Anyone who has followed this blog for a while is probably familiar with our stormy relationship with tv services. We've tried more than once to ditch Comcast and get AT&T's U-verse, to no avail. Yep, we're too far to get a signal because of old lines in our neighborhood. So we've grudgingly stuck with the cable company.
Well, that has finally ended. We're done. I called and canceled service this morning. We ordered DirecTv last night, to be installed tomorrow. Yes, I canceled before the new service is up and running, but we haven't had cable since Tuesday and weren't going to have it back until Monday. At least we're saving a day or two of paying for service we can't use.
So here's the story. The cable suddenly went out Tuesday. I didn't call right away, because sometimes it's just a flaky connection. I wanted Chris to take a look first. He couldn't make it work, so we were pretty sure it was once again a bad box. We've had several before.
I called Wednesday and let them walk me through various steps to confirm that, yep, the box is bad. I know the drill: get a new box. Only problem? The service center in Bloomington is gone. The nearest one is in Columbus. They offered to send a tech to switch out the box, at no cost, with the caveat that if they did find it wasn't the box we might be charged. The time-frame? Thursday between 1 and 5. No problem. I was going to be home all afternoon.
Thursday. No one came. Apparently the tech did call, but I missed answering and there was no message. When I called at 4:50, they told me they had called, but since I didn't answer, they didn't come. Um, aren't those courtesy calls anyway? Why didn't they come knock on the door? Or leave a message? Seriously, even a message that I needed to call and reschedule would have been better. The soonest they could schedule another tech to come out? Monday afternoon.
So what would you do? Would you drive an hour to Columbus, then an hour back, to replace the box? Or wait for the tech to come Monday? Since this wasn't our first experience with poor customer service from Comcast, we chose option 3. We jumped ship and signed up for satellite service. They can install it on Saturday. Considering it was 11 p.m. Thursday when we did this, I think Saturday afternoon is darn reasonable.
Want to know the kicker? When I called Comcast this morning to cancel, they tried to make it all my fault. I didn't answer the phone. Their notes showed there was no way to leave a message. Bullshit. My answering machine works just fine, on the 4th ring. I even got 2 messages on it yesterday. Bye-bye Comcast!
I know this is getting long, but I have a few more things I'd like to mention. First, have you ever noticed that people will recommend their satellite or other alternative service but NO ONE likes their cable company? It seems consumers are realizing this but the cable companies aren't.
Second, related to the first, when I posted to Twitter and Facebook last night asking for recommendations and griping about our experience, I got several interesting comments that I would like to share:
Third, just for those interested, the reason we chose DirecTv is that they have the best 3D programming, which we can't take advantage of yet, but we'll eventually get a 3D tv, what with Chris's avocation being 3D, so we wanted to be prepared.
"Good for you! Eff Comcast and their awful customer service!"
"I just saw you went with DirecTV. I love our Dish Network, although we still need to get them off our ATT bill!"
"we are planning on doing this when we move but we move in 20 days so we are waiting till then.""I'm glad to be done with Comcast altogether. We always had great techs with DirecTv and good customer service."
"Comcast is ridiculous. Isn't it more of a courtesy call to say they're on their way? They should still show... We liked Directv."
"We got fed up w/ comcast & cancelled. We just have Netflix right now & the local HD channels that are free."
"one of the reasons I hated Comcast, at least in this area."
"Thinking about doing the same next week!"
Third, just for those interested, the reason we chose DirecTv is that they have the best 3D programming, which we can't take advantage of yet, but we'll eventually get a 3D tv, what with Chris's avocation being 3D, so we wanted to be prepared.
Also, if anyone wants to switch to DirecTv, let me know and I can give a referral through their "Refer a Friend" program where both of us would save $10 for 10 months on our bills. (You need to sign up through a special website or phone number and give them our account number to take advantage.)
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Friday, June 24, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
SIREN Energy Challenge
Last year, we participated in the Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network's (SIREN) Energy Challenge. The goal was to reduce electric energy usage.
Each month, I entered our current electric usage and the previous year's data into a spreadsheet. The reductions were based on an individual household's consumption, so the percentage reduction was calculated and a winner was declared each quarter. There were quarterly prizes.
We actually won the first quarter, with the largest percentage reduction of all the participants. We received a free solar assessment and a Kill-a-Watt meter as our prizes. Our energy use actually increased slightly during the summer due to the hotter temperatures, but we were back in the game for the 4th quarter. While we didn't win, we did manage to reduce our electricity consumption by an average 22% in 2010 compared to 2009.
Tonight, at SIREN's monthly meeting, they had a special presentation where they asked the quarterly winners to talk briefly about how they accomplished their energy reductions. The winner of the contest was announced - a family that saved an average 46%!
Many of the strategies were similar amongst the three of us who spoke (the same household won the 3rd and 4th quarters). What everyone found amazing in our story was that most of the major things we have done to reduce our energy consumption were made prior to 2009. We saved 22% the hard way, yet we didn't go to the extremes that one family did.
Are you wondering what the others did?
The winning family (2 parents, 7 year old twins) installed timers on everything. They raised the temperature on their central air conditioning to 85º, but used 2 window units (one in the main living area during the day and one in the kids' bedroom at night) which actually reduced the humidity more so that they were comfortable with the higher temperature. They cycled their pool pump on and off throughout the day rather than leaving it on all the time. They hung laundry out to dry. And so on.
The 3rd/4th quarter winners really went to extremes to reduce their consumption, using a camp shower all summer so they could turn their water heater off, not using air conditioning, setting their thermostat extremely low in winter (58º!). I don't remember all the things they did, but I am not willing to go to those extremes.
So what did we do?
Notice that the big things were all before 2009, except the refrigerator (which was probably responsible for much of our impressive savings) and the old freezer (which only effected January through March). Sometimes it is the little things, the habits we change. What's that saying? A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step? Well, energy reduction starts with a single switch (off).
We still have work to do. We are currently saving for a new HVAC system, which will do incredible things to reduce both electricity and gas (furnace and water heater are gas). We would love to install solar panels. We may replace more CFLs with LEDs as they burn out, although they aren't necessarily what we want everywhere. A big benefit there is that LEDs don't have mercury, so we don't have to worry about disposal. I need to try to hang laundry out more so we use the dryer less. (I did mention dryers are energy hogs, didn't I? Next time you run yours, go look at your meter spin. It will sicken you.)
Each month, I entered our current electric usage and the previous year's data into a spreadsheet. The reductions were based on an individual household's consumption, so the percentage reduction was calculated and a winner was declared each quarter. There were quarterly prizes.
We actually won the first quarter, with the largest percentage reduction of all the participants. We received a free solar assessment and a Kill-a-Watt meter as our prizes. Our energy use actually increased slightly during the summer due to the hotter temperatures, but we were back in the game for the 4th quarter. While we didn't win, we did manage to reduce our electricity consumption by an average 22% in 2010 compared to 2009.
Tonight, at SIREN's monthly meeting, they had a special presentation where they asked the quarterly winners to talk briefly about how they accomplished their energy reductions. The winner of the contest was announced - a family that saved an average 46%!
Many of the strategies were similar amongst the three of us who spoke (the same household won the 3rd and 4th quarters). What everyone found amazing in our story was that most of the major things we have done to reduce our energy consumption were made prior to 2009. We saved 22% the hard way, yet we didn't go to the extremes that one family did.
Are you wondering what the others did?
The winning family (2 parents, 7 year old twins) installed timers on everything. They raised the temperature on their central air conditioning to 85º, but used 2 window units (one in the main living area during the day and one in the kids' bedroom at night) which actually reduced the humidity more so that they were comfortable with the higher temperature. They cycled their pool pump on and off throughout the day rather than leaving it on all the time. They hung laundry out to dry. And so on.
The 3rd/4th quarter winners really went to extremes to reduce their consumption, using a camp shower all summer so they could turn their water heater off, not using air conditioning, setting their thermostat extremely low in winter (58º!). I don't remember all the things they did, but I am not willing to go to those extremes.
So what did we do?
- Well, after buying our house in December 2003, we noticed that the den and some other rooms were very drafty. In February and March of 2004 we replaced the original single pane windows with double pane windows. We could feel the difference in the comfort level immediately and our gas bill went down right away.
- We have replaced almost every appliance in the house, which, with the exception of the 2002 water heater, dated to 1986. (2004: dishwasher and stove, 2006: washer and dryer, 2009: refrigerator).
- We decommissioned a chest freezer that we were underutilizing in early 2009.
- In 2006 we installed extra insulation in the attics.
- Chris has the computer programmed to automatically shut down at night.
- We turn the power strip that our stereo equipment is plugged in to off when it's not in use.
- We've replaced the lightbulbs in the house with CFLs and have actually bought our first LED.
- We set the air conditioning between 78º and 80º in the summer and the furnace to 68º to 70º during the winter. When we can, we open windows and run the ceiling fans Chris installed in 2006.
- I hang laundry on the line outside, and occasionally in the basement, although not as often as I should. (Dryers use crazy amounts of electricity.)
Notice that the big things were all before 2009, except the refrigerator (which was probably responsible for much of our impressive savings) and the old freezer (which only effected January through March). Sometimes it is the little things, the habits we change. What's that saying? A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step? Well, energy reduction starts with a single switch (off).
We still have work to do. We are currently saving for a new HVAC system, which will do incredible things to reduce both electricity and gas (furnace and water heater are gas). We would love to install solar panels. We may replace more CFLs with LEDs as they burn out, although they aren't necessarily what we want everywhere. A big benefit there is that LEDs don't have mercury, so we don't have to worry about disposal. I need to try to hang laundry out more so we use the dryer less. (I did mention dryers are energy hogs, didn't I? Next time you run yours, go look at your meter spin. It will sicken you.)
Friday, September 17, 2010
TV saga
As anyone following me on Twitter or Facebook knows, we have had issues upgrading our tv service.
It started several weeks ago when Comcast informed us of their 'digital migration' - a fancy way of saying they will no longer have analog service and we had to get a digital tuner.
For several years, we have talked about trying AT&T's U-Verse service. We had tried once before, in January 2009, but were too far for the signal. A lot has changed since then and the signal supposedly goes further now, so we decided to use this as our impetus to switch.
Last Friday the installation tech came out around 10 am to hook us up... and found all sorts of errors on the line. He called for a service tech to come check the lines; they cleaned up a lot of problems, but still not a clean enough signal. So, many hours later (almost 7 pm), and after rewiring from the pole to the house, we were left with the promise that another service ticket had been placed and hopefully we could reschedule an installation soon. Chris got on Twitter and tracked down someone at AT&T who promised to look into it.
Tuesday I received a call from AT&T tier two support asking if we had been updated on the situation. We hadn't. Turns out someone had come out Sunday and determined that we are just too far so our order was canceled. I'm not sure if it was Chris's tweets, but I guess I should be happy someone called to let us know. And we got a new telephone line that isn't in between the cable and electric (you have to see our outside wires to understand that). And they fixed some problems on the lines that will hopefully mean our phone doesn't go out every time we have a lot of rain.
Thus, the trek to Comcast's office on Henderson Thursday morning to pick up a digital tuner. (We have thought about switching to satellite, but there are a lot of trees around us. Plus, we have heard about a lot of problems during lousy weather. So, we'll stick with cable for now.) Picking up the tuner was easy. The problems started when Chris hooked it up.
Around 5:30 pm, after getting home, Chris hooked up the tuner. Remembering that the woman at Comcast mentioned having to call to activate it, something which was NOT in the less-than-satisfactory directions, I called the 800 number. The automated message mentioned it might take up to 45 minutes to completely download the program guide.
Flash forward to 7:30, after eating dinner and playing. The boys like to watch a show before bed; it helps wind them down. Still no tv. No channels, no channel guide, the remote did nothing. So I called to report trouble and got another signal sent with the same caution about taking up to 45 minutes.
8:30. The boys are now in bed. The tv is still not working. Chris unplugged and re-plugged the unit. He did some digging in the basement and changed the wiring so it doesn't go through the vcr... and found a very old trap in the house on the cable line, which he removed. While he did that, I called technical support. The first call got dropped. I called back and got forwarded to a 'specialist'. As he was asking about how things were wired (understandable to need to know if it was a simple wiring issue - I passed that to Chris since he understands all of that better than I do), it suddenly started working.
I'm not sure if it was Chris's fiddling with the wiring or if one of the activation or reboot signals finally made it through.
We thought all was well until this morning when we turned it on at 7:38.... to find only the last station watched available. And the program listing at the bottom of the screen didn't go away. And the time on it didn't change.
I'm sure you've guessed - yes, I called tech support again. While the very nice woman I spoke to walked me through trying to get the remote to do anything (it wouldn't even turn it off), it suddenly started working at 8:00. She had no idea why it did that.
Ah, I'm sure you think all was well, just as I did.... until I looked at the dvr function and realized it did not work. The message on the screen that it was unavailable was a pretty good clue.
So on to the second call to tech support this morning, where I talked to another very nice woman, who had, coincidentally, worked at the Bloomington office before. After much trying of this and that, she discovered that our box was mis-coded in their system as not being a dvr. Luckily she was able to correct that, after which she had me unplug the box to reboot it, then she sent a new activation signal.... and it worked.
At this point, all is well. I've taped one show to test the dvr and turned the box off and on with no problems. The full guide doesn't seem to show (it goes about 2 hours out and then falls off) but I hope that will correct itself. I'm tired of calling tech support..... and I really don't even want to contemplate changing services again any time soon!
It started several weeks ago when Comcast informed us of their 'digital migration' - a fancy way of saying they will no longer have analog service and we had to get a digital tuner.
For several years, we have talked about trying AT&T's U-Verse service. We had tried once before, in January 2009, but were too far for the signal. A lot has changed since then and the signal supposedly goes further now, so we decided to use this as our impetus to switch.
Last Friday the installation tech came out around 10 am to hook us up... and found all sorts of errors on the line. He called for a service tech to come check the lines; they cleaned up a lot of problems, but still not a clean enough signal. So, many hours later (almost 7 pm), and after rewiring from the pole to the house, we were left with the promise that another service ticket had been placed and hopefully we could reschedule an installation soon. Chris got on Twitter and tracked down someone at AT&T who promised to look into it.
Tuesday I received a call from AT&T tier two support asking if we had been updated on the situation. We hadn't. Turns out someone had come out Sunday and determined that we are just too far so our order was canceled. I'm not sure if it was Chris's tweets, but I guess I should be happy someone called to let us know. And we got a new telephone line that isn't in between the cable and electric (you have to see our outside wires to understand that). And they fixed some problems on the lines that will hopefully mean our phone doesn't go out every time we have a lot of rain.
Thus, the trek to Comcast's office on Henderson Thursday morning to pick up a digital tuner. (We have thought about switching to satellite, but there are a lot of trees around us. Plus, we have heard about a lot of problems during lousy weather. So, we'll stick with cable for now.) Picking up the tuner was easy. The problems started when Chris hooked it up.
Around 5:30 pm, after getting home, Chris hooked up the tuner. Remembering that the woman at Comcast mentioned having to call to activate it, something which was NOT in the less-than-satisfactory directions, I called the 800 number. The automated message mentioned it might take up to 45 minutes to completely download the program guide.
Flash forward to 7:30, after eating dinner and playing. The boys like to watch a show before bed; it helps wind them down. Still no tv. No channels, no channel guide, the remote did nothing. So I called to report trouble and got another signal sent with the same caution about taking up to 45 minutes.
8:30. The boys are now in bed. The tv is still not working. Chris unplugged and re-plugged the unit. He did some digging in the basement and changed the wiring so it doesn't go through the vcr... and found a very old trap in the house on the cable line, which he removed. While he did that, I called technical support. The first call got dropped. I called back and got forwarded to a 'specialist'. As he was asking about how things were wired (understandable to need to know if it was a simple wiring issue - I passed that to Chris since he understands all of that better than I do), it suddenly started working.
I'm not sure if it was Chris's fiddling with the wiring or if one of the activation or reboot signals finally made it through.
We thought all was well until this morning when we turned it on at 7:38.... to find only the last station watched available. And the program listing at the bottom of the screen didn't go away. And the time on it didn't change.
I'm sure you've guessed - yes, I called tech support again. While the very nice woman I spoke to walked me through trying to get the remote to do anything (it wouldn't even turn it off), it suddenly started working at 8:00. She had no idea why it did that.
Ah, I'm sure you think all was well, just as I did.... until I looked at the dvr function and realized it did not work. The message on the screen that it was unavailable was a pretty good clue.
So on to the second call to tech support this morning, where I talked to another very nice woman, who had, coincidentally, worked at the Bloomington office before. After much trying of this and that, she discovered that our box was mis-coded in their system as not being a dvr. Luckily she was able to correct that, after which she had me unplug the box to reboot it, then she sent a new activation signal.... and it worked.
At this point, all is well. I've taped one show to test the dvr and turned the box off and on with no problems. The full guide doesn't seem to show (it goes about 2 hours out and then falls off) but I hope that will correct itself. I'm tired of calling tech support..... and I really don't even want to contemplate changing services again any time soon!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
AT&T redeems itself some
We have had a lot of problems with our phone and/or internet service through AT&T lately. Our phone was dead last week from at least Monday when I noticed it until Friday evening. A week or so before our internet kept going out.
Calling and dealing with technical support has been an exercise in frustration. The biggest problem was that some of the techs sounded like they weren't sure what the error messages I was getting meant (they may have, but their voices didn't reflect that). And they all managed to implicitly or explicitly indicate that problem was on my end, with my equipment - and every time it was a problem on their end!
I did talk to someone in customer service mid-week last week who was very helpful. She was able to explain things well, gave us a credit for our internet outage (the phone outage apparently is supposed to have an automatic credit on our next bill) and most importantly sounded like she knew what she was talking about.
So I googled for an email address for someone to write and complain to. The person whose email I found was not the correct person, but she actually forwarded my message on. I received an email message in return asking for contact information and our location so the right regional executive office could contact me.
Friday evening I received a call from the Texas Executive Office while the technician was actually here. And I actually just got another call (Tuesday) from the Executive Office (the number was Indy) to make sure our phone was working and we weren't having additional problems.
All in all, while it was very frustrating dealing with repair/tech support, I appreciate that when I complained it was taken seriously and someone called me.
Oh, and one of the things the customer service rep mentioned is that one reason they are really pushing U-verse in our area is that it is a lot more reliable. She suggested that as a way to reduce some of the problems since it runs on new fiber optic cables. It would cost a little more per month, but we are seriously thinking about it. We had tried a year and a half ago but the signal didn't reach us. They have done a lot of upgrading since then and we should be able to get it.
Calling and dealing with technical support has been an exercise in frustration. The biggest problem was that some of the techs sounded like they weren't sure what the error messages I was getting meant (they may have, but their voices didn't reflect that). And they all managed to implicitly or explicitly indicate that problem was on my end, with my equipment - and every time it was a problem on their end!
I did talk to someone in customer service mid-week last week who was very helpful. She was able to explain things well, gave us a credit for our internet outage (the phone outage apparently is supposed to have an automatic credit on our next bill) and most importantly sounded like she knew what she was talking about.
So I googled for an email address for someone to write and complain to. The person whose email I found was not the correct person, but she actually forwarded my message on. I received an email message in return asking for contact information and our location so the right regional executive office could contact me.
Friday evening I received a call from the Texas Executive Office while the technician was actually here. And I actually just got another call (Tuesday) from the Executive Office (the number was Indy) to make sure our phone was working and we weren't having additional problems.
All in all, while it was very frustrating dealing with repair/tech support, I appreciate that when I complained it was taken seriously and someone called me.
Oh, and one of the things the customer service rep mentioned is that one reason they are really pushing U-verse in our area is that it is a lot more reliable. She suggested that as a way to reduce some of the problems since it runs on new fiber optic cables. It would cost a little more per month, but we are seriously thinking about it. We had tried a year and a half ago but the signal didn't reach us. They have done a lot of upgrading since then and we should be able to get it.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Project for an engineer
Ok, so it may be totally off the wall and impractical, but the other day, as I was driving, I thought about snow removal techniques used in various cities. There was an interesting AP article the other day about how some cities handle snow (sorry, couldn't find it on the AP site). New York's method of melting the snow made me think.
Is there a simple solution? What about heated streets and sidewalks? Some houses use radiant heating, plus the sidewalks on campus tend to be clear where the steam tunnels run, which gave me the idea. Could streets and sidewalks be installed in such a way as to allow radiant heating somehow?
Think of the possibilities! Turn on the heat as snow starts and streets could be kept clear as the water runs into drainage systems. With monitoring, the heat could be turned off and on as needed with minimal expense in terms of staffing. And the monitoring could come from a few city employees and/or police and/or cc monitoring. If done with electricity, you'd still have to pay some electricity usage, but that would probably be less than manpower, gas, salt, etc. Steam tunnels could be effective in some areas, with the steam used to heat buildings, etc. I admit, installing a system would probably be very costly, but could it save money in the long run? Both for a city in not having to plow streets and possibly pay overtime to drivers or police and for citizens by having fewer accidents and keeping roads open so businesses could stay open.
So, I'm no engineer, but if someone is and wants to comment either why this is a great idea or why it would never work, I'd love to 'hear' some feedback. Maybe someone already thought of this and it just wouldn't work.
Is there a simple solution? What about heated streets and sidewalks? Some houses use radiant heating, plus the sidewalks on campus tend to be clear where the steam tunnels run, which gave me the idea. Could streets and sidewalks be installed in such a way as to allow radiant heating somehow?
Think of the possibilities! Turn on the heat as snow starts and streets could be kept clear as the water runs into drainage systems. With monitoring, the heat could be turned off and on as needed with minimal expense in terms of staffing. And the monitoring could come from a few city employees and/or police and/or cc monitoring. If done with electricity, you'd still have to pay some electricity usage, but that would probably be less than manpower, gas, salt, etc. Steam tunnels could be effective in some areas, with the steam used to heat buildings, etc. I admit, installing a system would probably be very costly, but could it save money in the long run? Both for a city in not having to plow streets and possibly pay overtime to drivers or police and for citizens by having fewer accidents and keeping roads open so businesses could stay open.
So, I'm no engineer, but if someone is and wants to comment either why this is a great idea or why it would never work, I'd love to 'hear' some feedback. Maybe someone already thought of this and it just wouldn't work.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Snowy drive
I'm from the Chicago area so a little snow doesn't bother me. But Friday night's drive home in the snow? That was a little tense.
I drove the boys to Urbana to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. When we started out after lunch, the roads weren't bad at all. The snow in Bloomington had changed back to rain and we didn't encounter snow on the road until we were north of Martinsville. While the roads were snowy, they weren't in bad shape and we were only going about 5 mph under the posted speed limit most of the way. There was a stretch on I-74 where snow was blowing across the road from fields so we slowed to 55 (from a speed limit of 70), but over all, it was really reasonable.
Then the sun went down, the snow built up a little and I guess Indiana decided I-74 didn't require plowing. The 35 miles through Illinois weren't too bad, similar to on the way up. I could tell when I hit the border because the roads were snow covered other than where tires had made paths. It was still driveable, but slow. The trick was to get behind a semi because their 18 wheels carve a pretty nice path through the snow. Once again, 50-55 mph was still moving and not unreasonable. Most people seemed to be driving cautiously.
Then I got to Crawfordsville. Two or three cars got off on the exit. I was in the right lane a little ways back. A semi and an SUV were in the left lane ahead of me. Suddenly a car came from the exit perpendicular to the highway, across both lanes directly in front of the truck. I'm pretty sure the truck hit the car because the car went spinning back across both lanes. I was busy trying to avoid becoming part of the accident, so I and the few other cars that were there kept moving. The semi and another that was behind me pulled over. Driving conditions at that point were pretty bad. The only thing I can figure was that the car that got hit realized it was the wrong exit and tried to pull back onto the road, hit snow and spun into the path of the truck.
The speed of traffic for the next few miles was about 35-40 as I took deep breaths and shook off the image. Not long after I got my stomach and heart back down where they belonged (rather than in my throat) and when traffic in general had gained the confidence to speed up to about 45-50, there was a semi off in the ditch... with it's trailer blocking the right lane.
The drive on I-74 was hairy. I saw 2 or 3 plows in the other direction on those 35 miles in Illinois. I didn't see a single one in Indiana until I was on 465 around Indy. No wonder the road was a mess! It got better once I was on 465 where they seemed to actually be doing something about the snow. And once on SR 37 it got a little better. The real difference came just north of Martinsville where both lanes were suddenly pretty clear. Salt! Plows! What a difference! The last 25 miles or so were really not bad, about like the roads had been when we headed out.
All in all, I left with the boys at 1:15. We arrived in Urbana around 4:45, 3.5 hours later. We did make one rest stop, so an extra half hour considering the weather and the stop isn't bad. I left at 5:40 (it took time to move car seats, plus I had a quick sandwich before hitting the road again.) I got home at 9:35, almost 4 hours later. My back was sore from being tense that long. But we made it safely - the boys to Grandma and Grandpa's and me back home.
Chris and I had a great time yesterday. We spent the afternoon at The Irish Lion where Starrynight Productions had a reading and critique of 2 screenplays (Chris's and Cindy's). Then we spent an enjoyable evening with friends eating pizza and a giant birthday cookie and playing a great game of Battlestar Galactica: The Boardgame. It was exactly what we wanted to do for our birthdays. And the 4+ hours for the reading would not have been possible with the boys in tow.
Now it's time for us to go get dressed to drive to Urbana to pick up the boys.
I drove the boys to Urbana to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. When we started out after lunch, the roads weren't bad at all. The snow in Bloomington had changed back to rain and we didn't encounter snow on the road until we were north of Martinsville. While the roads were snowy, they weren't in bad shape and we were only going about 5 mph under the posted speed limit most of the way. There was a stretch on I-74 where snow was blowing across the road from fields so we slowed to 55 (from a speed limit of 70), but over all, it was really reasonable.
Then the sun went down, the snow built up a little and I guess Indiana decided I-74 didn't require plowing. The 35 miles through Illinois weren't too bad, similar to on the way up. I could tell when I hit the border because the roads were snow covered other than where tires had made paths. It was still driveable, but slow. The trick was to get behind a semi because their 18 wheels carve a pretty nice path through the snow. Once again, 50-55 mph was still moving and not unreasonable. Most people seemed to be driving cautiously.
Then I got to Crawfordsville. Two or three cars got off on the exit. I was in the right lane a little ways back. A semi and an SUV were in the left lane ahead of me. Suddenly a car came from the exit perpendicular to the highway, across both lanes directly in front of the truck. I'm pretty sure the truck hit the car because the car went spinning back across both lanes. I was busy trying to avoid becoming part of the accident, so I and the few other cars that were there kept moving. The semi and another that was behind me pulled over. Driving conditions at that point were pretty bad. The only thing I can figure was that the car that got hit realized it was the wrong exit and tried to pull back onto the road, hit snow and spun into the path of the truck.
The speed of traffic for the next few miles was about 35-40 as I took deep breaths and shook off the image. Not long after I got my stomach and heart back down where they belonged (rather than in my throat) and when traffic in general had gained the confidence to speed up to about 45-50, there was a semi off in the ditch... with it's trailer blocking the right lane.
The drive on I-74 was hairy. I saw 2 or 3 plows in the other direction on those 35 miles in Illinois. I didn't see a single one in Indiana until I was on 465 around Indy. No wonder the road was a mess! It got better once I was on 465 where they seemed to actually be doing something about the snow. And once on SR 37 it got a little better. The real difference came just north of Martinsville where both lanes were suddenly pretty clear. Salt! Plows! What a difference! The last 25 miles or so were really not bad, about like the roads had been when we headed out.
All in all, I left with the boys at 1:15. We arrived in Urbana around 4:45, 3.5 hours later. We did make one rest stop, so an extra half hour considering the weather and the stop isn't bad. I left at 5:40 (it took time to move car seats, plus I had a quick sandwich before hitting the road again.) I got home at 9:35, almost 4 hours later. My back was sore from being tense that long. But we made it safely - the boys to Grandma and Grandpa's and me back home.
Chris and I had a great time yesterday. We spent the afternoon at The Irish Lion where Starrynight Productions had a reading and critique of 2 screenplays (Chris's and Cindy's). Then we spent an enjoyable evening with friends eating pizza and a giant birthday cookie and playing a great game of Battlestar Galactica: The Boardgame. It was exactly what we wanted to do for our birthdays. And the 4+ hours for the reading would not have been possible with the boys in tow.
Now it's time for us to go get dressed to drive to Urbana to pick up the boys.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Road warriors
There are several road construction projects on the books for the Bloomington/Monroe County area. There is a group opposed to ALL of the projects. I am on the email list where the group discusses strategies and thoughts about traffic because I am president of the Grandview Hills Neighborhood Association and by being informed, I can pass along information to folks in our neighborhood.
To start, some of the proposed projects (in various stages) include:
- widening Bypass from Walnut to 3rd
- widening SR 45 (E 10th St) from Bypass to Russell Rd
- I-69 expansion from Indy to Evansville
- improving E 10th St though campus, possibly by making a pair of one-ways
All of this is an introduction to a few of my thoughts. While I can agree with the need to make the local roads more pedestrian and bike friendly, I have concerns about the idea of crippling transportation.
There are no true east-west corridors through town. Options include Bypass, 10th (which doesn't go through), 3rd/Kirkwood, Rogers/Winslow/Country Club/Tapp. The point of closing 3rd and 10th through campus is to make campus safer, which is great. And their goal is to get more cars off the street and force more people to walk, bike or use public transportation. But I really don't think that will happen. If the main roads to get across town are closed, I really think that would force more traffic onto neighborhood streets. Compound that with not widening Bypass, which is already crowded, and I think gridlock would be terrible.
It's great to want to get cars off the road, and I try to use the bus or walk when I can, but there are a lot of people who live on the opposite side of town from where they work, all services are not of both sides of town, and many people live where buses don't go. There are also people for whom other options are not ideal.
I'm ambivalent about the need to widen SR 45, although turn lanes/signals would be appreciated. My only concern there is the what will happen with our neighborhood.
Bypass has enough traffic that I think widening is probably necessary, although I would like to see better bike and pedestrian access.
Making 10th and another street a pair of one-ways would probably be a better option than closing 10th the through traffic. Isn't it better to concentrate traffic on a few streets where people know they need to be careful than disperse it into neighborhoods?
Anyway, I may update with a few more thoughts later, but that is my first round of thoughts on this issue.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
AT&T drops the ball and Comcast gets some more $$
Meg pretty much summed this up earlier, but I should toss in my $0.02 worth as I talked with the tech a bit more than she did.
Basically, we're steamed at AT&T for telling us we are eligible for U-Verse when they never actually came around to test signal strength at our pole. So, 6 man hours (they were both male) and two truck rolls later, we don't have U-Verse. Saving money and manpower aside, it would be better customer service if they didn't get our hopes up, only to be dashed after half a day of wondering.
I know that there are several more neighbors in our neighborhood who would like the U-Verse service, but they're even further down the line than we are. Solutions? The best solution would be for AT&T to run new, heavier gauge line from the head end to the poles/homes. We currently have 26 gauge line on the poles with a U-Verse linear limit of about 4000'. If they went down to 24 or 22 gauge line we could get up to about 6000' and AT&T could rope in more customers.
So, we're back to square one: analog landline phone service, DSL internet service, Comcast limited basic cable. Calling Comcast to get up to expanded basic results in more channels than we had, but still costs more than the U200 package from U-Verse and offers fewer channels and no DVR.
Really, we'd dump Comcast in a heartbeat if AT&T would only get their act together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)