Verizon Update & Hounds Playing

Things have been moving along as usual. Things are being finalized with things I have have been waiting on so that is good. As of a couple of minutes ago my Verizon problem is almost completed, so close but will need to wait a few more days to receive the missing refund. I will tell the update in detail at the end of this post for those that are interested. Snow forecasted for Saturday so the hounds, the dog and I are getting hunkered down for the weekend. Netflix will be a life saver it looks like. Probably will not be more than an inch of snow.  LOL

There are times when all three will try to fit on the couch with me. It is always first come first serve and once you have a seat do not get up to leave for anything. The seat will not be there when you get back. Out of the picture Watson is lying next to me as I sit next to Henry. I kept telling Henry no when he was looking at that very small space. He jumped up anyway and laid on Walter for his afternoon siesta.

Walter is a serious tv watcher. When something is not right or he hears someone in trouble in the movies he becomes quite concerned and wants to help them like he does here at the house. He is a protector of Watson. At times when Watson and Henry are running full speed in the backyard and go into their patent roll to escape the one chasing them, he might hear a yelp or a cry from one of them and runs immediately to them to see if they are okay. If he suspects someone is at the front door, he is there checking it out.

Last Tuesday I was so bored that I signed up again for Netflix. I quit last year when they raised their price and I was finding it hard to find something I wanted to watch, if you can believe that. I didn't blink at the higher price this year as there were some shows and documentaries I had seen on their website I wanted to watch. This is Watson's and Henry's normal Netflix position.

When we had a few days with temperatures in the teens I broke down and clicked that up arrow a few times on the thermostat to bring some heat into the house. As you can see Henry and Watson knew exactly where that heat would be coming from in the computer room.

Their morning routine after they eat, play, trips outside and I am on the computer reading while drinking coffee. 

19°, the ground hard as concrete and who knows what Watson was looking for or wanting to eat, but I caught Watson in the act of digging in the frozen snow. Definitely didn't make me happy then I remember he is a dog with the strongest nose of all breeds. 10x more powerful than a human nose. I admit he drives me insane sometimes with what I catch him doing. Then I remember he is not only a puppy but a bloodhound puppy and believe me that is a distinct difference. 

When I catch him counter surfing a loud "No" will have him drop back to the standing position. While I mumble to myself asking if I made the right decision in getting a bloodhound puppy I remember all the times Stella pulled fruit off the counter to eat it, she ate the back of my ball cap that was sitting on the kitchen island and all the destruction Sadie did as a puppy.

Bloodhounds are trackers by nature. When they get bored their noses lead them into trouble if inside a house or inside a yard. I can buy all the chew toys and bones I want but it just takes one scent for him to lock into that can change my day just like that. Luckily that fence is installed and keeps him inside the yard or he would be long gone tracking down an animal he has seen on the other side of the fence. None of them have tried to dig under the fence. Their heads no long fit between the vertical rods of aluminum. So they are safe when left outside.

Here are some photos from this morning of their early morning playing session in 30° weather.

I just have to remember he is a bloodhound puppy doing exactly what I thought he might do. He is trainable and has alleviated some issues as I reward him with small treats. You just can never stop training him until he is older. Taking him on more walks is helping and I have that big field behind my house that is frozen hard right now so no mud and plenty of room for him to exercise his nose. He is so strong that I cannot hold a camera in one hand to take a good photo.

That is not my house and not my tree but I have one just like it in the front of my house close to my sidewalk and driveway. It has been cut back in the center from previous fallen limbs. I had two limbs hanging over my roof until I cut them back a couple of months ago. The best tree service in town was busy when I called in November to take it down, so I am on their schedule for February or March. 

Verizon Update for those interested ---

My last post about this nightmare, click here, I had just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau online. I did that last Sunday morning, the 9th of December. In less than 24 hours at 5:17am on Monday morning I received an email from the BBB telling me they had sent my complaint to Verizon. FOUR HOURS LATER I get an email from a lady in Verizon Executive Relations telling me she was going fix the problem.

Just like "The Solution" post on a complaint website I had found, said. Right on schedule from his recommendation.

She was going to investigate my story and would be get back to me within NEXT business day.

How is that for fast service after 41 days of insane BS? The next day I am sitting in my living room which is my game room, looking outside at the cold weather wondering what I have done by moving back to the Midwest in May. The phone rings and it is the lady from the Verizon Executive Relations office, 26 hours after I received her email. It looked like that word BBB had lit a fire under their ass to get this fixed.

She asked me to tell her my story. She NEVER interrupted and listened. When I was finished she said that was exactly what she had found in her investigation. The only thing different was she told me my refund on a debit card might take 21 days to be received in the mail and the 21st day was that day we were talking on the phone.

She was able to explain to me what happened to have the system computer bill me again in December and January, with a credit balance in December and a full month due amount in January. She said first of all she would delete the Automatic Payment the system had set up in December after I had closed my account in November. While we are talking I get an email from Verizon telling me the automatic payment had been stopped.

She said she would also retract the January amount due showing I had a zero balance. While we were talking on the phone I get another Verizon email telling me about that billing adjustment. Finally she assured me I would not be receiving any more bills from Verizon since she did what needed to be done to stop those from automatically sent. BTW I never did get a confirmation email from Roberto last Sunday on the 9th when he told me he made those same adjustments. That was just one reason I decided to file a complaint with the BBB.

By the end of the call we both agreed that I would let her know by Friday the 14th if I had received the refund debit card. I doubted it would show up since it had not arrived and all those questionable systematic adjustments to my account. I had a January bill showing that refund had been reversed and I told her that ... but she wanted to wait until Friday to see if it would show up in the mail.

Friday comes (today as I write this) and no Verizon mail of any kind. I reply to her email from Tuesday telling her I did not receive the refund. She calls me almost immediately telling me she will contact her accounting department to re-issue another card or send a check by mail. 

By the time she called last Tuesday I didn't care about the $49.63 refund. ALL I WANTED was to stop the automatic billing and their attempt to pull those payments from a debit card that I had closed. I never wanted to get another bill from them or a collection letter for lack of payment nor did I want to get into a "collections" fight with them.

So I am close to having Verizon complete the fix.

One thing I found very interesting talking to her. Not once did she ask why I had left Verizon and not once did she try to get me to come back with special discounts and deals. Those options were never mentioned.

As I start the new year things seem settled in my mind. I don't have any urges to look for cars or trucks to buy because I love the two vehicles I have. With the November illegal immigrant statistics from the Cochise County Sheriffs department and the continued rising cost of housing in Sierra Vista I doubt that I will ever return. I miss the mountains, the hiking and the bicycling more than anything but I can still do that here. I checked all of that out before I decided to make the move.

I am more adjusted to the move now after 8 months and this place is finally starting to feel like home. It took longer than I expected to get that feeling. I have been in mental turmoil most of the time, going back and forth on my decision last April. This is a great place for the hounds and the dog. It's a great small city. Carlos Santana is having a concert here in April. ZZ Top was scheduled last summer but had to cancel after their bass player died. So there is big time entertainment available. I do miss that landscape of SE Arizona.

The winter mornings are the same temps as I had in Sierra Vista but the difference is out there it gets up into the 60s and 70s by the afternoon with that high altitude hot sunshine where here it will not get higher than the 40s. Sunny but cold.

It's all good here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana and really, I did make the right decision.