Why not drop in at WNY Natter ?

After some consideration Erieversible has come to the end of its natural life.  It was started to tell a story of trans-atlantic migration and now that the migration is at an end it really has nowhere to go in its current form.  We’re now settling in to what we hope will be our family home for many years to come and are battling the same hassles that everybody else is battling.  So, what would get posted on Erieversible would be our daily existence, and I’m not inspired by that. 

So, as from today, Erieversible (as is) ends. 

We still welcome questions from anyone contemplating a trans-atlantic move.  We’re still willing to help on any matters that we can.  We’ll still be here.  We just won’t be recording the boring minutiae of our daily life in Western New York.

Blogging can be fun, though.  So it is quite likely that after a short rest (using the time to catch up with the backlog of work on the children’s websites) we’ll probably be back, under a different name, recording entries from a different angle.  I just have to decide the angle and come up with an inspired name for it all. 

I must admit that I just don’t see the point in these social networking sites.  While we live a certain portion of our life online, with Erieversible, with the kids having websites, with other ventures, it seems that Facebook is a step too far.  Have these people got no-one more worthy than me to invite onto their accounts?  

Even the kids’ websites are now being reconsidered.  They were set up for distant friends and family, and while the move to the US has brought a lot of those people nearer it has also created a whole new subset for that audience.  However, just how much personal information should be available online?  One visitor to the kids’ websites has emailed to say they enjoy watching the kids grow up.  Pardon????  That could be scary.

I guess it is a time for contemplation about just how much goes into the public domain.  How much is published but secured behind access restrictions.  It is quite scary just how much information about individuals you can find out online nowadays.  Much of that information was always in the public domain but not so immediately accessible.

Time for serious contemplation about how to take things forward….

It is amazing how different a room becomes with plants and pictures.  We had plants and pictures in our Douglas home, and brought those pictures with us.  The plants are new, as US Customs don’t take kindly to flora entering the country.  We knew it would help the rooms take shape, but had totally underestimated just how much it would help.

More rooms are due to get the same treatment, but we need to get the furniture in those rooms sorted first before the ‘plants and pictures’ touch is added.  Slowly, but quickly, this is becoming home.

Never again.

The theory is sound, and the end result looks good.  However, the other painting has 12 panels and I am not going through the rigmarole I went through this evening, for 4 panels, with 12 panels.  Life has more meaning than that.  So, I’m looking for a more ‘professional’ hanging method.

I’m looking at gallery type equipment, with wires (or clear plastic lines) hanging down from the ceiling with the panels being attached to movable hooks on the lines.  In theory that sort of kit should allow for infinite tweaks and adjustments to get everything aligned, then an ability to lock things down.  To do that with wall fixings would result in so many holes in the wall it would look like a honeycomb and probably collapse due to there being no wall left, just holes.

Any advice?  Have you hung a 12 panel painting?  All suggestions are welcome!

For the last few years the tax form I’ve had to complete has been two sides of a single sheet of paper.  That was it.  The whole tax return for the family, all income, was done in 10 minutes.  No ambiguity.  No conditional elements that made hieroglyphics look simple.  Just some basic facts and figures.

How many people are employed by the IRS?  How many taxmen per head of population are there?  I think it would be very interesting to see comparative per capita figures for nations.  I think I know where the ratio would be the worst!

On the Island we were lucky to get birds, basically.  I’m sure other things popped through from time to time but we never saw anything that I remember.  The kids used to get quite excited when we went on vacation in the UK and saw rabbits and squirrels.  Deer are another matter altogether.

It is really lovely to watch them all and so far they haven’t done too much damage to the plants and trees out there.  Everything out there came with the house anyway, so we aren’t too attached to it.  Once we start planting our own things, however, the deer might become a nuisance!

Anyway, the one thing ebay has is quantity, so I went looking.  It took some time to find something that looked good.  It took longer to find something that looked good from a seller who looked ‘right’.  It is amazing how many artists there are in China…

I’ve bought two pieces, and the first of those arrived today.  I have to say that far from being disappointed I am astonished how terrific the painting is.  Even that great doubter in our household (my wife!) is amazed at what we’ve got hold of at the price.  It is a marvellous piece of work and will go very well in the family room.

If the second piece is half as good I may have to repeat the exercise.  It takes time and patience to winkle out the self-representing artist who really has talent, but it is well worth it.  For the same price that you would pay for a large print from the likes of Sears or Target you can get an original painting of real quality.

Many years ago, when I worked for a college with its own ice rink, I used to skate a couple of times a week and I really enjoyed it and managed to learn a few things.  But that was about fifteen years ago and I haven’t been on skates since.

Considering where we were starting from, I think we did pretty well!  Both kids fell quite a lot, but both got back up and kept trying.  I expected the older one to have a good go, but the six year old surprised me by hanging in there and really have a good try.  She only gave up when she got really cold…her gloves were soaked through and I couldn’t fault her for giving up at that point.

The older one (ten) has more confidence than skill and will insist on bashing away at it until he falls quite spectacularly.  He ended up with more than a few bruises and also three blisters.  The little one has more skill than confidence at this point and prefers to just hold on to me with two hands and squeal.  She nearly took us both down many times and once or twice I was worried one of us might get hurt by flying blades. 

But we managed.  And both are willing (maybe not quite eager) to have another go later in the week.  As for me, I’m dying to get back to skating regularly…if I can find the time and a quiet session for people who used to skate and are now getting old!

We’ve used two different brands of window hardware so far in the house, and the stuff I had to battle with at the weekend came with flat head screws.  The question I asked, repeatedly, loudly, with various swear words interspersed, was “Why?”.

Why would any manufacturer market window hardware with flat head screws?  They do not allow as much torque to be applied, and when working at ceiling height the advantages of a Phillips head should be obvious.  Rather than battle on with the inadequate fittings provided with the hardware I nipped out to Lowes and bought some equivalent Phillips head screws.  Job done.

So, why do they sell such items with flat head screws?  The only advantage I’m aware of for flat head screws is that, in an emergency, various other devices other than a screwdriver can be used.  However, I cannot envisage a situation when the installation or removal of curtain hardware would constitute an emergency.  Are flat head screws measurably cheaper in that using 4 of those rather than 4 Phillips reduces costs noticeably?

The other brand of window hardware we have used comes with Phillips screws.  As we work through the house and need more fittings, I know which we’ll use.

There are a number of devices that will detect those events.  Some are ‘local’ and just emit a loud noise.  Some will call you up by phone.  Those sounded like they’d be perfect.  Except that we have a digital phone service and that won’t work without power.

So I’ll throw a UPS backup device into the mix, to support the cable modem/phone box.  Except that the digital phone service still won’t work.  At least, according to the “customer service” people at Time Warner Cable.  Unfortunately I don’t believe them.  Why not?  Well, they can’t explain why it won’t work, and they all appear to be quoting from standard question responses.  In other words, they haven’t got a clue and are just parroting pre-prepared answers to common questions, picking the answer that seems to best suit my question.  That is fast becoming the dictionary definition for “customer service”.

If I can’t be phoned with the alerts, how about an email?  What I really need is a device that networks and acts on these triggers.  Technology has moved on from phones being the pinnacle.  These devices should perform the same basic function but use up to date communication methods.  However, it seems no-one else thinks so, as such devices are nowhere to be found.

I think I’ll try the UPS route anyway.  Or can anyone out there tell me why that wouldn’t work?  Why does the cable modem/phone box care where the local power comes from?  It’s all way beyond my simple mind.

Update:  After battling past the first-level “customer service”, through the second-level supervisor and then management, I finally, at the 4th time of asking, received a believable answer from one of their technicians.  The answer?  A UPS will indeed be sufficient to keep the digital phone working for local (i.e. not affecting Time Warner themselves) outages.  But why was it such a battle, and what about the poor average customer who believes the first (or second, or third) answer given?  I guess it is back to the new fangled concept of “customer service” meaning “read from the script”.

Of course the tooth had been loose since Christmas Eve, so the anticipation that built up was pretty severe.  And it wobbled and wobbled and wobbled on for the longest time without actually making any real progress.  Then, suddenly, it was lightly bumped and out it came.  (Finally!)

And the “tooth fairy” had to pay a visit.  Now our little one is fully aware that the tooth fairy is her mum and dad, but that didn’t stop her milking the whole “fairy” thing for maximum advantage.  And it doesn’t help that the tooth fairy in other families brings $5.00 bills and the like!  (Or, all the kids actually get is a shiny dime and then the kids agree at school to tell their parents that everyone else gets loads of money?!)

Of course, missing teeth aren’t quite as exciting as a snow day off school…but that is another story!

It is certainly a tragedy, but also a miracle - for the plane to come down in a residential area as it did and for only one person on the ground to be killed.  It could have been so much worse.

This morning, as the news hit the household, our 6-year old daughter simply put her hands together, bowed her head and said “God bless the dead people”.   Bless her.  And the living too.

Enough said.

By contrast, Crawfords also delivered some items yesterday.  They delivered one item with apologies.  It was marked.  They didn’t have a replacement available so would we mind using this one for now and they’ll get a replacement and switch them over as soon as possible?  To be honest, the mark they refer to is probably less obvious than the damage to the Raymour & Flanigan piece. 

So, marks out of 10 for each store on Customer Service?  Clearly 10 out of 10 for Crawfords.  Right now I’m not inclined to offer Raymour & Flanigan even a single mark.  I’ve said this before…things go wrong, and the mark of an organization or individual is not that they make mistakes but how they react to that mistake.  The Raymour & Flanigan reaction so far is best described as lethargic.

We need more furniture.  Lots more!  Where will we go to look for it?  Certainly not to a company that takes your money, delivers fast and then makes you wait at least 2 weeks before you can hope to use the piece.  No, we’ll head to Crawfords.

Meanwhile on the roof the startling news from yesterday is that, and I quote from the roofer’s paperwork, “House was roofed with absolutely no underlayment”.  At first that meant nothing, but I’ve very quickly come up to speed with the terminology and the technology involved.  I am busy gathering information before deciding what course of action (if any) to take.  Not something I wanted or expected to be dealing with at the moment

Never mind, the British are reknowned for their ability to talk about the weather, and there’s certainly plenty of scope there!

The company today gave me a baseline audiogram (hearing test) for their records.  It seems my hearing isn’t as good as I thought it was.  Some hearing loss in the upper frequencies.  However, those frequencies start where normal human noises end, so I can still hear voices, conversations, etc. perfectly well, it is just bats that are no longer part of my conversational repertoire.

I can’t remember ever had a hearing test before, so don’t know if there has actually been a loss of hearing in the upper frequencies or whether it has been like that for years.  I guess if the company ever does another one I’ll find out then if this is steady deterioration.  Probably age….

And on anther medical subject my wife was summoned to remove our 6-year old daughter from school as they believed she had some really infectious, killer disease.  We had thought it was just dry skin.  So, two hours later, a co-pay bill later, the verdict from the doctor was…dry skin.  I can understand the school erring on the side of caution but maybe there should be a scheme for at least partial recompense of the expense incurred due to their demands, otherwise where does it all end?

And to end the day we may have a significant issue with the roof on the house, but that’s probably an entry for tomorrow when further information has been gathered.

The unseasonal weather wiped out the ice skating attraction, though it was interesting to learn how the tennis courts are used as ice rinks in the winter.  The display by the Husky Club was also hampered by the weather, but both the people and dogs were lovely.  Some intrepid souls tried sledding but on the whole winter activities were made difficult as things melted fast around you - the ice sculpture people did their best to stay ahead of the big melt!

Our 6-year old daughter was determined to get a hayride, and she did.  And she loved it.  A totally new experience for her - and the rest of the family.  The Arts & Crafts area, where the kids could be creative, was very good.  Congratulations to the sponsors and volunteers running that area, it was very well run.  It was also an opportunity for us to check out one of the Clarence parks, and it looks like they’ll be a great town asset in the summer.

All in all it was an interesting event with more potential had the weather actually been wintery.  We’ll have to try it again next year when, hopefully, we’ll need boots and heavy coats rather than sunglasses and light jackets.

Maple (from Transit westwards) is the forgotten road as far as repairs are concerned.  Quite simply it is the worst road for some distance around.  And it isn’t just bad in patches, it is consistently in bad repair.  In both directions.  Did the people and businesses along Maple not pay their taxes?  Is there some boundary dispute between authorities involved?  It is strange that one road should be singled out for neglect - or is this a feature of the US that I just haven’t discovered, that there’s one road in every area that is like this?  Very strange.

Apart from the dining room furniture we ordered a few other bits and pieces.  Suffice to say that by the end of next week the house should seem a little bit fuller.  Mind you, there are still empty rooms…

The event for today was the unseasonally high temperatures - the car registered 54 degrees at one stage.  It felt quite unnatural, and we’ll be almost glad to see temperatures get back to around freezing tomorrow.

Yes, the country was unprepared.  It doesn’t have snow plows in the numbers they do here simply because this is a relatively infrequent chunk of weather.  It would not be cost effective to have the resources available ready to deal with this weather whenever it happened.  However, all of the pictures I have seen have shown road conditions no worse than have been the norm here for the last couple of months.  So what’s the deal?

Is it that the British don’t know how to drive in these conditions?  Probably.  Not everyone, of course.  Unfamiliarity with the conditions is not an excuse - I’ve been driving in them daily recently and I have as little exposure to them as any other Brit.  However, what does it actually take to cause chaos?  Not much, is the answer.  It only needs one inadequate person to take an ill-equipped car out onto the roads, to get stuck, to jam up a road.  And maybe that’s the problem, that the consequences for that person are not harsh enough.

Or maybe it is a national, cultural thing.  I’ve noticed that in the US, when faced with a collective problem, the approach taken is to tackle it and get on with things.  With the recent weather in the UK the general approach seems to have been to complain about the weather.  Sorry, Brits, but the level of snow most areas have had is not sufficient for the havoc it has caused.  And if this global climate change stuff (whatever the reason) is true then you’d better get used to handling the snow.