OK, ready for a funny story?

This is about my latest contact with Windstream Communications, our telephone and Internet provider.

“10:59 a.m. 24th call, called broadband tech support, speeds still 1.5mbps or lower, paying for 6mbps since May 11, put on hold. Tech answered 11:10, said it wasn’t put over to 6mbps yet, and he didn’t know why the other techs didn’t do it. After a couple of minutes, he said to do a speedtest, and it was over 6mbps! He said if I had any more problems call static ip dept., put in phone number, and not as a residential customer.

25th call, Called to try to get a refund on the slow speeds and the 175 outages we’ve had since I started keeping track on April 4. Got transferred, explained I wanted a refund, she said I was sent to wrong office, transferred again. Told the rep. I wanted a refund for all of the outages and slow speeds, put on hold. He came back on and wanted to know if we would like to combine our telephone, internet and cable TV. I laughed and asked if he was out of his freaking mind. I think he was a bit offended, even after I explained the 175 outages, and no way did I want my television service through a company with that record. He issued a credit of $64.

Internet went down again last night (thanks, Windstream Communications), for the 175th time since I started keeping track in April. They last anywhere from a few minutes to 17 hours. I just love to listen to their recorded messages when I’m on hold (last night I was on hold for over a half hour), talking about Windstream being able to meet your business solutions and their ‘blazing fast high speed internet.’

Ha!!

Honestly, I pity anyone who is unlucky enough to have Windstream Communications. I wish they had stayed out of Minnesota!

Here my log for the past 5 days:
4/22
Outages 11:34, 12:19, 12:34, 12:39, 12:59, 1:04, 1:24, 1:29, 1:34, 2:04, Called the 800-347-1991 (which is supposed to be the direct number for billing), it’s the same menu as the other numbers, Called and asked for a supervisor, she put me on hold, came back on and put me back on hold for a supervisor, was transferred to technical support. He said he couldn’t help me and tried transferring me to static ip technical support, (3:05, no music, just dead air. 3:10 got disconnected.) Called broadband tech support 866-866-8786 opt 4. (The message says this number isn’t supposed to be given out to customer). The guy who answered didn’t know that’s what the message said when I asked him about it. He put me on hold, 3:19. 3:23 he’s passing me on to another technician. He had me change the primary and secondary DNS numbers, and gave me another 800 number that's supposed to be business office. I did their speedtest, and we're still at half speed.

4/21
Outages at 3:26, 3:31, windstream speedtest 1.67 mbps, 983kbps, called customer service and asked for a supervisor so I could get a refund on all of the outages, she transferred me to technical support, still having latent outages, they’re working on it, he told me to bypass the surge protector and plug modem straight into wall, he gave me the direct number for billing 800-347-1991. Windstream speedtest 1.14 mbps, upload 983 kbps.
Outages at 4:31, 4:36, 4:56, 5:01, 5:11, 5:34, 5:46, 6:06, 6:36, 6:41, 7:41, 8:01, 9:51, 10:54

4/20
11:30 tried speed tests on 5 sites, windstream’s was 1.7mbps, 3:11 called, put on hold, ran speed test, 1.19mbps. He had me restart the modem, tried bypassing the router and plugging directly into modem. Blamed it on the outages. 3:24, 3:44, 3:54, 4:09, 4:14, 4:34, 5:49, 6:59, 7:04, 7:19, 8:36, 8:39, 8:44, 9:15, 9:50

4/19
6:29. Repair man came and replaced modem. He said we should be getting 3mbps, so called Windstream. Ran test, 1.61 mbps, still having outages. 12:13, 1:48, 1:53, 3:23, 3:43, 4:38, 4:53, 5:58, 6:18, 6:23, 6:28, 6:38, 7:23, 9:43, 10:18

4/18
2:36, 3:31, 3:56, 5:26, talked to Celie, she said it might be a filter for the satellite. Got disconnected, called back and talked to someone else, she created a ticket, 6700631, broadband tech support 866-866-8786 opt 4. 10:05

Life is filled with frustrations lately.

We’ve been having problems with our internet going out for almost a month now. It gets into streaks where it goes out every 10 minutes. Thanks, Windstream Communications, for buying our telephone company and screwing things up. I’ve called multiple times over the past 3 weeks, and I just get the same-old, same-old, ‘we’re having intermittent outages in the state of Minnesota.’ They shouldn’t be buying up smaller telephone companies if they don’t have the infrastructure to handle it. It’s such a laugh to listen to their messages when I’m on hold, ‘lightning fast internet speeds,’ hah! We’re supposed to be getting 3mbps, we get half that. I tried complaining to the Public Utilities Commission, but they don’t handle internet services. They suggested that I contact the Attorney General. That’ll be my next step.

Winter just won’t let go here. It was snowing again this morning, and our birds have all left. I still get a chickadee occasionally. I can just feel the lack of sun stripping everything away. I want to be outside in the warm sunshine, digging in the dirt, planting seeds.

I have to take the truck in, something’s wrong with the steering or something. It shimmies and shakes when you get over 45mph. More money down the drain.

My back and shoulder hurt! I have arthritis in my spine, and something’s wrong with my rotator cuff. I don’t know what, the doctor didn’t say, just that there’s nothing that can be done for it. Except pop more pills, which makes my stomach hurt.

Glass! When I first bought Amy’s storm tutorial, I made a green stringer and didn’t write down what glasses I used in it. People have been snapping them up, the stringer is all gone now, and I can’t duplicate it.

 I tried 4 different combinations this morning, and none of them are like the original. It seems like half the beads I make are just so un-inspiring. The colors don’t come out the way I expected them to, the dots are off, the beads are lopsided.


End of whining.

A couple of beads that did turn out,


I think what I need to do is discipline myself to making more beads that I know I like, and less time on experimenting with color combinations and stringer combinations.

And talking about glass, what do I do but buy more glass!! Like I really need more.

 What I really need to do is clean all of the beads that I've got stashed in my drawer and get them listed.

Well, at least I’ve still got flowers blooming. Here’s one of my amaryllis,

I lost some orchids this winter, so when I was down in the cities last week, I had to buy some more,


Next year if I have all of my ducks in a row, I’m going to have my greenhouse and back deck torn down, and put in a new deck with a bigger greenhouse, with real glass/plexiglass instead of plastic. It’ll be big enough that I can go out and sit in a chair and soak up the sun even if it’s too cold to go outside.

Oh, and here's my little puppy, growing way too fast:

He's still a big baby, though, no matter how big he is. Christian accidentally stepped on his foot the other day, and Suka pee'd himself.