08-06-2026 — Going, going, gone

Howdy all. Another dry day here. Forecast said rain, right up until the day began. Now, not listed as coming today. UGH. Tomorrow I will get up and water gardens early on. It is already hot today at 83 and sunny.

And, I just got back from my 2 hour excursion. It was return the equipment day. And that meant a 25 mile trip to the Spectrum store, and then the UPS store to return the AT&T Air Gateway through them.

I was super surprise at how great the Spectrum store was for canceling service and returning the 4 trash bags of equipment and cables/cords.  The service guy even opened the door for me when he saw me approaching, carrying in the devices.  

It was maybe five minutes later that I was leaving with a receipt for junk, and he had the services canceled effective immediately. Very good service, from a company that I never thought wouldn’t be a total sheet show. He never even questioned why I was canceling, nor try to “retain” my $$$  

The UPS experience could have been better.  But it was not their fault.   The address shown on Google Maps was different than where I expected the store to be located from the picture.  It was (is) across from the mall in Mentor, and then west about a block. It is just before route 306. 

But I drove to where I was expecting it to be, and was just about there, when I noticed the addresses were getting smaller not bigger.  I was looking for something like 6901 and they were falling into the 3700s. So I typed the “known” address into my GPS and it sent me three miles east.   And, yep, sure enough, there was a UPS store there.  Hidden in a long strip mall.

The Gal at the register said there was also a store where I was looking.  Ugh.  

But returning the ATT Air device did happen quickly, with the exception that they don’t accept the original Box from AT&T.  Their agreement with AT&T is to pack it themselves.  But hey, it was free for me anyway.  I just had to bring the empty box home and put in my just emptied trash can.

So AT&T cancels on the 11th (five days). After that, I shouldn’t be billed for them anymore ($47.58), and also come the September billing, I should see the $30 or so reduction in the cost of the mobile phone service. Total changed should be from around $173 to $95 ish.

And, Spectrum should go from $312 to $0.00.

But, YouTube will be about $85 a month (after the discount ends), and Kinetic is about $62 (with a $300 debit card coming in three months), and I need to get Disney+/HBO Max/Hulu for $35 a month and maybe Paramount and Apple TV and/or Peacock. If I waste money on all of them, that would be like another $60 a month. Maximum would be $245 approximately.

Running the numbers for savings, it would be like $312 + $78 - $245 = $145 per month savings for more service.

I won’t fight that…

Speaking of fighting. My neighbor is having a tiff with the USPS delivery team. Seems that the mailbox / post that he has used since he moved in twenty or so years ago, is now flagged as being too short, and they don’t want to deliver to him.

This is his response.

He added two more fake “paper/wood” mailboxes to the other side of the drive. So he now has 6 fakes and the one real one (white post). Oh, and he added protest signs to each fake post.

I gotta give him props, for the props. He isn’t taking it too seriously, and, is having fun and is doing his best to Enjoy Life