The man who came to give us an estimate for a generator arrived promptly which gained him quite a lot of credit in our book. It turned out that he was from Long Island, so we had something in common, as I lived there myself for many years.
The final estimate and details for financing are yet to be received, so no decision has been made. It is an expensive item, so it really depends what value you place on peace of mind. Being without power in itself is not a big deal. I was once without electricity for 5 days out in Washington and suffered not at all.
But in the middle of a deep freeze or intense heatwave, I would be less sanguine and I suspect that as time goes on, repairs will take longer and longer.
An efficient generator adds value to the house which does not really sway the decision, but I am leaning toward accepting the deal.
Assuming I ever get the quote which I was told would come last night.
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Maybe the man meant he would work it out last night and that I would receive it this morning. I checked my email first thing – nothing, so I had a look in spam, since stuff sometimes gets filed there in error…
The next words out of my mouth were somewhat impolite.
For no reason that I can think of, it turns out Yahoo has been sending a large portion of my email to spam, including much, but not all mail generated from Word Press.
Now, if all my Word Press email had suddenly dried up, I might have been suspicious, but I am accustomed to those messages being erratic and I tend to look for them on the WP reader. I haven’t yet got to the end of the “spam” list, so I’ve no idea when this started and I don’t know how to correct it. I did what I hope is a mass “It’s not spam”, but that would be too simple.
Why are we forced into using electronic communication that is so fickle? It’s a sort of passive-aggressive elder abuse by the generations who grew up with technology.
If you appeal for assistance with it, you usually come up against AI, which I’d like to throttle with my bare hands. If you do manage to out-wait the mid-numbing MOH of a telephone, the individual you are connected with is generally not a native English speaker, which straight away complicates the transaction, although such people are generally at least polite.
In the event you reach someone who speaks English like a native, they soon manage to make you feel like some sort of stupid half-wit who ought not to be wasting their time.
This, at least, is my experience.
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Another reason for wanting a generator is to maintain internet connection, since we are obliged to be so dependent on it, however this of course is contingent on the provider remaining active.
Which it has not been as I’ve attempted to write this – reason unknown.
Life really was easier in the “dark ages”.
What I so hate about the sort of foolish nonsense Yahoo presented me with is that is wastes so much time. This morning I found myself getting quite irritable, even threatening to box Little Man’s ears.
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As if.
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What that little lad needs is a kitten to play with and we would love to find him one.
Common sense is such a bore.
Having wasted an hour sorting out misdirected emails, I then spent the best part of another hour making cooing noises to a peacock which was very much more pleasing, but still wasn’t getting other things accomplished.
Although I am retired and have no time constraints, I am a creature of habit, which means I expect certain daily functions to be complete by such and such time and when it is not, I become unsettled.
It is daft, I fully acknowledge and if I put my mind to it, I can talk sense to myself, but first I have to recognise that I am becoming agitated.
Today, Grant intervened, suggesting an early afternoon drive in the country.
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Passing through the village, we stopped at the post office to collect mail which delivered news I did not want. I began to explain what it was all about but decided to make a separate, no doubt riveting post about that.
You’ll be on tenterhooks, I know.
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Meanwhile, here is the last image of Friday morning’s pretty sky.
Some sort of dragon, I think, riding a – snowmobile?
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Dragon on a snowmobile is a good call for the cloud. You would get on well with my wife, she always sees the strangest things in clouds.
Yahoo is acting strange lately. This morning, I found they had transferred all of my inbox emails into a folder called ‘unread’. I found emails dating back two weeks, though fortunately only a handful were ones I had to reply to. If they are going to make changes like these, I really wish they would just let us know in advance.
Best wishes, Pete.
That last photo definitely looks like a dragon on a snowmobile.
Technology is maddening and just when you think you have a handle on things, everything changes. We have a saying in IT, ” if it ain’t broke, don’t touch!” The other saying is “publish or perish!” I reckon this is why software keeps drastically changing.
Frustrating to say the very least.
Hope it all gets sorted. Generator and all.
The thing with AI is that it is both a blessing and a deadly cursed pitfall.
Both can be true.
It is brilliant at helping with some things and deadly at misleading you with others.
The twin key problems to me are that
I. It is trained to be sycophantic, which is often far from the truth, and
2. it is trained to predict. Which is NOT the same as “go search and find the facts”. And that means it hallucinates what is machine-predictable to come next. And that is often far from the facts.
Where it can be brilliant – if guided adequately and sternly told off when it deviates into background blather – is in tracking down the best deal for an appliance purchase given all the cost variables of delivery, installation, dimensions, basic price. Even then it needs serious double checking etc. It was also brilliant at helping me decode the military acronyms and geographical scraps from my father’s wartime diaries – turning what was mysterious into a coherent account.
Good to know. Thanks, Josie.
So frustrating to have e-mail go missing and not know it. I trust things will be better going forward. Do let us know how the generator decisions work out.
There are few things that irritate me as much as when an AI-generated email or voice tries to persuade me to do something I didn’t ask for. I’d rather watch a dragon on a snowmobile than struggle with today’s modern technology!
Well, I hope that, by the time I read your post, you finally had your quote for the generator.