Midlife Memoirs

AT&T U-verse Hell

We have spent the past few weeks in the bowels of AT&T U-verse Hell and we're not quite out of it.

Back when we signed our lease on the new apartment, I went on the internet and signed us up for U-Verse cable, internet, and phone. Nine days later (two before the scheduled appointment) I got a call from someone who left a message saying that there had been a system error and our appointment had been cancelled. I then spent several hours on the phone trying to straighten things out and arrange for an appointment before we would actually be moving.

The day arrived, technician showed up, and all came to a screeching halt. The previous tenant hadn't disconnected service. They couldn't have service over existing service, so we were told it would take a couple more days. Those came and went (and a few more). Many phone calls were exchanged; from time to time other techs appeared and tried to fix things. By this point we had moved in - with no cable, internet, or phone - just mobiles.

Finally, Saturday (a full week later) we got cable and internet installed - but no phone. That was the only way they were able to fix the problem and get us up and running. That's all well and good, but AT&T blocks the SMTP port... so we can get mail, but can't send it from our domain - only through web apps.

And... we still don't have a phone ... 10 days after the first technician showed his face. (The tech guys have all been really nice, just at a loss on how to fix this all.)

Trials & Tribulations

We are part way through our move right now. Sorry to those I haven't been in communication with much recently.

So, Packing is a pain. End of discussion. The only saving grace is that you can pack what you know you want to keep and work your way down. At the end, you toss stuff that is still usable, but hasn't been of any use to you in the past few years. Extra de-cluttering! I am at the point where I am so sick of packing that I wouldn't care too much if all the rest of our stuff never made it to SF. (Except that I like some of the cookware I have...)

We went to IKEA and bought a bunch of stuff for the new place - to replace the stuff we aren't taking from here. It's time for a bit of a change. Rather than try to move it all ourselves, we had it delivered to our new apartment. I am pleased to say that it all went off without a hitch. Definitely worth it. The delivery guys were nice and said they loved their job - all they have to do is deliver the stuff and leave ... no set-up involved!

AT&T cable, internet, and phone are another matter all together. Seems the people who lived in our apartment before us never had their phone or cable/internet disconnected. So the techs who came out today to start up our service ran into a rather large problem. They can't just drop the old customer's stuff and start ours up - there is a procedure they have to go through for abandoned service. The folks who deal with this only work Monday - Friday ...we wanted installation on Saturday.

So, we are without cable, internet, or phone at the new place and it probably won't be installed until after we move in on Tuesday.

I am currently in Mountain View finishing up some more packing. Steve is up in San Francisco putting together some of the IKEA stuff. The Queen of Flatpack has relinquished her crown...temporarily.

Really Weird

We've been shifting stuff up to our new place in San Francisco over the past couple of weeks. We are excited about the move.

Over the past couple of days, we realized that we are not alone. Turns out that at least two other couples in our building has moved out, as well as at least two other apartments in the building behind us. A number of people have bought houses, some have just moved on. I think there are at least 10 apartments available in our complex right now, with more on the way.

One of the couples who moved out today had a really noisy dog. We really noticed it tonight - the silence was deafening.

Packing

Pardon the lack of posts, but we have been packing...and sorting... and testing things out.

Progress is being made on the packing front, although at times it seems to be going slowly. The biggest hindrance is getting the stuff we want to toss to either the charity drop-off or the dumpster.

We went up to SF and did a test run of the new place. The layout is great, the only issue for me is street noise - something you have to expect from city living. Public transit is great. The grocery store is "ok" and will work in a pinch, but we need to find a larger, better stocked one for regular "large haul" trips. (They don't carry Steve's favorite soda ... or some of the other things we are used to.)

I'm working on the packing part, but sometimes the going is slow. I am tempted to also sort at the same time, but that would only slow things down even further. With a washer and dryer at the new place, I need fewer clothes, but that may have to be dealt with after the move, rather than before.

Ah well...back to the boxes for me.