Todd Mintz: Brain Serial Blog

My wife wanted the new Kindle Fire…so I got her one.

Tried to reigster it. Didn’t work…couldn’t get past the registration screen. So I contacted Kindle Customer Support via chat.

After a long conversation with the first support person, they told me I needed to update the operating system. They sent me (free of charge) a USB Cord that allowed me to attach the Kindle to my computer. They gave me instructions on how to update the operating system, which I followed.

That didn’t work.

My last water bill was probably $50 more than it should have been…likely because I had a kitchen sink leak during the billing cycle. I used 33 units of water compared to 21 units the same time the previous year. According to my water bill, on 10/6, the meter reader read the meter at “1408″. Being the careful guy I am, I went out to check the meter (see picture above). It showed 1441…which means I had used 33 units in almost 2 weeks.

Autumn has begun. And as most people notice the cooler temperatures and the leaves falling from the trees, what occurs to them is that they must get ready for winter. So, they go out to the stores and get things like winter clothing, firewood, snow tires & chains, etc. Stores know this and they are packed to the brim with merchandise designed to fit the consumer need.

When I notice the cooler temperatures and leaves falling from the trees, what occurs to me is that I must get ready for next summer. So, I go off to the stores and pick up all the leftover summer merchandise at a small fraction of its original cost.

We all know that it’s a total crap-shoot as to whether your airplane trip will stick closely to the scheduled itinerary or if you’re going to end up getting stuck waiting for hours with many thousands of other stranded travelers. Clear 4G can’t do anything about airport delays but it can make the time pass a lot faster.

I’m a movie addict and I use the Netflix on demand service regularly. I don’t travel nearly as much as many folks but the value of being able to call up a Netflix movie in the evening while being stuck in a hotel room (instead of being limited to what’s on TV at the hotel) would be a real benefit. Unfortunately, without strong Internet access, a Netflix movie becomes unwatchable.

So, this incident happened a while ago but I haven’t thought to share it until now…

On ocassion, I ask my 11 year old daughter to load the dirty dishes in the dishwasher after a meal. As you know, there is an “art” to loading the dishwasher properly so that all the dishes at least have a chance of getting clean.

This time, she did a pretty bad job of it. Clearly, when you lay a cereal bowl against the back of a frying pan so that the entire inside of the bowl is obscured, the cereal bowl ain’t going to get clean. Several dishes were in a similar state. So, I let her know that wouldn’t fly and told her to fix it.