Well, dear readers, there are days and there are days and yesterday was a day and a half, truly one of the weirdest days ever – and yet, in another way, a great day. It was kind of a push me-pull you day. I got up at six and announced our new CD. Within minutes orders began coming in, so I printed out a lot of them and then decided to go try and get some more sleep. I went back to bed at seven-thirty and slept three more hours. I then got up. So far, so good. I moseyed on over to the computer and saw I had an incredible number of orders. I began to print, but everything was behaving very erratically. I then tried to go to a couple of websites and no pages would load. So, I called Time Warner to see if they were down, although the modem lights were working correctly and I had plenty of signal. They did their usual troubleshooting, none of which ever works. When they’d ascertained that everything on their end looked fine, I then called Apple. The first person I talked to spent an hour with me doing all sorts of troubleshooting, all to no avail. He’d gone about as fer as he could go, so he kicked me up to the next level, one of their senior technicians. I spent two hours on the phone with him (by this time I was going a little berserk). Again, he ran every kind of test, he determined that my router was fine and the modem was fine and my laptop was fine and everything was fine except I could not connect to the Internet no matter how many times I unplugged the router and the modem. He had me plug directly into the computer and that got me online, so we knew the modem was working. He finally said he needed to talk to someone even higher up than himself, so he asked if he could call back in fifteen minutes. I said sure. I finally got dressed and did my morning ablutions at around two-thirty. He then called back and said we were going to do a few more things, and he sent me some “folder” in an e-mail. But before we did anything with that, he tried one other thing – we went into the network settings and changed the DNS IP addresses to an open IP rather than the Time Warner IP. And that did the trick, after which he said to me bemusedly, “Why didn’t I think of that two hours ago.” I wrote down everything we’d done, and I now have this fellow’s direct e-mail and number. But for now, everything is working fine. He suggested I might want to get a new modem, so I may go to the Time Warner office and get one. He also suggested I call Time Warner and tell them that their DNS IPs were not communicating properly with the router (that’s what the trouble was) – I did so and that was finally that. It was three o’clock and I hadn’t done one other thing. I then began printing out what by that time were close to three hundred orders. I got about 100 of them done, then ran to the mail place, picked up a package, and then came back home, printed out another 100 orders, and then ran to Jerry’s Deli and had something to eat. I then came home and printed out all the other orders. And that was the best part of the day – I had the biggest single day of orders in Kritzerland’s history, close to four hundred orders which, for us, is extraordinary. I never had my telephonic conversation for all the reasons stated above, but I did leave a message so the person knows I called. After all that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled From Paris, With Love, a rather inane title for a not-great film, but funnily it was just the sort of movie that was good to watch. It was produced by Luc Besson (I’m a fan), and directed by the same guy who did Taken with Liam Neeson. I enjoyed the latter, as silly as it was. This film is even sillier, and features yet another oversized performance by an oversized John Travolta, playing alongside yet another one of those faceless, whispering Hollywood actors – I had no idea who he was, but I’m sure he’s been in other pictures. The first twenty minutes was confusing and irritating, but once they got the real story in motion (as silly as it was), then I just sort of rolled with it and enjoyed it for the trifle it was. Unlike Taken, this film was a box-office flop – part of that is due to the terrible title and the rest due to a really not very compelling story. The transfer is excellent and the sound kicky and robust.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really need this push me-pull you day to be over. What am I, Dr. Dolittle all of a sudden?
Today, I am relaxing. That is what I’m doing today. I have to catch up on some writing, and I have only a few errands and whatnot to attend to, but that’s it. The helper situation did not change and I’m trying to have a mutual friend intervene and get the invoices back. I’m done writing and leaving messages – I sent one yesterday, a long, nice one, and said everything I could possibly say – to no response. Maybe she’s not even reading them, and frankly I just don’t care anymore – just want to get the invoices back and then I do not want any further contact.
Tomorrow and Thursday are meetings and meals, and I’m not sure what’s happening after that. I will hopefully have a new helper picked tomorrow and if so I think we’ll address packages either on Sunday or next Monday or both days, since there are so many. I have to order a lot more boxes, too, which I’ll do today.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe do a jog, write, do some errands and whatnot, eat something fun but light, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Even though we’ve done it before, it’s been a while, so in honor of Promises, Promises, what are your all-time favorite Bacharach and David songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we end this push me-pull you day and hopefully have a wonderful, beautiful, profitable day – and don’t forget to send excellent vibes and xylophones for a good telephonic call.