News
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Heat Advisory - Tishomingo (Mississippi)
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE Issued At: 2007-08-08T08:22:00 Expired At: 2007-08-10T01:00:00 Issuing Weather Forecast Office Homepage: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/meg/
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Uncabled
After we moved in, we discovered that a) we got no TV reception whatsoever, and b) the cell phones (T-Mobile) functioned only if we stood in a particular part of the dining room. This latter scotched the original idea of having all cell, all the time.There was no question about getting cable for internet access -- both of us had been lo-o-ong-time Comcast customers.[1] Since we were already paying for cable, we went ahead and sprung for Comcast's 3 x $33 deal to get Internet access, cable TV, and Comcast's phone service.T-Mobile has in the meantime gotten around to upgrading service in our neighborhood. We got a text message to that effect not long ago, and indeed, you can call me on my cell at home now, if you want. But we've now established a quasi-land-line number, so we're going to stick with it, at least for a while. FWIW, it works fine. Although I haven't had to opportunity to test it out during a power failure.Cable TV is another thing, tho. I hadn't had cable for something like 13 years before we moved in here, nor had Sarah. When we looked at the channel guide that came with our package deal, it seemed kind of exciting. Discovery Channel! History Channel! Animal Planet! Movies! News!Ha. It's all crap. Well, most of it is. Having gotten out of the habit of watching TV regularly, I found the offerings to be lame. At certain times we'd look for something to put on as a kind of background, such as when I practice particularly mind-numbing exercises on the guitar. It's proved surprisingly hard to find something tolerable for this kind of purpose.So between that, and the fact that we never got back into the habit of watching TV, and the fact that Sarah Daughter #2 has a tendency to zone out in front of the Disney Channel, we thought, eh. So I called and canceled cable TV.They're not eager to let you go, of course. Why did I want to cancel cable TV, the nice lady asked. Because there's nothing on? I ventured. This got a surprisingly vehement agreement from the saleslady, somewhat to my surprise. She was clever, tho. Before I rung off, I'd signed up for a basic cable package that gets us local channels (so we can get the "news"). I'd also upgraded Internet service speed, supposedly. We'll see about this latter.So today I await Mr. Cable, who has to come by and haul away all their cable-TV gear. Why he has to do this I don't know; it doesn't seem like a complex operation. Whatever. Apparently I also have to reboot the modem in order to get this speed increase. (Perhaps they flash some new software or something? If they do anything at all, I mean, haha.) I convinced her that I could do this by myself just fine, thank you.Thus endeth my/our experiment with cable TV. Perhaps in another 10 years' time, I'll give it another shot.[1]In fact, I was an @Home user back before they were bought by Comcast.
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Ven - Anthony Cruz
Ven - Anthony Cruz
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Special Weather Statement - Casey (Kentucky)
Special Weather Statement Issued At: 2007-08-23T19:34:00 Expired At: 2007-08-24T10:00:00 Issuing Weather Forecast Office Homepage: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/
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Athens: Using Mary Oliver's"Thirst"as Springboard
On the last two days of my recent pilgrimage trip to Greece and Turkey we stayed in Athens, Greece. I have had friends tell me that this great city is not one of their favorites, but I sure loved the...