Too busy today...even w/o a job

Seniors...
We've dealt with many senior relatives, moving them from long-time homes to senior buildings, to senior buildings with services, to assisted living facilities, to long-term-care buildings and then on their final move.  I have one senior left, my mother's next oldest sister.  She'll turn 99 in June.  She lives in a senior building and is doing remarkable and is quite independent.  I help with a few things.

A few weeks ago I made a change to her phone service.  She had local service from Centurylink and long distance from ATT.  ATT charged her about $35/month.  I'm the only person she calls who lives in the 'long distance' zone.  She has trouble with phones, now, so most of the time the calls don't go through.  I canceled the ATT long distance and added long distance to her local service.  A few days later her phone quit working.

I've commented on the lack of skills in the world, the lack of people who can identify window glazing and a lack of people who really care.  Everyone at Centurylink appears to be working off a script.  It's very frustrating.  I drove 100 miles to test her phone.  While I was there Centurylink called (her phone had been dead) and announced that it was a problem with a central office switch.

It's now three weeks later.  Her phone is dead.  When I received a call from her area code yesterday I cringed because she is 99 and one of these days.... The symptoms of the phone failure were the same so I started an online chat with the repair people at Centurylink.  I also checked her bill and determined that they had added internet service when we added long distance.  After 90 minutes on the chat session the person at the other end, 'Asia L', announced that they could not help me or take off the service that had been added.  They gave me a phone number to call which ended up nowhere.  After telling Asia L. that that was a bad number I received another number for 'customer loyalty.'

Jennifer at 'customer loyalty' was sympathetic but could also do nothing because I was not an authorized person on the account.  She suggested that we get my aunt on the phone.  Repeating that her phone was not working and that was part of the reason for the call to 'customer loyalty' she suggested that we just wait a day.

The phone does not work.   I'd scheduled a service call at her apartment for 11 AM - 3 PM making it very clear that she had about 2.5 hours of medical tasks she has to accomplish each morning.  The person setting up the service call made it clear that that would work.  The repair person showed up at 9 AM.

Small Business...
Thursday is the long day at the small business.  My daughter and wife keep the place open until 7 PM.  It doesn't really pay but there are people who can only show up in the evening.  I was there from 11:30-4:00 and then from 5:00-7:00.

F-150...
Today I did finish cleaning out the 2004 F-150 which has been replaced.  This has been my standard vehicle used for all farmer's market events, all farming events, all logging (numerous gallons of spilled chainsaw bar oil) and the 'up north' vehicle.  It has a few miles on it but generally is in very good shape.

I've found a few interesting items:

• many miscellaneous bolts, nuts and eye screws, many in Ace Hardware bags, clearly purchased with some repair or enhancement in mind but I have no idea what.
• two large Kershaw folding knives, each of which I've previously replaced.
• many units of coinage, primarily pennies and quarters.
• my Gerber multi-tool which I've not seen since 2006.
• an envelope with six curved needles for sewing myself back together.
• two packages of Quickclot in case I shoot myself or fall on my chainsaw.
• a baggie containing four saw chains long ago sharpened.
• two pair of prescription sunglasses.
• three containers of root stimulant for various agricultural grafting/cutting projects.
• four tire pressure gauges.
• quit a few CDs, many of which I've not listened to for more than half a decade.
• three unopened packages of 500 8" zip ties.
• several 'loyalty' cards for local and not so local businesses.
• two key rings with matching keys for which I have no idea what they are for.
• three lottery tickets, all over one year old.  I'm not going to look to see what I missed.
• a chocolate frosted donut of unknown age, hard as a rock.
• two foil-wrapped shortbread cookies from 2004.

I had hoped to find my first Flip Camera, now obsolete from memorable in my technology progression.  It's possible that I purchased one after seen them on Oprah.
This project, the 'emptying' as I will think of it has been ongoing for a week or so but today was the 'in the cab' stuff and it was draining.

The 'House' ...
After working at the small business I headed to my daughter's house #1 for 90 minutes...

• removed a jammed door closer
• filled a lot of holes in the front door frame...it's a 1929 house...one can only imaging how many storm doors, latches, springs, closers, etc.  The front door itself appears to be original.
• glazed a window from the second floor (refer to yesterday's comments on window glazing).
• re-nailed new paneling on the back three-season porch.
• re-building some molding
• painted some interior windowframes
• demoed a discarded door
• filled the garbage can and yard wasted can and dragged them out for pickup.
• ordered some specialty light bulbs
• reached out to someone to repair a broken thermal pane window and some broken windo sash mechanics
• pondered the next trip
• thought about reinstalling a dismantled wooden double hung window

Back to Senior Care...

• The phone still does not work.  We spent $7000 on hearing aids for my aunt but she can't use them when on the phone and when she takes them out she can't hear.
• Centurylink refused to remove the internet service on her account which I did not order but they won't talk to me because I'm not an 'authorized person' on her account.  They keep suggesting that we get her on the phone (which does not work).