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Audio System Installation
Well, the installers showed up today at 9 am and said that they could only stay only 2 pm as they had another job that had to be done before the weekend. I guess my money isn't as good as someone else's. Anyway, The first room progressed quite quickly with only a couple of holes to patch. The next room was extremely difficult and took several hours. I just had them run the wires and only install speakers in the locations that I couldn't reach with helped speed things along. So, 2 pm rolls around and they don't have to go to another job, but one guy says he's not feeling well and going him; they'd finish the job the end of next week. I asked if the other guy could stay to finish another room with me and he did; that room went quickly because I knew exactly how to fish the wires. While I'm pleased that the wires got run, I'm a little disappointed that the job wasn't completed today (2 controls and 2 speakers are left). I did spend the entire day either helping them fish wires, installing speakers, or terminating the connections (I didn't even have them pull the wires the last 8 feet down the wall as I had already done that a number of times and I could do it again). So finally around 6:30 pm when my wife came home, I had music playing in 6 rooms in the house! I still have to patch a bunch of holes, texture, and then paint them. My dad is coming over on Sunday to help me install the outdoor speakers. Maybe at the end of next week this project will be done. (Pictures of the installed system will come when it's done.)
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Dog freaked us out
While I was on a conference call today, my wife brought our dog in and had me feel his underside where he was neutered. She was panicked because it was hard down there, like some type of abnormal mass. She quickly called the vet and they told her that when some boy dogs get excited, their glands swell up and it gets hard. Sure enough, a few minutes later things were back to normal. I'm so glad that we didn't have to take the dog to the vet; I love my dog and will do whatever we have to for him, vets scare me. We spent way too much time at the vet with our last dog.
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Audio System Installer
Yesterday the installer came to look at my house to get a feel for installing my speakers and wire. He was recommended by my dad and my dad's pretty picky, so he should be OK. However, some of the things he said didn't install confidence in me. First off, the tallest A frame ladder they have is 8 feet; I have vaulted ceilings and to be safe, a 10 feet A frame will be needed; he said that he can use an extension ladder and rest it against the beam (the beam is exposed). Second, he tried to tell me to place the speakers somewhere where it would be easier to install. Third, he told me that the installation in 2 of the rooms would be hard; those rooms are the easiest as when we had ceiling fans put in, the electricians had no problems in there...they just cut a hole for the fan and fished the wires to the attic. Fourth, he told me that in his own house we just notched the drywall and ran wires in the notches instead of drilling holes through the floor joists which seems to me the cleaner way to go; granted my way is more time consuming, but I'd prefer not to have drywall patches all over the place. I guess we'll see tomorrow when they come to do the install. I'm just going to have them put in the speakers and run the wires; I'm not even going to have them run the wires to my termination panel, just to the attic area and tack on an extra 10-12 feet of cable and I'll fish the rest. I'll be around for the install and will show them the easy
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Sprint PCS
I have my ups and downs with Sprint PCS. I've had coverage with them for 6 years and am on a decent rate plan with plenty of minutes. I've added my whole family to the plan and they share my minutes. It works out well for everyone except for me as I have to fight Sprint almost every month. Recently I noticed that 2 of my phones had contracts that I didn't agree to adding. After calling Sprint to get the contracts corrected and getting very frustrated, I put the issue aside and said forget about it. I don't plan on leaving Sprint, but I don't like contracts on principal. The other day I sent Sprint email and they "corrected" the contracts, but they were still wrong. On the second try, they managed to get the contract correct on 1 phone (I forgot that we had rebates on the last new phone we got for that line, so there is 1 year left in the contract) and removed the contract on the other phone. Amazing that they finally got it right; I always thought email was less effective than phone, but I guess threatening legal action and threatening to contact the attorney general got that issue resolved quickly. It's kind of amazing that they were able to remove the contract on one line, but still haven't been able to remove the contract on my primary line when someone at Sprint switched my plan without my knowledge (they switched it back, but couldn't remove the contract).