According to Hoyle

 Definition of the phrase "According to Hoyle":  in accord with the highest authority; in accord with a strict set of rules. 

Well, according to the company, everyone who experienced a service interruption is back on, with full internet, phone, and TV service.

This is not true, because ours is still out.

After yet another visit by a technician, no less.

Schlepping off to other places to have internet access is getting old, wearying, and costing money.  Yes, i've found places where i don't have to buy a cup of coffee or anything else to get access, but i still have to drive there, and gas costs.

If we still have nothing by the end of today, that will be a full week with no service, and maybe it means we need to cancel some of these things.

After all,  we haven't had a home phone, and it didn't kill us.

Anyone who really, desperately needed to get us did, at least i hope so.

If not, we have no way of knowing, but there it is.

As for the TV, i haven't watched since August 2000, so i don't miss it.  Only #2 Son does, and probably he could get what he watches online.

Maybe a subscription to Hulu would be cheaper, if it has the few things he watches.

Bigger Girl is concerned about internet, she has to do some of her school work on the computer, no exceptions.

Little Girl has been perfectly happy reading even more than usual.

#2 Son, when he needs a "fix" of internet or TV has friends houses to go to.

Maybe this is the Good Lord's way of saying we should just do without some things.

We will make a decision in the next day or two about TV and phone.  Internet is not negotiable, if it is at all possible to have it in the house by any means.

Meanwhile, i'm trying to laugh a lot about the vagaries of life, and smile at the technicians and laugh with the "help desk" people who really can't help.  None of it is their fault.

In brighter news, we cleaned the shelter on Friday night as usual, and while i don't update about it like i used to, i have to mention that Cricket found the perfect home.  She hates all other cats, loves every person who ever comes near her, will not stay indoors only so needed an indoor-outdoor house, and hunts like a crazy thing, bringing trophies back to her people with pride.

A family looking for an indoor-outdoor cat, who have kids that want to play with her and a barn for her to hunt in, came to the shelter and fell in love with her.

It's a great happy ending story for a sweetheart of an animal.


Today is:

Big Snow Day -- remembering the 15 inch snowflakes that fell on in Fort Keough, Montana, in 1887

Carlsbad Marathon and Half Marathon -- Carlsbad, CA, US

Chocolate Cake Day

Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism -- Germany (anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz)

Day the Netjers of Heaven Receive Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Family Literacy Day -- Canada

Full Wolf Moon -- the wolves howl hungrily during this cold month, sometimes called the Old Moon or the Yule Moon (if it falls toward the beginning of the month)
     Pyatho Full Moon -- Myanmar (traditionally the time of equestrian festivals)
     Thorrablot/Thurseblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (feast honoring Thor, guardian of Midgard, at the first full moon of the new year)

International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

Iroquois Mid-Winter Ceremony -- Iroquois Native Americans (for the continuation of all life-sustaining things; a multi-day ceremony and feast that begins around this time of year)

Listen to Classical Music During Lunch Day -- in honor of Mozart

Lowcountry Oyster Festival -- Mt. Pleasant, SC, US (80,000lbs. of oysters, come have some fun!)

Mahayana New Year -- Buddhist

Mozart Day

Punch the Clock Day -- internet generated, and no reason for it given; this has to be one of the more baffling ones

St. Angela Merici's Day (Founder of the Sisters of the Order of St. Ursula; Patron of the disabled and ill; against bodily ills and the death of parents)

St. Devota's Day (Patron of Corsica; Monaco)

Thaipusam -- Tamil People; Malaysia; Mauritius (Tamil Hindu celebration of the birth of the god Murugan)

Thomas Crapper Day -- death date, in 1910, of the perfector of the flush toilet mechanism

World Leprosy Day -- International


Anniversaries Today:

The University of Georgia is chartered, the first state university in the US, 1785
The first sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is founded at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, 1870


Birthdays Today:

Jennifer LB Leese, 1970
Patton Oswalt, 1969
Bridget Fonda,1964
Cris Collinsworth, 1959
Mikhail Baryshnikov, 1948
Nick Mason, 1944
Troy Donahue, 1936
Donna Reed, 1921
David Seville, 1919
Skitch Henderson, 1918
Jerome Kern, 1885
Samuel Gompers, 1850
Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), 1832
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756


Today in History:

Trajan becomes Roman Emperor, 98
The Rashidun Caliphate ends with the death of Ali, 661
Song Dynasty General Yue Fei is wrongfully executed, 1142
Dante Alighieri becomes a Florentine political exile, 1302
The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31, 1606
The first American lime kiln begins operation in Providence, Rhode Island, 1662
Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Instanbul, 1695
Czar Peter the Great sets the first Russian state budget, 1710
Abdication of Stanislas, the last king of Poland, 1736
The US Congress approves the opening of Indian Territory for settlement, which led to the forced relocation of Native Americans on the "Trail of Tears," 1825
Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are incorporated, 1870
Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the electric incandescent lamp, 1880
The National Geographic Society is organized, in Washington, D.C., 1888
"Tarzan of the Apes," the first Tarzan movie, premiers, 1918
Apollo 1 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, 1967
More than sixty nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space, 1967
Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian caper, 1980
The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, breaks through, 1983
American-born sumo wrestler Akebono Taro becomes the first foreigner to be promoted to the sport's highest rank of yokozuna, 1993
Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 1996
Western Union discontinues its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services, 2006