I always harken back to January 2002 when my then fiance and I went to Florida. Fine beautiful day at Downtown Disney. 65 degrees and sunny. Fiance and I are walking around in jeans and t-shirts thinking it was totally awesome weather.
Shivering little woman in a windbreaker walks up to us, totally astonished that we aren’t wearing coats because it’s* so cold*. 
Fuck off and die Comcast. I had no service from you in October for nine days because of Hurricane Sandy. You promised I would get credit for this fact in January’s bill. Why the fuck are you fucking morons refusing to give the credit for no service then this month? Fucking idiots are arguing with me now about it.
I AM NOT PAYING FOR SERVICE I DID NOT RECEIVE.
We had exactly that experience when visiting California at Christmas time the year I was 13. We were running around in shorts and tshirts playing on the beach and the little old lady walking her dog in a sweatshirt and coat was berating our parents for abusing us this way.
And then there’s the opposite: visiting my stepdad’s mother or sister in West Virginia during the summer, when I’m enjoying 75 degree days with no humidity, and they’re complaining about the heat. (But yeah, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not acclimated to the cold. The first time I visited D.C., it was April, and I damn near froze to death while natives were enjoying the first breath of spring. Ditto for my first visit to the Pacific Ocean - “beach in July” means something entirely different in Georgia vs. Oregon!)
There is snow on the ground here. SNOW. In TEXAS. We’re supposed to be hotter than hell here.
I have dealt with them a lot. They have three types of CSR: assholes, idiots and sweethearts. Just call back and try again. Actually the competent/sweetheart % is higher than at many companies.
You know, if there’s no money they can’t write checks. I have no doubt the military is a high priority but they have said there’s a small but real possibility that Soc Sec checks won’t go out. No one knows.
Anu’s post?
QFT. I had Comcast for the longest time, and I really miss it now that my only option for cable + internet is a crappy, incompetent little local company with less technical savvy than my 15-year-old son. The only problem I ever had with Comcast was when two of their contractors insisted that my inside wiring was the problem, vs. the line running from the pole. The third dude was told “I’ll TRY to hold the dog back while you recheck these lines…” He decided to check the exterior first, and found the actual problem! 
(The dog might have licked him half to death, but HE didn’t know that the Pyrenees was a 110-pound ball of love.)
I don’t know about the other places but here we don’t tend to have much in the way of insulation because, you know, it’s not supposed to get cold! And no scramble to replace leaking windows, etc. Because it’s not supposed to get cold!
I thought the fiscal cliff thing had been settled?
On my last job I would occasionally go the extra kilometer and call up local cable/internet companies on behalf of customers, expecting that techie speaking to techie would resolve the issue faster. It was surprising how utterly clueless most of their so-called “tech support” people were. I mean, you’re the tech guy who supports your company’s email process and YOU don’t have any idea how to set it up properly in anything but one mail program? Where did they hire you? Are you the owners idiot brother who needed a job?
The Treasury is not allowed to issue debt beyond the Debt Limit which Congress has set, which we are quickly approaching. So once we reach this, Congress has three choices:
– It can raise the debt ceiling, meaning we will go further into debt, but the bills (including Social Security) will continue to be paid.
– It can decide to immediately cut spending or take other measures to temporarily avoid the cliff, and provide a listing of which cuts to take effect immediately. Then some checks might not go out, but at least we’ll know which ones.
– It can do neither of these, in which case it defaults to the President as the Chief Executive to make these decisions.
Note that no matter what he does in this third situation, he will run counter to a Congressional mandate of some form or another. If he issues more debt he will violate the debt ceiling. If he unilaterally decides to cut programs (such as Social Security or Defense) he will run counter to legislation authorizing this spending.
However, this is the path that it seems we are on. Thus, we don’t know what Obama will choose to do in this situation, since there are no good options.
Aru, not Anu. As in aruvqan. And this post, apparently.
I don’t have anything to rant about (yet) today, I just wanted to say I really like this! 
I’m guessing it never occurs to them to consider the consequences of refusing to pay the one group of people who are trained and equipped to take out tin-plate dictators before breakfast?
mrAru wandered past last night as I was finishing up posting and pointed out that Congress meets fairly near where lots of guys in camo with pointy sticks that go bang tend to hang out. It would not be in congress’ best interest to seriously piss off people who make things go boom frequently. He pointed out that removing a sticky congress might appeal to many of these guys …
Haven’t you heard? Obama was re-elected. They’re skiing in hell. 
I was in the middle of typing a reply to this last night when from another room I heard “Daddy? Daddy, my tummy hurts. Dadblllaaarrrrrrrghsplatter.”
So that’s my rant for the day. Night of the pukies.
Boo, pukies.
This is what pisses me off the most about this Republican nonsense.
All spending originates in the House of Representatives. If it doesn’t pass there, it doesn’t happen.
So we have hypocritical morons voting for spending money, then turning around and refusing to cough up the money necessary for the spending they just voted for. And trying to blame the President for this.