Mad Monsters, Bizarre Cats, and Ducks South of the Border

Started off a sunny, chilly, blustery fall morning with the American Top 40. We went ahead into 1981 as country, New Wave, pop, and hard rock dominated the airwaves. Hits from mid-October of that year include "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "I've Done Everything For You" by Rick Springfield, "Urgent" by Foreigner, "The Night Owls" by the Little River Band, "It's Hard To Say" by Dan Fogleburg, "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates, and "Endless Love," by Diana Ross & Lionel Richie.

"Endless Love" had apparently been in the top spot for the past nine weeks. It took one of my favorite movie songs of the 80s to finally knock that slightly syrupy ballad to #2 - "The Best That You Can Do" by Christopher Cross, from the original Dudley Moore version of Arthur. 

Comcast called an hour or so after the American Top 40 ended. They said to fiddle with the modem and see if I could get it going; if I couldn't, they'd send someone around on Monday. I didn't until later in the day...and am embarrassed to discover I didn't have the phone jack plugged in the right place. It goes in the Comcast modem, not the house phone jack! (Just as well. I only have one phone jack in the entire apartment.) I'll call them tomorrow and tell them to cancel.

After that, I spent the morning working on new photos of my American Girl and Disney Animator's Collection dolls to replace the ones I accidentally erased a few days ago, plus some more. I remembered I have Molly's Scenes and Settings in the back room and made use of them. For a few years in the late 90s, American Girl made huge books of heavy cardboard settings as backdrops for a child's play. For instance, Molly's has her family's kitchen, her bedroom, her classroom, a drug store, and her summer camp. The realistic-looking classroom made a great backdrop for dolls and stuffed animals to be home-schooled. 

Life at the Riverside Rest

Spent the rest of the day baking Sugar n' Spice Bar Cookies and watching four rather surreal, unusual animated films. Donald Duck goes on a wild trip through Latin America in Saludos Amigos and the even stranger Three Caballeros. A typical nerd (Alan Swift) finds himself caught in the middle of a feud between moviedom's monsters and the curvaceous assistant (Gale Bennett) of Dr. Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) in the Rankin Bass matinee feature Mad Monster Party. And Felix the Cat stumbles into a bizarre kingdom in another dimension ruled by a Transformer-style tyrant who makes the Monster Party cast look normal by comparison in the hard-to-find Felix the Cat: The Movie. 

Dealing With Phone Companies Is Scary

Ugh. I got stuck spending most of the day playing phone tag again, this time with Comcast. They were supposed to have switched my land line from Verizon on the 9th. Today is the 12th, and there's still no dial tone on my phone. I checked - it's working fine. I called Verizon. My account is closed on their end. It's all on Comcast's side. I called them at least three times today, and they called me once to tell me to reset my modem. I did. I got cut off every time, including when they called me. Resetting the modem seems to have done nothing. I'm still not getting a dial tone. I hadn't heard from them by 5. If there's still no dial tone, I'll call them first thing on Monday.

I also called Dad while I was on the phone. I told him I wouldn't be able to be reached on the land line phone for a while. Also asked when I could go over there to do my laundry. I know there's still a lot going on with my uncle's death. He said they'd be just watching the Eagles-Lions game Sunday afternoon. I could go over then.

Ran the last one-disc Rick Steves set this morning and early in the afternoon. Rick moved into Austria, the French and Italian Alps, and Switzerland on this journey. Vienna and Saltzburg were absolutely gorgeous, with their incredible and tragic history and amazing architecture. Switzerland was fun, like a trip through a fairy tale book or illustrations from Heidi.

Got a few things done in the afternoon. I pulled all of the pots and pans out from under the sink while the Switzerland episodes were running this afternoon. I swept the bottom, pulled the top of a glass bowl I no longer owned, then put everything away in neater piles. When I finished and Rick Steves ended, I added the last of the Young Adult Fiction and Kids' Fiction books to the inventories, including the books Linda sent me on Tuesday.

Ran two spooky-oriented TV show episodes while having leftovers for dinner. Good Eats has done several Halloween-oriented episodes, mostly revolving around candy. "Oh My, Meat Pie" is a spoof of the Tim Burton Sweedny Todd that features Alton as his great-grandfather, showing the familiar owners of a certain infamous pie shop in London how to make shepherd's and mincemeat pies.

"Haunted House" is a goofier second-season episode of Laverne & Shirley. The title working girls need a new couch. The old Ramsdale Manor is about to be demolished, and with its furniture on sale, Laverne thinks it would be a great place for furniture deals. Shirley isn't as certain. She's heard a lot of urban myths about the Ramsdale Manor, most of them involving a hairy "thing." When they hear spooky noises and their guy friends Squiggy and Lenny disappear while looking at couches, even Laverne wonders if she could be right...until Shirley finds something that makes them question the hasty demolition.

Girls' Day at Home

I started a lovely, sunny, warm morning with finally finishing the phone calls I need to make for now. The Union and the insurance company now say all of my claims for the orthodontics have finally gone through, and I should be getting them in two weeks. I couldn't find Comcast's phone number on their web site to call them...but it was just as well. I heard from them, anyway. For some reason, my dealings with them yesterday didn't work or hadn't gone through. At any rate, everything's fine now, and they'll be switching my land line phone over from Verizon next week.

Jodie picked me up at noon to run errands. I needed to get to the Acme. Had to pick up my paycheck and disability (sick pay) papers, not to mention fill my refrigerator. Turns out the Acme was having some great sales...which is a good thing, because I was low on basics like milk, whole wheat tortillas, yogurt, and eggs. There was a great Perdue sale; grabbed ground chicken, tenderloins, and chicken sausages for almost half-off. Stocked up on peanut butter, chocolate chips (Nestle's are $1.99 this weekend), buttermilk, honey, and peanut butter. Took advantage of a huge baking sale to grab baking powder, cinnamon sticks, and peppermint and vanilla extracts. Edy's was finally on a good sale. It isn't fall without their heavenly Pumpkin Ice Cream, and this year, I was glad to see that they had it in a light version.

I also got my prescription for higher ibuprofen from the pharmacy. Dr. Berlin gave it to me for the heel spur, but I think it'll now help with both feet. Jodie was nice enough to run over to America's Best for me and pick up my contacts while I waited.

After I paid for my food and hauled it in the van, we both made a quick run to the PNC on the White Horse Pike so we could deposit money. We saw a police parade as we were in the bank; turns out a long-time Oaklyn police official had died this week, along with Uncle Ken, who will be honored tomorrow. (Both have their names on the sign outside of Oaklyn's City Hall on the corner of the White Horse Pike and West Clinton Avenue.)

Other than a very brief sojourn to my landlord's house a block down to drop off my rent, I went nowhere else today. With any other calls put off until I get my foot looked at on Monday, I could actually relax. I ran Felicity: An American Girl Adventure first. This was the second American Girl movie, revolving around their spunky Colonial character Felicity Merriman. Unlike the movies for Samantha and Kit, Felicity's movie pretty much sticks to the books. Felicity is a tomboy living in Williamsburg, Virginia during the tumultuous Revolutionary War. As families and friends are pitted against one another, Felicity finds herself wondering whose side she's on, especially given that her best friend Elizabeth and her beloved grandfather are loyal to the English. When she meets a wild horse with a cruel master, she becomes determined to befriend the animal...and learns the true meaning of freedom in the process.

Of the three AG movies I've seen (I haven't yet caught Molly's or the ones revolving around modern Girls of the Year Chrissa and McKenna), this one is my favorite. Never mind the irony that Felicity isn't really high on my list of AG characters and I'm not the biggest fan of the Colonial era. Felicity's exciting and daring stories come alive in ways that Samantha's and Kit's didn't. And I can understand why Felicity adored her grandfather and dad - David Gardener and John Schneider were particularly good as the male heads of the family on the opposite sides of the War.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to paperwork, baking a Dark Chocolate Mint Cake for the reception after Uncle Ken's funeral tomorrow, and dubbing another serial, Zorro's Black Whip. Actually, Zorro has nothing to do with this very interesting mid-40s western tale. The Black Whip was a freedom fighter siding with settlers trying to vote Idaho into statehood in 1889. When he and his father are killed, his sister takes over both the Black Whip persona and the family's crusading newspaper. The Black Whip aids a federal agent in bringing law and order to Idaho.

Though this action-packed wild west story from Republic wasn't quite as well-done as the later Federal Agents Vs. Underworld Inc., it had it's own share of fun, from stagecoaches going over cliffs to a raging inferno in a cave. This was a vehicle for Linda Sterling, Republic's answer to the heroines of the silent era serials, who could outshoot, outride, and out-think every guy in the movie, including her love interest. I did find it almost refreshing that we know she's the Black Whip from the get-go, instead of drawing her identity out, as many serials are wont to do with heroes in masks.

Monday, Monday

Actually, there wasn't much to my Monday. I slept in, had cereal, bananas, and strawberries for breakfast, watched cartoons, and got the rent together for Miss Ellie. At least it's right on time this month.

I've been having trouble on and off with my Internet. The signal keeps dropping for anywhere from a minute to a half-hour. I don't know why. I've changed the filter, turned the modem on and off, taken the splitter out. Nothing works. I called Verizon High Speed Internet this morning. The Asian Indian man at the desk checked my signal. He wasn't able to get back to me until after work, but he said something to the effect that it might be a faulty land-line. Supposedly, someone will be coming around between 8 and 1 on Friday.

I'm not holding my breath.

Work, on the other hand, was no problem at all. It was steady-to-dead, with so much help, I spent at least two hours all together doing returns. No customer problems, either. Maybe everyone was out enjoying the gorgeous sunny, breezy, 70-degree day.

I had leftover chicken and tomatoes for dinner and boiled beets in a pan to make pickled beets. I'll finish them tomorrow.

I Wish I Was A Lineman For The County...

...Then I could fix this mess! X(

We had a massive thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, right before I went home from work. Though there were signs the electricity had been off, other than that, everything was fine when I arrived. The phone worked and the electricity was on (though I had to reset the clocks and air conditioner). There were no problems (and no more storms) for the rest of the afternoon. I even called my older friend Erica and told her I'd be able to volunteer on Thursday from 10 to 1, the first time I've volunteered in almost a month, thanks to my schedule. There was some static when Erica initially tried to call me, but she got through and I thought nothing of it.

Everything was fine until I tried to go online around 7:30PM. The computer kept saying it wasn't getting a dial tone, which couldn't be because everything was hooked up right. I checked three times. All the wires were fine. I finally put the wire for the house phone back (I use dial-up) and tried the house phone. Nothing. No dial tone. Just some weird buzzing. I went downstairs and called my landlady, and she said she'd call the phone company and get them to fix the problem.

I figured, that's that. This is a big area, and I'll bet they have plenty of people out, thanks to that storm. They'll be here later tonight. Well, I waited. I worked on stories. I cried. I screamed. I waited. Nothing. No phone company. No dial tone. Even the buzzing eventually stopped. Nothing. No phone. No internet.

I talked to Miss Ellie (my landlady) again this morning. She said she did call the phone company, and they were going to show...sometime Tuesday! How could that be? This big area, and they didn't have a hundred people dispatched to fix things after that huge storm?

And I couldn't do it Tuesday. I'm going down to Cape May County for my little nephew's third birthday party on Tuesday. We've planned it for weeks. I called the phone company from Miss Ellie's house. (HER phone is working just fine.) Not only did they say it was probably something in the basement (when Miss Ellie's phone was working and also comes from the basement) and would cost almost a 100 bucks, but they refused to reschedule Tuesday! I ended up getting someone to come on Wednesday morning...maybe.

I'm royally ticked off right now. I can't believe how stupid the phone company is. We live less than ten minutes from two of the largest cities in the United States of America, that storm yesterday was crazy enough and noisy enough to knock out everything within a hundred mile radius, and they STILL don't have enough people out? Why haven't they called every repair person they have? They're supposed to be doing their god-damn jobs!

I hate phone companies. I hate phones.

I'm not going to be online again until maybe Wednesday night at the earliest, which means there won't be any more updates to The Monkee Knight or this blog until then. I'm typing this at the tiny Oaklyn Library down the street from my apartment now, and I'll probably be kicked off any moment, since I've been on for almost an hour and it's busy.