Electronic woes - part 2

2003-03-11 - 1:01 p.m.

There was a lightening storm last Wednesday which caused my power to go out. Either that or the technicians who came in to fix it destroyed most of my electronics. I won't get into all of the details.

My TV, VCR, DVD player and stereo no longer work at all. Like, the power doesn't go on. They were all plugged into the same power strip. The power strip still works, as does the outlet it was plugged into. I plugged in the individual pieces of equipment into various outlets. None of them work. My friend Eric who just got a masters degree in EE and who is one of the most practical engineers I know (which says a lot) looked at it and gave me a thumbs down.

My mom agrees that the apartment complex should cover the cost, and that if they don't, then I should take them to small claims court. Though, she warns me that small claims court might not be worth the trouble relative to the amount of money it would cost to replace the equipment.

If the apartment complex won't pay, I might not even replace the stuff. I only watch TV 3 nights a week anyway, and I hardly use the other stuff. I figure I could use the gym at the complex to watch while riding the stationary bike on the nights I typically do. That might help me lose some of the weight that just won't come off :-P.

My phone is also busted - probably from the same lightening storm. It took me a while to call the phone company because I figured it would just magically fix itself. Well, I figured that somebody else nearby would have reported it and it would have been taken care of. Their solution was to have me unplug all of the phones, wait a while, and try to plug them back in to see if that fixes it. Why? Because if they send a tech out there and they don't find a problem outside, then they will charge me for the tech's time ($75), even if he doesn't enter my apartment. THEN, if I want the problem fixed, I have to pay for the tech to come back out (another $75) and other repair fees. Umm, yeah, I don't have that kind of money, so I decided to try it their way.

If my phones don't work by tonight, I'm going to see if I can have the problem fixed through my apartment complex. Maybe there have been other complaints, and they can handle the charges.

If not, then I might just cancel it. I don't have long distance anyway, so I only use it for my local calling. The only people who call me at home are Beckie and Mike - everybody else calls my cell phone (and claim that they don't have my land line number, even though I gave it to them before I moved, but that's a totally different story). I get unlimited nights and weekends with my calling plan, and since I'm at work until after 7 every day anyway, it's not like I make too many daytime calls as it is. I also use it for internet, but I don't even use that once a week from home. Besides, with the money I'd be saving from having no phone and no cable (with no TV, it doesn't make any sense to have cable), I could get DSL or something.

On top of that, my calculator is somewhat busted. The decimal point, negative sign, 2 and 3 keys don't work. If anybody has a TI-82 (or something similar) they don't use and wants to give it to me, I'll happily take it off your hands. If not, then I may just have to invest in another graphing calculator (or continue to get negative numbers by subtracting from zero, get decimals by dividing by multiples of 10, and using other functions to make numbers that use 2 or 3).

What next? Is my vibrator also going to break?

Sigh....