A post in which I bitch about cable again

Not much going on today. I ran by the grocery store yet again on the way home, and managed to spend another $20. At some point, I really need to figure up how much of my income I’m spending at the grocery store.

I got my DirecTV bill, and sat down with it today to figure out the rest of the sales person’s lies. I had been told that my total bill would be $61, but it ended up being $72. The saleswoman, despite my specific instructions, had not added in the box rental or taxes. When I add the maintenance plan in a year or so, as I’m planning to do, the rate will be a couple of dollars more than my Charter Cable was. This after they advertise a $29.95 rate. That is the promotional rate alone, not counting taxes or “box rental”. If anything goes wrong with DirecTV, they charge you to fix it. If you’re renting boxes, they charge you because the boxes are theirs and you have damaged them. Back when I owned my own boxes, they said they were charging me because the boxes were mine, and I was asking them to fix them. So you’re pretty much screwed either way. There needs to be some kind of mandatory disclosure law or something. Otherwise they charge you a fucking bolt at a time.

I also finally texted Russ tonight about his dad. Despite feeling pretty confident about my writing, I have an absolute horror of writing condolence notes. I know they're important, and that people expect them, but the futility of it all just defeats me. There is nothing you can say that doesn't sound pat, tinny, and useless when you read it back. Just sending words to someone who had just lost a loved one feels so pathetically inadequate to me. But I know, after having experienced losses of my own, that sometimes just a gesture does make you feel a tiny bit better. It's not the originality or the effectiveness of the words; it's the fact that you cared enough to send them. So I texted Russ tonight, and told him that I love him, and that I'm sorry. That's about all you can do. The funeral is tomorrow, and he'll have to face it without Billy. As awful as that is for me to think about, I know it's worse for Billy to contemplate. I feel so bad that he's having to do this alone.

When I got home tonight, I finally had enough Facebook neighbors to get a second tank in FishVille, and to expand my farm in FarmVille. That was cool. I got my second virtual tank all set up and stocked. Such is the life of an internet stud.

I played computer games and watched telly. I tried to get in touch with new Billy, but no dice.