All Creatures Great and Small Zoom Chat

We have been watching PBS Masterpiece for a long time. The first show I watched was about Henry VIII back in the seventies. Now we get email notifications and Facebook reminders about all things Masterpiece. The other day an email arrived to register for a zoom chat with the actors from All Creatures Great and Small. My husband doesn’t care so much for this program, but I like the general mood of it all. And I like animals. So I signed up and got the zoom link for the program that was scheduled for Sunday at three in the afternoon. I got a reminder at two o’clock and set up my iPad in the den. My husband joined me because we usually do things together. We have attended a few “talk backs” after plays when we lived in the Midwest. And we also attended one on the GW campus in DC for a Downton Abby event. There, we watched the full episode of the new season opener and interacted with the actors. So it was enjoyable to experience the same type of event with this cast. It started with viewing the first half hour of the next episode followed by a question and answer exchange with the writer, producer and interviewer with the actors. Then audience questions were accepted. It was night time for the actors in England and the afternoon for us. It’s always interesting to note how different the actors really are from the characters they play. One has a preconceived notion about the person. It’s really amazing what zoom has been able to do to make getting to appointments so much easier - doctor visits, condo board meetings, and these sorts of things. No, it’s not the same as being in person. But sometimes it’s all you need. 

Verizon Chat

Any time the tv stops working I get very worked up because I know that means at least two hours of my time will be wasted trying to get it fixed. And so it was one evening this week. It started at seven and ended at nine PM. For whatever reason, the “input” or “output” wasn’t connected. We had a pink screen with the closed caption scrolling and no audio and a transparent video. I tried first using the Verizon app to refresh everything - which usually works - based on past experience with Xfinity when we lived in Capitol Hill. Of course it didn’t. So I tried to find a chat option after trying to call. After much frustration I was able to start a chat with someone who transferred me to someone else once they became aware that it was a technical issue. I was juggling two phones and two remotes - one for the LG set up and the other for Verizon - and of course my phones were almost out of power so I was tethered to the wall. It took forever just to get beyond the account number. Anyway, they wanted a screenshot of the tv and we went from there. I was finally able to reconnect the set top box with the tv using the LG menu, then rebooting the whole system. Thank goodness we moved the huge cabinet away from the wall the last time so we can now unplug everything “easily.” Otherwise it’s a big mess unloading the cabinet and putting everything back. In the end I got some unexpected kind words from the person I was chatting with. I can only imagine the horrible interactions these poor folks must bear with when things don’t go right. So I hoped I made his day as much as he finally made mine. In the end it is a feeling of accomplishment, but I hate it all the same. 

Comcast Phone Issues

We switched our desk phone over to Comcast from Verizon to eliminate a monthly expense and also decrease our Comcast bill overall by bundling all of the services - internet, tv, phone. I suppose it was a good idea, but because the phone isn’t a land line, it doesn’t work as well. We primarily need to use the device as a door bell, but it was good in the event the internet was down and cell phones were ineffective. However, over the last month, every time we get or make a phone call using this phone line, it is dropped after about five minutes. This gets quite annoying. So I finally decided to call Comcast and report our issue. I already checked the phone status using my app. To make a long story short and after two modem reboots and an hour and a half later, the phone at least rings - it stopped ringing midway through. But now the app that also rings when the phone dies stopped working even after deleting and reinstalling it. We don’t really know if the calls still drop because we haven’t received any, although at one point my husband was trying to test it by holding one phone in each ear and talking to himself. But that experiment was aborted! The last thing I want is a technician to visit, or have to get new equipment. So as long as I can check on the phone log and see any voice messages I suppose we can live with it. All I know is I hate having to troubleshoot any of this junk because it takes so long. And it’s more annoying when it’s not totally fixed.