When good modems go bad.....

Well, if you have been wondering about why the site (not L'Adunata, but the mother site srossi.net) has been on and off for the last 3 days, it's because of a bad modem. I called them up and told them the internet wasn't working, they did some troubleshooting (unplug, replug, turn computer off, restart computer and a bunch of stuff on their end) and finally decided it was one of two things : the modem or the cables. Since I replaced the modem just a year or so ago, they decided it had to be the cables, so they scheduled a maintenance person to come out sometime between 8am and noon today. Except that on Friday morning the internet was working fine, so I called them back and cancelled the appointment. I figured if it was something wrong with the cables, it wouldn't be so on-again, off-again like it had been for the last 3 days, and so it must be the modem. I also figured that if it were the modem, it might have to do with being down in the damp basement. So this morning when I woke up and found the internet down again, I went to Comcast, got a new modem, went to Comp USA and got the stuff to move the modem upstairs (and 2GB of RAM for this computer), came home, set it all up and voila - it's working. Hopefully for more than a couple of days. Well, running your own web page server in the basement may not be the most reliable, but it is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for the space I use....have a great weekend

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

The Good:

Bizarre night at the Chevron today. It started out with unusual good. One customer returned to the store just to let us know that the wind had blown our milk crates all over the driveway on the side of the building. Even more surprising was Coppenhagen Guy. I know I've mentioned him before, but he was a really arrogant customer that kept coming in even after accusing us of lying about our backstock of Coppenhagen. He used to walk in and demand, as he walked past the counter to the drink fountain, "Give me 3 rolls of Coppenhagen pouches". Didn't matter if we were helping someone already or not. Well, today he comes in, waits in line and when his turn comes up asks, politely, "Could I get 3 rolls of Coppenhagen pouches, please." I almost plotzed. We didn't have any rolls left, so he asked about our singles. Didn't complain about their date or that we only had 4 rolls. Just said he'd take them all and then thanked me once the sale was done. I was amazed.

The Bad:

The fates that were smiling on us in the beginning of the evening quit smiling halfway through the night. There's nothing more depressing than having someone prove that there was a basis for a stereotype. Taxi Drivers. In general when they come in to the Chevron they're gruff, demanding and not very friendly. This one comes in today (City Cab #21, for the record), comes up to the counter with a soda and mumbles something. I ask him what he wanted and he mumbles again. So I lean closer to hear him better and he gets all pissy. Loudly says "Grizzly Mint" and then gets on my case about not being able to hear him because I'm so close. I tried to explain that I was close because he was being so quiet, but he just keeps going on about me not being able to hear him. I stop talking, figure if I say something it's going to be something I wouldn't want to print here, and he's a jerk so it won't help anyways, so what the hell. Take his money, give him his change, bag his crap up and hand it to him. Then he says something about how I need to go get earplugs (how the hell are earplugs supposed to make me hear better?). I look him straight in the face and say "bye" turn to the next customer, put on a big friendly smile and ask "how are you doing tonight?"

The Ugly:

Nothing specific, but there's no way we went a whole night without someone ugly coming in.