Gah! It's fall!

See those pretty purpley flowers? Those are fall crocuses. They've ben up since the last week of August. I cheerfully ignored them until now.
I'd walk past them, averting my gaze and singing a little song in my head about how it was still warm and therefore must still be summer.
There's really no point in denying it now. I had to turn the heat back on the other day. It was just too freaking cold. And I have a cold. Or some sort of drippy, virus thing. I don't feel awful, just not quite right. A warm house was necessary to my continued survival.
We did manage to get the house painted. Except for the doors, which we're leaving for now as we're going to replace them. The new ones will get a nice coat (or two) of blue paint. And we found new screen doors that aren't hideously expensive, so I don't have to try to refurbish the old ones yet again.
New flooring for the kitchen has been ordered and the bathroom is almost done.
The house is almost unrecognizable from when we first bought it.
Trust me. That's a really good thing.


The Ribbi Pulli is done! It fits great and I finally timed the completion of a project correctly and it can actually be worn now.
That's the only project I can actually show pics of right now.
News of the others will have to wait until sometime in October.

That's the nice stuff.
Now a small rant about the sort of service our soon to be ex-phone and internet provider gives us.
This first pic is the phone company truck attending to some sort of line maintenance near our house. Keep in mind that he's not actually working on our line. They've never had to work on our line except for the times when they're screwing around near our house and make our line go out. The gap in the trees where you can see the truck is our driveway. That was yesterday. I called the company to complain (again). Got nowhere.


This is today:


I've asked these guys repeatedly to please not block our driveway (they're usually parked like that for a minimum of two hours). Sometimes they move they truck for a few minutes and then move it back. Sometimes they laugh at me. Mostly, they do nothing.
I've called Telus to ask them to please tell the repair techs not to park across our driveway. Most times I get nowhere, but twice, I've had a manager call me back, apologize and promise that it won't happen anymore.
The last time a manager made that promise was less than a month ago. Guess that was a four week promise. So I called again today. Got someone a little higher up the food chain. He wanted the truck's plate number. So I went out to get it and the tech asked me if I needed to get out (of my own driveway). I asked if it should matter. 'Cause frankly? I shouldn't have to ask permission to leave my own bloody house!
Or to get back in my driveway when I return! Cripes! Enough already.
Partly because of this and mostly due to the fact that Telus has surcharged us to death, we are changing providers. Telus obviously doesn't care about their customers at all. And that attitude is loud and clear through their employees.
I once called to ask why I had a $5 charge on my bill for long distance administration when I had no long distance calls that month and the charming fellow at Telus offered to disconnect me. That was his response. He would disconnect my line.
Cute.
My Telus bill looks like this:
$44.73 for basic phone service and 4 calling features
$35.95 for high-speed internet (it started at $16.95, bit of a rate hike there)
$4.95 for long distance administration (whether you actually use it or not)
$3.00 to have a private number (yup, they're billing for a negative service)
$0.13 for 911 service (God forbid the company eat that one)
Those charges don't even include long distance, or 411.
My Shaw bill will look like this:
$55.00 for digital phone service which includes 8 calling features, unlimited long distance in Canada and the US, 1000 minutes of international long distance and no hidden charges. That $55.00 includes the 911 fee, free 411 and keeping a private number.
$32.00 for high-speed internet that is more than twice as fast as the Telus high-speed.
Gee, combine that with Telus' poor customer service that is frequently down right rude, and I wonder why they have any customers left at all.
Hasta la vista Telus!