Home Phone.......

 Do you remember these phones:

Rotary Phone

The photo above comes from Amazon and is over $100 CDN.

We finally got rid of our home phone line at the end of last year. Hubby was dead against it, but we only had a handful of older relatives that ever called us on it.  So I decided to take the plunge and have to say I have no regrets.  Both dh and I have cell phones so it's no biggie.

The kids got rid of theirs years ago.  It seems very few people actually have a home line.  Due to one family member having a medical issue, I have my phone glued to me at all times though.

I have my ring tone set so it quacks like a duck!!  I know odd but very effective.  If I am out shopping and don't hear it quacking I can guarantee someone else will and will be looking at me strangely.  As they will be looking for the duck in the store!!

You know the funny thing is, I just looked up duck quacking and there are all sorts of free ringtones you can get, didn't know that.  Mine was an option on my I-Phone.  We like the Apple I-Phone in this house as we use the Facetime a lot and dh knows how to use it.

Me, well the flipping phone is smarter than me, but I am getting there with it.  I use the texting a lot, got a few apps installed now that I use on a regular basis.  I take all my photos using the phone, so all in all I am happy with it.  It is an I-Phone 12 mini.

Do you still have a home phone, or just your cell phone?

Dealing with bills that spiral upwards, and upwards........

Got our Rogers bill in and it was over $60 more 😮than the prior month because the "promotional prices" they had applied to the account had all expired........

I HATE, HATE, HATE having to deal with this sort of thing.  Now "this sort of thing" involves our internet, home phone (yes we are old fashioned and still have a landline) and tv bill.  My cell phone bill is in place until the end of November of this year.

So I call Rogers and go through everything with the guy and after explaining I want the same service but back at the other price, he put me on hold, and never came back?????

Finally someone else in Halifax (east coast of Canada) picks up and we are back to square one.  No he cannot transfer me back to the guy in Toronto; he will deal with it {{{SIGH}}}  The only good thing about him picking up the call, is I do not have to go all over my info again as at least the first guy had put in my notes he had verified all my information.

After 46 minutes, yes I said 46 LONG, LONG MINUTES...........my bill will still be $30 per month more expensive.  That is the best they can do.  😠

So now what do I do?  I have no idea at this point.  We could reduce our tv channels I guess and go down to the basic?  Otherwise I don't want to touch the rest of our services, as we use them and need them.

I need to look into ways of reducing this bill as now we are paying just under $310 for the tv, internet, home phone and my cell phone.  We also pay for Netflix and I think that is $13.99 a month and we pay for an internet sports package which is $152 a year (saved a lot by paying for it yearly Dzan .  So all in all, we pay around $335 for everything per month.

Can't live with it, can't live without it.........

I am probably not alone when I say I have a love/hate relationship with my cell phone.

Cell/mobile/smart phones have always been a mystery to me.  I have had my Android Smartphone now for three years and just the other day I discovered a way to clear things off the screen...........turns out there was a button that said CLEAR!!

For some strange reason I keep deleting or adding things and most of the time I have no idea how I managed that. I am forever running out of battery, and that's when I have actually remembered to turn it on.  Don't bother sending me a text unless I have just sent you one, as I always forget to pick them up.  Also I have no idea whatsoever how to pick up a message on the voicemail.  Daughter and hubby both have Apple i Phones, and have been on at me to get one of those as then when I screw up something AGAIN, they at least can fix it for me a lot faster.

As my contract was up (or so I thought) I wandered over to Bell to talk about my options.  Turns out I thought I had a three year contract, but Bell went ahead and got rid of three year contracts in favour of 2 year contracts over a year ago.  So I am under no contract and on a month to month basis.

So of course this sounds great I am under no contract.  Told him my dilemma and he said that he could offer me a 2 year contract with an Apple i Phone the cheapest being $80 a month.  I am currently paying $55 a month and am getting more "things."  So only an idiot would go ahead and change phones just so you get the most up to date phone.  I have better things to do with that $25 a month more it would cost to upgrade.  When dh retires we will then reevaluate the situation and probably go with the Apple i Phone.

Some people are joined at the hip with their phones, I am not.  Are you?

(By the way the Bell employee, told me that the monthly price increase was due to it being only a 2 year contract instead of a 3 year contract.)

P.S. Two new book's reviewed here

What are your thoughts on this:

A relative went to a funeral for a man he knew.  On the "programme" (can't remember the right name for it) there was a request that sort of went like this:

"Joe's cell phone number is still connected, please call it and leave a message for him.  We will be burying it with him."

Personally I think that's creepy.  I was telling dh about it and he said under no circumstances to do that with him.  As I pointed out he never answers the phone at home anyway so it would be a total waste of time.

Meanwhile me and the lady who told me this story were killing ourselves laughing at the fact that if someone was walking through the cemetery and the cell phone started ringing from the grave they would be past themselves.

So do you want your cell phone buried with you?  If I had to pick an item it would be my lap top!!!

More mushrooms and other bits and bobs, including Christmas...

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know I hate doing the Christmas letter that I include with my Christmas cards. I like to include it, but hate writing it. So this year I came up with a different plan of action. I decided to make a start on writing it on Monday, and it came together so easy for a change. I have more or less got it done. Leaving it to November I think makes it more stressful and harder for me to write.

I took the photo below of our house and I thought I may include this photo in with the Christmas card, as most of my Christmas cards go to people in Britain, and a lot of people don't use the Internet. Do you think it is suitable?


I had noticed on the driveway that there were three trees with mushrooms growing on them, so I thought I'd take some photos of them.

I like the one below the best.

I have been watching a show called Victorian Farm which has been on TVO in our area. Has anyone else seen it, its pretty good. I think its a continuation from the Victorian Kitchen and Garden series which I also watched when it first aired.

In Ontario its now against the law to talk on your cell phone while driving, unless you are using a hands free device. It won't be an issue for me, as although I have a cell phone, more often than not, I forget to switch the thing on, and if I actually do remember to turn it on the battery is generally flat!!! Is it against the law where you live to talk on your cell phone when driving?

Packing and a new cell phone, oh and Happy Easter

to you and your families. We don't do much as Easter is concerned. I had a turkey in the freezer, so had to cook that, so invited my dad and step-mother over on Friday night. Then on Saturday we had the kids over for turkey wraps and pitas at lunch time, the kids were busy for the rest of the weekend, so this was the only time we could all get together.

The turkey was only a 10 pounder, but it did us for supper on Friday night, lunch for five on Saturday and two casseroles for the freezer, which will come in handy over the next couple of weeks.

While the kids were here I got them to go through the last of their stuff, which in dd case was a lot of things. Ended up with two big garbage bags full of stuff to throw out. Another huge pile of stuff for the yard sale, two bags of clothing for charity, a couple of boxes dd took with her and a couple of more spaces in the basement. Dd said all I invited them up for was to clean out their junk..........YOU DON'T SAY ;0)

Dh has worked like a trooper these past couple of days and has got the shed cleared out, and most things packed up in the garage. Which has resulted in the being barely able to move in the garage.........and we wanted to put the stuff we have in the basement in the garage also.......

Dh has a couple of jobs to do around the house today, including taking the fan down in our bedroom and replacing it with the original (icky) light fixture. I also want to dig up my magnolia bush (the one I am hiding behind in my profile photo), as that was an anniversary gift from me to dh, and three of my poppies. Not sure if that is technically allowed, but at this point, I don't really care. I am betting the people who are buying our house aren't gardeners.

Now for my cell phone saga. I don't use a cell phone that often, but due to the fact I am mechanically challenged, dh feels its necessary for me to have a cell phone in case I break down in the car. So as we are changing companies for our home phone, Internet and TV, I cancelled my cell phone as well, as it was with the same company. I had a useless phone, which I could never hear, despite me turning up the volume all the time, so I destroyed that. So on April 3rd I had no cell phone service, and you know what I wasn't bothered.

Dh however was, so on Saturday, while we were in the mall, I got a new cell phone from Koodo One of the reasons I went with them, as it's only going to cost me $15 + taxes per month. For that I get 50 anytime minutes and 50 text messages per month, which is more than sufficient for me, as I only want it for emergencies etc.

Now along with me being mechanically challenged, I am also technically challenged. So for some reason when I rang my new cell phone to make sure it was working, it tweeted like a bird???? Who wants a phone that tweets like a bird? I know I don't. Couldn't figure out how to change that, so got dh to sort that out, but there is no ring tones that sound like a telephone. He picked out a ring that was the least offensive!!!

So when I was in the "store" she offered to give me a new "skin" for my cell phone, in a blue camouflage print. I said no thanks, and she said why not, so I said to her, do I look like a blue camouflage person, which when she had a better look at me, she said no I don't think so!!! I won't take something just for the heck of it, not when I have no intention of never using it.

I did manage to put in three contacts in the address book, no idea how I managed that, but I did. Now I have to figure out how to send text messages, that should be interesting. Between me and you, life would be so much easier without cell phones!!

Well that's enough of me rambling on for another day!!