A couple weeks ago I said I'd relate the saga of DirecTV when we finally got it. Well, it is on now (as I write this we're watching "Bucket List"). It was installed Wednesday. But the drama began May 5. Now let me see... that was 22 days before we actually got it. A company named Direct Sat TV advertised in "Trailer Life" and "Highways" magazines about getting a free RV kit (portable dish, tripod, cable) when you sign up for DirecTV with them. After a couple of phone calls asking information, I signed up. The dish for the house and the RV kit would arrive the next Monday or Tuesday and the install would be Wednesday the 13th. Friday evening I get an email saying the order had been canceled. Monday morning I started calling and finally in the afternoon I reached a live body. The order was canceled because they called my cell phone to confirm the order and got a busy signal. Why a busy signal? I have no idea. Any call should have gone to voice mail if I didn't answer. They didn't try again later -- just canceled the order, intercepted the UPS delivery and had the stuff returned. Okay, we got that straightened out and they set a new delivery date and installation would be Friday the 15th. But no equipment came. Friday I began calling the company again. Finally a warm body. It seems the equipment had been intercepted again because we don't have "line of sight" (for the dish to receive the satellite signal.) How did they know that since no one had been here to check it out? Nobody could answer that. Apparently they entered somebody else's information into my record. So.... we start the order over again. (Aren't I being patient? I had some strong words for the telephone personnel but I didn't get mad and I was kind). Well, the new order didn't ship until Monday and wouldn't arrive until Tuesday the 26th -- because of the Memorial Day weekend. Installation would be on Wednesday the 27th. Guess what? It arrived!!! And the install guy showed up -- three weeks after the original install date. Moral of the story: Don't call Direct Sat TV for satellite service.

Kind of interesting how much we missed TV. In Tucson we only received one station, but at least it was TV. I like to watch the news while I eat dinner and maybe a program or two in the evening -- usually while I'm on the computer or reading the paper. Kind of duel tasking.

Another interesting thing happened. When we got back from Arizona we knew we would need to buy a new TV. So we set off television shopping. We wanted to have it before the satellite installation so the guy could connect everything the proper way. After checking all the stores we finally ended up at Fred Meyer in Medford. They had one we wanted but it was a little bigger than we had planned. I'm embarrassed to say how big -- it is a 40 inch. It's almost too big for our living room. We got it because it had the features we wanted and the smaller size didn't. The price was okay so we packed it home and set it up. We also got a new DVD player because they were quite inexpensive. Then Joyce found the remote for the old DVD player so I tried it and it worked okay. This meant we could take the new one back and get a refund. While I was doing that I mentioned to the lady that the TV we bought was on sale for $100 less and she said, "Okay, we'll give you a refund on that, too." So it was like someone handing me $100. Kind of nice.

Last week was also taken up with appointments for heating and air conditioning companies to check out our house and give us bids for a complete installation. There were seven companies at the Home Show a couple weeks ago so I made appointments with all of them. Six showed up and right now I have bids from two of them. I imagine I'll get the others this week. I can tell now it is going to be more than I was counting on, but it needs to be done.

Coming up this week is jury duty -- or at least being on the list. Hope I don't have to serve. More about this later. Our weather has been hot and nice. We've worked in the yard and garden and finally have things under control -- I think. We can turn our attention to doing other things now. Today we drove to Roseburg and worshiped at the FM church there. We took the pastor his wife out to dinner. They are a great couple.

This coming week will be interesting. Hope yours is as well. Boredom is a drag.