Day 2 of a Long Year

New Year's Day went well up til the point that a baby pit bull began crying and whining. This baby pit bull had been dealt with a month earlier with its parents under threat of eviction if the dog was not silenced. Apparently the howling began New Year's Eve. I did not hear it at that point. But I did last night. The temperature was well below freezing. This was animal abuse. Various calls were made. At some point the dog was silenced, how I do not know. All I know is I have very good ear plugs that can block out just about anything.

This morning I uploaded the webpage version of my hike on New Year's Day to Tandy Hills Park that I mentioned in yesterday's Blog. I haven't finished the video yet, but you can see pics of this wild area so close to Fort Worth's downtown by going here.

Today I wanted a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. So, I drove up to this place called Sprouts Farmers Market. It's a chain out of Arizona with 4 stores in the D/FW Metroplex. Produce here in this part of Texas is sub-par, particularly for anyone who grew up in the agricultural areas of the west coast. But Sprouts has good stuff at a good price. On the way back from there I wanted to go to this other good grocery called Market Street. But I got a bit lost. Market Street can wait for another day.

I've not mentioned the cell phone problem I have with Lulu. Awhile back both our phones failed. Somehow our new phones ended up being identical. Lulu is in Tacoma. I am not, but somehow we ended up with the same phone. The two phones did not get along. Lulu took hers back several times. Something called a SIM chip was replaced. It'd work somewhat okay for a bit and then start acting up again. It was becoming sheer torture to talk to Lulu, with her phone making horrible guttural noises that were not at all flattering. After suffering way too much, Lulu got a new phone.

That seemed fine. For awhile.

And then the bloop bloops started happening. We'd be talking and suddenly there'd be a bloop bloop noise with the call being dropped. Sometimes this would happen almost instantly, sometimes several minutes into the call, sometimes, rarely, there would be no bloop bloop.

Lulu and I only have the bloop bloop problem when we talk to each other. We suspect Cingular/ATT has noted we take advantage of the unlimited mobile to mobile calling and have somehow rigged the system to bloop bloop us.

Currently Lulu is in propaganda mode trying to convince me that my phone is the problem. But I only have the problem when I talk to her. At least that is what I've told her. I will admit to you that I have also had the bloop bloop happen when I'm talking to another Cingular/ATT user, that being Betty Jennetty of Puerto Rico. It's very vexing.