ShowMeBlog

Back playing with TypePad

  I been playing with WordPress for the last few years.  But I decided to come back and turn on this TypePad blog site.
  I am going to look around and see what TypePad has changed in the last few years.

  

The T takes you places

  When I lived in Miami I got a bus and rail card that let me ride for free because I was over 65 years of age.  That was nice.
  I live in Fort Worth (TX) now and because I am old I have a pass that lets me ride for half price.  A normal bus rider day pass is $3.00 a day.  So I can get a bus pass for the day for $1.50 and that is not bad.

  Well The T (Fort Worth Transportation Authority) has a service called MITS for Mobility-Impaired Transportation Service.  They pick you up at your door and take you were you want to go and then bring you back when you are ready. 
  If you are approved I found out something… MITS passengers pay $2.75 one way so it is not cheaper.  But if you are approved for MITS you can get a MITS +1 card and then you can ride on their regular bus routes for free.
  I think I will see if I can get approved for MITS and then get the MITS +1 card.
  Now to be approve for MITS I have to have a verified disability that prevents me from riding the regular city bus service. 
 
  My “disability” would be that trips that take two or three buses are a real problem for me.  My bladder does not empty completely so I go often.  It is a real problem for me to go anyplace if there is a delay.  I have to not drink anything for hours and hours before I go but even then it is a problem. 
  Now my mobility is not bad… I can move pretty fast when I am trying to find a bathroom. 

  But my doctor has a couple of places that he sends people for tests and there is no bus line near the test site.  So I have to take a cab and it is about $25.00 each way.
  So I think I can get him to fill out the form for me and if I am approved I will just use it when I need to use it.
  We will see what happens.

   I miss the bus and rail service in Miami.  The bus service here is pretty good but what was nice about Miami  was the rain service that cut across the city. 

Charter is back working

  About 0900 hours today the cable was still messed up.

Then about 0930 the channels were back and no buffering.
It is great to have all the cable TV channels working again.
Not sure what the cause was about TV is back.

Still Charter Cable problems

  I was trying to watch TV last night.  At about 2345 hours Charter  sent a signal to boot the digital box.  When it came back up I was thinking they might have fixed their problems.
  I saw, I think, less buffering problems but still many channels just are not there.  None of the HBO channels, except 777 HBO HD, between 500 and 555 are working. 
  It looks like about half of the Digital View Plus channels are missing.

  I still think it has something to do with the changes they are making nation wide.  Then been moving in other areas all their channels around and adding 24 new HD channels.
  I think that has messed things up for them here.
  But what the heck to I know.
  It may just be some items of hardware have gone wrong in the Fort Worth area.

  As long as I get Internet I can make it.
  So far Internet is working great.  I just did www.speedtest.net and
I got 36.35 Mbps down and 4.17 Mbps up.  I am happy with that speed.

  I wish I had a desktop computer with more memory and a real nice video card. 
Or I guess I should just boot up into Ubuntu (Linux).  A not very powerful computer becomes a super computer when you run Ubuntu.

Charter Cable problems

  Charter Cable has been having problems.  I am not sure what is going on with them.  I suspect it has something to do with the changes that they are making to their service.  They are making improvements and adding 29 HD channels.
  Those changes have not been put into effect yet here in Fort Worth but I think they may be getting ready for the changes or the changes they made in other areas are effecting this area.

  But for the last few days.. many channels have been buffering real bad. So bad that you can not watch the channel.
  The last day or two a lot of the channel you can not even receive. 
  It looks like all the local channels come in OK.  But when you get up to the digital channels many of them just are not there now. 
  None of my HBO channels are working today.

  I called Charter Cable and got a recorded message saying that they knew that they were having problems in this area and that they were working on the problem.

  I got a lot of channels so there is stuff I can watch but right now I think about half the channels are missing.
  I been very happy with Charter Cable.  I have phone service with them and Internet service with them.

  My phone is working and I am getting Internet speeds right now have 40.74 Mbps down and 4.14 Mbps up.  If I lost my Internet service THEN I would be very upset. 

‘Life Threatening’ Storms Today

  This afternoon we may get “Life Threatening” storms today in Dallas and Fort Worth.  The weather people sure know how to get your attention now with their new warnings.
  We got, I think, NASCAR races in Fort Worth today and tomorrow.  I am not a fan.  But the number of people that show up for the races is unreal.  When people are coming they turn all the roads into one way roads into Fort Worth and when the race is over they change the direction of all the roads to lead out of Fort Worth.
  Not sure what and the hell would happen if we had dangerous weather during a race.  My guess is they would put the race on hold and everyone would get out of the rain and drink beer.  I guess they must have a plan for what to do at the race site.  

The TXU re-billing

  I got my TXU electric bill the other day and it was for $555.00 and it was less than I was expecting.  So that was good.  If they had not added on the re-billing amount my bill would have been $91.97 for the month.
  I called them up and asked about their six month payment plan.  The woman said do you want to make some payment now.  I said yes and said how about $100.00 and she said OK.  So she took my card information.
  Then she said for the next six months they will add $75.00 to my bill.  I said OK.  I said do I need to pay this months bill and she said no the $100.00 took care of that.  I was expecting to have to pay this months in addition to the $100.00 so that worked out OK.

  So I am all set.  I am guessing that during the hot months of July and August that my electric bill is going to be very high and that extra $75.00 a month is going to hurt.  But I can make it OK.

  I think, I am not sure, that the commission only allows TXU and the other electric corporations to go back five months when doing a re-billing.  That is good because just think about the bill someone could get hit with if they could go back an unlimited amount of time.
  I think for a commercial customer they can go back six months because I saw a news story that said TXU had re-billed the Fort Worth school district for six months.

ZIP code 76116

  With all the talk about race recently… and with the videos that I made about the Trayvon Martin shooting I had a lot of YouTube comments calling me a white racist and cracker and redneck etc.
  I made some comments on the YouTube video about the area were I live.

  I decided to look up the ZIP code.  The ZIP code area that I live in is 76116.
  It is for Fort Worth, Texas.  It is in Tarrant County. 
  The population (2000) was 49,831.  Of that number 34,343 are White, 4,724 Black and 8,437 are Hispanic.
  The average household income in $36,014.00
 
  The above does not look correct to me.  Let me see if I can find the numbers for 2010.
Found them:  ZIP 76116 2010

  Current population s 49,761 (went down from 2000).  
  Population:  White (34,424), Black (6,057) and Hispanic (12,765). 

  I think I said in a video that the area I lived in was about half and half white and black.  I guess I was wrong.  The first time in my life I have ever been wrong about anything.  

The TXU Energy bill is ready

  If you been following my blog you will know that I was very happy with my electric bill.  I put in all cfb and put up curtains to keep out the cold and heat.  I been trying to keep lights turned off.  I been following the TXU stats on their site about my power use.
  Then I found out that when TXU put in their new digital meters someone made an error and crossed up the meters.  I guess someone else in this apartment building was getting my bills and I was getting billed for their power use.  They were screaming about the very high energy use and I was telling my family how great I was at using so little power and I was getting low power bills.
  Well at last TXU found the problem. They never contact me or send me any information and in fact I have not received the printed bill yet. I suspect it will come today in the mail.
  I been checking online and it looked like they were going to bill me for about $800.00 of back power use.  But the bill is online now and this month they want $555.65 for back power use. I guess they call that “re-billing.”  I think under the laws or rules that control the power corporations they can only go back five or six months to do a “re-billing.”  Thank God for that. 
  Just think if someone had a problem like this for x amount of time how much money you could get hit with.

  When I get a high summer electric bill of $150.00 it is hard for me to pay it.  I pay it but it hurts.  But during the winter the bill is lower and I have a few extra dollars that month to buy toys.

  Well I blogged about this and a very nice lady with TXU read my blog and she is going to contact me now or I will contact her and she will set me up with a payment plan so I can pay off the extra cost in a payment plan.

  What is sad is all the time I spent each week and month looking at “My Usage” on line and trying to use those stats.  The stats are all messed up.  I guess at some point I will have new stats and I can start over.
  But I am never going to be sure that the bill is correct. I will always wonder if it is correct and I will always fear that at some point they are going to a “re-billing” again.

Go Animate

  I been feeling a little better that last couple of day.  I put up a check off list on the white board in my room with “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner” on it.  I check them off as I eat that meal.  I am pretty much not eating between meals.
  I feel better.  But getting out and walking around is hard. I am so tired.  It take major effort and will to just put one foot in front of the other foot.  Not sure I can explain it to you if you have never felt that way.
  But I think if I could lose weight that I would feel better.
  But I think the way I feel is from the medications I am taking.

  I still do not have a bill from TXU yet.  So I do not know for sure how much they are saying that I need to pay because of their meter error.  I am guessing that it is going to be about $700.00 and they are saying they will let me pay that over six months. 
  So it appears that from now on my electric bill is going to be a lot higher AND for the next six months I will have to be paying off that old amount.  That mean no extra money to buy any stuff.  No new computer.  No tablet.  I been trying each month to loan out $25.00 via Kiva and I will put that on hold. I will keep reinvesting the money already in Kiva but I will not be adding any new.  I will look around for other things to cut but there is not much to cut.  I live pretty much hand to mouth.  No point in hoping we do not have a bad summer here in Fort Worth.  It is hot HOT  H O T here in Texas in the summer. 

  If you want to create something the site Go! Animate is pretty neat.  It is free.  Of course you can pay a little and get some extras. 
  “So, you've got to try this awesome site - GoAnimate.com.  It lets you create your own video, it's very easy and it's insanely addictive... scarily addictive!”
  I have a page there:   http://goanimate.com/user/0P1MFvCs1CE0  but I have not made any videos yet with their software.  I just can not think of anything to make.  My brain just is not working.