Since getting back from Japan, I've done a great job of not finding temporary work. This means that I have plenty of time to sit on the couch and worry about finding an apartment and a job in San Francisco. Oh, not that I've had any luck on either count, but I certainly worry about it a lot. The wireless in my Dell don't work with Verizon, so most of this couch-sitting is in our unbearably stuffy living room, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, doesn't make me fell all that much better. Thankfully, this has been remedied in recent days thanks to my pop bringing home a 25' 'net cable for me. Now I can sit on the deck with the
dog and waste lots of time on the Internet. This has, not surprisingly, made me feel much better.
Something I've learned in all of my Craigslist browsing is that there a lot of people out there trying to screw you. People who want you to send them money because they're out of the country and don't want to release their apartment keys to you until you've made a good faith payment. Yeah, that sounds safe. So we move on and look at the next posting. I have to tell you, I don't really like the thought of renting an apartment sight unseen, but I'm not sure we have a choice. Katy's grandparents live close to SF, so we can crash there for a few days, but it would be so nice to have it all sorted out ahead of time. Well, bollocks.
Katy, on the other hand, has been exhausted for the last week and a half because of her temp job. It's not hard work, but there's a commute and it's a 10-hour work day. Still, making some money is pretty sweet. Gas is on her for the trip across to Cali.
So, other than sulking in hot rooms and killing time online I've been helping out my family for the past few days. Today I was a gardener, chopping shrubbery down to size. I did a bit of this last week as well, but that was more chopping off tree limbs and then cutting those down to size. I really like how verdant the suburbs here are. Personally, I'd let it all grow out of control, but I'm not a homeowner so what do I know?
Yesterday I helped
my sister out at her
lab/factory. I didn't get to do any soldering, but I was in charge of assembling the Little Boy Blues (Little Boys Blue?) that were ready for completion. Put on washers, tighten the nuts, add knobs, screw on back, repeat, repeat, repeat. I think I was a little too efficient because we finished earlier than expected. Eh, what can you do? I don't really understand what she does, or what the LBBs do, but they seem to be popular. While we were working yesterday she got an e-mail from a Swedish woman who wanted to buy one. Perhaps she'll got one of the ones I put together.
Side note: I took this picture on my cell phone. My cell phone has Bluetooth and so does my computer. So I should be able to send the picture to my computer via Bluetooth, right? No, of course not. I'm really starting to hate Verizon. I had to send this picture to my "Verizon Pix Place" where I fumbled through their idiotic web design for a while before finding a place I could see my picture and thus save it to my computer. And here's another reason why I'm starting to hate them: I wanted to cancel my Internet with Verizon because I was moving out of my apartment. I called their number and the person I talked to said that I could do it if I called a week or so before my contract end date; otherwise I'd owe them an early cancellation fee. Fine, I can deal with that. We moved out on April first and our contract ended on April 15, which was also the day we were leaving for Japan. I called on the 7th or 9th and the woman I talked to said that I had to call exactly on the day my contract ended to cancel without getting hit with an early cancellation fee. I told her that I had been told I could call early, and I wasn't even going to be in the country on the last day of my contract. She repeated that what I was asking was impossible. Now, I really try to be polite to people in general, but this was not the first conversation I had had with Verizon that went into the realms of idiocy, so I asked to speak with someone else. She audibly shrugged and told me it wouldn't do any good, but eventually transferred me to someone who also couldn't answer my questions, but who could connect me to the right person. This woman assured me that there was absolutely no problem with what I wanted to do, and she promised me that my service would end on the day my contract did and there would be no early cancellation fee and that everything was sorted. Sweet.
...but it didn't end there. Verizon sent me a bill while I was in Japan for 8 days from April 15 to April 22 when they finally got around to cancelling my contract.
Jackasses.
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