We had great cellphone service with T-Mobile for years. We added internet service and were pleased with that until we got a better deal from a different carrier.

I cancelled our phones and the internet service on May 13. I received an email acknowledging this with no instructions for returning the equipment. Turns out if you didn’t get the equipment from a store, you need to either return it by UPS or drop it off to what they call a “corporate store”, the nearest of which is in Rensselaer, NY, about an hour away.

To get a shipping label, you need to call their customer service. I called last night about quarter to nine and there was a half hour or so wait.

It seems that T-Mobile uses its Philippines call center for off-hours “assistance”. A more stubborn bunch of corporate toadies I have rarely encountered. The rep tried to “sell” me on keeping the service. It was after 9 pm and I was not of a mind to indulge a sales pitch from an aggressive person with a heavy Asian accent.

The rep refused to acknowledge that I cancelled my internet service before the end of their May cycle and wanted to bill me for a month that we never used! He (supposedly) needed to complete some mystery cancellation order on their end before the service could be stopped.

Evidently other customers have encountered this obduracy and, frankly, dishonesty. After arguing with me, the corporate stooge finally got his supervisor on the line. They both insisted that the confirmation email was not for cancelling the internet service even though the subject line is “We have confirmed your T-Mobile internet cancellation.” Unbelievable.

The supervisor finally apologized for the fact that the representative from my May 13 call only cancelled the phones and not the internet. He must have taken care of the mystery order because I received a slew of emails including the RMA labels shortly thereafter.

I guess my next stop is to file a complaint with the FCC, the FTC and the Mass. AG’s office.

Jett’s groomer is about an hour away from us, in the Hinsdale/Peru area. She does such a fantastic job with Poodle hair that it’s worth the trip.

Yesterday we lucked out for weather back and forth. I packed us a light lunch and after poking around for a good spot we ended up in the town of Washington’s public park.

We took a wretched, ill-maintained paved road part of the way back to Jett’s groomer. Afterwards I’d hoped to complete a couple of errands but neither worked out. It was a pleasant trip nonetheless. This is an exceptional time of year in Berkshire County.

Town Meeting happened this week and there is the usual complaining about the lack of participation – only 200 people stuck around for the full three hours.

I didn’t show and neither did Ron. The way I figured it, all but one Warrant article had the support of both the Select Board and FinCom. So, why blow an evening just to rubber stamp their decisions?

The monthly or semi-monthly meetings of the Select Board and other committees might be better venues for discussion and getting answers to questions, but would we really be welcome?

With one or two exceptions, I haven’t found anyone, either elected official or private citizen, who really wants to engage in respectful two-way conversation about civic matters.

I don’t think that’s unique to Williamstown, by the way. My theory is that American public education doesn’t include training in civil debate or analytical thinking and it should. “We” are a combative, over-competitive society. Sad.

I have a very itchy rash on my right hand and it’s aggravated because I took a shower earlier today.

It’s Day 2 of planting the Viburnum. One day to figure out where to locate it and dig the hole. One day to water liberally, fill the hole with soil and tamp it down a little. Day 3 will be to fill in any depressions and fix anything else that doesn’t look right, then put down mulch.

We picked up the truck this afternoon. Not a huge expense for now.

I made a small amount of blueberry sauce for the vanilla ice cream the nice Walmart driver brought yesterday along with two of my meds and 20 other grocery items.

Looking at https://www.framedestination.com for the new artwork.

Enjoying Marsha’s book, it’s a very good read.

Changed sheets. My back is not real happy with me right now.

Tiny, disappointing bit of rain. Guess I’ll be out with the hose….

On Saturday and Sunday, we visited a very talented neighbor, an author turned painter whose book was turned into a Hallmark TV movie. Her property covers 8 acres.

We bought two of her paintings and I could have taken home at least two more.

Her workshop is a restored barn with a loft that she uses as a living room. She calls it “magical”; I call it a spectacular example of master carpentry.

We also met a friend of hers who helped me with my purchases and who made a delighted fuss over Jett.

I did some cooking over the weekend, eggs and mycellium bacon and pasta for supper. We watched “I Want To Live” with Susan Hayward.

This morning we brought the truck to Berkshire Transmissions.

It’s a hot one, 90 degrees in the shade this afternoon. Ron did the lawn, front and back. He’s a better man than me, that’s for sure!

In the course of digging, I picked up a vexing rash.

Yesterday we finally brought the truck to Berkshire Transmissions. The owner, Mark, inspected the ailing part. Turns out Mark is something of a local auto repair legend. His shop is a mechanic’s cathedral, and I’m not kidding.

He gave us a couple of options and offered to do a repair today if we brought the truck in early. Unfortunately, I got very sick around 5 am and wasn’t nearly well enough to drive, safely or otherwise.

I made a big mistake last night and consumed several chocolate desserts: cupcakes and an ice cream bar. Horrible, horrible endless pain. Nothing worked, not vinegar, Tums, ginger, ice, Pepto. I stayed in bed belching and breaking wind and sleeping until ten of three. Faithful, concerned Jett stayed with me for a while, waited until Ron let him out late, at around 9:30. This afternoon, Ron did a small grocery run before the news.

We made arrangements to bring the truck to Berkshire Transmissions for the day on Monday.

Meanwhile, had a nice text conversation yesterday with Peter about music influences. We got several errands done yesterday which was good because today was a wash. Checked in very briefly with Remedy, sounds like the inventory app is behaving. Connection and certificate problems still trouble MRS.

I’ve been losing sleep over this but as it turns out, the transition was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

It was easy to get back online, just needed to plug in and reconnect the Netgear and Spectrum hardware.

The Spectrum engineers were fantastic. Got me up and running, for both Internet and phones.

The most difficult part turned out to be enabling the new Assurant protection plan. Mine was easy. I ended up using Messenger to get the link to Ron’s phone.

Today an engineer at HP got my printer online. Better written directions would have helped; thank goodness for human tech support.

While this was going on, helped Ron with a transfer between banks.

Last night around 8 I did a run to Stop & Shop and Spirits. Splurged on a smallish bottle of good blended Scotch, Ron’s favorite in fact.

Ron fell last night getting ready for bed. He had an accident yesterday.

Sauteed reconstituted soy curls with onions, peppers and tomatoes plus spices. Tried my hand at soft tortillas with wheat flour but had trouble getting them thin enough to toast well on the stove as called for in the recipe. They do work in the toaster, though, as crackers, not tortillas.

Helped Ron with bill paying and got his Greylock card squared away with the help of a great person at Greylock. He can now use it with his new PIN!

Afterwards had a great time looking at tons of photos on his laptop.

Ordered a Korean Spice Viburnum from Home Depot and sunflower seeds from Burpee.

The lads from McCann put enough extra mulch on the hosta strip by the house that I finished covering the ground around the transplants without having to schlep from the back yard.

Jett hasn’t eaten breakfast, again. Wonder if one meal a day is enough for him.

SQL connectivity problem with MRS.

Made a freezer contents supper from dense, cylindrical rice cakes, broccoli, onions, peppers and squash seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil.

That’s it, that’s what I did today: watered yesterday’s plantings. Tomorrow if I’m up to it, I’ll mulch.

I also pruned the North side of the big rhodie, something I discussed with our neighbor a year go. The plant looks 100% better.