And that's that

No more LastPass, I deleted the account last night.  No more Verizon, both our phones are now up and running with the new carrier.  (I will say that after going through the whole process, a person has to be highly motivated to change cell phone carriers.)  And there's something else I wish I could write about here, but instead I'm going to keep my mouth shut and walk away.  I'm sure I won't be sorry, which is more than could be said had I followed my feelings.  Door's closed, locked, bolted.  

In the meantime

This afternoon, a van stopped in front of the house and a man got out and came to the door carrying a package about the size of a King James bible.  

As predicted yesterday, my phone is here.  SmartSwitch worked really well, transferring everything from old device to new in minutes.  That was the part I was concerned about.  I guess I'm showing my age, remembering the rigmarole that was necessary after purchasing a new PC.

Now, I have a nifty container for accessing all my online stuff, but until Verizon transfers the number, it's useless as a phone.

They tried to talk me into a charger, but I parried that by telling them I have a wireless charger, which is true.  But it wasn't until the phone arrived that I checked the shoebox in the office closet, the one that holds all manner of spare parts accumulated from prior hardware purchases.  

The first thing I pulled out was a short wire with USB at one end and USB-C at the other.  Just the thing I needed; I must have been thinking if I held onto it, it would be useful for something someday.  

In Conclusion

 TL;DR:  Nope

I spent probably the better part of an hour looking for information about gifts and price limits and reading it.  But the guidelines are clear:  $50 is the maximum value of a gift before you have to report it.  So I did the right thing by notifying my supervisor, by notifying the three-letter acronym within the company that rules on such things, and by giving the gift-giver a heads-up that his generosity may have gone too far.

A little more than an hour later, the verdict came down:  "DENIED" (capital letters and all)  It must either be sent back or donated to a company-approved charity.

I waited until after noon, packaged the PDF in a password-protected zip file and emailed it back, copying the internal contact as instructed.  Easy come, easy go, amirite?

A Whole Bunch of Stuff (all at once)

...or, "More Than Enough, Anyway".  

The day started with a big smile.  A client who was happy that I was able to help him when others couldn't or wouldn't, sent a gift card to me.  With granddaughter Diana's HS graduation coming up, the card will be put to good use.

It was around noon that it began to feel like "Everything Everywhere, Etc." Powering up the office PC, I found that Chrome no longer worked.  Even trying to update with Ninite didn't produce a working browser.  What a search (using Firefox) told me was that the reason had a lot to do with Microsoft's .NET and a recent update.  While they get things sorted out, I downloaded a beta version of Chrome and got the main periodicals re-set up.

With that squared away for now, I drove to the office to work for the first time since 2019.  (I'd cleaned out my desk after going full-time work-at-home.)  Didn't feel any different; the commute on Route 22, swiping the badge at the door, things I'd literally done a thousand times between 2013 and 2019.  If the weather had been warmer, I'd probably have walked the track one more time.

The reason I was there:  a new laptop that had to be set up the approved company way.  The IT support had tried it remotely last week, but each time he got to the part where he installed a VPN, the wi-fi froze and the install failed.  He told me it should work in the office.  

Aw, you guessed.  Of course, it didn't work.  He muttered something about the in-house wi-fi being the source of the issue this time and told me that if it didn't work at home, to submit a ticket with the service desk.  I had suggested hooking the new laptop to the wired connection at home and running the old one on our personal wi-fi, but he dismissed that instantly.

Fact is, he was right.  I got home and attempted it, and while the power cord worked OK, the ethernet connection to the docking station produced only a blank screen.  He had anticipated that and said I should order another dock if that happened.  

Just to recap, there's no VPN and the dock isn't compatible with the new laptop.  But did I give up?  No, we'll push straight through, thought Moore, and proceeded to bang his head against a brick wall over and over.

And then, there were the Amazon packages outside the front door when I got home.  On the laptop downstairs, there are two USB inputs.  They were both in use, and I wondered if it were necessary.  One was taken by the dongle for a ten-year-old entry-level combination mouse and keyboard, and the other contained a more recent dongle that came with a mid-level mouse.  I learned that the newer dongle was designed to work with whatever compatible hardware you installed, while the older was limited to the hardware it came with.  So then, I reasoned, couldn't I get a new compatible keyboard and sync it with the unifying dongle for the newer mouse?  

The answer to that was "Yes", or more accurately, as it turned out, "Yes, but..."

At first, the new keyboard only worked with the dongle it came with, and the attempted pairing in keeping with the website's instructions failed every time.  The unifying software saw no compatible dongles, although two were plugged in.  Why don't things just work? I thought as Google got a workout.  But eventually I found the answer, thanks to a voice of experience on a Microsoft bulletin board.  

The answer was to download the same company's SetPoint software and run that, remove the older dongle, turn off the new keyboard, and *then* go back to the unifying app.  Sample responses struck much the same tone throughout:

Genius, kudos! 3h searching for a solution, and this setpoint did the trick

THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS ACTUALLY WORKED! I COULDN'T FIND A SOLUTION ANYWHERE ELSE!!!

YOU ARE A GOD!!!!! THANK YOU

Had I written one, my reaction wouldn't have been as dependent on hyperbole or capital letters, but it was a great relief to be able to cross something off the to-do list.  One dongle to serve them all, and now I can plug back in the reading light which currently illuminates that new keyboard. 

Did I mention the other item outside the front door was a new phone?  Yes, Consumer Cellular and their delivery service got PG's phone to us first.  Mine should follow tomorrow.  Giving up on the new work laptop and getting the keyboard all set up, I dug in to the phone documentation.  It was probably more than I should have tackled given the events preceding.

But, but, but that sense of accomplishment!  I can't honestly say it's a "phone" yet, but all the apps and data were smart-streamed over in short order, so PG can use it for searches and reference.  That's enough for one day.

Then my little girl, Good Queen Swirly, climbed onto my lap and my eyes soon closed for a refreshing nap.  Tomorrow is another day, or so it has been claimed. 

It was as I washed my hands after scooping the cat boxes that a thought occurred:  is it compliant with company policy to accept that gift?  I've never had to worry about that before.

Perspective

So today something really nice happened.  Overall, my life meets the three-level criteria for happiness:  (1) something to do; (2) someone to love; and (3) something to look forward to.  

After a few minutes of letting it all soak in, I could hear Kevin Costner's character in Bull Durham snapping, "The moment's over."  Healthy and adult to remember that this too shall pass.

If only it were as easy to call up that frame of mind when things are in the dumpster.  

What's the Difference?

"Once I get there..."

"When I get there..."

"After I get there..."

On the cellular level

When I bought my present phone (2018, I think) the carrier was Verizon.  The salesman was better than most in terms of making an effort to find common ground with PG and me.  He didn't do all the talking, listened to us and our story, and at the end of the session, I had a nice new Galaxy 9+ for a few hundred dollars less than the list price.

But when the first bill came in, I also had a double-digit charge for insurance that he had not even mentioned, let alone asked me to approve.  I went back to the store and was told he was off.  I asked when he would be back on, came back at that time, and was told again that he was off.  The persons on duty acted as though they were listening when I told them why I had come, but there was no contact from store management in the aftermath.  

They also said they couldn't take off the charge and directed me to their customer service phone number, which did remove it... eventually.  The guy on the other end of the line wasn't nearly as slick as he thought he was.  He kept arguing that I should have it, nay, that I needed that insurance.  What if, what if?  After a minute or two, I told him that I didn't have to convince anyone and repeated my request.  

In the years since, Verizon has worked fine and I've paid on time every month.  We kept out of each other's way.  But late last year, when inflation was affecting everything else, I found a new $12 charge on the bill.  Evidently, I am bound to the terms of the service contract, and they are not.  Just a grab for more money, and I have no doubt that their legal department has a carefully-worded clause that makes it all lawful.  But it's not right, and I'm done with Verizon.

Searching and researching pointed to a short list of good replacements, and I chose one.  The customer sales rep was good, setting me up for what I asked and, for the rest, taking no for an answer with a minimum of pushback.  I'm cautiously optimistic that this cell phone experience will be better.  I already know it'll cost about half of what Verizon was charging.

That makes a good bit of action in a short time.  The replacement password manager after LastPass spit the bit, the learning experience at the car dealer, and now this.  

Car Shopping

PTO today and the start of a 3-day weekend. What to do with that time?  Several chores around the house that had been nagging; taking some docs to the credit union to put in the safe deposit box; taking Nora to the vet for treatment of her URI.  Her weight has dropped from 15 to 13.4 pounds, which is encouraging.  Give a homeless, starving cat access to food, and it tends to eat like there's no tomorrow.  Now that she's 8, we really need to get that excess weight off her, for her joints, for her blood sugar.  

And, around 3:00, we drove to a car dealer to look at 2023 models now, with the intention of buying one later in summer as a leftover when the 2024 models are released.  Well, I was under a misapprehension, and I was quickly disabused of that old-fashioned notion by Joe, the old-school salesman who spotted us gaping at the showroom with a puzzled expression, wondering why there were no cars in it.

Remember the pandemic, and how hard it was at times to find products?  (Flour, sugar, pasta were especially in short supply at the beginning.  For us, for a longer period, it was cat food.)  Now, think about something much more complicated with a much-more-involved supply chain.  

There's demand, but hardly any supply, Joe told us.  You order a car and you wait for months until the company has all the parts -- particularly the chips -- to build it.  One company is giving its customers only one keyless fob.  The chip that would go in the backup fob is instead going into someone else's primary fob. 

Here's where it's good not to be young.  Experience says that after a shortage comes a glut.  The meat shortage in the 70's, the oil embargo by OPEC, and about any other shortage you can name.  For awhile earlier in the decade, houses were selling for 10-20% more than the realtor's price, but that's not happening anymore. In a free market, after nothing comes the deluge.  

So my car's paid off and I have no intention of paying $10,000 over sticker price just to drive away in a new car.  Let's wait a while and see how things play out. 

He's at it again

I don't follow much in the way of sports anymore.  Years ago, it was different.  When I lived in West Virginia, Marshall University hosted Louisville, a top team with All-American Darrell Griffith.  They won, but not without a ... let me change that from "fight" to "struggle".  I recall the crowd chanting "Louisville sucks!", which scandalized people inclined to clutch figurative pearls at such language.

Well, this past season the Cardinals finished with a record of 4-26, and there's no getting around it -- Louisville sucks. Even the dog act at halftime got in on it.

Next thing you know, it'll be time to turn the clocks forward

Speedwell blossoming just around the corner from the house.  First this, then soon the wood violets will appear at the back of the property, and hopefully next to the utility box in the neighbor's front yard.  Around June the chicory will show up just off the side of the road, paying no mind to the residual ice melt from the prior winter.  Late summer will bring the purple asters and all the other late-blooming flowers I saw last August through October.  And I am here for it.

OK, I searched...

...and there's no direct reference to the scene in The Four Seasons (which PG is watching now) where one character says that most people she knows at her college like to get drunk and piss off a balcony.  All I could think was that you might piss off a balcony and get away with it, but don't piss off a cop.

And I can't believe no one else came up with a gag like that in the past 40 years and put it in a format where it could be found during a routine web search.  

That's all I'm sayin'.  I say what I think, and I'm not even Italian.

My Tuesday

Well, it's like this.  I wanted a cardigan to wear around the house.  Nothing too heavy or too warm, just something in cotton for fall through spring.  There was something cheap on the Amazon site, and something nice on the LL Bean site, but neither had me jumping for my wallet.  

Not expecting anything, I looked at eBay and found a perfectly good Bean cardigan ("pre-owned", but it looked fresh, not worn, in the several accompanying pictures) in an online consignment shop.  Plus there was a 20%-off coupon that basically covered the postage. $35 for something that goes for more than twice that when new.  It'll be here next week.

Other e-buys:  talked BB into getting a 12-ounce container to hold her evaporated milk, replacing the old small syrup bottle.  She had some cash back coming, so she paid only a bit over half the list price.

Another triumph of hope over experience?  Years ago, I subscribed to Le Monde, paying directly with a U.S. credit card.  That lasted until mid-2021, when that card was compromised and a new one issued.  I didn't notify them of the new card number, and that ended that.  Inertia alone had been keeping me a subscriber, since to unsub back then required sending a written request to Paris via registered mail.  

Now it's possible to subscribe via Google Pay.  Same credit card, but in 2023 the control is in my Google account. Since I'd been away for a couple of years, I got a new-subscriber rate of about $6 per month.  That's about how much we're paying for WaPo.  A loaded version of the Times, containing games, Wirecutter, the Athletic, and the food section, is setting us back $25 a month.

Baked a crumb cake for BB, using a recipe from Sugar Spun Run.  One edit: she says the crumb buns she liked best growing up weren't as moist as cake, so I cut down on the brown sugar and substituted white sugar.  We had to make a short run to Aldi for sour cream, and she helped put the crumb mixture together and spread it over the cake batter.  Forty-five minutes later, I took it out and we both had a small warm piece.  Verdict: while it isn't the crumb buns she enjoyed as a young resident of New Jersey, it's still good.

Saturday Evening Post

On the ongoing effort to install the replacement password manager everywhere:  Figured out what I was doing wrong on the iPad, so that's done.  Then installed it on PG's PC upstairs.  First I had to update a couple of drivers on her 4-year-old machine, and reboot it.  Then the actual installation process.  Briefly, there was a situation when I couldn't proceed with installation on her PC because the password software installation security procedure sent a code to Gmail, and I couldn't get to Gmail because I couldn't get the password from the new, as-yet-uninstalled password manager.

Nevertheless, I persisted.  So now LastPass is gone and the replacement is working on her PC, my PC, the laptop downstairs, and both iPads, as well as on my phone.  That's everything, for which I'm grateful. That's all the detail I'm going into; I'm stretching things in thinking someone might be interested in the simple fact that we have a new password manager.  No sense going beyond that to expect anybody to care about all the steps (and mis-steps) required to accomplish it.  

In the further adventures of Handyman John:  Maybe I mentioned it already, but our refrigerator has a water dispenser and takes periodic filter replacements.  Somewhere in 2020, I'm guessing based on the receipt (literal, not the figurative sense used nowadays), I tried replacing the existing filter with a freshly-purchased one, but with the new one in place, no water was dispensed.  I forget what else happened back then, but what's beyond dispute is that I gave up.  I learned that the dispenser could work without the filter, so I re-installed the filter cap and left it at that.  

Two-plus years later, I scooped cat boxes in the basement like I do every day, and also like every day, behind the boxes I saw the pair of uninstalled filters on the shelf along the wall.  On this occasion, unlike every one before that day, I chose to ignore the fact that they're the same filters that didn't work in 2020.  Yes, yes, "doing the same thing and expecting different results" and all that, but I wasn't expecting different results.  I just wanted to refresh my memory, re-create the problem, and hoped to learn something that might help solve the problem.  

Can you guess what happened next?  I unwrapped a filter, used a flashlight to take a good look inside the area where the filter's supposed to go, and slid that filter inside until it locked in place.  And yes sir, the dispenser dispensed copious amounts of water, much of which splashed onto the floor around the fridge.   

So then, what was the difference between 2020 and 2023?  Installed incorrectly then, done correctly now?  There just aren't that many ways a filter can be installed and click in, that's just how they're engineered.  I think I read somewhere that the water line might have been frozen, and while I doubt that, it could be that the filter was properly installed, but that when the cover at the bottom of the fridge was re-installed, I put a kink in the water line.  

I'm leaning toward that, though I tried more than once back then, and doubt that it would have kinked in the same way more than once.  And hey, there's always the possibility that maybe there's a statutory limit or something on that kind of malfunction.  "Ho-ho, the two years are up -- time to get back to work!"  

But put that on the list of recent accomplishments that include fresh-baked homemade chocolate chip cookies (and for extra credit, cleaning up afterward); finding, ordering and installing a mechanism to fix the clock that broke years ago when it fell off the mantle; and replacing the password manager on every internet-facing device in the house.   

Friday This, That, and the Other

Baked chocolate chip cookies after supper.  Instead of mini M&Ms or Ghirardelli 60% chips, used Hershey milk chocolate chips.  First time I've baked cookies this year.

During the noon hour, PG and I got groceries at Wegmans and bird seed at Wild Birds Unlimited.  At Wegmans, a dozen eggs went for $2.99 instead of $4.99.  At WBU, PG said all we need is the same set of seeds we chose last time, and I felt like going inside and saying simply, "We'll have the usual."

Carrabba's tomorrow for supper, and paying for it with a couple of gift cards courtesy of a field account manager.  Also got word today that a new laptop is on its way to me.  That explains why IT support is ignoring my requests to install Acrobat and SnagIt.  Now someone needs to explain the difference between a thin client and a thick one.

Just looked up at the screen of the Cubs spring training game -- (1) is that old guy Rick Sutcliffe?  (2) it's the top of the 7th already?  Maybe some of these new rules ain't so bad.  I'll never get used to the Manfred Man in extra innings, though.  TV is still figuring out how to add the pitch clock to the screen.  Superimpose it at the bottom right?  Superimpose it within the info box at the top left?  But they'll figure it out, probably learning from how the play clocks in NFL games and shot clocks in basketball are handled.

It should be easier than it is to print a PDF from Pat's iPad.  She finds recipes, and we have to print-screen them or put a link to them in Google Keep, then create a PDF from a Windows machine.  

Despite painstakingly entering the assigned information, 1Password informed me that something was wrong and rejected it.  So much for putting it on an iPad.  Works like a charm on all Windows machines in our house.

Our Day

 Awake at 8:00, in the office and logged in by 8:15.  Corporate OneDrive hadn't worked in days, but yesterday I followed (mostly) instructions from IT and got it to work.  However, when I logged in today, it didn't start. The little whirl just kept circling and circling, just as it had done all day, every day, until yesterday afternoon.

Client Zoom calls at 9:30 and 11:00.  I didn't listen enough in the second call.  The client asked a question and I began to answer before she was done talking.  

Washed hair for the first time since the day after my Friday afternoon haircut. Short hair is really good that way.  

At noon, drove PG to her doctor, just to hand in the BP readings she kept track of over the past month.

Then to Trexlertown Giant, where we managed to find enough bargains to spend $103.01.  (The credit card reader didn't ask whether I wanted to donate 99 cents to a good cause.)  Grocery prices are way higher than inflation would seem to indicate.  

I almost bought a bag of chocolate chips from the clearance table, but just in time saw that they were non-dairy, made with oat milk.  Gack.  Next to it was another bag of chips, this brand made with stevia.  Ay caramba.

In Giant at the checkout was a one-shot magazine with its subject the music of the 1960's.  I wasn't really aware back then, but I feel confident that in 1963 there were no checkout magazines with headlines about the music of 1903.  

This is one of the two fat months of the year for me.  Pension payment hits the account on the 1st, and... oh wait a minute. Just because there are five Thursdays in March doesn't necessarily mean I get paid on 1, 3, and 5.  In actuality, the money comes through on 2 and 4.  But come June, it'll be pension on the 1st, and payday on 1, 15, and 29.  Not many of those months left in my working life.

The thought occurs that the boss should be phoning me soon with word about my upcoming pay increase.  If I got what I got last March, a nice increase paired with a nice bonus, I'll be well pleased.

Celebrated pension payday with a bottle of Mountain Dew from the Dollar-and-a-Quarter Store.  Looked for a Lindt bar for PG, but they had none, and I didn't see a bare spot on the shelf where they used to be. Has Lindt dropped that store chain?  They can't make money selling that size chocolate bar at that price?  Probably yes and probably no, to hear them tell it.

Got the notification that the electronic bank transfer from the local credit union to a different online account went through. If only they'd taken the cash from the account I wanted them to use. I know, I know, first world problems.

And no one in a third world country below a certain economic level would care about LastPass and its security woes. But me, I'm concerned enough to research and download a replacement. Pretty smooth transition so far, too.  There's still more than a week left in the free trial period, and LastPass has been deleted from my phone and its extension removed from Chrome.  I think PG uses Apple's password keeper on her iPad, rather than LastPass.

PG and I saw a robin on the ground at the corner of Auburn and Grange roads. I spotted two tiny speedwell flowers amid the remaining snow behind the house. There wasn't much snow yesterday, for which you can thank me, since I dragged the snow thrower from the shed to the house in preparation for the predicted 2-to-3 inches. It's March, and I have yet to shovel any snow since last winter.   

Yesterday, Big Brown delivered the Le Creuset mixing bowl that I chose from the selections which my employer made available as Xmas presents. Included with the bowl was a small bag of pancake mix, so after BB washed the bowl, I used it to make the pancakes for supper.  

Watched Beyond Paradise with PG while Kit sat on her lap and Good Queen Swirly leaned against my leg under her soft fleece blanket.  Lead character and girlfriend were in bed, and each called out a good night to the GF's mother. I quickly added "Good night, John-boy" and got a snicker from PG. 

Let's see, I made a donation to TP for the company's charity drive and earned two half-days off as a reward. Also entered volunteer time worked into company database and applied for a grant to go to TP.  That application was accepted yesterday morning. Finally, someone had a fundraiser for TP in Facebook and I put in a few more bucks.  It's all good for the cats.

Late in the afternoon, I looked over the status of the IT support tickets and wrote separate follow-up emails to IT for all of them.  Why are SnagIt and Acrobat in my list of software if I can't access them?  The snipping tool advises me to try its coming successor and to use Win/Shift/S as a keyboard shortcut.  That doesn't work, either. Don't forget the ongoing issues with OneDrive, either.  

On each email detailing the problems and IT's failure to get things working, I copied the boss, just so he's aware.  Escalation, here we come.  Maybe IT will listen to him.

Watched S2E2 of Yes, Minister. A few minutes of Chris Hayes, a few minutes of weather. Learned about The Melting of Molly, a trashy novel that was one of the top sellers of 1912, and downloaded a copy from Gutenberg.  Dropbox demanded  a password to permit Gutenberg's content, and LastPass's replacement came through without a hitch. 

Listened to some more French.  And so to bed, 900 words later.