Communication in the Country

OK, I admit I was the LAST person in the universe to get a cell phone and I probably just did it to spite the land line people who jack up their "packages" and rates all the time. I was a faithful 5 fave TMobile customer, however there is NO TMobile coverage at "The Beast". In fact, when I check for TMobile coverage in the town there is a big dark spot right on my block which gave me the impression that it was some black hole of no cyber signals. I really liked my TMobile 5 faves because I don't really talk on the phone, except for my 3 bestest friends and one of those friends takes up two of my 5 fave numbers due to house phone and cell phone. The last of the 5 faves is my daughter's number even though we communicate with email instead of phone....and I just stuck her in the 5 faves so I could fill up that space and not appear lame.

So anyway, I took the plunge and am cancelling my TMobile contract due to the new address and non-coverage. They are politely allowing me to dump them with no penalty because they can't provide service for me when I am at "The Beast" which is fair.

I have switched to Verizon. Evidently the commercials are true and all those people are following me around at "The Beast" because there is super-duper coverage out there in the country. Go figure. Not only did I switch....but I also upgraded to super-duper 3G phone with the Droid Eris. It's all touch screen and internet searching capable and little popular apps all over the place and the little green Android greets me each time I use it.

I just received it today and will go cancel out the TMobile peeps tomorrow. Thus far I am pleased, and will test out my Beast coverage when I go out there on Friday. I shall just call everyone I know to celebrate the ability to do so....out in the almost middle of nowhere of southern Illinois.

Bring on the Spring

I had not been out to "The Beast" since February 6th. It has been SO cold, and waaaayyyy too cold to work in the house. I was waiting for warmth and the spring so that I could be motivated to continue the beautification process.

My sister visited on February 6th and I lured her out to "The Beast" for a few hours of work. El Destructo pulled the seriously old carpet runner off the back staircase and pulled up some leftover carpet strips at the bottom of that staircase by the side door. The thermometer slid up to about 45 degrees so it wasn't too bad working for awhile. We lasted a few hours. We also transported some boxes of books for the library and plopped them in the middle of the living room. I felt it best to begin transporting books so that I don't look too much like one of those people on the A&E "Hoarders" show. The current library book count has reached around 1700, and that's a lot of stacked up books.

My sister and I did take some pictures of the stairs leading to the basement. A friend of mine is going to construct some new steps for me when it warms up and he requested some photos so he could determine what is ahead for him. I hope I have not scared him off with the photos...hahaha.

We must keep a postive outlook.

I did travel out to the house last Saturday on the 27th, and spent some hours cleaning and straightening up. I figured that I was preparing for spring and making mental lists of what to tackle once it does warm up.

Today, March 1st, I decided to spend some time in the 1st bedroom at the front of the house, and at the top of the main staircase. It is the only room that has absolutely NO wallpaper to remove and the plaster is not in bad shape. I began repairing a few nail holes in the plaster and experimented with resurfacing the wall in order to prepare for some paint. I shall take pictures and report on the wall progress later this week. The weatherman insists that we will have 50 degree temps by Thursday. Fingers crossed.