Share and Enjoy

Tonight I built a sled to aid in cutting guaranteed straight lines.  I researched this device for days and decided on a design.  My table saw was one of the first power tools I bought for myself, many years ago.  I bought it because it was the one I could afford at the time.  So, I have a junk ass Craftsman table saw where NOTHING is sized to “standard” table saw sizes.  No.  And after futzing with a particular piece of my sled for, like, an hour, I discovered that the miter slot to the right of the blade isn’t even the same size as the miter slot to the left!  <SIGH>.

Finished sled

I finally got my sled built to satisfactory specs, mounted up my first leg blank … and discovered the friggin’ blade wasn’t tall enough to cut though the blank plus the sled!  Seething with frustration and determined to make some good cuts tonight, I busted out two squares and set the miter fence.  I also ended up having to remove the rip fence to make use of every millimeter of blade height.  It was scary (and dumb), but I managed to not cut anything but the wood.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get an after pic of me, but I was totally covered in saw dust.  Kris just laughed at me.

One side cut on each blank

This morning we got up and went to the Farmer’s Market.  We ran into several friends while there.

After Kaity got home from her friend’s house, we had lunch at Ingredient and did some shopping at the Merc.  A storm rolled in as we got home, so we watched “Up In the Air.”  The storm dropped the temperature 15F, outside.  We took advantage of the mid 70′s temperatures and went for a very pleasant walk on campus.

It has been brutally hot for nearly two weeks, now.  I’m talking upper 90′s and 90% humidity, with heat indices of 110F or more.  The kind of weather that prompts the National Weather Service to issue heat advisories.  We have been going for an evening walk nearly every night for a few months, now (excepting a few nights due to rain) – until this week.  We have started skipping walks because of the heat.  Tonight, we couldn’t take it anymore, and went walking despite the heat.  It was still 93F an hour after sunset, when we set out.

Today is Daddy’s birthday, and he got the best present of all.

Daddy got to bring me home today, after a long wait for our discharge from the hospital. My sister Hannah made a welcome home sign, and the dogs seem to really like me.

Welcome Home

Brandon and I decided to terminate our DirecTV account, after determining that:

1. We don’t watch much network TV
2. All the Big 12 teams have been eliminated from the NCAA basketball tournament
3. Our money would be better spent upping our Internet connection, so we can stream content we actually want to watch, like stuff in our Netflix queue.

Yesterday, Brandon called the cable company about increasing our bandwidth, and I called DirecTV to close our account.  I’d done this once before a couple of years ago, when we were trying to save a little money on bills, with no problems.  Not this time.  The “customer service” rep informed me that there was a current 2 year committment on the account, and that if I closed it, we’d be subject to an early termination fee.  After arguing with him for several minutes, even about whether I could speak to a supervisor or not, I angrily told him to suspend the account.  They suspend it for 6 months, so you’re not being charged monthly, but those 6 months don’t count towards your time committment, either.

Thing is, the rep claimed that the new 2 year contract started when we had a new receiver installed last October.  We had gotten a call from DirecTV last summer claiming that they were changing how the HD signals were transmitted, so they needed to send out a new receiver for us.  That’s right, DirecTV called and told us that our equipment needed to be upgraded, and never once mentioned ANYTHING about the “free upgrade” including a new 2 year service contract (and accompanying early termination fee).  But the rep on the phone insisted that the contract was valid (he was lying out of his ass, but apparently that’s what “company policy” has trained him to do).

After I hung up (wishing I had been on an old land line that I could slam into the cradle), I did a little digging on Consumerist.com.  A quick search for DirecTV on the site turned up this little gem:

Here are some executive email addresses and phone numbers if you need to escalate an unresolved problem with DirecTV:

bruce.churchhill@directv.com: Bruce Churchhill, EVP
john.murphy@directv.com: John Murphy, SVP, Controller, CAO
patrick.doyle@directv.com: Patrick Doyle, SVP, CFO
HZBitew@directv.com: Heywot Bitew, Business Operation Analyst
eafilipiak@directv.com: Ellen Filipiak, Senior Vice President of Customer Relations

I chose the last one, the Senior VP of Customer Relations, and sent this message:

Subject: Customer Service Issue

Timestamp: 12:00 PM CDT

Ms. Filipiak,

I am a DirecTV customer.  This morning, I tried to cancel my account, and was told there would be an early cancellation fee.  I have been a customer for over 4 years.  Last summer, I received a call from one of your representatives stating that my equipment (specifically the HD receiver) needed to be upgraded.  The representative never mentioned that this “free upgrade” came with an additional two year committment to DirecTV.  I was never informed of any additional committment, I never signed anything agreeing to an additional committment, and I want my account canceled effective immediately, at no additional cost to me.

Your “customer service” representative that I talked to this morning was less than helpful.  I’m not interested in suspending my account for 6 months.  I am cancelling this service because it has become a luxury my family can no longer afford.  And this experience is leading me to think that I no longer want to be a DirecTV customer, if company policy includes luring customers into additional committments under false pretenses without their knowledge or consent.

Sincerely,

Me

I figured if I got no response, I’d start forwarding the message up the list. At 7:46PM, this appeared in my inbox:

Response (DIRECTV)

Thank you for your recent correspondence.  After reviewing your account and email, we removed the current agreement on the account and set up disconnection of all services for 03/30/09, per your request.  The HD receiver we replaced on 10/23/08 did not come with a new agreement and we apologize a new agreement was added to your account.

Once the account is disconnected, a final bill will be mailed within 7 business days.  A recovery kit will be sent to the address on file so you can return the leased HD receiver.  Please use the provided shipping label to return the equipment within seven days of receiving the return kit.  We ask you to return equipment within 21 days of disconnection to avoid additional equipment fees.

Sincerely,

DIRECTV Customer Advocate Team

Moral of the story:  If you ever have an unresolved issue with a company, check Consumerist for contact information, escallation really does work.

I just wish I had a direct line to the rep I talked to yesterday, so I could tell him, personally, to bite me.

We’ve gotten some updated pictures in the last few days of the babies born so far this year.  In chronological order:

My new niece, Alex Mackenzie Burnett

And here’s Lorelei:

Lorelei

And Friday the 13th was our lucky day, because we got to have lunch with Lily-Mae:

Lily-Mae

And her parents came to lunch, too.

Jan, circa 1952

My Aunt Jan passed away last week.  She was 59, and had been battling inflammatory breast cancer since shortly before Brandon and I married in 2006.  For those who may not know, this rare type of cancer (1-5% of all breast cancer cases in the US) is extremely aggressive — developing in weeks or months, often has metastasized to other regions of the body by the time it is diagnosed, and has a 5-year survival rate of 25-50% (much lower than other forms of breast cancer).

Jan (1967), upon her graduation from U.S. Grant High School, the same school I would graduate from 22 years later.

With this diagnosis, Jan could’ve given up.  But she didn’t.  She fought it with everything she had.   Over the last two years, she had surgery, went through radiation and chemotherapy, and was living with lymphedema as a result of her treatment. Shortly after Christmas, she went to the hospital for what she thought was pneumonia.  It was, but it resulted from the cancer that had metatasized to her lung.  The oncologist asked her if she wanted to start chemotherapy again, or manage the pain but not treat the cancer.  She decided to begin another round of chemotherapy, explaining that she wasn’t finished raising her daughter (who’s 37) or her sister (who’s 55) yet.

Jan in California, circa 1973. This is my favorite picture of her.

The last time I spoke to her, about two weeks ago, she was understandably weak, having been back in the hospital because one of the chemo drugs had caused a recurrence of pneumonia, but had gotten the news that her CAT scans from that visit had come back clear, the treatment was working. She was chipper and upbeat, looking forward to starting a maintenance dose of oral chemotherapy the next week (so she didn’t have to go in for weekly IV chemo treatments anymore).  She had been on the new treatment two days when she passed.  The lining of her lungs was thickening, preventing her from getting sufficient oxygen.

Jan (one year into her treatment) and Grandma, with Stacie and Nana in the background, Thanksgiving 2007.

My mom was with her, having come to care for her while she was in chemo.  Jan passed peacefully in her sleep, and died the way she lived, with grace, dignity, and an indominable strength. Her courage to fight, her will to live, and her cheerful optimism in the face of grim circumstances are an inspiration. The wigs and prosthetics that she wore during treatment will be donated to the local cancer center, to help other women continue the fight.

This last is for Stacie, my cousin and Jan’s daughter, who chose this song to play at her memorial service: