board a plane with enough time to make her connection on the international flight. This is one of the reasons I refuse to fly except in a dire emergency. You can always expect things to go wrong which is tolerable in case of bad weather, but drives me crazy when it's for other human-caused reasons.

I was surfing the TV channels last night and realized I was watching the National Geo channel, which I did not pay extra for. The fact that I pay what I do for watching 6-8 channels has always bugged me anyway, but I wondered if being able to view the channel was just a fluke or not. I can still get it today, so I will hope that I can add one more channel to my meager list.

My Direct TV bill is $30/month, and will double the second year to $60. I will probably cancel it at the end of the 1st year and just pay the early cancellation fee.

The Verizon bill ($120) includes 20 for my land line phone, my cell phone @300 min., and the new MiFi. I had to call the Verizon store today because I was having problems with it, and they told me to remove the battery and then put it back into the unit, which solved my problem. The tech suggested I bring the unit back to the store and they will give me a new battery. I like the service even if I'm not always entirely happy with the product.



On the left is my Uniden phone in the base (I have two extensions which I rarely use, but then I rarely use the main phone). On the right in back is the Verizon device that I paid $25 for, which plugs into the wall and the base station plugs into the device. It was so easy to connect, there is no contract and I pay $20/month for it. I recently found out I could have carried it with me as I traveled, but then I would have had to take the phone & base. With my track record of losing electronics I don't think I'll do that. The salesman said that some RVers take it along on trips in their RV's, and the antenna can be unscrewed from the unit and placed on the roof. I have no idea about that, but it would have been nice when I was full timing.

I could drop the cellphone and buy a Trac phone, which I may eventually do, but for now I'll keep paying for 300 minutes a month (of which I use maybe 100). It's been too hot to think about the options available, so I'll put it off for a little while.

I will have to go out tomorrow because I'm running low on ice cream! There is an RV show at Cal Expo and tomorrow is the last day. It is free admission and free parking, so I don't have much excuse to not go especially if I get there when they open at 9 am, which is still cool (around 60F). I sort of don't want to go because I am really not interested in what are the latest features of big RV's. If I can find something, I want it to be small and light on features. Not that I don't like features, but it's just more that I have to worry about repairs for. Since I don't intend to live in an RV or van for more than a few months at most, I can be pretty much of a minimalist.