Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
>>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
>>>>
>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
>>>
>>>
>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
>>>

Didn’t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf that it’s
in DC?

>>> Area 51 was designated in 1955.
>>>
>> And the CIA wasn't organized until after the war.
>
> But it was based on the wartime OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and
> carried over many of the same personnel.
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-28 8:47 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>> On Jul 27, 2022 at 3:59:47 PM PDT, "Nyssa" <Nyssa@LogicalInsight.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Rhino wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 12:15 PM, Nyssa wrote:
>>>>>>> BTR1701 wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In article <tbpjn5$26ha4$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> It seems that the Polish Academy of Science has
>>>>>>>>> determined that house cats are an invasive species
>>>>>>>>> under the definition used by the EU:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I recently read a factoid that cats are the only
>>>>>>>> domesticated animal that domesticated themselves.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> They just wandered into the houses of the ancient
>>>>>>>> Egyptians or whoever and said, "Okay, now feed and
>>>>>>>> shelter me."
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/house-cats-invasive-species-polish-
>>>>>>> institute-1
>>>>>>>>> .6532330
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> There is no indication - YET - that this was a step
>>>>>>>>> towards some kind of restrictions on cats and cat
>>>>>>>>> ownership but I can't say I'd be surprised if some
>>>>>>>>> "activist" at least proposes that. The Dutch
>>>>>>>>> government's initiatives towards Net Zero by 2030
>>>>>>>>> already looks like they will reduce the numbers of
>>>>>>>>> livestock animals by 30%; if a country is willing to
>>>>>>>>> mandate the killing of livestock then it's not that big
>>>>>>>>> to stretch to kill domestic pets. They could argue that
>>>>>>>>> cats and dogs fart too so they need to be done away
>>>>>>>>> with to "save the planet".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If they want to really start a civil war, I can think of
>>>>>>>> no better way than than a government pogrom against
>>>>>>>> people's pets.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I still remember 40 years when I lived in Waterloo,
>>>>>>>>> Ontario and a local woman demanded that the City
>>>>>>>>> Council prohibit cats from wandering around loose. She
>>>>>>>>> was upset that a neighbour cat had peed on her rose
>>>>>>>>> bushes and managed to get the City Council to write a
>>>>>>>>> bylaw demanding that cats ALWAYS be on a leash when
>>>>>>>>> outside. I remember being appalled that a single
>>>>>>>>> aggrieved individual could get the law changed without
>>>>>>>>> any input from the people affected by the law. (And no,
>>>>>>>>> I had no cat at the time.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I seem to have become a cat owner in the last month or
>>>>>>>> so, which is very embarrassing, having been on Team Dog
>>>>>>>> all my life.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A little black cat just started showing up in my back
>>>>>>>> yard and snoozing on one of the lounge chairs. I started
>>>>>>>> give her a pet whenever I walked past on the way in or
>>>>>>>> out. Then she started sleeping on the back porch, so I
>>>>>>>> put out a bowl of water in addition to the pets and
>>>>>>>> scratches. Then she wandered into the house when I had
>>>>>>>> the door open to ferry groceries from the car into the
>>>>>>>> fridge. She followed me around the house like dog,
>>>>>>>> jumped into my lap when I sat down, and watched TV with
>>>>>>>> me for a couple of hours, then went over to the door to
>>>>>>>> be let out. This repeated for a week or so, until I
>>>>>>>> cracked a can of tuna for her and put it in a bowl. I
>>>>>>>> might as well have given her heroin. That was it. She
>>>>>>>> was here permanently. So now I'm making vet appointments
>>>>>>>> for shots and to make sure she can't get pregnant and
>>>>>>>> wondering how the hell all this happened.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So yeah, I can see how cats managed to domesticate
>>>>>>>> themselves.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Good for her! Have you decided on a name for your
>>>>>>> new housemate yet?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This calls for catnip!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Nyssa, who had her pot of catnip decimated by a
>>>>>>> neighbor's cat recently who seemed to have sat in the pot
>>>>>>> to get as close to the stuff as possible
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> A few years back, my mother grew catnip right inside on
>>>>>> one of her windowsills so the cats would have fresh
>>>>>> catnip. Apparently, it grew very easily. Mind you, she
>>>>>> didn't much like the smell but endured it for the cats'
>>>>>> sake. That could be an option for you, I suppose....
>>>>>>
>>>>> I've grown it indoors too, back when I lived in Michigan.
>>>>>
>>>>> Unfortunately both kitties I had been growing this pot
>>>>> for have passed over the Rainbow Bridge, but I kept the
>>>>> pot going anyway. I was just surprised that this unknown
>>>>> cat had actually tried to get *into* the pot to try to
>>>>> roll around in it. ;)
>>>>>
>>>>> Oddly enough, before I had read BTR's post about being
>>>>> adopted by a cat, I received an email from a friend
>>>>> telling me that she had adopted two new kittens this
>>>>> week...one all black and the other a black and white mix...
>>>>> from a local shelter.
>>>>>
>>>>> They've already got two adult cats, so it will be interesting
>>>>> how they all interact.
>>>>>
>>>>> BTW the new black kitten is named "Umbra." I think I
>>>>> like Midnight as a name better.
>>>>>
>>>>> PURRRRR!
>>>>
>>>> Here a pic of my new constant companion.
>>>>
>>>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/v88hwdbns38yxvw/Midnight.png?dl=0
>>>>
>>>>
>>> She looks just like our cat, Deena. But then I suppose all black
>>> shorthairs look very similar ;-)
>>>
>>
>> Yeah, I have a friend who’s had a series of black cats like that all named
>> after coffees and one day we were at her mothers house and there was a cat
>> under her car that looked just like hers and she couldn’t tell if it was or
>> not. We thought maybe it had snuck a ride. If she can’t tell her own cat
>> what chance would I have?
>>
> Most cats that are superficially identical have distinguishing
> characteristics if you look at them more closely. For instance, my black
> cat, Bebop, wasn't really entirely black and had three white patches if
> you knew where to look, even though you didn't necessarily see any of
> them as he walked past you. He also had a very bushy tail that would
> have distinguished him from Deena if I'd ever been confused. Your friend
> may only have needed to look more carefully to tell if the cat in the
> car was hers.
>

We tried, but he was shying away from her. We finally gave up and I took
her home where her real cat was waiting.

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-07-27 12:56 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-27 12:25 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>> On Jul 26, 2022 at 8:23:43 PM PDT, "anim8rfsk" <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>> In article <tbpjn5$26ha4$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It seems that the Polish Academy of Science has determined that house
>>>>>>> cats are an invasive species under the definition used by the EU:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I recently read a factoid that cats are the only domesticated animal
>>>>>> that domesticated themselves.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> They just wandered into the houses of the ancient Egyptians or whoever
>>>>>> and said, "Okay, now feed and shelter me."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/house-cats-invasive-species-polish-institute-1
>>>>>>> .6532330
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There is no indication - YET - that this was a step towards some kind of
>>>>>>> restrictions on cats and cat ownership but I can't say I'd be surprised
>>>>>>> if some "activist" at least proposes that. The Dutch government's
>>>>>>> initiatives towards Net Zero by 2030 already looks like they will reduce
>>>>>>> the numbers of livestock animals by 30%; if a country is willing to
>>>>>>> mandate the killing of livestock then it's not that big to stretch to
>>>>>>> kill domestic pets. They could argue that cats and dogs fart too so they
>>>>>>> need to be done away with to "save the planet".
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If they want to really start a civil war, I can think of no better way
>>>>>> than than a government pogrom against people's pets.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I still remember 40 years when I lived in Waterloo, Ontario and a local
>>>>>>> woman demanded that the City Council prohibit cats from wandering around
>>>>>>> loose. She was upset that a neighbour cat had peed on her rose bushes
>>>>>>> and managed to get the City Council to write a bylaw demanding that cats
>>>>>>> ALWAYS be on a leash when outside. I remember being appalled that a
>>>>>>> single aggrieved individual could get the law changed without any input
>>>>>>> from the people affected by the law. (And no, I had no cat at the time.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I seem to have become a cat owner in the last month or so, which is very
>>>>>> embarrassing, having been on Team Dog all my life.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A little black cat just started showing up in my back yard and snoozing
>>>>>> on one of the lounge chairs. I started give her a pet whenever I walked
>>>>>> past on the way in or out. Then she started sleeping on the back porch,
>>>>>> so I put out a bowl of water in addition to the pets and scratches. Then
>>>>>> she wandered into the house when I had the door open to ferry groceries
>>>>>> from the car into the fridge. She followed me around the house like dog,
>>>>>> jumped into my lap when I sat down, and watched TV with me for a couple
>>>>>> of hours, then went over to the door to be let out. This repeated for a
>>>>>> week or so, until I cracked a can of tuna for her and put it in a bowl.
>>>>>> I might as well have given her heroin. That was it. She was here
>>>>>> permanently. So now I'm making vet appointments for shots and to make
>>>>>> sure she can't get pregnant and wondering how the hell all this happened.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So yeah, I can see how cats managed to domesticate themselves.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Try to keep her inside. She should almost immediately run away. Just to be
>>>>> contrary.
>>>>
>>>> Yes, there's only one place in my entire house I don't want her to go: behind
>>>> a huge set of shelves that are integrated with my desk and where all the wires
>>>> and plugs keeping my internet and cable connections operational run. A cat
>>>> pulling one of those loose would be catastrophic and would be nearly
>>>> impossible to fix without a massive effort, moving tons of books and huge
>>>> pieces of furniture.
>>>>
>>>> Consequently, 'behind the shelves' is where she immediately beelines for the
>>>> moment she comes inside. (And then emerges covered in the decade-worth of dust
>>>> that has accumulated back there since I moved in.)
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Back in 2000, I had an unexpected cable outage on my TV. Those were
>>> pretty rare but not unheard of so I didn't make much of a fuss about it
>>> when I couldn't watch my show; I just shrugged and did something else,
>>> assuming the outage would soon be fixed. But a day or two later, it
>>> *STILL* hadn't been fixed so I got on the phone to the cable company to
>>> ask about the outage. Much to my surprise, they said there were no
>>> outages in my area and there hadn't been in some time. They started to
>>> take me through the standard troubleshooting steps at my end of the
>>> connection. I was quite skeptical about the need to do this since I had
>>> connected everything myself and had connected cable before several times
>>> and knew what I was doing. When it came to verifying that the cable
>>> actually went from my cable box to my TV, I was astonished to find that
>>> the cable was NOT going into the TV and couldn't imagine how that had
>>> happened. Then the penny dropped: not long before, I had acquired two
>>> kittens who had thoroughly explored the house and who loved wires and
>>> strings. I thanked the cable company for their help in restoring my
>>> service and went on with my life.
>>>
>>
>> Century Link works just well enough to confirm that I am not getting a
>> signal. The first couple of weeks I reported that the service was out
>> several times. I never heard from anybody but I got emails asking me how my
>> service calls were.
>> “Non existent”
>>
>> Then their whole system went Bluey. Now if I try and report an outage I get
>> huge orange letters and overlapping type saying there’s an overflow
>> exception. If I try to initiate a chat I have to enter my information and
>> re-sign into my account several times in a row at which point it asks me
>> specific questions but there are no text Entry boxes in which to reply. I
>> have yet to find a phone number to talk to a live person. I seriously
>> wonder if they’re still in business anymore.
>>
> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
> work for, isn't quite that bad.

Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.

>
> Mind you, I still remember calls from people who were asking when the
> service call was going to happen; they had waited at home all day for
> the third time without anyone showing up and they (the callers) were in
> dire risk of losing their jobs just because they wanted their cable
> restored.
>
> Just out of curiousity, I did a search for CenturyLink customer service
> and found this page, which seems likely to help you, at least at first
> glance. Mind you, I haven't tried the phone numbers or chat link to see
> what happens....
>
> https://www.getcenturylink.com/customer-service
>
>
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

In article
<584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> > On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
> >> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
> >>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
> >>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
> >>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
> >>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
> >>>>
> >>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
> >>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
> >>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
> >>>
>
> Didn’t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf
> that it's in DC?

No, we found out in that movie that it's in Area 51 in Nevada. During
the big chase scene around the warehouse, a crate gets knocked over and
we see the Ark inside it, so it's definitely at Area 51.

> >>> Area 51 was designated in 1955.
> >>>
> >> And the CIA wasn't organized until after the war.
> >
> > But it was based on the wartime OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and
> > carried over many of the same personnel.

On 8/24/2022 8:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>
>>> We also have what we call “snowbirds“ > People that live half the year
>>> in a warmer area when it’s cold and the
>>> other half of the year in a colder area when it’s warm.
>>
>> We Canadians have used this term for decades to refer to Canadians who
>> were going south to Florida, Arizona, and other warm places to ride out
>> at least part of the winter. Do you use it to refer to Americans from
>> colder parts of the country, like the Dakotas, as well?
>
> Yeah, it’s anybody who changes climates half the year. Chicago to Florida
> certainly. Anywhere on the East Coast to Arizona. It’s usually a pejorative
> as in “fucking snowbirds“ although I’m really not certain why.
>
They act like tourists but think they live there?

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 8/24/2022 11:21 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
> In article
> <584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
>>>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
>>>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
>>>>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
>>>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
>>>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
>>>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
>>>>>
>>
>> Didn’t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf
>> that it's in DC?
>
> No, we found out in that movie that it's in Area 51 in Nevada.

It would be very confusing if it were in Area 51 in another state.

In article
<584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> > On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
> >> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
> >>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
> >>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
> >>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
> >>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
> >>>>
> >>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
> >>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
> >>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
> >>>
>
> Didn¹t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf that it¹s
> in DC?

I wouldn't know. Maybe someone else?

anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>
>Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
>inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.

The USPS?

--
Let's go Brandon!

On 8/25/2022 4:24 AM, A Friend wrote:
> In article
> <584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
>>>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
>>>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
>>>>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
>>>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
>>>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
>>>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
>>>>>
>>
>> Didn¹t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf that it¹s
>> in DC?
>
>
> I wouldn't know. Maybe someone else?

Where exactly would one hide a giant warehouse in DC? And don't say
"underground". One does not dig deep in a swamp.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 2022-08-24 11:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2022-07-28 8:39 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 6:49 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 2:51 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 12:56 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 12:25 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Jul 26, 2022 at 8:23:43 PM PDT, "anim8rfsk" <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> In article <tbpjn5$26ha4$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It seems that the Polish Academy of Science has determined that house
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> cats are an invasive species under the definition used by the EU:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I recently read a factoid that cats are the only domesticated animal
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> that domesticated themselves.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> They just wandered into the houses of the ancient Egyptians or whoever
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and said, "Okay, now feed and shelter me."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/house-cats-invasive-species-polish-institute-1
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> .6532330
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> There is no indication - YET - that this was a step towards some kind of
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> restrictions on cats and cat ownership but I can't say I'd be surprised
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> if some "activist" at least proposes that. The Dutch government's
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> initiatives towards Net Zero by 2030 already looks like they will reduce
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the numbers of livestock animals by 30%; if a country is willing to
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> mandate the killing of livestock then it's not that big to stretch to
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> kill domestic pets. They could argue that cats and dogs fart too so they
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> need to be done away with to "save the planet".
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If they want to really start a civil war, I can think of no better way
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> than than a government pogrom against people's pets.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I still remember 40 years when I lived in Waterloo, Ontario and a local
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> woman demanded that the City Council prohibit cats from wandering around
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> loose. She was upset that a neighbour cat had peed on her rose bushes
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and managed to get the City Council to write a bylaw demanding that cats
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ALWAYS be on a leash when outside. I remember being appalled that a
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> single aggrieved individual could get the law changed without any input
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> from the people affected by the law. (And no, I had no cat at the time.)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I seem to have become a cat owner in the last month or so, which is very
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> embarrassing, having been on Team Dog all my life.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A little black cat just started showing up in my back yard and snoozing
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> on one of the lounge chairs. I started give her a pet whenever I walked
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> past on the way in or out. Then she started sleeping on the back porch,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> so I put out a bowl of water in addition to the pets and scratches. Then
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> she wandered into the house when I had the door open to ferry groceries
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> from the car into the fridge. She followed me around the house like dog,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> jumped into my lap when I sat down, and watched TV with me for a couple
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> of hours, then went over to the door to be let out. This repeated for a
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> week or so, until I cracked a can of tuna for her and put it in a bowl.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I might as well have given her heroin. That was it. She was here
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> permanently. So now I'm making vet appointments for shots and to make
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sure she can't get pregnant and wondering how the hell all this happened.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> So yeah, I can see how cats managed to domesticate themselves.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Try to keep her inside. She should almost immediately run away. Just to be
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> contrary.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Yes, there's only one place in my entire house I don't want her to go: behind
>>>>>>>>>>>>> a huge set of shelves that are integrated with my desk and where all the wires
>>>>>>>>>>>>> and plugs keeping my internet and cable connections operational run. A cat
>>>>>>>>>>>>> pulling one of those loose would be catastrophic and would be nearly
>>>>>>>>>>>>> impossible to fix without a massive effort, moving tons of books and huge
>>>>>>>>>>>>> pieces of furniture.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Consequently, 'behind the shelves' is where she immediately beelines for the
>>>>>>>>>>>>> moment she comes inside. (And then emerges covered in the decade-worth of dust
>>>>>>>>>>>>> that has accumulated back there since I moved in.)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Back in 2000, I had an unexpected cable outage on my TV. Those were
>>>>>>>>>>>> pretty rare but not unheard of so I didn't make much of a fuss about it
>>>>>>>>>>>> when I couldn't watch my show; I just shrugged and did something else,
>>>>>>>>>>>> assuming the outage would soon be fixed. But a day or two later, it
>>>>>>>>>>>> *STILL* hadn't been fixed so I got on the phone to the cable company to
>>>>>>>>>>>> ask about the outage. Much to my surprise, they said there were no
>>>>>>>>>>>> outages in my area and there hadn't been in some time. They started to
>>>>>>>>>>>> take me through the standard troubleshooting steps at my end of the
>>>>>>>>>>>> connection. I was quite skeptical about the need to do this since I had
>>>>>>>>>>>> connected everything myself and had connected cable before several times
>>>>>>>>>>>> and knew what I was doing. When it came to verifying that the cable
>>>>>>>>>>>> actually went from my cable box to my TV, I was astonished to find that
>>>>>>>>>>>> the cable was NOT going into the TV and couldn't imagine how that had
>>>>>>>>>>>> happened. Then the penny dropped: not long before, I had acquired two
>>>>>>>>>>>> kittens who had thoroughly explored the house and who loved wires and
>>>>>>>>>>>> strings. I thanked the cable company for their help in restoring my
>>>>>>>>>>>> service and went on with my life.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Century Link works just well enough to confirm that I am not getting a
>>>>>>>>>>> signal. The first couple of weeks I reported that the service was out
>>>>>>>>>>> several times. I never heard from anybody but I got emails asking me how my
>>>>>>>>>>> service calls were.
>>>>>>>>>>> “Non existent”
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Then their whole system went Bluey. Now if I try and report an outage I get
>>>>>>>>>>> huge orange letters and overlapping type saying there’s an overflow
>>>>>>>>>>> exception. If I try to initiate a chat I have to enter my information and
>>>>>>>>>>> re-sign into my account several times in a row at which point it asks me
>>>>>>>>>>> specific questions but there are no text Entry boxes in which to reply. I
>>>>>>>>>>> have yet to find a phone number to talk to a live person. I seriously
>>>>>>>>>>> wonder if they’re still in business anymore.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>>>>>>>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>>>>>>>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Mind you, I still remember calls from people who were asking when the
>>>>>>>>>> service call was going to happen; they had waited at home all day for
>>>>>>>>>> the third time without anyone showing up and they (the callers) were in
>>>>>>>>>> dire risk of losing their jobs just because they wanted their cable
>>>>>>>>>> restored.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Just out of curiousity, I did a search for CenturyLink customer service
>>>>>>>>>> and found this page, which seems likely to help you, at least at first
>>>>>>>>>> glance. Mind you, I haven't tried the phone numbers or chat link to see
>>>>>>>>>> what happens....
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> https://www.getcenturylink.com/customer-service
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks. If you wonder why I’m so complacent about this, it’s been going on
>>>>>>>>> for about 20 years. The underground wires out on the street are rotten and
>>>>>>>>> I am the end of the run so anytime anything happens anywhere along the way
>>>>>>>>> it will take out my place. We lose phone service if it’s too hot, or too
>>>>>>>>> cold, or it rains. Every time the repair guys will put in an order to
>>>>>>>>> trench and replace the lines and every time management will veto it so they
>>>>>>>>> patch it. They say that the wires in the box in my yard just crumbled of
>>>>>>>>> dust when they touch them.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Oh! Not only did they send me emails asking how the service was, they are
>>>>>>>>> now sending me emails asking if I want to switch to fiber! That’s another
>>>>>>>>> reason I suspect they’re not ever going to fix this!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Yeah, you're probably right: they're letting the cable rot to force you
>>>>>>>> to get fiber.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'm guessing you were already well aware of the customer service link
>>>>>>>> that I posted and just aren't bothering because each method they give
>>>>>>>> you is a dead end?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I hadn’t found a phone number or any way to talk to a real person yet. I go
>>>>>>> in through the iPhone app and it’s straightforward and tells you you aren’t
>>>>>>> going to get a real person you’re going to get an AI. Then when you try it
>>>>>>> pops you over to the web browser halfway through and there’s no way to get
>>>>>>> a live person there either but it’s less straightforward and doesn’t tell
>>>>>>> you that. It’s a real mess. I keep thinking to myself, self, I keep
>>>>>>> thinking, they have to freaking fix this.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Do you have other options besides this CenturyLink
>>>>>>>> outfit? Another cable company? A satellite provider? Elon Musk's Skylink
>>>>>>>> service?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I could get Cox cable telephone but I’d probably rather not have telephone
>>>>>>> at all.
>>>>>>> I’ve watched several videos showing what they do with their digital
>>>>>>> telephone installs. They don’t hook it up to your house wiring at all. They
>>>>>>> punch a hole through the wall where it attaches to the outside and just set
>>>>>>> the equipment on the ground. Then you have to buy a wireless phone system
>>>>>>> that hooks to the modem and that’s your telephone. All your phone jacks are
>>>>>>> dead. Forget it if you have a burglar alarm at uses the phone line. Your
>>>>>>> whole phone system is just gone. And you have crap just sitting on the
>>>>>>> floor.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Before this, Cox would run a cable right when your telephone cable came in
>>>>>>> and just hook it to the outside of the house where your old telephone
>>>>>>> service came in and all worked normally. But not with digital.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I just tried the CenturyLink app again. It gives me an error page that says
>>>>>>> there’s a problem and their authentication system is down, please try again
>>>>>>> later. It’s like working a freaking magic eight ball.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> That truly is crappy service! I imagine that moving somewhere with
>>>>>> better service is not a realistic option?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Well I have to move to another state…
>>>>>
>>>> That seems a bit drastic just to get better cable service!
>>>
>>> Well, you see, the business model is, the first thing the cable service
>>> does when it moves into an area is by off the city council so there won’t
>>> be any competition.
>>>
>>> There is some slightly lame ass stuff. I could get one of those little
>>> antennas on the roof and get cable movies on a good day and incredibly slow
>>> Internet and you may or may not get any local channels depending on the
>>> deal that’s been made. Or I could get really slow really crappy service
>>> from the phone company. But unless you really didn’t care about the quality
>>> of the movies and TV you watch and you were willing to just send emails
>>> without attachments via AOL, Cox cable is the only game in town. And there
>>> isn’t another major metropolitan city in Arizona so my next step is another
>>> state.
>>>
>> Sorry, I didn't see this post until just now!
>>
>> Is StarLink an option for you? I'm not sure just where it is available
>> at the moment since Musk keeps sending up new satellites and expanding
>> coverage.
>
> As of yesterday my phone is officially working and my burglar alarm service
> reconnected. Only took six weeks.
> I should really try and get some money back from Century Link but I know
> how that’s going to go.
>
Communications (cell service and internet) in this country is
essentially shared between three large networks, one of which is Rogers.
Rogers had a significant outage last year that didn't even last that
long - just a few hours as I recall - and they compensated every one of
their customers for the downtime. I don't think it was very much money -
a couple of bucks each - and, if I remember correctly, they did it to
pre-empt the regulator from coming down harder on them. But it was the
first time I've ever heard of anyone being compensated for a loss of
service in this country.

On 2022-08-25 9:10 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>
>> Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
>> inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.

In all due fairness, I did tech support for Verizon close to 20 years
ago and they MAY have changed their attitude since I did that.

I remember having Bell as an ISP when I had DSL and their tech support
then was crap. You'd have long waits to talk to a tech that knew less
than you and they were almost always prohibited from escalating to a
tech that actually had some skills so if they didn't solve your problem,
you were on your own. That was 25 years ago. I eventually moved to
another ISP and got much better service with almost no need for tech
support at a lower price.

Fast forward to a few years back when one of my friends had changed his
service at Bell so that he used a cheaper phone/internet package but it
wasn't working yet. I no longer lived in his town but was there for
another reason so I dropped in on him and found out about his issue. I
tried to fix it myself but didn't understand what was going on and knew
I had to call Bell tech support. I had limited time because I had to be
somewhere in an hour or so and didn't like my chances for getting out of
the wait queue in time. Much to my surprise and delight, after the first
few minutes, I got an automatic message offering a callback if I was
tired of waiting, something which was not even possible in earlier
years. But I assumed that they would call back as soon as the designated
tech got off the calls that were ahead of mine in the queue and that was
not convenient for me, since I knew I'd be away for several hours. But
after half an hour or so of further waiting on hold, I realized I wasn't
going to connect with a live tech in time so took the callback option. I
was further delighted to discover that I had a real say in when the
callback would be. I knew I could be back at my friend's place by 7pm
that evening so I set the callback for then and, sure enough, they
called me back then. I finally had a live human being to talk to (a
native English-speaker at that!) and we figured out what was wrong and
got my friend online. I was genuinely impressed by how much better the
tech support was than it had been back in the day.

Of course Bell was well known for having crap tech support - as was
Rogers for that matter - so a lot of people got fed up with Bell, left
for Rogers, and then eventually got fed up with Rogers and went back to
Bell until the got fed up with Bell again and moved back to Rogers.
Eventually, I assume the great minds at Bell (and maybe Rogers for all I
know) realized that they could stop this cycle and got serious about
giving GOOD tech support to retain customers.

I can't help but wonder if Verizon - and many of their competitors - had
a similar epiphany in the last few years and cleaned up their acts.
You'd know better than me of course.

One other thing. There's a website I've used a number of times for ISP
issues that serves at least Canada and the US (and possibly other
countries for all I know). They have forums where you can discuss issues
with other users of that service. I just looked and they have a section
for CenturyLink. It might be useful to talk to other customers and get
some insight into what's going on with them and what's coming down the
pipe. They might even have some successful strategies for dealing with
CenturyLink.

http://www.dslreports.com/reviews/1519

It sounds like your service is working fine now (finally!) but this may
give you a place where you can talk with other CenturyLink customers to
see about the prospects of compensation for service outages.

DSL Reports can also be a valuable tool for researching an alternative
ISP. You can look at their forums and see if people are generally happy
with the service, pricing, and support. Naturally, there will be
complaints about EVERY ISP because some people's expectations are so
high that they can't possibly be happy with ANYTHING so it's best to
keep that in mind and not just run screaming in the opposite direction
over a few complaints. But you probably know that anyway.

--
Rhino

On 2022-08-24 11:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2022-07-28 8:47 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>>> On Jul 27, 2022 at 3:59:47 PM PDT, "Nyssa" <Nyssa@LogicalInsight.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Rhino wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 12:15 PM, Nyssa wrote:
>>>>>>>> BTR1701 wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> In article <tbpjn5$26ha4$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> It seems that the Polish Academy of Science has
>>>>>>>>>> determined that house cats are an invasive species
>>>>>>>>>> under the definition used by the EU:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I recently read a factoid that cats are the only
>>>>>>>>> domesticated animal that domesticated themselves.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> They just wandered into the houses of the ancient
>>>>>>>>> Egyptians or whoever and said, "Okay, now feed and
>>>>>>>>> shelter me."
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/house-cats-invasive-species-polish-
>>>>>>>> institute-1
>>>>>>>>>> .6532330
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> There is no indication - YET - that this was a step
>>>>>>>>>> towards some kind of restrictions on cats and cat
>>>>>>>>>> ownership but I can't say I'd be surprised if some
>>>>>>>>>> "activist" at least proposes that. The Dutch
>>>>>>>>>> government's initiatives towards Net Zero by 2030
>>>>>>>>>> already looks like they will reduce the numbers of
>>>>>>>>>> livestock animals by 30%; if a country is willing to
>>>>>>>>>> mandate the killing of livestock then it's not that big
>>>>>>>>>> to stretch to kill domestic pets. They could argue that
>>>>>>>>>> cats and dogs fart too so they need to be done away
>>>>>>>>>> with to "save the planet".
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If they want to really start a civil war, I can think of
>>>>>>>>> no better way than than a government pogrom against
>>>>>>>>> people's pets.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I still remember 40 years when I lived in Waterloo,
>>>>>>>>>> Ontario and a local woman demanded that the City
>>>>>>>>>> Council prohibit cats from wandering around loose. She
>>>>>>>>>> was upset that a neighbour cat had peed on her rose
>>>>>>>>>> bushes and managed to get the City Council to write a
>>>>>>>>>> bylaw demanding that cats ALWAYS be on a leash when
>>>>>>>>>> outside. I remember being appalled that a single
>>>>>>>>>> aggrieved individual could get the law changed without
>>>>>>>>>> any input from the people affected by the law. (And no,
>>>>>>>>>> I had no cat at the time.)
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I seem to have become a cat owner in the last month or
>>>>>>>>> so, which is very embarrassing, having been on Team Dog
>>>>>>>>> all my life.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> A little black cat just started showing up in my back
>>>>>>>>> yard and snoozing on one of the lounge chairs. I started
>>>>>>>>> give her a pet whenever I walked past on the way in or
>>>>>>>>> out. Then she started sleeping on the back porch, so I
>>>>>>>>> put out a bowl of water in addition to the pets and
>>>>>>>>> scratches. Then she wandered into the house when I had
>>>>>>>>> the door open to ferry groceries from the car into the
>>>>>>>>> fridge. She followed me around the house like dog,
>>>>>>>>> jumped into my lap when I sat down, and watched TV with
>>>>>>>>> me for a couple of hours, then went over to the door to
>>>>>>>>> be let out. This repeated for a week or so, until I
>>>>>>>>> cracked a can of tuna for her and put it in a bowl. I
>>>>>>>>> might as well have given her heroin. That was it. She
>>>>>>>>> was here permanently. So now I'm making vet appointments
>>>>>>>>> for shots and to make sure she can't get pregnant and
>>>>>>>>> wondering how the hell all this happened.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> So yeah, I can see how cats managed to domesticate
>>>>>>>>> themselves.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Good for her! Have you decided on a name for your
>>>>>>>> new housemate yet?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This calls for catnip!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Nyssa, who had her pot of catnip decimated by a
>>>>>>>> neighbor's cat recently who seemed to have sat in the pot
>>>>>>>> to get as close to the stuff as possible
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> A few years back, my mother grew catnip right inside on
>>>>>>> one of her windowsills so the cats would have fresh
>>>>>>> catnip. Apparently, it grew very easily. Mind you, she
>>>>>>> didn't much like the smell but endured it for the cats'
>>>>>>> sake. That could be an option for you, I suppose....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've grown it indoors too, back when I lived in Michigan.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Unfortunately both kitties I had been growing this pot
>>>>>> for have passed over the Rainbow Bridge, but I kept the
>>>>>> pot going anyway. I was just surprised that this unknown
>>>>>> cat had actually tried to get *into* the pot to try to
>>>>>> roll around in it. ;)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Oddly enough, before I had read BTR's post about being
>>>>>> adopted by a cat, I received an email from a friend
>>>>>> telling me that she had adopted two new kittens this
>>>>>> week...one all black and the other a black and white mix...
>>>>>> from a local shelter.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> They've already got two adult cats, so it will be interesting
>>>>>> how they all interact.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> BTW the new black kitten is named "Umbra." I think I
>>>>>> like Midnight as a name better.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> PURRRRR!
>>>>>
>>>>> Here a pic of my new constant companion.
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/v88hwdbns38yxvw/Midnight.png?dl=0
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> She looks just like our cat, Deena. But then I suppose all black
>>>> shorthairs look very similar ;-)
>>>>
>>>
>>> Yeah, I have a friend who’s had a series of black cats like that all named
>>> after coffees and one day we were at her mothers house and there was a cat
>>> under her car that looked just like hers and she couldn’t tell if it was or
>>> not. We thought maybe it had snuck a ride. If she can’t tell her own cat
>>> what chance would I have?
>>>
>> Most cats that are superficially identical have distinguishing
>> characteristics if you look at them more closely. For instance, my black
>> cat, Bebop, wasn't really entirely black and had three white patches if
>> you knew where to look, even though you didn't necessarily see any of
>> them as he walked past you. He also had a very bushy tail that would
>> have distinguished him from Deena if I'd ever been confused. Your friend
>> may only have needed to look more carefully to tell if the cat in the
>> car was hers.
>>
>
> We tried, but he was shying away from her. We finally gave up and I took
> her home where her real cat was waiting.
>
I hear you. Cats can easily get suspicious if you're acting odd and then
get very guarded in their movements. You'll have trouble getting very
close to them while they're in "suspicious mode".

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 8/24/2022 8:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>
>>>> We also have what we call “snowbirds“ > People that live half the year
>>>> in a warmer area when it’s cold and the
>>>> other half of the year in a colder area when it’s warm.
>>>
>>> We Canadians have used this term for decades to refer to Canadians who
>>> were going south to Florida, Arizona, and other warm places to ride out
>>> at least part of the winter. Do you use it to refer to Americans from
>>> colder parts of the country, like the Dakotas, as well?
>>
>> Yeah, it’s anybody who changes climates half the year. Chicago to Florida
>> certainly. Anywhere on the East Coast to Arizona. It’s usually a pejorative
>> as in “fucking snowbirds“ although I’m really not certain why.
>>
> They act like tourists but think they live there?
>
>

I think of a more as they pay taxes for a full year but are only here for
half of it.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
> In article
> <584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
>>>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
>>>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
>>>>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
>>>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
>>>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
>>>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
>>>>>
>>
>> Didn’t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf
>> that it's in DC?
>
> No, we found out in that movie that it's in Area 51 in Nevada. During
> the big chase scene around the warehouse, a crate gets knocked over and
> we see the Ark inside it, so it's definitely at Area 51.

Thanks. I’m still concentrating on forgetting that movie ever happened. How
could Spielberg get that so wrong?

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

In article
<231114168.683110687.236007.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
> > In article
> > <584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
> > anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> >>> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
> >>>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
> >>>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
> >>>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
> >>>>>>>> back.樀 You know what could happen.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
> >>>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.樀 No DOD, no CIA.樀 The
> >>>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.樀 It
> >>>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
> >>>>>
> >>
> >> Didn't we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf
> >> that it's in DC?
> >
> > No, we found out in that movie that it's in Area 51 in Nevada. During
> > the big chase scene around the warehouse, a crate gets knocked over and
> > we see the Ark inside it, so it's definitely at Area 51.
>
> Thanks. I'm still concentrating on forgetting that movie ever happened. How
> could Spielberg get that so wrong?

The only thing I hated about it was LaBoof. And the refrigerator.

Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
> anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>
>> Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
>> inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.
>
> The USPS?

Yeah. It was probably the emergency backup mailman. Maybe once a week now
he brings me mail.

>
> --
> Let's go Brandon!
>
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 8/25/2022 4:24 AM, A Friend wrote:
>> In article
>> <584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
>>>>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>>>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
>>>>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
>>>>>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
>>>>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
>>>>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
>>>>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
>>>>>>
>>>
>>> Didn¹t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf that it¹s
>>> in DC?
>>
>>
>> I wouldn't know. Maybe someone else?
>
> Where exactly would one hide a giant warehouse in DC? And don't say
> "underground". One does not dig deep in a swamp.
>

Don’t you remember the adventures of super vice president X? DC‘s got a
bigger and better underground system than Disney World.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-08-24 11:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 2022-07-28 8:39 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 6:49 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 2:51 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 12:56 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 2022-07-27 12:25 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Jul 26, 2022 at 8:23:43 PM PDT, "anim8rfsk" <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> In article <tbpjn5$26ha4$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It seems that the Polish Academy of Science has determined that house
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> cats are an invasive species under the definition used by the EU:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I recently read a factoid that cats are the only domesticated animal
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> that domesticated themselves.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> They just wandered into the houses of the ancient Egyptians or whoever
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and said, "Okay, now feed and shelter me."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/house-cats-invasive-species-polish-institute-1
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> .6532330
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> There is no indication - YET - that this was a step towards some kind of
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> restrictions on cats and cat ownership but I can't say I'd be surprised
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> if some "activist" at least proposes that. The Dutch government's
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> initiatives towards Net Zero by 2030 already looks like they will reduce
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the numbers of livestock animals by 30%; if a country is willing to
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> mandate the killing of livestock then it's not that big to stretch to
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> kill domestic pets. They could argue that cats and dogs fart too so they
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> need to be done away with to "save the planet".
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If they want to really start a civil war, I can think of no better way
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> than than a government pogrom against people's pets.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I still remember 40 years when I lived in Waterloo, Ontario and a local
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> woman demanded that the City Council prohibit cats from wandering around
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> loose. She was upset that a neighbour cat had peed on her rose bushes
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and managed to get the City Council to write a bylaw demanding that cats
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ALWAYS be on a leash when outside. I remember being appalled that a
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> single aggrieved individual could get the law changed without any input
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> from the people affected by the law. (And no, I had no cat at the time.)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I seem to have become a cat owner in the last month or so, which is very
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> embarrassing, having been on Team Dog all my life.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A little black cat just started showing up in my back yard and snoozing
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> on one of the lounge chairs. I started give her a pet whenever I walked
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> past on the way in or out. Then she started sleeping on the back porch,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> so I put out a bowl of water in addition to the pets and scratches. Then
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> she wandered into the house when I had the door open to ferry groceries
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> from the car into the fridge. She followed me around the house like dog,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> jumped into my lap when I sat down, and watched TV with me for a couple
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> of hours, then went over to the door to be let out. This repeated for a
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> week or so, until I cracked a can of tuna for her and put it in a bowl.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I might as well have given her heroin. That was it. She was here
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> permanently. So now I'm making vet appointments for shots and to make
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sure she can't get pregnant and wondering how the hell all this happened.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> So yeah, I can see how cats managed to domesticate themselves.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Try to keep her inside. She should almost immediately run away. Just to be
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> contrary.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Yes, there's only one place in my entire house I don't want her to go: behind
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> a huge set of shelves that are integrated with my desk and where all the wires
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and plugs keeping my internet and cable connections operational run. A cat
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> pulling one of those loose would be catastrophic and would be nearly
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> impossible to fix without a massive effort, moving tons of books and huge
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> pieces of furniture.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Consequently, 'behind the shelves' is where she immediately beelines for the
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> moment she comes inside. (And then emerges covered in the decade-worth of dust
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> that has accumulated back there since I moved in.)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Back in 2000, I had an unexpected cable outage on my TV. Those were
>>>>>>>>>>>>> pretty rare but not unheard of so I didn't make much of a fuss about it
>>>>>>>>>>>>> when I couldn't watch my show; I just shrugged and did something else,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> assuming the outage would soon be fixed. But a day or two later, it
>>>>>>>>>>>>> *STILL* hadn't been fixed so I got on the phone to the cable company to
>>>>>>>>>>>>> ask about the outage. Much to my surprise, they said there were no
>>>>>>>>>>>>> outages in my area and there hadn't been in some time. They started to
>>>>>>>>>>>>> take me through the standard troubleshooting steps at my end of the
>>>>>>>>>>>>> connection. I was quite skeptical about the need to do this since I had
>>>>>>>>>>>>> connected everything myself and had connected cable before several times
>>>>>>>>>>>>> and knew what I was doing. When it came to verifying that the cable
>>>>>>>>>>>>> actually went from my cable box to my TV, I was astonished to find that
>>>>>>>>>>>>> the cable was NOT going into the TV and couldn't imagine how that had
>>>>>>>>>>>>> happened. Then the penny dropped: not long before, I had acquired two
>>>>>>>>>>>>> kittens who had thoroughly explored the house and who loved wires and
>>>>>>>>>>>>> strings. I thanked the cable company for their help in restoring my
>>>>>>>>>>>>> service and went on with my life.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Century Link works just well enough to confirm that I am not getting a
>>>>>>>>>>>> signal. The first couple of weeks I reported that the service was out
>>>>>>>>>>>> several times. I never heard from anybody but I got emails asking me how my
>>>>>>>>>>>> service calls were.
>>>>>>>>>>>> “Non existent”
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Then their whole system went Bluey. Now if I try and report an outage I get
>>>>>>>>>>>> huge orange letters and overlapping type saying there’s an overflow
>>>>>>>>>>>> exception. If I try to initiate a chat I have to enter my information and
>>>>>>>>>>>> re-sign into my account several times in a row at which point it asks me
>>>>>>>>>>>> specific questions but there are no text Entry boxes in which to reply. I
>>>>>>>>>>>> have yet to find a phone number to talk to a live person. I seriously
>>>>>>>>>>>> wonder if they’re still in business anymore.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>>>>>>>>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>>>>>>>>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Mind you, I still remember calls from people who were asking when the
>>>>>>>>>>> service call was going to happen; they had waited at home all day for
>>>>>>>>>>> the third time without anyone showing up and they (the callers) were in
>>>>>>>>>>> dire risk of losing their jobs just because they wanted their cable
>>>>>>>>>>> restored.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Just out of curiousity, I did a search for CenturyLink customer service
>>>>>>>>>>> and found this page, which seems likely to help you, at least at first
>>>>>>>>>>> glance. Mind you, I haven't tried the phone numbers or chat link to see
>>>>>>>>>>> what happens....
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.getcenturylink.com/customer-service
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks. If you wonder why I’m so complacent about this, it’s been going on
>>>>>>>>>> for about 20 years. The underground wires out on the street are rotten and
>>>>>>>>>> I am the end of the run so anytime anything happens anywhere along the way
>>>>>>>>>> it will take out my place. We lose phone service if it’s too hot, or too
>>>>>>>>>> cold, or it rains. Every time the repair guys will put in an order to
>>>>>>>>>> trench and replace the lines and every time management will veto it so they
>>>>>>>>>> patch it. They say that the wires in the box in my yard just crumbled of
>>>>>>>>>> dust when they touch them.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Oh! Not only did they send me emails asking how the service was, they are
>>>>>>>>>> now sending me emails asking if I want to switch to fiber! That’s another
>>>>>>>>>> reason I suspect they’re not ever going to fix this!
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Yeah, you're probably right: they're letting the cable rot to force you
>>>>>>>>> to get fiber.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I'm guessing you were already well aware of the customer service link
>>>>>>>>> that I posted and just aren't bothering because each method they give
>>>>>>>>> you is a dead end?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I hadn’t found a phone number or any way to talk to a real person yet. I go
>>>>>>>> in through the iPhone app and it’s straightforward and tells you you aren’t
>>>>>>>> going to get a real person you’re going to get an AI. Then when you try it
>>>>>>>> pops you over to the web browser halfway through and there’s no way to get
>>>>>>>> a live person there either but it’s less straightforward and doesn’t tell
>>>>>>>> you that. It’s a real mess. I keep thinking to myself, self, I keep
>>>>>>>> thinking, they have to freaking fix this.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Do you have other options besides this CenturyLink
>>>>>>>>> outfit? Another cable company? A satellite provider? Elon Musk's Skylink
>>>>>>>>> service?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I could get Cox cable telephone but I’d probably rather not have telephone
>>>>>>>> at all.
>>>>>>>> I’ve watched several videos showing what they do with their digital
>>>>>>>> telephone installs. They don’t hook it up to your house wiring at all. They
>>>>>>>> punch a hole through the wall where it attaches to the outside and just set
>>>>>>>> the equipment on the ground. Then you have to buy a wireless phone system
>>>>>>>> that hooks to the modem and that’s your telephone. All your phone jacks are
>>>>>>>> dead. Forget it if you have a burglar alarm at uses the phone line. Your
>>>>>>>> whole phone system is just gone. And you have crap just sitting on the
>>>>>>>> floor.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Before this, Cox would run a cable right when your telephone cable came in
>>>>>>>> and just hook it to the outside of the house where your old telephone
>>>>>>>> service came in and all worked normally. But not with digital.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I just tried the CenturyLink app again. It gives me an error page that says
>>>>>>>> there’s a problem and their authentication system is down, please try again
>>>>>>>> later. It’s like working a freaking magic eight ball.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> That truly is crappy service! I imagine that moving somewhere with
>>>>>>> better service is not a realistic option?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Well I have to move to another state…
>>>>>>
>>>>> That seems a bit drastic just to get better cable service!
>>>>
>>>> Well, you see, the business model is, the first thing the cable service
>>>> does when it moves into an area is by off the city council so there won’t
>>>> be any competition.
>>>>
>>>> There is some slightly lame ass stuff. I could get one of those little
>>>> antennas on the roof and get cable movies on a good day and incredibly slow
>>>> Internet and you may or may not get any local channels depending on the
>>>> deal that’s been made. Or I could get really slow really crappy service
>>>> from the phone company. But unless you really didn’t care about the quality
>>>> of the movies and TV you watch and you were willing to just send emails
>>>> without attachments via AOL, Cox cable is the only game in town. And there
>>>> isn’t another major metropolitan city in Arizona so my next step is another
>>>> state.
>>>>
>>> Sorry, I didn't see this post until just now!
>>>
>>> Is StarLink an option for you? I'm not sure just where it is available
>>> at the moment since Musk keeps sending up new satellites and expanding
>>> coverage.
>>
>> As of yesterday my phone is officially working and my burglar alarm service
>> reconnected. Only took six weeks.
>> I should really try and get some money back from Century Link but I know
>> how that’s going to go.
>>
> Communications (cell service and internet) in this country is
> essentially shared between three large networks, one of which is Rogers.
> Rogers had a significant outage last year that didn't even last that
> long - just a few hours as I recall - and they compensated every one of
> their customers for the downtime. I don't think it was very much money -
> a couple of bucks each - and, if I remember correctly, they did it to
> pre-empt the regulator from coming down harder on them. But it was the
> first time I've ever heard of anyone being compensated for a loss of
> service in this country.
>
> Rogers had *another* outage a couple of months back and this time it
> went longer, around a day. Rogers apparently bungled a software upgrade
> and took many hours to figure out the problem and fix it. A manager
> responsible for software upgrades got sacked and Rogers pledged further
> compensation, although some vocal individuals said that wasn't enough
> and more needed to be done. (Understand that Rogers is not just
> residential cell and internet: they do a LOT of business too so many
> businesses that used Rogers to process payments had to resort to cash
> only sales for a day or so, making it quite a big deal.)
>
> The story dropped out of the news after a few days and I am not a Rogers
> customer so I don't know what was finally done for Rogers users by
> Rogers or the CRTC (regulator).
>
> Obviously, that doesn't help you with CenturyLink but there's always a
> chance they compensate you if you ask and almost none if you don't. They
> MIGHT want to keep your goodwill and keep you from switching to another
> supplier. And no I wouldn't hold my breath on any of that but you
> *might* get lucky....
>
>
>>>> Besides,
>>>>> you've lived there so long, I can imagine that kind of a move might not
>>>>> sit well with you. Or maybe it would! At the risk of over-generalizing,
>>>>> I have this impression of Americans being very open to relocating even
>>>>> long distances.
>>>>
>>>> Yeah that’s overgeneralizing. I know people that can’t stand to be in the
>>>> same place very long. They move into homes and remodel them and flip them
>>>> and move into another home sometimes within a matter of months. I also know
>>>> people that take root and want to die where they lived.
>>>
>>> That's reasonable. I think there is always a percentage of people that
>>> don't want to move once they've settled in to a given place and there's
>>> always a percentage that have wanderlust, itchy feet or whatever
>>> euphemism you like best.
>>
>> I have a lot of friends that want me to come live by them in other states
>> but in each case they’re the only person I know in that state and what if
>> we have a fight the first day?
>> Actually my BFF in Colorado just quit Sierra Nevada and went to work for
>> space X in California (he commutes, four days one location, three days the
>> other) so my living next-door to him wouldn’t really matter a whole lot.
>> Especially since his wife doesn’t like me.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> My mom was like
>>>> that. I probably am too. Dad wanted to move to a retirement community he
>>>> built that was a couple hours drive west of here. I told him to go ahead
>>>> but I’d never see him again. He suggested I drive two hours out to see them
>>>> every Friday night and drive back Sunday night or Monday morning. I laughed
>>>> hysterically.
>>>
>>> I spent most of my adult life living in cities that were an hour to 90
>>> minutes away from my parents' place and would regularly go back to see
>>> them. Not every week or anything but at least several times a year. Once
>>> in a blue moon, they might come to see me but it was almost always me
>>> that was driving. My mother never got her license so after my dad died
>>> in the 80s, it was pretty much always me doing the driving, although my
>>> brother would drive my mother up on occasion, too. But it sounds like
>>> that was not an attractive option for you.
>>
>> Well the idea that I’d work five days a week and then spend the other two
>> in a retirement community no doubt doing the chores they’d stored up for me
>> since my last visit wasn’t real attractive. But mom wanted to die in the
>> house they had built and she stayed there to the end and I got a great big
>> cool van with the ramps and stuff and we’d roll her wheelchair up in there
>> and drive all around sightseeing and she just loved it. She said she felt
>> like Cleopatra being carried around in the whatever they call that they
>> carried Cleopatra around in. And it had its own license plate
>> VANIM8R
>> :)
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> We also have what we call “snowbirds“ > People that live half the year
>>>> in a warmer area when it’s cold and the
>>>> other half of the year in a colder area when it’s warm.
>>>
>>> We Canadians have used this term for decades to refer to Canadians who
>>> were going south to Florida, Arizona, and other warm places to ride out
>>> at least part of the winter. Do you use it to refer to Americans from
>>> colder parts of the country, like the Dakotas, as well?
>>
>> Yeah, it’s anybody who changes climates half the year. Chicago to Florida
>> certainly. Anywhere on the East Coast to Arizona. It’s usually a pejorative
>> as in “fucking snowbirds“ although I’m really not certain why.
>>
> I could see it being an expression of mild contempt for those who aren't
> hardy enough to endure cold/snowy/icy weather.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> I have friends in multiple states that want me to come live by them but I
>>>> don’t have multiple friends in any one area so if they decide to move or
>>>> their job relocates them I wouldn’t know anyone else in the area. In fact
>>>> this just happened with my BFF who’s been trying to get me to come to
>>>> Colorado. He’s suddenly working for Elon musk at space X in California and
>>>> commuting four days a week. Also because of the marijuana sales Colorado
>>>> has been completely taken over by organized crime. I don’t think I’d like
>>>> that.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> That certainly reduces the attractiveness of moving somewhere else! And,
>>> of course, you may find that the cable/internet access where you move to
>>> could be even worse there.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-08-25 9:10 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
>> anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>>
>>> Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
>>> inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.
>
> In all due fairness, I did tech support for Verizon close to 20 years
> ago and they MAY have changed their attitude since I did that.
>
> I remember having Bell as an ISP when I had DSL and their tech support
> then was crap. You'd have long waits to talk to a tech that knew less
> than you and they were almost always prohibited from escalating to a
> tech that actually had some skills so if they didn't solve your problem,
> you were on your own. That was 25 years ago. I eventually moved to
> another ISP and got much better service with almost no need for tech
> support at a lower price.
>
> Fast forward to a few years back when one of my friends had changed his
> service at Bell so that he used a cheaper phone/internet package but it
> wasn't working yet. I no longer lived in his town but was there for
> another reason so I dropped in on him and found out about his issue. I
> tried to fix it myself but didn't understand what was going on and knew
> I had to call Bell tech support. I had limited time because I had to be
> somewhere in an hour or so and didn't like my chances for getting out of
> the wait queue in time. Much to my surprise and delight, after the first
> few minutes, I got an automatic message offering a callback if I was
> tired of waiting, something which was not even possible in earlier
> years. But I assumed that they would call back as soon as the designated
> tech got off the calls that were ahead of mine in the queue and that was
> not convenient for me, since I knew I'd be away for several hours. But
> after half an hour or so of further waiting on hold, I realized I wasn't
> going to connect with a live tech in time so took the callback option. I
> was further delighted to discover that I had a real say in when the
> callback would be. I knew I could be back at my friend's place by 7pm
> that evening so I set the callback for then and, sure enough, they
> called me back then. I finally had a live human being to talk to (a
> native English-speaker at that!) and we figured out what was wrong and
> got my friend online. I was genuinely impressed by how much better the
> tech support was than it had been back in the day.
>
> Of course Bell was well known for having crap tech support - as was
> Rogers for that matter - so a lot of people got fed up with Bell, left
> for Rogers, and then eventually got fed up with Rogers and went back to
> Bell until the got fed up with Bell again and moved back to Rogers.
> Eventually, I assume the great minds at Bell (and maybe Rogers for all I
> know) realized that they could stop this cycle and got serious about
> giving GOOD tech support to retain customers.
>
> I can't help but wonder if Verizon - and many of their competitors - had
> a similar epiphany in the last few years and cleaned up their acts.
> You'd know better than me of course.
>
> One other thing. There's a website I've used a number of times for ISP
> issues that serves at least Canada and the US (and possibly other
> countries for all I know). They have forums where you can discuss issues
> with other users of that service. I just looked and they have a section
> for CenturyLink. It might be useful to talk to other customers and get
> some insight into what's going on with them and what's coming down the
> pipe. They might even have some successful strategies for dealing with
> CenturyLink.
>
> http://www.dslreports.com/reviews/1519
>
>
> It sounds like your service is working fine now (finally!) but this may
> give you a place where you can talk with other CenturyLink customers to
> see about the prospects of compensation for service outages.
>
> DSL Reports can also be a valuable tool for researching an alternative
> ISP. You can look at their forums and see if people are generally happy
> with the service, pricing, and support. Naturally, there will be
> complaints about EVERY ISP because some people's expectations are so
> high that they can't possibly be happy with ANYTHING so it's best to
> keep that in mind and not just run screaming in the opposite direction
> over a few complaints. But you probably know that anyway.
>

Thanks

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On 8/25/2022 10:53 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 8/24/2022 8:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> We also have what we call “snowbirds“ > People that live half the year
>>>>> in a warmer area when it’s cold and the
>>>>> other half of the year in a colder area when it’s warm.
>>>>
>>>> We Canadians have used this term for decades to refer to Canadians who
>>>> were going south to Florida, Arizona, and other warm places to ride out
>>>> at least part of the winter. Do you use it to refer to Americans from
>>>> colder parts of the country, like the Dakotas, as well?
>>>
>>> Yeah, it’s anybody who changes climates half the year. Chicago to Florida
>>> certainly. Anywhere on the East Coast to Arizona. It’s usually a pejorative
>>> as in “fucking snowbirds“ although I’m really not certain why.
>>>
>> They act like tourists but think they live there?
>>
>>
>
> I think of a more as they pay taxes for a full year but are only here for
> half of it.
>
Wouldn't that be a good thing?

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 8/25/2022 11:51 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 8/25/2022 4:24 AM, A Friend wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <584634281.683091259.959281.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
>>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 2022-07-30 12:37 AM, suzeeq wrote:
>>>>>> On 7/29/2022 7:00 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>>>>>> In article <oEmdnbMBgMkAFHn_nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com>, BTR1701
>>>>>>> <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Jul 29, 2022 at 1:12:17 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2022 22:27:46 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> She's beautiful, but she really should give the Ark of the Covenant
>>>>>>>>>> back.  You know what could happen.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Yeah it might end up in a huge CIA warehouse (wasn't that the end of
>>>>>>>>> the first Indiana Jones movie?)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Area 51 is DOD, not CIA, but other than that, yes.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Raiders of the Lost Ark took place during 1936.  No DOD, no CIA.  The
>>>>>>> script describes a "giant government warehouse," with no details.  It
>>>>>>> doesn't even specify whether it's American, but we all presume so.
>>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Didn¹t we find out in one of the awful sequels with Shia Labooouf that it¹s
>>>> in DC?
>>>
>>>
>>> I wouldn't know. Maybe someone else?
>>
>> Where exactly would one hide a giant warehouse in DC? And don't say
>> "underground". One does not dig deep in a swamp.
>>
>
> Don’t you remember the adventures of super vice president X? DC‘s got a
> bigger and better underground system than Disney World.
>
I thought all the doors were miniature Stargates.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
> Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>> anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

>>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>>
>>> Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
>>> inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.
>>
>> The USPS?
>
>Yeah. It was probably the emergency backup mailman. Maybe once a week now
>he brings me mail.

You might get those 2020 ballots yet!

I just read a news story about them finding a tray of them in Baltimore.

--
Let's go Brandon!

On Wed, 24 Aug 2022 20:42:18 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
wrote:

>> We Canadians have used this term for decades to refer to Canadians who
>> were going south to Florida, Arizona, and other warm places to ride out
>> at least part of the winter. Do you use it to refer to Americans from
>> colder parts of the country, like the Dakotas, as well?
>
>Yeah, it’s anybody who changes climates half the year. Chicago to Florida
>certainly. Anywhere on the East Coast to Arizona. It’s usually a pejorative
>as in “fucking snowbirds“ although I’m really not certain why.

My grandparents did that for the first 20 years of their retirement
until the cost of health insurance forced them home. They thought they
had done everything right to prepare for retirement but were
financially destroyed in the late 70s early 80s when inflation went
nuts.

I remember very clearly the year (82 or 83) when the Government of
Canada issued Canada Savings Bonds easily redeemable any time at a
guaranteed rate of 19.5% for 5 years. Today's generation of
30-somethings has never experienced anything like that - I remember
one couple who got married near the people of the Calgary housing boom
who both had good jobs (he was an engineer, she was a software
technical consultant with a hospital background) who bought a house
just in time for the market to collapse and they could have walked
away but liked the house and kept up the payments and two years later
had a "zero equity party" (I was invited but was in Vancouver by
then).

What today's 30-somethings are facing is entirely different as housing
prices have gone through the roof with most not able to buy. That's
the position my son and his wife are in right now - he's an eingineer
working for Amazon (warehouse construction) she's a veterinary
specialist (hard to describe but essentially a veterinary ICU nurse -
she gets the hard cases) and they've just hard their first child and
heaven knows if they think they'll ever be able to afford another.
(I'd love a grandson since he's my only son and we have an extremely
rare family name but say nothing to avoid stressing them)

And their situation is not the least unusual today.

I understand that massive deficit financing was needed to avoid a
collapse in the first half of 2020 during the initial lockdowns but
now we're paying the piper and I'm likely to be 6 feet under by the
time all the bills are paid.

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 8/25/2022 10:53 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>> On 8/24/2022 8:42 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 2022-07-30 2:48 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> We also have what we call “snowbirds“ > People that live half the year
>>>>>> in a warmer area when it’s cold and the
>>>>>> other half of the year in a colder area when it’s warm.
>>>>>
>>>>> We Canadians have used this term for decades to refer to Canadians who
>>>>> were going south to Florida, Arizona, and other warm places to ride out
>>>>> at least part of the winter. Do you use it to refer to Americans from
>>>>> colder parts of the country, like the Dakotas, as well?
>>>>
>>>> Yeah, it’s anybody who changes climates half the year. Chicago to Florida
>>>> certainly. Anywhere on the East Coast to Arizona. It’s usually a pejorative
>>>> as in “fucking snowbirds“ although I’m really not certain why.
>>>>
>>> They act like tourists but think they live there?
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I think of a more as they pay taxes for a full year but are only here for
>> half of it.
>>
> Wouldn't that be a good thing?
>

Yes. Hence my not understanding the animosity.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
> anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
>> Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>>> anim8rfsk@cox.net wrote:
>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>>>>> That is truly HORRIBLE customer service. I've seen my share of bad
>>>>> customer service but that takes the cake! Even Verizon, who I used to
>>>>> work for, isn't quite that bad.
>>>>
>>>> Hey I got a postcard yesterday from Verizon trying to sell me cheap
>>>> inter-web. I have no idea what the technology can possibly be.
>>>
>>> The USPS?
>>
>> Yeah. It was probably the emergency backup mailman. Maybe once a week now
>> he brings me mail.
>
> You might get those 2020 ballots yet!
>
> I just read a news story about them finding a tray of them in Baltimore.
>

They found like 20,000 of them that had been dumped in the desert here
after Biden “won“

> --
> Let's go Brandon!
>
>
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.