Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Watermelon

Originally uploaded by addlepated

I thought the watermelon was safe. I thought wrong. Hub found the remains this afternoon. The half weighed almost 2 lbs., so it had to be something strong enough to lug around a 4 lb. fruit. Could have been deer, armadillos, squirrels - who knows? All I know is that all of the eggplant have been gnawed off the vine and smashed to bits around the yard (saw the squirrels carrying them up the trees), the few green tomatoes we had before we left for Florida were no longer there when we got back, and there’s no baby fruit left anywhere in the garden.

Between dogs, deer, and squirrels, we’re not destined to reap any of the fruit of our labors.

I called back because I had one more day before my year anniversary of getting this battery and 1.5 hours of battery life ain’t gonna cut it. They forwarded me to a product specialist who made an exception for me and is shipping a new battery as I type. Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Normally Apple’s excellent with their tech support, but my call to 1-800-APL-CARE today has me flummoxed.

I replaced my MacBook Pro’s battery under Apple’s battery exchange program last September. Since then, I’ve racked up 96 charging cycles, and my battery is now at a max capacity of 4528 mAh. That’s 82% of its maximum. Two days ago it was at 4589 mAh - 83% of maximum. My battery life sucks and the battery’s not right.

I called Apple today to replace it. Apparently they have an arbitrary number that must be hit in order to do so. I need to have under 300 charging cycles (check) and be under 80% of my battery capacity. The guy refused to do anything for me at this point.

I said, “So I’m supposed to call you back in a week when this battery’s low enough for you to take action?” and the answer was yes.

They could have made a customer happy this week about an issue that obviously isn’t going to solve itself, or they could have just told me to run along and play. They chose poorly.

Perhaps I should try a Genius Bar. They’re generally very helpful. Unlike tech support dude.

Hamlet done as Facebook updates.

The good news is that the doctor doesn’t think I have kidney stones.

The bad news is that he thinks I have diverticulitis.

Barium milkshake at 6 tomorrow morning. Yum.

Hub and I went to San Antonio this weekend to see The Dark Knight in Imax. It was my third time seeing it. Hell, I may go see it again. Because it’s just that good.

Anyway, the theater dude announced to the sold out theater to fill in all the seats, yadda yadda. He said that all cell phones needed to be turned off completely - not on vibrate or ringer off - and if they saw the light of a cell phone in the theater, they’d boot ya.

Guy behind us: Did he just say no cell phones on vibrate?
Hub: Yeah, if they see your phone out, they’ll kick you out.
Guy behind us: What is he, some kind of COMMIE FASCIST??
Guy’s friend: I bet he’s an Obama supporter!!

You just don’t have conversations like that in Travis County.

Garden before dogs.

Garden after dogs.

RIP tomatoes, serranos, chili petins, and half the Malabar spinach.

RIP dogs.

The power went off at the house a little before 8 this morning. I had to do some work, so I headed to Trianon coffee house for the wifi. They block port 25, which means I couldn’t send mail. And the coffee was really awfully bad.

So I went to Panera Bread. Their coffee was better, but damn-near ice cold. But they have some Nazi net-nanny program that doesn’t let you visit sites like AR15.com (”Forbidden Weapons”) or TinyURL (”Forbidden Other”).

This country is going to stupid itself to death one day.

Here’s the rest of my Fredericksburg cache swag for Violette’s Dream.

It’s real, and it’s spectacular.