Yes, that's what is happening as I type this, 34 and snowing outside. It's supposed to snow most of the day, it started last night sometime, then be just cloudy and in the 40's again tomorrow. It has just started to become very early spring like. Some of the fields have started to show through the snow layers again and much of the snow left on our and others is mostly pretty much ice now. With our pretty dense tree line we still have from no snow to about three feet in spots., but its slowly melting and much that's been in the sun the few days its poked out from the clouds is down to dirt from snow. Still freezes every night though! Stacy and I haven't been doing to much yet with it still raining or snowing on the weekends.
I might have mention in an earlier post that we'd recently gotten new cell phones. We'd been eligible for "upgrades" for over a year, but there just hadn't been too much out that I was interested in. If we still were living the 'fast track' back in California I'm sure I'd have gotten the I-Phone or something like it when it came out. Daughter Sandy 'lusted' for one and got one with the 2nd generation release. She showed it off to me and yeah, I like all the stuff it can do, but like so much of the new cool technology of cell phones, like the adds for things like "watch TV from your phone", "surf the web with your phone", " get turn by turn directions with your phone" for ONLY $9.95 a month. All these "really great things" that seldom mentions the COST of doing all these cool things, with your phone except in the minuscule "mouse print" in the adds!
I think just about all mid level and up cell phones are Internet capable now, and most recently daughter Laura had been doing a little surfing with her phone while at work, after all it can't be that much right? It was just a little here and there over the month, well 6 cents a kilobyte later and a almost $300.00 additional phone bill for that little surfing! You can pay it like that or you can pay $30.00 a month extra for 'connectivity'. Sandy said she's paying about $100.00 a month for her data plan but its also her business phone and for her travels, and the business expense on taxes, I guess can make it worth it. And don't get me going on the text message fees!!!!! After MUCH grumbling over it with Stacy, I finally relented and let her bump up our plan to "Unlimited Text and Photos" . We text a bit to different people and Laura and Stacy text a lot so it has been spend money to save a little bit. At the current texting rate of 25 cents to send and receive a message we'd probably go over that $30.00 almost every month.
Okay, enough ranting over the cell carriers, I'll talk about the phones we got. I got the Samsung Propel, I liked the bottom slide full Qwerty keyboard. That same slide hides the 1.3 MP camera and it has the ability for video and can actually do as an entry or mid level phone that about three years ago would have cost about $500.00 as a high end 'smart phone'. It can hold 1000 contacts in the address book, can't think of a thousand people I'd ever call enough to fill it up though! Calendar, converter, calculator, voice recorder, decent sized screen for my 51 year old eyes, big number display on calls, and if I wanted to pay for it the phone can do all the stuff I'd listed above in those paragraphs. But really, I have never been interested in watching a TV show or movie on a little two or three inch screen. For that reason only one of my MP3 players has that ability, and I've never used it for that.
Stacy finally went 'high end' this time as the Samsung Eternity caught her eye. Very much like the I-Phone with full touch screen useage, she thought it was pretty nice and so far is pretty happy with it. Almost a smart phone, hers has the similar 1000 name phone book and all the things I listed mine can do. Her camera is 3.1 MP and the display is much sharper with photos and such. She really likes the way the device lets your finger feel like it's actually touching a button when you're typing on the screen. And she can enter text or a number either the 'old way' strait up and down (portrait) at 3 2's for A or such, or she can turn it on its side (landscape) and a full Qwerty touch pad appears on the screen. Stacy's can also, if we wanted to pay for it, do movies, music and all the stuff mine can do 'on-line', IF we wanted to pay for it! Hers can also be a mobile modem if she wanted it to be. Just hook up to a computer and start surfing!! Hmmmmm... maybe there's a application one can get that puts a running meter on a computer so one could watch the time/cost as it climbs if one was doing that mobile modem stuff???
We're still in that 30 day trail where we can exchange for something else if the phone doesn't work out for you, I played with hers quite a bit to see if maybe I'd like that one better. After sending myself many text messages to see if I'd like the 'virtual' key board and such, I'm going to stick with the Propel and let Stacy have the glitzy gadget this time. I already like some features mine has that hers doesn't and I'm used to the smaller but still fast keyboard on the Propel.
Anyway, new phones and the subsidized 2 years commitment to really pay for them, yeah, these will be okay I think. If it breaks, well these have sim cards so I'll use my Nokia again or get something like a unlocked TRIO or something from E-Bay, so I don't worry anymore.
Stacy's father will be 87 next week, and he's always said how nobody in his family made past 56! He's got them and a goodly portion of the population beat! He used to be a true 'energizer bunny' and would often work us out on our trips to build on our house over the years. The past couple of years though he's really slowing down and feeling his age now.
My father is recovering from a bout of pneumonia but is doing better. I'm hoping he'll fully recover from it very soon. I know they're waiting for spring like we are. Looking forward to some warmer weather and some green again.
I had bacterial pneumonia back in the early 1990's, if Stacy hadn't taken me to the doctor after a few weeks of not getting better, I was told I could have died from it! I vividly recall being out of breath just getting up and going to the bathroom, a feeling I hope I'll never have to feel again!
As far as I know Mike has been surviving all the job cuts at Boeing that make the local (Spokane) news all the time. And Sandy also so far has been surviving, although several people she new and liked were let go at her job. She said her company's plan is next step, across the board 20% pay cut, a month later if that doesn't help then another round of layoffs. Where she works isn't that big a place so she's still concerned.
Laura is doing okay, she really enjoyed Stacy and Sandy's visit a couple of weeks ago to see her, Tyler and Russell. Laura said the other day that she and Russell are thinking about moving to another area where they can get possibly better paying jobs. Their lease is up in May so that's why the talk of a move. We'll see how that works as the time gets close.
Sean said he's doing good, he wants to start maybe part time with a nearby company that rebuilds turbine engines. I said while he might like that, what about any time at home? He often has long stretches of required overtime where he works now, so I'm not quite sure when he thinks he'd be able to work at the other company, especially if he was needed to work another stretch of required overtime. At least he is doing well where he works, he's been a supervisor for almost three years now and he's only 25 so we're pretty proud of him.
Well its still snowing outside and now its 30 degrees as I wind this down for this installment.
I'll be typing more later, Tad
I might have mention in an earlier post that we'd recently gotten new cell phones. We'd been eligible for "upgrades" for over a year, but there just hadn't been too much out that I was interested in. If we still were living the 'fast track' back in California I'm sure I'd have gotten the I-Phone or something like it when it came out. Daughter Sandy 'lusted' for one and got one with the 2nd generation release. She showed it off to me and yeah, I like all the stuff it can do, but like so much of the new cool technology of cell phones, like the adds for things like "watch TV from your phone", "surf the web with your phone", " get turn by turn directions with your phone" for ONLY $9.95 a month. All these "really great things" that seldom mentions the COST of doing all these cool things, with your phone except in the minuscule "mouse print" in the adds!
I think just about all mid level and up cell phones are Internet capable now, and most recently daughter Laura had been doing a little surfing with her phone while at work, after all it can't be that much right? It was just a little here and there over the month, well 6 cents a kilobyte later and a almost $300.00 additional phone bill for that little surfing! You can pay it like that or you can pay $30.00 a month extra for 'connectivity'. Sandy said she's paying about $100.00 a month for her data plan but its also her business phone and for her travels, and the business expense on taxes, I guess can make it worth it. And don't get me going on the text message fees!!!!! After MUCH grumbling over it with Stacy, I finally relented and let her bump up our plan to "Unlimited Text and Photos" . We text a bit to different people and Laura and Stacy text a lot so it has been spend money to save a little bit. At the current texting rate of 25 cents to send and receive a message we'd probably go over that $30.00 almost every month.
Okay, enough ranting over the cell carriers, I'll talk about the phones we got. I got the Samsung Propel, I liked the bottom slide full Qwerty keyboard. That same slide hides the 1.3 MP camera and it has the ability for video and can actually do as an entry or mid level phone that about three years ago would have cost about $500.00 as a high end 'smart phone'. It can hold 1000 contacts in the address book, can't think of a thousand people I'd ever call enough to fill it up though! Calendar, converter, calculator, voice recorder, decent sized screen for my 51 year old eyes, big number display on calls, and if I wanted to pay for it the phone can do all the stuff I'd listed above in those paragraphs. But really, I have never been interested in watching a TV show or movie on a little two or three inch screen. For that reason only one of my MP3 players has that ability, and I've never used it for that.
Stacy finally went 'high end' this time as the Samsung Eternity caught her eye. Very much like the I-Phone with full touch screen useage, she thought it was pretty nice and so far is pretty happy with it. Almost a smart phone, hers has the similar 1000 name phone book and all the things I listed mine can do. Her camera is 3.1 MP and the display is much sharper with photos and such. She really likes the way the device lets your finger feel like it's actually touching a button when you're typing on the screen. And she can enter text or a number either the 'old way' strait up and down (portrait) at 3 2's for A or such, or she can turn it on its side (landscape) and a full Qwerty touch pad appears on the screen. Stacy's can also, if we wanted to pay for it, do movies, music and all the stuff mine can do 'on-line', IF we wanted to pay for it! Hers can also be a mobile modem if she wanted it to be. Just hook up to a computer and start surfing!! Hmmmmm... maybe there's a application one can get that puts a running meter on a computer so one could watch the time/cost as it climbs if one was doing that mobile modem stuff???
We're still in that 30 day trail where we can exchange for something else if the phone doesn't work out for you, I played with hers quite a bit to see if maybe I'd like that one better. After sending myself many text messages to see if I'd like the 'virtual' key board and such, I'm going to stick with the Propel and let Stacy have the glitzy gadget this time. I already like some features mine has that hers doesn't and I'm used to the smaller but still fast keyboard on the Propel.
Anyway, new phones and the subsidized 2 years commitment to really pay for them, yeah, these will be okay I think. If it breaks, well these have sim cards so I'll use my Nokia again or get something like a unlocked TRIO or something from E-Bay, so I don't worry anymore.
Stacy's father will be 87 next week, and he's always said how nobody in his family made past 56! He's got them and a goodly portion of the population beat! He used to be a true 'energizer bunny' and would often work us out on our trips to build on our house over the years. The past couple of years though he's really slowing down and feeling his age now.
My father is recovering from a bout of pneumonia but is doing better. I'm hoping he'll fully recover from it very soon. I know they're waiting for spring like we are. Looking forward to some warmer weather and some green again.
I had bacterial pneumonia back in the early 1990's, if Stacy hadn't taken me to the doctor after a few weeks of not getting better, I was told I could have died from it! I vividly recall being out of breath just getting up and going to the bathroom, a feeling I hope I'll never have to feel again!
As far as I know Mike has been surviving all the job cuts at Boeing that make the local (Spokane) news all the time. And Sandy also so far has been surviving, although several people she new and liked were let go at her job. She said her company's plan is next step, across the board 20% pay cut, a month later if that doesn't help then another round of layoffs. Where she works isn't that big a place so she's still concerned.
Laura is doing okay, she really enjoyed Stacy and Sandy's visit a couple of weeks ago to see her, Tyler and Russell. Laura said the other day that she and Russell are thinking about moving to another area where they can get possibly better paying jobs. Their lease is up in May so that's why the talk of a move. We'll see how that works as the time gets close.
Sean said he's doing good, he wants to start maybe part time with a nearby company that rebuilds turbine engines. I said while he might like that, what about any time at home? He often has long stretches of required overtime where he works now, so I'm not quite sure when he thinks he'd be able to work at the other company, especially if he was needed to work another stretch of required overtime. At least he is doing well where he works, he's been a supervisor for almost three years now and he's only 25 so we're pretty proud of him.
Well its still snowing outside and now its 30 degrees as I wind this down for this installment.
I'll be typing more later, Tad
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