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Christmas tree upgrade

The Christmas tree got upgraded to something a little larger and a little greener.

DSC01244.JPGIt’s one of those pre-lit trees, but we still ended up putting on another string of lights that we had lying around.

On the second week of Advent, some decorations got put on the tree.

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The dogs don’t really care (or notice) that there’s a tree there so the lower part of the tree is starting to turn into a “ball free” zone because of their tail wagging.

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A few days ago, the special ornaments went on the tree.

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Soon, maybe even a star for the top of the tree (if we can find one we like)!

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Filling tooth 31

Just back from the dentist where I had one last filling done. This one had to be done in the back side of one of the molars, and couldn’t be done until after the wisdom teeth were removed. This time getting the filling done was a little more troublesome than the first one.

I think because the tooth is still pretty sensitive from the wisdom teeth extraction, there wasn’t any amount of anesthetic the dentist could have given me that was going to keep the tooth from reacting harshly to the drill.

First came the topical, which is just to numb the skin so the needle injecting the anesthetic is less bothersome. After letting that take effect, there was one particular spot on the tooth that reacted anytime the dentist touched it with the drill, so I got another shot. A few more minutes to let it take effect, and although there were no problems drilling other areas of the tooth, just one spot kept reacting. Then came some more anesthetic right at the tooth, but that didn’t help much either. One final shot a little further up along the jaw numbed me to the point where I couldn’t open my mouth all the way without using my hand, but still the tooth kept reacting.

At that point I just had to bite the bullet and take the discomfort of the drill. Fortunately it didn’t last long, but I have a feeling this molar is going to stay sensitive for a while longer.

Filling finally got done and now it’s just wait for the numbing to wear off.

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Mail “Junk”-ing algorithm?

For the past week or so, I noticed the normally busy email stream (mostly mailing lists) in my Google Mail account had dried up to a trickle. I didn’t think much of it at the time, since I didn’t seem to be missing anything important and most of what I wasn’t seeing was from the various Yahoo! Groups I’m in.

A few days ago, I had some time to dig into the matter. The Yahoo! groups I’m in were still pretty active and changing one of them from digest mode to individual email mode allowed a small trickle of mail through.

GMail’s Spam folder contained the usual spam email.

When I looked in the Junk label though, I found all my missing mail. Several days worth (close to 300 messages) all sitting there marked as Junk.

For some reason, something started quietly attaching the Junk label to almost all of my email. Since none of my existing GMail filters are set to classify anything as Junk, and I hadn’t changed any of them recently, the prime suspect would be Thunderbird as the only other thing that touches my GMail account. I don’t recall setting up any junking filters in Thunderbird, so I’ll have to do some digging.

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Hot Nest

We have an amazing coincidence of incidents happening with the house HVAC.

HVAC guys were out yesterday for a 6 month inspection of the system they installed back in the spring. Looks like everything was working fine, but they found some part in the condenser unit outside was overheating and needed to be replaced.

Connie noticed last night that the room temperature the Nest displays is considerably higher than what it feels like. The Nest currently thinks it’s 29°C (84°F) in the house, which it most definitely is not.

While researching the Nest issue, I discovered that a new firmware update was recently pushed to the Nest along with several other Nest owners reporting problems with their Nest overheating and showing incorrect temperatures.

No idea if any of these issues are related or just an amazing coincidence.

Pulled the Nest off the base plate, and both the back of the Nest and the base plate were feeling pretty warm, which I’m thinking is what’s throwing off the Nest’s thermometer. After leaving the Nest disconnected for a while, it had cooled down but the base plate was still feeling warm, just on one side though.

First thing I did was disconnect the Y1, OB and Rc wires on that one side and left them disconnected until the base plate cooled down. Wires were reconnected one at a time, starting with Y, then OB and finally Rc. The base plate stayed cool until I connected Rc, when it started feeling warm again after a few minutes. Disconnected OB and the plate cooled down. Reconnected OB and the base plate warmed up again.

This makes me think there’s some circuitry in that base plate that might be close to shorting out or already blown like what this person found. Took it off the wall and had a look inside. Didn’t spot any obviously blown components.

Next step: put in a call to Nest and see if I can convince them I have a problem with my base plate and get them to send me a new one.

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In which a letter is received from Comcast

A generically addressed (aside from the envelope) letter arrived from Comcast today.

Dear Valued Comcast Customer,

Thank you for choosing XFINITY® from Comcast. We hope you have been enjoying the features and benefits of your XFINITY services.

During a recent review of your account, we found that you are not being billed for your monthly modem rental.

No shit. That’s because we own our cable modem. Maybe if you had “reviewed” a little deeper, you’d have noticed that the order for XFINITY internet didn’t include any hardware.

Effective with your next bill, your rate for the monthly modem rental will be $7.00.

As a Comcast customer, we know you expect a great customer experience and for your bill to be a certain amount each month. We understand that this change will cause an unexpected increase in your monthly bill. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes.

We value our customers and look forward to continuing to serve you. If you believe you have received this letter in error or have any questions regarding your XFINITY services, please call us any time at 1-800-XFINITY.

Thank you for being a Comcast customer.

Sincerely,
Comcast

Obviously just because we have XFINITY internet service, we must be renting Comcast equipment (which by the way is pretty stupid anyway, considering a cable modem can be purchased for less than $80). So after calling and providing info to the automated response system so it can pull up my account info, I reach a customer service rep and proceed to provide info (again) so she can pull up my account info.

After spending a few minutes on the phone, it turns out all the customer service rep can do is remove the rental charge from the bill. The problem of us owning the cable modem needs to be escalated to have someone start an investigation into whether the cable modem is actually ours or not. The rep says I should expect to hear back from someone by Dec 24.

Why oh why must Comcast induce so much shakefist and facepalm.