Left of the Dial

Bloody hell! Where did that wind come from? The walk in this morning was a tad Marcel Marceau-ish. And a lot colder than I had expected. Thankfully I'm not silly enough to think it's summer so I was prepared with scarf and gloves, but I almost wish I had had a hat. Official temp of 41, RealFeel of 32. Not really that cold, but damn, that wind is insane!!!

I was reading The West Virginia Surf Report a month or so ago and Jeff mentioned that he was listening to his Left of the Dial boxset. I went to amazon.com to check it out and saw that it was something that I would most definitely be interested in, so I called up my favorite CD store and asked them to order it for me. No problem. Well, the next day John called me to say that somebody had just turned in a USED copy and did I want that. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????? HELL YES!!! Well, I got it last night and I'm listening to CD 1 right now and it is even cooler than I thought it would be. Yes, I know I’m stuck in the 80s when it comes to music, but I can't help it. That's what I like. My only issue is that, of course, the Joy Division song included is "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Sure, it's a great song, but geez, people, they did have more than one good song. Ah well, I guess I shouldn't complain, at least they included Joy Division. I want to go dancing.

I was hoping to get back to the gym this week, but I'm still experiencing pain in my back from the shingles and it's enough to make me not very happy. I'm really ready for it to be gone, really gone. I so want to be done with pain killers, too, especially since it seems that Vicodin has lost its magic touch with me of making me tired. I took one last night and yup, you guessed it, I was up half the night. So frustrating. I guess I'll stick to ibuprofen at night. Or Aleve.

I have a very full weekend ahead of me. I have symphony tickets for Friday night and I'm very excited about that, Shostakovich's Violin Concerto #1 and Bruckner's Symphony #7. I love them! Besides that I'm also moving this weekend. Ooooh, I have to call Detroit Edison, just a sec…..

I hate voice-activated voicemail dealies…PITA! I'd love to talk to a person!!!!!! And why can't they look up my account using my address? Why do they need my Social Security number? And why did I think to do this six minutes before my meeting with the Big Boss?? I'm so silly.

I don't think I've expressed my displeasure with Comcast recently, but since I just had the joy of setting up the process to transfer my cable and computer system to the new apartment, I have new venting to do! If you have Comcast cable you have seen the new and fun commercials where they try to tell us all about their new fabulous customer service. Well, I'm here to tell you it's a lie. First off, to transfer my cable (which we all know means they do NOTHING) and my computer service they're going to charge me over $40 ($15 for cable, $25 for computer) and since I'll be having a new address they will be ringing the bell of the new apartment into which I'm not technically moving until Saturday on Friday. I asked if there was any way that they could buzz me at the old apartment (same building, people, just a different apartment – this is NOT rocket science) and the answer is NO. I explain to her that I'll be at the old apartment doing whatever it is I'll be doing (probably packing shit up) and is there any way they could be buzz me at old apartment as it is in the same fucking building. The answer was NO. Hmm, I then ask, if I put a note on the front door asking to buzz me at old apartment would the service person do that. "Um, no, I can't guarantee that." Are you fucking kidding me??? I said, "So the new fabulous commercials that tout your new wonderful customer service is a lie?" She didn't really much care for that statement and got a little snippy and said, "It would be bad customer service for me to say yes they would since that would be a lie." Good point, but guess what, not mutually exclusive here, kids. It's still bad customer service when you can't put a second bloody number on the work form and say "Buzz at this # if no answer at first #." I ended the conversation with "If I had an option, I'd so be switching from Comcast." And hung up the phone. I hope they recorded that phone conversation for customer service whatever it is they say they do, but we all know they don't. And who wants to bet money that the service guy has issues with what I want him to do on Friday and he refuses to do it. Fuckers.

I think that's all the utility stuff I have to switch over…of course, I now need to beg, borrow and steal friends to help me move my shit on Saturday. The problem is that I have heavy ass furniture and not a whole lot of what I would call burly, heavy-lifting-stuff-type of friends. Ah well, I guess I'll send out the e-mail and see who is sweet and kind and generous and bored enough to help me out on Saturday. I'm going to try to move stuff throughout the week as the rooms are painted so that all that has to be moved on Saturday is the big stuff: bed, dressers, bookshelves, couches, TV. I guess we'll see how organised I am – not very.

Well, I've listened to all four CDs from the Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the 80s Underground and I have to say that I love it. There's only one song on it that I could eliminate which is pretty damn good for a boxset with over 80s songs in it.

I guess that's it for now…kind of a boring entry today, but hell, you all should be used to that by now!!!

Have a good one and keep your fingers crossed that the move goes smoothly!!!