9/17/2023

 

Weekly Update 9/17/2023

I’m waiting for Kay to come pick me up to go to the airport. We go first to Charlotte, and then have an overnight flight to Heathrow. This will be the final update for a few weeks.

Monday I was invited to a farewell party for a friend. Heidi is moving to be closer to one of her children. The gathering was at one of the new condos in the East End. It was lovely – a four story unit with views of the river. A huge container ship went by as we were watching out the windows. I knew about half the people there, so I was able to socialize the best I could. But, then I had to go home and watch that game. Really? They lost to the Jets? NY lost their star QB on the first series of downs, and the Bills can’t take advantage of that? It’s gonna be a long season.

Tuesday, after I was finished at CH, I ran a few errands. I had a few more things to get for the adventure to Wales (I also had to go out again on Friday to get a few more things). I went to Verizon, to ask about international access. The customer service rep said I’d have to call to have those questions answered. So I called when I got home. Imagine this – no one picked up, and after entering number after number, I was directed to go to the website and find an answer there. So, I did that. At first they sent me to Just Answer, but I’m not going to pay a third party for a question that Verizon should be able answer for all the money I sent them each month. No one on the Verizon site was available to “chat”, and the answers I found in FAQs were all about spending more money. Like $100 for 10 days. That’s not going to happen. I’m confused because I can talk and text to Lisa and Dave from the US to Wales without charges all the time. But if I’m in the same country with them, it’ll cost me $10 a day for some of the time I’m there? NO! I may not be able to view or respond to texts for the next two weeks, but at least I’ve saved a little money.

I had two days of training at GM this week, and I did tours at DH one day. Driving home from one of these meetings, I decided to see how the Houlihan bridge reconstruction was progressing. The answer is its moving slowly, but at least something is changing, unlike the courthouses downtown that have blocked traffic for years and nothing is being worked on. As long as I was out that way, I drove through the wildlife preserve. I saw only one alligator, and I would have missed that if another car hadn’t pulled over and the occupants were pointing. That’s getting to be a pretty boring drive.

Adrian and Annie are delightful. They went to a farm this week, and played in the corn barn and had photos taken with pumpkins. They did some crafts, which were really fun to see. They are growing too quickly!