A relaxing day, finally

No contractor appointments, no pressing phone calls, no work to do, plenty of housework or projects, but they can wait. I did make one call to one of the companies I talked to a few days ago about tearing off my room. He gave me a reasonable figure, but he said hauling it all off might be a problem, he'll get back with me on that.

Then I picked up my mom to go run a few errands, and as we were passing down 11th Street I noticed some file cabinets on the sidewalk of an office furniture store, in the building that used to be Weberg's. I thought about the friend who had made her desk from two 2-drawer file cabinets. I've never been in this business and didn't know what to expect. But I went in to see what the store is all about. Well, they did get hurricane damage, had buckets on the floor catching water, though it hasn't rained now in a couple days, so I'm curious where the water was coming from. Their stock is all used, mostly really used, stuff. The only thing I saw even close was two 2-drawer legal metal cabinets, tan, but the keys were missing, and they were $56 a piece. Maybe that's a good price for commercial grade. I don't know. But they really didn't set me on fire, so I decided against it. I'll do something else.
Then a few items in Wal-Mart and lunch at Ryan's. I've had so much junk food lately, it was nice to get some veggies for a change. Cooking is not my thing!

I got a call on my cell while there and then realized I was still having the same darned ol' problem I had during evacuation. An incoming call will go straight to my voice mail and then they'd have to call back till I'd finally hear it ring.

So, we went to Centennial Wireless and instead of trying to fix it I came out with a snappy little Nokia camera phone. It's not top of the line by any means, but it will serve my purposes. So, this evening I've been just lying on the couch, reading through the manual but mainly following menu selections, getting familiar with it, and trying to listen to the news shows. All this pre-occupation with the house and I'm almost missing the glorious news stories of the present administration in self-destruct mode! I really do not want to miss this!

I managed to send one text message to my son John's phone and that turned out to be successful. And then later I tried to send another one, and the letters didn't type out right. The letters are coming up irradic. I hope I haven't broken it already!
(edited poststript: I figured it out. Somehow the # key changes some mode. Whatever! It's straight again.)

Looking at the web page, it says it can be free, but I had to pay the $50. Hmm, wonder why I didn't get it free? So, two questions to call about tomorrow! I did have to sign a new contract, but it's okay. I've been with this company since '93, and I doubt I'll change now. I put my plan back like I had it before the evacuation. So, I'm back to the 600 minutes and free incoming, free long distance, free nights/weekends. Guess my promo minutes are gone. To be honest, I'll never use them.
(Another edit: Looking at the details of plans and phones on the Centennial site, it says you "may" get a rebate for cost of the phone. Guess it's a local store makes the rules kinda thing. Oh, well.... Guess now I don't have to call him back tomorrow.)

Once I get myself more familiar with the phone, I'll try to post a couple of photos. Right now I can at least send them to email, which generated yet another feature added to my bill, of course. He said I can get a cable to upload the pictures straight to the computer and then can eliminate that charge. So, I'll look for that maybe tomorrow. You know, the more I think about this, I don't think I got any favors! But I needed a phone, and I like this one. Still, I'll ask about it tomorrow.

On the way home, my new little phone rang and I couldn't find the stupid button to answer it!!! It was my insurance lady! So, I called her back when I got home and could familiarize myself with the on and off buttons!! She is getting very near a figure and had a few questions about how old different things were because I don't have full replacement. Things will be depreciated some. I told her as honestly as I could remember and didn't try to fudge on the age of anything. She's really doing the best she can for me. In the course of conversation, I even told her I'm considering taking the room off. She sure understood my frustration with the problems I'm having with it and said she could see where it would be a tempting idea and confirmed to me that entertaining that thought wouldn't affect my settlement at all.

Because of the way my policy is written, the room being added to the house after the house was constructed is considered an adjacent structure rather than a part of the house, along with the patio awning. So, between the two, she said I've probably maxed out my limits on the adjacent structure section of my policy! Well, I think we did pretty good on that! The house damages are substantial, too; so I'm satisfied so far, though I don't have bids for any of the Sheetrock work. I'm assuming it will be sufficient. She's thinking she may come to Beaumont tomorrow to let me look over the whole thing and see if we're missing anything. Steady as we go. It will all get done eventually.